The Shanghai Front Pages…for Yesterday! – September 11 – 1901
Posted: September 12th, 2012 | 2 Comments »Sorry, should have posted this yesterday but forgot! The front page of the North China Herald for September 11th 1901…the headline article being the 1901 equivalent of “cheaper roaming charges for all!!”
Hi Paul, leaving this thought here for want of another way to find you.
I was re-reading Miracles of Life and noticed he refers to the infamous bombing of Great World confidently as a well known ‘friendly fire’ incident. That it was hit by a stray bomb from a Chinese plane at a time when the foreign city was not targeted.
In 2001, and up to its closure during SARS, I used to hang out at Great World a lot It was gloriously surreal and anachronistic and I found the main stage touring acrobats more exciting than the fixed tourist shows. There was a photo display there showing the bombing – directly next to the crazy mirrors – and that display was clearly labelled “Great World is bombed by the bastard Japanese.” translation courtesy of a native speaking friend of mine, who was from Hong Kong and bemused that an official display of a serious event would be captioned with emotional language.
Have you ever come across reports or articles talking of the bombing as an error etc? Ballard writes as if it was open knowledge.
Yes, it was a bomb from a Chinese plane accidentally dropped that hit the Great World. On Saturday, 14 August 1937, Chinese air force planes flew over Shanghai to bomb Japanese cruisers on the Huang Pu to prevent Japanese air raids on China, but they missed. This fact may not be widely known in Shanghai but is not, as far as I know, covered up – i.e. see here – http://www.icshanghai.com/en/information/2012-07-13/4885.html