Christmas Eve 1959 The time comes round when all the faiths and fears With which I marched or trembled Should in the audit of so many years Be in one truth assembled; And by our fire this Christmas Eve, afar From old homes’ glad bell-ringings That made us see the wise men, the one star And hear – what heavenly singings, All seems to tune; remembrance smiles, the sweet Carol again, a blessing Past all uncertainties; may such song greet Ages in their progressing: And long all humblest church-towers, thus upraised Over huge cities stories, Chime forth the bright untrembling ‘God be praised’ To the star-host’s glories.
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Edmund Blunden, 1967
Edmund Charles BlundenCBEMC (1 November 1896 – 20 January 1974) was an English poet, author, and critic. Like his friend Siegfried Sassoon, he wrote of his experiences in World War I in both verse and prose. For most of his career, Blunden was also a reviewer for English publications and an academic in Tokyo. In 1953 after three years back in England, he accepted the post of Professor of English Literature at the University of Hong Kong. He ended his career as Professor of Poetry at the University of Oxford. He was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature six times.
There’s still just about time to secure some holiday reading matter for the China history fan in your life…. All good indie bookshops, Amazon, Bookazine, Barnes & Noble, Daunt Books, Waterstones, & Audible…
Some time back I wrote about a number of mysterious references to a “Monsieur D” in Morocco in the post-war years – a bi-racial French-Laotian man, with the family name Doan (or Doan Vinh, Doan Vinh Thuan) – the Vinh Thuan invariably being dropped in Morocco), born in 1915, who called himself Raymond, or sometimes Pierre Raymond and who claimed to be many things (including a Vietnamese diplomat) and lived in Marrakesh and Tangiers in the 1950s and 1960s. He most probably trained as a chemist in either French Indochina or France, he definitely dealt antiques in Tangier and/or Marrakesh. He certainly married the fabulously wealthy heiress Barbara Hutton (her seventh husband) in Morocco. After their marriage in 1964 Raymond Doan styled himself a Prince, apparently a title bought for him by Hutton from the former royal family of Champasak (in Laos).
Click here to read the background on him from London gadfly Barbara Skelton and my digging. And for more on Hutton’s earlier life and trip to China in the 1930s see my book Destination Peking….
Apparently though there’s more to the story, a slightly darker interpretation of the relationship between Doan and Hutton – at least according to John Hopkins in his memoirs The Tangier Diaries that I happen to have been reading recently there were two Monsieur D’s – Raymond and Maurice – brothers…
Hopkins knew Maurice Doan who, Hopkins reports cycled around Marrakesh, also dealt antiques, and liked to have his shoes shined regularly. Hopkins claims Maurice and Raymond had laid a trap to ensnare Hutton (and presumably her millions) in a marriage to Raymond. Hopkins claims Margaret Nairn, the wife of the British Consul General in Tangier overheard the brothers hatch the plan in a Tangier coffee shop. He also notes that the Doan brothers were claiming to be sons of a Laotian Prince even before Hutton bought him the Laotian title later. Hopkins claims their French mother ran dry cleaners in Marrakesh – hence their being in Morocco. Hopkins describes Raymond Doan (in terminology of the times (1963):
‘Art show at the Casino de Tangier. An exhibition of paintings by Raymond Doan. Half-Laotian, half-French, he looks like the orient’s answer to Jack Palace. According to Jim Wylie (an American aesthete in Tangier who later went mad and had to be sent home by the US Consulate), the art show is part of a scheme orchestrated by Raymond and his brother Maurice to lure Barbara Hutton from her palace in the Kasbah (Hutton had moved into a massive property in Tangier). She was conned into buying all of Raymond’s paintings.’
The only example of his painting I could find is the below (I think…) which was, and maybe still is (?), the property of the US Consulate in Tangier (and perhaps donated by Hutton?)…
Slightly later that August 1963 Hopkins saw Raymond racing through the Kasbah of Tangier in an E-type Jaguar and presumed the plan to woo Hutton had been successful. They married the following year and divorced a couple of years later in 1966. Both Hutton and Doan died in 1979.
Just to show how a little restoration can go a long way – the entrance to Macao’s Centro Comercial Teatro Capitol on Rua de Pedro Nolasco da Silva photographed in 2009 and as it is now refurbished. The entire building was left abandoned with only the ground floor operating but was revamped in 2019 with the theatre refurbished and modernized to host plays and cinema screenings again.
Terrific to see Scottish artist Anna Hotchkis featured in the “Great Scots in China” series published by the Scottish Government in China and the UK Embassy. Born in Renfrewshire in 1885, Hotchkis trained at Glasgow School of Art and Edinburgh College of Art as well as being associated with the artist community in Kirkcudbright, Dumfriesshire. She also spent time in Beijing and Northern China, painting. Here’s the full article here. BTW: if you want even more on Hotchkis I wrote about her for the SCMP magazine a while back here
Frank Dorn’s A Map and History of Peiping: Formerly Known as Peking, 1936, first edition, Peiyang Press Ltd., Peiping 1936….which includes Dorn’s famous map of Peking many of you may known from my book Midnight in Peking. The frontispiece below is complete with Dorn’s illustrations of Chinese, Manchu and Mongols.
China Books Review has issued its best of 2025 list across a bunch of categories (NB: my own pick is in the novels section if you’re into Shanghai- and Hong Kong-set historical fiction) ….. click here to read
A Chinese export silver-mounted black lacquer 2-handled tea tray, retailed by Hung Chong, with artisan mark, rectangular form, with faux bamboo handles, and central presentation plaque in 1937 to Mr JC Pullen on the occasion of his marriage, from the Asiatic Petroleum Co Ltd of Shanghai. Afraid I know very little about Mr Pullen except he lived at one time on Route Mayen (Huading Road) in the French Concession.
