Remembering Shanghai
VIEW EVENT DETAILSMeet the Author
Drinks Reception 6:30pm
Presentation 7:00pm
Q&A 7:40pm
Close 8:00pm
“An engaging and entertaining saga” — Fionnuala McHugh, South China Morning Post
“Jaw-dropping, exciting, touching, tragic and insightful” — Tina Kanagaratnam, Historic Shanghai
“Absolutely gorgeous, a visual delight” — Martin Alexander, Asia Literary Review
A high position bestowed by China's empress dowager grants power and wealth to the Sun family. For Isabel — growing up in glamorous 1930s and '40s Shanghai — it is a life of utmost privilege. But while her scholar father and fashionable mother shelter her from civil war and Japanese occupation, they cannot shield the family forever. When Mao comes to power, 18-year old Isabel journeys to Hong Kong, not realizing that she will make it her home — and that she will never see her father again. Meanwhile, the family she has left behind struggles to survive, only to have their world shattered by the Cultural Revolution. Isabel returns to Shanghai six decades later with her daughter Claire, to confront their family's past — one they discover is filled with love and betrayal, kidnappers and concubines, glittering pleasure palaces and underworld crime bosses.Through events both harrowing and heart-warming, the memoir explores identity, loss and redemption against a backdrop of a country in turmoil, the result of a decade long collaboration between Claire and her mother. Join author, Claire Chao as she tells the story of Remembering Shanghai — accompanied by evocative period photographs and visuals — following five generations from imperial China to modern-day Hong Kong.
Claire Chao was born and raised in Hong Kong. As a youth, she continually sought connections to her parents’ Shanghai homeland. Claire spent a decade creating Remembering Shanghai after thirty years in luxury brand management. While researching her family stories, she uncovered an uncanny link with the grandfather she’d never met. She graduated with highest honors from Princeton University in 1983 and was named to Avenue magazine’s “500 Most Influential Asian Americans” and Hong Kong Tatler’s “Who's Who in Hong Kong”.
Event Details
Asia Society Hong Kong Center, 9 Justice Drive, Admiralty