All things old China - books, anecdotes, stories, podcasts, factoids & ramblings from the author Paul French
Posted: November 12th, 2018 | No Comments »
An event I’m doing this Wednesday in Singapore…
Turning Archival Research into a Bestseller
Wed, 14 Nov, 2018, 7:00 PM – 8:30
Posted: November 9th, 2018 | No Comments »
and so I begin my weekend at the Singapore Writers Festival….
A Power Awakened: China Then, Now, and its Impact on the World
Panel Discussions
DATE / TIME
10 Nov, Sat 2:30 PM – 3:30 PM
60mins
VENUE
Asian Civilisations Museum, Ngee Ann Auditorium
LANGUAGE
This session is in English
MODERATED BY
Greta Georges
DESCRIPTION
The last couple of decades have seen power shift from the West to Asia, led by China and India. With China making aggressive inroads into Africa and South America, she is now a global leader, not just in economic terms, but also her cultural might. Join China experts Paul French, Hoo Tiang Boon, and Anurag Viswanath as they discuss the changes that China has witnessed in her economic boom, and whether these have posed new opportunities and challenges to the rest of the world.
FEATURING
Paul French lived in Shanghai for 20 years, after studying Chinese and history in the UK. He is an author of literary non-fiction. His latest book, City of Devils, is set in the dancehalls, casinos and nightclubs of 1930s Shanghai. His previous book, Midnight in Peking, was a New York Times bestseller and is currently being developed for TV.
Photo Credit:Â Sue Anne Tay
Paul French is featured in the following SWF event(s):
Resurrecting the Bad Old Days: Researching the Dark Side of Pre-war Shanghai & Singapore
Anurag Viswanath
Singapore
Anurag Viswanath has been a researcher at Fudan University, China. The Mandarin speaker has authored Finding India in China. Over 15 years, she has written about China in Bangkok Post, The Nation, Far Eastern Economic Review, Business Standard and Financial Express. She has been guest speaker at Foreign Correspondent’s Club (Shanghai and Hong Kong), Royal Asiatic Society (Shanghai), Siam Society (Bangkok), Bookworm Festival (Beijing) and SWF.
Hoo Tiang Boon (PhD, Oxford) is an assistant professor at Nanyang Technological University’s S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies. His latest books include China’s Global Identity: Considering the Responsibilities of Great Power (Georgetown University Press) and (as an editor) Chinese Foreign Policy under Xi (Routledge).
Posted: November 9th, 2018 | No Comments »
the next Midnight in Peking walking tour is tonight!! last chance….
Posted: November 3rd, 2018 | No Comments »
I notice i haven’t posted a parasol picture for a while (there’s been loads – just put ‘parasol’ in the search engine). This image of model Virginia Stewart in Joset Walker for Harper’s Bazaar, shot in the desert near Yuma by Louise Dahl-Wolfe, May 1948….
Posted: November 1st, 2018 | No Comments »
The Way We Were: A Photographic Journey Back to 1970s and 80s Hong Kong
Entitled The Way We Were, this exhibition features photos of nostalgic street scenes steeped in colonial and local culture, city panoramas and images of life on the sea. The show is a documentation of, and flashback to, Hong Kong in the 1970s and 1980s, expressing a city that abounds in colour, diversity and the contagious å·¥åˆÂ (gung1 hap6) attitude.
These images are exhibited alongside Keith Macgregor’s passion project called Neon Fantasies. In this series, Macgregor imagines what Hong Kong could have looked like if its neon signs weren’t removed or eclipsed by LED signage. Photographed street scenes are digitally collaged with images of the city’s most iconic neon signs—most of them long gone—creating eye-catching images that are simultaneously historical and futuristic.
Macgregor, who is now over 70 years old and based in London, still frequently returns to the city he called home for over three decades to capture its ever-changing cityscape.
Where: usagi Hong Kong – Shop B, G/F, Wah Shin House, 6-10 Shin Hing Street – Central
Posted: October 30th, 2018 | No Comments »
The journal Literary Shanghai has produced a special edition for the Singapore Writers Festival this November – Shanghai in Singapore – with a bunch of original contributions (including from me) and new translations….it’ll be everywhere at the festival and available in various bookshops in Singapore and China as well as via Literary Shanghai…
Posted: October 30th, 2018 | 1 Comment »
Ida Hurst was apparently an intrepid traveller between the wars and also a typist! I would very much like to read her book from 1941, Typist in China, but I’m a bit stuck finding a copy – anyone got one?
Posted: October 27th, 2018 | No Comments »
The first Chatto and Windus ads to appear for Harold Acton’s classic comic novel of the Peking ex-pat scene that is yet to be bettered or even challenged…in Cyril Connolly’s Horizon April 1941 issue…
