The Shanghai Project – Gathering of Chinese & Jewish Residents of Shanghai in WW2 – 6/6/17 New York City

Sorry I’m so late blogging this but if you’re in New York it should be of interest…..

Tiananmen Square Massacre – 4 June 1989

As ever, remembering….

Hong Kong on the Brink: An American diplomat relives 1967’s darkest days

Syd Goldsmith’s great memoir of the dark days of 1967 in Hong Kong and an encroaching Red China…

Syd Goldsmith’s first taste of China’s Cultural Revolution is blood on his tongue. It’s 1967. Hong Kong is simmering, plagued by communist-led riots and strikes, crippled transport, punishing water-rationing, takeover threats from Beijing and roadside bombs. And Syd — the only Caucasian Foreign Service Officer at the American Consulate General who speaks Cantonese — is made responsible for reporting and analysis of the Hong Kong government’s ability to survive.

The CIA station chief and the head of Macau’s gold syndicate play major roles in Syd’s story, along with Newsweek’s Sydney Liu and Maynard Parker, and a steady stream of inquiring foreign correspondents and China-watchers. Richard Nixon makes a cameo appearance — to talk football with Syd since the consul general won’t see him — in this riveting memoir of a year when Hong Kong’s “borrowed time” seemed about to expire.

Across the Pacific – from Seattle to Shanghai, 1925

An illustration of an ocean liner towering over a Chinese junk – from a 1925 advert in the American press for the American Oriental Mail Line (which was effectively the Dollar Line after 1922) – their route was: Seattle, Victoria (BC), Yokohama, Kobe, Shanghai, Hong Kong and Manila. All their ships were named after American presidents – McKinley, Grant, Jefferson, Madison, Jackson etc….

A Possible Reading List – New Books on China 1912….

1912 was a bumper year for China books…a new republic, the death of the Dowager Empress, just over a decade since the Boxers….the China Hands got scribbling and here are some of the new entrants in the (now very long lasting…) China books competition….

General Chiang Kai-shek, 1928

In 1928 many North American newspapers ran this very youthful picture of General Chiang Kai-shek, noting him as a man to watch in the coming years…

The Men Who Lost Singapore

The Men Who Lost Singapore is Ronnie McCrum’s examination of the failure of the British military and colonial command in Singapore in 1942 and how their errors led to the fall…

The British military failure against the Japanese invasion of Singapore in 1942 is a well-documented and closely examined episode. But far less attention has been paid to the role of the colonial governor and his staff during this period, an oversight Ronald McCrum corrects with this insightful history. As McCrum shows, the failure of the civil authorities in conjunction with the military to fully prepare the country for the possibility of war was a key factor in the defeat. In The Men Who Lost Singapore, McCrum closely examines the role and responsibilities of the colonial authorities before and during the war. He argues that the poor and occasionally hostile relations that developed between the local government and the British military hierarchy prevented the development and implementation of a strategic and unified plan of defense against the growing threat of the Japanese. Consequently, this indecisive and ineffective leadership led to significant losses and civilian casualties that could have been prevented.

Reading the 228 Massacre #2 – Formosa Betrayed

Well done Camphor Press for issuing George Kerr’s Formosa Betrayed…