Early Years

Before I was old enough to know what was going on around me, Shanghai went through the big Stock Market Crash and the Depression, just like people in the U.S. Yes, there was a lot of poverty.
If there were soup lines, I did not know. You see, most Chinese were poor and most of them were poor for a long time, especially people who lived in the country. There were often natural disasters of one kind or another - floods, earthquakes, etc. There was often famine. And there were wars, big and small - a lot of wars throughout our five thousand years. Lot of people died. Lot of them somehow managed to survive. 
But for the people in Shanghai, life was different.
Shanghai people made money, whether the economy was bad or not, whether there was war or not . . .      My father used to say that some people will always make money regardless of the Times. 
Anyway, my first recollection of my very early childhood was uneventful. I grew up in an upper middle class family. Since I am a girl, I was utterly sheltered. My Amah took care of me, she fed me. she dressed me, she bathed me, and she entertained me. In other words, she babied me until I was way beyond a toddler  - actually, she bathed me until I was almost a teenager.
My Amah came from the country and when her son was old enough to work, he came to our household and became our houseboy. When he grew up, he was our rickshaw boy as well - we had a black rickshaw with shining brass lanterns, I remember.
Amah and her son stayed with us for many years, through Japanese Occupation and WWII. I am sure she had a husband but I was not smart enough to question her. To me, She was like my surrogate mother because my own mother had the job of managing the household and being the Lady of the house. No, my mother did not neglect me at all - I simply did not see her a lot of the times. That was the way it was. 
I never set foot in places not comparable to ours, only better for most of the time. I don't remember ever visiting the Old China City.
When I was older, I would visit my grandparents and my mother's Number Three uncle (Number Three was like my other grandfather - more about him later) and his family.  

Of course, things changed when the Japanese came.