All things old China - books, anecdotes, stories, podcasts, factoids & ramblings from the author Paul French
I reviewed China Bound, Robert Bickers’s new book about John Swire and the history of the venerable Hong in the South China Morning Post….click here….
An Alien Resident Certificate issued by Nationalist China in 1948 – won’t get you into China this week I’m afraid but with a dove of peace!…..
I’m back on Zoom again in China – this time with the Royal Asiatic Society’s Shanghai branch…
Revenge, Passion, Greed, Racism, Corruption … 12 unsolved murders.
All reinvestigated. Startling new evidence revealed a century later …
Why did a remote police station, built to combat pirates, find itself at
the centre of a murder-suicide after a constable went on the rampage?
How did Chinese gangsters avoid conviction after serving a deadly dinner
to Frenchtown’s elite? And why is the Foreign Office still withholding a
key document to solving a murder that took place in the Gobi desert in
1935?
By delving deep into 12 of China’s most fascinating murder cases, Murders of Old China delivers a fast-paced journey through China’s early 20th-century history – including its criminal underbelly.
Uncovering
previously unknown connections and exposing the lies, Paul French
queries the verdict of some of China’s most controversial cases,
interweaving true crime with China’s chaotic and complicated history of
foreign occupation and Chinese rival factions.
This Audible Original is downloadable in China and available HERE.
Audible subscribers can use a credit. Non-subscribers can sign up with
Audible and get this book free, along with a one-month free trial period
(your subscription is cancellable any time after the trial).
This
event will be held on the Zoom online platform. Registered participants
will receive the connection link 24 hours before the event
If you have any problems signing up online, just send us an email at bookings@royalasiaticsociety.org.cnand we will add you to the list.
I wrote a long form piece for the South China Morning Post magazine on the American artist Martha Sawyers, who specialised in portraits of Asian peoples but, during World War Two, produced some amazing propaganda art works that both dignified and respected China’s struggle against Japan while also raising awarenes and support in the USA….click here
A lot of online talks and debates going on in China as we pass through what would now be the literary festivals season with, well, no literary festivals. Here’s one for you with the always interesting Qing historian Jeremiah Jenne…
The Awkward Position of Missionaries in Chinese History
A Special Online Talk and Discussion
Date: Thursday, March 26th
Time: 8:00 pm – 9:00 pm
Cost: Free
Plague? Disaster? Sorcery? Rumors? Geopolitics?
You’re invited to join history teacher and The Hutong’s history guy Jeremiah Jenne for a special online talk about missionaries, medicine, witchcraft, and the Tianjin Massacre of 1870. We’ll be using zoom and all registrants will be sent the meeting information and link by email before the meeting.
From the time of Matteo Ricci and the Jesuit missions of the 16th century, missionaries have played an important role in Chinese history. By the 19th century, the missionary promised both new forms of educational and hygienic modernity while also being seen by the people as a possible threat to the established order in this world and beyond. How did the people of late imperial China perceive missionaries?
In 1870, tales of kidnapping and sorcery swirled around the city of Tianjin. The local magistrate wants to investigate the charges of witchcraft being made against a group of Catholic nuns. The French consul insists the missionaries are protected from prosecution by treaties signed with the Chinese government. In the middle is 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 missionaries in 19th century China.
Jeremiah Jenne is a writer and history teacher 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, Journal of Asian Studies, Asia Society/China File, Los Angeles Review of Books, Radii China, The Beijinger, and the World of Chinese. His work can be found in the anthologies China in 2008: A Year of Great Significance, The Insider’s Guide to Beijing, and the 2015 collection While We’re Here: China Stories from a Writer’s Colony. 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 and is the proprietor of Beijing by Foot, which organizes educational programs and historic walking tours of Beijing’s most famous sites and hidden by-ways. You can follow him on Twitter @jeremiahjenne or online at jeremiahjenne.com.
More details on how to book here….
WHAT: RASBJ members-only online discussion featuring award-winning author Paul French, who’ll talk about his new audiobook “Murders of Old China” followed by Q&A.
WHEN: March 20, Friday, 7:00-8:00 PM China time
WHERE: Online via Zoom. RASBJ members have received details via email.
HOW MUCH: Free and available to RASBJ members worldwide. If you aren’t an RASBJ member but wish to be, please befriend on Wechat our Treasurer John Olbrich at johnobeijing and send him your name, nationality, mobile number and email address plus the annual subscription amount (RMB 300 for those resident in China, RMB 200 for those resident overseas, and RMB 100 for students).
HOW TO ACCESS THE AUDIOBOOK: This Audible Original is downloadable in China and available HERE. Audible subscribers can use a credit. Non-subscribers can sign up with Audible and get this book free, along with a one-month free trial period (your subscription is cancellable any time after the trial).
MORE ABOUT “MURDERS OF OLD CHINA”:
Revenge, Passion, Greed, Racism, Corruption….12 unsolved murders. All reinvestigated. Startling new evidence revealed a century later… Why did a remote police station, built to combat pirates, find itself at the centre of a murder-suicide after a constable went on the rampage? How did Chinese gangsters avoid conviction after serving a deadly dinner to Frenchtown’s elite? And why is the Foreign Office still withholding a key document to solving a murder that took place in the Gobi desert in 1935?
By delving deep into 12 of China’s most fascinating murder cases, Murders of Old China delivers a fast-paced journey through China’s early 20th-century history – including its criminal underbelly.
Uncovering previously unknown connections and exposing the lies, Paul French queries the verdict of some of China’s most controversial cases, interweaving true crime with China’s chaotic and complicated history of foreign occupation and Chinese rival factions.
This picture was labelled at the Yuanping Police Station in Peiping (Peking) following shelling the Japanese in August 1937…anyone know their old Peking police stations better than me and know where this one was?
Here is Phyllis Harrop with her two friends, Mrs Ho Leung (Left) and Mrs Lambert Gok-Chin. Phyllis was rather interesting and intrepid – more on her here from David Bellis’s Gwulo site. I’m afraid I don’t know annythign about Mrs Lambert Gok-chin or Leung? I’d also love to know what the ‘N’ on Mrs Gok-chin bag stands for?
