Review: Last Boat Out of Shanghai

A riveting history book

Several years ago I interviewed a woman who was doing research on her grandmother who had lived in Shanghai during the Chinese revolution and mentioned a book I should read: Last Boat Out of Shanghai by Helen Zia.

She didn't give any hints on what the book was about, just that it was a really good one.

I finally got around to requesting it from the library and after waiting for my turn I finally got a copy to read.

Chinese residents forced to bow before Japanese

It brings history to life, focusing on four children from different families in Shanghai, one chapter dedicated to each "character", from when they were between two and 13 years old when the Sino-Japanese War caused havoc in China. We learn about each of their family backgrounds, what their parents and siblings were like, and how they each navigated life under Japanese tyranny.

There's one boy whose father is a Japanese collaborator, another from a landowning class, a girl whose impoverished father sells her to a family, and another girl whose father was a Nationalist official. Their childhoods contrast each other economically and politically, and the family dynamics are also fascinating to read, including details of what they ate, how they dressed, and their living arrangements.

After the United States dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945, World War II was over for everyone else, but civil war continued in China, with the Communists fighting against the Nationalists. The book follows the four now teenagers and their circumstances when it is clear Chiang Kai-shek and the KMT are retreating to Taiwan, while the Communists peacefully take over Shanghai.

Each time these young people and their families wonder what is best for them and their futures, is it time to leave, and if so where?

As I read Last Boat Out of Shanghai, I couldn't help but think about my great aunt who was born in Shanghai and left on a boat to go to San Francisco to meet my great uncle to marry him. They had only corresponded by letters and exchanged pictures. 

Shanghai emigres made new lives in the US

I also thought about my dad, who was born at the beginning of the Sino-Japanese War, and how his family hardly had anything to eat, constantly on the run. They left Canton (now Guangzhou), but after the war went back there, unaware the Communists were coming and had to flee again.

We have been taught to believe that we are masters of our own destinies, but in the case of those living in China, there was such massive upheaval because of war and political ideology and instability, these factors dictated millions of people's lives. 

Everyone did what they thought was the best way to survive, be it collaborating with the Japanese, fighting with the Nationalists, or literally trying to ensure a roof over their heads. 

Author Zia has done an astounding amount of research on this book, starting with her own family, and then interviewing as many people as she could about their personal experiences and weave them into the book. 

Zia captured her mother's story in the book

The acknowledgements alone go on for pages with hundreds of names, including the likes of former Hong Kong Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa, famed chef and restaurateur Cecilia Chiang, and journalist Frank Ching, along with the four main people in the book.

She also gives a lot of historical context and details that give a nuanced picture of what life was like for Shanghai emigres in the United States and Hong Kong, how their experiences were different from those from southern China. 

Zia explains how the Shanghainese are so much more sophisticated than other Chinese in terms of fashion and culture, as the city was known as the "Pearl of the Orient," and apparently was more modern than many cities outside of China. As a result, many found it difficult to establish themselves elsewhere and it required humility and flexibility to not only stay alive, but also fit in.

There's also more background information on the tensions between the Nationalists and the Taiwanese, how the former controlled the island with an iron fist, despite thinking their stay was temporary, while the latter felt their rights were trampled on.

Zia did a lot of research, interviews

Last Boat Out of Shanghai was a page turner and almost read like a novel -- with real characters.

So grateful for Zia for interviewing these people, documenting their personal experiences in English so that we can have a better understanding of life during this turbulent period, and see how history continues to repeat itself even today. 

She also hopes the book will encourage readers to have greater empathy for refugees who are faced with heart-wrenching decisions, in the hopes to have a better future for themselves and the next generation.

Remembering the Abalone King

Chef Yeung slicing the abalone with a knife

Chef Yeung Koon-yat, known as "the abalone king" has died at the age of 90.

I had the opportunity to interview him twice, the second time was in November 2017 for an interview. It took him a while to show up, perhaps he had forgotten or was not up to it, but eventually he came and put on his showman face.

When the camera started recording and I asked questions about his youth and how he became known as the abalone king, it was apparent that he had signs of dementia. I tried to gently ask questions in a different way or ask him to remember dates, but it was difficult for him to answer.

Massive dried Japanese abalone

But what he could not remember he made up in his cooking demonstrations, making his famous fried rice which was still so delicious, each grain of rice evenly flavoured in the claypot with egg, Chinese sausages, conpoy and spring onions.

As making abalone takes a long time, they were prepared ahead of time so he posed for the camera spooning the thick, shiny, flavourful abalone sauce over this prized seafood delicacy.

He was born in 1932 in Zhongshan, Guangdong province to a poor family. When the Sino-Japanese War broke out, his family was destitute and his parents sent he and his younger sisters to his grandmother to raise. When she died, the three children were put in an orphanage where his two siblings starved to death. 

Determined to find a better life for himself, Yeung came to Hong Kong in 1949 at around the age of 18.

Like many migrants he found work in the restaurant industry, where he could get three meals a day and a place to sleep (on the dining tables, using table cloth as sheets).

Yeung worked his way up, learning to cook and together with some friends opened Forum Restaurant in 1974 with HK$600,000. The restaurant didn't do well at first, serving home-cooked dishes, so he had to find a way to differentiate it from competitors and decided to focus on abalone, a very expensive ingredient.

Not only did Yeung perfect how to cook abalone, but he also taught a generation of diners to eat it with a fork and knife, cutting it lengthwise in relatively thin slices to best appreciate the dish.

Yeung was the ultimate showman

Soon after he was known as the abalone king for over six decades, well known in Hong Kong and was probably the first Chinese chef to travel to various countries to cook for foreign leaders, showing them what Cantonese delicacies were, particularly abalone.

The first time I met him was in the late 1990s with a good friend who is also a food writer. He handed out his business card to us which was extra large to fit in all his titles including the Club des Chefs des Chefs. 

He showed off how he heated up the already braised abalone in front of us table side and we enjoyed every bite. But then we were even more impressed by his fried rice that he also made before us. 

It smelled so good even before we had a bite, that we knew it would taste delicious.

Before we left the restaurant he insisted on giving us each a bottle of wine -- Chateau Lafite Rothschild 1982.

I carefully brought the bottle home, and years later my parents and their friends drank it -- without my knowledge!

Nevertheless as my friend says, Yeung was the ultimate showman who was passionate about cooking and you could taste it in his food.

A culinary gem has left this world, though we will not forget these words of wisdom: "Be even more outstanding when others are outstanding," another way of saying work harder for your success.

He is proof of that. Thank you chef.