This Week’s Sinica Podcast

Kaiser Kuo and Jeremy Goldkorn, the hosts of the Sinica podcast from Beijing on all things China and Chinese, invited me along to be on their show this week – brilliantly they got The Guardian’s China Correspondent Tania Branigan along too. We talked Bo Xilai, perservation and heritage, Midnight in Peking and their usual China-related recommendations. It was fun…

podcast page:
http://popupchinese.com/lessons/sinica/midnight-in-peking

standalone mp3 file:
http://popupchinese.com/data/1122/sinica-midnight-in-peking.mp3

rss feed:
http://popupchinese.com/feeds/custom/sinica

From Bo’s political death to a Beijing murder in one easy segue!!

RAS Book Club – The New Penguin Classic Edition of Vare’s Fantastic Maker of Heavenly Trousers

RAS BOOK CLUB – The Maker of Heavenly Trousers – Daniel Vare

Monday 19^th March 2012 at 6.30pm

The PuLi Hotel and Spa

1 ChangDe Road, JingAn District, Shanghai

With Michael Tsang (Penguin Editor)

The RAS Book Club will meet to discuss Daniele Varè The Maker of Heavenly Trousers. Michael Tsang the editor in charge of this new publication in the Penguin Modern Classic will join us for the discussion with the members. Michael will share with us his intimate experience of the book in editing this new edition.

Entrance: RMB 70.00 (RAS members) and RMB 100.00 (non-members) including a drink (tea, coffee, soft drink, glass of wine). Those unable to make the donation but wishing to attend may contact us for part exemption, prior to this RAS Book Club event. Membership applications and renewals will be available at these events.

RSVP: bookclub@royalasiaticsociety.org.cn

N.B RESERVATIONS ESSENTIAL AS SPACE IS LIMITED AT THIS EVENT

MORE ABOUT THE MAKER OF HEAVENLY TROUSERS

‘A delightful story, in which the author’s fancy imparts new and whimsical aspects to familiar things and scenes’

Times Literary Supplement

A Peking love story first published in 1935, The Maker of Heavenly Trousers tells the story of an unnamed foreign bachelor who lives in a courtyard dwelling alone but for the Five Virtues, the nickname for a family of mischievous Chinese servants who run his household as they please. It is they who take pity on their neighbor, Kuniang (literally, “young girl”), whose father is rarely in Peking, inviting her to come and join them in their master’s home.

Independent and free-spirited, Kuniang is swept into a life of excitement, fleeting friendships and family. She encounters eccentrics, millionaires and a shadowy former mistress of Rasputin, gains many admirers and slowly she captures the heart of her guardian as well. But when Kuniang is unwittingly pulled into a strange and dark Eastern hypnosis a terrifying vision threatens their prospects and their charmed and charming world very nearly comes crashing down around them.

Set against the mysterious and turbulent backdrop of early twentieth century Peking, with its disparate inhabitants, The Maker of Heavenly Trousers brings China to life. It has been reprinted numerous times following its initial publication in 1935 and is an absolute favorite amongst Sinophiles the world over. With this new edition, The Maker of Heavenly Trousers is taking its rightful place in the Penguin Modern Classics series as the first of many to be published by Penguin China.

Daniele Varè was born in 1880, the son of an Italian nationalist exiled with Mazzini by the Austrian regime. Although he spent several years in England and Scotland, he returned to Italy with his mother at the age of eleven and eventually entered the diplomatic service. He served in Vienna, Geneva, Copenhagen and Luxembourg. However, his chief posting was in Peking where he first arrived in 1912. During his time there he observed the overthrow of the Qing dynasty, civil war and the effects of both the Russian Revolution and the First World War as exiles fled into China from abroad. Many of these experiences became the subject matter of his novels.

The Maker of Heavenly Trousers was first published in 1935. It was followed soon after by its two sequels The Gate of Happy Sparrows and The Temple of Costly Experience, and by the author’s autobiography, The Laughing Diplomat, in 1938. Daniele Varè died in 1956.

Notes for Editors

About the Penguin Modern Classics

Penguin Modern Classics began in 1961, when an unconventional Penguin editor – Tony Godwin – decided that authors of his time were producing books that deserved classic status just as much as the works of Dickens or Homer. Many of the early titles published in the list (including Franz Kafka’s Metamorphosis, Carson McCuller’s The Heart is a Lonely Hunter and F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby) are still considered landmark classics.

Penguin Modern Classics have caused scandal and political change, inspired great films, and broken down barriers, whether social, sexual, or in the case of Ulysses, the boundaries of language itself. They remain the very best, most provocative, exciting, groundbreaking, inspiring, revolutionary works of the last 100 years – an organic, ever-growing and ever-evolving list of books that we believe will continue to be read by generation after generation.

Where JG Ballard Ate Thai Food…

Here’s a posting that’s obscure even by my normal standards…Just read the very amusing new Penguin Short from Will Self – The Unbearable Lightness of Being a Prawn Cracker – where he reviews places ordinary people eat like Yo Sushi, EAT, KFC, Nandos etc etc. He always mentions that he used to dine regularly with JG Ballard at the Esarn Kheaw Thai Restaurant on the Shepherd’s Bush Road. Yep, that’s it…that’s my post – told you it was obscure but we like Ballardian trivia here at China Rhyming.

In Beijing With Carol Birch This Saturday

Just a quick note to say I’ll be moderating a discussion with the great Carol Birch – she of Jamrach’s Menagerie and, not mentioned so much, the great Turn Again Home as well as a bunch of other novels – at the Beijing International Literary Festival.

Saturday, 17th March – The Beijing Bookworm – 20:00

Man Booker 2011 shortlisted Jamrach’s Menagerie is a fast-paced adventure tale with a haunting twist. As a boy, Jaffy Brown is almost eaten by a tiger in a Victorian slum. Surviving the ordeal, Jaffy finds himself working at Mr. Jamrach’s exotic animal menagerie. He soon sets off with his best friend Tim on a whaling ship to hunt a legendary dragon for Jamrach’s collection. The journey on the high seas starts off full of promise and excitement, but then it all goes horribly wrong. Paul French (Midnight in Peking) talks with Carol Birch about the dangers of the sea, our darkest animal instincts and living to tell the tale. Brought to you by Dulwich College Beijing. 65 RMB

Midnight in Peking at the Beijing International Literary Festival

We’re having a Midnight in Peking night during the Beijing International Literary Festival (which just seems to get bigger and better every year). It’s going to be quite a glam affair I think at the lovely and very trendy Opposite House hotel (below)on Sanlitun. Their foyer exhibition space will be taken over with Midnight in Peking ephemera and exhibits, there’ll be cocktails, canapes, a talk and a general party I think. If you’re in Beijing do come along.

Sunday, 18th March – The Opposite House Hotel – 18:00

Paul French’s true-crime page-turner, Midnight in Peking, delves deep into Beijing’s sordid demimonde. On the cusp of WW II, the murder of Pamela Werner, a young British girl, shocked and paralysed the city. Join us for a special event as French takes us up close and personal to the seedy and fascinating characters of the Badlands and Legation Quarter. Plus, don’t miss a special display of archival photographs, recordings and more that French unearthed. 100 RMB

And a couple more hotels from 1907…

As we had three ads for Hong Kong hotels in 1907 I thought why not post one for the Macao Hotel on the Portuguese colony’s then famous and beautiful Praya Grande (well, just lap up those gorgeous old Chinnery’s of the waterfront strip – not long buggered up of course). Up on Shameen Island (where a few charming buildings still stand along the side the rather ugly White Swan Hotel and the truly disgusting American Consulate) in Canton (Guangzhou if you must) was the Victoria (what else to call it in the British Concession!).

Royal Asiatic Society Suzhou – First Anniversary and Fenby on the Generalissimo

RAS WEEKENDER

Saturday 17^th March 2012 at 3.00pm

Venue: Meeting Point to be advised to participants

Destination: The Suzhou Bookworm

RAS Suzhou Chapter 1^st Anniversary in conjunction with Suzhou Literary Festival

JONATHON FENBY

on

CHIANG KAI SHEK: The Early Years (Part 1)

Come celebrate the first anniversary of the Suzhou chapter of the Royal Asiatic Society (RAS) with a talk by Jonathan Fenby on the early life of Chiang Kai Shek, followed by a reception hosted by the RAS. Mr. Fenby will trace the rise of Chiang from 1911 to 1937, against the backdrop of a country torn apart by feuding warlords, ruthless gangsters, greedy colonials and pugnacious political parties including the epic Northern Expedition to Shanghai, the White terror purge of Communists and the establishment of the Nationalist government in Nanjing. He will talk about Chiang’s early life, how he came to lead the Kuomingdang, his turn against the Communists, the period of the Long March, his marriage to the glamorous US educated Song Meiling, the loss of Manchuria and the surrounding events. Mr. Fenby will conclude this lecture, with the advent of full-scale war. The second lecture covering the years from 1937 – 1948 and the flight to Taiwan will be held later in the year at RAS Shanghai as Part 2.

Mr. Jonathan Fenby, CBE, is the author of a biography of Chiang Kai Shek and of “The Penguin History of Modern China: The Fall and Rise of a Great Power, 1850-2009”. He speaks at conferences, universities and public forums on China. He is currently Director, China Research at the research service Trusted Sources. He has written many other books on China, World War II and France as well as contributing to many publications. He was previously the editor of The Observer and the South China Morning Post.

Entrance: RMB 200.00(RAS members) and RMB 300.00 (non-members). Includes bus trip to and from Shanghai, Suzhou Literary Festival ticket for the lecture and drinks and snacks at the RAS Suzhou 1^st Anniversary reception.  Those unable to make the donation but wishing to attend may contact us for part exemption, prior to the RAS Weekender. Membership applications and membership renewals will be available at this event.

RSVP: to RAS Bookings at: bookings@royalasiaticsociety.org.cn

N.B. Reservations are essential for this event as places are limited.

PROGRAMME FOR RAS SUZHOU 1^ST ANNIVERSARY

3.00pm Meet at designated meet point in central Shanghai, to be advised to all participants

3.15pm Leave by bus to Suzhou, where we will arrive at The Suzhou Bookworm around 4.15pm

5.00pm Lecture by Mr. Jonathan Fenby on Chiang Kai Shek: The Early Years (Part 1)

6.00pm Q & A with Mr. Fenby

6.30pm Conclusion of lecture proceedings and join the reception and celebrations for RAS Suzhou 1^st Anniversary with drinks and snacks provided by the RAS Suzhou and the Suzhou Bookworm

9.30pm Bus for return to Shanghai

A special dinner menu will be available from The Suzhou Bookworm at an additional charge of (TBA)

Street photography in China: A workshop with Sue Anne Tay – March 18th – Suzhou

I have to give a quick plug for this event with the excellent Sue Anne Tay doing a masterclass out in Suzhou at the Suzhou bookworm International Literary Festival. I think it might originally have been my idea so if it all falls to pieces she’s going to kill me! But it won’t – hopefully they’ll post the best (only the best, none of that “prizes for everyone” nonsense thank you)

Street photography in China: A workshop with Sue Anne Tay

Date: 18th March 13:00

Location: Suzhou Bookworm, Gunxiufang 77, Shiquan Road Suzhou (苏州 十全街 滚绣坊 77) Map

Update: Tickets are RMB50 per session (includes complimentary beverage) and can be acquired at Suzhou Bookworm. Or call them at +0312 3269 8547 for alternative ticket arrangements.

For the first time ever, Sue Anne Tay of the popular photo blog Shanghai Street Stories will be conducting a street photography workshop right here in Suzhou. In one afternoon, Sue Anne will discuss the allure of street photography as a way to experience China and share her approach to shooting in Shanghai’s streets. Later, she will lead participants on a shooting jaunt in the busy streets of Suzhou and wrap up the workshop with an informal post-shoot discussion session back at The Bookworm Suzhou.

Workshop Agenda:

– A 1.5 hour talk + Q&A on street photography in China at the Suzhou Bookworm

– A 1 hour photoshoot around the Bookworm

– A 1 hour post-shoot discussion (For participants who are joining the shooting jaunt, they need: digital camera (DSLR, point and shoot, Iphone etc.) and a laptop with accompanying photo-editing software)