License Plate Number One
旧上海的故事中至今流传着“一号汽车”的美谈。“地皮大王”周纯卿不肯出卖他的汽车和主权，宁为玉碎，不为瓦全。此书以“一号汽车周家”五代家史为主线，金枝玉叶嫁入豪门的悲喜为主题，花园洋房、公馆旧址的残迹作地图，在破砖碎瓦之中寻根问祖，拼凑解析，反思上海开阜以来一百多年的国难家运，发现历史的真谛。
十九世纪六十年代，“周半仙”的子孙们走出浙江古镇，来到上海，开拓新天地。娶了“九斤姑娘”的老三周莲塘，背了一个木匠篮子，在租界上租地造屋，打造民宅，设立了上海最早的房地产公司——“周莲记”，经营租赁和洋务，飞黄腾达。到了二十世纪，周家富二代面对洋人、军阀、官僚、恶霸、警察、日寇、强权、枪炮的势力，树大招风，只得通过联姻，保护本土资产。富三代、富四代的“上海大小姐”在摩登时代个性自由独立，却也打不破民国婚姻的枷锁。女婿们传统的仕途经济、忠君爱国、精英才华，在铁蹄之下均逃不过“一号汽车”的命运。从二十年代的歌舞升平，三十年代的战火纷飞，四十年代的分崩离析，五十年代的公私合营，六十年代的扫地出门，七十年代的阴盛阳衰，至中美重新建交，家人团聚，再分遗产……周家的兴亡深刻地展现了财富与传承、经济与政治、性别与传统、金钱与感情、自由与责任，东方与西方之间难解难分，不可调和的矛盾。
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A Real Estate Barron in Old Shanghai, Pure Gentleman Zhou, inherited an automobile with a license plate “001” from a Denmark physician, leaving Shanghai on the eve of WWI. A British colonist’s ambition to own that car met with his resistance. The legend became a local pride in Old Shanghai, revived recently. Beginning with a bride in that car, horses, and tricycles behind, guards and police aside, slowly moving from the British Concession to the French Concession, Zhou saved his car from destruction. A granddaughter born from that wedlock tells the stories of unhappy marriages inside exquisite gardens and grand mansions. She is searching for roots as well as values—a spiritual heritage. Her contemporary mind is juxtaposed with childhood memories, folklore and classical opera, family parties and photos, ruins of ruined buildings and blocks. Yet she claims she has “no nostalgia.” This transnational memoir, made in USA, covers 150 years of social history of Shanghai from 1860s to the present. Well researched, its historical vision makes a difference from official discourses left and right, revealing many impossible contradictions between East and West, wealth and power, tradition and gender, establishment and inheritance, legacy and laws, socialism and thought reform… a wealth of cultural resources for filmmakers and producers. Recommended for library collection and academic institutions.
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