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Author Grescoe, Taras.

Title Shanghai grand : forbidden love and international intrigue in a doomed world / Taras Grescoe.

Publication Info. New York : St. Martin's Press, 2016.

Copies

Location Call No. Status
 Middletown, Russell Library - Adult Nonfiction  951.132 GRE    Check Shelf
 West Hartford, Noah Webster Library - Non Fiction  951.1320 GRESCOE    Check Shelf
Edition First U.S. edition.
Description xiii, 455 pages, 16 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations, portraits, map ; 25 cm
Note "First published in the United Kingdom by Macmillan, an imprint of Pan Macmillan"--Title page verso.
Summary "On the eve of WWII, the foreign-controlled port of Shanghai was the rendezvous for the twentieth century's most outlandish adventurers, all under the watchful eye of the fabulously wealthy Sir Victor Sassoon. Emily 'Mickey' Hahn was a legendary New Yorker journalist whose vivid writing played a crucial role in opening Western eyes to the realities of life in China. At the height of the Depression, Hahn arrived in Shanghai after a disappointing affair with an alcoholic Hollywood screenwriter, convinced she will never love again. After checking in to Sassoon's glamorous Cathay Hotel, Hahn is absorbed into the social swirl of the expats drawn to pre-war China, among them Ernest Hemingway, Martha Gellhorn, Harold Acton, and a colourful gangster named Morris 'Two-Gun' Cohen. But when she meets Zau Sinmay, a Chinese poet from an illustrious family, she discovers the real Shanghai through his eyes: the city of rich colonials, triple agents, opium-smokers, displaced Chinese peasants, and increasingly desperate White Russian and Jewish refugees--places her innate curiosity will lead her to explore first hand. Danger lurks on the horizon, though, as the brutal Japanese occupation destroys the seductive world of pre-war Shanghai, paving the way for Mao Tse-tung's Communists rise to power"-- Provided by publisher.
Contents Map: Shanghai, 1935 -- Prologue: Zhujiajiao Water Town, Shanghai Municipality, March 28, 2014 -- Part 1 -- Shanghai, January 28, 1932 -- Where China Meets the World -- The Sassoon Gamble -- Part 2 -- St. Louis, 27 May 1916 -- The Flapper's Progress -- Shanghai Grand -- Mickey Checks In -- On the Shanghai Beat -- Part 3 -- Shanghai, April 12, 1935 -- Cathay and the Muse -- The Fantastic Mr. Pan -- Cosmopolis-on-the-Whangpoo -- Part 4 -- Shanghai, November 3, 1936 -- The Rise of the Dwarf Bandits -- Sweetie Pie Goes to Nanking -- Part 5 -- Shanghai, August 14, 1937 -- After Saturday -- The Solitary Island -- Waking from the Doze -- Part 6 -- Shanghai, August 1, 1941 -- The Last Light in a Dark World -- Check-Out Time -- Settling the Bill -- Epilogue.
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references (pages [367]-436) and index.
Subject Shanghai (China) -- Social life and customs -- 20th century.
Shanghai (China) -- Biography.
Hahn, Emily, 1905-1997 -- Travel -- China -- Shanghai.
Hahn, Emily, 1905-1997 -- Relations with men.
Americans -- China -- Shanghai -- Biography.
Adventure and adventurers -- China -- Shanghai -- Biography.
Noncitizens -- China -- Shanghai -- Biography.
Sassoon, Elias Victor, 1881-1961 -- Friends and associates.
Cathay Hotel (Shanghai, China) -- History.
Sino-Japanese War, 1937-1945 -- Social aspects -- China -- Shangahi.
HISTORY / Asia / China.
BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / Historical.
Genre/Form Biographies.
Travel writing.
ISBN 9781250049711 (hardcover)
1250049717 (hardcover)
9781443425537
1443425532
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