There are few places that have attracted as many writers in such a short time as the old Shanghai, the city that grew, prospered and exploited its way through the 100 years before the Japanese invasion.
That fact works both for and against Barbara Baker's anthology.
There was plenty of material for her to choose from, but the challenge was to avoid anything too familiar. So, while the Green Gang, the society flappers, the White Russians, the expatriate merchants, the sing-song girls and the sufferings of the poverty-stricken Chinese must make up the fabric of her book, as they made up the fabric of the city, they must also appear in fresh form.
A tough task, but Baker has succeeded. Shanghai, Electric and Lurid City is a splendid hotchpotch of varied writing; a fitting way to reflect a city that lived under such a mixture of influences.
Here you can find first-person observations from stuffy old bankers or a visiting Wallis Simpson looking for amusement after the breakdown of her first marriage; from the prostitutes who saw their trade as an alternative to a life in the fields while other sex-workers suffered violence and disease, to the White Russian princess who climbed out of poverty via a succession of short-lived marriages.
There are interviews with the women who had no choice but to obey the old restrictions of wealthy Chinese society and, on the other side of a well-worn coin, with those who suffered from the stark choices of a life of poverty - work for a pittance in the city or marry and move back to the country as your mother-in-law's inferior.