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Shanghai in the 1920s was undergoing massive amounts of change. With a flourishing opium trade, communism gaining a foothold and the turmoil between the foreigners, Chinese and gangsters overrunning the city, few would have considered it an appropriate time to build a landmark hotel.
In The Peace Hotel: A Non-Fiction Novel, author Chen Danyan traces the history of this iconic Shanghai luxury hotel. Built by Victor Sassoon, a Jewish business tycoon whose inherited wealth came from the opium trade, the Peace Hotel came to life on a prime waterfront lot in Shanghai in 1929. Originally called the Cathay, it was the toast of Asia until WWII and the Japanese Occupation. Chen Danyan's remarkable account of the Peace Hotel covers seven tumultuous decades as this grand building, the most luxurious hotel on the Bund, witnessed the changing fortunes of families and business dynasties.
From the nearly overnight loss of riches of the "indigenous capitalists" in the 1950s to the post-revolutionary times of hardship and austerity, the Peace Hotel managed to survive it all. After multiple name changes and various owners, this heritage hotel has finally become a magnificent local icon and inspiration for inquisitive scholars. Like a sleeping beauty, in 2010 the Peace Hotel was roused from slumber and modernized while remaining true to its history. From its birth in 1929 to its reincarnation as a modern hotel, The Peace Hotel: A Non-Fiction Novel tells the remarkable story of a remarkable building.
