Historic House Association

The Historic Shanghai blog is an effort to create a space dedicated to exploring the city’s fascinating heritage. A place where interested people – wherever in the world – can obtain information, exchange experiences and gain insights. A very interesting group of people created the Shanghai we know today (including those of us living here now, we like to think!), and understanding them and the city they built is not just an idle academic exercise: it sheds light on the character of the contemporary city and its residents.Historic Shanghai, formerly the Shanghai Historic House Association, was founded in 1998 by Tess Johnston, Tina Kanagaratnam and Wm Patrick Cranley, all long-time Shanghai residents, with the goal of raising awareness of the value of Shanghai’s built heritage. The renaming of the group in 2008 coincides with a renewed focus on the people who made Shanghai and the social, economic and political milieu in which they lived, worked, loved and learned.