Shanghai Daisy The Autobiography of Daisy Kwok

by Earnshaw, Graham; Johnston, Tess; Kwok, Daisy

• ISBN13: 9789888552399
• ISBN10: 9888552392
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2019-07-01
• Publisher: Earnshaw Books

Summary

Daisy Kwok's life spanned old Shanghai and modern Shanghai, old China and “New” China, in a way that no other did. This book presents stories written by her of her life—stories from the high-flying years of Old Shanghai, and the desperate drama of the political campaigns in the 1950s and 1960s.

Daisy was born in 1908 in Australia, and in 1918 moved to Shanghai with her father who built and owned the Wing On Department Store on Shanghai's main thoroughfare, Nanking Road. For three decades, Daisy led the life of the rich and famous in one of the world's most dazzling cities. Then, after the communist takeover in 1949, she spent three decades being denounced as a “capitalist.” Through it all shines Daisy's effervescent personality.

Author Biography

Graham Earnshaw is a writer and publisher who has long lived in the China world. Tess Johnston has served abroad for more than half a century, including seven years in East and West Berlin and more than 40 years in Asia, 33 in Shanghai, and seven in Vietnam (1967-74). Tess moved to Shanghai in 1981 to work at the US Consulate General and in 1996, after over 30 years in the Foreign Service, retired and stayed on until her 2016 repatriation. She now writes, researches, and lectures in Washington, DC. She and her co-author, photographer Deke Erh (Er Donqiang), have published more than twenty books, including 10 volumes on Western architecture and the expatriate experience in old China.