First of all, I want to thank Kimmi Cheng (NYU) for her advice and Steven Pieragastini, Ph.D. (Loyola Marymount University) for his review of the Shanghai Municipal Archives, Bund Location from 2013 that helped me get prepared for my current visits and for many of the practicalities. To my experience not that much has changed in the research conditions since Steven’s article, but of course I’ll have to see whether requesting unscanned documents has become more or less difficult. In the past couple of days since I’ve been spending my mornings in the reading room, I was able access scanned material and request documents that are available on microfilm. As for the ‘level 2’, fingers crossed, or as a certain American president likes to say: “We’ll see what happens!” [Read more…] about How to navigate in the Shanghai Municipal Archives? A guide based on my experiences
Research/News
A pilfering Czech family in the Shanghai Nights: Denouncing the music store’s shopkeeper
“Report to the Port of Shanghai Readjustment Commission”
June 12 1947 Shanghai
Mr. Alois Suchochleb, his wife Anna and their two daughters “are the chief of one gang of estaffettes who steal metals, motorcar accessories, and also arms. (…) Sometimes they take [a]long with them a Japanese police dog, which they received from the Japanese Gendarmerie after V.J. Day [Victory over Japan Day].” The goods are collected in Suchochleb’s room during the week, carried away in the weekend mostly night time. The pilfered goods “go to certain Communists’ quarters in town who collect stocks for any eventuality.” (…) This confidential report “may give you the opportunity, by careful investigation, to nab the whole gang, it would create quite a sensation in town.” [signature:] “Observer”
A very well written report in English can be found in the ‘Shanghai Police Department’ subfolder (Q131，上海市警察局) of the folder that collects the ‘Republican Era Files’ (民国时期档案) in the SMA (Municipal Archives). It is composed almost like an essay, with a proper introduction and a “hook” that draws the reader in, on how “pilfering” is such a profitable business in the city “these days”. Then it goes on describing how the whole Czech family sneaks out every night the same time after 9 pm to collect all kinds of miscellaneous items. Our “Observer” seems to know the motivation of the Suchochlebs: they needed to cover their high rent that their music shop on 269 Kiangse Road couldn’t provide for. By their shady business “they made a very large fortune in the pilfering business for more than one year” writes the informant.
Where do they get these things from? – we might wonder. Are these stuff just lying around on the streets of postwar Shanghai? Even if the roads were “cleaned up” two years after World War Two ended, there must have been an underground economy, a black market that operated with participants wanting to make money. No to mention the “certain Communists’ quarters in town” to whom the thread appears to lead. Let’s not forget: Shanghai besides being the birthplace of the CCP, wasn’t in the hands of Mao’s comrades until the 1949 victory of the People’s Liberation Army over the Guomindang troops. So, the other issue that preoccupied the municipal leadership even more than the world of smugglers and racketeers must have been that of conspiring Communists.
Shanghai Telephone Directory [and Buyer’s Guide] (1947), p. 131.
Well, Mr. Suchochleb indeed seemed to own a music store as the contemporary telephone directory and college journals (“The Shanghai” of Shanghai University) both mention it. Whether the allegations of his denouncer were true or not, cannot be decided at this point having no more material at hand. One thing seems to be certain though, that he did have an enemy that had some writing skills too.
Choosing the Corner Office: The First Day at NYU Shanghai
Having not recovered yet from the jet lag as of today (Thursday) when writing this post, my first days in Shanghai are pretty much as expected: rising early long before any coffee shops serve me with the desired brown liquid, getting done some of the essential practicalities (attempt to resurrect my old Chinese phone number or figuring out the best way to receive my grant money in yuan) and draft plans for a research routine starting from next week.
Apart from settling in to my tiny apartment in a not-yet-at all-gentrified xiaoqu (community) of the trendy Xintiandi (新天地) area, I’ve also visited the NYU Shanghai campus in Pudong district, where I’m given office space as graduate fellow. Well, I will see how my archival days turn out, but I’m pretty sure this desk and window (!) are going to convince me to choose this as my working station. After all, my cozy little back door walk-up isn’t quite like my home office in our spacious Jersey City apartment, and so I rather trade half an hour subway commute for a better environment to be productive.
I missed China in the past two years, and now I’m getting it for three months! It’s exciting to be in Shanghai, both familiar and new at the same time. Familiar with its hot and humid late-August days that remind me of returns to university in my former home city Tianjin after summer holidays spent in Hungary. Here, I hear a different dialect on the narrow alleys that is way softer than the pirate language-like Northern erhua (erization) but it is still the country I’m attached to not only by my studies but also with fond memories. I’m sure this metropolis holds plenty of interesting experiences for me, some of them I will be able to share on this blog so that it won’t be only about my academic self-motivation and research reports. Hope you all will keep checking in when a new blogpost arrives!