Foochow, 1933

Foochow (Fuzhou) in 1933….

A Belgian Passage to China

This book is apparently in English and seems to have a lot of photos…

A Belgian passage to China (1870-1920) : Belgian-Chinese historical relations (1870-1930) and the construction of the railway and the tramway based on personal documents and pictures of François Nuyens and Philippe & Adolphe Spruyt.

“ULAANBAATAR: A TALE OF THREE CITIES” by Michael Aldrich, an RASBJ Zoom talk followed by QA – 14/10/20

WHAT: “ULAANBAATAR: A TALE OF THREE CITIES” by Michael Aldrich, an RASBJ Zoom talk followed by QA

WHEN: Oct. 14 Wed. 20:00-21:00 Beijing Standard Time (this talk begins at 8PM in Beijing)

MORE ABOUT THE EVENT:  Over 120 years, the capital of Mongolia has transformed from a monastic seat for Vajrayana Buddhism to a Soviet-inspired city to now an experiment in free-wheeling capitalism and democratic reform. Michael Aldrich presents an historical overview of the nomadic roots of Ulaanbaatar, its upheavals, and the sea changes in culture and society which it has undergone.

MORE ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Michael A. Aldrich is a lawyer, author, and lecturer who has lived in Asia for more than thirty years. His book Ulaanbaatar beyond Water and Grass is the first book in the English language to explore all aspects of this unique Central Asian city. He is currently working on another “alternative” guide book, Old Lhasa: A Traveler’s Companion.

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 RASBJ, ask them to add MembershipRASBJ on Wechat or email membership.ras.bj@gmail.com

HOW TO JOIN THE EVENT: Members receive event notices by email. Non-members who wish to join RASBJ in order to attend this attend, please message MembershipRASBJ on Wechat or membership.ras.bj@gmail.com and submit membership payment two days before the event.

British Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong – Telling China Stories: Paul French & Jo Lusby (online) – 14/10/20

Telling China Stories: Paul French and Jo Lusby

Fireside Chat with Paul French and Jo Lusby

Part of the China Author Series

Supported by the China Committee

Speakers:

Paul French, Author of “Midnight in Peking” and “City of Devils: A Shanghai Noir”

Jo Lusby, Co-founder, Pixie B

Join us for the second in our series of webinars where we are joined by leading authors focusing on China.

With his true crime book Midnight in Peking about the murder of a young Englishwoman in 1930s Beijing, Paul French put Chinese history on the New York Times Bestseller list. His follow up City of Devils, a story of gangsters, dancehalls, and old Shanghai, is currently being developed for TV in Los Angeles. Paul is also involved in a number of film, TV and podcast ventures in China. In this “fireside chat”, Paul and his former publisher at Penguin, Jo Lusby, talk creative opportunities in China.

Telling China stories can be a business. Books, movies, TV, audio are all areas where Chinese consumers want to hear what the world has to say. The opportunities are as limitless as our imaginations – from history to science-fiction; from publishing to CGI. The UK is a world leader in the field of creative content creation and in terms of China – co-produced moves, jointly created TV shows, reading each others stories in translation, listening to each others voices on audio we’re only just beginning. Moving from selling British books into China, helping develop TV content and movie using the UK-China Television and Film Co-Production Treaty to more recent sectors such as audiobooks and podcast to reach China’s ‘ear economy’. British creative talent is at the forefront of foreign involvement with China.

Paul French was born in London, educated there and in Glasgow, and lived and worked in Shanghai for many years. His book Midnight in Peking was a New York Times Bestseller, a BBC Radio 4 Book of the Week, a Mystery Writers’ of America Edgar award winner for Best Fact Crime and a Crime Writers’ Association (UK) Dagger award for non-fiction. His most recent book City of Devils: A Shanghai Noir has received much praise with The Economist writing, ‘…in Mr French the city has its champion storyteller.’ Both Midnight in Peking and City of Devils are currently being developed for television. 

Jo Lusby is co-founder of Pixie B, an independent consultancy and agency specialising in publishing, film, and the creative sector in China. The company works with organizations and individuals seeking strategic and commercial advice, as well as negotiates partnerships and agreements for a wide range of IP brands. Clients include Pottermore and the Blair Partnership, BBC Studios, The Financial Times, The Publishers Association, and others.

A fluent Mandarin speaker and veteran publisher, Jo was North Asia CEO of the world’s largest consumer book publisher, Penguin Random House (and, prior to its merger, Penguin Books) from 2005-2017. She set up and managed local operations across Asia, establishing a market-leading, award-winning local publishing business in English, Chinese, and Korean. Bestsellers published during under her tenure ranged from the #1 children’s hit Peppa Pig and the autobiography of tennis sensation Li Na in Chinese, through to the fiction of Nobel Laureate Mo Yan and the non-fiction bestseller Midnight in Peking. Jo serves as a director of the Hong Kong International Literary Festival, and is a high profile member of the regional business community.

More details & tickets – click here

The American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC) to the Rescue in Shanghai: From 1941 to 1951 – Center for Jewish History, 22/10/20

Facing an escalating demand for entry into the United States by German-speaking Jews in Shanghai in early 1941, the United States Consulate called the JDC for help. No one forewarned Laura Margolis, a translator for immigration interviews, about the living conditions of 16,000 Jewish refugees from Germany, Austria, Czechoslovakia, and Poland, all desperate for food and housing. She set up a new JDC Shanghai office, which stood as a rock for Jewish refugees under four directorships, four different regimes, and two wars.

Drawing from the JDC Archives, testimonies, and memoirs, this lecture by Sara Halpern, PhD candidate at Ohio State University, offers a tale of how the JDC Shanghai office — both a transnational American and an international Jewish relief organization — and its ingenious directors navigated the regimes of the treaty port controlled by multiple powers, the Japanese puppet government, Chiang Kai-Shek, and Mao Zedong. In contrast to Europe during the same period, the small, isolated JDC office in Shanghai had to rely on the goodwill of the various consulates and local authorities to assist with the Jewish refugees’ survival and emigration to other destinations. Hailed by the senior administration in New York, the “Shanghai job” was one of the most difficult in the world.

Closed captioning will be available during this program.

More info and tickets click here

Russian Emigres in China – Photographs from XXth Century Magazine, 1942…

XXth Century magazine was a Nazi-funded English language publication in Shanghai during the Japanese occupation edited by Klaus Mehnert. Though funded from Berlin it was not overly politicised, though the message is clear. As it was designed for an audience in Shanghai largely and to build the Nazi alliance with the Japanese it was not anti-semitic, though is full of Nazi obsessions with racial hierarchies. A lot of foreigners around in Shanghai picked up work on the publication as well as English-speaking Chinese journalists including a young Eileen Chang (whose husband was obviously a collaborator) who wrote on fashion and submitted film reviews. In an article on Russian emigres in China the publication used these photographs….

National Day, October 1

Of course due to October 1 1949 and Mao’s pronouncements in Tiananmen (not actually much of a formal square back then)

On October 1st 1949 the victorious People’s Liberation Army paraded through Peking. A new national anthem, The March of the Volunteers, was blasted from speaker trucks, a new Chinese flag, red with five yellow stars, was unfurled. Chairman Mao took to the rostrum:

‘Comrades! Today, I hereby declare the formal establishment of the People’s Republic of China! The people throughout China have been plunged into bitter suffering and tribulations…’

And, although everyone believes Mao said it that historic day:

‘The Chinese people have stood up…’

He actually didn’t. It’s an urban myth. But you get the point – everything had changed in China.

Aleko Lilius, South China Pirates & Me…on RTHK3

Gangsters….pirates…the 1930s was a wild time all over China. This weekend on RTHK3’s show Hong Kong Heritage i’m talking about Aleko Lilius, who came to HK from Finland in the late 1920s and wrote the rip roaring 1931 “travelogue” “I Sailed With Chinese Pirates” – a great read but just how much of it was true? Click here to listen…