All things old China - books, anecdotes, stories, podcasts, factoids & ramblings from the author Paul French
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)
HMS Centurion, off Hong Kong, late 1890s, unknown artist….
Completed in 1894, Centurion was assigned to the China Station as its flagship. Together with her sister ship, Barfleur, she supported Allied operations during the Boxer Rebellion of 1899–1901 and contributed landing parties to participate in the Battles of the Taku Forts and of Tientsin. The ship returned home in 1901 to be rebuilt with a more powerful secondary armament. Centurion rejoined the China Station two years later and remained there until 1905 when she returned to Britain. Already made obsolete by the increasing speeds of the cruisers the ship was designed to defend against, she was placed in reserve until 1909. Centurion was decommissioned that year and sold for scrap in 1910.
HMS Blenheim off Hong Kong, early 1900s, unknown artist.
Blenheim was launched in 1890 and recommissioned 1901 with a complement of 593 men to serve at the China Station to support the British during the Boxer Uprising. In June 1902 she left China to visit Yokohama.
Paul French’s Destinations – a book bundle
Original price was: HK$414.00.
Sale Price – HK$331.20
Click here to buy the bundle…..
“Bestselling author Paul French travels to the most storied cities in China to tell the true tales of fascinating people who visited or lived in these places in the 19th and 20th centuries.
With a special focus on the glamorous years between the world wars, the Destination series describes the local and international assortment of adventurers, writers, spies, artists, socialites and scoundrels who inhabited Macao, Peking and Shanghai during that golden age.”
I often walk past Flagstaff House in Hong Kong Park and pay it little attention. It’s a rather mundane museum to tea ware and attracts few tourists or curious locals. However, it is the oldest western building in Hong Kong remaining, built in 1848 for Major D’Aguilar (who also got a street later) and known as Headquarters House. It became Flagstaff House in 1932 and was the residence and offices of the commander of British forces in Hong Kong till 1978.
With some time to kill recently I popped in and can report the two-storey Greek Revival structure is in good condition both in terms of interior and exterior, partly due to several renovations over its lifetime. The entrance is still impressive and the fireplaces have survived.
My immense thanks to Brian Wang and the Hai Seas Distillery in Shanghai for a much appreciated bottle of their San Oaks Whiskey and of their Crazy Eights Gold Oak Gin. Hai Seas use local grains and mountain spring water while their whiskey is finished in ex-bourbon barrels giving it a really distinctive flavour – their ‘Three Body Barrel’ concept combining French oak for vanilla and marzipan, American oak for caramel and roasted nuts, and Chinese Mongolica oak for spice. Really delicious.
Their Crazy Eights dark gin is a revelation – essentially a liqueur of local Chinese botanicals that needs no mixer and can be pleasantly drunk neat.
Check out Hai Seas whole range, history and order at https://hai-seas.com – if you’re in Shanghai there’s tastings and you can visit their distillery.
In the 1930s Chiang Yee, a Chinese writer and artist, moved to England. His work, and that of his wartime circle of Chinese literati, deserve to be remembered. Click here to read…
I had a conversation about the Macao-set Netflix movie Ballad of a Small Player with the author of the original novel Lawrence Osborne and the producer of the movie Mike Goodridge (of GoodChaos). Adapting a book to a movie, what stays, what goes?, the challenges of filming in Macao…. Click here to watch…
Donald Mennie’s The Grandeur of the Gorges, 50 Photographic Studies, with Descriptive Notes, of the Yangtze. Including Twelve Hand Coloured Prints, printed A S Watson & Company (The Shanghai Pharmacy, Ltd.) and distributed by Kelly & Walsh Shanghai, 1926. Limited Edition no 880/1000.
