LETTER FROM SHANGHAI

The shots are polished and the settings evoke a timeless Shanghai whose mood sometimes vacillates between the 1990s and the madness of the 1920s. Fan hua, or Blossoms Shanghai, is the first TV series directed by Wong Kar-wai, the Hong Kong director behind such classics as In the Mood for Love and Chungking Express. In 10 episodes, his latest creation features entrepreneurs indulging in the 1990s economic boom in Shanghai. At the time, Chinese economic reforms were still limping along, but opportunities were there for those who knew how to seize them.

Filmed entirely in Shanghainese dialect, the series has been enthusiastically received. It has resonated in particular among the inhabitants of the economic capital, who have tuned in somewhat nostalgically to watch this romanticized account of a time when the future was full of promise.

"Back then, the Chinese economy was much smaller, and our salaries were ridiculous compared with those in developed countries. But even though we were poor, we were quite happy, because back then, China was developing and we all had hope," said a man named Huang while out for a stroll with his wife. "Today, living conditions are much better, but people no longer have the same confidence in the future," said Huang, who was born in Shanghai in the 1980s.

Like thousands of tourists every day, Huang would come to take pictures of Yellow River Road (Huanghe Lu), in downtown Shanghai. Home to the Park Hotel and the Tai Sheng Yuan restaurant at the heart of the plot, this street overlooking People's Park has become a tourist attraction. Despite the damp chill of this Sunday in mid-January, onlookers had flocked here to take selfies in front of the emblematic restaurant. It's one of those Shanghai streets that seem to have resisted the city's fast-paced modernization, where you can still find Art Deco buildings and small stores with gaudy neon signs that sell tang bao − a dish featuring ravioli in soup. Local shopkeepers have put up posters from the show on their storefronts to entice tourists to stop in.

Outside Tai Sheng Yuan, a 22-year-old student called Li, equipped with a Polaroid camera, offered tourists photos of themselves standing in front of the restaurant for 9.90 yuan (€1.30). She liked the street but noted how far her country had come since the time of the show's setting. "This was one of Shanghai's most prosperous streets," she said. "Today, it looks a bit old-fashioned, as China has developed a lot." Even in the center of the city, modern high-rises have been springing up, and unspoiled areas have come under threat from greedy property developers.

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