Sin City

About this book

First published in London in 1973 with the title Sweet and Sour and in USA in 1974 with the title China Nights From the website Shanghailander The blog about Old Shanghai by Hugues Martin "Since this book is in the bibliography of most books about Old Shanghai including the biography of Carl Crow I reviewed in a previous article, I was really interested about and really anxious to read it. Sin City is the memoirs of Ralph Shaw, a Huddersfield (Yorkshire) boy who was sent to Shanghai as part of the UK military force. ... Shaw then became journalist then night editor of the North China Daily News, arriving in Shanghai in 1937 and leaving in 1949. Shaw was in his 20s in Shanghai and fully enjoyed all the pleasure that the city could offer in term of nightlife, drinking, partying and enjoying play with women. In Old Shanghai, like many men he found the perfect playground. His life during the period is depicted through a series of portraits, locations and actions. What is so interesting in this book is that he mentions all those people and all those places from the old Shanghai straight out of his memory. Shaw arrived in Shanghai a few days before the invasion of the Chinese city by the Japanese forces and witnessed the mounting tensions between the British forces and the Japanese, until the invasion of the settlement in December 1941, his arrest the Japanese secret police and incarceration as a prisoner of war. There are many books about this period, but reading the actual experience of somebody who went through it is quite a unique experience. Shaw does not stop at places and people, his memoirs also include a lot about the vices of the city, prostitution, gambling and corruption. He was definitely well informed and the light he casts on the city is less than flattering. Corruption, prostitution and alcoholism were normal practice for the most men in the foreign community in Shanghai and it reflects in the book. Once again, Shaw adds first hand details about places and people including portraits and funny anecdotes. The book is really good to take the reader in the Old Shanghai, into the smoky girly bars and opium dents. With cross referencing with other books, the picture of Old Shanghai really gets together while reading it. What is more questionable and probably less interesting for most reader is the display of his own sexual performance. Although it adds colours to the story, it also takes it away from the plot and take off some of the book’s credibility. " https://shanghailander.net/2008/03/sin-city/