Thread by @qianjinghua

okay I just bought a green leather jacket for $10 and I am OBSESSED, let me tell you all about it 🧵 like this is fate for real

so first, it is arguably hunter green! but then look at the tag: 635 East Nanjing Rd, Shanghai.

guess what else is a product of 1980s Shanghai, me. reunited in Footscray Savers 🫶 you belong with me babyyy

but wait, what's at 635 East Nanjing Rd? oh only Wing On 永安 (Yong'an/Perpetual Peace), a department store that was opened in 1918 by a couple of Southern Chinese guys from Sydney. it was a huge success

the Gock (or Kwok or Guo) brothers had worked in Australia as labourers, opened a fruit shop called Wing On in Haymarket in 1897, then expanded to dept stores in HK and later SH. you can find some of their family's story in South Flows the Pearl by Mavis Gock Yen

in fact all four of Shanghai's big department stores in this period were owned by Chinese Australians. @jgarnaut writes about it here: the White Australia Policy had made it hard to live and trade in Oz so they turned to Shanghai
smh.com.au/world/shopping…

but wait, this label doesn't say Wing On 永安, it says 華聯商厦 (Hua Lian mall). because the Communists nationalised all these stores, so Wing On became Dongfanghong (Eastern Red), then Shanghai No 1 dept store, then in 1988, Hualian

and yes of course it's in Wong Kar-wai's Blossoms! there's a whole article about it in The Paper (tho that totally omits the Chinese Australian connection hmm)
thepaper.cn/newsDetail_for…

in 2005, the current owners restored the European facade and the 永安 name, but it's a state-owned enterprise that's not related to the original Wing On company which still operates in HK. sometimes you make it out the WAP then get SOE'd by the CCP, oops!

and the English name is now the Mandarin Yongan, not the Cantonese Wing On. incidentally I don't think it's ever been the Shanghainese Yong Euh which is not very euphonious. Google Maps still shows Wing On

anyway. I know I own way too much leather, and I have got to stop buying physical objects just for the narrative, but more than a century of diaspora history for $10 (in hunter green leather!) is a pretty sweet deal I think

I am especially fond of stories that go back and forth and span different epochs (like my own life, like my own family) instead of the one-way, neatly periodised migration histories we often hear.

the diaspora shapes the 'homeland' in so many ways. revolutionary ways. it has done, it could again.

oh a couple of other pieces about this history I forgot to mention - @SophieLoyWilson's story on Daisy Kwok for Earshot abc.net.au/news/2016-09-2…

@SophieLoyWilson Luke Wong's piece for ABC Radio Sydney abc.net.au/news/2018-02-2…

@SophieLoyWilson check out this 1936 fashion show

https://twitter.com/VintageShanghai/status/1652674163721601024

@SophieLoyWilson lots of cool stuff on this account too

https://twitter.com/MOFBACN/status/1414387312100712448

@SophieLoyWilson Worcestershire sauce is still a staple in Shanghainese kitchens (we have it on pork cutlets)

https://twitter.com/MOFBACN/status/1406790608878923776

fit pics

(I hate that it's so cold already but I love that it's cold enough for head-to-toe leather - and yes that's a Peony brand dressing gown in the door)

more fit pics - inside pocket!