Old China Hand Reading Room, Shanghai 2010

We met in a charming bookshop and coffee house located in the French Concession known as the "Old China Hand Reading Room". Though it was opened some time in the early 90s, it retains all the colonial flavor and its probably one of the finest places in Shanghai to find architectural an photography books.The idea is fantastic, a place where one can go to have a very quiet time looking at art books while having coffee or fine tea. It offers the possibility of reading novels and looking at books without having to buy them, as well as purchasing them if you happen to be captivated by any of them. I got there early and order a pot of Oloong tea and as I was looking for some interesting books, randomly, seduced by its cover, I found what it turned out to be an incredible novel by an amazing woman called Rena Krasno. " The last glorious summer. 1939 Shanghai-Japan". Born in Shanghai to a Russian Jewish Family. Rena, her mother and her sister went to a holiday in Japan during the summer of 1939 just before the war broke out. With exquisite taste for detail and based on her notes taken when she was just 14, many years later she would write an amazing account of her experiences in Japan. With an impeccable narrative she describes the nature of japanese society at the time,the beauty of the landscape and places like Hiroshima ( many of the people she met there would be all murdered when the atomic bomb was dropped), her encounter with nazi germans, the rise of fascism among japanese society and the plight of european Jews that flew to Shanghai as the only remaining save heaven that was left for people without passport or nationality.

Anyway I think I lost track of what I was trying to write about as it was not my discovery of an amazing author and woman, but of another woman, a dear friend of mine who surprisingly turned up in Shanghai when I was there.So the reason I went to the Old China Hand Reading Room and discovered Rena Krasno, was because Arola Tous had sent me a text message two days earlier saying that she was coming to the opening of the Spanish Pavilion.

As I was waiting, reading with fascination the first few lines of the book I had just encountered, Arola turned up. Followed of course by her mother Beth Galí, who in time was followed by Paco Sert´s mother Maria and her aunt Totona. The four of them decided to get a last minute flight to Shanghai to spend the weekend and to be present at the official inauguration of the Spanish pavilion.

We had tea while taking a break and after a long day, and later we all went to a very nice restaurant where we had the best selection of finest dumplings near Jingan Temple.