Shanghai Forever Lost

Revised edition. 《浮生上海》 is the revised republication of 《上海浮生若梦》, the original Chinese title of the same work. The two editions appeared at different times. Explore the first edition →

This revised version of Shanghai Forever Lost follows Sonia Hu’s grandmother and mother from Shanghai in the 1920s to Beijing in the early 1950s. The lives of two women reveal how family bonds endure through war, political transition and upheaval.

Their experiences connect colonial-era Shanghai and the University of Shanghai with the institutions and thought reform campaigns of the years after 1949. By following ordinary people through extraordinary changes, Hu gives a personal dimension to history and preserves the relationship between a mother and daughter whose lives remained intertwined.