MOST people, even Shanghainese, may not know that the city once had a festival called the Shanghai Festival.

This is not especially strange, as the festival was only celebrated once ?in 1937 ?and died out quickly when the War of Resistance against Japan (1937-45) intensified during the following year.

Although it was just a flash in the pan, the goodwill involved in setting up such a festival is still commented upon favourably by scholars today.

The idea of holding the Shanghai Festival was put forward by the then Mayor Wu Tiecheng in May 1935. He also suggested that the city needed a special song to be performed on the day.

The idea received an immediate response from locals. In the following month, the government received more than 200 submissions with lyrics and music for a new city song. In June 1936, the date March 21 was finally determined as the day for the Shanghai Festival. The then Shanghai government, which was ruled by the Kuomintang, chose the day to commemorate the KMT’s seizure of power in Shanghai in 1927.

The main reason for setting up such a festival was to call on the enthusiasm and vigour of the Shanghainese and bring some joy to what was a difficult time. To ensure that the festival would be a success, the government came up with many ideas to get the city in a holiday mood.

People were given the day off from work or study. To enhance locals patriotism, a parade to promote China-made commodities was to be held, events recalling the city’s history were to be staged and a large-scale sports programmme was drawn up.

All the parks were to be open to the public with free admission and discounts were available in city stores. Public transport including ferryboats, also offered cut-price tickets to make it cheap for locals to travel around the city.

Thinking that Shanghai needed more than a city song to fully celebrate the city’s character, the Mayor also asked the people to make suggestions for a city flower and a city colour.

So, on March 21, 1937, the city celebrated its first and only Shanghai Festival. Due to the limitation of time, some of the plans for the festival were not realized but the special day still managed to add a lot of jubilation to the city.

All government organs, schools, factories and shops had the national flag flying and all public places, including the newly built city government office building and the city’s libraries and museums, were open to the public.

Historical records show that three places attracted the largest crowds: the Shanghai museum which saw some 10,000 people visitors including many foreigners; the Students Handicraft Museum where 53 schools had contributed thousands of exhibits; and, the Shanghai Education Museum where more than 1,000 people went to listen to lectures. Well-known local scholars gave lectures calling on the Shanghainese to get rid of their superstitious beliefs about ghosts and put more effort into study and work to create a new society.

Because many of the original plans for the day were not carried out, the local government promised that it would make the next year’s Shanghai Festival bigger and better. However, in less than five months, war and the Japanese invaded the city and the government was forced to move.

People no longer mentioned the festival despite the enjoyment it had given them.