a fascinating study coming out in January 2020 from Hong Kong University Press…
This groundbreaking volume critically examines
how writers in Japanese-occupied northeast China
negotiated political and artistic freedom while
engaging their craft amidst an increasing atmosphere
of violent conflict and foreign control. The allegedly
multiethnic utopian new state of Manchukuo
(1932–1945) created by supporters of imperial
Japan was intended to corral the creative energies of Chinese, Japanese, Koreans, Russians, and Mongols . Yet, the twin poles of utopian promise and resistance to a contested state pulled these intellectuals into competing loyalties, selective engagement, or even exile and death—surpassing neat paradigms of collaboration or resistance . In a semicolony wrapped in the utopian vision of racial inclusion, their literary works articulating national ideals and even the norms of everyday life subtly reflected the complexities and contradictions of the era .
Scholars from China, Korea, Japan, and North
America investigate cultural production under
imperial Japan’s occupation of Manchukuo . They
reveal how literature and literary production more
generally can serve as a penetrating lens into forgotten
histories and the lives of ordinary people confronted
with difficult political exigencies. Highlights of the
text include transnational perspectives by leading
researchers in the field and a memoir by one of
Manchukuo’s last living writers .
The old Imperial Hotel in Tientsin (Tianjin) is far less well remembered than the more famous (and still standing) Astor…but deserves to be remembered…
Highly recommended read for any Beijing Heads out there…Anthony Clark’s China Gothic…
As China struggled to redefine itself
at the turn of the twentieth century, nationalism, religion, and
material culture intertwined in revealing ways. This phenomenon is
evident in the twin biographies of North China’s leading Catholic bishop
of the time, Alphonse Favier (1837-1905), and the Beitang cathedral,
epicenter of the Roman Catholic mission in China through incarnations
that began in 1701. After its relocation and reconstruction under
Favier’s supervision, the cathedral-and Favier-miraculously survived a
two-month siege in 1900 during the Boxer Rebellion. Featuring a French
Gothic Revival design augmented by Chinese dragon-shaped gargoyles,
marble balustrades in the style of Daoist and Buddhist temples, and
other Chinese aesthetic flourishes, Beitang remains an icon of
Sino-Western interaction. Anthony Clark draws on archival materials from
the Vatican and collections in France, Italy, China, Poland, and the
United States to trace the prominent role of French architecture in
introducing Western culture and Catholicism to China. A principal device
was the aesthetic imagined by the Gothic Revival movement of the
eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the premier example of this in
China being the Beitang cathedral. Bishop Favier’s biography is a lens
through which to examine Western missionaries’ role in colonial
endeavors and their complex relationship with the Chinese communities in
which they lived and worked.
Drawing from a treasure trove of original photos and documents as well as newspaper articles from the era, this talk tells the story of S. C. Young, a policeman from Ireland, who arrived in Shanghai in 1904 and remained there until 1938, making his way up the rungs of the police force to eventually serve as Commissioner. Amidst the dramatic backdrop of war, revolution, crime and gangland politics, Mr Young married an Englishwoman and raised three boys. It will be argued that his stable family life, and he and his wife’s devotion to their church and other social and civic organizations in the city contributed to his rise in the hierarchy of the city’s British community. This talk will feature many photos; it is based on an article that Dr Field published in the RAS Journal in 2018.
Andrew David Field earned a Ph.D. in East Asian Languages and Cultures at Columbia University. He has taught at universities in the USA, Australia, China and Korea. He currently serves as an administrator and professor of Chinese History at Duke Kunshan University. He has published three books: Shanghai’s Dancing World: Cabaret Culture and Urban Politics (2010), Mu Shiying: China’s Lost Modernist (2014), and Shanghai Nightscapes: A Nocturnal Biography of a Global City (co-authored with James Farrer, 2015).
Just in time for Christmas another lovely book from the excellent Nick Bonner….
Never-before-seen North Korea – a rare glimpse into the country behind the politics and the creativity behind the propaganda
This incredible collection of prints dating from the 1950s to the twenty-first century is the only one of its kind in or outside North Korea. Depicting the everyday lives of the country’s train conductors, steelworkers, weavers, farmers, scientists, and fishermen, these unique lino-cut and woodblock prints are a fascinating way to explore the culture of this still virtually unknown country. Together, they are an unparalleled testament to the talent of North Korea’s artists and the unique social, cultural, and political conditions in which they work.
More of Shanghai’s Old Town (Nantao) is coming down – leaving very, very little now. Xundao Jie is near Qiaojia Lu, the site of Catalpa Gardens, the mansion of the famous painter Wang Yiting (who hosted Albert Einstein for dinner there in 1922) and the oldest decently intact residence left in Nantao.
Much of Xundao Jie is now bricked up ready to come down sadly….
