All things old China - books, anecdotes, stories, podcasts, factoids & ramblings from the author Paul French
Three photos of the (unnamed) 1906 Hong Kong typhoon was a tropical cyclone that hit Hong Kong on 18 September 1906. The typhoon caused property damage exceeding a million pounds sterling, affected international trade and took the lives of around 15,000 people
When I posted this c.1929 photograph of a factory in Weihaiwei (Weihai) on instagram (oldshanghaipaul) I must admit I didn’t even both to even google it simply assuming it would be long gone. But, thanks to Weihai resident Yi Liu, I find that it is there still and has been brilliantly repurposed. It is now the China Lettering Art Museum of calligraphy and typesetting, which opened in 2012, on Liugong Island. The 200 exhibits show the integration of traditional Chinese characters with modern art forms.
It is obviously typical of the European-influenced, granite, architecture on Liugong, which was part of the British leased territory of Weihaiwei till 1931 and also a base for the Royal Navy China Station. Also unknown to me was that Liugong was designated as a key protection site of cultural relics by the State Council in 1988. Sources online claim the original building was a British built distillation tower.
From May 13th to 17th, Bookshop.org will be offering a 20% discount code on pre-orders of my new book The Last Emperor of China: Twilight of the Forbidden City… Click the link here and you can use the promo code below at checkout.
Remember, Bookshop.org launched in the UK in November 2020 as a platform for independent bookshops to sell physical books. Bookshops receive 30% of the cover price from each sale they generate on Bookshop.org.
Murdoch Bruce (active 1840-1855) held the post of an Inspector of Buildings in Hong Kong. An architect by training, he was also an outstanding amateur watercolourist, and provided a meticulous transcription of the city’s classical colonial architecture a few years after the British settled on the island. His series of twelve watercolours for Hong Kong were lithographed in 1846…
The World of Suzie Wong Night Club, Hong Kong, captured in 1966 in the movie Kill A Dragon. Inspired by Richard Mason’s 1957 novel and 1960 film. A sailor and tourist trap. Located in Wanchai on Lockhart Road near Tonnochy Road (you can see Gilman Motors in the daytime shot which was, I think, on the Tonnochy and Gloucester Roads block (still a centre of the motor trade)…. The interiors are also on location I believe.
HMS Kent arrives in Shanghai along the Huangpu River, 1939 – what was then known as “Gunboat Row” for obvious reasons you can see here. From the collection of Henry D Killingback who served on Kent. An interesting photograph as it also gives the lie to the popular misconception that there was nothing Pudong-side until the 1990s (I’ve heard this for 35 years from people!!). As you can see this was always wrong. This picture was, I assume, taken from the top of the Broadway (slightly later Shanghai) Mansions building on North Suzhou Road (formerly #1 Broadway) – perhaps the old Foreign Correspondents Club or higher, perhaps the 17th floor bar.
I have a few copies of my Penguin Special Betrayal in Paris: How the Treaty of Versailles Led to China’s Long Revolution published in 2014 as part of the Penguin China series commemorating the centenary of the First World War and in particular China’s role in the global conflict. As ever email paul@chinarhyming.com – it’s first come, first served and I can mail anywhere except the PRC and the USA…
A sad little tale of Hong Kong and heritage. It’s trite to say, but sadly Hong Kong property developers only really care about money. They have absolutely no interest in heritage or architectural history, and that disappointingly also includes Kadoorie Estates.
When I started planning my “Kowloon Tong: Art Deco and Hidden Heritage in Hong Kong” walking tour for VoiceMap (https://voicemap.me/tour/hong-kong/kowloon-tong-art-deco-and-hidden-heritage-in-hong-kong) the aim was to revisit the art-deco classic architecture of Kadoorie Hill, the Braga Circuit and along Prince Edward Road West. Most of the highlights of that walk still exist (so please do download it!), but in the couple of years since I started work on it we have learnt that the beautiful shophouses around Yuen Ngai Street and Flower Market Road, off Prince Edward Road West, are under threat as the dreaded Urban Renewal Authority is planning a sanitised indoor flower market which would eradicate many of these structures.
But by far the biggest and most significant loss to Kowloon’s heritage, courtesy of Kadoorie Estates, has been St George’s Court – now totally bulldozed and gone.
Among the houses and villas of Kadoorie Avenue and the Braga Circuit St. George’s Court, once at #81-85 Kadoorie Avenue, was an ultra-modern post-war apartment building. Though completed in 1956, it displayed elements of a slightly earlier Art Deco as well as Modernism and the more on-trend Bauhaus tradition which was relatively popular in post-war Hong Kong. Some have used the term “delayed modernism” to describe the later use of modernist architectural styles in Hong Kong. You can see it with several ferry piers, the Central Market for instance.
The indented structure of St. George’s Court was essentially a single six-story block with 39 residential units, the individual flats being typically between 1,500-3,000sqft and all included multiple bedrooms, bathrooms, a kitchen, and maid’s room. They all had Crittall window frames and forward and side-facing rooms with sizeable verandas as well as a car park reflecting more widespread car ownership in Hong Kong after the war. The upper floors originally gave a view over the nearby residential area of Ho Man Tin. The apartments were originally marketed to executives and young families with some financial means. The complex was fully occupied shortly after completion, such was its instant popularity in the 1950s.
And now it is gone…Tragic.
