Shanghai Chronicle

Name: Shanghai Chronicle
ISBN: 9787559872289

汗漫Guangxi Normal University Press · ChinaJan 2025

4.0

Word count: 264K words
Chapters: 251
ISBN: 9787559872289

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Summary

Shanghai Notes is a full-length essay collection devoted to Shanghai, at once a portrait of the city and a forging of the Chinese spirit. Taking the author's spatial survey of streets and buildings as its warp and the actions of people within those spaces as its weft, the book sketches a radiant panorama of Shanghai and of China's modern trajectory. Between the lines, historical memory intertwines with present experience, and everyday bustle shines alongside grand legend, revealing the vast within the subtle. The author's identity as a poet sets this book apart from earlier narratives of Shanghai: the angle is distinctive, the prose free and uninhibited, and the personal signature unmistakable. As one of the revolutionaries of the essay form in the new century, the author here presents, in Chinese rhetoric both beautiful and powerful, the spiritual atmosphere of a city and indeed of a nation.

Editor's review

Shanghai Notes is a work of non-fiction about the city that poet Han Man spent seven years completing. It is neither a conventional travel guide nor a general history, but a "spiritual wanderer's record" that reweaves the city's texture along the warp and weft of personal lived experience. Writing from the perspective of a "new Shanghai resident," the author fuses more than twenty years of living in the city with research and reverie on key figures in modern Shanghai history (such as Lu Xun, Eileen Chang, and Mu Xin), landmarks (from the Bund to workers' new villages), and even plants (plane trees and camphor trees). His writing combines a poet's sensitivity with an essayist's erudition, conducting an archaeology of layered time while walking the streets and alleys, and retrieving echoes of public history from the folds of private memory. The book's value lies in the unique path it offers to understanding a city: it does not pursue grand narrative but illuminates the complex and captivating soul of a city through a constellation of countless details. For readers, reading Shanghai Notes is more like an intellectual and sensory stroll; it asks you to slow down and follow the author's thoughts, discovering behind familiar or unfamiliar place names the depth and poetry that daily life overlooks.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers with a deep interest in Shanghai's urban culture and history who are not satisfied with superficial introductions.
Readers who love literary non-fiction and appreciate texts that skillfully combine personal narrative with historical research.
Readers who live or have lived in Shanghai and wish to rediscover and reflect on their own urban experience through another's eyes.
Writers and artists seeking inspiration for how to transform geographical space into aesthetic and intellectual material.

Not a good fit for

Readers seeking quick practical travel information such as Shanghai attractions and food.
Readers who prefer clear linear historical narrative or rigorous academic research.

Reading tips

Approach it as a "slow book": there is no need to follow a map or rush to finish; you can wander through the city, in reality or imagination, chapter by chapter.
Read alongside a map of Shanghai, or the literary works and biographies of historical figures the author mentions, for extended reading and the pleasure of intertextuality.
Pay attention to the descriptions of everyday things (a street sign, a kind of tree) and observe how the author opens up a vast space of meaning from small particulars.

About the publisher

Guangxi Normal University Press China · Founded in 1986

Guangxi Normal University Press is a publisher known for literature, foreign literature and history titles. Its 1,175 books in the database show a solid accumulation in classics and prose collections, including foreign literary works such as Les Fleurs du mal: Annotated Poems of Baudelaire, Snow Country, Dubliners and The Wild Palms, as well as modern prose compilations like The Complete Prose of Zhou Zuoren. History and philosophy also hold a notable share, with titles such as Running Dogs: Clerks and Runners in Qing County Yamen and The History and Thought of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom reflecting attention to Qing local administration and modern history. In art literature there is the 16-volume Ten Bamboo Studio Painting and Calligraphy Manual. Its author resources include foreign writers Charles Baudelaire and Yasunari Kawabata, translators and annotators Liu Nanqi and Zou Bo, and scholars such as Zhong Shuhe, Bradly W. Reed and You Chenjun. As public information is limited, this characterization is based only on the books in the database, which together present a profile balancing Chinese and foreign literary classics with academic works in the humanities and social sciences.

版权信息
作者简介
楔子
南京路：混血之作
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
苏州河：从雨雾中捕获勇气
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
江西路：一弯新月
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
福州路：芬芳的激烈
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
湖心亭：虎眼文与鸭头春
1
2
3
4
老码头：沿一道栈桥进入大海
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
书隐楼：骊歌
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
上海站：迎接或痛失
1
2
3
4
5
陆家嘴：从此岸到彼岸
1
2
3
4
5
宝庆路三号：当樱桃变成玉兰
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
岳阳路：只有自由和平静
1
2
3
4
5
复兴公园：旋转木马之歌
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
新乐路：满堂兮美人
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
长乐路：表达的难度
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
爱神花园：匮乏与丰盈
1
2
3
4
5
6
常德公寓：朵云轩信笺上的月亮
1
2
3
4
5
6
康定路：最后一课
1
2
3
4
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6
7
8
9
安定坊五号：上升
1
2
3
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5
6
7
徐家汇：让光开启暗夜与门扉
1
2
3
4
5
虹口：到宽阔光明的地方去
1
2
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6
7
8
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10
昆山花园路：北斗
1
2
3
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5
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7
白马咖啡馆：一个仁慈的黄昏时刻
1
2
3
4
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7
川沙：水木作
1
2
3
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6
新场：吴盐胜雪
1
2
3
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5
召稼楼：大地的转换
1
2
3
4
5
白莲泾：在还俗中还乡
1
2
3
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5
6
松江：云朵间有巨口细鳞之鱼
1
2
3
4
广富林：大海所保存的
1
2
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7
嘉定：临去秋波那一转
1
2
3
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5
金山嘴：最初的，最后的
1
2
3
4
炮台湾：来自黑海的番鸭
1
2
3
4
5
6
崇明岛：晚景中的独白
1
2
3
4
后记

FAQ

Is this book comparable to Chen Danqing's New York Notes or Pamuk's Istanbul?

There is some comparability, as all are exemplary works in which a writer portrays a great city from a personal perspective. Han Man's Shanghai Notes focuses more on a poetic, fragmented spiritual archaeology within the context of modern Chinese history and Jiangnan culture, and its textual density and lyricism may be more pronounced.

If I have never lived in Shanghai, can I understand and enjoy this book?

Absolutely. The book's core appeal lies in its universal reflections that transcend region—on migration and settlement, memory and forgetting, tradition and modernity. The author's profound depiction of details and emotional projection can lead any reader into the "Shanghai" realm he constructs and trigger similar contemplation of their own city.

Are the historical figures and events in the book accurately presented?

The author Han Man conducted extensive reading and research, and the historical facts in the book have reliable foundations. Note, however, that the book is positioned as a literary essay rather than historical research; the author focuses more on drawing personal insights, associations, and commentary from historical material, with a strong subjective color and literary re-creation.

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About the author

汗漫 Author

Han Man is a Chinese writer about whom limited public information is available, so a full picture of his life and literary output cannot yet be established. The library holds one work by him, the essay collection Notes on Shanghai, generally classified as prose and miscellaneous writings and centered on the city of Shanghai. Judging from its subject matter, Han Man's writing attends to urban experience and everyday observation, using the essay form to record local scenes, details of daily life, and personal impressions, with the unhurried and reflective quality of a familiar essay. Notes on Shanghai can be seen as an attempt to preserve the city in words, leading readers through its streets and human affairs to share the author's perception of urban life. Given the scarcity of related material, his style and literary influence await further sources and wider reading; for now, the work itself is the best starting point for knowing the author.