Edin Furniture of Shanghai

Edin Furntiure, ‘Manufacturers of High Class Upholstered Furniture’ was, in the late 1940s, located on Charngshu Road. An odd name and possibly a typo and more commonly Changshu (presumably after the city in Jiangsu), though it appears several times in directories withb this odd spelling. It was formerly the Route Sayzoong and is now Changshu Lu.

Arthur Ransome & the Shanghai Mind on China Stories

If you haven’t discovered it yet the China Stories podcast comes from the Sinica Network on SupChina brings you audio narration of the best articles and op-eds appearing in Sixth Tone, Caixin Global, The Wire China, Week in China, The World of Chinese, Protocol China, and of course SupChina. Subscribe to the podcast and you can listen to features on the go, with narrators who won’t butcher the pronunciation of Chinese names and words. And just this week i uploaded an audio version of Los Angeles Review of Books China Channel article discussing Arthur Ransomeand his creation of the concept of the ‘Shanghai Mind’ in the 1920s. Click here

France and Germany in the South China Sea, c. 1840-1930 – June 2021

Bert Becker’s France and Germany in the South China Sea 1840-1930 is an interesting title. With British Hong Kong and French Indochina on its northern and western shores, the ‘Asian Mediterranean’ was for almost a century a crucible of power and an axis of economic struggle for coastal shipping companies from various nations. Merchant steamers shipped cargoes and passengers between ports of the region. Hong Kong, the global port city, and the colonial ports of Saigon and Haiphong developed into major hubs for the flow of goods and people, while Guangzhouwan survived as an almost forgotten outpost of Indochina. While previous research in this field has largely remained within the confines of colonial history, this book uses the examples of French and German companies operating in the South China Sea to demonstrate the extent to which transnational actors and business networks interacted with imperial power and the process of globalisation.

The Titanic’s Unknown Chinese Passengers – Meet the Makers of The Six – RAS Beijing 7/4/21

The Titanic’s Unknown Chinese Passengers:
Arthur Jones and Steven Schwankert Talk about their Film “The Six”

WHAT: Meet the Makers of The Six: How Arthur Jones and Steven Schwankert traced Titanic’s Unknown Chinese passengers
WHEN: Wednesday, April 7, 2021, 7:00 PM – 8:00 PM Beijing Standard Time. (In-person attendees may arrive at 6:30 PM
WHERE: The Courtyard Institute, #28 Zhonglao Hutong, Beijing

MORE ABOUT THE EVENT: The night before their documentary debuts in cinemas across China, co-creators Arthur Jones and Steven Schwankert talk in person about solving the history of Titanic’s least-known passengers, tracking down their descendants, and how they got James Cameron on board their Titanic story. Q&A to follow.
 
MORE ABOUT THE SPEAKERS:  
Steven Schwankert is co-creator and lead researcher on “The Six,” a book and documentary project about the Titanic’s Chinese survivors. His book, Poseidon: China’s Secret Salvage of Britain’s Lost Submarine was published in 2013 by Hong Kong University Press. Steven is the Asia Chapter Chair of The Explorers Club and a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society.

Arthur Jones is an award-winning director and writer, known for “The Six” (2020), “The Poseidon Project” (2013), and “A Farewell Song” (2006). A 25-year resident of Shanghai, Arthur has directed feature programming for global broadcasters including BBC and Discovery Channel.
 
HOW MUCH: This event is free and exclusively for members of the RASBJ. If you know someone who wants to join the RASBJ, please ask them to sign up at least 48 hours before the event via our website at: https://rasbj.org/membership/  

HOW TO JOIN THIS EVENT IN PERSON: 
Please email events@rasbj.org. Seating will be limited.
After registering you’ll receive a confirmation email (If you don’t seem to have received a confirmation email, please check your spam folder).

ChungCheng Road, Shanghai, late 1940s

A couple of days ago i posted on the Shanghai Senior Vacuum Flask Company who’s HQ in the late 1940s was on ChungCheng Raod. Today here’s an advert for Marco’s Restaurant and Nighclub, also from the late 1940s and also on Chungcheng Road. Chungcheng Road was a short-lived road name in old Shanghai and therein lies a tale….There has not just been one major change of road names in Shanghai – after 1949 from the old concession names, but rather several changes….During the Japanese occupation Wang Jing-wei’s puppet collaborationist regime changed the names of nearly 400 roads in the Settlement and Frenchtown. Then in 1946 with the foreigners, the Japanese and Wang gone, Chiang Kai-shek’s Nationalist government set about changing names again.

You’ll note that the address for Marco’s is “Chungcheng Road (Edw. VII)”. What was Chungcheng Road is now Yanan’ Lu. As is well known this road, now mostly raised expressway, was the boundary line between the International Settlement and Frenctown. From the Bund to Chengtu (Chengdu) Road the street was named Avenue Edward VII (aka the Avenue Eddy). West from Chengdu Lu it was in the French Concession and known as Avenue Foch. The Nationalist authorities in Shanghai canged the entire street name to Chungcheng Road. Higher numbers on the street, such as The Shanghai Senior Vacuum Flask Company at No.315, were on the former Avenue Foch. Others, like Marco’s, to the eastern end of the street were on the former Avenue Edward VII. Obviously someone at Marco’s thought all this name changing might be a bit confusing and so hedged their bets and included the (Edw. VII).

Of course Chungcheng was the name chosen for a major thoroughfare in the now entirely Nationalist-controlled Shanghai, and many other Chinese towns and cities, as they were named after Chiang Chung-cheng, the preferred given name of Chiang Kai-shek at the time.

So now you know….

How Cairo Became a Cosmopolitan Destination in the 1920s

A while back i was sent a proof copy of Raphael Cormack’s Midnight in Cairo. A fascinating book that looks at the cosmopolitan nightlife scene of interwar Cairo. There are a lot of obvious parallels to other somewhat international and cosmopolitan cities of the era – Istanbul, Tangier and, of course, Shanghai. I was certainly more than happy to blurb it and recommend it to everyone interested in this period and world. Cormack talk a little bit about Cairo and its demi-monde here to get a flavour.

One of the world’s most multicultural cities, twentieth-century Cairo was a magnet for the ambitious and talented. During the 1920s and ’30s, a vibrant music, theater, film, and cabaret scene flourished, defining what it meant to be a “modern” Egyptian. Women came to dominate the Egyptian entertainment industry―as stars of the stage and screen but also as impresarias, entrepreneurs, owners, and promoters of a new and strikingly modern entertainment industry.

Raphael Cormack unveils the rich histories of independent, enterprising women like vaudeville star Rose al-Youssef (who launched one of Cairo’s most important newspapers); nightclub singer Mounira al-Mahdiyya (the first woman to lead an Egyptian theater company) and her great rival, Oum Kalthoum (still venerated for her soulful lyrics); and other fabulous female stars of the interwar period, a time marked by excess and unheard-of freedom of expression. Buffeted by crosswinds of colonialism and nationalism, conservatism and liberalism, “religious” and “secular” values, patriarchy and feminism, this new generation of celebrities offered a new vision for women in Egypt and throughout the Middle East.

Those Much Prized Thermos Flasks…from Shanghai’s China Senior Vacuum Flask Company…

Rarely does an expat return from China without an old style thermos flask, hopefully ornately decorated, slightly bashed and authentic (in recent decades there has been a sizeable market in replicas). They become flower pots, vases, table decorations…but rarely is their provenance sought. Many came from the Senior, Shuang-Hsi and the ABC brands manufactured by the China Senior Vacuum Flask Company based on Chung Cheng Road in the late 1940s (Chung Cheng Road had been Avenue Foch (where the numbers where that high – and Avenue Edward VIII for the lower numbers, and is now Yan’an Xi Lu). Below their advertising and below that one of their now much prized flasks.

Penguin China & WW1 series out soon in Chinese….

The excellent collection of short books on China and World War One published by Penguin China back in the centenery of armsitice has finally, it seems, been translated into Chinese and will be published next month. Pieces by me (on China’s betrayal at Versailles), Mark O’Neill (on the Chinese Labour Corps), Frances Wood (on the wartime dioplomats in Peking), Robert Bickers (on the rush to join up for the Front in Shanghai), Jonathan Fenby (on the Japanese defeat of Germany at Tsingtao) and Anne Witchard (on the uses of the ‘Yellow Peril’ during the war in England).

Available here on Douban…