In The Chinese Revolution on the Tibetan Frontier, Benno Weiner provides the first in-depth study of an ethnic minority region during the first decade of the People’s Republic of China: the Amdo region in the Sino-Tibetan borderland. Employing previously inaccessible local archives as well as other rare primary sources, he demonstrates that the Communist Party’s goal in 1950s Amdo was not just state- building, but also nation-building. Such an objective required the construction of narratives and policies capable of convincing Tibetans of their membership in a wider political community. As Weiner shows, however, early efforts to gradually and organically transform a vast multiethnic empire into a singular nation-state lost out to a revolutionary impatience, demanding more immediate paths to national integration and socialist transformation. This led in 1958 to communization, then to large-scale rebellion and its brutal pacification. Rather than joining volunatarily, Amdo was integrated through the widespread, often indiscriminate use of violence, a violence that lingers in the living memory of Amdo Tibetans and others.
The Felixstowe Book Festival has had to go online but Old Shanghai & City of Devils is now free to all on Felixstowe’s Facebook page on 27/6/20 – click here to sign up…
The Comluck Cantonese restaurant on Nanking Road was part of a group of Cantonese kitchens, cafes and restaurants operated in Shanghai before the war by a group that also ran the Cantonese restaurant in the Pacific Hotel in the China United Assurance Building, opposite the race course (still there). The Comluck was opened in the late 1930s at a cost (then fantastical) of C$6 million and described as ‘luxourious’.
The Comluck advertised the best Cantonese in town but most memoirs and guide books direct diners to either the King Hwa (on Foochow Road) or the Sun Ya (719 Nanking Road)
Along with the Nanking Restaurant the King Hwa was probably one of od Shanghai’s best known Cantonese restaurants and one frequented by both Shanghainese and Shanghailanders. It operated for many years on Foochow Road (Fuzhou Lu)….
Learn how to write compelling true stories, from family memoirs to true crime from the author of Midnight in Peking and City of Devils….organised by the Singapore Book Council – more details and booking here…
How do writers bring the past alive? Is it all right to guess at a historical character’s motivations or put words into his / her mouth? When does creative non-fiction turn into historical fiction?
In this workshop, participants will learn how to investigate and tell true stories in entertaining ways under the guidance of Paul French, author of a number of acclaimed books including Midnight in Peking and City of Devils. French will also talk about researching family histories in China and using unexpected sources to get at the essence of an era.
Participants will be guided on what they would require; their ‘toolkit’, when planning for a work based on a true story – be it family history or true crime. The workshop will address considerations such as source materials, choosing an appropriate genre and writing style, plot, voice and tense for creative non-fiction.
The workshop will also touch on the creation of an exciting and compelling opening for the story that both grabs the reader and explains the core elements (period, genre, style, plot arc) of the true story.
This workshop will be conducted via the Zoom platform.
