I posted last month (here and here) on the mothballing of a number of longtang in Shanghai – emptied out, boarded up and awaiting…. well, what? the wrecking ball or refurbishment? Across the city this is the case – presumably a halt called as so many property companies in Shanghai have gone bust. Sometimes economic woes are a preservationist’s best friend.
And here another example – a traditional shikumen stone gateway – 里康餘: Li Kang Yu; 29弄: Lane 29 on Shouning Lu (Rue Buissonnet) just east of Xizang Nan Lu (Boulevard de Montigny). Constructed 1935. Cleared and boarded up some years ago and now just seemingly forgotten…. Such “mothballed” shikumen proliferate across Shanghai awaiting their fate…
Welcome to the Palace of Dragons and step into a world of flight, fantasy and magic. DRAGONS at the Royal Pavilion explores the power, beauty and mystery of the world’s most iconic mythical creatures.
Discover the dragons that watch over the Royal Pavilion itself, carved in splendour, glimmering in gold or hiding in unexpected places. Follow the dragons’ footsteps and discover fearsome beasts and elegant symbols of myth and power.
Go on a dragon quest, find dragon eggs and help the baby dragons find their way home. Step into the dragon’s mouth, search for dragons in the mirrors, listen to roaring dragons in the palace halls, relax with a story, and be a Royal Pavilion Dragon Detective.
In the Prince Regent Gallery Fire and Water: Dreaming of Dragons takes you on a journey around the world, revealing how dragons have captured people’s imagination in European and Asian cultures.
I have a few copies of Midnight in Peking in Polish if there are any Poles out there missing Pekinie?? Email me on paul@chinarhyming.com – as ever first come, first served, and sorry but I can’t mail to the USA or PRC.
North Korea. The Hermit Kingdom. For nearly eight decades, it has marched defiantly to its own beat, shaking off its Soviet and Chinese sponsors to emerge as the world’s most enigmatic nation–a nuclear-armed state ruled by a dictatorial dynasty unlike any before seen. Underpinning the state is a personality cult more soaked in religiosity than those constructed by Stalin or Mao–one that, unbeknownst to the world, traces its roots back to the Christian fervor of post-Civil War America. In Korean Messiah, Jonathan Cheng, the Wall Street Journal’s China bureau chief and former Korea bureau chief, takes us deep inside Pyongyang, a city once so dominated by Christianity it was known as the “Jerusalem of the East.” Cheng introduces us to Samuel Moffett, a Presbyterian missionary from Madison, Indiana, who would venture into Pyongyang at the turn of the nineteenth century and build a remarkable following–one that would include the very Kim family that today presides over one of the world’s harshest persecutors of the Christian faith. At the center of this story–its messiah–is North Korea’s founder, Kim Il Sung, son of two fervent Christians and progenitor of an ideology known as Kimilsungism, an exercise in idolatry that has elevated him, and his successor son and grandson, to Christlike status, from the humble manger where he was born to the subway seat on which the venerated leader once placed his posterior, cordoned off as if it were a religious relic. Drawing on letters, diaries, and never-before-unearthed archival material that temper and oftentimes contradict the glorious historical record promoted by Kim Il Sung’s legions of hagiographers, Korean Messiah tells the true story of a country shrouded in fictions.
Noted on a recent visit to Dr Jean Augustin Bussiere’s Western Hills home near Haidian – wooden barrels (presumably c.1920s/30s) stamped “Canton” in the Western Hills of Peking – did they transport wine to the north from the port of Canton (Guangzhou)? Any other theories of what might be required in Peking from Canton?
A rare (slightly chipped) Chinese blue and white armorial charger (ceremonial platter) with the arms of the Coelho family, Kangxi period, c.1715, incorporating a lion and seven hares, within bands of scrolling leaves and flowers. Formerly owned by António de Albuquerque Coelho de Carvalho (1682–1745) who held various administrative posts in the Portuguese colonial empire. Carvalho is believed to have received the plate while Governor of Macau from 1718 to 1719. He was later Governor of Portuguese Timor, 1722–1725.
“From the trenches of World War I to the heart of revolutionary China, Harold J. Timperley bore witness to some of the most turbulent events of the 20th Century. As a foreign correspondent, he exposed the brutality of Japan’s war in China, risking his life to document the horrors of the Nanking Massacre. As a propagandist for the Chinese government of the day, he helped shape global understanding of the conflict, and later as a diplomat, he walked the razor’s edge between impartiality and conviction during Indonesia’s fight for independence. In this meticulously researched biography, Brendan Cook unravels the complex legacy of a man revered by some and reviled by others—a man whose work influenced war crimes tribunals, challenged Western involvement in Asia, and helped to forge the modern Asian narrative. Drawing on personal letters, archival records, and eyewitness accounts, A Man of Exquisite Honour is a compelling portrait of a brilliant, difficult, and deeply principled figure whose life was defined by truth, justice, and sacrifice.”
Travel reprint house Eland reprinted Fleming’s News From Tartary some time back but Eland’s boss, Barnaby Rogerson, just did a neat little explainer on Fleming and the book for their website (here)
