2021/12/16
When was the earliest time that foreigners came to Shanghai? It is difficult to trace back due to lack of information. However, according to existing historical materials, some Muslims from the Arabic area came to the port Qinglong town (south coast of Wusong River) for missions or trading as early as during Northern Song Dynasty (960-1127). In 1608, Xu Guangqi invited Italian missionary P. Lazaus Cattaneo to visit Shanghai. These missionaries who visited Shanghai for commercial or religious reasons all stayed for very short period of time. No foreigner resided in the area at that time. Generally speaking, foreigners’ visits, staying time period and range before the founding of Shanghai are all coincidental, temporary and limited, which reflects the status of China’s foreign affairs at that time.
On November 17th 1843, Shanghai became a new city and an open port for trading. British trading ships entered the port for business and foreigners started moving to Shanghai. By the end of 1843, 25 British had registered for residence in Shanghai, among whom most are businessmen and missionaries. From the time Shanghai was first founded and open to the end of 1851, the British Consulate calculated 265 registered people times for British visiting Shanghai and that did not include sailors, gypsies, and those who did not register. Seven ships visited Shanghai within one and half months after the founding and opening of the new city. If we calculate the number of visitors according to 40 people per ship, the result is 280. In 1844, there were 44 ships and about 1,700 visitors. In 1852, there were 182 ships and more than 7,000 visitors.
Most of the early immigrants were from Britain, then from America, British colonies and other European countries. There were diplomats, sailors, businessmen, office workers, bankers, clerk, doctors, custom staff, port staff, architects, engineers, carpenters, intellectuals, cops, servicemen, military personnel, and lots of people with no jobs. Among all people with jobs, most were businessmen and clerk.
Concessions were not divided at the beginning of the founding of Shanghai. Housing and facilities were not set up yet; so most foreigners rented houses in Shanghai. Along with more frequent trading and arrival of their relatives, foreigners started searching for their own places. Missionary Medhurst came to Shanghai with George Balfour and recounted in his memoir, “The residence for businessmen is a significant issue for the British consul. Before the army was sent back to Britain, the Bureau of British Civil Administration and Navy had already found a great spot. The consul considered confirming the land one of his responsibilities when the new city was founded. He carefully defined the boarder of the prospective residential area, surrounded by villages and rivers so that it is easy to defend when necessary.”
In the next couple decades, a few nations settled their concessions in Shanghai. The first one is British concession, which is “to the left of Huangpu River”, “with Wusong River on the back, whose conjunction with Huangpu River are 150 yards wide and deep enough to allow large ships to go to Suzhou”, and “Yangjing Bang, 30 yards wide when Huangpu River rises, is to its south” while “the west to the concession is an unexplored land to villages”. The spot is around today’s Bund. Around May 1844, British businessmen gradually rented houses there and founded a few companies. In 1848, Hongkou district, to the north of Suzhou River, was settled as the American concession. In April 1849, the 968 acres of land outside the north gate of Shanghai was settled as the French concession.
When foreign concessions were first set up, there was no large-scale immigration due to residential segregation of Chinese and foreigners, small population in the concessions and lack of developing motivation of concessions. As concessions developed, the number of foreign immigrants also increased. The key reason behind the first wave of immigration is the modification to concessions' regulations after the Shanghai Small Knife Society Uprising in 1854. At that time, large groups of refugees rushed into concessions, which forced residential segregation of Chinese and foreigners to cease. Under the principle of "residential segregation between Chinese and foreigners," the concessions' administrative management rights still belonged to Chinese government although each concession has its own autonomous rights. But the uprisings of Small Knife Society and Heavenly Kingdom of Taiping resulted into large influx of refugees, which ceased the residential segregation between Chinese and foreigners and threatened security in concessions. Concessions expanded, set up independent police, administrative and law systems and became "independent nations". Meanwhile, large numbers of foreigners also rushed into Shanghai. In 1860, there were more than 500 foreigners in Shanghai. The number went up to more than 2,000 in 1865 and more than 5,000 in 1895. The foreigners' community developed along with the concessions and foreigners from Britain, France and America took a share, which reflected how the entire Chinese society was forced to open to the West at that time.
In the second half of 19th century, the number of foreigners in Shanghai increased stably. It increased rapidly especially after Shanghai British and American Concession was renamed International Settlement of Shanghai in 1899. The number increased by 10,000 almost every ten years. In 1905, there were more than 10,000 foreigners in Shanghai, more than 20,000 in 1915 and more than 30,000 in 1925. It increased even faster in the second half of 1920s and went beyond 60,000 in 1931, six times of that in 1905. Two groups of new immigrants during that period were significant for Shanghai foreigners' community. Firstly, as Japan invaded Korea, WWI broke out and the scheduled ships between Shanghai and Nagasaki were set up between 1910 and around 1920, large groups of Japanese and Japan-occupied Koreans came to Shanghai. Later, during 1920 to 1930, lots of Russians moved to Shanghai due to the October Revolution. The result was shocking – the number of foreigners in Shanghai reached 4, 8806 in 1930 and nationalities of the immigrants in Shanghai reached 56. At that time, the number of British immigrants topped the list from the founding of Shanghai to 1910 and reached peak in 1930 with 8,440, among which 6,221 in Shanghai International Settlement and 2,219 in the French concession. The number of Japanese immigrants increased rapidly. There were only 168 Japanese in 1880, 644 in 1890, 736 in 1900. The number increased rapidly to 4,331 in 1905. It went beyond that of British immigrants in 1990 and topped the list since then, with 25,827 and 47% of all foreign immigrants in Shanghai in 1927. At that time, foreign immigrants in Shanghai came from a lot of different countries and the number of Japanese increased gradually. On the one hand, it reflected how Shanghai had become an international city with all kinds of immigrants. On the other hand, it also reflected the danger under Japan’s invasion to China.
A British cop in Shanghai said that they fell in love with the city at the first glance, “Shanghai is the best city I’ve ever seen. Any British city is 100 years far behind it – I’m not exaggerating at all. Shanghai is a very unique metropolitan, the most beautiful city in the Far East. The city is all lighted up at night, just like during festivals. Symphonies perform at the coast. Springs and trees are everywhere. The city is equipped with very good public transportation system and everyone seems to have the latest America car.”