Posted: July 25th, 2021 | No Comments »
Just starting Rat Island, which comes recomemended and looks like a pretty fast paced novel by John Steele…
New York, 1995. Cop Callum Burke arrives in New York from Hong Kong, drafted in as part of an international investigation into organised crime.
With the handover of Hong Kong to China only a couple of years away, gangsters are moving their operations out of the territory and into New York ahead of the looming deadline.
Burke’s experiences with East Asian crime and the Triads’ links to the Irish Mob make him the perfect man to send in undercover.
But as he infiltrates these vast and lethal criminal networks, bodies start to pile up in his wake and his conscience threatens to send him over the edge.
And when Burke’s NYPD handlers push him to continue the investigation at all costs, he may have to cross the line from cop to criminal just to stay alive…
Readers of Don Winslow, Michael Connelly, Steve Cavanagh, Richard Price and John Sandford will love this dark and morally complex novel which presents a searing portrait of mid-1990s New York as you’ve never seen it before.
Posted: July 24th, 2021 | No Comments »
Starting in July 1947 Northwest Orient Airlines launched their new US-Asian routes – to Tokyo, Seoul, Manila and Shanghai….
Posted: July 20th, 2021 | No Comments »
One Giant Pure Silk Neckties ‘Made in Shanghai’ and from all good department stores (and old Shanghai had some good department stores back then). Their sales office was on Chunking Road (Chongqing North Road now) near the race course; not sure where their factory was (possibly there, but unlikely i feel). This ad from JB Powell’s China WEekly Review in 1947. Sadly it is a business that seems not to have survived the 1949 takeover or moved elsehwere. After 1949 i guess pure silk ties were rather frowned on!
Posted: July 19th, 2021 | 2 Comments »
If anyone happens to know where i can get/borrow a copy of this without breaking the bank please do let me know? It was published, in English at least, in the 1970s. Paolo Rossi was the urbane and cosmopolitan Italian consul in Shanghai from 1948-1952 and witnessed the fall of the city first hand and includes a lot of useful detail….
Posted: July 16th, 2021 | No Comments »
In the first official video of the The Royal Asiatic Society China in Shanghai YouTube channel, Professor Julia Lovell, author of several books on China’s history and culture as well as a new translation of Journey to the West, summarises the story of China’s most famous fable ‘Journey to the West’ in 5 minutes. The video is an excerpt from Julia Lovell’s April 2021 presentation ‘The Return of the Monkey King?’ for Royal Asiatic Society (RAS) China.
Video: https://lnkd.in/gqtJ6vc
Channel: https://lnkd.in/gPzCYxw
Become an early adopter: follow the RAS China YouTube channel for the full talk and videos of several other events in 2020-21, and ones earlier as we keep uploading:
– One of “The Raoul Wallenbergs of China”, Paul Komor by Mátyás Mervay (appears on the channel later today);
– 200 years of Sino-US economic relations, full lecture with Prof Baizhu Chen (July 23)
– Expat authors in early 20th-century Peking hutongs with Paul French (July 30)
– The full talk on the new translation of ‘Journey to the West’ by Julia Lovell (early August).
– And more: stay tuned!
Posted: July 14th, 2021 | No Comments »
The Hero Photo Studio (who also did photo engraving) in 1947 was at Nanking Road West, previously Bubbling Well Road, and now Nanjing West Road, by the junction with Seymour Road (now Shaanxi Road North).
Posted: July 13th, 2021 | No Comments »
The Summer Palace ‘Pekinese’ style restaurant was, i believe, very popular with Shanghailanders and advertised in English at them quite consistently – it was quite close to a number of key Shanghailander and sojourner locations including the American YMCA. In 1947 the restaurant was on Yu Ya Ching Road, renamed Sitzang Road and now Xizang Road (just in the International Settlement side).
Posted: July 12th, 2021 | No Comments »
Nice one – 2021 British Podcast Awards Best Arts & Culture podcast to Real Dictators from @Noiser_Podcasts (i’m sure my babbling about the DPRK pushed them over the line!)
