Author: Tony Henderson
Published: 2011 & This Edition Published on 01 January 2023
Rating: 3/5 stars
The Shanghai Circle is the story of Irina, a Russian refugee; Joseph, the son of a triad boss; Davina, the daughter of a Taipan; and Thomas, a British employee of Davina’s company, newly arrived in Shanghai. The book is set in 1936 & ’37 when Shanghai was divided into three parts: the French Concession, the International Settlement and the old Chinese area.
The book is well-researched and presents as comprehensive a picture of Shanghai during that period as possible. We get to know about the inner workings of a triad society, the lives of the very rich expatriate Taipans and their even richer Compradors (people who take care of the Chinese side of business for European & American companies), the lives of the poor factory workers and Russian and Jewish refugees who were fleeing war and persecution, respectively.
I found this book interesting because I know little about China and its history. It was fascinating to read about the European treaties, the divided state of Shanghai, the Japanese invasion and Bloody Saturday, and the typhoon in Hong Kong. All of these are mentioned as factual events in the Fact and Fiction section of the book at the end. So, this book is a less academic, more entertaining way to learn the history of a place.
The writing is not evocative enough to bring the Shanghai of 1936 to life. At some points in the book, the descriptions read like news reports, which I found jarring. For example, the description of Typhoon Bella on pages 200 & 201 read like a weather report, which wasn’t required as the characters were experiencing it. The food, culture, and seedy underbelly of Shanghai described in the book were engrossing despite this drawback in the writing.
The characters led action-filled lives, often faced with one dilemma or another. The story remained fast-paced to the end, the climax being the cherry on top. If you like history but have only peripheral knowledge of Far Eastern history, this book is a decent place to start. I give this book 3 out of 5 stars.
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