All things old China - books, anecdotes, stories, podcasts, factoids & ramblings from the author Paul French
The stories about the end of newsstands in China is very sad – I’ve always enjoyed browsing them for new magazines and regional media. Here’s a couple of photos – a Beijing news kiosk in 2002 and a mobile bicycle newsstand in Kunming, 2004….
Right alongside the modernist artists, architects and sculptors who lived in interwar Belsize Park was George Orwell…
In 1934 Orwell had already published Down and Out in Paris and London and his first novel, A Clergyman’s Daughter, as well as a memoir, Burmese Days. He then moved to Hampstead and got a job as a part-time assistant in Booklovers’ Corner, a
second-hand bookshop in South End Green run by Francis and Myfanwy Westrope. Today that bookshop is a Gail’s Bakery though a plaque has been erected as well as a sculpture of Orwell on the front of the building. He worked there for fifteen
months until the end of January 1936 with many of his experiences as a bookseller appearing in his 1936 novel Keep the Aspidistra Flying.
Booklovers’ Corner is a stop on my VoiceMap Historical Hampstead’s “Gentle Nest of Artists”: A Belsize Park Walk.
Jonathan C Slaght’s Tigers Between Empires: The Journey to Save the Siberian Tiger from Extinction, (Allen Lane)….
Deep in the snowy forests of Northeast Asia roams the majestic and revered Amur tigers, more popularly known as ‘The Siberian Tiger’. But in the final years of the Cold War, only a few hundred of these graceful animals remained in their home of the Amur River basin. As the Soviet Union fell, catastrophe arrived, with poaching and logging taking a fast, astonishing toll on an already vulnerable species.
Taking us on a journey through remote frozen landscapes, globally renowned conservationist Jonathan Slaght charts the incredible story of how Russian scientists and American conservationists came together to save these magnificent, solitary creatures. He retraces their steps to show how this dedicated, fearless coalition laid the foundations of new tiger research across Asia, transforming public opinion around tigers from something to be feared and hunted, to creatures we must protect.
Today, tigers occupy 7% of the lands they did 100 years ago, disappearing in the wild from Bali to Iran. In the ongoing global crisis of species destruction, Slaght shows us that the revival of the Amur tiger can bring us hope for the future: a model for how to live alongside, and revive, the natural world.
Behold the Taikoo Club Bowling Championship Cup, 1921, crafted in Chinese silver, with a 90 hallmark of the silversmith Wang Hing, who had shops in Hong Kong (Zetland House, 10 Queen’s Road), Canton and Shanghai, on the base. The cup was warded by D Templeton Esq. to John Russell. Templeton worked for Taikoo Sugar in Hong Kong and was probably Scottish as he’s recorded as a member of the St Andrew’s Society in Hong Kong.
A Lifeline for China: Building Wartime Connectivity along the Burma Road (1938-1942)
a Zoom talk by Prof. Andres Rodriguez
How did wartime ‘lifeline’, the Burma Road, draw China closer to its Western allies, and turn the nation’s southwest into the vital hub connecting Southeast Asia to India and to the world; a hub it become again 80-plus years on? Prof. Rodriguez from the University of Sydney will examine the history of this notorious and treacherous route in RASBJ’s next Zoom talk.
China’s Burma Road (1938-1942) acted as a channel for wartime material to move between British Burma and China during the initial years of the Sino-Japanese War. Prof. Rodriguez will examine how the development of this lifeline for China forged a powerful wartime narrative that helped consolidate support among Western nations to counter Japan’s invasion. The Burma Road gave rise to new ideas of connectivity that positioned China’s southwest region as a vital hub connecting the nation with Southeast Asia, India, and the rest of the world.
Andres Rodriguez (PhD Oxford) is Senior Lecturer in Modern Chinese History at the University of Sydney. He is the author of “Frontier Fieldwork. Building a Nation in China’s Borderlands, 1919-1945” (University of British Columbia Press 2022).
And moderated by Cao Yin is an Associate Professor in the Department of History at Peking University. He works on infrastructures, multispecies ecologies, technological circulation, and state formation in South and Southeast Asia during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. He is the author of “Chinese Sojourners in Wartime Raj, 1942–45” (Oxford University Press, 2022) and “From Policemen to Revolutionaries: A Sikh Diaspora in Global Shanghai, 1885–1945” (Brill, 2018).
More details and sign up here
My latest column for Macau Closer magazine (available online here or from Livraria Portuguesa bookstore) It is a truth universally acknowledged in the international book trade that readers love historical naval adventures – the high seas, dashing captains, exotic locales, threatened mutinies, ocean battles. Unfailingly these tales involve tall ships at full sail, cannon fire, the Royal Navy and the Napoleonic Wars. And Dewey Lambdin’s 1992 novel The King’s Privateer ensures Macao is an integral part of the early nineteenth century world and shows just how the Napoleonic Wars (1803-1815) were truly global and encompassed Macao and southern China. Click here to read in full…
The documentary Maneiras, dedicated to the work of architect José Maneiras, a key figure in modernism in Macau who recently died at 90.
Directed by António Sanmarful and produced by Docomomo Macau, the documentary provides an in-depth look at José Celestino da Silva Maneiras’ unique contribution to modern architecture in the territory. Through interviews, archive footage and visits to his most emblematic works, Maneiras records and celebrates the legacy of a creator whose influence remains visible in Macau’s urban landscape.
Born in Macao in 1935, Maneiras studied at the University of Porto’s Faculty of Fine Arts in Portugal, and returned to the city in 1962 – joining Manuel Vicente’s urban planning team at a time of rapid development. He opened his own studio in 1967. Among his significant works were the São Francisco Complex on Rua da Praia Grande and several residential buildings along Estrada do Visconde de São Januário. One of his most recognised projects, completed in 1970, was the Holy House of Mercy’s Centre for the Rehabilitation of the Blind at Fai Chi Kei, which introduced early accessibility features such as tactile flooring and discreet handrails. Maneiras also contributed to commercial and recreational architecture, including the Si Toi Hong Kong Bank building and the Canidrome Swimming Pool Complex.
He was a founding member of the Architects Association of Macau in 1987 and was named an honorary member of Portugal’s Order of Architects in 2006. From 1989 to 1993, he served as president of the Leal Senado Municipal Council.
If you can find a copy of the documentary or a screening do check it out…
I’ve rather lost count of how many exhibitions on Eileen Chang Hong Kong has had now – at least three in three in the last 12 months and this one makes a fourth – Chang fever!!
Presented by Hong Kong Metropolitan University, the exhibition ‘Beyond Distance: Half a Lifelong Friendship of Eileen Chang, Stephen Soong and Mae Fong Soong’ focuses on the deep friendship that lasted over four decades between Eileen Chang, Stephen Soong, and Mae Fong Soong. Stephen Soong was a translator, literary critic, and editor who worked for the US Information Service in Hong Kong while his wife Mae Fong shared his deep involvement in literary circles in the colony.
The exhibition will showcase their correspondence, demonstrating cherished manuscripts, letters, and personal artifacts belonging to the trio. These artifacts underscore the key roles of Stephen Soong and Mae Fong Soong as literary confidants to Eileen Chang, allowing the public to appreciate their significant contributions to Chinese literature and Hong Kong cinema.
Furthermore, through dynamic imagery and new media art, visitors will experience the convergence of their literary legacies across artistic, historical, and technological dimensions. This multifaceted visual approach embodies the treasured bond of their friendship and captures the essence of ‘Beyond Distance’.
The exhibition is open to the public. You are welcome to make free reservations for individual or group guided tours through the HKMU Modern Chinese Literature Museum website. Exhibition Details:
Opening Hours: Mondays, Wednesdays to Sundays | Closed on Tuesdays & Public Holidays
Location: Stanley Ho Library, Hong Kong Metropolitan University, 30 Good Shepherd Street, Ho Man Tin, Kowloon, Hong Kong
Enquires: (852) 2768 6777
Email: museum_lib@hkmu.edu.hk
Website & Guided Tour Reservation: https://museum.lib.hkmu.edu.hk/en