Posted: September 10th, 2018 | No Comments »
Visualising Asia: Deciphering ‘Otherness’ in Visual and Material Cultures
SOAS, University of London
20/21stSeptember 2018
Confirmed Keynote: Dr Anne Witchard – “The Boom in Yellow”: Colour Coding at the Fin de Siecle
Full speaker programme here
to book (free entry, by the way) click here
Historically, Asia has been a contended space of exploration and domination, where both Asian and non-Asian agents sought to define themselves against others. Within this broad historical and geographical context,this international and interdisciplinary conference brings together various forms of visuals, such as films, cartoons, and objects, in their interaction with discourses of ‘other’. The platforms of visualising Asia were assimilated into daily life and practices, feeding into narratives that transcend any single medium. Due to their visual impact, they became lasting repositories of imagined identities and thus have critical implications for those representing and those being represented. This conference invites discussions on the differing ways ‘otherness’ has been used in both Asian and non-Asian societies through visuals. We encourage the participation from postgraduates, career researchers, scholars, curators, practitioners, and archivists. The aim is to bring together an array of visualities from across various disciplines in order to reflect on the importance of visuals in knowledge production and circulation within and across cultures and societies.
The conference convenors are Amy Matthewson (SOAS, University of London), and Dr Irene González-López (Kingston University).
Posted: September 6th, 2018 | No Comments »
Members of SupChina Access (& you can join here at very reasonable rates) might be interested to know I’ll be on their instant messaging service “Slack” for an hour on Friday September 11 at 11am EST – City of Devils, Midnight in Peking, old China, writing, history, heritage…all and any topics welcome…
Posted: September 5th, 2018 | No Comments »
Peter Gordon: The Silver Way: China, Spanish America and the Birth of Globalisation, 1565–1815
13 September 2018, 13:30 to 15:00
King’s Building, Strand Campus, London
Long before London and New York rose to international prominence, a trading route was discovered between Spanish America and China that ushered in a new era of globalisation. The “Ruta de la Plata†or “Silver Way†catalysed economic and cultural exchange, built the foundations for the first global currency in the Spanish and Mexican pesos, and led to the rise of the first “world cityâ€. And yet, for all its importance, the “Silver Way†and Manila galleons that traversed it have too often been neglected in conventional narratives on the birth of globalisation.
This talk will recap the history of the “Ruta de la Plataâ€, its connection to past and future “Silk Roadsâ€, how it can inform an understanding of China’s global role today, its relevance to the extension of the Belt & Road Initiative to Latin America, and what financial lessons there might from the time when “the dollar spoke Spanishâ€.
Speaker: Peter Gordon
Peter Gordon is co-author of “The Silver Way: China, Spanish America and the Birth of Globalisation, 1565–1815†(Penguin 2017) and editor of the Asian Review of Books. He has been resident in Hong Kong since 1985 and was instrumental in the establishment and organization of the Hong Kong International Literary Festival and Man Asian Literary Prize. His writings have appeared in the Diplomat, South China Morning Post, the Nikkei Asian Review, Caixin and other publications.
Posted: August 31st, 2018 | No Comments »
I hate pub quizzes, but….
Posted: August 30th, 2018 | No Comments »
Bill Savadove is a nice guy – really, honestly, I swear it…if you’d ever met him on Blood Alley you can rest assured he’d simply be reporting, not indulging…
Here Bill takes a walk down the old Blood Alley (now just a truncated and dreary street, but once upon a time….) and recalls its heady past…
click here to read
Posted: August 23rd, 2018 | No Comments »
Tin Hats and Rice – A fascinating new memoir from Hong Kong’s Blacksmith Books – “I can’t visualise us getting out of this, but I want to TRY to believe in a future,” wrote 23-year-old Barbara Anslow (then Redwood) in her diary on 8th December 1941, a few hours after Japan first attacked Hong Kong. Her 1941-1946 diaries (with postwar explanations where necessary) are an invaluable source of information on the civilian experience in British Hong Kong during the second world war. The diaries record her thoughts and experiences through the fighting, the surrender, three-and-a-half years of internment, then liberation and adjustment to normal life. The diaries have been quoted by leading historians on the subject. Now they are available in print for the first time, making them available to a wider audience.
Posted: August 22nd, 2018 | No Comments »
The Mapping of Asia
A collection of fine antique maps from 16th to 20th century including city plans and nautical charts
Heinrich Bunting – map of Asia as Pegasus 1646
from 30th August 2018 until 30th September 2018
Wattis Fine Art Gallery
www.wattis.com.hk
Gallery open: Monday – Saturday 11am – 6pm
Posted: August 21st, 2018 | No Comments »
Having offered up a brief factoid about the shared accommodations (quite a while apart admittedly) of Arthur Waley and George Chinnery I offer another – I had not know that Waley also met with Ella Maillart, the Swiss explorer, photographer, author and the woman who crossed China with Peter Fleming back in the thirties (i have blogged about her before – see search engine).
How did Waley (who famously never went to China) know Maillart? Apparently in 1937 Waley was skiing in Kitzbuhel in Austria and had an acquaintance with both Ian and Peter Fleming (who had recently married the film star Celia Johnson who was with him on the slopes) who were there too. Through Peter Waley was introduced to Maillart. Maillart would presumably have been aware of Waley’s translations and he aware of her travels in China.
It appears that after that meeting in Kitzbuhel Waley and Maillart did communicate by letter occasionally. They did also, it seems, meet once more, in the 1950s, when Waley was again in Switzerland and visited Maillart at her home in the Alpine village of Chandolin. A photograph of Waley leaning against her fireplace is mentioned (though appears to be lost).
I’d love to know what they talked about….
Waley on the slopes in Switzerland
Maillart with a parasol
