Old Shanghai Comes to San Francisco

Imagine my surprise when I saw this giant-sized cover of The Young Companion in a vacant San Francisco store front. What used to be a Diesel retail outlet is now cleverly being used as advertising space for Shanghai, an upcoming exhibition at the Asian Art Museum. Obviously I'm biased, since this is totally up my alley, but it promises to be the museum's coolest show since the amazing Tezuka: The Marvel of Manga exhibit from two years ago.

If you live in the Bay Area or happen to be in San Francisco next year between February 12th and September 5th, be sure to check it out. If not, then pick up the catalog, which — judging by these sample pages and cover — looks like it will be a must-have addition to the Soft Film Bookshelf.

To get you as excited about this as I am, here's a little something to set the mood...


"San Francisco" (1939) by Martha Soo with Don Jose & His Orchestra

Martha Soo won the first prize in an amateurs singing contest hosted by the Paramount Night Club, one of the biggest and poshest in Shanghai, and together with it a recording contract with Pathé Records (EMI). She recorded her prize-winning song, Jeanette Macdonald's San Francisco, not in the original English but in a translated Chinese version, and sang it in a jazz-influenced style which included bits of scat singing, imitating her favourite singer Ella Fitzgerald.

* Song and liner note from The Age of Shanghainese Pops 1930-1970 by Wong Kee Chee