Night in Shanghai

The First World War had left the world on its knees; the Roaring Twenties were the answer to these grim years, with people frantically dancing ghastly memories away in European ballrooms.

Shanghai, heavy with foreign presence, also dazzled in the interwar years. However in this city, largely undisturbed by the depression gripping Europe, the good times extended for another decade. Clubs shone with the glow of post-battle adrenaline. There was in the air the feeling that everything is possible, even something as peculiar as jazz in China.