Canteens, cafés and cabarets: The food culture of the Russian diaspora in Shanghai, 1920- 1950

The Russian community in Shanghai emerged in the 1920s, peaked in the late 1930s and dissolved in the 1950s. The 30-year sojourn of thousands of predominantly middle-class and stateless refugees from the former Russian Empire created a distinctive and vibrant consumer economy in the international city. Their most lasting and transformative effect was in the realm of food production and dining culture. Created virtually from scratch in the dormant residential area of the French Concession, Russian delis, cafés, restaurants, cabarets and entertainment emporiums informed the urban landscape of the city and became a backdrop for the formation of the modern Chinese identity. Consideration of food production and consumption by Shanghai Russians opens avenues in the examination of the mutual influence of the Chinese and Russian populations. By drawing on previously unexamined source material, this study identifies the culinary imports of the expatriate community and analyses their influence on the economy and urban culture of the multinational city. This chapter argues that in the formation of a European-style, street-level market economy, and in the trade of cultural skills and services, the exiled Russians provided a conduit of European material sensibility and global modernity for the Shanghai Chinese.