All things old China - books, anecdotes, stories, podcasts, factoids & ramblings from the author Paul French
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…
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?
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…
from the American newspapers in 1921….
The HKILF opening night is rapidly approaching and it’s in a fantastic new venue, the JC Cube (below) at the new Tai Kwun arts centre on Hollywood Road (and its free)…7-8pm, 2/11/18 – click here
Join us for a dynamic, eclectic and entertaining evening as we celebrate the start of Hong Kong’s 18th International Literary Festival!
Drawing together local and international literary talent, we present a night of storytelling inspired by the theme of journeys. Festival participants Geoff Dyer, Paul French, Nashua Gallagher, Emmy the Great and Jenny Zhang will share their tales of here, there and what lies in between.
This Saturday, October 27th, there is one more official Penguin China & Bespoke Beijing Midnight in Peking Walking Tour before its gets a bit chilly in Beijing to go our walking for a few hours…
Christmas is coming…and here’s what I think is a perfect gift…all the Von Sternberg/Dietrich flicks in one set from Criterion (here)
So here’s a couple of China Rhyming accompanying articles
On Shanghai Express – Harry Hervey’s original treatment for the movie
On Morocco – Amy Jolly’s Chinese Doll
Tasked by studio executives with finding the next great screen siren, visionary Hollywood director Josef von Sternberg joined forces with rising German actor Marlene Dietrich, kicking off what would become one of the most legendary partnerships in cinema history. Over the course of six films produced by Paramount in the 1930s, the pair refined their shared fantasy of pleasure, beauty, and excess. Dietrich’s coolly transgressive mystique was a perfect match for the provocative roles von Sternberg cast her in—including a sultry chanteuse, a cunning spy, and the hedonistic Catherine the Great—and the filmmaker captured her allure with chiaroscuro lighting and opulent design, conjuring fever-dream visions of exotic settings from Morocco to Shanghai. Suffused with frank sexuality and worldly irony, these deliriously entertaining masterpieces are landmarks of cinematic artifice.
I’m delighted to be doing an event with Adeline Foo, author of Lancing Girls at the Happy World, at the Singapore Writers Festival this coming November 11th discussing the underworld and entertainment links between old Shanghai and old Singapore – Resurrecting the Bad Old Days: Researching the Dark Side of Pre-war Shanghai & Singapore. Adeline’s book is a great read for those who want a fuller story of Shanghai’s entertainment industry and its regional reach before and just after the war…
“Dancing was fun; it didn’t seem like a job but a party every day.â€
“They practised dancing seriously; it was their life!â€
“It is an ugly profession; to prostitute oneself… is a commonly accepted practice.â€
Glitz, glamour, and sleaze is what people may remember of the cabaret girls of yesteryear. With curiosity and an open mind, Adeline Foo sets out to uncover the lives of these women and how, even with few dreams and hopes to strive for, these women lived with much heart and courage despite society’s disapproving eye. The music of the dance hall may have faded away, but this book carries the echoes of their dance steps, connecting us with a forgotten past that was inspired by faith, hope and charity.
