Hong Kong Young Writers Anthologies Non-Fiction 2017 | Page 47

New tales of old Shanghai – The Old Jazz Band at the Peace Hotel
St.Joseph's College, Wong ,Lok Tung Joseph – 12
A
s far back in youth as I can recall, my father has always been an avid music lover, specifically he
loved American music genres rock and roll, jazz and the blues. I remember him reminiscing to
me years ago about an ensemble of Shanghainese musicians who played traditional American jazz at the
Peace Hotel (和平飯店) located along the Shanghai Bund.
Upon being asked to write an open composition on "Old Shanghai", something just clicked and I
instantly knew how to approach the piece. I would conduct a “60 Minutes” style investigative report to
uncover the real story behind this crew of merry old jazz musicians who played jazz sets at the Peace
Hotel. There were so many questions to be answered, where would I begin? What was the histor ical
significance of the Peace Hotel? How did the first members meet and consequently assemble together as
a larger ensemble to play music at the Hotel? Why did they choose such an unlikely medium as
American jazz? And what happened to them during the whole backdrop of almost 80 years of very
turbulent Chinese history?
To find out how it all happened, join me in a time machine to go back to the 1920s. Arriving at
the Paris of the Orient, 1920s Shanghai was flushed with money, new western music and political
intrigue. It was a city that dazzled in opulence and fascinating imagination. The first eye-catching
icon of the Peace Hotel was the portrait of Sir Victor Sassoon, a British aristocrat of Iraqi Jewish descent
with a sprawling real estate empire in Shanghai, Hong Kong and Calcutta. Being the founder of the
most chic hotel at the time, it was no coincidence that Sir Victor Sassoon was known for his passion for
the high life and for throwing fabulous parties and flamboyant costume balls. And yes, it is the same
family that gave us the name of Sassoon Road in Pokfulam, Hong Kong.
Standing in front of Peace Hotel and looking around, you would be amazed as it looked like a
giraffe towering over the concrete jungle. Peace Hotel with ten storeys was the first high-rise
building in the Eastern Hemisphere at the time. It was designed by architects Palmer and Turner.
Construction began in 1926, and was completed in 1929. The hotel was truly a fusion of ancient and
modern, Eastern and Western, and was built in the Gothic style of the Chicago School. Walking inside
the hotel, you would certainly be awe-stricken by its grandeur, marveled by the distinctive
copper-sheathed roof that rises 77 meters above ground and mesmerized by the white Italian marble
floors. It was the most luxurious hotel in Asia and had welcomed distinguished guests from all over
the world including heads of state, royalties, tycoons and gangsters. Look, the famous silent movie actor,
Charlie Chaplin, was sipping his tea in the tearoom and the famous playwright, Noël Coward, was
contemplating the plot for his latest novel “Private Lives” at the bar.
Listen to that new jazz sound Sir Victor Sassoon brought to town. The hotel’s jazz band had been
all the buzz in Shanghai’s party crowd. At first, Sassoon brought in jazz bands from the U.S. and the
Philippines. Then even Chinese musicians from the conventional Wuhan Conservatory of Music got
into the improvisational style of jazz. Jazz music continued to flourish in the 1930s and 1940s in old
Shanghai. Look, it even captured the heart of the powerful Shanghai gangster, Du Yu Sheng (杜宇生),
who developed a taste for jazz music, in between running his opium and prostitution rings.
Let’s fast forward to the turbulence of the 1940s, when Jazz music in Shanghai even survived the
Japanese occupation. When the Japanese army approached, the foreign bands abandoned their gigs
leaving the big hotels and dance venues no option but to hire the local Chinese jazz bands. The
Shanghai jazz scene had survived the Japanese occupation, the Nationalists as well as the Communists.
But eventually, all things came to an abrupt halt during the Cultural Revolution of 1965-1975. In this
dark era, the Peace Hotel was used by Zhang Chunqiao (張春橋) of the infamous Gang of Four as the
Shanghai Commune headquarters. Jazz was regarded as bourgeoisie and all the hotel ballrooms and
dance halls in the city were closed for business. Music groups disbanded and were forced to find other
jobs while others were forced to relocate to the countryside for manual labour.