Hong Kong Young Writers Anthologies Fiction 12 | Page 43

The Three Concessions
St. Paul's Co-educational College Primary School, Chau, Tsz Ling Alessandra – 7
O
ld Shanghai in the early 1900s was a vibrant and flourishing city with a huge trading port. The city itself
was divided up into concessions ruled by the British, French and Americans all with their own mesmerizing
culture, fashion and music, which brought Shanghai to life.
Unfortunately, I lived in the walled Chinese city of Shanghai but was fascinated by the sophisticated lifestyle
in the concessions and longed to explore there…
One cold and frosty December night after pondering curiously about what was over the walled Chinese city,
I fell into a deep sleep and found myself at Le Grande Monde in the French concession. As I looked around with
my eyes wide open in amazement, there were theatres, cafes, restaurants, gaming rooms and cinemas everywhere.
Le Grande Monde was alive with music, entertainment and laughter. It was bustling with people who warmly
greeted each other with a peck on each cheek and said “Bonsoir” to each other. The French women were very
thin and chic. They had an air of “Je ne sais quoi” about them and carried themselves elegantly. Women in the
other concessions were so envious of them. As for the men, they were smartly dressed in tailored suits. I felt so
out of out of place in my shabby old clothes, which were handed down to me from my sister.
With a jolt out of the blue, I was whisked away to the British concession and found myself in the British
residents’ Shanghai Club. The men were happily knocking back whisky in front of a roaring hot fire and talking
animatedly to each other in business language that was alien to me. They were dressed in lounge coats and dark
trousers and were smoking out of pipes. They had an authoritarian air to them and looked very serious. The
women, however, were seated in a corner sewing and reading peacefully a world away from the business banter of
the men.
I found myself in the American concession at the Majestic cabaret, which was full of American sailors who
were brash and loud. They were swigging beer from bottles and walking around unsteadily on their feet. Their
ship had just docked earlier that day and they were letting off steam or drowning out their own miseries.
On stage, there were beautifully dressed professional dancers, who were oblivious to the rowdy crowd.
Then, crash, bang, wallop, a huge fight started out. There were blows everywhere and one very drunk soldier
even landed at the bottom of my feet startling me. His face was all twisted and bloodied. In no time, the
ballroom of the Majestic was a seething mass of wildly flaying arms and feet as the sailors ripped into each other
with heavy blows…
“Time for school! And stop frowning!” Mum yelled. After all these, I realised the adult world was too
complicated and I was not ready to grow up yet. Perhaps a simple life was not a bad thing after all.