Shanghai Dancing

Shanghai Dancing

First edition
Author	Brian Castro
Language	English
Publisher	Giramondo Publishing
Publication date	2003
Publication place	Australia
Media type	Print (Paperback)
Pages	447
ISBN	0957831188
Preceded by	Stepper
Followed by	The Garden Book

Shanghai Dancing is a 2003 novel by Australian novelist Brian Castro.

Plot summary

The novel's main character is, like the author, named Castro, living in Australia and hailing from a Chinese and Portuguese background. Antonio Castro is attempting to come to an understanding of his complicated family history, and in particular, about the lives of his parents in Shanghai during the 1930s.

Notes

Epigraph:

• Author note: 'Shanghai Dancing is a fictional autobiography. Told from an Australian perspective and loosely based on my family's life in Shanghai, Hong Kong, and Macau from the 1930s to the 1960s.'
• Epigraph: We photograph things in order to drive them out of our minds. (Franz Kafka)
• Dedication: For B. B.

Reviews

• The Sydney Morning Herald ^[1]

Awards and nominations

• 2003 shortlisted The Age Book of the Year Award — Fiction Prize
• 2004 shortlisted Festival Awards for Literature (SA) — Award for Innovation in Writing
• 2004 winner New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards — Christina Stead Prize for Fiction ^[2]
• 2004 winner New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards — Book of the Year ^[2]
• 2005 longlisted International Dublin Literary Award

References

1. The Sydney Morning Herald, "Shanghai Dancing by Brian Castro" by James Ley, 29 March 2003
2. ""Shanghai surprise"". Sydney Morning Herald, 18 May 2004. Retrieved 16 January 2025.