SHANGHAI SOUTH CHINA ALL CHINA - AHKs

guidebook in an area with so many books
of its own? Marcus shows you around the
streets, while reading, and comments on
brief excerpts from the Chinese writers who
have lived in this neighbourhood.
Cameras and Feathers
The Bund is a visible reminder of the
business relationship between China and
the West in the 1920s and 30s, though
that relationship goes back much further.
Just as the French Revolution was getting
underway in 1789, a revolution in world
trade was beginning in Shanghai. The
Catharina & Anna, a cargo ship from
Hamburg, was among the first trading
ships to arrive on the Huangpu from the
West. One early trader to establish himself
in China, with a branch in Shanghai, was
Richard von Carlowitz of Dresden, in
1846. By the 1930s Carlowitz’s company
was trading in Zeiss optical instruments,
delivering mining equipment to the
Imperial Government, and representing the
Krupp holding. Other traders had arrived
in the meantime, as 1900 saw the founding
of the German Association, the forerunner
of today’s German Chamber of Commerce.
Its members imported German technology,
were involved in the tea trade, invested in
what is today the HSBC bank, and exported
Chinese agricultural products such as goose
feathers and pig intestines.
Colourful figures of the Bund’s heyday
include Du Yuesheng, or ‘big eared Du’,
who worked his way up through the ranks
of a secret society called the Green Gang to
become its boss. He would, however, become
a respected businessman on the boards of
40 companies and banks on the Wall Street
of the East. Hartmut Oertel, who followed a
banking career himself in Shanghai after first
visiting the city in 1980, tells these and other
stories of Shanghai’s trading past, as the city
moves towards the construction of China’s
first free port by the year 2020.
"Beliebteste China-
Informationsbörse" (ZEIT)
Urban Trekking
If Tibet is the Roof of the World, Pudong is
at least the Roof of Shanghai. Fancy a climb?
Flaneur Jan Siefke is a photographer who
has made the giddy ascent up most of the
city’s skyscrapers. As well as photographing
the city professionally for the last decade, he
has explored the city’s architecture and town
planning. From street level you may only ever
see a peak or two, but from the heights of
Lupu Bridge you will be able to take in the full
panorama of the massive changes that have
occurred over the past twenty years. Over
the last decade alone the city’s trademark
building has changed several times: first the
Oriental Pearl Tower, then the Jin Mao Tower,
now the Shanghai World Financial Tower, and
- from 2014 - we will be marvelling at all 600
metres of the Shanghai Tower.
The Kitchen God
It doesn’t take long for most Westerners
visiting China to realise that Chinese food
in the West doesn’t have much to do with
the reality of cooking in China. From
Sichuan hotpot to Beijing jiaozi, and a host
of lesser known regional specialities, food
is a frequent subject of conversation and an
important part of Chinese culture. Shanghai,
as much as any other region, has its own
distinctive cuisine – including seafood, sweet
sauces and steamed dumplings. Marcus
Hernig’s latest book project deals with the
significance of food and drink in Chinese
culture. In a new tour to coincide with the
Expo 2010, he takes his fellow strollers to
some of the most interesting stoves and
woks of the city, a gastrosophical excursion
that is a homage to the Gods of the Kitchen.
Art and the City
The Chinese contemporary arts scene has
become highly visible on the international
stage over the last two decades. Chinese
artists are now regularly making it into
schanghai
www.china.ahk.de
com
d e u t s c h s p r a c h i g e c h i n a - p l a t t f o r m
" Deutsche nutzen die Job- und Wohnungsbörse
von schanghai.com [...] Tendenz: steigend" (ARD)
"Wichtigste deutschsprachige
Austauschplattform" (Dt. Club Shanghai)
the biennales and auction houses. Taking a
closer look at Shanghai arts, it has certainly
caught up with Beijing in terms of galleries
and art institutions. Key figures in the city’s
art scene today include Li Liang, founder
of Eastlink Gallery, Zhou Tiehai who
creates manipulated portraits, and Ding Yi
with his pattern paintings. The maelstrom
of globalisation has internationalised
the arts scene too, with gallerists Lorenz
Helbling and Davide Quadrio hailing from
Switzerland and Italy. Thomas Füsser has
followed the contemporary Chinese arts
scene since the early 90s, when he made
portraits of Chinese artists as a photographer
for the German news magazine ‘Stern’.
Alistair Noon is a writer and editor and
Katja Hellkötter is the founder and
manager of SHANGHAI FLANEUR.
The organisation runs a number of standard
walks, lectures and excursions on a
diversity of themes, as well as tailor-made
programmes for delegations, companies
and other groups interested in the city
and its culture. For further information,
please contact Katja at: ' 136 0191-
8128 | * info@shanghai-flaneure.net
www.shanghai-flaneure.net.
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2010 April - May 75