It’s hard to imagine a less promising founding for even a humble bookstore, let alone a literary/cultural institution, than the beginnings of the Uchiyama Bookstore (内山书店), launched in Shanghai in 1917. Uchiyama KanzÅ was a young troublemaker and elementary school dropout. And a Japanese language bookstore in Shanghai, in the era of 1919, didn’t exactly seem promising. Yet by 1927, when Lu Xun first visited, the Uchiyama Bookstore had already become an institution in east Asian literary modernism. From that time until Lu Xun’s death in 1936, he spent virtually every day at the bookstore, where he had a designated chair and presided over literary discussions with some of the region’s literary giants. Uchiyama KanzÅ saved Lu Xun from the murderous clutches of the Guomindang on more than one occasion.
Join RAS members and friends for a look at this wildly improbable bookstore, based on the essay “A Wildly Improbable Bookstore” in the 2019 Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society China. We’ll have plenty of images of the store and the era.
Time: 7 May 19:00 (China time)
About the speaker:Aside from his role at the Antai College of Economics & Management, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, John Van Fleet spends his hobby hours investigating interesting, often less explored and considered aspects of the history of China and Japan, their current relationship between and potential for the two Asian powers, leveraging his ten years of residency in Japan (1991 – 2000) and in China from then until now. His first book, Tales of Old Tokyo, was published in 2015, while he’s developing his second ‘project’ Quarreling Cousins: China and Japan from Antiquity to 2020, in stages – this talk and the essay in the 2019 Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society China are one of those stages.
If you want to know you’ll need to read the current journal of the Royal Asiatic Society China – now online here…
In the early 1930s London and New York bookshops actively advertised the latest adventure stories written by the pseudonymous author “Bokâ€. No details of Bok’s background, author photos or obvious clues were given to the writer’s real identity. Bok’s novels were all set in China, most featured piracy, smuggling and organised crime along the southern Chinese coast, Hong Kong and Macao. The advertising and book blurbs often played directly into the tropes of the “Yellow Peril†genre established in the preceding few decades by writers such as Sax Rohmer, M.P. Shiel, Herbert Ashbury and others. Yet, Bok’s books were seemingly well researched and appeared to be a form of narrative non-fiction with details that indicated the author had indeed spent significant time on the China Coast. Who was Bok?
I’ll be talking about my Audible Original Murders of Old China this Tuesday as part of the Bespoke Beijing Speaker Series – There will be 12 murders, 12 reinvestigations and plenty of skulduggery in early twentieth century China. All welcome – details here, or as below…
This year’s festival of Jewish cilutre, hisytory and society in China – Limmud China – is online. The full programme is here – my own session on Sunday is about my forthcoming novella Strangers on the Praia which deals with the Jewish refugee community in Macao during WW2…do zoom in if you can…Details of my session here…
Strangers on the Praia – a novella coming out in May, dealing with the niche story of the few, mostly younger Jews women, who moved on from Shanghai to Macao – neutral in WW2 as a Portuguese colony – in the hope that it might be a way back to sanctuary in the UK or US via Lisbon. Macao was essentially the ‘Casablanca of the Far East’. Ultimately there were no boats from Macao to Lisbon – though several Jewish refugees did get to Free China via the French treaty port of Kwangchowan near the border with Indo-China and from there to Kunming and then to British India.
Bio: Paul French is the author of the New York Times bestsellers Midnight in Peking and City of Devils. Both now being adapted for TV. Now, in his new novella published in May, Strangers on the Praia, French weaves together the true stories of those Jewish refugees who moved on from Shanghai to seek a possible route to freedom via the neutral Portuguese colony of Macao, “the Casablanca of the Orientâ€. The delicately balanced neutral enclave became their wartime refuge. Strangers on the Praia relates the story of one young Jewish woman’s struggle for freedom that would prove ultimately an act of brave resistance.
Slightly late, but good all the same, to see that the latest (2019) issue of the Royal Asiatic Society China’s journal is now Available to read online with the lead article by our very own Anne Witchard on  Huang Zunxian, China’s pioneer modernist. Also featuring great articles on old Shanghai and Chinese cultural history by Paul French, Katya Knyazeva, Dong Wang, Inez Low and Duncan Hewitt…. click here to read….
My own two contributions concern the Peking and Tientsin poetry of Margaret Mackprang Mackay and the mystery of who was the author “Bok”?
THE SWIRE STORY, by Prof. Robert Bickers: “Ships, Planes, Cities and People (And Sugar)
an RASBJ online discussion
WHAT: RASBJ zoom talk by Prof. Robert Bickers on “The Swire Story: Ships, Planes, Cities and People (and Sugar), from the 1810’s to the 1980’sâ€, followed by QA WHEN: May 4, 2020, Monday 19:00-20:00 Beijing Standard Time WHERE:Online via Zoom HOW MUCH: Free and accessible exclusively to RASBJ members and RAS affiliates worldwide. If you know someone who wants to become an RASBJ member, please ask them to WeChat John Olbrich at johnobeijing See www.rasbj.org for details. HOW TO BECOME AN RASBJ MEMBER: If you’d like to become an RASBJ member (or, for PRC passport-holders, to become an Associate) please befriend Membership Secretary John Olbrich on Wechat at johnobeijing and send him your name, nationality, mobile number and email address plus the annual subscription amount (or, for Associates, the suggested donation) of RMB 300 for those resident in China, RMB 200 for those resident overseas and RMB 100 for students. If you join RASBJ by May 2 you’ll receive login details for this event.
MORE ABOUT THE EVENT: In his latest book, China Bound, Robert Bickers charts the history of John Swire & Sons from 1816-1980. From its origins as a small shipping agency and import/export company in early nineteenth century Liverpool, to its prominent position in Hong Kong’s economy and East Asian trade in the 1980s, most prominently as the owner of Cathay Pacific Airways, the firm threaded its way tenaciously through the heart of modern China’s history. This talk explores the human side of this story of an unusual corporate survivor: the men and women who worked for the firm, and who found themselves at the heart of strikes, boycotts, invasion and revolutions and the technological and political developments which shaped modern Asia and the modern world.
MORE ABOUT THE SPEAKER: Robert Bickers is a writer and historian, and a Professor of History at the University of Bristol. His books include Empire Made Me: An Englishman Adrift in Shanghai, The Scramble for China: Foreign Devils in the Qing Empire, and Out of China: How the Chinese ended the Era of Foreign Domination. His latest book, China Bound: John Swire & Sons and Its World, 1816-1980, is an authorised history of the company, whose archives he first looked at over 30 years ago.
Dear Friends: We hope you’re staying well in these uncertain times. RASBJ launched a popular series of online events March 9, and since then we’ve held nine wonderful talks, from award-winning author Paul French describing “Murders of Old China†to a dynamic discussion of Jung Chang’s book on the Soong sisters, led by Jeremiah Jenne. Here are RASBJ’s upcoming Zoom talks (all beginning at 19:00 Beijing Standard Time):
5/8 Matthew Hu Xinyu on “Rediscovering Beijing†5/13 Peter Frankopan on “The Silk Roads†5/20 Guiseppe Cuccia on “Turandot and Western Opera in China†5/27 Michael Humphries on “Contagion: History and How COVID Will End†6/3 Isaac Duffy on “The Pagoda Project†6/10 Prof. Ezra Vogel on China-Japan Relations
If you want to join these events, please join the RASBJ! Follow the instructions (above) to become a member and you’ll enjoy free access to the ongoing Zoom talks – plus their youTube recordings – as well as the RAS China Journal and discounted entry to in-person events and excursions when they resume. Thanks for your support!
Like a phoenix, she rose from the ashes of a palace demolished by
foreign troops to become one of the most powerful women in the world.
China’s Empress Dowager Cixi (pronounced “suh-sheeâ€) ruled from 1861 to
1908 and is one of the most notorious figures in Modern Chinese history.
For nearly half a century, she used her cunning and connections to rule
China from behind the throne, but she’s also been accused of being
heartless, presiding over the country’s downfall, and for amassing a
huge fortune which she proceeded to spend on fripperies such as marble
boats.
As always, though, the real story is much more complicated. Are the scathing depictions of her fair? Or is she just another victim of History not Herstory? Join Bespoke favourite Jeremiah Jenne as he unpacks the life of China’s most influential female. In the absence of a chance to tour Cixi’s beloved Summer Palace with him, we promise this is the next best thing.
Jeremiah Jenne is a writer and academic based in Beijing since 2002.
He taught Late Imperial and Modern Chinese History for over 13 years and
has written extensively on China for The Economist, South China Morning Post, Los Angeles Review of Books
and others. Jeremiah is frequently asked to speak or lead workshops on
Chinese history, culture, and cultural adaptation for students,
embassies, organizations, and company groups from around the world.
Sadly it’s silly money and hopefully your library can afford it (noting that academic publishing doesn’t have to be like this and library budgets won’t support this sort of thing much longer!) Gregory Adam Scott’s Building the Buddhist Revival: Reconstructing Monasteries in Modern China looks interesting….
Between 1850 and 1966, tens of thousands of Buddhist sacred sites in
China were destroyed, victims of targeted destruction, accidental
damage, or simply neglect. During the same period, however, many of
these sites were reconstructed, a process that involved both rebuilding
material structures and reviving religious communities. The
conventionally accepted narrative of Chinese Buddhism during the modern
era is that it underwent a revival initiated by innovative monastics and
laypersons, leaders who reinvented Buddhist traditions to meet the
challenges of modernity. Gregory Adam Scott shows, however, that over
time it became increasingly difficult for reconstruction leaders to
resist the interests of state actors, who sought to refashion monastery
sites as cultural monuments rather than as living religious communities.
These sites were then intended to serve as symbols of Chinese history
and cultural heritage, while their function as a frame for religious
life was increasingly pushed aside. As a result, the power to determine
whether and how a monastery would be reconstructed, and the types of
activities that would be reinstated or newly introduced, began to shift
from religious leaders and communities to state agencies that had a
radically different set of motivations and values.
Building the Buddhist Revival
explores the history of Chinese Buddhist monastery reconstruction from
the end of the Imperial period through the first seventeen years of the
People’s Republic. Over this century of history, the nature and
significance of reconstructing Buddhist monasteries changes drastically,
mirroring broader changes in Chinese society. Yet this book argues that
change has always been in the nature of religious communities such as
Buddhist monasteries, and that reconstruction, rather than a return to
the past, represents innovative and adaptive change. In this way, it
helps us understand the broader significance of the Buddhist “revival”
in China during this era, as a creative reconstruction of religion upon
longstanding foundations.
