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Carl Crow―A Tough Old China Hand: The Life, Times, and Adventures of an American in Shanghai
Carl Crow arrived in Shanghai in 1911 and made the city his home for the next quarter of a century, working there as a journalist, newspaper proprietor, and groundbreaking adman. He also did stints as a hostage negotiator, emergency police sergeant, gentleman farmer, go-between for the American government, and propagandist. As his career progressed, so did the fortunes of Shanghai. The city transformed itself from a dull colonial backwater when Crow arrived, to the thriving and ruthless cosmopolitan metropolis of the 1930s when Crow wrote his pioneering book – 400 Million Customers – that encouraged a flood of businesses into the China market in an intriguing foreshadowing of today’s boom. Among Crow’s exploits were attending the negotiations in Peking that led to the fall of the Qing Dynasty, getting a scoop on Japanese interference in China during the First World War, negotiating the release of a group of Western hostages from a mountain bandit lair, and being one of the first Westerners to journey up the Burma Road during the Second World War. He met most of the major figures of the time, including Sun Yat-sen, Chiang Kai-shek, the Soong sisters, and Mao’s second-in-command Zhou En-lai. During the Second World War, he worked for American intelligence alongside Owen Lattimore, coordinating US policies to support China against Japan. The story of this one exceptional man gives us a rich view of Shanghai and China during those tempestuous years. This is a book for all with an interest in Shanghai and China of this period, and those with an interest in the development of journalism and business there.
324 pages, Hardcover
First published October 1, 2006
About the author
Paul French
31 books172 followersPaul French has been based in Shanghai for many years as Chief China Representative of research and analysis consultancy Access Asia. He is a regular commentator of China and North East Asia on the international media. He is the author of a number of previous books including the well-received North Korea: The Paranoid Pensinsula for Zed Books.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
October 19, 2023
This was a fairly interesting biography of an American journalist who, in search of adventure and better opportunities for himself moved to Shanghai in 1912 and stayed there rising up the journalist career ladder, working for the US propaganda office during the First World War, then setting up a large and prosperous advertising agency all of which he had to abandon in 1937 when fighting broke out and he returned to the US to start over again.
It's a carefully written book about a fascinating guy, living in a fascinating place during a fascinating time. Crow was a pioneer in the field in the sense that prior to his arrival most of the news in Shanghai was about Shanghai itself and wire stories from the European powers who shared governance of it at the time. It was a very insular community and though it made its living from the vast Chinese hinterland that it served, it knew strikingly little about that. Carl Crow set about changing that.
He made his first few breaks by covering the internal politics of China and promoting them to the level of international news. Soon wire stories were going both ways into and out of Shanghai. Crow built a network of contacts throughout the country, something that was extremely difficult to do because it largely splintered after the revolution with local military commanders and, occasionally, brigands, taking over entire provinces and ruling them with little regard for the central government. Crow covered it all.
He was so well connected that when the Beijing-Shanghai express was hijacked at one point and 80 western hostages taken including a Rockefeller and the niece of the President, Crow was sent to negotiate and secured their release by treating the brigand with the dignity of a ruler, which is what he wanted all along.
Crow also broke the story of the 21 Demands which the Japanese intended to impose on China. How precisely this came about is the subject of some historical controversy and this section of the book reads like an espionage story. Really excellent stuff.
Crow was also very much a man about town in Shanghai and, unusual for a man in his position at the time, he traveled all over pre-war China and wrote about it. During the 1930s and 1940s he was widely read on the subject. The book also gives a good idea of what his day to day life was like, so it's also a portrait of how an upper middle class foreigner lived and worked in the city and region during the time which is interesting because most books concentrate on the commercial or criminal or political elites of the time.
It's a carefully written book about a fascinating guy, living in a fascinating place during a fascinating time. Crow was a pioneer in the field in the sense that prior to his arrival most of the news in Shanghai was about Shanghai itself and wire stories from the European powers who shared governance of it at the time. It was a very insular community and though it made its living from the vast Chinese hinterland that it served, it knew strikingly little about that. Carl Crow set about changing that.
He made his first few breaks by covering the internal politics of China and promoting them to the level of international news. Soon wire stories were going both ways into and out of Shanghai. Crow built a network of contacts throughout the country, something that was extremely difficult to do because it largely splintered after the revolution with local military commanders and, occasionally, brigands, taking over entire provinces and ruling them with little regard for the central government. Crow covered it all.
He was so well connected that when the Beijing-Shanghai express was hijacked at one point and 80 western hostages taken including a Rockefeller and the niece of the President, Crow was sent to negotiate and secured their release by treating the brigand with the dignity of a ruler, which is what he wanted all along.
Crow also broke the story of the 21 Demands which the Japanese intended to impose on China. How precisely this came about is the subject of some historical controversy and this section of the book reads like an espionage story. Really excellent stuff.
Crow was also very much a man about town in Shanghai and, unusual for a man in his position at the time, he traveled all over pre-war China and wrote about it. During the 1930s and 1940s he was widely read on the subject. The book also gives a good idea of what his day to day life was like, so it's also a portrait of how an upper middle class foreigner lived and worked in the city and region during the time which is interesting because most books concentrate on the commercial or criminal or political elites of the time.
May 5, 2012
This was one of my Christmas books and I started right into it, well in between several others I had going. One for the metro, one for beside the bed, one next to the chair in the living room....yeah, I know bookaholic.
This is a great read about Carl Crow an American Business/author in Shanghai at a seminal moment in time (not that every moment is not important in history) when the west was still very much involved in China and the political intrigue between the WWI and WWII. It was of particular interest to me because so many of my teachers at DLI where Eastern Russians from Harbin and then pushed to Shanghai and then out into the world--many making their home in Californian.
In spite of some minor editorial roughness, this is a well researched and nicely presented piece of history. Well worth reading. Would recommend at the same time: "The United States 15th Infantry Regiment in China, 1912-1938" by Alfred E. Cornebise;"The Sand Pebbles" by Richard McKenna; "Yangtze Patrol: The U.S. Navy in China" by Kemp Tolley and Victor H. Krulak; "From Shanghai to Corregidor: Marines in the defense of the Philippines" by J. Michael Miller; and of course "Treading Softly: U.S. Marines in China, 1819-1949" by George B. Clark--which I recommend from a library or for kindle as it normally runs about $100.00 unless you find one at a book sale for $25.00. :-)
This is a great read about Carl Crow an American Business/author in Shanghai at a seminal moment in time (not that every moment is not important in history) when the west was still very much involved in China and the political intrigue between the WWI and WWII. It was of particular interest to me because so many of my teachers at DLI where Eastern Russians from Harbin and then pushed to Shanghai and then out into the world--many making their home in Californian.
In spite of some minor editorial roughness, this is a well researched and nicely presented piece of history. Well worth reading. Would recommend at the same time: "The United States 15th Infantry Regiment in China, 1912-1938" by Alfred E. Cornebise;"The Sand Pebbles" by Richard McKenna; "Yangtze Patrol: The U.S. Navy in China" by Kemp Tolley and Victor H. Krulak; "From Shanghai to Corregidor: Marines in the defense of the Philippines" by J. Michael Miller; and of course "Treading Softly: U.S. Marines in China, 1819-1949" by George B. Clark--which I recommend from a library or for kindle as it normally runs about $100.00 unless you find one at a book sale for $25.00. :-)
January 5, 2012
A beautiful book that spans the mundane details of Crow's life to the grand historical arcs that Crow intersected with. The portrayal of Crow seemed a little 2-dimensional, but maybe that goes with the territory of writing about this advertising man. It's one of those rare books that is as nice to hold as it is to read. Beautiful layout, design, and footnoting. Paul French and the HK Press did a great job on this book. Makes me almost wish I was living back in Shanghai.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews