Postcard from Rome

Postcard from Shanghai

In May 1989, James set off to see the city that was once known as the 'Paris of the East' and discovered China on the brink of revolution. As the demonstrating students joined three million cyclists to clog the Shanghai streets, he fought his way through to meet a once wealthy socialite who survived the Cultural Revolution, a baby-washing entrepreneur, the local eel gutter and a jazz band playing Jingle Bells on an empty ferry cruising up the famous Huangpu River. Leaving on one of the last flights before the government clamped down, he brought back this personal view of a city at an exciting and crucial moment in its history.