SHANGHAI

Evening Post, Volume CV, Issue 97, 24 April 1923, Page 14

SHANGHAI

AN ORENTALISED PARIS

EAST AND WEST RUB SHOULDERS

A CITY WITH A COMIC OPERA AIR.

On the other side of the world, her river teeming with ships of far-away nations and disturbed by the swishing progress of her native junks, lies Shanghai —the Paris of tho Orient. Despite the fact that more than half of that Gargantuan nation of China, looks to her for the wares of other lands and peoples, Shanghai is neither of nor by her mother country. Of all Far Eastern ports, this one is the melting- pot. The oity is neither Chinese, Russian, Japanese, English, French, or American, neither East nor West, but rather an intermingling of all. Along the waterfront are the great docks and warehouses, with here a Japanese name, there one stolidly English, another that shows an American touch and still another that, by Sing, Wong, or Chong", sets forth Chinese ownership, Las-' cars, Chines© coolies, Filipinos, Hawaiians, seamen, and stevedores, yellow, brown, and white, mingle and communicate by means of a polygot pidgin.' Above it all, 6ays a -writer in the '"New York Times," rises the incessant and unforgetable Bing-soiig/ of the collie who, bale on his shoulder, is telling himself and the world that the burden he carries is not heavy—telling' himself in the same way that his ancestors lightened their work centuries ago. High over the city are the flags of many nations, indicating hero a Consulate, there a great house of business. Fourteen nations, through, their officials, direct that part of Shanghai known as the International Settlement—a thing made poesiblo by a concession from the Chinese Gonernment of yesterday. _ Swarthy and towering Sikh policemen in their variegated tunics, staff in hand, directing the traffio, emphasise the predominance of fhe British. But this is only one-third of the oity. Just across the street from the boundary of the territory lies France, or the French Concession, and a few streets further on a transition marked only by a eudefen narrowing of the highways and an augmenting of the heavy aromas which seem suspended in the atmosphere lies that Shanghai which is Chinese. I Like all cities of the Orient, _ Shanghai begins—or ends as one fakes it—at the ■waterfront 5n the Bund. Elvery Eastern city has a Bund. The Shanghai Bund begins with pomp and dignity at a small riverside garden and boulevards its way along until it reaches that part o£ the oity which is French, where it narrows and becomes merely a street. Reaching Chinese Shanghai, it apparently becomes frightened at the "evil spirita of ite native, and furtivity winds its way out towards the open country, becoming narrower ai»i narrower ,with each, tortuous ourvo until it assumes the guiee of a country lAne. . Along the Bund in the International Settlement are the skyscrapers of the city, six or seven story offioe structures, monuments to tho prosperity of the owners and to the possibilities of .Eastern trade. Each follows the architecture. of its own country, a European bank having at its side, on land of fabulous worthy a small garden for it's manager and major employees. . IN THE SILK SHOPS. Starting at the halfway point, Nankin road, the mecca of the tourist, takes way and goes by rows of Europeans and American shops, with here and there a Chinese silversmith in whose windows cunningly wrought ships, pagodas, and rickshas of precious metal lure the passer-by. After several blocks commercial China makes its inroad with, silk shops. Inside gaily-dressed native women finger lovingly brocades of brilliant texture' and fanciful pattern.' The climax of the road is two department stores where the goods of the West and those of the East- mingle indiscriminately, as do their customers. Through all. this a British, tramcar clangs along,, rickshas 6curry here and there —human horses with" human freight, —and motor-cars of European and American make. Reaching its end, Nankin road, terminates with two Chinese versions of Coney Island on either side, and the wide expanse of the foreign place .of outdoor pleasure—the racecourse, cricket field, and polo grounds.' An interesting racecourse this, for here twice each year Mongolian ponies with foreign—gentlemen —riders compete for purses, and the_ chain, pion sweepstakes, a pari-mutuel, wins for the lucky ticket-holder a quarter of a million in Chinese currency But here it is Bubbling Well road, one of the Orient's most famous ways, which derives its name from a muddy and feeble spring at its end. Bubbling Well winds a crooked way, as all good roads _do_ in China. This is the residential district. There is a reason for crooked roads in China. They did not start as some streets of a similar nature in this country _ are supposed to have had their lowly origin, in cowpaths, but were constructed in this manner as a precautionary measure. Evil spirits or devils have a universal habit in China of travelling in straight lines. When they start up such a street as this they get an overwhelming surprise by being brought up short. against a brick wall. Chinese dwellings show this same precautionary measure in their architecture, each door being faced by a screen, around either side of which one who enters must go, and against which fhe devils find their discouragement. Bubbling Well road has an origin steeped in history, for it was first laid out as a military road by Chinese Gordon, the British General who led the "Ever-Vic-torious" imperial army during the illfated Taiping Rebellion. Off either side of Nankin road—to return down town —are side streets (riven over to Chinese shops almost entirely. Shops here not only house their businesses but. are veritable rabbit hutohes in which tens, and twenties of people have their being. One can step from the' Eurasian "Big Horse road," as the Chin : ese call tho main thoroughfare, into China in a second.' There is Peking road, the street, of the second-hand shops, where } anything from tin cans to first editions of 1 "Pilgrim's Progress" can' be had for a price, and a low price at that. In Shansi road the embroidery shops and the tasselmakers have taken up their stand. In Shantung " road are the native languago printers, publishers, and newspapers, and Honan road, is known for its' furs and silks. STREET OF AMUSEMENTS. Three etreets over from Nankin road and running parallel to the street of amusements, Foochow road, where the little painted dolls of China —the singsong girls—pome out as dusk descends to sing in the innumerable restaurants. Restaurants serving! the food of every province thronfr here, interspread with an occasional theatre, and, here and there, though not openly advertised, a gambling houso. The night life of Shanghai's Chinese centres about Fooohow road. Off on an alley there iB tho "Thieves' Market," where the light-fingered gentry of the city, who are organised into a guild or union, dispose of what has been lifted during their recent operations. Several streets over and Shanghai becomes France, the transition marked by a broad, winding highway, Avenue Edward VII. Not bo many years ago this was a stream, across the bridges of which, wrong-doors from one territory crossed for tho sake of immunity into the other. Gambling houses, saloons, and their natural associates were here in numbers for tho sailors of all nations. Things have changed now, and this district, where life began with feverish activity _ after duck, is the heart of the wholesale district. French Shanghai opens with the Ruo dv Consulat, a street thronged with small Chinese shops. Only one corner is reminiscent of France —tho Hotel do Franco, the cafe, and there tho offioe of an avocat. Further on is the City Hall, but tho marine holds forth in phlegmatic solidity, elbowed and crowded by fish markets, tobacco shops and rioe dispensaries, with an occasional Chinese dentist, the windows of whose small stall is filled _with testimonial teoth. They operate stoically , bsforo an wlaoiruur lirone in the oy«i.

On each corner there is an Anamite gen- ' darme, a cousin Chinese from the Southern French territory. Walking- over from the Rue dv Consulat, the Rue de la Deux Republique brings one to what may be strictly termed Chinese Shanghai. _ Of all Shanghai this is the most fascinating-. Native guides throng tho entrance to the city and stick like leeches to the "foreign ladies and gentlemen." Here the streets become extremely narrow, narrower than the average American sidewalk. The sun finds difficulty getting down into them, and the shops that jostle and shoulder one another in. a disorderly array are dingy and foul-smelling- The street-? of the ivory carvers is the easiest, inlet into the city from French Shanghai, ana here are hundreds of carved ivory statues, box upon, box of marchiang sets —the national pastime of Chin*—cigarette- holders around which coil dragons, chopsticks, and all those things that can be carved or cut from ivory—and often times bone. Just off Ivory Carver street is the fish market, where peddlers hold up live crabs to .advertise their calling. Then there is the street of the jewellers, that turns in a circle.off this, where jade and green glass, pearls, and near pearls sold and bras? vie with equal interest. The proverbial \ ankee with his wooden nutmegs would have been an easy victim for the Chinese trader. His imitations are so nearly like the real as to often deceive experts. It is on Jewelry street that the beggars abound. The jovial beggar, whose round face beams with a continual smile, and who.laughs at intervals that become more or less stated after a while; the man who has lost both legs and one arm and' who rolls.himself Rroa-ningly over in the muck ] iS T.a b, arrel: *c woman with a baby at her breast, who, follows untiringly and through dust-covered lips mutters the usual "Ta lo to" of.her guild; all the«e are here. BEGGARS, BEGGARS EVIRYWHER.E. Once, when Chinese Shanghai was more presentable, the willow pattern tea house was a sight to oxcite enthusiastic admiration, but now as one turns out of the street of the jewellers it is a crumbling rum. Its moat is green and forbidding, and-tho staggering bridge which leads out to it is beggar-infested. Grouped bazaarlike around the tea houses are the white jade and antique dealers. Behind them is the street of the portrait painters, and back pt this the city temple. Under its grinning and grimacing gods of gigantio proportions Buddhist priests chant and incense burns, while in the courtyard a juggler entertains and a hawker sells whirligigs for the children. Back of the temple is tho lane of the soothsayers and fortune-tellers, and here one finds superstitious China. Each profession has its audienpej an audience rapt in fearful. concentration lest a word or sign be misunderstood or lost. Chinatrusts its soothsayers as implicitly as Africa does its witoh doctors—that is, ignorant China, and most of China, is woefully illiterate. One fortune teller employs phrenology, another cards, and another writes on bits of paper. Sometimes one is consulted, sometimes a collective opinion is obtained, depending upon the financial status of the seeker after tho future. Weddings, funerals, _ burial places, matters of business, marital difficulties, the sex of childrenall matters of everyday , lifo with the natives —are settled with an ostentatious gusto and authority. In the street of the soothsayers are tho story-tellers. Millons upon millions in China cannot read, and this profession fills the void. A twist and. a turn off soothsayer lane and there com© an incessant twitter and singing of all manner of birds from the ■bird market. Next to his family, a Chinese loves nothing better than his bird. Early in. the morning and late in the evening he will take his favourite songster for a walk, giving him the air in a cage which he carries in his hand, either hooded or open. Whether it be a coolie or a merchant there is the same pride of possession. This market is where he gets his birds. There are parrots, canaries,- ordinary English sparrows, tiny'red-beaked T love.birds, all kinds of birds—birds that coolie may buy for a copper or so and sweet singingl canaries for the more prosperous merchant. "Pig Alley" is the street of the wood-workei-s,_ a delight to the lover of beautiful furniture. Carved blackwood screens, frays, boxes, tables, and chairs sit in the streets and shops. An occasional carver is working upon idols, temple and_ hearth idols. A more modern one has given up idol making in favour of dress forms and carves out of wood the models of the : Chinese' tailor. ] On the opposite side of the city from Chinese Shanghai there is a Shanghai that is largely Japanese, also a part of the International Settlement. Hongkew is the name of this • district. and originally the Americans had their settlement there. A step off the principal thoroughfare and one is in Japan, -with Japanese restaurants and shops all aßout and an occasional but shrinking Chinese house. Kimonos apparently are the principal article of dress. ■ But Hongkew is more than Japanese j Shanghai, it alsb is the sailor's Shanghai and the Shanghai of the drifter and the beachcomber. Bars of the type from which abductions made Shanghai famous with seafaring men and led r to the inclusion of the word "shanghaied" in some dictionaries are on the several corners. All of this is Shanghai and here in this cosmopolitan city, where Chinese dwellings and foreign houses exist in peace and harmony side by side, there are more than a million people, 35,000 or more foreigners of all types. New York has ite polygoE districts, London is international and Paris is cosmopolitan, but thore is only one Shanghai where East meets West for better or worse.