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Paris in the Orient: a spatial micro-history of the French in Shanghai (1942)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 July 2020

Cécile Armand  and
Christian Henriot Open the ORCID record for Christian Henriot [Opens in a new window]
Cécile Armand
Affiliation:
Irasia, Maison de la Recherche, Aix-Marseille University, 29 avenue Robert Schuman, 13621Aix-en-Provence, France
Christian Henriot*
Affiliation:
Irasia, Maison de la Recherche, Aix-Marseille University, 29 avenue Robert Schuman, 13621Aix-en-Provence, France
*
*Corresponding author. Email: [email protected]
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Abstract

In this article, we rely on a census of French residents in 1942 to conduct a quantitative micro-history of the French community in the wake of the Japanese invasion of Shanghai. On the basis of this snapshot, we examine this group from the perspective of long-term demography combined with a spatial approach drawing on the geospatial resources built over a decade in Shanghai. We argue that the system of power in the French Concession shaped the structural traits of the French population as a self-contained community. It created a politically, culturally and linguistically defined space where French nationals were presented with opportunities and even privileges. It sheds light on the social characteristics of foreign communities in a transcolonial city and on the spatial patterns they created in a non-western urban setting. Methodologically, we harness Geographical Information System tools to bridge demography and spatial history.

Type
Research Article
Information
Urban History , Volume 49 , Issue 1 , February 2022 , pp. 171 - 189
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Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2020. Published by Cambridge University Press.

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References

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4 Bickers, R. and Henriot, C. (eds.), New Frontiers: Imperialism's New Communities in East Asia, 1842–1953 (Manchester, 2000)Google Scholar. Bickers has also authored two major books on the foreign presence in China, as well as works focused on a single foreign individual or a cohort of foreigners in Shanghai. Bickers, R., Empire Made Me: An Englishman Adrift in Shanghai (New York, 2003)Google Scholar; Bickers, R., The Scramble for China: Foreign Devils in the Qing Empire, 1832–1914 (London, 2016)Google Scholar; Bickers, R., Out of China: How the Chinese Ended the Era of Western Domination (Cambridge, MA, 2017)Google Scholar; Bickers, R., ‘Death of a young Shanghailander: the Thorburn case and the defence of the British treaty ports in China in 1931’, Modern Asian Studies, 30 (1996), 271–300CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Bickers, R., ‘Shanghailanders: the formation and identity of the British settler community in Shanghai 1843–1937’, Past & Present, 159 (1998), 161–211CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Bickers, R., ‘The challenger: Hugh Hamilton Lindsay and the rise of British Asia, 1832–1865’, Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, 22 (2012), 141–69CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

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12 For instance, the regulation of street advertising by the FMC in 1938 stated that posters, shop signs and billboards using French exclusively or concurrently with other languages would benefit from a tax reduction. Conversely, any signboards that did not use French could be prohibited (Shanghai Municipal Archives (SMA), U38-4-1123).

13 Jackson, I., Shaping Modern Shanghai: Colonialism in China's Global City (Cambridge, 2017)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

14 For a comparison of the socio-economic profile of the foreign population in the foreign settlements, see Henriot, C., Shi, L. and Aubrun, C. (eds.), The Population of Shanghai (1865–1953): A Sourcebook (Leiden, 2019), 148–65CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

15 Henriot, C., Scythe and the City: A Social History of Death in Shanghai (Stanford, 2016), 227Google Scholar.

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17 Other French-leased territories in China were also spared Japanese occupation, as in Hankou, Tianjin or Guangzhouwan before 1943, but by and large this had little impact in terms of social or political impact since they harboured very small populations compared to Shanghai.

18 ‘Zai ko kajin sosan seisaku jisshi jokyo’ (Situation on the actual implementation of the evacuation policy for Chinese population in Shanghai), [end of Feb. 1942], Gaimushō Gaikō Shiryōkan (Diplomatic Archives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs), Tokyo, File A7.7.0.9–9-6, p. 1.

19 The authors thank Christine Cornet, previously a historian affiliated with the Institute of Political Science in Lyon, for pointing out and sharing this document.

20 ‘Liste des Français immatriculés au consulat général de France (chancellerie), Confidentiel, à jour au 18 juillet 1942’, private papers, Robert Jobez.

21 Henriot, Shi and Aubrun (eds.), The Population of Shanghai.

22 Shanghai Times, 19 Feb. 1942; ‘1942 census of the International Settlement, western outside roads and the French Concession’, 3 Mar. 1942, SMA, U1-14-589.

23 Henriot, Shi and Aubrun (eds.), The Population of Shanghai, p. 96.

24 ‘Liste nominative des propriétaires, avec indication de l'étendue du terrain qui leur appartient sur la Concession française’, Apr. 1849, Archives du Ministère des Affaires Etrangères, Centre de la Courneuve: série: Correspondance politique et commerciale (Nouvelle Série) / sous-série: Chine, Concession française de Changhaï, dossiers 258–9, 1863 – June 1874, p/13222. The damaged document fails to provide the total number of German nationals (approximately 44). The nationality of women and children is unknown.

25 ‘État numérique des Français domiciliés dans l'arrondissement de Shanghai au 31 décembre 1877’, Archives du Ministère des Affaires étrangères, Centre de Nantes, 635PO/B/33bis.

26 ‘Recensement de la population sur la Concession française, année 1878’, 20 Feb. 1879, Ministère des Affaires étrangères, Centre de Nantes, 635PO/B/33bis.

27 C. Cornet, ‘Ordre et desordre à Shanghai: les policiers tonkinois et la Concession française, 1907–1946’, Lyon 2 University HDR thesis, 2014.

28 Maybon, C. and Fredet, J., Histoire de la Concession française de Changhai (Paris, 1929), 305–22Google Scholar.

29 By authoritarian consular regime, we refer to the regime that came into being after the coup of Brumaire in 1799 and lasted until 1804, characterized by authoritarian personal rule.

30 Jackson, Shaping Modern Shanghai.

31 S. Cornil, ‘Dénonciation des français de Shanghai ralliés à la France Libre’, Fondation de la France libre, www.france-libre.net/denonciation-shanghai-fl/, accessed 29 Oct. 2018.

32 To examine the age structure of the population, we delineated six age groups: 16–25, 26–35, 36–45, 46–55, 56–65, +65. This analysis includes only the heads of family, but not the spouses and children.

33 Henriot, Shi, and Aubrun (eds.), The Population of Shanghai, 71.

34 ‘Liste nominative des propriétaires’.

35 ‘Recensement de la population sur la Concession française, année 1878’. The census did include the Catholic missionaries, even if most of them lived outside the settlement proper.

36 This categorization is based on the categories of the French National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies (INSEE), which we adapted and simplified for our purpose.

37 Virtual Shanghai Project: http://virtualshanghai.net, accessed 21 Jan. 2019.

38 The term lilong (alley) refers both to the small alleys that criss-crossed the built-up space between the main roads, and to the most popular type housing in Shanghai.

39 A previous survey in 1939 had identified 81 buildings. ‘Vaccination anti-choléra-typhoïdique’, SMA, U38-5-524.

40 Henriot, Shi and Aubrun (eds.), The Population of Shanghai, 58, 176–7.