The lecture follows Shanghai's history through its art and architecture, a potent hybrid of East and West. Once known as The Paris of the East, Shanghai developed as a Treaty Port after the 19th century Opium Wars, when imposing banks, offices or grand houses in the classical or gothic style were built by representatives of Western trading companies. These contrasted with the humble yet picturesque dwellings for local Chinese. Shanghai's heyday came in the 1930s, when the city was populated by White Russian emigrés, Jewish refugees, gangsters and sing-song girls and when stylish apartment blocks and hotels were built in a glamorous Art Deco style. The Western-style Bund with its famous Peace Hotel built by Victor Sassoon represents this heady fusion of cultures. Much original architecture survived up to the 1990s, when the city emerged as a major Asian financial centre, dominated by glittering skyscrapers and with a vibrant contemporary art market. Original photographs of traditional buildings taken by me in 1995 and 1996 are included, to give a flavour of ‘Old Shanghai’. Most of these buildings have since been demolished in the city’s rapid modernisation.
Anne Haworth
Anne is a lecturer at the V&A, the British Museum and the Queens Gallery. She is a specialist in European and Oriental ceramics and is passionate about Fashion and Textiles.