Love, Libel, Literature and Loss: the tribulations of the distinguished family of Chen Yuan and Ling Shuhua in 20th-century China, an RASBJ online talk by Frances Wood – 31/8/23

Posted: August 26th, 2023 | No Comments »

The story of the distinguished writer Ling Shuhua (1900-1990) and her affair with Julian Bell (1908-1937) is well known, involving Virginia Woolf and a more recent lawsuit in China. Her husband Chen Yuan (1898-1970) neglected by Shuhua, has also been neglected by historians but the recent publication of some of his diaries reveals much about the man, his family and his devotion to culture. He spent the period 1943-1946 in England, trying to set up a Sino-British Cultural Centre before he was appointed to represent China in UNESCO. His diaries present an extraordinarily detailed account of wartime London, with his almost daily visits to the theatre, sleep disturbed by nightly V-bombs and endless meetings with everyone from J.B. Priestley to Arthur Waley and Harold Laski.

This family had resided in a traditional Beijing mansion, two courtyards of which were restored to become today’s Shijia Hutong Museum. Located at #24 Shijia Hutong, it’s well worth a visit, featuring displays, photographs, material objects and detailed bilingual captions about prominent individuals and entities linked to this historic hutong.

Frances Wood studied Chinese at Cambridge and at Beida (Peking University). She was curator of the Chinese collections in the British Library for 30 years with a special interest in Dunhuang manuscripts.

This online event is free for members of RASBJ; RMB 50 for members of RAS branches; RMB 100 for non-members. Interested in becoming an RASBJ member? Please sign up at https://rasbj.org/membership

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