Edited by Richard Davenport-Hines These private journals, made available here for the first time, record Hugh Trevor-Roper’s visit to the People’s Republic of China in the autumn of 1965, shortly before the outbreak of the Cultural Revolution, and describe the controversial aftermath of his journey on his return to England. The visit was a catalogue of frustrations, which he relates with the verve and irony of a master narrator who relished the human comedy. His efforts to meet the real life and mind of China, in whose history and politics he had long been interested, were blocked at every turn by the resources of state propaganda and the claustrophobic attention of sullen Party guides. The visit was arranged by the London-based Society for Anglo-Chinese Understanding, which was ostensibly committed to the impartial interchange of culture and ideas. It proved to be run by a Communist claque whose ruthless methods of control outwitted the well-connected membership. Back in England, and with help from MI5, he resolved to get to the bottom of the society’s affairs. His investigations provoked a tumultuous public row which Trevor-Roper, no shirker of controversy, zestfully traces in these pages. Through the book, which closes with an account of his visit to Taiwan and South-East Asia in 1967, there run the wisdom of historical perspective that he brought to contemporary events and his lifelong commitment to the defence of liberal values and practices against their ideological adversaries.
Meeting Sorge, Smedley and otheres in 1930s Shanghai, according to Mcintryre at least…click here. From what snippets I’ve read so far this book looks more likely to be accurate on Shanghai than the error-ridden Owen Matthews’s bio of Sorge last year…
Myself and host Angus Stewart talking about Lin Yutang’s Hymn to Shanghai on the Translated Chinese Fiction Podcast. It’s a nice, long, rambling sort of show so we get onto such controversial subjects as the vulgarity of Shanghai art-deco, Eileen Chang and the Nazis, why there are no bedbugs in Shanghai, the awfulness of flavoured gins, ex-pats in Shanghai then and now and some other musings, as well as a line-by-line reading of the piece. click here to listen (or if you are in China it’s on Ximalaya too (here)
With the two month countdown underway, we are excited to share another round of author announcements with you this week. HKILF will be a hybrid of live and online events this year, with more than 70 events taking place from 5th – 15th November.Â
Crazy Rich Asians fans can log on to hear author Kevin Kwan talk about his latest novel, Sex and Vanity, a brilliantly funny comedy of manners set between two cultures and, of course, a love story. Also movie-related is a talk by Bruce Lee’s daughter Shannon Lee, whose new book illuminates her father’s life philosophies and presents them in tangible, accessible ways. Crime writer Ann Cleeves’ fiction may be best known through the television adaptations of her Vera and Shetland series. She will join us live from Forum Books in Northumberland to discuss the 9th Vera Stanhope novel, The Darkest Evening. Read on for more authors including International Editor, Channel 4 News, Lindsey Hilsum; journalist and China commentator Dexter Roberts; historian Elizabeth Sinn; scholar and designer Kai-yin Lo; travel writer Cameron Dueck; novelists David Vann and Eva Lau; author and baijiu aficionado Derek Sandhaus; and longstanding festival favourite Paul French.
Our 20th edition theme ‘Present Tense/Future Perfect’ explores in fiction and non-fiction how the world is responding to issues such as health, inequality and climate change, as well as possible future directions for humanity and the planet. More news and announcements in the coming weeks!
Jack Meng-Tat Chia’s Monks in Motion sounds fascinating…
Chinese Buddhists have never remained stationary. They have always been on the move. In Monks in Motion, Jack Meng-Tat Chia explores why Buddhist monks migrated from China to Southeast Asia, and how they participated in transregional Buddhist networks across the South China Sea. This book tells the story of three prominent monks Chuk Mor (1913-2002), Yen Pei (1917-1996), and Ashin Jinarakkhita (1923-2002) and examines the connected history of Buddhist communities in China and maritime Southeast Asia in the twentieth century.
Monks in Motion is the first book to offer a history of what Chia terms “South China Sea Buddhism,” referring to a Buddhism that emerged from a swirl of correspondence networks, forced exiles, voluntary visits, evangelizing missions, institution-building campaigns, and the organizational efforts of countless Chinese and Chinese diasporic Buddhist monks. Drawing on multilingual research conducted in Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan, Chia challenges the conventional categories of “Chinese Buddhism” and “Southeast Asian Buddhism” by focusing on the lesser-known–yet no less significant–Chinese Buddhist communities of maritime Southeast Asia. By crossing the artificial spatial frontier between China and Southeast Asia, Monks in Motion breaks new ground, bringing Southeast Asia into the study of Chinese Buddhism and Chinese Buddhism into the study of Southeast Asia.
Been having some fun on Twitter arguing against the ‘Shenzhen as fishing village’ myth that is so current and constantly repeated. Fun to remember that in 1931 the Mayor of Shumchun (or Shen Chuen), today’s Shenzhen, and a governor of Guangdong Chen Jitang opened a massive casino in Shumchun to capitalise on the desire to gamble in Hong Kong and perfect for those who preferrred a train just over the border to a rocking Macao ferry. The Kowloon-Canton Railway had opened a large station at Shum Chun in 1911 (hardly the sort of thing you do if the place is only a tiny fishing village) and that train brought passengers to gamble. The casino lasted till 1936. The chart below shows how much money the KCR made, so you can imagine how much the casino made….
I don’t expect this will end the endless repetition of the ‘fishing village’ canard, but still….and, if anyone has a photo of Chen’s vast Shumchun Casino I’d love to see it?
Opening the station in 1911 Welcome to Shumchun Some serious gambling-derived revenues for the train company between 1931 and 1936 – not bad for a fishing village!
WHAT: “China’s Good War: How Memory of the World War II past is shaping a Nationalist Future”an RASBJ Zoom talk by Professor Rana Mitter followed by Q&A WHEN: September 2, 19:00-20:00 Beijing Standard Time.
MORE ABOUT THE EVENT: Why does the history of World War II matter so much in China today? Memory of the Second World War has become intricately linked to reflection on the PRC’s present. China’s relations with the US and its Asian neighbours are shaped by a powerful factor: the changing meaning and memory of China’s wartime experience against Japan. Looking at a variety of frameworks ranging from diplomacy to literary nonfiction to social media to cinema, this talk, based on a new book CHINA’S GOOD WAR, argues that understanding China’s continuing reassessment of the war years is a key element of understanding the country’s contemporary actions at home and abroad.
MORE ABOUT THE SPEAKER: Rana Mitter OBE FBA is Professor of the History and Politics of Modern China at the University of Oxford. He is the author of several books, including Forgotten Ally: China’s World War II, 1937-1945 (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2013: UK title, China’s War with Japan), which won the 2014 RUSI/Duke of Westminster’s Medal for Military Literature and was named a CHOICE Outstanding Academic Title and a Book of the Year in the Financial Times and Economist.
HOW MUCH: This event is free and exclusively for members of the RASBJ and of other RAS branches. If you know someone who wants to join RASBJ, please ask them to contact MembershipRASBJ on Wechat or email membership.ras.bj@gmail.com  HOW TO JOIN THE EVENT: To become an RASBJ member in order to attend this talk, please join RASBJ at least two days before the talk to allow time for you to receive the event notice with the advance registration link. After registering in advance, you’ll receive a confirmation email with a login link and passcode; use them to log in 10 minutes before the talk.
