Project Development

Davide Bonazzi: Comfort Zone (Society 6)

Now, that I’ve just taken my chances and submitted my application to one of the major research grants in my field, I decided to also share a small part of it with whomever is reading my blog. I also regard it as the latest draft version of my dissertation proposal, that I’m going to defend by the end of this semester. This is where my project currently stands, and as an exercise of transparency I wanted others to be able to see it. It’s also part of my experimentation with exposure, that is I’m pushing myself out of the comfort zone in order to improve my work. Feel free to critique it/comment on it (from any aspect) either here or by sending me a private message. [Read more…] about Project Transparency: Sharing a Part of My Dissertation Proposal

I have this list with names of Hungarian nationals and their Shanghai addresses from 1940. “Avenues”, “Rues”, “Lanes”, “Routes”, “Apartments” and “Terraces”, that wouldn’t show up in a Google Map-search, let alone in its Chinese counterpart Baidu Map (百度地图). These French and English designations – symbols of a past era, are long gone. “Avenue Joffre”, “Rue Cardinal Mercier” or “Grosvenor Gardens” are all renamed in Chinese thus could be quite painful to be found, unless you have a guide. Fortunately, a road name-index in Paul French’s The Old Shanghai A-Z can make your life much easier, not to mention the great digital databases like ‘Virtual Shanghai‘ or the ‘Shanghai Art Deco Building Database‘. These sites document the city’s historic architecture, one that has been changing so much in the recent decades of booming urban constructions.

Equipped with the necessary information, I decided to take a walk on a sunny Saturday morning in the city’s former French Concession-area (法租界) to discover these old residences. I wanted to find out whether these locations listed in my 1940 source would still lead me to the homes of the people that once lived there ca. 79 years ago. I have to say that sometimes I found only missing house numbers or gigantic malls that sell high-end fashion on the supposed spot, like in the case of the Viennese ‘Fiaker Café & Restaurant’ I wrote about in my previous post. Luckily though, more often than not I was able to take photos of some of the beautiful buildings that once hosted Shanghai’s Central European community. Stick around for the map and the photos after the quick textual introduction to the source!