Remembering Shanghai: A Memoir of Socialites, Scholars and Scoundrels

by Isabel Sun Chao, Claire Chao

Overview

WINNER OF 29 BOOK AWARDS including the Writer’s Digest Grand Prize and the Rubery Book Award Book of the Year.

True stories of glamour, drama, and tragedy told through five generations of a Shanghai family, from the last days of imperial rule to the Cultural Revolution.

A high position bestowed by China’s empress dowager grants power and wealth to the Sun family. For Isabel, growing up in glamorous 1930s and ’40s Shanghai, it is a life of utmost privilege. But while her scholar father and fashionable mother shelter her from civil war and Japanese occupation, they cannot shield the family forever.

When Mao comes to power, eighteen-year-old Isabel journeys to Hong Kong, not realizing that she will make it her home—and that she will never see her father again. She returns to Shanghai fifty years later with her daughter, Claire, to confront their family’s past—one they discover is filled with love and betrayal, kidnappers and concubines, glittering palaces and underworld crime bosses.

Lavishly illustrated and meticulously researched, Remembering Shanghai follows five generations from a hardscrabble village to the bright lights of Hong Kong. By turns harrowing and heartwarming, this vivid memoir explores identity, loss and redemption against an epic backdrop.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781954854062
Publisher:	Girl Friday Books
Publication date:	09/14/2021
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	308
File size:	118 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

Isabel Sun Chao was one of the last of her generation to experience the legendary “Old Shanghai” of the 1930s. She left China on a spring holiday in 1950, not realizing that she would never see her father again, nor that three decades would pass before she returned. Making Hong Kong her permanent home, she worked as a cultural affairs specialist in the US Consulate General while raising three children with her husband, Raymond. Isabel passed away in 2023 after a happy retirement spent mostly at the mahjong table.

Isabel’s daughter Claire Chao sought connections to her parents’ homeland throughout her youth. After thirty years in management with companies such as Tiffany and Co., Harry Winston, and Hill & Knowlton, she spent a decade creating Remembering Shanghai, uncovering an uncanny link with the grandfather she never met. She has been named one of Avenue magazine’s “500 Most Influential Asian Americans” and Hong Kong Tatler’s “Who’s Who in Hong Kong.” She graduated with highest honors from Princeton University and lives in Honolulu with her husband and a lovable chihuahua-pug.

Table of Contents

Preface: Just Eighteen 1

Family Tree 12

Third Daughter 13

1 Mother's Day 15

Cheongsam or Qipao? 26

2 The Artful Scholar 29

Write On! 37

3 A Plum Position 39

4 Tael End 49

It's All Relative 58

5 Footloose 61

Out of a Bind 67

6 Mister Street 69

7 Now, That's Entertainment 79

Kafei, Tea or Me? 85

8 Pop Culture 87

Up Your Alley 95

9 Poster Girls 97

The Tao of Tofu 110

10 Kidnapped 113

11 A House Divided 125

Forty-Eight Me's 130

12 Seal of Approval 133

13 Savages 139

Twenty Horsemen 146

14 The Godfathers 149

Drama Kings 158

15 Not for Sale 161

16 Knock Three Times 171

Tap Dance 175

17 Do the Math 177

Mad About Mulan 184

18 Good Time Harley 187

Go the Extra Tile 196

19 Come Fly with Me 199

20 No Turning Back 207

21 Broken Dreams 217

Garden Party 229

22 Safe Harbor 233

23 Humble Tranquil Studio 247

24 Lost and Found 255

Sources and Credits 269

Glossary 273

Family 273

People 274

Places 277

Roads 280

Food 280

Everything Else 281

Acknowledgments 286

About the Illustrators 291

About the Authors 292

Editorial Reviews

Beautiful and rich, with fascinating details—transports the reader to Shanghai and Hong Kong . . . this volume is a treasure." —Lisa See, New York Times bestselling author of Shanghai Girls and The Island of Sea Women

“Sparkling prose and enthralling stories catapult you into the inner life and doings of Shanghai’s cultured classes." —Helen Zia, author of Last Boat Out of Shanghai

“This elegant family memoir transforms, transfixes, and educates.” —Pamela Rotner Sakamoto, author of Midnight in Broad Daylight

“This memoir stands out for its creativity and artistry." —James Carter, author of Champions Day: The End of Old Shanghai

“A lovely jaunt to 1930s Shanghai." —Dori Jones Yang, author of When the Red Gates Opened

“Mesmerizing stories; magnificent language.” —Betty Peh-T’i Wei, author of Old Shanghai

“Whimsical brush paintings and evocative vintage photographs are a visual feast for the reader and heightens the feeling of having fallen through time.” —Alexandra A. Chan, author of In the Garden Behind the Moon

“A volume that demands to be held." —Los Angeles Review of Books

“An engaging and entertaining saga.” —South China Morning Post

“The authors have brought warmly and vibrantly to life their family’s story of lowly origins, high office, austere scholarship, filial loyalty, vicious betrayal and fabulous wealth.” —Asia Literary Review

“An unexpected gem. A thoughtfully written story, accessibly and touchingly told—represents a valuable addition to the canon of accounts of life in Shanghai.” —Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society China

“A feast of winning elements . . . The icing on the cake is its warm immediacy, helped by the authors’ sunny dispositions and their storytelling skills.” —Bookish Asia

“A well-told tale that is by turns jaw-dropping, exciting, touching, tragic, and insightful.” —Historic Shanghai

“What distinguishes the story is the beauty of watching the bond between mother and daughter grow as they discover their often shocking ancestral secrets.” —Literary Mama

From the Publisher