My true-crime docudrama (written with Sarah Wooley and produced by Sasha Yevtushenko) for BBC Radio, Peking Noir, will be on BBC Radio 3 beginning at 19:30 on Sunday 10th January. As well as on-air there’ll be an extended six-part podcast series version of the programme going live on the Drama of the Week stream on BBC Sounds, Spotify and iTunes shortly after the BBC Radio 3 broadcast.
Presented by Paul French Drama written by Sarah Wooley
Whatever anyone declared categorically about Shura Giraldi, someone else insisted on the exact opposite. Shura was handsome and beautiful; Shura was kind and good, Shura was exploitative and evil. Shura was just another struggling White Russian refugee trying to get by in 1930s China; Shura was the heart and brains of a gang that ran clubs, sex workers, illicit booze and drugs, when not robbing banks and stealing gems to fence in Shanghai. Shura loved ballet and cabaret, creating the Shura Giraldi Dance Troupe that topped the bill at all the best Peking nightclubs.
Shura sometimes presented as male and sometimes as female. When passing as a man Shura bound his breasts tightly and wore a sharp tailored suit; when she was a woman she wore startlingly coloured robes, both Chinese-style cheongsam and Western dresses, letting her raven hair flow loose, said witnesses. Shura had added an incredibly massive layer of confusion and obfuscation to anyone looking by changing gender. Switching for anonymity, for commercial gain or criminal advantage, for love, for a whim.
Paul French is a historian and writer who focuses on China in the first half of the 20th century. He’s been on Shura’s trail for 15 years, digging through the paper records and archives in half a dozen countries in an attempt to get to grips with the enigma that was Shura. This story, a product of that tireless research, is full of truths, but like an old jigsaw brought down from the attic after decades, there are many pieces missing. So we’re using drama, written by Sarah Wooley, to conjure and join the dots of Shura’s story, and go in search of a lost life and a forgotten world.
The search will take us from a Russian far east in violent revolution, to the chaos of the mass emigration of the White Russians, to the crowded hutongs of Peking; from that city’s nightclubs and cabarets, to the casinos of Shanghai; from a China wracked by rampaging warlordism, invaded by Japan, and then fighting its own civil war that culminated in its own revolution.
Shura saw it all; Shura lived through it all; Shura, in part, explains it all.
Shura . . . . . Maggie Bain Zaichek . . . . . Leo Wan Roy . . . . . Daniel York Loh Leopard . . . . . Chris Lew Kum Hoi Tatiana . . . . . Charlotte East Anton . . . . . Luke Nunn Marie . . . . . Cecilia Appiah Saxsen . . . . . Ian Dunnett Jnr The MC . . . . . Roger Ringrose Anna . . . . . Jane Whittenshaw
Few life stories illustrate the self-perpetuating cycles of misinformation and misunderstanding between East and West like that of Sir Edmund Backhouse. Celebrated in his own time as a foreigner with unique insider information at Qing-Dynasty China’s Manchu imperial court, some of his work was discredited as a fraud by subsequent generations, then re-visited again through recent research. His name evokes wildly versatile associations in the minds of China enthusiasts—a brilliant journalistic career, witness to one of China’s most turbulent eras, his alleged relationship with the Empire’s Empress Dowager.
About the Speaker: Derek Sandhaus is the author of several books on Chinese history and culture, including Tales of Old Hong Kong, Tales of Old Peking, Baijiu: The Essential Guide to Chinese Spirits and most recently Drunk in China: Baijiu and the World’s Oldest Drinking Culture. In 2018 he co-founded Ming River Sichuan Baijiu in partnership with China’s oldest distillery. He lives in Washington, D.C.
An article by me for the Los Angeles Review of Books China Channel on JG Ballard’s upbringing in Shanghai, what he saw, thought and how it fed into the later novels and memoirs he gave us…click here to read….
Here’s a short trailer for Destination Peking, out in Hong Kong and China this week (or online by post until covid recedes and books can be sent around the world in bulk again)….
WHAT: “BLEEDING HEARTS: The Tianjin Massacre of 1870â€, by Jeremiah Jenne (Livestreamed via Zoom as well as in-person) WHEN: Wednesday Jan. 13, 2021 online from 7:30 PM – 8:30 PM Beijing Standard Time. (In-person attendees may arrive at 7:00 PM) WHERE: The Courtyard Institute, #28 Zhonglao Hutong, Beijing
MORE ABOUT THE EVENT: In 1870, tales of kidnapping and sorcery swirled around the city of Tianjin. The local magistrate wanted to investigate the charges of witchcraft being made against a group of Catholic nuns. The head of the mission, a French soldier turned priest, vowed to protect the Faith. France’s consul in Tianjin insisted the missionaries were protected from prosecution by treaties signed with the Chinese government. In the middle was a hapless Manchu official unable to keep the peace. On June 21, 1870, the city of Tianjin exploded into a day of rage and violence which shocked the world and revealed the perilous position of foreign missionaries in 19th century China. Writer and historian Jeremiah Jenne uses newly available archival materials from France and China to bring this story of magic and violence to life in a special presentation for the Royal Asiatic Society of Beijing.
MORE ABOUT THE SPEAKER: Jeremiah Jenne is a writer and history teacher based in Beijing since 2002. He has taught Late Imperial and Modern Chinese History for over 14 years and has written on China for publications including The Economist, Radio China, South China Morning Post, the Journal of Asian Studies, and The World of Chinese. He is  frequently asked to speak or lead workshops on Chinese history, culture, and cultural adaptation to schools, organizations, and company groups from around the world, including RASBJ. Jeremiah is the proprietor of Beijing by Foot, which does research on Old Peking, hosts educational programs, and organizes historic walking tours of Beijing’s most famous sites and less-traveled byways.
HOW MUCH: This event is free and exclusively for members of the RASBJ and other RAS branches. 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/ Â
HOW TO JOIN THIS EVENT IN PERSON: Email events@rasbj.org . Seating will be limited.
Annemarie Evans, the presenter of RTHK3’s Hong Kong Heritage show, asked me to talk about the sadly departed John Le Carre and his masterpiece of Asian espionage The Honourable Schoolboy (1977). Naturally delighted to…the people, the places and the history….click here (it’s the Boxing Day edition)…
Apologies for not being as prolific this year as i should have been – viruses and all that. I did manage to publish my audiobook Murders of Old China with Audible this time last year; i managed to get my researched novella on WW2, Jewish refugees and Macao, Strangers on the Praia, out (available here and online bookstores – and bookstores if you’re in Hong Kong or China). Briliantly the podcast of Strangerswith RTHK3 in Hong Kong was nominated for a New York Radio Festivals Award for best audiobook – Emma Thompson won for something or other but it was nice to be a finalist. Also, a lot went on behind the scenes that will hopefully soon see the light of day.
I can tell you that book #2 in the Destination…. series, Destination Peking, is out early next year in Asia and everywhere by the spring (feel free to preorder) and my 2 hour true crime docudrama Peking Noir (with a full cast!) is on BBC Radio 3 on January 10th at 7.30pm (UK time) and afterwards at some point on the BBC Sounds app. So more old China coming at you from the getgo of 2021….
In the meantime, here’s Peking Union Medical College in the 1930s and in the snow …
