Martha Gellhorn in Hong Kong & in the London Library

I was prepping in the London Library today for an event at the old Repulse Bay Hotel later this month on literary reminiscences and writing about the old place. One person I definitely want to include is Martha Gellhorn who visited the Repulse Bay Hotel with her then husband Ernest Hemingway in March 1941 en route to Chongqing. It was a disappointing trip for her – Hemingway was predictably being a bit of a dick, not taking his reporting gig seriously and lazy about heading into mainland China. Eventually Gellhorn left him to his childish antics and went alone. He caught up later a little shamefacedly. It didn’t help that they also hit the colony in the midst of a typhoid epidemic. They retreated from the typhoid to the Repulse Bay Hotel, then as she saw it, ‘a country hotel’ – not for long, but enough to make some notes about it.

Anyway, I dug out the London Library copy of her 1978 memoirs, Travels with Myself and Another, to remind myself of what she had to say about the Repulse Bay Hotel and interestingly the copy they have was donated by Gellhorn herself, which to me is rather special. From 1980, when she was about 70, (and when she donated the copy presumably while in London) she moved to live in Kilgwrrwg near Devauden in Gwent, South Wales.

And, if you’re in Hong Kong on October 18th do come along to Repulse Bay to hear more….(it’s free, but do sign up here)

Britcham Macao – The Alternative (and Scandalous) History of Macao and the British: Indecisive Invaders, Tavern Keepers, and Piratical Ruffians – October 23 2025

I’ll be at Britcham Macao on October 23 at the Ritz Carlton (51st floor!) – billed as a “Cultural Supper Club”, so hope they like my choice of subject!

The Alternative (and Scandalous) History of Macao and the British: Indecisive Invaders, Tavern Keepers, and Piratical Ruffians

When it comes to Anglo-Macao relations there’s a forgotten history of botched invasions, bored traders, despicable pirates and dodgy publicans – before they all left for Hong Kong in the 1840s.  Now these British reprobates are all forgotten, probably because they contributed nothing but trouble for the Portuguese administration!! But surely their misdeeds, crimes and adventures deserve some recognition? Paul French, New York Times bestselling author of Midnight in Peking and, most recently, Her Lotus Year: China, The Roaring Twenties and the Making of Wallis Simpson, recovers Britain’s miscreant history in early Macao in this presentation based on his new collection of essays, Destination Macao.

The Tourists’ Guide & Merchants’ Manual: Being an English Chinese Vocabulary of Articles of Commerce & of Domestic Use, 1864…

The Tourists’ Guide and Merchants’ Manual. Being an English Chinese Vocabulary of Articles of Commerce and of Domestic Use published in Hong Kong by The Daily Press in 1864…

“The Epic Contest for the Spice Trade”, an online talk by historian Roger Crowley, co-organized by Yale Center Beijing and RASBJ

“The Story of the Epic 16th-Century’s Contest for the Spice Trade”, an online talk by British historian Roger Crowley co-hosted by the Yale Center Beijing and RASBJ. Free for RASBJ members

8-9 PM Beijing Time, Thursday 9th October on Zoom. Attendees will be emailed login details fo the talk in a reminder 24 hours before the event.

British historian Roger Crowley will present an online talk on his book, Spice: The 16th-Century Contest that Shaped the Modern World” (Yale University Press, 2024). Drawing on vivid eyewitness accounts of adventures, shipwrecks, and sieges that formed the first colonial encounters, he will show how this struggle shaped the modern world and remade the global economy for centuries to follow. This event is co-hosted by the Yale Center Beijing and the RASBJ.

Roger Crowley is a British historian and a graduate of Cambridge University. He is the author of six bestselling books on maritime and global history — including1453: The Holy War for Constantinople and the Clash of Islam and the West, Empires of the Sea, and City of Fortune: How Venice Ruled the Seas— which have been translated into many languages.

HOW MUCH: For RASBJ members, registration is free as a membership benefit. If you’re a non-member (or a lapsed member) but wish to become an RASBJ member in order to join the event, please sign up at https://rasbj.org/membership or scan the QR code on the poster below.

Members of the Yale community in Beijing should sign up directly via YCB

HOW TO JOIN THE EVENT: RASBJ members should click “Register” or “I will attend” and follow the instructions. After successful registration you’ll receive a confirmation email. If you seem not to have received it, please check your spam folder. Successful registrants will be emailed the login link and other details 24 hours before the event. Please check your spam folder to ensure you see all RASBJ emails.

Her Lotus Year: Who Really Concocted the “China Dossier”?

Who really concocted the slanderous “China Dossier” purportedly detailing Wallis’s bad behaviour, criminality and sexual loucheness in Shanghai in 1924? I’d bet on Harry Steptoe, then head of Britain’s Secret Intelligence Service in Shanghai for much of the 1920s and 1930s. More Mr Bean than Mr Bond in many descriptions, but loyal to a fault….

In the spring of 1938 Britain’s Air Ministry sent its deputy head of intelligence, Wing Commander Fred Wigglesworth to China to review British intelligence in the region. From Shanghai he reported back: ‘Both at Hong Kong and at Shanghai I was asked by many if I knew “Steptoe”. No, who was he? Oh, he’s the head of the secret service organisation at Shanghai – he’s the arch-spy-everyone in China knows who and what “Steptoe” is!’ Steptoe’s cover at Shanghai was Vice-Consul with an office in the consular building on the Bund.

Her Lotus Year: China, the Roaring Twenties and the Making of Wallis Simpson is available everywhere in hardback, e-book and audiobook now…

A Sort of Victory for The Shanghai Literary Review

thanks for anyone who made an effort on behalf of The Shanghai Literary Review and their battle with Duke Kunshan University.

From TSLR:

After 52 days of silence, our printer informed us that Duke Kunshan University has quietly paid in full for the previously canceled print run of Issue 9.

This is a victory for our contributors. It’s also a victory for editorial integrity and independence. While DKU’s Humanities Research Center had withdrawn support and breached their written commitment, this payment settles their obligation in full. It also marks the end of our relationship with the institution.

We are moving forward independently—true to our roots. No further funding will come from DKU. Editorial revisions have already been made to remove DKU branding and contributions from the issue. Our work continues, but without compromise.

We’re deeply grateful to our community and contributors who stood by us, donated, reached out, or simply refused to look away. Your support kept this alive.

Issue 9 will print and ship in October 2025

Issue 10 will follow in 2026 (date TBD)

All subscriptions and preorders will be honored

Submissions remain closed for now

October 1 2025 – ChinaRhmying – Hong Kong & China this Autumn

Some advance notice of a few events in Asia this month – literary Repulse Bay, bookish Lantau, Roguish Britcham Macao as well as my column for Macau Closer and a Q&A with ChinaFile… click here to read

A Typhoon Hits Hong Kong, 1906

Three photographs of the Hong Kong typhoon of 1906 time stamped 09:15, 09:30 and 09:45am showing the progression of the typhoon that day. The 1906 Hong Kong typhoon (they didn’t name them back then was a tropical cyclone that hit Hong Kong on 18 September 1906. The natural disaster caused property damage exceeding a million pounds and took the lives of around 15,000 people.