Phyllis Konya (nee Juby) was an arts journalist, reviewer and theatre historian who married Sandor (AS) Konya in Cape Town in 1928. The pair moved to China and Phyllis began working for The China Mail as a journalist, and publishing some books (illustrated by her husband) based on the couple’s travels in China, including Chinese Fairy Tales (Newspaper Enterprise, 1934) and some of the chapbooks bound by string below published in the mid-1930s by The Newspaper Enterprise Ltd., Hong Kong.
These two woodblock prints by Tsukiota Yoshitoshi (1839-1892) – Moon at Yamki Mansim-Kagekado and Samurai Warrior, – both are from a set entitled One hundred Aspects of the Moon 1885-1892 – are of especial interest as the rear includes a plate on the rear that reads: Man Fong, 13 Lyndhurst Terrace, Hong Kong. Annoyingly I don’t have a shot of the plate (the one below is one I found on the web and probably approximate) but it does indicate interest in Japanese woodblocks in old Hong Kong…
In her new multimedia project Restless Archive, Simone Gigliotti curates a digital history of the historical migrations and transnational routes of Jewish refugees and postwar displaced persons. She has amassed what she terms a “restless archive” of photographic, cinematographic and visual material that was created and re-used between 1933 and 1949, with several newsreels relating to Shanghai as a port city and transit hub for Jewish refugees. She has also worked with GIS and mapping technology to recreate the voyage routes these refugees took from Europe to Asia. Her presentation will integrate videos, posters, and testimonies from the 1930s and 1940s.
Restless Archive: The Holocaust and the Cinema of the Displaced (Indiana University Press, 2023) is available to read for free here.
A while back I posted about car number plates in old Shanghai – International Settlement, French Concession and Chinese Districts plates (here). Here, for the record, is a French Concession motorcycle plate….the slightly obscured lettering is CMF – Conseil Municipale Francais.
Bernardine Szold Fritz arrived in Shanghai in 1929 to marry her fourth husband. Only thirty-three years old, she found herself in a time and place like no other. Political intrigue and scandal lurked on every street corner. Art Deco cinemas showed the latest Hollywood flicks, while dancehall owners and jazz musicians turned Shanghai into Asia’s top nightlife destination.
Yet from the night of their wedding, Bernardine’s new husband did not live up to his promises. Instead of feeling sorry for herself or leaving Shanghai, Bernardine decided to make a place for herself. Like other Jewish women before her, she started a salon in her home, drawing famous names from the world of politics, the arts, and the intelligentsia. She introduced Emily Hahn, the charismatic opium-smoking writer for The New Yorker, to the flamboyant hotelier Sir Victor Sassoon and legendary poet Sinmay Zau. And when Hollywood stars Anna May Wong, Charlie Chaplin, and Claudette Colbert passed through Shanghai, Bernardine organized gatherings to introduce them to their Shanghai contemporaries.
When Bernardine’s salon could not accommodate all who wanted to attend, she founded the International Arts Theater to produce avant-garde plays, ballets, lectures, and visual arts exhibits, often pushing audiences beyond their comfort zones. As civil war brewed and World War II soon followed, Bernardine’s devotion to the arts and the people of Shanghai brought joy to the city just before it would change forever.
