If you can’t imagine what life in Shanghai was like from 1934 － 1935 for the 40,000 mostly American foreigners living there, this guidebook, All About Shanghai and Environs could give you a window, available again from Earnshaw Books.
For example, the Cathay Hotel was the elegant dining place of choice rather than M on the Bund, and a photocopy of a map from the time shows a relatively small circle labeling an area called the “Chinese City”.
On the right, the Shanghai Times Printing Press promises to print all kinds of correspondence letters, or invitations for social affairs. Harkening back to a day when e-mails and text messages hadn’t taken over social networking completely.
Descriptions of excursions from Shanghai include to Hangchow (and the “Hangchow Bore”), Soochow, Wusih, and of interest, “Nanking”. The entry on Nanking reads,
Heir to the rich annals of the past, Nanking; the present seat of the National Government of China was, for six dynasties between the fourth and sixth centuries, the classical capital of South China.
Old Shanghai Clubs & Associations, also available from Earnshaw Books, is by Nenad Djordjevic. The author held the role of Consul-Gerant of Serbia in Shanghai from around 2006. Since that time, his interest in Chinese and expatriate clubs of the city became an obsession, manifested in this book.
Focused on “the rich life of foreigners in Shanghai from the 1840s to the 1950s”, the associations and clubs listed are indexed by street and also alphabetically. Like other lists, there are few pictures and illustrations. But this makes it look academic and probably great for specific research, and a CD-Rom accompanies the book.