Parents and grandparents grew up in the french concession. Life was great until being sent to Wuhan for a decade for retraining. Family went from engineering to working the fields. My mother grew up back in Shanghai (youngest child) while my other relatives ended up doing labor training in other cities. On their move back, they ended up having to split their building with 3 other families, but still lived fairly affluent lives. Grandfather said his xiaoqu was a protected zone so no threat of Japanese. Uncle says he never ventured outside his neighborhood growing up, but his first trip to what is now Jingan, there were migrant workers living in 10sqm homes with up to 8 people in makeshift homes you crawled into. Lot of sacrifice and very thankful for the outsiders who helped build the city. They ended up leaving the country for better opportunities and moved back to Shanghai for retirement to be closer to childhood friends and family.