Midnight in Peking in Shanghai…With Champers! October 19th

The good folk at the Shanghai Expatriate Association have organised a champagne luncheon no less around my book. Members and guests though it’s apparently easy to become a member (here).

Champagne Luncheon: Midnight in Peking by Paul French

Please join us for this fascinating glimpse of pre-Revolutionary Beijing, a city on the brink of Japanese invasion-as uncovered by author Paul French in his latest book, Midnight in Peking.
January, 1937: Peking is a city with two communities that co-existed, sometimes uneasily-the privileged diplomats and businessmen in the walled and European-style Legation Quarter and the foreign driftwood of prostitutes, pimps and opium addicts that lived in an area called simply “the Badlands”. Soon, a sensational murder will bring these two worlds into violent collision. In the exclusive Legation Quarter, the foreign residents wait nervously for the axe to fall. Japanese troops have already occupied Manchuria and are poised to advance south. Word has it that Chiang Kai-shek and his shaky government, who long since moved to Nanking, are ready to cut a deal with Tokyo and leave Peking to its fate.

Each day brings a ratcheting up of tension for Chinese and foreigners alike inside the ancient city walls. On one of those walls, not far from the nefarious Badlands, is a massive watchtower-haunted, so the locals believe, by fox spirits that prey upon innocent mortals. Then one bitterly cold night, a body is dumped there. It belongs to Pamela Werner, the daughter of eccentric Edward Werner, a former British consul to China and respected academic. This crime would shock the city and make headlines worldwide.

Seventy-five years after these events, Paul French has masterfully recreated the murder investigation from mountains of research of a 74-year-old crime and painted a beautifully intriguing picture of old Peking at the end of an era. Midnight in Peking was presented at the Australian Booksellers Association conference in July as one of the top three Penguin books to be released this year.

Following the talk will be a three-course luncheon at Four Seasons Shanghai.

Menu
STARTER:
Tomato and onion tart with roast pepper sauce
Mixed green salad & olive vinaigrette
MAIN:
Roasted halibut, lentil ragout, warm bacon balsamic vinaigrette
OR
Braised pork, fontina risotto, mushroom ragout
OR
Teriyaki glazed tofu, baby bok choi, straw mushrooms, steamed couscous (vegetarian)
DESSERT
Paris Brest: praline mousse with caramelized hazelnut
Champagne, tea and coffee

Date: Wednesday, October 19
Time: 10:45am registration, 11am talk begins
Venue: Jazz on 37, Four Seasons Hotel, 500 Weihai Lu (at Shimen Lu)
Cost: RMB 250 (includes talk, 3-course luncheon, tea/coffee & champagne)

Please bring your membership card to the event.

Please email seaspecialevents@yahoo.com by Sunday, October 16.
Under subject, please type: “Midnight” and include your membership number, mobile phone number and choice of main course. SEA cancellation policy applies after October 16. Out of town guests and family members are most welcome.