Шанхай

Michigan Monograph Series in Japanese Studies #33

by Riichi Yokomitsu, Ёкомицу Риити, Татьяна Бреславец (Translator)

Ёкомицу Риити (1898–1947) не так хорошо известен в России, как его именитые
современники — Акутагава Рюноскэ, Дзюнъитиро Танидзаки, Ясунари Кавабата. А между тем в 20–30-е гг. ХХ в. он считался в Японии прозаиком номер один, «королем современного романа», а некоторые современники даже именовали его литературным божеством. Действие его самого знаменитого романа «Шанхай» происходит в китайском Шанхае, в преддверии Революции 1925–1927 гг. В то опасное время Шанхай очаровывал и притягивал к себе авантюристов со всех концов земли — японцев, англичан, американцев, французов, индийцев, русских монархистов, бежавших из России. Среди персонажей романа — коммунисты и марксисты, космополиты и патриоты, бандиты, бунтовщики и каратели. В
кипящем котле этого восточного Вавилона торгуют и грабят, пируют и голодают, любят и убивают. Здесь может случится все, что угодно — и случается…
Впервые на русском языке.

Genres: Japanese Literature, Japan, China, Fiction, Read For School, Adult Fiction, Asia

304 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1932

Reviews

[NipPop Bologna · Rating 5 out of 5]

Videorecensione: x

Riichi Yokomitsu è sicuramente una delle figure più importanti del Giappone fra la metà degli anni ‘20 e l’immediato dopoguerra. Come tante altre figure di spicco del periodo non è ancora molto conosciuto all’estero, e in effetti Shanghai è l’unica sua opera a essere tradotta in italiano (oltre a un racconto uscito in una vecchia raccolta, ormai irreperibile).

Nonostante ciò, Yokumitsu Riichi è una figura fondamentale nel clima intellettuale degli anni ‘20, perché è stata una delle anime di un movimento che ha avuto un ruolo fondamentale per lo sviluppo della letteratura di questo periodo: lo Shinkankakuha, la “scuola delle nuove sensazioni” o neopercezionismo, movimento del quale è stato membro un autore molto più conosciuto all’estero che è Kawabata Yasunari.

Lo Shinkankakuha si pone in contrapposizione con quelle che erano allora le correnti principali dell’arte, della letteratura: da un lato il naturalismo, che proponeva lo shishōsetsu, il romanzo dell’io, come romanzo più adatto a interpretare i tempi moderni, e dall’altro lato per esempio la puroretaria bungaku, la letteratura proletaria, che invece proponeva una letteratura che fosse d’impegno sociale e politico, una letteratura quindi all’insegna di una responsabilità civile degli scrittori e della scrittura.

Lo Shinkankakuha si oppone a tutto questo. I suoi membri sono fortemente ispirati dai movimenti dell’avanguardia europea: dadaismo, futurismo, simbolismo; e appunto si fanno interpreti di un nuovo ideale di letteratura che è ispirato alla modernità e alle sensazioni che in loro essa suscita.

Clicca qui per guardare la recensione completa!

[Shannon · Rating 1 out of 5]

I had a hard time with this one and I just kind of skimmed the last 50 pages. The characters are hard to tell apart at first and there's so much going on that it gets really confusing really quickly. Also, I'm not really sure what the point, or message, of this novel was. Talking about it in class today with my professor, who is Japanese, and he couldn't really say where the author was taking it after he finished it either. You get a sense that all the characters are looking for some type of salvation or purpose in life but by the end it's hard to say if they figured anything out.

Also this novel seems to be overly graphic to shock the reader. There's dead infants and cats floating in a canal, baby mice in honey to eat, and decapitated heads stuck on polls with their noses rotting off. I've read worse and seen worse in movies but I suppose for the time this would be rather upsetting to read about, although I'm sure not for the people that lived through it.

The most disturbing part for me was actually less glorified than any of the other violence, it was more or less just told in passing and for me it just made it that more horrible. One of the girls in the novel, Osugi, works in a Turkish bathhouse. She's not a prostitute but she does give baths using her body as a sponge so she's not exactly the most innocent girl. She gets fired and ends up walking to one of her customer's homes, a guy named Sanki and the main character of the novel, who she had inadvertently fallen in love with. She's waiting outside Sanki's door crying when his friend, Koya, comes by. Koya tells her that Sanki isn't home but that she can come inside. Koya ends up falling asleep and Osugi decides she may as well too since she no longer has anywhere to live. In the middle of the night, Koya rapes her while she's half asleep. She gives in and then falls back asleep, but when she wakes up both Sanki and Koya are in the room sleeping and she doesn't know which one raped her. By the end of the novel she still doesn't know who raped her and took her virginity. Osugi's storyline after that didn't really get any better and it just really made the book all the more depressing for me. I just felt so bad for her.

It was interesting to read about this time period and I think if you wanted to learn more about early 20th century Chinese/Japanese history you'd want to check out this book. It's especially good if you want to research the May 30th Incident or want to get a more personal and/or Japanese account of labor riots and strikes that happened in 1925.

Not the greatest Japanese fiction I've read but not the worst. I don't regret reading it but I'd never read it again.

[Stephen Durrant · Rating 3 out of 5]

This novel concerns a group of Japanese in Shanghai during the May 30th Movement of 1925 during which Chinese nationalist sentiment turned against Japanese cotton mills in Shanghai and Japanese in general. Yokomitsu's attempt to "perceive the world in an unmediated way" (translator's preface, 221) makes for some powerful depictions of the confusion of the protests and police response of that time. The characters, it seems, are never quite sure what is going on around them and whether or not they are about to be swept up in the violence. But in the end, I confess, to losing interest in the tangled love subplots (or maybe they were the main plots, I'm not sure). The characters, I thought, were rather thinly drawn and sometimes seemed props created to deliver various ideological messages. Although I am interested in China during the early 20th century, and am, moreover, something of a fan of the twentieth century Japanese novel, my interest began to flag after a hundred pages or so and finishing "Shanghai" began to feel like chore than a pleasure. Maybe three stars is too generous?

[Mircalla · Rating 4 out of 5]

la Parigi d'Oriente e le Concessioni internazionali che ne usurpano la bellezza

due giapponesi male in arnese nella Shanghai agli albori dell'espansionismo nipponico, le Concessioni fanno da contorno, la miseria, donne perdute e massaggiatrici giapponesi, la prostituzione delle nobili russe in fuga dalla Rivoluzione di Ottobre e i tumulti nelle fabbriche giapponesi, il neonato comunismo e sullo sfondo le carneficine a venire...
un storia che è essa stessa un pezzo di Storia, la prosa giapponese, lieve e descrittiva, attenua il portato della dura realtà raccontata, ma anche se in sogno, sembra di vedere chiaramente, mentre i fumi dell'oppio si dissolvono, come questo sogno si stia trasformando lentamente in un incubo...

[Albus Elown · Rating 5 out of 5]

SHANGHAI
AUTOR: YOKOMITSU RIICHI
EDITORIAL: @kotobaediciones
TRADUCCION: Vanesa Robles Gallardo
PAGINAS: 220

Una novela extensa, llena de estos históricos y personajes protagonistas, es lo que Yokomitsu nos presenta. Está historia es la primera vez, traducida al español gracias a el trabajo de editorial @kotobaediciones y a Vanesa Robles Gallardo. Cómo antecedente del autor yo he leído sus libros de relatos que gracias a @tambienelcaracol ha traducido, y bueno está novela es una joya literaria.

Pero bueno he aquí mis comentarios:

La historia vislumbra a la ciudad de Shanghai desde las primeras décadas del siglo XX, en dónde está ciudad históricamente es dominada por occidentales y asiáticos. Es en este contexto donde se nos presentan diferentes planos visuales de Shanghai y los conflictos internos que existen, las luchas entre blancos y amarillos por dominar la economía y un contexto de pobreza y miseria en la sociedad. La fuerza pública intentando reprimir a los chinos, y estos mismos bajo los ideales del proletariado, buscan restablecer el poder Chino.

A través de los ojos de personajes japoneses como: Sabio, Koya, Sugi, Miyako, Takashige, Ryu, , Yamaguchi, leemos lo complicado que es vivir en Shanghai y en el contexto, ya que todas las empresas de capital japonés están siendo saqueadas por los trabajadores chinos y un movimiento encabezado por Fang Quilan. Yokomitsu , siendo el padre del movimiento "SHINKAKU HA" , en esta historia nos plantea , sensaciones de desasosiego, tristeza, pobreza, odio y sufrimiento que viven los personajes ante una situación historica tan compleja.

El contexto histórico es clave, ya que, hay muchos datos que van desde el Opio, el dominio británico sobre ciertos sectores y la presencia de personas de la India, así mismo como los Rusos. Es así como se nos presenta una radiografía , compleja que se vive en aquellos momentos en la ciudad de Shanghai y la crisis social que se vivia. Es interesante ver cómo todo esto ocurrió en el contexto de 1925, ya que, el autor estuvo en Shanghai , además como el mismo comento era conocer lo miserable de Asia en la que el vivio.

Para mí fue una lectura pesada por el contexto histórico que se plantea, la pluma de Yokomitsu es rica y además nos trasmite el objetivo principal de leer y sentir la marginación de ese momento , algo complejo que recomiendo leer.

[Daniel Fletcher · Rating 2 out of 5]

Probably a 1 star for enjoyment, but adding a star because I do think this novel does what it sets out to do effectively.

This is very much one of those books that is concerned with painting a picture of a time and a place in a very artistic way, and not really concerned with character or plot, which is fine. Just not to my taste at all. I would rather just read a short story or an essay than read a novel like this.

Shanghai itself becomes a bit of a character in this book, and it is the main plot driver. It strips away any agency from the characters, and everyone is succumbed to their tumultuous surroundings.

I will say that the author is talented. He uses the characters almost as different lenses on a camera that he switches out frequently, all of them processing events slightly differently. There are some truly chilling descriptions here as well. If you’re interested in the May 30th incident, or cosmopolitanism and modernism in general, this would maybe be one to put on your radar. Just not for me.

[Sara K · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book definetely had its flaws, but the writing was surprisingly engaging and the prose gnarly and colourful. The streets of Shanghai were described so vividly that I was totaly imersed to the very end. The characters sucked big time, and yet i kept wondering what would happen to them in the next chapter. Osugi deserved better!

[Stephen Rowland · Rating 3 out of 5]

3½. It's a very interesting little novel, but its tone is all over the place, sometimes it makes absolutely no sense, and it often becomes bogged down in feuding ideologies. I still enjoyed reading it. Some knowledge of Shanghai in the 1920s is helpful.

[Jim Jones · Rating 5 out of 5]

Novels with love stories set during periods of political turmoil are common, but many of them come off as clunky or forced. Still, some of the greatest literature mingles the personal and political. I can think of Balzac’s Lost Illusions set during the 1830’s French Revolution, Stendhal’s Red and Black set during the Napoleonic Wars, and of course, the grand-daddy of them all, Tolstoy’s War and Peace.

Now at the risk of making you raise an eyebrow, I would add this novel to the list. Shanghai not only has some of the most beautiful descriptions of the squalid, chaotic political unrest in Shanghai in the 1930’s, but also manages to create interesting (if not very sympathetic) characters. Ultimately, it created for me an almost seamless blending of the personal and the political.
Unfortunately, the book’s author, Riichi Yokomitsu, was on the wrong side of history. He is now a little known author (I think even in Japan), because of a philosophy of nationalism, which promoted a Japanese-led Asian Empire. However, while many Japanize men follow this philosophy in Shanghai, the overall take-away in the book is the danger of living for either political or romantic abstractions.

The protagonist, Sanzi, is alone, unemployed, and discouraged about love. He is nearly always on the verge of suicide. He finds he can only love unattainable woman and is a stranger in a strange land. He thinks his only hope of contributing to society is to wander the city in hopes of sacrificing himself for his homeland in the anti-foreigner Chinese riots. When he meets a mysterious and beautiful Chinese revolutionary, he again finds himself infatuated and follows her at the edge of the angry mobs she leads. He finally realizes that he has yet again fallen in love with an unattainable woman—one who hates foreigners and is equally nationalistic about her county.

The book has its flaws—it introduces too many characters too quickly and some chapters (for example one explaining the British-Indian issue) are almost totally superfluous. But I recommend sticking with it. Some of the writing here ranks with the best literature has to offer. For example, a scene where Sanzi watches his rickshaw driver be pulled apart by an incensed crowd is haunting and beautifully cinematic.

[tenshi · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is the most interesting book I read the entire year, and perhaps even longer than that.

This book is not an easy read, the language is simple to understand and is cleverly written, but it deals with topics that can be hard to swallow. It has been a month since I finished this novel and I am still processing all of the characters and what happened - it resonated very deeply with me. The characters are flawed, they have some good and a lot of bad, but I consider that very realistic. You will absolutely hate some, and others you will fall in love with and want to rescue.

This book is gripping, interesting, a somewhat quick read (approximately 2 bedtimes of reading for me). Be warned, if you are sensitive to topics such as death, decomposition, rape and war, this is not for you.

[Zack · Rating 5 out of 5]

Although there are some good descriptions of the setting early in the novel, Sanki and Koya don't seem very distinguishable--which makes sense as the novel progresses and especially given the final perspective. Almost everyone is out for themselves and wants to make everyone else miserable, even given the terrifying imagery and circumstances that they experience. This becomes incredibly entertaining from a literary perspective--there are so many well-crafted scenes filled with disturbing imagery--and the characters are all quite distinct and understood by the end. I think this covers obsession and ignoring the squalor, death, and horror around the characters better than Marquez's Love in a Time of Cholera, which also has terrible people doing everything they can to take advantage of others they become infatuated with.

The scene where we discover Olga's backstory is incredibly intense: while she has a seizure, being held in place by Koya, a rapist who wants credit for getting a rickshaw driver killed so he can get paid when that corpse is brought back to Yamaguchi's basement, which is filled with dead bodies and skeletons and rats running through ribcages. Osugi's perspective on events and the nihilism of death or survival with these awful people and conditions really works for me.

Though there is a lot of gross stuff and political arguments, there's also a lot of dark humor, too. I laughed out loud a few times when Miyako is scolding Koya and Sanki, or Koya and Sanki joking about suicide.

The political parts didn't provide a direct and compelling argument for any movement in my reading, which is surprising. The arguments are offered by horrible people defending or working out their actions as something good, but only inasmuch as things will benefit themselves by getting more money or power, and the main characters are more concerned with their "love lives," always opining for people who are unavailable emotionally, are physically not there, or who have no interest in their advances. All of the women except Fang Qiu-lan are or become prostitutes, and Qiu-lan is the only one to stand by her revolutionary principles and most likely die for them. But is the existence that the other characters have made for themselves better?

[Zo · Rating 3 out of 5]

The image-laden scenes and chaos of the action does a good job of capturing the modernity of Shanghai and the bewilderment of the characters within, but it also leads to a text with just a little too much jumping around and not enough of a connecting thread. The fates of Osugi and Sanki were both sad, but I'm not sure I really cared about any other character because of how depersonalizing the entire novel is. The text hits the modernist themes of dehumanization and isolation reasonably well, but not in as interesting a way as the other stuff I've read in the period. An interesting read and look into a time/place I probably wouldn't have encountered otherwise, but nothing exceptional.

[Antonella Montesanti · Rating 3 out of 5]

Una storia che è quasi un pezzo di Storia. Shanghai, che potremmo chiamare la Parigi d''Oriente, fa da sfondo alla storia di due amici giapponesi che lavorano lì, uno in banca uno in una ditta. In un paesaggio grigio e fumoso, ci si avvia agli albori dell' espansionismo giapponese, sulla riva del fiume si incrociano barche di ogni tipo che trasportano merci, cibi, tessuti, persone. A farla da padrone le concessioni governative del momento, i grandi scioperi, la povertà e, relegate ad una figura non molto esemplare, le donne. Donne belle e meno belle, che si prostituiscono e si vendono per poco, tra i fumi dell'oppio e dell'alcol, nei vicoli scuri e nebbiosi del lungofiume. Così e cosi.

[Denis · Rating 2 out of 5]

Многие вещи заслуженно забыты, их не стоит вспоминать и тратить время, эта книга именно такая.
В книге Шанхай наполнен мусором, грязью и метающимися среди всего этого людьми, эти движения тщетные, бессмысленные и хаотичные. Возможно, это такой приём, когда упадок, ужас окружающего и бегающие в этой атмосфере персонажи подчёркивают хаос и бессмысленность существования.
Но книга наполнена и идеями японского империализма, закончившегося ещё большим ужасом и хаосом для всей Азии.
У всех персонажей открытые концовки, как будто читатель на пару недель вторгся в их жизни, увидел тьму, почувствовал на себе её взгляд и отвернулся.

[Isham Cook · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dark wanderings of male obsession, unusual for being written and narrated by one of the Japanese occupiers.

[Artem Lukianov · Rating 4 out of 5]

A literary space well-produced.

[kayleigh · Rating 1 out of 5]

read for uni, incredibly boring but hoping for interesting discussion at least 🫠🫠

[Valentina | Hikarisshelf · Rating 3 out of 5]

🏮Negli anni ’20 la Cina era nel suo periodo di massima crisi politica: dalla fine della Guerra Dell’Oppio aveva perso molto potere e aveva dovuto concedere alle potenze occidentali dei territori che vivevano una forma di colonialismo. Shanghai fu una di queste concessioni ma fu anche un luogo moderno e ricco di scambi culturali. Yokomitsu vi si recò in visita nel 1928 e decise di ambientare qui il suo racconto.⁣
⁣
🇨🇳La narrazione nasce dalle storiche ribellioni del maggio ‘25: in una fabbrica di cotone giapponese gli operai cinesi si scontarono contro i guardiani dando vita a diverse rivolte; la polizia inglese, che controllava la città, sparò a dei rappresenti e nacque una ribellione che durò vari mesi che portò alla formazione della repubblica popolare cinese nel ‘49.⁣
⁣
🎋Qui seguiamo le peripezie di un gruppo di giovani espatriati giapponesi che vivono in condizioni precarie e si ritrovano in mezzo alla ribellione. Attraverso questi personaggi, e soprattutto attraverso Sanki che si innamora della cinese comunista Fang Qiulan, si vedono le idee politiche di Yokomitsu, combattuto tra una fascinazione e un rifiuto dell’ideologia marxista e l’idea di un Giappone potente, coloniale ma allo stesso tempo fragile poiché portato ad una modernizzazione affrettata.⁣
⁣
🎏La narrazione è visionaria e sensoriale, l’interiorità dei personaggi si percepisce solo attraverso le loro azioni e i loro dialoghi. Lo stile è incalzante, crudo e descrittivo, perfetto per una storia sospesa tra i fumi dell’oppio e un’imminente rivoluzione.⁣
⁣
🎐Con questo romanzo Yokomitsu voleva mostrare come con un approccio neopercezionista si potesse affrontare temi di carattere politico, sociale e internazionale e farlo meglio della letteratura proletaria.⁣
⁣
🎎Shanghai è una delle opere più significative della Shinkankakuha, per comprenderla è quindi necessario conoscere questo movimento e il contesto storico; pur avendoli studiati e riconoscendo la genialità dell’opera confesso però di aver fatto fatica a seguire una narrazione così sensoriale e anti-introspettiva. ⭐⭐⭐,5/5⁣

[Hana · Rating 4 out of 5]

Shangai, metà anni '20, crocevia per asiatici, europei e americani, ciascuno alla ricerca di qualcosa che forse non otterrà mai. Precari gli equilibri (sociali, politici ed economici), con alleanze che si creano e sciolgono con grande rapidità. C'è chi si lascia trascinare, chi cerca di rimanere fedele ai propri ideali; chi rinuncia e chi asseconda ogni proprio desiderio.
In una città dove alle luci dei night club si contrappongono miseria e sporcizia, le due figure di Koya e Sanki paiono quasi in antitesi. Entrambi giapponesi e amici di lunga data, hanno un approccio completamente diverso alla vita: il primo è ambizioso e con pochi scrupoli, ma non riesce a conquistare l'unica donna che vorrebbe sposare; il secondo, da sempre innamorato della sorella di Koya, sposata però con un altro, è in continua attesa, e pur avendo diverse donne pronte a concedersi, finisce inevitabilmente per scappar via, quasi non volesse abbandonare quel limbo in cui forse ama crogiolarsi.
Attorno a loro, una città in continuo fermento, con le sue tante contraddizioni ancor più accentuate dal momento critico che sta vivendo, e le donne che la vivono sulla propria pelle: cinesi, giapponesi, russe, idealizzate, corteggiate, adulate, o più semplicemente sfruttate e accantonate.

Shanghai di Yokomitsu Riichi non è un romanzo facile, e non solo per l'impostazione modernista: presuppone una buona conoscenza della situazione storica, sociale e politica che fanno da sfondo e contemporaneamente influenzano pesantemente l'azione, dato che la finzione narrativa è strettamente legata ad alcuni eventi di cronaca, come l'uccisione di un operaio cinese durante uno sciopero in un cotonificio giapponese, di cui lo stesso Senki è testimone; in aiuto, fortunatamente, l'ottima postfazione a cura di Costantino Pes, traduttore dell'opera.

Un romanzo consigliato agli amanti della letteratura giapponese (alla scoperta di uno dei suoi esponenti di spicco), della scrittura del Prima Novecento in generale, e a chi vuole conoscere o approfondire la storia di Shangai negli anni '20.

[Ryan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Perhaps I don't know enough about the context of this book to fully appreciate it, but it was a bit of a struggle to read. First, the good parts.

1) I like the concept: a story about the lives of Japanese expats in shanghai in the 1930s and how they went through the social and political turmoil of the day.

2) The descriptions of the city are quite nice. The author uses lots of quick sentence fragments (probably borrowed stylistically from the Japanese, which doesn't mind fragments like English does) and this gives the impression of looking around the city and quickly taking things in. Many chapters begin with a paragraph that sets the stage, as it were, through these quick sentences and it is evocative and effective.

Unfortunately, that's about all I really liked about the book. The characters are all flat and I didn't really care about them. I don't recall one character growing or developing in a meaningful way. Perhaps this is "realistic," but I don't care for quite that much realism in my fiction. Much like a transcript of actual dialog is mostly just boring and full of fillers, therefore "realistic" dialog needs to be a much tighter and more carefully considered affair, so too do I feel you can have characters that evolve in ways that feel natural enough without sacrificing realism. I just didn't care about any of these characters. One character is obsessed with his own death. I did not care whether he lived to the end or not. Actually, I don't even remember the end, and I just finished the book a week or so ago. That seems like a bad sign, even for someone with my not-so-great memory for books/movies.

Quite a lot of the story was devoted to stock markets and the business side of the characters' lives. This is one place where I felt like I lacked the context to appreciate the book. Are these real companies? Did things really go down like this? Great, but because this is fiction, it would be awkward to explain all of that, so the author (justifiably) writes characters who do know the context. For this reason alone, I should probably give the book 3 stars. Unfortunately, it's also why I feel that it's more of a 2-star book for me personally. Lacking that information, the book holds far less meaning to me, so while it was a "good" decision by the author, I feel it didn't help the book age well without substantial supplementation.

In the end, I think it would have been more interesting to just read an historical account of the era. That way, the writer would explain the context and highlight important notes/events. I'm sure the lives of the actual people experiencing these times were at least as compelling as those of the characters in this novel as well, and it would have been more meaningful since I would know these were real people. I need fictional characters that are used to explore and explain "truths" about life, not characters that are so realistic that their lives don't hold any particular significance.

If anyone reads this and can offer me some other perspective, I would love to hear it. I want to like the book, I just didn't particularly.

[Pedro H. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Primeiro romance de Riichi Yokomitsu, Shanghai toma como inspiração a experiência da visita do autor à cidade de Xangai e como pano de fundo as greves e protestos que lá ocorreram em 1925 para construir um romance que visa retratar o caráter fragmentado e profundamente contraditório da experiência de uma cidade dividida pela violência da luta de classes e da colonização.

Por meio da utilização de técnicas modernistas — e considerando a filiação do autor ao neosensorialismo enquanto escola do modernismo japonês — o romance, ainda que privilegiando o ponto de vista japonês, capta a atmosfera contraditória da experiência de suas personagens. Funcionários de empresas e estabelecimentos japoneses na China, esses personagens são confrontados com as contradições do que viria a se consolidar como a ideologia da criação de uma esfera de coprosperidade da grande Ásia Oriental, que na verdade escondia a violência do imperialismo japonês — materializada na repressão política e na exploração econômica tanto dos trabalhadores japoneses quanto dos países colonizados pelo Japão — sob uma retórica de defesa contra o imperialismo ocidental e de defesa da Ásia Oriental.

A cidade de Xangai, cindida pela divisão política, econômica e territorial promovida pelos colonizadores (europeus, americanos e japoneses), é o cenário onde os projetos políticos e suas respectivas ideologias, tensionados ao limite em sua capacidade de oferecer respostas às diversas frações das burguesias (nacionais e internacionais) e do proletariado (nacional ou estrangeiro), deixam escapar o verdadeiro interesse de classe que representam, obrigando suas personagens a se posicionar em meio a um conflito iminente que terá em seu cerne a articulação entre a luta de classes e a questão nacional.

[Jezebel Parks · Rating 2 out of 5]

I tried to enjoy this book for what it was, I really did. However, I found the bumbling male characters hard, if not impossible, to like. They are constantly chasing women unrestrained, seemingly never able to concentrate on just one. The females, predictably, were weak for the most part, with the exception of Fang Qui-Lan, but even then, she didn't seem to have much of a plan aside from being an agitator. At least it was short. If it was longer than 250 pages, I would have most likely thrown it across the room.

[Melos Han-Tani · Rating 3 out of 5]

didn't finish at 40%. It was interesting but I couldn't super get into it (it has this feel of lost 20-somethings fucking each other and messing around, wasting time, angst, but like, the early 1900s shanghai version of it.). All I can say is that the political climate then seems so intense - all these groups of people in one money-oriented city, constantly clashing and attacking each other, running around, waiting for people to arrive by boat. The layers of race were interesting to see from so far back - the way Chinese, Japanese differed, etc

[Anna Tatelman · Rating 4 out of 5]

For a novel that relies so heavily on politics and economics from a time period that most people (or at least most Westerners) aren't incredibly familiar with, this novel is surprisingly fast-paced. Beautiful imagery, sprightly characters, and an action-filled narrative. An excellent blend of philosophy and literature in a way that isn't force-fed to the readers too.

[Sakshi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very interesting. It takes a while to figure out where the author is going at times. Once you get used to his writing style, Shanghai proves to be a very insightful account of China in the 1920s. It is not un-put-downable, but it is still pretty good! :)

[Javi Carrasco · Rating 5 out of 5]

Un maravilloso libro para acercarse al conflicto político y militar que se vivió en Shanghái hace un siglo, justo cuando chocaron la revolución bolchevique, el panasianismo japonés y el colonialismo británico.

[Tobias · Rating 4 out of 5]

A novel written during the Taisho period, Shanghai provides a glimpse at Japan's struggle to forge a modern identity during the 1920s.