All things old China - books, anecdotes, stories, podcasts, factoids & ramblings from the author Paul French
The lost Chinatown of Millionka is a place I’ve wanted to write about for quite some time…finally got thr chance in the South China Morning Post weekend magazine – click here to read…
Riaz Dean’s Mapping the Great Game….
In the 19th century, the British and Russian empires were engaged in bitter rivalry for the acquisition of Southern Asian. Although India was the ultimate prize, most of the intrigue and action took place along its northern frontier in Afghanistan, Turkestan and Tibet. Mapping the region and gaining knowledge of the enemy were crucial to the interests of both sides.
The Great Trigonometrical Survey of India began in the 18th century with the aim of creating a detailed map of the subcontinent. Under the leadership of George Everest—whose name was later bestowed to the world’s tallest mountain—the it mapped the Great Arc running from the country’s southern tip to the Himalayas. Much of the work was done by Indian explorers known as Pundits. They were the first to reveal the mysteries of the forbidden city of Lhasa, and discover the true course of Tibet’s mighty Tsangpo River.
These explorers performed essential information gathering for the British Empire and filled in large portions of the map of Asia. Their adventurous exploits are vividly recounted in Mapping the Great Game.
A melancholy opening line of a chapter from Frederic Prokosch’s curious and rather forgotten 1937 novel of Turkestan, Kashgar, exile and China, The Seven Who Fled…
I guess the recent Chinese movie The Eight Hundred raised awareness of the Nationalist army’s battle of Sihang Warehouse in 1937 Shanghai and perhaps partly prompted this book by Stephen Robinson, which i was asked to blurb: Here’s a link to the book and below my blurb….and I also note Guan Hu’s movie is available to rent on amazon…
The story of the 1937 battle of Sihang Warehouse, the resistance against the Japanese onslaught of Shanghai, and the heroism of the 800 Chinese soldiers who fought to the bitter end is one of the great stories of bravery in the Second Sino-Japanese War. Yet it is so little acknowledged outside China. Stephen Robinson’s highly readable history of the event is both comprehensive and concise, detailed yet placing this definitive event within the broader history of wartime China. ― Paul French, author of City of Devils and Destination Shanghai
Here a nice logo from the fantastic Shanghai publishers of old Kelly & Walsh – 1915…
Should you be looking for an escapist read with some China history thrown in…TL Mogford’s The Plant Hunter might do the job…
1867. King’s Road, Chelsea, is a sea of plant nurseries, catering to the Victorian obsession with rare and exotic flora. But each of the glossy emporiums is fuelled by the dangerous world of the plant hunters – daring adventurers sent into uncharted lands in search of untold wonders to grace England’s finest gardens.
Harry Compton is as far from a plant hunter as one could imagine – a salesman plucked from the obscurity of the nursery growing fields to become ‘the face that sold a thousand plants’.
But one small act of kindness sees him inherit a precious gift – a specimen of a fabled tree last heard of in The Travels of Marco Polo, and a map.
Seizing his chance for fame and fortune, Harry sets out to make his mark. But where there is wealth there is corruption, and soon Harry is fleeing England, rounding the Cape of Good Hope and sailing up the Yangtze alongside a young widow – both in pursuit of the plant that could transform both their lives forever.
Rarely much good news from Hong Kong in terms of heritage or restoration so the new Shek O Bus Terminus is most welcome. The Shek O Bus Terminus was built in 1955, designed by US-trained architect (the US influence is clear in the structure) Su Gin Djih of Hsin Yieh Architects and Associates, a Shanghai firm that relocated to Hong Kong in 1949. But it had fallen into a bad state of disrepair though the cantilevered balcony and some of the art deco lettering remained. The renovation was undertaken by bus operator NWFB, which holds the tenancy agreement on the terminus. Since 2013 the Antiquities Advisory Board hadgranted Grade 2 historic building status to the Terminus.
The ever-pioneering Koryo Studios and Nick Bonner have a new project (sadly tours and many other events are off the agenda for some time now and some time to come). They’ve commissioned a North Korea photographer Kim Gwang Hun to shoot the DPRK’s best known actors and actresses to visit the Pyongyang film studios and recreate some of their most famous scenes. See the shots here – and, if you like them and/or want to help out Koryo at this trickiest of times, they’re for sale too. Click here
