The Edinburgh International Book Festival was, as ever, a blast. The spiegeltent amazing, audiences terrific with loads of questions, the Waterstones Edinburgh book tent selling loads (both by me and to me!!), the festival grounds terrific, the city itself both buzzing and majestic as ever. Got to see authors I admire including Javier Cercas, Geoff Dyer, Calum McSorley and others. Thanks to Isabel Hilton who moderated so charmingly as well as Jenny Niven and her team for making 2025 another amazing Edinburgh International Book Festival….
As a past contributor to The Shanghai Literary Review it’s very annoying to read of the problems they are having with their institutional partners Duke Kunshan University’s Humanities Research Center (HRC)…. Read the details here and let’s hope Duke Kunshan sort this out….
“Tea and WWII History at old the Peking Hotel” features a brief tour of the hotel’s historic areas and RAS Shanghai librarian Sven Serrano telling war stories war stories over tea, coffee, or a cocktail.
Aug. 22, Friday, 4:00-6:00 PM Beijing Time
Beijing NUO Hotel (the one-time Peking Hotel) #33 Chang’An Boulevard, Block B, Writer’s Bar
Start with a brief tour of the hotel’s historic areas; this fabled venue will bear witness to Beijing’s official Sept. 3 military parade marking the 80th anniversary of the end of WWII. Sven Serrano’s talk will focus on that conflict, especially the December 1944 air faid on Japanese-occupied Hankow by the US 14th Air Force. This raid was the first use of incendiary bombs on a population center; such weapons were unleashed after March 1945 on Japanese cities, resulting in massive destruction. The Hankow raid caused over 40,000 estimated Chinese civilian deaths; coverage of the story was muted in Allied press accounts. The US generals involved in this episode were Joseph Stilwell, Clayton Bissell, Curtis LeMay and, most importantly, AVG founder and 14th Air Force commander Claire Lee Chennault.
Sven Serrano has been the Librarian for RAS Shanghai since 2014, and is the custodian for the Longhua Civilian Assembly Center historic site in Shanghai (the setting for the film “Empire of the Sun”). A Californian with an MA from San Francisco State University, he’s been a history teacher based in Shanghai since 2008, Sign up to attend at https://rasbj.org/
I thought I’d make a point that has been rattling round my head for a while. Just finished Our Dear Friends in Moscow about the consolidation of the Putin era and how opponents, liberals and the media responded – including those who had known the darker days of the latter Soviet Union and the chaotic Yeltsin era. The authors now live in London.
Our Dear Friends joins a number of other insider accounts – including the posthumous Navalny diaries, other memoirs (especially those of the late Anna Politkovskaya) and the works of Pomerantsov explaining the surreal propaganda of Putin as well as the very clever novel of Putin’s inner circle from Da Empoli that has been a must-read in UK literary circles this year.
My point, apart from how good and insightful many of these titles are, is that they seem to me to be a form of analysis and insider accounts those of us following China exist almost totally without. Dissident works have been relatively few, sometimes good (Ma Jian etc) often disappointing (with the few dissidents writing slumping into religion or right wing ideologies). As far as the inner circles are concerned we lack anything useful either in fiction or non/fiction.
Of course we continue to get a slew of China books – academic, business, analysis from outsiders, informed (McGregor on the Party etc) or less informed (Navarro etc) but nothing that really takes us deep inside and zero from those who really participated in various ways like Pomerantsov or Soldatov and Boragon’s book here.
If anyone can think of anything do let me know? In Chinese or English – what am I missing that explains China like these books and others explain Russia?
I was saddened to hear of the death of Howard Elias, a very active member of the Jewish Historical Society of Hong Kong, a crazy cinema fan and always a fascinating guy to chat with. Howard would correspond with me regularly about some character or other buried in Hong Kong’s Jewish cemetery – a particular research interest of his. If they ended up in Hong Kong by way of Shanghai he’d get in touch searching for scuttlebutt. He was always grateful for any tips and graciously shared any knowledge he had of use to others. He’ll be seriously missed.
Hey, I’ll be up in Edinburgh this August at the Edinburgh International Book Festival 2025 and in the fantastic Spiegeltent…. Wallis Simpson’s Lost Years in China – Wed 20 Aug 15:30…. click here…
There’s an interesting number of children’s adventure books published throughout World War two featuring China – invariably designed to reinforce the alliance between the allies and China against the Japanese. Major Charles Gilson heard the call!! Gilson served in China after the Boxer Rebellion and featured China in some of his stories. Gilson even featured a Chinese detective in one of his stories.
Charles Gilson had never stopped being a bestseller since his first books back in the early years of the century. A former army officer (sometimes billed a “Captain” and sometimes as a “Major” on his book covers) Gilson’s tales ranged from Africa to India to South America. However, China was a favourite location and one he knew, having served with the British army in Beijing after the Boxer Uprising. Gilson’s tales are far from politically correct by 2023 standards but were still popular by the time war broke out. His YA stories from China included kidnapping escapades, pirate adventures and a story featuring a Chinese detective (The Mystery of Ah-Jim). When war broke out between Britain and Japan Gilson was in his sixties and contemplating retirement. But he wanted to make sure the youngsters who still read his books appreciated China’s wartime plight. Sons of the Sword: A Tale of the Sino-Japanese War (1941) was a plodding tale but sold well. It was also to be Gilson’s last book. He died in 1943.
But is that true as this copy of The Yellow Mask (which I picked up for £2 at Much Ado Books in Alfriston the other week) is dated 1942, a year later – a bibliographical mystery I must find time to get to the bottom off.
Rather a Chinese temple dropped into the Alps but a valiant attempt at a cover
My latest for the South China Morning Post weekend magazine on Hong Kong’s beloved cartoon strip Old Master Q, his enduring appeal to generations & artist Alfonso Wong Kar-hei…. click here to read…
