Susan's Reviews > Street of Eternal Happiness: Big City Dreams Along a Shanghai Road

Author Rob Schmitz is a foreign correspondent, living in Shanghai; to be precise he lives on the ‘Street of Eternal Happiness,’ a formerly French neighbourhood. During his years living in the city, Schmitz tells the story of the inhabitants of the street where he lives with a great deal of warmth and affection. We learn how the street wakes in the early hours with deliveries of fresh fish, of the vendors who are everywhere selling snacks, of the pasts of the older inhabitants and the difficulties they have faced, the generation gap, the high ‘bride prices’ and difficulty of arranging marriages, and of the changing face of the city.

Half of the residents of Shanghai are migrants from the countryside; literally termed, “outside people.” Meanwhile, old communities have been destroyed to put up high rise blocks and luxury apartments. During this book we meet those who are literally squatting in their own, virtually demolished houses, situated directly behind where Schmitz lives in a new apartment block. There is Zhao, the flower shop owner who spends her time trying to marry her son, Uncle Feng who sells snacks from the communal area of his apartment block while his wife, Auntie Fu, loses their savings in ‘No Risk’ get quick rich schemes and attending illegal churches which demand money and meet the dreaming Chen Kai, who tries to tempt local office workers with a new snack, ‘sandwiches’ while selling accordions on the side.

This is a portrait of a community and of a city that often receives a lot of bad press. There are so many tragic stories from the past and the present– of factor owners sent to labour camps for being capitalists for example. Every person we meet has a story and a struggle to succeed. The author makes the place come alive and the people sympathetic. He does not judge anyone, but obviously has a deep love for the place and people which comes across in his writing. A wonderful book and extremely well written.