intercultural activities going on.
It was during the Taiping Wars, the 1850 to 1860,
great amount of refugees from the rich culturally
vibrant tsannang, the southern culture.
People with means, flock
to the international concession because that was protected by international law.
So it was the Chinese capital.
And the Chinese visitors and the Chinese laborers together with
Western administration basically, English administration,
built up this beginning of this city.
So, from the very beginning, unlike other treaty ports,
this city was very unique with Chinese and Westerners living side by side.
Living together.
Doing business together.
Shanghai didn't have a theater tradition because it was a very small town,
it was not very significant.
So when the war ended, the Taiping war ended in
1860 they imported Peking opera from Peking.
Together with the architecture of the,
the Peking Tea House structure was introduced to Shanghai.
>> Okay.
>> And, and that could sit you know, hundreds of people,
which Shanghai never had you know, in that sense.
And it was actually a cultural import from the North.
>> So Chinese so Peking opera and
European theater were both imported into Shanghai at about the same time.
>> Yes.
Exactly.
And that's what is so interesting because they had their own laws.