Dwelling in the World considers family, house, and home in Tianjin to explore how tempos and structures of everyday life changed with the fall of the Qing Empire and the rise of a colonized city. Elizabeth LaCouture argues that the intimate ideas and practices of the modern home were more important in shaping the gender and status identities of Tianjin’s urban elites than the new public ideology of the nation. Placing the Chinese home in a global context, she challenges Euro-American historical notions that the private sphere emerged from industrialization. She argues that concepts of individual property rights that emerged during the Republican era became foundational to state-society relations in early Communist housing reforms and in today’s middle-class real estate boom.
I’ve not this book as forthcoming before with some anticipation – it has now arrived and doesn’t disappoint…. so a reminder…
Dwelling in the World considers family, house, and home in Tianjin to explore how tempos and structures of everyday life changed with the fall of the Qing Empire and the rise of a colonized city. Elizabeth LaCouture argues that the intimate ideas and practices of the modern home were more important in shaping the gender and status identities of Tianjin’s urban elites than the new public ideology of the nation. Placing the Chinese home in a global context, she challenges Euro-American historical notions that the private sphere emerged from industrialization. She argues that concepts of individual property rights that emerged during the Republican era became foundational to state-society relations in early Communist housing reforms and in today’s middle-class real estate boom.
Along with Johnnie Walker whisky French cognac brand Hennessy was one of the most widely distributed and noted foreign alcohol brands in old Shanghai. See their 1930s advert below. But I was intrigued to see that post-war it was also a highly recognisable brand in Hong Kong, as seen here in this 1960 movie about alcolohlism (that, incidentally, shows how the styles of pre-war Shanghai lingered and lingered a la In the Mood for Love)…More after the 1930s Shanghai ad…
Death Traps (Sha ji chong chong) is a 1960 Hong Kong movie directed by Wong Tim-lam, written by Chang Cheh and starring (Helen) Li Mei, a Chinese actress who moved to Hong Kong in 1949 (for obvious reasons). The movie’s rather convulted plot is that Li Mei is an alcoholic (albeit a rather well dressed and presented one) who hire a mafia boss to kill her. Anyway, here’s the look and the Hennessy (perhaps nowadays not their preferred product placement!)…
The cover of the winner of the 2021 Spanish-Language Book Prize is “Regresar a China [Returning to China]” by Universitat Oberta de Catalunya sinologist Carles Prado-Fonts. Here’s hoping for a translation into English soon…
Just a reminder that all 6 episodes of Peking Noir are still available to download & listen to if you haven’t yet – BBC Sounds, Spotify, iTunes et al….
A superb evocation of the louche underworld of inter war China’ Radio Times
‘Riveting…perfect listening for a long winter’s night… 5 stars’ Daily Mail
Stumbled across this academic article from the late 1970s comparing & contrasting the images of China presented in the two best-selling books on China in 1930s America – Carl’s 400 Million Customers and Edgar Snow’s Red Star Over China (published roughly within a year of each other)….here’s the full citation for anyone interested – Pacific Historical Review, Vol. 47, No. 1 (Feb., 1978), pp. 107-122 (16 pages)
Laura Maze, aka Lady Maze, was the wife of Sir Frederick Wiliam Maze, the very important Inspector-General of the Chinese Maritime Customs between 1929 and 1943. He was the nephew of Sir Robert Hart and a fellow Ulsterman. For those who like their trade officials biographies in more detail there is a very long Wikipedia entry on him here. The point being that he married Laura, a Queenslander. Lady Maze’s collaborator was Dorothy Bowden, the wife of V. G.Bowden, from Sydney and Australian Trade Commissioner in Shanghai from 1935 to 1941.
Unfortunately I have pictures of both Sir Fred Maze and Vivian Bowden, but not their wives?
Nathan Rabinovitch pops up in many researches of old Shanghai…he’s an interesting stopry as this article by Jordyn Haime recounts…however, i’m convinced he talked big and was a mythomaniac. However, that doesn’t mean he isn’t an interesting element in the old Shanghai underworld story or typical of quite a few chancers and collaborators of the time….have a read for yourself…click here
And, also courtesy of Bill, a recipe for Yorkshire Pudding in the expatriate-written cookbook Bon Appetit: Secrets from Shanghai Kitchens (1940). Lady Blackburn, wife of Sir Arthur Blackburn, contributed the recipe to the book. Blackburn (K.C.M.G., C.B.E.) was at the time the Chinese Counsellor at the British Embassy Offices in Shanghai. The book was compiled by Laura G Maze and Dorothy Bowden (more on them tomorrow).
