All things old China - books, anecdotes, stories, podcasts, factoids & ramblings from the author Paul French
You may not know this but Wallis Simpson stayed in Felixstowe, Suffolk, in 1936 while she was awaiting her divorce from her second husband, Ernest Simpson. And now she’s returning – at least in some slides as I’m talking about her China years at this year’s Felixstowe Book Festival. Tickets and details here
Frank Dorn, the Mysterious Mapmaker of Beiping (Beijing)” by Lar Ulrik Thom (online), co-organized by RASBJ and Beijing Postcards
June 18, Wednesday, from 7:00-8:00 PM Beijing Time
In 1936 Frank Dorn made one of the most fascinating and popular maps of old Beijing. Cartoon in style, Dorn’s map is a unique window into old Beijing. Surprisingly little is known publicly about the mysterious mapmaker, even though the man is as fascinating as his map. In Beijing (then Beiping), he befriended some of the most knowledgeable foreign experts on China including Owen Lattimore, Sven Hedin and L.C Arlington. Dorn worked on a movie script with the first Hollywood star of Chinese origin, Anna May Wong. In 1938 after war broke out between China and Japan, Dorn met and befriended a young Zhou Enlai. And later, when the US entered the war against Japan, Dorn was promoted to the rank of general and witnessed at close quarters some of the heated disagreements between key players of the time, such as Chiang Kai-shek and the founder of the Flying Tigers Claire Chennault. Both the map and its maker offer unique perspectives on China’s late Republican era.
MORE ABOUT THE SPEAKER: Lars Ulrik Thom has been dedicated to Beijing history for the past 20 years. As the founder of Beijing Postcards, he’s been leading projects, conducting archival research, collecting oral histories, and sharing this knowledge through themed walks, talks, exhibitions and historical souvenirs.
HOW MUCH: Admission to this collaboration between RASBJ and Beijing Postards is RMB 50 for members of RASBJ, the Beijing Postcards community, and partner RAS branches (London, Shanghai, and Hong Kong). RMB 100 for non-members. Interested in becoming an RASBJ member? Please sign up at https://rasbj.org/membership/
HOW TO JOIN THE EVENT: Please click “Register” or “I will Attend” no later than noon on June 16 and follow the instructions. After successful registration you’ll receive a confirmation email with a link to join the event. If you seem not to have received it, please check your spam folder. You may find paying via Alipay easier than paying by Wechat; you can also use international credit cards.
MEMBERS OF PARTNER RAS BRANCHES: Please register at least 72 hours in advance to allow time for membership verification. You’ll receive several emails from RASBJ confirming registration/payment. Please check your spam folder to ensure you see all RASBJ emails.
During her time in Shanghai in autumn 1924 Wallis would have seen the US 4th Marines stationed there out and about. Here they are marching on the racecourse along Bubbling Well Road. You can spot the China United Building (now on Nanjing West Road) behind….
Her Lotus Year: China, the Roaring Twenties and the Making of Wallis Simpson is available everywhere in hardback, e-book and audiobook now…
Victory in Shanghai: A Korean American Family’s Journey to the CIA and the Army Special Forces by Robert S Kim (Potomac Books)….
Victory in Shanghai tells the long-hidden story of a family from Korea that struggled for three decades to become Americans and ultimately fought their way to the United States through heroic actions with the U.S. Army during World War II. Among the first families from Korea to migrate to the United States in the early twentieth century, the Kim family was forced into exile in Shanghai in the mid-1920s after a new U.S. immigration law in 1924 excluded Asians. Two decades later, the family’s four sons—raised as Americans in the expatriate community of Shanghai—voluntarily stepped forward during World War II to defend the nation they considered theirs.
From both sides of the Pacific, the Kim brothers served in uniform with the U.S. Army and in the underground U.S. intelligence network in Shanghai. At the end of the war the eldest son led the liberation of seven thousand American and Allied civilians held in Japanese internment camps in Shanghai. His actions and the support of the leading generals of the U.S. Army in China led to three special acts of Congress that granted him U.S. citizenship and admitted the entire Kim family into the United States. Four Kim brothers became some of the earliest intelligence officers of the nascent U.S. intelligence community, and three of them ascended to leadership positions in the CIA and the Army Special Forces.
Victory in Shanghai tells two intertwined American origin stories: a Korean family’s struggle to become Americans during the World War II era and the contributions of Korean Americans to the creation of modern U.S. intelligence and special operations. Withheld from the public until recently due to the secrecy surrounding their actions during World War II and the Cold War, the history of the Kim family is one of the great stories of coming to America and defending and strengthening it in the process.
Barbara Demick is beloved for her rigorous, immersive and evocative journalism, and this latest book once again demonstrates her prowess.
Daughters of the Bamboo Grove tells the story of Zeng Fangfang and Zeng Shuangjie, twin sisters born in China, one stolen by the authorities and sold to adoptive parents in America, who believed that the child had been abandoned. She had, in fact, been kidnapped by local officials and sent to an orphanage. The Zeng family’s efforts to reconnect many years later frame Demick’s remarkable investigation into how China’s “one child policy” corresponded with a huge demand for international adoptees in America.
This poignant story follows the twins, and their respective fates, whilst also describing Barbara’s role in helping to reunite them against huge odds. Painting a rich portrait of China’s history and culture, it asks questions about the impact and consequences of China’s one-child policy and the ethics of international adoption.
Writer and journalist Lindsey Hilsum joins Barbara for this conversation. Lindsey Hilsum is a multi-award-winning journalist who has been a foreign correspondent for the past four decades. She has been Channel 4’s international editor for the past 22 years and is the author of In Extremis: The Life of War Correspondent Marie Colvin, Sand Storm and I Brought the War with Me.
Barbara Demick won the Samuel Johnson Prize for Nothing to Envy, her seminal book on North Korea, which went on to be shortlisted for the Baillie Gifford Prize ‘Winner of Winners’ Award in 2023. She is also the author of Eat the Buddha which was longlisted for the Baillie Gifford Prize, and Besieged, her account of the war in Sarajevo.
Ticket price includes a glass of wine or a soft drink.
Monday 9th June 2025 Event starts at 7:00pm
Daunt Books Marylebone
83-84 Marylebone High Street,
London W1U 4QW
A tapestry for the First Battalion Devonshire Regiment – Far East Land Forces : Malaya and Hong Kong 1950 Embroidery. These embroideries were popular at most army stations – I’ve most several before from soldiers stationed at the British Legation, Peking. Obviously a source of employment or a side hustle for local communities nearby. This is the first one I’ve seen for Malaya/Hong Kong. Given his age I guess “Arthur” could be either a National Serviceman or a regular.
I’ll be speaking at the Felixstowe Book Festival this June 28 (details and tickets here)…. I’m talking about China of course but there is a slightly later link between Wallis and the Suffolk coastal town….
Wallis Simpson, the future Duchess of Windsor and wife of King Edward VIII, stayed in Felixstowe, Suffolk, England, while awaiting her divorce from her second husband, Ernest Simpson, in 1936. She resided at Beach House, a five-bedroom property on the seafront, and later secretly hid at another location, Harvest House. The Felixstowe Times reported on her divorce case, although it did not mention her affair with the King at the time. I’m afraid she didn’t much appreciate the charms of Felixstowe and its seafront – perhaps not surprising given the pressure and media intrusion – but the town hasn’t forgotten her…
Nathalia Holt’s The Beast in the Clouds: The Roosevelt Brothers’ Deadly Quest to Find the Mythical Giant Panda (Simon & Schuster)…
The Himalayas—a snowcapped mountain range that hides treacherous glacier crossings, raiders poised to attack unsuspecting travelers, and air so thin that even seasoned explorers die of oxygen deprivation. Yet among the dangers lies one of the most beautiful and fragile ecosystems in the world.
During the 1920s, dozens of expeditions scoured the Chinese and Tibetan wilderness in search of the panda bear, a beast that many believed did not exist. When the two eldest sons of President Theodore Roosevelt sought the bear in 1928, they had little hope of success. Together with a team of scientists and naturalists, they accomplished what a decade of explorers could not, ultimately introducing the panda to the West. In the process, they documented a vanishing world and set off a new era of conservation biology.
Along the way, the Roosevelt expedition faced an incredible series of hardships as they disappeared in a blizzard, were attacked by robbers, overcome by sickness and disease, and lost their food supply in the mountains. The explorers would emerge transformed, although not everyone would survive. Beast in the Clouds brings alive these extraordinary events in a potent nonfiction thriller featuring the indomitable Roosevelt family.