The Spectator’s Editorial on Nanking – September 1937

Here’s The Spectator’s editorial from 1937 on Nanking. Though we now think of The Speccie as the house journal of the more vulgar elements of the Tory Party, in the 1930s it was, for a period, one of the most outspoken English publications on the rise of fascism and German nazi-ism, as well as Japanese militarism and the threat to China, though the publication generally supported Chamberlain’s appeasement policy. It’s an interesing read anyway i think…

China on Film – A Feast for Lovers of Old China Footage

I spent much of the summer as the Historical Consultant on a two-part documentary, China on Film. The documentary was produced by Make Production for Channel News Asia in Singapore, directed by Jeremy Bristow and narrated by the cinematographer Christopher Doyle. The documentary covers film of China from the very earliest early twentieth century footage to the Second World War – most of it is from the treasure troves of the British Film Institute Archives in London. You can imagine that a summer in a dark room watching footage of old China and trying to work out where, what, who and when was about the best summer imaginable for me!!

Anyway, you can watch the two episodes here on Channel News Asia’s website….

RAS Shanghai Chinese History Club – The Uyghurs Across China – 9/1/18

The Uyghurs across China

Speaker: Peter Hagan

During the session we will hear and discuss Peter Hagan’s presentation on “The Uyghurs across China”; Uyghur Khaganate and the Tang Dynasty relationship, how the Uyghur society changed when the Khaganate collapsed.

Chinese History Study Group meets monthly – generally the second Tuesday of each month September through June. Our members select and research topics of personal interest, make brief oral presentations, then engage in discussion with those attending the talk. Each month one or two members discuss their topics.

For a list of future topics and presenters, please contact convener Furkan Erdogan studygroup@royalasiaticsociety.org.cn

Peking – 1937 – Today – A Murder Occurred

Remebering Pamela Werner – whose murdered body was discovered today, 81 years ago, by the Fox Tower in Peking…

Royal Asiatic Society Beijing – “From Rebel to Reporter: 40 Years Working in China” By former CNN Bureau Chief Jaime FlorCruz – 23/1/18

“From Rebel to Reporter: 40 Years Working in China”

By former CNN Bureau Chief Jaime FlorCruz

In August 1971, Jaime FlorCruz was a left-leaning Filipino student, leading a study tour to China for idealistic Filipino activists. But back in Manila then-strongman Ferdinand Marcos put his name on an immigration blacklist and declared martial law. FlorCruz risked arrest — and worse — if he were to return to his homeland under Marco’s repressive rule. As a result, he and four other Filipinos from his group embarked on a new life in China, an experience he described (on hindsight) as being “stranded in the right place at the right time.” In his talk Jaime will recount his unique nearly five-decade-long journey through Chinese contemporary history. He’s worked on a state farm and a fishing boat. He entered Beida after it reopened following the Cultural Revolution, counting among his schoolmates famous names such as Li Keqiang and Bo Xilai. And, after the late Deng Xiaoping declared an era of “reform and opening up”, FlorCruz began an unexpected career in journalism. He worked first for Newsweek, then Time, and finally as CNN’s Beijing Bureau Chief before retiring in Dec. 2014 — after the longest single unbroken stay in Beijing by a foreign correspondent.

WHAT: Former CNN Bureau Chief Jaime FlorCruz on “From Rebel to Reporter: My Four Decades Working in China”
WHEN: Jan. 23, 2018, Tuesday from 8:00 – 9:30 PM
WHERE: The Bookworm, Building 4, Nan Sanlitun Road, Chaoyang District, Beijing tel: 6586 9507
HOW MUCH:
Free for RASBJ and Bookworm members but advanced registration required;
RMB 80 with advanced registration for non-members/general public (includes welcome drink);
RMB 100 at the door on a SPACE AVAILABLE BASIS
RSVP: https://yoopay.cn/event/55554187

Remembering Eunice Tietjens #7 – My Servant

In 1915, or thereabouts, Eunice Tietjens was staying at a Christian mission station in Wusih (Wuxi) in Jiangsu…clearly she had a servant of a certain age with bound feet…

My Servant

The feet of my servant thump on the floor.

Thump, they go, and thump – dully, deformedly.

My servant has shown me her feet.

The instep has been broken upward into a bony cushion. The big toe is pointed as an awl. The small toes are folded under the cushioned instep. Only the heel is untouched.

The thing is white and bloodless with the pallor of dead flesh.

But my servant is quite contented.

She smiles toothlessly and shows me how small are her feet, her “golden lillies.”

Thump, they go, and thump!

Wusih

Remembering Eunice Tietjens #6 – The Dandy

This poem was written around 1915 when Tietjens was visiting Wusih (Wuxi) in Jiangsu near Shanghai…at the time the notion of the dandy was as much about refined habits and leisurely hobbies as it was (as I think is more common today) mostly about appearance and dress….

The Dandy

He swaggers in green silk and his two coats are lined with fur. Above his velvet shoes his trim, bound ankles twinkle pleasantly.

His nails are the longest.

Quite the glass of fashion is Mr. Chu!

In one slim hand – the ultimate punctilio – dangles a bamboo cage, wherein a small brown bird sits with a face of perpetual surprise.

Mr. Chu smiles the benevolent smile of one who satisfies both fashion and a tender heart.

Does not a bird need an airing?

Wusih

Remembering Eunice Tietjens #5 – New China: The Iron Works

Around 1915 Tietjens, staying at a Christian mission nearby, visited the Hanyang Arsenal and Iron Works in Wuhan, built in 1893 as a major contribution to the notions of the Self-Strengthening Movement….

New China: The Iron Works

The furnaces, the great steel furnaces, tremble and glow; gigantic machinery clanks, and in living iridescent streams the white-hot slag pours out.

This is to-morrow set in yesterday, the west imbedded in the east, a graft but not a growth.

And you who walk beside me, picking your familiar way between the dynamos, the cars, the piles of rails – you too are of to-morrow, grafted with an alien energy.

You wear the costume of the west, you speak my tongue as one who knows; you talk casually of Sheffield, Pittsburgh, Essen…

You touch on Socialism, walk-outs, and the industrial population of te British Isles.

Almost you might be one of us.

And then I ask:

“How much do those poor coolies earn a day, who take the place of carts?”

You shrug and smile.

“Eighteen coppers. Something less than eight cents in your money. They are not badly paid. They do not die.”

Again I ask:

“And is it true that you’ve a Yamen,  police judge, all your own?”

Another shrug and smile.

“Yes, he attends to all small cases of disorder. For larger crimes we pass the offender over to the city courts.”

**

“Conditions” you explain as we sit with a cup of tea, “conditions here are difficult.”

Your figure has grown lax, your voice a little weary. You are fighting, I can see, upheld by that strange graft of western energy.

Yet odds are heavy, and the Orient is in your blood. Your voice is weary.

“There are no skilled laborers” you say, “Among the owners no cooperation.

It is like – like working in a nightmare, here in China. It drags at me, it drags”…

You bow me out with great civility.

The furnaces, the great steel furnaces, tremble and glow, gigantic machinery clanks and in living iridescent streams the white-0hot slag pours out.

Beyond the gate the filth begins again.

A beggar rots and grovels, clutching at my skirt with leprous hands. A woman sits sorting hog-bristles; she coughs and sobs.

The stench is sickening

To-morrow! did they say?

(Hanyang)