Rating: 
Summary: Nostalgia for the Unremembered
Review: Being neither the right age nor nationality to have experienced the Pearl of the Orient at the height of its hedonistic lustre, this book delivers exactly what literary thrill-seekers like me are after: a good hour or two on the couch in quite another world, minus any brain-taxing flourishes of the scholarly. It reads like a gorgeously-filmed epic, complete with opium junkies, silk and whiskey, rickshaws (wonderfully quaint!), White Russians, massive wealth and dire indigence, cabarets and cheongsams and courtesans, guns and Occupation and Revolution, traids, Art Deco buildings, armies of servants, the Chinese literati and Jewish glitterati, fallen Manchu aristocrats, dinner-party orgies ... as well as the pre-requsite colonials in all their multi-faceted brilliance: corrupt, idealistic, capitalist, romantic. And over this teeming ferment, soon to prove itself sadly ephemeral, presided the grandiose skyline of the Bund, the most enduring image of Shanghai in popular memory, and here in Ms. Dong's 300-page cinematic capsule.For all armchair adventurers who've been disappointed by modern Shanghai's impersonation of Manhattan by day and Las Vegas by night, this is the perfect trip, in every sense of the word.
Rating: 
Summary: Myth as history
Review: Contrary to other reader's reviews, I found Shanghai to a disappointing book. The writing style is very florid, indeed verging on overblown. On page one Shanghai is described as "the most pleasure-mad, rapacious, corrupt, strife-ridden, licentious, squalid and decadent city in the world." Each fresh page relentlessly strives to better this excitable list of adjectives. Although Stella Dong works hard to convey the atmosphere of old Shanghai, what her book does not do is provide a clear history of the city. Dates are very confused and the narrative thread lost in favour of colourful stories. This is not a book to read if you are looking for a coherent explanation of the Taiping rebellion the Opium wars or the rise of communism around Shanghai. Several reviewers have commented on the book's exhaustive research. That may be correct but I note that Dong cites only secondary sources in English. Overall, readers wanting a more nuanced appreciation of Shanghai would do well to look elsewhere. Those who want a racy read might be happier but it is difficult to escape the feeling that this book only adds to the myths about Shanghai rather than improving our understanding.
Rating: 
Summary: An absorbing read
Review: I found Dong's "Shanghai" a thoroughly engaging read. My grandmother grew up in Shanghai and used to tell us the most amazing stories about the people she knew. There was, for instance, the matriarch of one of the "best" Sephardic Jewish families in town (they got their start importing opium into Shanghai from Bahgdad) who ran a whorehouse on the side. My grandmother says that the matriarch even worked in the establishment. One of her sons--went on to write a wonderful book about his youth in that storied Oriental City, "A Place in Time." Reading Dong's history of this many-sided city reminded me of stories I had heard from older family members and also brings to mind that axiom that "truth is stranger than fiction." My only qualm with this otherwise excellent book is Dong's obvious disttate of towards Chiang Kai-shek's government, his wife and the members of the Soong family. Well, they weren't perfect but at least they weren't Communists.
Rating: 
Summary: Extensive overview of a fascinating city
Review: I had the opportunity of attending a lecture and slide show the author of this book gave on Shanghai recently at the Elmhurst library in Queens. It was an absolutely riveting talk. For an entire hour, Stella Dong transported us into another world. We were shown slides of Shanghai from its beginnings as a treaty port until the Communists entered in 1949. But it was more than history that we absorbed--we had a sense of the time and place. As a result of the talk, I bought the book,read it and can vouch for "Shanghai's" living up to the city it's eponymous subject. One big disappointment, though, is that the paperback doesn't have photos in it. All the same, Stella Dong conjures up the spirit of Shanghai in its glory days with such vivacity that the photos would only be an appetizer.
Rating:
Summary: superficial
Review: Reading Stella Dong's Shanghai you'd figure that everyone was either: a Foreign businessman/adventurer, a missionary, gang member/kuomindong member, communist organizer/fellow traveller, hooker .... you get my drift. Shanghai is a great city, with great people, and while the above no doubt were among the forces that shaped it - Ms Dong passed on the prosaic aspects of lives lead to focus on the lurid. It does read well, but provides nothing new. OK for someone with absolutely no knowledge of the subject.
Rating: 
Summary: Huge disappointment
Review: Rise and Fall is the latest in a long series of books on the antics of those wild and wooly foreigners who inhabited the city in the supposed glory days of "Old Shanghai." According to the press plugs, Dong spent a total of ten years researching the book. Considering that span of time and the slew of excellently researched and well-written books on various aspects of Shanghai's history published in recent years, one would expect this study to be, at the very least, an informed digest of the extant literature. On this and other fronts, Rise and Fall disappoints. It offers neither penetrating new insights nor useful synthesis of existing studies. Dong paints far too broad a portrait to attempt the depth of certain earlier monographs. Rise and Fall merely summarizes, and readers with any prior knowledge of Shanghai's history will find themselves scanning ahead in a futile search for new information. That Rise and Fall makes for a passably good read can be attributed to the intrinsic appeal of Shanghai's story. Rarely before or since has so much compellingly chaotic history been compacted into so short a span of time. Shanghai was the great melting pot, a motley array of quirky characters and outlandish stories. The "Paris of the East" was Eden, Babylon, Sodom and Gomorrah all rolled into one. It would be difficult to write a history of Shanghai that wasn't interesting. Dong introduces us to some of the many colorful characters who comprise the intriguing tapestry that was Shanghai. We hear briefly of the families of Sephardic Jews who were the Robber Barons of Shanghai's business world, amassing fabulous wealth through shrewd speculation in opium and real estate. They were rivaled only by that giant of the British Empire, Jardine and Matheson. We are teased by tales of lavish parties and indecent opulence. But tease is all that the writer does: She brings up a subject, discusses it for a page or two, and then, just as the reader's interest is aroused, drops it and moves on to the next. The seasoned Shanghai aficionado, if he hasn't quit the book yet, will be wincing at all that gets left out, while the newcomer will be left with an itch to know what happened next -- an itch that goes sadly unscratched. Although Dong had the privilege of meeting with such luminaries of Shanghai's history as Emily Hahn, Irene Kuhn, and Helen Foster Snow, as well as descendents of other notables, she failed to translate these interviews into any fresh perspectives. Rise and Fall presents itself as a "popular history" rather than a serious academic work, and makes for a light, unstrenuous read. As such, it omits the introduction explaining what methods were used and what choices were made, and why. Likewise suggestive of a lack of substance are the large print font and the total absence of citations. With its focus on the foreign factor in old Shanghai, Rise and Fall at times treats the Chinese as bit players on their own stage. As in many similar books on Old Shanghai, the foreign characters are treated with loving romanticism, while the Shanghainese are reduced to stereotypes: the gangster, the prostitute, the comprador, the coolie, the intellectual, the movie star. Dong makes little effort to portray, let alone investigate, the richly complex "native" society that emerged in Old Shanghai, as the city's residence tried to reconcile a number of conflicting influences and demands. Harriet Sergeant's excellent and in-depth Shanghai, although also focusing on the foreign factor and at times patronizing towards the "locals," at least features a long, sympathetic, and well-constructed chapter on "the Chinese". Rise and Fall includes a handful of the more famous urbanites -- as Lu Xun, Green Gang head Du Yuesheng, Chiang Kai-shek, and the Soong family -- in her catalogue of characters, but overall the treatment is cursory. Rise and Fall is generally aimed to entertain an audience that has never before read anything about Shanghai. But it reduces Shanghai's complex and multifaceted history to a distorted and sensationalized stereotype of lurid decadence. The Communist Party propounds this version of things to demonstrate how much better things have gotten since. Ironically, what the authorities issue for the sake of propaganda, foreign writers -- and Dong is no exception -- reiterate for the sake of titillation, with the identical effect of creating a simplified and misleading vision of Old Shanghai.
Rating:
Summary: Evocative and highly readable
Review: Stella Dong has brought a vanished world back to life. I was fascinated by her account of Shanghai in its earlier incarnation. They say that Shanghai today has returned to what it was-the "Paris of the East." But having visited Shanghai many times over the last fifteen years, the city seems to becoming a generic version of any 21st century modern metrolis. Pre-war Shanghai with its glamour, intrigue and style was something special. Save your money-instead of buying a ticket to Shanghai, read this book.
Rating:
Summary: Evocative and highly readable
Review: Stella Dong has brought a vanished world back to life. I was fascinated by her account of Shanghai in its earlier incarnation. They say that Shanghai today has returned to what it was-the "Paris of the East." But having visited Shanghai many times over the last fifteen years, the city seems to becoming a generic version of any 21st century modern metrolis. Pre-war Shanghai with its glamour, intrigue and style was something special. Save your money-instead of buying a ticket to Shanghai, read this book.
Rating:
Summary: Solid History of a Sinful City
Review: Stella Dong's "Shanghai 1842-1949: The Rise and Fall of a Decadent City" is a thorough overview of China's most notorious city during its most notorious era. As Dong's text explains, Shanghai rose to prominence in the late 19th century as a treaty port. Several nations-Britain, US, and France- had gained special status through a series of treaties and thus were allowed to conduct business as if the city were their own. And there were plenty of businesses to conduct--from the importing of opium to the exporting of tea and other goods. Each colonial group lived in its own area complete with its own customs and social hierarchies. Likewise, with the increased affluence of the city, a wealthy Chinese class also emerged, though once again it tended to live and socialize only within its own boundaries. With so many people making so much money and so few (legal) rules to follow, Shanghai eventually became a swinging city of sin. By the 1920's, the city became synonmous with sex, opium, jazz, brothels, and pleasure in just about any form. As Dong notes, while the sinners broke all legal rules, they still followed the social stratification of the city: the british patronized British brothels, the Chinese went to Chinese brothels and so on. Of course, with the invasion by Japan and then the fall to the Communists, the good times ended in Shanghai and most of the colonials left. I felt that Dong could have kept the reader more abreast of Chinese history in the earlier parts of the book to make the latter events (e.g., why the country was so open to communism when a city like Shanghai was not) more understandable. In addition, she introduces certain colorful Shanghai characaters-the writer Emily Hahn for instance-and then loses them.
However, this book is a good, workmanlike introduction to a very interesting city in a very interesting time. I would recommend it to those readers looking for a general overview of the history of the city. If you want more depth, you may want to read this book in conjunction with more rigorous studies or simply look elsewhere.
Rating:
Summary: Could be better!
Review: Stella Dong's book on Shanghai, while interesting, is limited by Ms. Dong's mediocre and repetitive writing and sensationalist tone. Individual parts of the book can be very interesting, but are not organized into a well written and cohent whole. If your looking for a serious historical work with some good analysis this is not the book for you. On the other hand, it is a decent intoduction for someone planning to travel to Shanghai.
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