For anyone who wants us to look up businesses, home addresses, families, friends, neighbors, schools, churches, clubs, etc., Tess has informative Hong Books (for all China) and Shanghai Directories for most of the years 1925 to 1949, plus, in German, a 1937 Hong Book and a 1939 Shanghai Directory. She also has English-language telephone directories for 1941 and 1949 plus 200+ detailed strip maps of the French Concession and the International Settlement. Tess can photograph buildings and photocopy directory entries (and mail the copies to you). She also has a listing of all the Western tombstones still here. (For a listing of Shanghai's 80+ Jewish tombstones, contact Dvir Bar-Gal at: shanghaijews@hotmail.com)

She doesn't charge for this, but does hope for something in return. She is constantly searching for research material. The more she has the more she is able to help readers and researchers. She especially treasures, and uses, manuscripts, diaries, letters, newspaper clippings, old maps, photos, theatre programs, etc., anything that adds to her knowledge of expatriate life in China over the past hundred years.
Deke also has a vast collection of old books, records, and other resources on both Shanghai and China's history, and is now assembling an archive of old pictures obtained from several promising new sources. Deke and Tess are totally dedicated to preserving this valuable historical material for future generations. When Tess can no longer use it, most of her English-language material will go to the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, and the Chinese material to Deke. So in the future, look there for the "Johnston Collection" or visit Deke's Chinese collection at Taikang Lu, Lane 210, Bldg. 2B.

You have probably read in the press about Shanghai’s emergence as a world-class city; indeed there is hardly a day that goes by without an article in the Western press gushing over its glitz and glamour. The Deke Erh Art Center is located in an old lane in the former French Concession. Deke’s conversion of an old factory into an “industrial chic” exhibition and events space was the impetus that led to the transformation of a once dreary industrial neighborhood into a new and burgeoning center of creativity and art. All the old industrial spaces now house artists, artisans, stylish boutiques and chic restaurants and bars. Taikang Lu is now a magnet for young people, both Chinese and Western, and has become one of the several new “hot spots” among the city’s many new commercial and entertainment areas.

In the year 2005 Deke and Tess were both busy on varied projects, Deke’s involving extensive international travel, including a photo shoot in Persepolis that led to a stunning photo exhibition. For Tess it was a six-month intensive Chinese course at a local university, to finally (after 25 years in China!) learn to read and write the language. She has now again, mercifully, returned to her lecturing, leading architectural tours, and writing books.

Finally, after two years of research, SHANGHAI ART DECO is out! We had been collecting material for years and Art Deco is prominent in all of our books. (When Tess visited the V&A’s Art Deco Exhibit in London in 2004, she was pleased to find in the Museum’s large and lush exhibition catalogue a photo and quote from our A LAST LOOK !) Our Art Deco book is our most ambitious volume to date, with 320 pages with nearly a thousand of Deke’s stunning photos plus Tess’s historical text. This book will be supplemented by a second and smaller Art Deco book, a calendar, and a catalogue for our Miami Beach-Shanghai Art Deco exhibitions (see below).

We’ve always maintained that Shanghai has more Art Deco edifices than any city in the world, and their photographs now fill this large and comprehensive work, one that also includes Art Deco furniture and objects that Deke found in China over the years. Despite sixty years of benign neglect, Shanghai’s stylish Deco detailing still shines through, affording a glimpse into the wonderful world of Art Deco in this unlikely place – a formerly Western city on the shores of China.

Deke also wanted to introduce Art Deco to the Chinese, who know little about the style. To this end we also concurrently published a smaller, bilingual volume featuring photos of the best of Art Deco in Miami Beach and Shanghai.

When news of our research and book spread we were invited to present a lecture and an exhibition of Deke’s photos at the Art Deco Weekend, held every January in Miami Beach. This year’s theme is ”East Meets West - Shanghai to Miami Beach.” Featuring fifty photos of each city, this joint exhibition will then travel. Supplemented by a selection from Deke’s collection of Art Deco furniture and objects, now on loan to an Art Deco exhibit in Tokyo, the show will open for both Chinese and Western viewers in Shanghai in the spring. (For a preview, log onto www.artdecoinshanghai.com)

SHANGHAI ART DECO covers in 320 pages and nearly a thousand photos the wide range of Shanghai’s Art Deco offerings. Its five chapters (Public Buildings, Apartments, Villas, Furniture and Objects) are lavishly illustrated and offer historical background information in both English and Chinese.

ART DECO – SHANGHAI AND MIAMI BEACH features fifty photos each from the many shot in the two locations in preparation for Art Deco exhibitions to be held in both cities. The text is also in English and Chinese.

A LAST LOOK, REVISITED - WESTERN ARCHITECTURE IN OLD SHANGHAI provides an updated, expanded and evocative overview of Western architecture and expatriate lifestyles in one of the world's legendary cities. It also includes 1939 listings of Shanghai's old apartment houses, banks and clubs.

NEAR TO HEAVEN - WESTERN ARCHITECTURE IN CHINA'S OLD SUMMER RESORTS features Western buildings in the old hill stations, Kuling/Lushan, Kuliang, Kikungshan and Mokanshan, and the seaside resort Peitaiho. (Sold out, not to be reprinted.)

GOD AND COUNTRY - WESTERN RELIGIOUS ARCHITECTURE IN OLD CHINA has contemporary photos of China's churches and synagogues plus old black and white ones of churches and church-related hospitals and schools. There is a "Jewish Legacy" chapter plus a 77-page listing of the Catholic and Protestant missions and missionaries in China in 1934.

FAR FROM HOME - WESTERN ARCHITECTURE IN CHINA'S NORTHERN TREATY PORTS covers Harbin, Dalny (Dalian), Tientsin, Chefoo, Tsingtao and Hankow north of the Yangtze River, with a supplemental listing European and American business concerns and representatives who were operating in China and Hong Kong in 1928.

THE LAST COLONIES - WESTERN ARCHITECTURE IN CHINA'S SOUTHERN TREATY PORTS covers Shanghai, Ningpo, Foochow, Amoy, Swatow, Canton, and the former British Crown Colony of Hong Kong. Included as an annex is a 1936 Shanghai Trade Directory.

HALLOWED HALLS - PROTESTANT COLLEGES IN OLD CHINA, generously illustrated with both new and old photos and site plans, covers China's thirteen top universities, all founded by Protestant missionaries over the past 100 years.

FRENCHTOWN SHANGHAI - WESTERN ARCHITECTURE IN SHANGHAI’S OLD FRENCH CONCESSION, again with both old and new photos, is the most comprehensive of our books, covering the best buildings -- plus a look into the lifestyle of the residents -- of Shanghai’s most fashionable foreign concession.

THE OLD VILLA HOTELS OF SHANGHAI features Deke's contemporary photos of both the interiors and exteriors of nine of Shanghai's old mansions, all now converted into boutique hotels. Published for the local market, the captions and text are in both Chinese and English. (Sold out.)

EMIGRANTEN ADRESSBUCH. Originally published in Shanghai in November 1939, this small replica contains the names, local addresses, cities of origin, and occupations of thousands of German and Austrian Jews who fled to Shanghai.

In our edited series of first-person narratives, the following are still available:

THAT LAST GLORIOUS SUMMER, SHANGHAI <-> JAPAN 1939 by Rena Krasno. During that summer in Japan, Rena’s sympathetic observations of the Japanese people, along with their government’s preparations for war, yield some of the most perceptive insights ever written in English on pre-war life in Japan.

SHANGHAI BOY SHANGHAI GIRL – LIVES IN PARALLEL, by George Wang and Betty Barr. In the 1920’s and 1930’s two children grew up in Shanghai, but only in the 1970’s did their paths finally cross. This story of George, an impoverished Chinese boy, and Betty, a cosseted child of missionary parents, views life in old Shanghai from two totally different yet parallel perspectives.

BETWEEN TWO WORLDS - LESSONS LEARNED IN SHANGHAI, by the same authors, the sequel follows the lives of this Shanghainese and Shanghailander from 1949, where their first book ended, up to their marriage here 20 years ago.

The Old China Hand Press published these books by Deke, primarily for Chinese readers but with extensive English-language captions and text:

GOLDEN XUJIAHUI covers Shanghai’s old “Siccawei” district, formerly the site of Catholic mission activities and now a center for major business and retail ventures. It is lavishly illustrated with contemporary photographs.

A TREASURE TROVE covers a selection of exhibits from the new Shanghai Banking Museum in the heart of Shanghai’s “Wall Street” in Pudong. There are not only photos of current banks in Shanghai but also a wide array of old banking-related items of historic interest.

CHINESE SPECIMENS PRINTED BY THE AMERICAN BANK NOTE COMPANY consists of three volumes of the Bank Museum’s bank note specimens from 1905 to 1949. Photographed are 1113 specimens, 533 fronts and 580 backs, with full explanations in both English and Chinese. (Set of three volumes.)

TREASURE HOUSES – HISTORIC BUILDINGS OF THE INDUSTRIAL AND COMMERCIAL BANK OF CHINA, jointly commissioned by the bank’s Beijing and Shanghai offices, has photographs of old bank buildings in 52 cities in China, supplemented by extensive historical text.

IN THE HEART OF THE FRENCH CONCESSION parallels our earlier joint volume on the Concession, but here as seen from a Chinese perspective. It features thumbnail sketches (in Chinese) of famous Shanghainese who once lived in Frenchtown, ranging from KMT and Communist officials to artists, writers and film stars.

YANGPU – WHERE HISTORY LIVES ON covers the lesser-known northern district of Shanghai, home to numerous government, educational and research institute.

SHANGHAI ART DECO - ($75)
ART DECO – SHANGHAI AND MIAMI BEACH ($35)
A LAST LOOK – western architecture in Shanghai – REVISITED ($58)
GOD AND COUNTRY - western religious architecture in old China ($50)
FAR FROM HOME - western architecture in China's norther treaty port ($50)
THE LAST COLONIES - western architecture in China's southern treaty port ($50)
HALLOWED HALLS - protestant colleges in old China ($50)
FRENCHTOWN SHANGHAI - western architecture in Shanghai's old french concession ($58)
THE OLD VILLA HOTELS OF SHANGHAI – An album of photographs by Deke Erh ($35)
THAT LAST GLORIOUS SUMMER, 1939 - SHANGHAI <-> JAPAN by Rena Krasno ($20)
SHANGHAI BOY SHANGHAI GIRL, LIVES IN PARALLEL by George Wang and Betty Barr ($20)
BETWEEN TWO WORLDS – LESSONS LEARNED IN SHANGHAI by George Wang and Betty Barr)($20)
GOLDEN XUJIAHUI, a book of photos and text by Deke Erh ($50)
A TREASURE TROVE – exhibitis from the Shanghai Banking Museum by Deke Erh ($58)
CHINESE SPECIMENS PRINTED BY THE AMERICAN BANK NOTE COMPANY (3 volumes, $150 the set)
TREASURE HOUSES – historic buildings of the industrial and commercial bank of China, by Deke Erh ($58)
IN THE HEART OF THE FRENCH CONCESSION by Deke Erh ($58)
EMIGRANTEN ADRESSBUCH (a replica of a 1939 listing of Jewish refugees in Shanghai) ($10)

My check to OLD CHINA HAND PRESS is enclosed.

NAME (PRINT!)_______________________________

ADDRESS______________________________________________________________________________________

To order, send order blank and check made out to
OLD CHINA HAND PRESS, in US dollars (on a U.S. bank).
All book prices include postage, by surface mail.
MAIL TO

Tess Johnston
Old China Hand Research Service
Donghu Lu 70/3/201
Shanghai 200031, China