Details that define a shikumen lane
What I love about photographing old shikumens and lilongs are the designs and motifs threaded into the exterior and interior of the buildings. How elaborate or simple, modern…
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The Invisible Stain of Japanese Comfort Houses in Shanghai’s Lilongs
If you look closely, the legacy of Japanese presence in pre-war and war-time Shanghai can be found across the city’s old neighborhoods, dating back to their emergence as…
“Chairman Mao Goes to Anyuan (安源)”: A Mural in Siwen Lane (斯文里)
Traces of China’s Cultural Revolution fervor can still be found in Shanghai’s old lilong neighborhoods if you look hard enough – fading slogans of “Long Live Chairman Mao!”…
Elaborate lattice woodwork in Confucius Lane (孔家弄)
In my few years of photographing old houses around Shanghai, I have never been this buoyant over lattice woodwork in its original setting. Perhaps it was a mix of…
Update: A Photographer’s Eviction from the house on Yulin Road
Note: This was originally published on 6 January, 2011. I have since updated it upon new details revealed. From a distance, the row of European-styled houses stood out…
Art Deco influence on Shanghai’s shikumen
We all know that Art Deco has had a major influence in Shanghai starting from the 1930s at the peak of its Concession-era building boom. This city boasts one of the most…
Shanghai’s lost shikumen and villas in 2013
When the editor over at Shanghaiist approached me to write a review of “lost” historical buildings in Shanghai in 2013, I hesitated for a brief moment. In an attempt to…
Toiling in the heatwave: whither thy subsidy?
His world was a three-block radius. Each day before the sun rose, he would wake from his dormitory bed which creaked from rusty springs. The mattress was thin…
Melancholic tang poetry on shikumen walls
Somewhere in the labyrinth of shikumen lanes between Jinan Lu (济南路) and Hefei Lu (合肥路), the soundtrack of longtang living was underway: the clanging of spatulas against sizzling…
The Astrid Apartments
Over a month ago, on a cloudy spring afternoon, I found myself standing in front of a spectacular Art Deco building, all eight floors of mustard yellow and…