01/09/2026
“Shanghai is a city like no other. Much is permitted here that is forbidden in any other city and, conversely, things that are vetoed everywhere else are not frowned upon here. Moreover, residents and businessmen in Shanghai are required to observe a whole series of peculiarly local regulations, unfamiliar not only to newcomers but even to long-time residents.”
Published in the emigre newspaper Vecherniaia Zaria in June 1937, the article goes on to enumerate some of the more bizarre regulations officially in force in the city:
• You may buy and sell any kind of game at the markets, but you may never buy or sell pheasants.
• A dog without a muzzle and license tag may be shot by a policeman at any moment.
• If you no longer need your revolver, dagger, ammunition or explosives, you must surrender them to the Municipal Police, which will destroy them free of charge.
• If the Fire Brigade considers it necessary, owing to the fire risk, to station a fireman permanently in your house, you will have to pay the fireman.
• The Shanghai Municipal Council has some fifty flags of various nations and sizes available for hire. If you happen to need a twelve-foot American or Yugoslav flag, you may have one for 50 cents a day.
• Foods deemed dangerous for consumption include frozen drinks, cut fruit, ice cream, ice and peeled sugar cane.
• Flying a kite in the city streets is punishable.
• You may obtain from the police a special license permitting you to wear a bulletproof vest.
• Although places of nighttime entertainment must close at 2 a.m., and at 4 a.m. on Saturdays, on national holidays special permission is granted to remain open until 4 a.m.
• Spitting on the floor in municipal markets is prohibited under penalty of a fine.
• The proprietor of a small shop may not keep more than 7,200 boxes of matches on his shelves.
• Every pond and lake on private property must contain a special kind of fish that feeds on mosquito larvae and mosquitoes themselves. The Municipality supplies these fish free of charge and in any quantity.
• Any resident may hire the entire Municipal Orchestra to play a program of his own choosing in his home. But the pleasure will cost him 90 dollars for the first hour, plus 45 dollars for transportation and another 45 dollars for each subsequent half-hour.
• No public speeches may be made in municipal parks, nor may musical instruments, radio sets, phonographs, etc., be brought into them.
• You may fish in Hongkew Park, provided that you take no more than two fish from the water in a single day and that neither is more than six inches long.
• If you wish to hire a policeman for private duty, you will have to pay a foreign sergeant 20 dollars for an eight-hour day, while a Sikh policeman will cost you 60 dollars a month.
• All women found wandering the streets alone and without apparent purpose in the evenings are liable to arrest.
• At the Rifle Range, where the shooting grounds are located, bombs or grenades may not be thrown.
• Factory whistles and sirens may sound for no longer than ten seconds.
• The minimum monthly wage for an Indian watchman is 31 dollars, for a Chinese watchman 19 dollars and for a Russian watchman 75 dollars.
• Permits for processions are issued, provided that no more than two bands take part and that there are no gongs...
