Plum Well Villas is a charming lane that was formerly off Amherst Avenue (Xinhua Lu), External Western Roads District. I lived close by it for many years and it was always one of Western Shanghai’s sleepier lanes. This is due largely to the fact that it is a dead-end and so no use as a “rat-run” for traffic. The villas are roomy and large reflecting the fact that it was really the edge of the city in the 1930s and beyond was largely semi-rural Hungjiao (Hongqiao). Many famous Chinese scholars, and some foreigners, lived in the villas.
And it seems there is some restoration going on – though the villas were in quite good condition and had not been overly sub-divided. The lane is invariably missed by those exploring the better known Columbia Circle, back east up Xinhua Lu. To get to Plum Well Villas you have to cross Dingxi Lu heading west and it’s just to the left/south.
the entrance to Plum Well Villas from Amherst Avenue (Xinhua Lu)
One villa at the northern end of the lane that has undergone some renovation
the same villa which now appears to be being landscaped too…
The Royal Asiatic Society China (RAS) has been publishing its journal in Shanghai since 1858, providing fascinating insights into the lives, interests and activities of the expatriate community since the beginning of modern foreign involvement in China. We are proud to continue this important endeavour for the benefit of our members and the wider community of China watchers. The RAS Journal is now receiving submissions for the 2019 edition. This year, we are delighted to announce that we will now be paying honoraria to contributing authors. Contributing authors will receive 1,000 RMB for articles (between 3,000 and 8,000 words), and 350 RMB for book reviews.The deadline for submissions is 1 July 2019. The 2019 RAS Journal will be published in November. The journal generally comprises scholarly articles describing original research and observations, book reviews and reports of activities. Translations from Chinese into English are also welcome. The scope of the journal is broad: we hope the journal will help to inform readers about life in China and Asia – past, present and future. Although authors may write about any subject of interest to China scholars, please note that material that may contravene the guidelines established by the Chinese government for speech and publications will not be accepted. In addition, the journal will feature a Young Scholar’s Essay. Students under the age of 20 may submit a research essay in English (maximum 5000 words) on any subject related to China. The editing team will select the most outstanding essay for inclusion into the RAS Journal. Teachers may contact the RAS Journal Editor for more information. You can view past examples of the RAS Journal at the Royal Asiatic Society Library, located in The House of Roosevelt, Number 27 on The Bund, Shanghai. The library holds an almost complete set of journals going back to 1858, which document the earliest years of the expatriate community in Shanghai, and the Royal Asiatic Society’s history in China. Digital copies of recent journals can also be viewed on our website. Please consult the guidelines for author submissions or contact the Journal Editor, Tracey Willard, at editor@royalasiaticsociety.org.cn for more information.
I’ll be speaking briefly at Lantau Island’s Vibe bookshop in Mui Wo (down by the ferry pier) this Sunday at 2pm. It’s a chance to gather together some old China enthusiasts in Lantau’s best indie bookstore that does books, music and movies. There will be conversation, wine and books….a great chance to support Vibe, and indie publishing in Hong Kong as I’ll be talking about and selling my collection Destination Shanghai, which is published by Hong Kong indie Blacksmith Books…
What looks like a good collection from Gordon Chang and Shelley Fisher Fishkin…(makes me miss Hell on Wheels!!)
The completion of the
transcontinental railroad in May 1869 is usually told as a story of
national triumph and a key moment for American Manifest Destiny. The
railroad made it possible to cross the country in a matter of days
instead of months, paved the way for new settlers to come out West, and
helped speed America’s entry onto the world stage as a modern nation
that spanned a full continent. It also created vast wealth for its four
owners, including the fortune with which Leland Stanford would found
Stanford University some two decades later. But while the
transcontinental has often been celebrated in national memory, little
attention has been paid to the Chinese workers who made up 90% of the
workforce on the Western portion of the line. The railroad could not
have been built without Chinese labor, but the lives of Chinese railroad
workers themselves have been little understood and largely invisible.
This landmark volume shines new light on the Chinese railroad workers and their place in cultural memory. The Chinese and the Iron Road
illuminates more fully than ever before the interconnected economies of
China and the US, how immigration across the Pacific changed both
nations, the dynamics of the racism the workers encountered, the
conditions under which they labored, and their role in shaping both the
history of the railroad and the development of the American West.
Jeremy Yellen’s The Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere: When Total Empire Met Total War (Columbia Uni Press) looks like a good addition to the writing on the period…
In The Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere,
Jeremy Yellen exposes the history, politics, and intrigue that
characterized the era when Japan’s “total empire” met the total war of
World War II. He illuminates the ways in which the imperial center and
its individual colonies understood the concept of the Sphere, offering
two sometimes competing, sometimes complementary, and always intertwined
visions—one from Japan, the other from Burma and the Philippines.
Yellen
argues that, from 1940 to 1945, the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity
Sphere epitomized two concurrent wars for Asia’s future: the first was
for a new type of empire in Asia, and the second was a political war,
waged by nationalist elites in the colonial capitals of Rangoon and
Manila. Exploring Japanese visions for international order in the face
of an ever-changing geopolitical situation, The Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere
explores wartime Japan’s desire to shape and control its imperial
future while its colonies attempted to do the same. At Japan’s zenith as
an imperial power, the Sphere represented a plan for regional
domination; by the end of the war, it had been recast as the epitome of
cooperative internationalism. In the end, the Sphere could not survive
wartime defeat, and Yellen’s lucidly written account reveals much about
the desires of Japan as an imperial and colonial power, as well as the
ways in which the subdued colonies in Burma and the Philippines jockeyed
for agency and a say in the future of the region.
Sunday, March 17, 6:00 PM 60 RMB | The Bookworm – TICKETS
Contemporary artists of non-fiction – to borrow from literary critic Barbara Lounsberry’s The Art of Fact – identify a documentable subject matter chosen from the real world as opposed to something invented by the writer; they engage in exhaustive research which helps them establish credible narratives and to portray and revive the scene; and they utilise polished language and an engaging prose style, which when assembled together reveals the artistry and literary merit evident in the pages. This evening we gather three fine artists of China-related non-fiction – Helen Zia (Last Boat out of Shanghai), Paul French (City of Devils) and Michael Schuman (Confucius and the World He Created) – to discuss how they approach their non-fiction projects, what issues they can face along the creative journey, and how they bring their work to literary life. Moderated by Jingwen Kang.
Tomorrow Xinran who will be in conversation with Paul French, discussing all things love, loss, and China in the new book ‘The Promise’. This Thurs (14th March) at 1:30 pm at Daunt Books, Marylebone. Tickets here: https://bit.ly/2GvNAgW
