Mr. Shangkong | Old Shanghai legacy guardian to be remembered for her writing
Shanghai literary icon Cheng Naishan, 67, dies
Cheng Naishan, widely considered an icon of Shanghai literature who enjoyed close personal ties with Hong Kong, died on Monday morning in hospital after a long battle with leukaemia.
Cheng, 67, was best known for the so-called “hai pai” - or Shanghai-style - of literature which is often related to the history, culture and legacy of the city in its old times, particularly in the 1930s when the city was known as the “Paris of the Orient” for its outperforming business and well-diversified culture. At the time, these credentials aligned Shanghai with other major global cities such as New York, London and Paris.
Cheng was born into a banker family in Shanghai in 1946, but she was soon relocated to Hong Kong with her family in 1949, right before the Communist Party won the civil war and founded the “New China” on the mainland. Cheng’s grandfather, Cheng Muhao, was a well-respected banker in Shanghai who could afford to move the entire family to Hong Kong at that time, joining many other wealthy Shanghai fellows who were concerned about the political instability after the civil war.
Before Cheng’s family moved to Hong Kong, Cheng’s grandfather was already the No.2 at Bank of China in Shanghai. After Hong Kong, Cheng’s grandfather became the general manager of Bank of China (Hong Kong) and remained a special advisor to the bank’s board even after his retirement.
The Cheng family returned to Shanghai in 1956, in part because Beijing encouraged patriotic overseas Chinese to come back and contribute to their own country. Cheng Naishan later studied and completed an English major at the Shanghai Educational Institute in 1965, leading to her first job as an English teacher at a local high school. The publication of her first story in a local literary magazine in 1979 propelled her into a new career: professional writer.
In more recent years, Cheng began to write columns and a series of short stories about Shanghai, including Shanghai Tango, Shanghai Lady, Shanghai Fashion and When a Baby is Born.