The novel also features the 1933 Building, also known as Old Millfun, which during the 1940s functioned as a slaughterhouse in the neighborhood.

"1933 is another dazzling example of contemporary meeting antique in Shanghai. It's now a hip outfit full of photo studios, tony shops and cafes, but it used to be a fully operational slaughterhouse. You can walk up the ramps down which cows were led, little gutters running alongside them for the blood. Lillia and her girlfriend Biata sneak into the slaughterhouse in a scene in Someday We Will Fly, and watch the cows. For the girls, and for me, writing them, that scene was a way of expressing fear and pain," DeWoskin said.