Today is my birthday but still need to “WORK” 😦
As Michael will go to Hung Zhou tomorrow with his wife for holiday, so need to finish all the filming and interview by today,
Our interviewees for today are Mr Zhou Ren Da (The one who wears grey colour T-shirt) and his colleagues, Mr Wen Hai Liang (The old man) and Mr Aaron Xu (The one who wears in black). They are working for SHANGHAI HARTFORD INTERNATIONAL CORP.LTD. and SHANGHAI HARTFORD INTERNATIONAL is a toy company which doing export and manfacture toy business.
Mr Wen is one of the directors of Shanghai Hartford. He is sharing his childhood stories with us.
The staff are showing us what they are playing when young. ORIGAMI is one of their games.
Michael is interviewing one of the staff. She is sharing her childhood day of 1970s.
Mr Zhou was working in Shanghai Toys No.2 Factory as a TIN-PLATE PRINTER in 70s and as a SALES in 80s. Mr Zhou has left the No.2 Toy Factory and worked for his recent company, SHANGHAI HARTFORD INTERNATIONAL CORP.LTD. in 1990s.
Mr Zhou hopes Museum of Shanghai Toys can hold the exhibition at Shanghai and he will be my 1st volunteer. Thank you, Mr Zhou.
Our last and final interviewee for this SHANGHAI TRIP is Mr Qu. He was the chief artist of Shanghai Toys No.2 Factory since 1960s. Most of the packaging and the drawing (Toy Box Art) were done by him from 1960s to 1980s. When we reached his home, he is so excited and opens his bag and shows us what he designed for the past.
Mr Qu decides to donate most of the box art to Museum of Shanghai Toys. He signs his name on all the packaging.
Mr Wang also signs his name on one of the packaging as this toy was designed by him in 1960s.
The HIPPO BATTERY OPERATED TIN TOYS was designed by Mr Wang in 1970s.
We start to interview Mr Qu.
After the interview, Mr Qu shows us his DESIGN AWARDS and decides to donate all of them to Museum of Shanghai Toys for collection. I promised him that I will treasure his donation. Thank you, Mr Qu.
After finished our last interviewee for this Shanghai Trip, Michael, his wife and Emy bought me a BIRTHDAY DINNER.
After dinner, Emy brought us to visit MANSION HOTEL. Mansion Hotel was reconstructed from the detach which owned by the ganster named WANG GIN RONG in 1930s. It is a MUST for any visitor who visits Shanghai in near future. 🙂
Mr Zhang Ren Fong is our 1st interviewee today. He is the grandchildren of Zhang Yuan Ji who brought the concept of making Educational Toys to Shanghai Commercial Press in late Qing Dynasty. I knew Mr Zhang Ren Fong’s father, Mr Zhang Shu Lian 10 years ago. We always kept in touch and visited him every time when I was in Shanghai. Mr Zhang Shu Lian always encouraged me to continue my research in history of China made toys and hope I can fulfill my dream one day. I had fulfilled my dream to open the 1st Shanghai Toys Musem in 2005 but unfortunately Mr Zhang Shu Lian has passed away in 2004 after I visited him in Sept 2004. I was very sad during that time and still hope he can hear my voice in somewhere around another world.
I was excited to meet Mr Zhang Ren Fong again after many years. He looks great. He told me he might be coming to Singapore next year with his wife. So hope to see him again in Singapore.
Mr Zhang Yuan Jii – Grandfather of Zhang Ren Fong
This is where Mr Zhang Ren Fong and family stay since 40s. (Mr Zhang’s daughter is now staying in Singapore)
Michael is preparing the camera.
We start to interview Mr Zhang.
Thank you, Mr Zhang. Hope to see you again soon.
After the interview with Mr Zhang, we are going to look for the location of GREAT CHINA CELLULOID MANFACTURING COMPANY which was established in 1911. The location where we go now is one of their sales offices in 30s.
We finally located the place.
When we reached the place, someone are playing “Ma Jong’ in the early morning. Can’t imagine a middle aged man is even wearing a pajamas??? ( 🙂 DON”T HE NEED TO WORK?? ) They seems uncomfortable when they saw us and asked us who we are?
Michael is explaining to two women that I am from Singapore. The reason why I am here today is doing the filming about old Shanghai childhood and doing the research in the history of Shanghai toys. We also told her that the location where we stand now is a CELLULOID TOY SALES OFFICE in 30s. As expected, they don’t know about this.
One of the woman suddenly tell us, although she doesn’t know there’s a CELLULOID TOY sales office in this lane, but she played CELLULOID DOLL when she was young.
We show her a CELLULOID DOLL and ask her whether is this type of doll she played when young.
The old lady is so excited and share her stories with us.
Thank you for the interview, Madame. Hope to see you again in my next trip to Shanghai.
Our next stop is looking for a CHILDREN’S STORE which locate at Zhe Jiang Road in 30s. (Zhe Jiang Road is near Nanking Road)
As expected. We can’t have any information about this CHILDREB’S STORE but suprise that it’s a TOY STORE in 2007.
Next stop is looking for a CHILDREN’S TOY STORE at NANKING ROAD in 1970s. It’s a 3 storey building, familiar to many Shanghainese if they born in 1950s and onwards. Today is the authorised BEIJING OLYMPIC SOUVENIR’s SHOP.
After that, we go to another CHILDREN’S TOY STORE at NANKING ROAD in 30s. Today is a SHOPPING CENTRE.
The old CHILDREN’S TOY STORE at NANKING ROAD in 1930s.
We are going to the next location which is a WOODEN EDUCATIONAL TOY MANFACTURING COMPANY at one of the building at Nanking Road in 40s. Today, the building is no longer there. (The NEW SHOPPIN MALL is coming soon.)
Our 2nd interviewee is a lady who worked at Shanghai Toys No.7 Factory. (Shangahi Toys No.7 Factory is a factory which manfactured soft toys and dolls from 60s until 90s, they are now specialised in making Teddy Bear for overseas clients)
Mr Pan and his uncle are our last interviewee for today. I knew Mr Pan more than 10 years, he is one of my best friends in Shanghai. When he knew about my purpose of the filming, he asked his uncle to share his story with us.
From today until 19 Sept, Jean and Cynthia have left us and go to Beijing for holiday. But our adventure team has added a new member. She is Michael’s sweet wife. She arrived Shanghai yesterday. For some private reason 🙂 , Michael suggests not to work for 2 days, so for today and tomorrow, we only go to flea market, visit museum and look for good food.
This is one of the small food stores which we thought quiet ok, near our hotel (Forgot to mark down the address, hope I can find it in my next trip to Shanghai). Dumplings + Fried noodles + Fried Wanton plus 3 tofu soap, only cost us RMB16.00.
This is my second time to visit Shanghai Museum after many many years. Not much different for the internal decoration, but more crowded than my last visit.
This is quiet a popular street for “GOOD FOOD”. 🙂
As we need to interview few persons for today, so the filming schedule is pretty “tide” plus today is a rainny day, so Michael explains to us that we need to rush from 1 location to another location. Our 1st location is a tin toy factory, we need to take about a hour to reach there from Shanghai town central.
HERE WE GO!
Michael is preparing the camera.
Hello, Jean. Would you please to say something???
About 50 minutes, we have arrived the tin toy factory. the manager was welcoming us at the entrance of the toy factory.
After some introduction, the manager brought us to his showroom. Michael, Jean and Cynthia were so happy and Michael even wanted to buy all the toys if possible.
This toy was specially designed for the toy factory by me last year, but because of the production schedule, need to delay for production again until next year.
I was explaining to Jean that the concept behind this toy and how did I design this toy.
Mr Wong is the spirit of the BADMINTON ROBOT TIN TOY. He is not only a good TOY ENGINEER, but also the specialist in making tin toy prototype. Without him, the prototype won’t come out so nice and perfect.
Beside the BADMINTON ROBOT W/U TIN TOY, I was designing quiet a numbers of toy packaging for this toy factory, one of the BEST SELLER is MS430 PLANET ROBOT. Michael and the manager are proud of my design.
We start to interview our 1st interviewee today. He is the manager of the toy factory.
After the interview, we started to visit different department of the toy factory. First of all is the MOULDING DEPARTMENT. This old man is a MASTER of MOULD MAKER. He is in the Chinese Toy Industry since 1950s and worked for Shanghai Toy No.5 Factory in mid. 1950s.
We are going to visit the 2nd department – PRODUCTION DEPARTMENT.
This is the 3rd department which we went to visit – ASSMEBLLY DEPARTMENT.
As our tide filming schedule, we were rushing to our next stop after our filming at this tin toy factory. Michael was happy that the manager gave him this marvellous SMOKING SPACEMAN TIN TOY as a gift.
Our next stop is looking for another DOOR OF HOPE RECEIVING HOME which located at NU ZHUANG ROAD. And as uaual, nobody knows that there’s a RECEIVING HOME in 40s as most of the residents who stay in this area were moved in from other districts in 80s. They suggested us to ask advise from NU ZHUANG RESIDENTIAL COMMITTEE CENTRE.
But however, the residential committee is not willing to help us (I DON’T REALLY UNDERSTAND THEIR THOUGHTS, it’s RIDICULOUS to me!) and advise us to look for the nearby POLICE STATION, ask the police officer sends them an official letter about our situation and what kind of help we need them to provide, and they will consider after their meeting. So, I told Jean and Cynthia, let us FORGET IT! 😦
We went straight to look for a WOODEN TOY FACTORY named WEI SOON KEE TOY FACTORY nearby which established in 30s when we stepped out from the Committee Centre.
This is the exact location where the toy factory is.
During our filming, an old man stood beside us, suddenly asked me whether we are looking for a toy factory? WOW!! I am so suprised and asked him how did he know. He told us he stayed in this lane when he was 6 years old and he is 82 years old today. He knew the son of the boss very well as they played together when they were young.
WOW, I can’t believe we are so lucky and immediately invited him to have a coffee with us. Hope he can share more things with us.
Mr Gu was sharing his story with us.
Mr Gu told Jean that he can speak English when he was young as he graduated from YMCA. He can’t speak now but still can understand some simple English.
We are rushing to our next location after the SURPRISING ADVENTURE with Mr Gu. This old lady is our last interviewee for today. She is Mrs Sun, 82 years old and worked as a worker for SHANGHAI TOY No.8 FACTORY (Formerly named DA HWA TOY FACTORY in 1950s) in late 1950s.
Mrs Sun is sharing her stories at Shanghai Toys No.8 Factory with us.
After the interview, Mrs Sun told us her daughter Miss Sun also worked at Shanghai Toys No.8 Factory when she retired in late 1970s. Her daughter was replaced her position and worked at the canteen. This is the working pass of the No.8 Toy Factory, Miss Sun dontaed her working pass to Museum of Shanghai Toys.
Miss Sun also donated one set of the food utensils which used at the canteen of the No.8 To Factory to Museum of Shanghai Toys. Thank you! Miss Sun.
Mr Ni is our 1st interviewee for today, he’s also one of a very popular toy designers in 60s. One of his best toy designs is Battery Operated “12,000 Ton HYDRAULIC PRESS TIN TOY” and this tin toy won him an award during the Cultural Revolution. According to Mr Ni, almost every kindergarten and primary school in China purchased this toy for educational purpose in Cultural Revolution as this is “POLITICAL RIGHT”.
This is the B/W pic of Mr Ni when he was young and an award which he won.
As for our request, Mr Ni has signed his name on his popular toy and donated to Museum of Shanghai Toys, Singapore.
After our interview, Mr Ni brought us to his office show room and showed us some toys which he designed for his recent toy company after he left Shanghai Toy No.2 Factory in 80s.
Beside plastic toys, Mr Ni also designs bigger toys for “ELDER KIDS” like “US”. 🙂
Mr Ni’s designs has won plenty of awards for his recent company in 90s.
Our next stop is going to interview an old man who is 80 years old and worked as toy designer since 50s. This is the building where he stayed. “DE YEE DA LOU” is the name of this apartment which was designed in 20s and has won an HERITAGE ARCHITECTURE AWARD in 90s.
This is Mr Zhu.
Mr Zhu has donated some toys and his Employment Pass of Toy Factory to Museum of Shanghai Toys, Singapore.
The Wooden Horse Toy is one of his favourite toys which designed by Mr Zhu in 60s and this toy also won him an award. This product had sold for 100 over thousands pieces from 60s to 80s, according to Mr Zhu.
We started to interview Mr Zhu.
Mr Zhu is sharing his experience on how the Wooden Toy Factory manfactures WOODEN PICTURE CUBE TOYS.
Mr Wang is the 1st person we interview today. He is the director of Shanghai Toys No.2 Toy Factory in the 70s. We reached his home at about 11:30am and finished shooting at about 4:30pm. Mr Wang is 70 years old plus, although he was not in the toy design department, but he has lots of experience in the factory management. He also shares with us lots of things during the Cultural Revolution.
As it took us 5 hours to finish the 1st interview, THAT’S OUT OF OUR IMAGINATION, so we need to rush to our 2nd interviewee and try to finish it before sunset at about 5:45pm.
He’s our 2nd interviewee today. He is Mr Zhang, a toy designer at Shanghai Toys No.2 Factory since the 60s. He designed quite a number of good toys like B/O JET PLANE, B/O FROG, etc.
These are the toys designed by Mr Zhang.
This is a prototype won him a DESIGN AWARD, but
unfortunately this toy was never produced because of the production cost.
Before Mr Zhang joined the toy factory, he had studied in the China Air Force.
After our breakfast, we start to discuss our plan for today. Based on our reference, I suggest to go the DOOR OF HOPE BABY RECEIVING HOME which was located around FOOCHOW ROAD, as this is the nearest location to our hotel.
About 15 – 20 mins walk, we have arrived the location. And as expected, the BABY RECEIVING HOME is no longer there. It has been changed to a hotel.
We tried to find out from the people who are staying there, but seems that nobody knows about the DOOR OF HOPE. 😦
We continue our trip and our next stop is KWANTONG ROAD, where there were some famous book shops and publishers there like CHILDREN’S BOOK STORE and SHANGHAI COMMERCIAL PRESS.
The location of SHANGHAI COMMERCIAL PRESS has become a hospital.
Here is another location of DOH Receiving Home in the 20s or earlier, but had since become CENTRAL POLICE STATION in the 30s.
The next stop is to look for CHINA CAN FACTORY (A very famous tin toy factory in the 30s) Retailing Store which was located at No.247 Kwantong Road. The building had been demolished in 50s and now is BUND CENTRE.
After lunch,
Michael and I are continuing our trip and Jean needs to go back to Shanghai Archives to continue the research. So we separate and will continue our discussion at the hotel tonight.
Mr Pan is our 1st important person to interview. He was working in Shanghai Toy Import and Export Comppany for more than 20 years.
Michael and I have a great dinner tonight as we met 4 toy designers who worked for Kong Yuen Toy Factory since the 60s, 1 salesman who worked for Kong Yuen Toy Factory since the 80s and he was a tin plate printer in 60s and 1 director of Kong Yuen Toy Factory since the 70s.
Really need to start my work after 2 days of rest. 🙂
After a discussion with Jean and Cynthia, we decide to go to Shanghai Archives to do some research before we look for the old address of Door of Hope Mission. As I am specialised in old toys rather than old dolls, even though I have collected many pieces of DOH dolls, I have not much information about DOH except some articles wrote by USA doll collectors.
And although Jean is specialised in DOH dolls, but most of the reference was from USA libraries. So she hopes to get more new information from the mouth of any old lady who worked at DOH mission in the 30s or even earlier. So, I suggest to go to Shanghai Archives to see whether we can get anything before we do anything.
After hours of researching from their website, we have found out something interesting about the DOH mission. Jean and I were so excited.
As for me, I also have found some new product info about a toy factory named SHANGHAI TOY FACTORY in 50s.
We continue our discussion and research after we return back to our hotel at 7pm. And Michael was already at the hotel waiting for us. (Michael reached Shanghai at 5pm today. He is my good friend who met in HK. He is the director of this documentary, not only that, he is also part of the story)
Cynthia is helping us to check some information from her laptop.
Today is my 3rd day in Shanghai. I am going for my treasure hunt after
my breakfast and hope my luck will be better than yesterday. But today
is just the 2nd day for Jean and Cynthia, so they are really excited
as this is their 1st time to visit a country outside USA. I bring them
to the restaurant which I tried yesterday. It seems that Cynthia and
Jean enjoy a lot.
I order a Noodle Soup for Cynthia and Porridge + Fried Noodle for Jean.
We start our “treasure hunting” journey straight after our breakfast.
HERE WE GO! 🙂
Our “1st stop” stop at one of my friend’s shop at OLD SHANGHAI STREET. Jean has bought a really nice BIRTHDAY CHILD’S BLOUSE which was made in the 30s to 40s. It cost her RMB650.00. Cynthia has also bought a porcelain baby boy which cost her RMB100.00. For me, NO LUCK. Only bought a comic – TIN TIN at OLD SHANGHAI 😦
After the hunting, the 3 of us went to YUE YUEN which was a private garden in Ming Dynasty.
We are having our lunch at one of the restaurant at OLD SHANGHAI
STREET. Really bad, so decided not to take any pictures. ;-(
The 3 of us continuning our treasure hunting after our bad lunch. Later, I brought them to visit my close friend. Although we didn’t buy anything from his antique shop, my friend still invite us to a REALLY REALLY NICE tea house which is opened by a French Lady. 🙂
The tea house named “SONG FANG Maison de the”. Address is 227 Yongjia Road, Shanghai 200031. Tel: 64338283. It is a MUST TRY if you have a chance to visit Shanghai. 🙂
8pm. We went for a dinner. It is quiet a delicious dinner for us tonight. Xiao Ping Restaurant is highly recommendation by Mr Pang. The price is reasonable, only RMB185 (less than S$40.00), for 5 of us, 7 dishes.
It’s about 9:45am now. I am having my breakfast in this restaurant.
Not really delicious, but quite cheap. 1 big bowl of noodle only cost me RMB8.00 (about S$1.62)
This is the counter.
My breakfast. 🙂
After my breakfast, I am going for a treasure hunting. Hope I have some luck today. This is the place where you can look for some vintage
items. But I can say more than 50% of “so called” antiques are REPRODUCTION. 🙂
This place named “OLD SHANGHAI STREET”. Quite FUN. Come and visit it if you have a chance to visit Shanghai.
My friend is trying very hard to push her sales. 🙂
These are the toys which I found at the flea market. Nothing special.
But better than none. 🙂
The 1st item is a TV design piggy bank. It is quite a common toy in the market, but the picture inside the TV is
quite RARE. Made of plastic. Circa 1960s.
The 2nd item which I bought is a little candy container. About 4 inches high. Made of bamboo. Circa 50s or may be earlier.
The 3rd piece is a tin sand pail. Circa 1950s.
Here is another shop which selling items from Cultural Revolution
period. If you like Cultural Revolution items, you can try this shop.
But remember to bargain. 🙂 Ya, one more thing, the price at his shop
is not CHEAP…
Beside the flea market, if anyone like to see traditional chinese buildings, here they are.
Around this area, remember to visit the above candy shop – SHANGHAI
PEAR SYRUP CUBE STORE. This candy shop started as early as 1855. It is
a MUST-TRY!
After finishing my treasure hunting, is going to have my 2nd dinner at Shanghai. Tonight is a VERY special night as I am having the dinner with 2 special guests from USA. Both of them are from UFDC (United Federal Doll Club). One of them is a regional director of the club.
Their name are Jean (in blue dress) and Cynthia (in brown dress). Jean is playing an important part in my documentary film.
The story is about 3 people from different culture and background, but is trying to find out something special in their life from this trip.
Myself – A Hong Kong born Singapore P.R., was born in 60s. Played Tin Toy Robot, Batman Car, Six Million Dollars Man Figure, Star War Toys when young. Why I choose to collect China made toys? What do I hope to get from this trip?
Jean – An American from New York, was born in 40s. This’s her 1st time to visit China. She read a book about a lady who worked at Door of Hope when young and suprised that there is such a beautiful city called Shanghai. She starts to love the Chinese Culture. And she started to collect and doing research on DOH dolls when she joined UFDC. What can she get from this trip?
Museum of Shanghai Toys 