Royal Asiatic Society Beijing – Missionaries, Medicine, and the Nanjing Massacre – 27/3/18

Missionaries, Medicine, and the Nanjing Massacre

WHAT: Missionaries, Medicine, and the Nanjing Massacre: a family in China 1870-2018 by Dr. Peter Brinsden
WHEN: Mar. 27, Tuesday, from 7:30-9:00 PM
WHERE: The Courtyard Institute, #28 Zhonglao Hutong (map)
HOW MUCH: RMB 50
RSVP: please reserve via yoopay  https://yoopay.cn/event/78995752 or here

ABOUT THE PRESENTATION:  Dr. Peter Brinsden’s family first went to China in 1870 as American Presbyterian missionaries.  Peter was born in Peking (now Beijing) in 1940, the fourth generation of his family to be born in China.  Their narrative covers a wide arc of Chinese history. Missionary and teacher Robert Fitch – Peter’s great grandfather, founded one of the first colleges of Zhejiang University and was a keen photographer. Many of his pictures will be shown to illustrate this talk.  Peter’s great-uncle George Fitch was YMCA head in Nanjing during the December 1937 atrocities known as the Nanking Massacre, and was appointed director of the International Committee for the Nanking Safety Zone.  He also visited Yanan where he met Mao Zedong, Zhou Enlai and other communist leaders. Peter has visited China on many occasions in the last thirty years and will describe China, as seen through his family’s eyes, from the past to the present.

MORE ABOUT THE SPEAKER: Peter Robert Brinsden is a specialist in fertility and assisted reproduction. He was born in Beijing and, as a child, lived in China, the United States, Canada and Hong Kong. He was educated at Rugby School and qualified in medicine from St George’s Hospital, London, in 1966, when he joined the Royal Navy. He qualified as a Consultant Gynaecologist in 1978, and retired from the Royal Navy in 1982. He gained his MRCOG in 1976 and FRCOG in 1989, choosing to specialise in fertility and was appointed Medical Director of Bourn Hall Clinic in 1989.  Following his semi-retirement in 2006 Peter was Consultant Medical Director of Bourn Hall Clinic until 2016, and remains a Consultant to Bourn Hall. Peter has Honorary or Visiting Professorships at the Capital Medical University, Beijing; Peking Union Medical College (where he was born); and China Southern Medical University, Guangzhou. He travels widely to lecture — especially in the Middle East, India and China – and has led three delegations of gynaecologists to China in the past six years

UK Premiere – Comrade Kim Goes Flying + ScreenTalk with co-directors Nicholas Bonner and Anja Daelemans – Barbican Cinema 28/3/17

Shanghai Literary Festival – BLACK LIVES IN JAZZ AGE SHANGHAI – 24/3/18

An event definitely not to miss if you’re in Shanghai this weekend….

BLACK LIVES IN JAZZ AGE SHANGHAI

Writer Aaliyah Bilal recounts stories of African-American artists who travelled to Shanghai in the early 20th century. Join us to learn about their experiences navigating the pitfalls and opportunities of this vibrant city, leading up to the onset of the Japanese Occupation.

More details and tickets…here

Beijing Literary Festival Workshop – UNCOVERING THE OLD CHINA – PAUL FRENCH – Saturday, March 24, 11 am – 1 pm

UNCOVERING THE OLD CHINA

PAUL FRENCH

Saturday, March 24, 11 am – 1 pm | 250 RMB | OH24-11 – Ticket

Click here for tickets

There were foreigners in Peking a hundred years ago. But who were they, what were they doing, how did they live, what attracted them, how did they get on with the local people? Of course, things were so totally different then, but also they were sometimes rather familiar to us today. Author of Midnight in Peking, City of Devils and many other books on China’s past Paul French reveals how we can use film, newspapers, photography, old letters, books and memoirs to travel back to a very different China.

City of Devils in Beijing – Shanghai Noir in Sanlitun – 22/3/18

Launching City of Devils in Beijing tonight, a city that loved Midnight in Peking but are they willing to step once again into the Badlands, Shanghai this time, and see just how really down and dirty sleazy old x-pat China can get in the late 1930s….I do hope so…. more details and tickets etc here…

CITY OF DEVILS: A SHANGHAI NOIR
Paul French

moderated by Alec Ash

Thursday, March 22, 8 pm | 60 RMB

It’s time to go back and explore Shanghai’s Badlands…

Immerse yourself in 1940’s Shanghai with this astonishing story of two men whose lives intertwine in crime and twisted friendship. In a city under siege Viennese Joe Farren rose to fame by cashing in on Shanghai’s desperate pleasure seeking. King of the chorus lines, his name was splashed in neon across the infamous Badlands nightclub ‘Farren’s’. American fugitive Jack Riley, his fingertips acid-burnt found a future in Shanghai as ‘The Slots King’. ‘Dapper Joe’ and ‘Lucky Jack’ collided, clashed and came together again in a frantic struggle to survive the city’s last days. In City of Devils: A Shanghai Noir Paul French resurrects the denizens of old Shanghai’s ganglands, the drug-running, the gambling, and the graft, vividly restoring this long-overlooked side of the city’s history. In conversation with Alec Ash, author of Wish Lanterns.

Royal Asiatic Society Beijing – BEIJING VERSUS SHANGHAI: WHO’S THE FAIREST OF THEM ALL? – 21/3/18

Somhow I got roped into doing this panel in Beijing at the Bookworm International Literary Festival. I’m not quite sure how as I know absolutely nothing and could care less about banking, investment, political relations and all that old shenanigans. Given that my interest in Beijing ends roughly a month after Harold Acton left and my love of Shanghai effectively finishes around May 1940 I may not be called upon often to speak!! I fera the bias may already be kicking in by positioning the Forbidden City as equivalent to the God awful Pearl Tower!!

BEIJING VERSUS SHANGHAI: WHO’S THE FAIREST OF THEM ALL?

Please join us Mar. 21 for a panel discussion of BEIJING VERSUS SHANGHAI: WHO’S THE FAIREST OF THEM ALL?  During March Beijing book-lovers gather for the Bookworm Literary Festival — and this year the Royal Asiatic Society Beijing (RASBJ) has helped organize a festival event. Come hear prominent authors — all veteran China hands — debate which city is hot and which is not, and why, as China grabs the spotlight on the global stage. It’s an age-old question, but we face new circumstances – politics, economic policies, tech development, even pollution patterns are changing. And with them the balance between these mega cities. To debate this thorny issue, join Paul French (City of Devils), James McGregor (No Ancient Wisdom, No Followers), and Jim Stent (China’s Banking Transformation), with Newsweek’s Melinda Liu as moderator. Organized by the Royal Asiatic Society Beijing for the Bookworm Literary Festival

WHAT: “Beijing Versus Shanghai: Who’s the Fairest of Them All?”, a panel discussion
WHEN: Mar. 21, Wednesday from 8:00 PM to 9:30 PM
WHERE: The Bookworm, Building 4, Nan Sanlitun Road, Chaoyang District, Beijing, tel: 6586 9507
HOW MUCH: 80 RMB
RSVP: Buy a Ticket here for event BW21-8 or go to the link.

NOTE TO RASBJ MEMBERS: Because this event is part of the literary festival, Bookworm is handling ticket sales and pricing

Treasures of the Royal Asiatic Society Shanghai Library with Tess Johnston and Paul French – 20/3/18

Tuesday, 20th March 2018
7:00 pm – 9:00 pmRAS Library

Treasures of the RAS Library

Speaker: Tess Johnston and Paul French

The old RAS Shanghai Library was resurrected in 2007; recreated thanks to donations and some selective purchasing from Society funds. After several moves it now resides in the House of Roosevelt with 3,000 books and associated archival materials. Within this collection are some amazing gems for the writer, researcher, scholar, or the just plain curious. Tess Johnston and Paul French have been involved with the library since it’s recreation as donors, cataloguers and active users. Join us for a glass of wine and some literary conversation as they select some choice “finds” from the collection, explain why they are truly unique and read a few revealing selections.

Tess Johnston is uniquely qualified to recommend treasures from the RAS Library. She first came to Shanghai in 1981 to work at the American Consulate General and in 1996, after over thirty years in the diplomatic service, she retired and stayed on to research, write, and lecture. Now living back in America she is working on her memoirs.

Paul French lived and worked in Shanghai for many years. He is a widely published journalist and commentator on China and has written a number of books, including a history of foreign correspondents in China and a biography of the legendary Shanghai adman, journalist and adventurer Carl Crow (whose archive resides in the RAS Library). French’s new book City of Devils is his much-anticipated second literary non-fiction book, following Midnight in Peking, which was a New York Times Bestseller.

Note: Due to limited seating, only those on the RSVP list will be admitted into the Library.

The City of Devils Comes to the Suzhou Bookworm – 19/3/18

Monday, March 19, 7pm

CITY OF DEVILS: A SHANGHAI NOIR

恶魔之城：一个上海黑帮

Paul French

It’s time to go back and explore Shanghai’s Badlands…

Immerse yourself in 1940’s Shanghai with this astonishing story of two men whose lives intertwine in crime and twisted friendship. In a city under siege Viennese Joe Farren rose to fame by cashing in on Shanghai’s desperate pleasure seeking. King of the chorus lines, his name was splashed in neon across the infamous Badlands nightclub ‘Farren’s’. American fugitive Jack Riley, his fingertips acid-burnt found a future in Shanghai as ‘The Slots King’. ‘Dapper Joe’ and ‘Lucky Jack’ collided, clashed and came together again in a frantic struggle to survive the city’s last days. In City of Devils: A Shanghai Noir Paul French resurrects the denizens of old Shanghai’s ganglands, the drug-running, the gambling, and the graft, vividly restoring this long-overlooked side of the city’s history.

是时候回到那个曾经风起云涌的上海，去找寻、去发现······

设想你置身于四十年代的上海，置身于两个男人惊心动魄的故事里，他们的生活被罪恶和扭曲的友谊纠缠在一起。在一个沦陷的城市里，维也纳人Joe Farren靠钻营上海人的寻欢作乐而成名。他是合唱队的领军人物，他的名字在臭名昭著的夜总会Farren’s的霓虹灯中闪烁。从美国逃亡而来的Jack Riley，虽指尖被酸烧残，但他在上海成为了“老虎机之王”。“精明强悍的乔”和“幸运的杰克”在城市的末世飘零中，他们碰撞，冲突，他们又残酷的生存斗争走到一起。在《恶魔之城》中，Paul French呈现了旧上海帮派中的外来族裔、毒品走私、赌博和贪污，生动地再现了这座城市在历史中湮没的一面。

This event will be in English.本活动为英文专场。