Shanghai's new dawn placed in sharp focus

Amethyst Incident

In the series, Wang and colleagues visit landmark sites, including the top of Shanghai Mansion, known at the time as Broadway Mansion, the General Post Office Building on Suzhou Creek, and the Yangshupu Power Plant on the northern stretch of the Bund.

There is footage of Shanghai's urban landscape, with restored buildings, new high-rises and repurposed industrial heritage. As the story unfolds, it reveals a pre-1949 city plagued by a dysfunctional government, widespread corruption and inflation.

One episode features the Amethyst Incident, a significant event in Shanghai's history.

In April, 1949, the British warship HMS Amethyst departed from Holt's Wharf in Shanghai, which was owned by the British, and sailed along the Yangtze River to Nanjing, the Kuomintang government's capital, despite repeated warnings from the People's Liberation Army, which was about to cross the Yangtze.

The vessel's crew paid little heed to the warnings, as British forces had sailed freely on the river for more than a century.

The Amethyst was hit by PLA fire, running aground and raising a white flag of surrender. The British were quick to send two bigger ships to the rescue, but both were driven out of the Yangtze by the PLA and experienced a total of 27 casualties.

The documentary features a page from the notebook of Life Magazine journalist Roy Rowan, on which he writes, "The crowds of stunned British and American spectators looked as shell-shocked as the severely wounded sailors being carried ashore. No less stunned, Shanghai's city officials, who realized that the Communists had done something no Chinese army ever dare do before－blow the warships of a Western power out of one of its rivers."

The Chicago Tribune reported that Shanghai's Chinese residents greeted news of the PLA attack on the British warship with delight, because the foreigners "who had kicked China around for 100 years were now getting what they deserved".

This view was voiced by John Leighton Stuart, the then-US ambassador to China, who said: "I could sense an undertone of national pride among other Chinese in this achievement. Commercial and naval ships of foreign countries, principally British, had long sailed up and down this mighty river at their own unbridled will, but now at last they had been bravely challenged and routed."

A few days after the Amethyst Incident, all foreign warships sailed out of the Huangpu River in Shanghai, since when such vessels have been not allowed to enter the riverway uninvited.