Manhole Manifesto: A Deeper Push

The Shanghai Manholes franchise was started to document the forgotten remnants of infrastructure installed by the foreign powers that once called Shanghai their own.

Manhole Manifesto: A Deeper Push builds in the areas Shanghai Manholes, the original book in this series, did not cover, the numbers, costs and people behind the manholes. Greater research has been carried out on the two main elements of Shanghai’s colonial infrastructure previously highlighted; the manholes installed and maintained by Shanghai’s former Public Works Department (P.W.D.) and the Shanghai Telephone Company (S.T.C.) and the fire hydrants and manholes installed by the Shanghai Waterworks Co., Ltd. (S.W.W.) and used by the Shanghai Fire Brigade (S.F.B.).

The main sources of this added information are the Annual Reports of the Shanghai Municipal Council (S.M.C.) between 1859 - 64, 1879, 1892, 1895 - 1903, 1907, 1923 - 24, 1926, 1927, 1929, 1930 - 31, 1933, 1935, 1937 - 40, and 1942 and this gives the reader a firm grasp of the manholes and other bits infrastructure around the city of Shanghai.