Vue de la SH508 restaurant, ancienne maison familiale de l'écrivain britannique J.G. Ballard, à Shanghai, Chine, le 26 avril 2009. Prendre une promenade sur Guangzhou Fanyu (Lu) (P
View of the SH508 restaurant, former family house of UK writer J.G. Ballard, in Shanghai, China, 26 April 2009. Take a walk down Panyu (Fanyu) Lu (Panyu Road) from the Film Art Centre and you will soon pass by the SH508 restaurant. It occupies a renovated colonial mansion adorned with a huge neon sign. Unknown to the proprietors, reviewers and most of the customers, this is actually the former family home of British writer J.G. Ballard. Ballard has since written three books on his Shanghai experience. They are Empire of the Sun, The Kindness of Women and his recently released memoirs Miracles of Life. The latter was accompanied with the sad announcement that Ballard, now 77, is losing a battle with cancer. His father ran a sweatshop factory in Shanghai and enjoyed the highlife of villas, health clubs and horse racing. Born in 1930, Jim Ballard was left to the care of indifferent servants. He used his relative freedom to explore the city by bicycle, seeing local Chinese starving to death on the glitzy foreign streets. Once Japan invaded in full, his family was interned at the infamous Longhua Camp, now Shanghai Zhongxue (Shanghai High School).
