The memories of a city, like the memories of an individual,are only good for a generation or two. So people keep scrapbooks for guture generations, and cities keep archives. As a television series based on stories from the Shanghai Archives airs this month, Michelle Qiao talks to the producers and discovers the treasures in Shanghai's attic.

Treasures in the attic

Old Shanghai is a treasure trove.
Everything -- from the fascinating qipao
to the sleek bicycles,
glamorous nightlife scene
and ancient townships
-- has a story of its own.
-- Photos by courtesy of STV
Documentary Channel/
Illustration by Wu Jingling

Ballroom dancing in old Shanghai. The city's first MSG(monosodium glutamate) factory. The origins of the shanghai qipao; the city's old trams. ... They live on in the memory of older Shanghainese, and in the city's collective memory: the Shanghai Archives. this month, like a grandmother telling her tales by the fireplace, the memories are shared in "Memory -- Stories from the Archives," a 100-part historical Tv documemtary series.

Ironically, the program was put together by a young team fro whom "that era is vague and remote," in the words of 28-year-old Zhang Feng, the program's leading editor.

"but after digging into the archives, the vague, remote feeling was gradually replaced with practical, lively details that showed me a golden era of prosperity, culture and art that I hadn't imagined," says Zhang.

Putting together the program put some of Shanghai's quirks -- like ballroom dancing in the parks -- into perspective for Jiang Yun, an other editor. "What is today a way of passing time fro the elderly befan when foreign officials and businessmen in old Shanghai sought entertainment beyond traditional Chinese opera," explains Jiang. "They started holding private salons, which later became popular throughout the city. People wore special leather dancing shoes and trendy qipao to dance at that time."

Sadly, the program does not include a pair of scarlet leather dancing shoes, which were lost when its owner -- who inherited them from her grandmother -- moved house. "the archive photograph shows shoes that are still trendy and bright today," reports Jiang.

The first 30 10-minute segments, which were broadcast on Shanghai TV's Documentary Channel last March, came in high in the ratings. The next 30 segments are being aired between January 1 and 24, and the final 40 segments are scheduled for 2005. Each segment takes between three and four weeks to complete, says Zhang.

"Several years ago, the government began to open more archives to the public," says Feng Shaoting, vice director of the Shanghai Archives. "Since then, we have held regular exhibitions to share the stories behind our 2.2 to 2.3 million volumes of archives that we have. But television is a more effective, more vivid media."

The Archives has offered numerous old pictures, written material, old maps, videos and records for use in the TV program, but even more important than the historical material are th places that it leads.

After completing the segment on Shanghai-style dress, and archive official reminded Zhang that there is a museum for Shanghai's famous hongbang tailors in Ningbo, Zhejiang Province.

Hongbang tailors were renowned in Shanghai during the early part of the last century for their skills at sewing Chinese tunic dresses, Shanghai-style suits and qipao.

"I tracked down the museum, the village where the tailors were from and even interviewed and old hongbang tailor," says Zhang, who later reshot this segment to include the new information.

"Entertaining, historic programs are now popular," notes Feng. "But this series tells a true story, the history of the 19th and early 20th centuries. It allows us to relive the Shanghai of that time."

Feng's favorite segment, he reveals, is one to which he feels a peronsal connection: the program on Jinze county, near today's Kunshan, Jiangsu province. This quiet suburban watertown -- a far cry from Zhouzhuang in Jiangsu Province, or Zhujiajiao, in Shanghai's Qingpu District -- was a childhood haunt, as his grandmother lived nearby.

"the editor found many detailed traces of the past in his faded, once-prosperous town," he comments. "It brought me right back to my childhood."

From behind the scenes, Zhang says that the interview that made the greatest impression was with a former PLA soldier who took par tin the battle to liberate Shanghai.

"All he knew was blinding gunfire and deafening bombs," sas Zhang. "He couldn't tell comrade from enemy. He just know that he had to keep moving forward. He even witnessed a soldier lighting a bomb, and blowing himself up to explode and enemy tank. It was simply unbelievable, listening to this man."

The old soldier also showed Zhang a picture of an old house in Pudong, riddled with holes. Soldiers hid inside this house, a tactic from northern China. But the walls in southern China were thinner, so soldiers fought outside dring Shanghai's battle for liveration. They suffered more casualties -- but saved more buildings.

"The series ends with the victorious battle for liberation," says Zhang. "After 1949, I think thins were pretty well documented. I don't want to show familiar history. This program exists to show Shanghai's hidden history."