BBC Radio 4 – The Boy in the Peking Hotel

Posted: June 15th, 2023 | No Comments »

When 8 year old Kim Gordon set off for China in 1965, it set in train a tale of passion, imagination and still unanswered questions. Kim’s parents were committed communists in the thick of Mao’s cultural revolution. Kim became a Red Guard, one of an army of children and teenagers marshalled in support of Mao and he had a ringside view of the vast rallies in Tiananmen Square. But when the political tide turned against foreigners, the family was imprisoned for two years in a tiny hotel room, Room 421.

The Gordon family had no contact with the outside world for two years and their families back in Britain had no idea where they were. With only a block of paper and a wild imagination for company Kim passed the time by writing letters that could never be sent, and thrilling plays which he’d act aloud playing all the parts himself. His story reveals much about families and loyalties; on the grip of ideology; and the ingenuity of a child shut in an empty room. A rich and strange reminiscence not just of China but of the human heart.

Charlie Brand plays young Kim in this dramatic, intimate documentary.

Producer: Monica Whitlock

On BBC Sounds or Click here

And for those who know their old Peking well – though called the ‘Peking Hotel’ the Gordon’s were not kept in the better known Peking, or Beijing, Hotel but rather in the large, square, soviet style Hsin Chiao Hotel (New Sojourn). This is now, I think, the 700 room Beijing Novotel Xinqiao Hotel (which fancies itself 4 star but…) which had a statue of Chairman Mao in the lobby till 1971.

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