The city even had two different electrical systems with 110 volts on the French side and 220 volts in the International Settlement. During Isabel’s younger years, Shanghai was a haven for the displaced: Russians fleeing Bolsheviks, Jews fleeing Nazis, Communists in hiding and refugees seeking shelter. Isabel’s father moved to Shanghai in 1913 when she was an infant, the only child of prosperous parents. Claire was born in 1961 when the family lived in Hong Kong. The authors are mother and daughter, Isabel being the mother who was born in Shanghai in 1931. By turns harrowing and heartwarming, this vivid memoir explores identity, loss and the unpredictable nature of life against the epic backdrop of a nation and a people in turmoil.Īlthough it’s called a memoir, this book is also a work of art and a fascinating bit of history. Lavishly illustrated and meticulously researched, Remembering Shanghai follows five generations from a hardscrabble village to vibrant Shanghai to the bright lights of Hong Kong. Isabel 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 pleasure palaces and underworld crime bosses. Meanwhile, the family she has left behind struggles to survive, only to have their world shattered by the Cultural Revolution. 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. But while her scholar father and fashionable mother shelter her from civil war and Japanese occupation, they cannot shield the family forever. For Isabel, growing up in glamorous 1930s and '40s Shanghai, it is a life of utmost privilege.

An Extraordinary Multigenerational Saga.Ī high position bestowed by China's empress dowager grants power and wealth to the Sun family. Winner of over 20 awards including Rubery Award BOOK OF THE YEAR and Writer’s Digest GRAND PRIZE.

Remembering shanghai