This is one of the most evocative articles about the city's night scenes in the 1930s that I found. Ironically the story takes place about the same time that the Japanese were gearing up to invade China, launching what became the eight-year war that ended in 1945. This is perhaps the last glimpse at a more innocent period of nighttime fun in the city before the Japanese started taking it over beginning with the Hongkew district where the story ends.

During my research into Shanghai's nightlife industries in the 1920s-30s, I came across plenty of materials describing nudity in the cabarets. Some of these were likely exaggerated. However, by the wartime era, anything went and certainly there were plenty of what the press and authorities described as "obscene" performances, which tarnished the reputation of the city government. 

I discovered this article while researching the history of Shanghai nightlife at Columbia University in the 1990s. It gives the reader of the age an evocative if somewhat orientalist account of Chinese life in the city in the early 1920s, before the jazz age hit the Chinese population of the city like a firestorm.

This is one of the most interesting articles I found during my research on Shanghai's music scene during the height of the Pacific War. It not only highlights the importance of Filipino bandleaders, profiling Jose Contreras, but also shows how the era was giving rise to popularity of Asian as opposed to Western musicians.

I'm taking a short break from nightlife-related posts to post this article I found during my years of research on Old Shanghai. Everyone familiar with the apocryphal "No Dogs and Chinese" sign (that message didn't exist though many Shanghai parks did ban Chinese attendees into the 1920s) will understand the background to this article. Jessfield Park is now known as Zhongshan Park.

found this account in the scrapbook of a US Marine while researching my doctoral dissertation on Shanghai nightlife back in the 1990s. There is a ton of material in the collection of the US Navy Yard left by Marines in their scrapbooks. They provide a fascinating window into the nightlife of the city in its heyday.

In previous posts I covered the Trenches, an infamous bar and vice district in the northern part of the city, north of Settlement boundaries. Another was Blood Alley, located on the boundary between the French Concession and International Settlement near the Bund. Here is one of many articles describing this bar street and arguing that it ought to be converted into retail stores.

In 1940, soon after taking the post of Shanghai Mayor under the Wang Jingwei government, Chen Gongbo (Kung-po below) declared that one of his goals was to "clean up" the badlands and rid Shanghai of some of the vices that had plagued the city including gambling.

After Riley was re-arrested in 1941, he was brought again to court where he and his counsel H. D. Rodger made a plea for leniency. This article recounts that plea along with some interesting (if dodgy) info about his own personal and family background. Will we ever know the whole truth about Jack Riley? I doubt it...

In honor of the recent publication Paul French's latest book City of Devils, I'm posting a few articles about Jack Riley and Joe Farren, the two main characters in the book, over the next few months as I continue to post original news articles on the nightlife of old Shanghai. This one details his capture after he jumped bail in 1941 and went on the lam, hiding out in the northern part of the city. As the article mentions, he cultivated a mustache in order to hide his identity. The Riley case is a fascinating study of how the legal system operated in Shanghai in the treaty port era.

This is a rundown by Max Chaichek, a veteran watcher of Shanghai nightlife in the 1930s, of some of the best jazz bands that played in Shanghai in the 1920s and 1930s. Note that in 1934, Buck Clayton and his Harlem Gentlemen were performing at the Canidrome, and this seems to be the reason for Chaichek's exploration of "colored bands" in Shanghai. The article is a testament to the greatness of Jack Carter and Teddy Weatherford, and the author seems to be wondering if Clayton's band is up to their high-water mark in the history of jazz in Shanghai.

This gem of an article covers the nightlife of Peking in the late 1930s, making comparisons with Shanghai's own night scene. The author obviously spent a lot of time researching his subject. Beijingers might make some comparisons between the author's description of the nightspots of the 1930s and those of more recent years. Maggie's comes to mind.

This is one of my favorite pieces from my research into English-language sources on the transition into the "jazz age" in 1920s Shanghai.

An article from the China Weekly Review in 1941 covering the career of Jack Riley and his eventual arrest and deportation from Shanghai to the USA