Cafes in Shanghai

I select some old photos here, all taken by me on various phones (Nokia ones I think) and cameras during a visit to Shanghai in 2008. This collection of photos is all about local cafes.

It is believed that the people in northern China usually prefer tea, while Shanghai, which always has great influence on the eastern part of China, is well known for more coffee. You can see the importance of cafes in Ang Lee’s award-winning movie Lust, Caution (2007).

In the old Shanghai, cafe used to be a symbol of social status. Maybe now still?

Shanghai has been never short of good cafes, including many run by expats who often view Shanghai as the “Paris in the Orient”. Those nice coffee shops sometimes make Shanghai suddenly feel more like a small town in Europe and they also become the sources of ideas and connections for many.

In this collection of old photos, unfortunately the Hanyuan Bookstore (which was also a cafe) was closed in 2018 for various reasons.

Hanyuan used to be late Hong Kong celebrity Leslie Cheung’s favourite. Leslie once said he loved to hide himself inside Hanyuan just for a whole afternoon of books and coffee when he had work in Shanghai.

For more photography by me: mrshangkong.com

The 140th Anniversary of Lu Xun

The West has George Orwell. We have Lu Xun (魯迅), one of the greatest writers in Asia in the 20th century.

In early 1927, Lu was considered for the Nobel Prize in Literature, for the short story The True Story of Ah Q (阿Q正傳), despite a poor English translation and annotations that were nearly double the size of the text. However, Lu declined to be nominated due partly to the domestic political environment and Lu’s deep disappointment in the Chinese society at that time.

One of my favourite lines from Lu’s works is “Do not break out in silence, perish in silence” (不在沈默中爆發，就在沈默中滅亡). Late Communist leader of China Mao Zedong (毛澤東) — himself a big fan of Lu’s writings — once said had Lu survived until the 1950s, he would "either have gone silent or gone to prison.”

This year marks the 140th anniversary of Lu, born on September 25, 1881 in Shaoxing, Zhejiang province, the Qing Dynasty of China.

Shanghai-style Pork Mooncake

The Mid-Autumn Festival is just around the corner and that means it’s time to eat some mooncake. My favourite? What about Shanghai-style pork mooncake (上海鮮肉月餅)?

Hand-filled and formed, the Shanghai-style mooncakes offer a departure from traditional versions around town; made from flour, lard and maltose, they’re characterised by a flaky and buttery short-crust pastry and filled by ground pork.

Where to buy perhaps the most authentic Shanghai-style pork mooncake in Hong Kong? You can order at Michelin-famous restaurant Liu Yuan Pavilion (留園雅敘) in Wan Chai, which is well known for its Shanghainese cuisine. Liu Yuan’s super fans include Shanghai-born Hong Kong influencer and food critic Benny Li.

Usually you need to grab those annual limited edition pork mooncake quickly before they are all sold out. Fortunately my colleague got me a box already, and now I just need to brew a pot of green tea to go with the uniquely delicious pork mooncake.

Life is not too bad in Hong Kong!

Shanghai Wonton in Causeway Bay

My friends often ask me where to eat good Shanghainese food. The answer is … the Shanghai Hongkong Noodle Restaurant in Causeway Bay. It’s been here for more than half a century and the first-generation founder/boss is a poor migrant to Hong Kong from Shanghai after the war time.

My favourite here is the Shanghai-style “little wonton”, and I will also order fried dumplings if I’m a bit more hungry. Soy milk is the popular drink here, brewed by the restaurant on its own everyday. Of course, the best takeaway is always the Shanghai-style “rice wrap” (秶飯), which has two flavors, sweet (pork) or salty (vegetables).

This restaurant is one of the unspoken secrets for the local and it’s open for 7/24/365. It was once featured in American newspaper USA Today, which described the hardworking entrepreneurial spirit as the “Spirit of Hong Kong”.

Ice Cream, A US-China Story

This is the most classic ice cream with a very long history in China since the early 1900s, also related to American influence, culture, and technology at that time.

American politicians and businessmen came to Shanghai for their “adventures” in the early days and they had homesick, including missing Western-style ice cream in the summertime. In 1913, an American dairy factory was established in Shanghai and it quickly entered ice cream business to primarily serve the foreign and local elite communities in Shanghai.

At the very beginning, the original brand of its ice cream was called “Beauty” (美女), and the brand was renamed as “Brightness” (光明) in 1950 following the Communist Party’s victory of the Civil War. Make sense? A bright new era just started for China. That’s the new meaning.

The late famous Chinese writer Eileen Chang (張愛玲) was one of many fans for “Beauty” ice cream, quite a luxury for the local in the old era of Shanghai. Today the new “Brightness” brand is already a household name in Shanghai and occupies a dominating share in the domestic ice cream market in China.

Former Chinese President Jiang Zemin (江澤民) was a factory manager for Yiming Foodstuff (益民食品), parent company of “Brightness” dairy and ice cream products before Jiang started his political career and became the Mayor of Shanghai.

You can now order “Brightness” ice cream online, directly shipped from Shanghai to Hong Kong, thanks to highly efficient logistics and e-commerce technology nowadays of course.