Below the stamp for the Broadway Photo Studio, owned and operated by Wilhelm Feuerzeug, a Jewish refugee in Shanghai. The studio was on Broadway East (now Daming Road East). There is a whole and detailed biography of Feuerzeug here, though it seems to miss his Shanghai experience noting he left Trieste (as did the liners for Shanghai) and eventuially reached America. However, in the 1940s it seems he was operating the Broadway Photo Studio.
By the way, the Cafe Corso was also a 1940s establishment – oftren listed as being at 1098 Tungtaming, the post-1943 name for Broadway East.
The excellent Facebook group on Shanghai WW2 internees & Jewish refugees gets a mention in the Daily Express. And,if group patron Miriam Margolyes is determined to get a plaque, then I feel it likely it may happen. Not sure even China would say no to her!! Do join the group if interested…the Express article here online
Looking for a listen? All 4 episodes of Carry on Kidnapping, the true & bizarre tale of Muriel “Tinko” Pawley’s 1932 kidnapping in Manchuria by bandits, now on RTHK Hong Kong’s podcast site. Evelyn Waugh was gripped, hopefully you will be too –
Ultimately the Hong Kong democracy movement of 2019 was going to be fictionalised and Lawrence Osborne’s probably one of the best people to do it…On Java Road…
UK edition
US edition
After twenty indolent years as an ex-pat reporter in Hong Kong, Englishman Adrian Gyle has almost nothing to show for it. And now the streets are choked with students demanding democratic freedoms, and the old world begins to fall apart . . .
Watching from the skyrises overlooking the protests is Adrian’s old friend Jimmy Tang, the scion of a wealthy Hong Kong family, who has begun a reckless affair with Rebecca, a leading pro-democracy protestor, full of idealism and reeking of tear gas. The couple are dancing over the abyss, and Adrian is drawn into their clandestine romance with a mixture of complicity and envy.
But when Rebecca disappears and Jimmy goes to ground, Adrian unearths the familiar old urge to investigate, and personal loyalties evaporate overnight. Now an unwelcome foreigner in a hostile land, Adrian must reckon with these vanishings as old Hong Kong quietly slips off the stage. Pursuing Rebecca’s ghost to Java Road where the city’s dead congregate, Adrian re-assembles her final hours – as he struggles to distinguish between delusion and reality.
One last Bloody Saturday related post for this year – US Marines guard the roof of their headquarters (though i think this may be the US Marines Club on Bubbling Well Road (Nanjing West Road). Things were very unclear initially after the Bloody Saturday bombings in the Shanghai International Settlement on August 14 1937 regarding a potential Japanese invasion of the concessions…
On August 14 1937 – the dasy that became infamous in Shanghai history as “Bloody Saturday” – the authorities in the Shanghai foreign concessions issued a joint proclamation regarding air raid precautions. Of course the Japanese had been shelling Hongkou, Baoshan and Zhabei for days but, as the notice says, bombs were not expected on the settlements. That proved to be disastorously incorrect after the accidental bombing of both the International Settlement and the French Concession later that day…
This weekend is the 85th anniversary of the terrible events of August 14th in Shanghai, 1937, the accidental bombings of the Settlement and Frenchtown – then the largest civilian casualties from aerial bombing to date…I’ll post some new images I’ve acquired recently tomorrow (14th)…But here’s a reminder that my recreation of that awful day, the run up to it and the aftermath – Bloody Saturday: Shanghai’s Darkest Day (Penguin China and Penguin South East Asia) – is still available (amazon UK & amazon US)
Pallant House in Chichester currently has an excellent retrospective of the work of the rather overlooked English artist Glyn Philpot (1884-1937). The whole exhibition is well worth visiting if you find yourself in West Sussex before the end of October 2022 (details here). For those who follow the Sassoon’s and various Sassoon-related posts the exhibition includes Philpot’s portraits of both Philip Sassoon (1914) and Siegfried Sassoon (1917).
