The Ball Season is Coming – Best be Prepared – Grosvenor Gowns Can Help

As we move into November so the Christmas Balls are approaching for those that go to them (they’re hardly the once classy affairs of yesteryear – the British ones at least are now little more than a chance to swap grubby business cards, show of terrible levels of obesity and wear inappropriately tight clothing). Women will of course require something flattering and delicate to reflect their natures!! (hey, this is a blog about old Shanghai – patronising language towards the little ladies is allowed!!). As a service to the sumptuous ladies that loyally read China Rhyming we’d like to recommend the newly opened (ay least in June 1940 – talk about timing!!) Grosvenor Gowns situated on the Rue Cardinal Mercier (now rather drearily known as Maoming Road South). And they can cater should your Christmas soiree by a fancy dress ball as they do costumes too…and not forgetting hats. And all under the personal supervision of a European cutter to boot!

And if anyone attending a ball in Shanghai this Christmas sees anyone dressed even approaching as glamorously or as slim as the model in the advert I’ll be a monkey’s uncle!!

Singapore Heritage – The Old School

I do get the impression that Singapore has improved its attitude to heritage and preservation in recent years after a couple of trips down there and some conversations with people this year – especially when you think back to the days when no shophouse was safe and the island nearly lost all of them! There used to be a sense of saving western style buildings – churches, hotels etc but laying waste to Chinese or Straits-inspired architecture and removing all kampongs. This CNNGo article, whic rightly mentions the ridiculousness of preservation when it is simply ‘facadiside’, on the campaign around the Old School, or the former Methodist Girls School, at Mount Sophia, now a bit of an arts and galleries centre. Good luck to to the campaigners and the article notes their Facebook camapign. I fear that later buildings – 1950s, 1960s etc may not yet be fully appreciated.

Singapore’s Tan Kim Seng Water Fountain

I’ve just spent a few days in Singapore promoting Midnight in Peking and have a nose around the island state so I feel that one of my occasional Singapore-related posts should be allowed. And I want to note the rather lovely Tan Kim Seng fountain near the Padang. Every time I stroll by it I get a smile as it reminds me so much of the old corporation water fountains you see in parks in the industrial cities of northern England or Scotland (or indeed occasionally in less ‘company town’ England in places such as Halstead in Essex which was a Courtaulds town).

And there is sits dating back to 1882 when the Singapore Municipal Council decided to erect it to remember the trader and philanthropist who donated a large sum of money to bring Singapore a modern water system. Sadly he’d been dead 18 years by the time they did this so he never saw his fountain…but it’s the thought that counts surely? apparently it was originally in Fullerton Square and moved to its present location in 1925. It seems to get a regular lick of paint though I’ve never personally seen any water coming out of it.

Chinnery at Asia House – A London Must

I’m off to London in December and you can bet that one of my first stops (after a reviving pint of Fuller’s London Pride and then a Gregg’s pasty or three) will be to Asia House to see their Chinnery exhibition, which runs until January 12th next year. I have long loved Mr Chinnery, both the man and his work – a loveable and forever indebted rogue who deserted the wife in India, bolt holed in Macau, knew everyone, painted most of them and got up to all sorts. And the work is amazing; without Chinnery we would be substantially poorer in our knowledge of the everyday life and folk of Macao and the Canton Factories as well as early Hong Kong. If this period at the very start of the Anglo-Chinese trade lives for us at all then it is in the terms and colours that Chinnery painted for us (not least the self-portraits of his own rather ugly but mischievous looking mug).  It is also worth noting that this is the first major exhibition of Chinnery’s work in Britain for over 50 years (though several years ago Hong Kong had a rather good Chinnery exhibition that unlocked some of his work – much of which came courtesy of the likes of HSBC and Jardines, unsurprisingly!!).

The exhibition, The Flamboyant Mr Chinnery (1774-1852): An English Artist in India and China, should be good. I’ve never been so interested in the India stuff, simply because there were so many other artists at work there compared to Macao, Canton and Hong Kong. Chinnery may be slightly overlooked as he left early and never returned – come back to London with your pictures and tall tales of the East and you may have been feted but Chinnery remained in the East and died there. I’m not qualified to say if Chinnery was a great artist or not (though he did have a secret code language he wrote in which is rather fascinating) I’m into the subject matter and period rather than brush stroke and technique to be honest. More after I’ve spent some time with Chinnery in London.

A Macao street, courtesy of Chinnery

The Early Days of Reform – Red Capitalism

I usual recommend more straight forward history books on China but Red Capitalism: The Fragile Foundations of China’s Extraordinary Rise by finance eggheads Fraser Howie and Carl Walter is an interesting read on many levels, but (given the nature of this blog) especially on the early years of the reform period.

As usual just the cover and blurb here as I’ll review elsewhere for wages!!

In Red Capitalism, Carl Walter and Fraser Howie detail how the Chinese government reformed and modeled its financial system in the 30 years since it began its policy of engagement with the west. Instead of a stable series of policies producing steady growth, China’s financial sector has boomed and gone bust with regularity in each decade. The latest decade is little different. Chinese banks have become objects of political struggle while they totter under balance sheets bloated by the excessive state-directed lending and bond issuance of 2009.

Looking forward, the government’s response to the global financial crisis has created a banking system the stability of which can be maintained only behind the walls of a non-convertible currency, a myriad of off-balance sheet arrangements with non-public state entities and the strong support of its best borrowers–the politically potent National Champions–who are the greatest beneficiaries of the financial status quo.

China’s financial system is not a model for the west and, indeed, is not a sustainable arrangement for China itself as it seeks increasingly to assert its influence internationally. This is not a story of impending collapse, but of frustrated reforms that suggests that any full opening and meaningful reform of the financial sector is not, indeed cannot be, on the government’s agenda anytime soon.

The Heritage Trees of Hong Kong

I’ve mentioned before the importance of recognising trees as heritage, both in the context of the beautiful London planes of Shanghai that occasionally get uprooted and destroyed or the various trees of Hong Kong that have been in major danger from the rapacious property developers down there for some time – remember the row over ?????

Anyway, nice to see an article in the Cathay Pacific in-flight magazine Discovery (which I can’t link to) by Sally Robinson and with photos by Gary Ng. Robinson points out a number of interesting things about Hong Kong’s trees: The Burmese rosewood’s (Pterocarpus indices) were planted by the British over 100 years ago and many remain, notably those outside the Central Government Offices in Central; A Register of Old and Valuable Trees was set up in 2004 and lists 500 special trees that need special care;

Those property developers who get so annoyed by trees getting in the way of their grand schemes these days should remember that the last great destroyer of trees in Hong Kong was the occupying Japanese (a group Hong Kong eventually and very happily expelled!!). This destruction of trees by the Japs was partly responsible for Hong Kong getting so many acacias imported from Taiwan.

Among my favourites are the camphors that proliferate in Hong Kong (and, like Banyans, are hated by property developers as they put down large roots) such as those (a picture is included in Discovery) that line Haiphong Road in Tsim Sha Tsui shading the street from the park opposite. Banyans are great and often venerated as spiritual but hated for their roots by the vandals and those sort of government officials (which Hong Kong has a lot of) who like all pathways and roadways to be smooth!! Hollow trees are still common in the New Territories and Stone Wall Trees still common in Kennedy Town and along Hollywood Road. Property developers really hate Stone Wall Trees as they often grow between buildings and become integral to the structures – charming to us mere mortals; annoying  to those hoping to squeeze in a few more square metres of retail space to profit from. Forbes Street, in Kennedy Town, is apparently home to over 20 Stone Wall Trees.

Quite simply think of trees as you would of buildings…they are heritage and it’s important to defend them.

(I should note for balance that Robinson’s article, interesting as it is, makes no mention of the link between Cathay Pacific and the Swire group who own the airline. Swire are also a major property developer who have not been overly kind to trees that get in their way!!)

The marvellous Banyans of Haiphong Road

Midnight Reviewed at Length in Hong Kong Economic Journal & Prologue Books

I must throw in a link to this review of Midnight in Peking that appeared in the Hong Kong Economic Journal by Shiona Airlie. It’s longer than normal and very in-depth and obviously meets with my full approval.

So, apologies for the shameless self-promotion, but it’s a good review!!

And while I’m being self-indulgent can I just give a plug to Prologue books in Singapore. I’m down in Singapore promoting Midnight in Peking and was slightly worried that bookshops might be a bit thin on the ground what with Borders folding recently. But my publicist here recommended Prologue books on Orchard Road and it is a delightful bookshop with a great range (Midnight prominently displayed, which admittedly makes me a bit partial), good staff, a cafe and a stationery section. Borders is gone but bookshops live on and Prologue’s an example of a rebirth.

The French Book Shop…Latest Editions Arriving

Over the past few months I have experienced the frustration of just how bad China’s few English language stocking bookshops are – Chaterhouse going bankrupt, the Bookazine store in the IFC in Pootung just puts books on the shelf – nothing grouped by genre and nothing shelved alphabetically (and the staff seem surprised that they never sell anything)!! None of them have any idea what a hot book is, how to restock, how to display book and none have any staff who could care less. All rather depressing. So sod that and let’s go back to when Shanghai had good bookshops – and naturally that means going back to before 1949 when books were seen as essential things for reading pleasure and knowledge as oppoosed to either propaganda tools or things to be censored.

The French Book Shop (no relation) on Szechuen Road (now Sichuan Road Middle) looks like a better bet!!