Book Review: Remembering Shanghai by Claire Chao and Isabel Sun Chao

Remembering Shanghai by Claire Chao and Isabel Sun Chao
Length: 308 Pages
Genres: Memoir, Nonfiction
Rating: 5 out of 5 Stars

"Before Shanghai become Shanghai, it was a marshy fishing village, where Asia's longest river met the world's largest ocean. The city was born of vice -- the offspring of unbridled commerce and colonialism, a treaty port where the illegal importation of opium shortened the lives of thousands and where Westerners were granted immunity to Chinese law."

Trigger Warnings in this book for Violence and Gore

My last book for the Asian Readathon! I have to admit I'm usually not a fan of anything Nonfiction, and I don't believe I've read, or at least, completed, a memoir. However, I am so pleased that this readathon prompted me to read something nonfiction, because otherwise I might not have had the chance to read this amazing book.

Remembering Shanghai is not only a love-letter to "Old Shanghai", but an unflinching portrait of the Sun family, told by one of the daughters, Isabel, and her own daughter, Claire. Isabel is brought up during the glamorous 1930's and 40's of Shanghai, where she is cushioned from the outside world by her family's wealth and status. Here, we meet her fashionable and flighty Muma, her patient and art-loving Diedie, the strict Buddhist Qinpo, and her siblings. 

Isabel's memories, both the good, the bad, and the incriminating, are told vividly, and with a sort of humor that only time can create. Besides her immediate family, we are told of her great-grandfather's rise to status and money, his sons' maltreatment of him, all in the name of money (his youngest son, No. 7 being Isabel's grandfather), and her godfather's run in with a Shanghainese gang. All of these early memories are tinged with a bit of sadness, as with the rise of Communism, the Sun family is irrevocably torn apart. Isabel, her daughter, and many of their family members, have lived such fascinating lives and despite all the hardship, from lives stolen from them to the oppression and fear of living under Mao's Regime and the Japanese occupation, retain such infectious optimism. 

Along the way, we learn interesting little snippets about Chinese life, from playing mahjong, to the difference between qipao and cheongsam, and even about the popular movies and actresses, like Nancy Chen who played Hua Mulan in 1939's Mulan Joins the Army. The pages are filled with glorious little illustrations, and photos of the family and Shanghai, which I really enjoyed seeing.

It is an essential read, not just for those interested in China, but for those interested in the spirit and strength of humanity, and the ways we can learn from history to better our futures.