All things old China - books, anecdotes, stories, podcasts, factoids & ramblings from the author Paul French
Alternatively a Drum stone or Baogu Shi. The round, or drum, shape with a floral motif usually indicates the original occupants were army (this one is from a hutong cluster formerly controlled by the Manchu Bordered Yellow Banner). They usually come in pairs on either side of the entrance…
My most recent column for Macau Closer magazine…. this issue an extraordinary Filipino movie noir centred on Macao’s post-war underworld….
Finally got to see Luo Tong’s terrific documentary M on the Bund (it’s running on the Cathay Pacific doc channel), about the legendary eponymous Shanghai restaurant, it’s powehouse creator Michelle Garnaut, and a look back at a fantastic time for opportunity and entrepreneurialism in China. Amazing footage – nostalgic for many, a snapshot of 1999 in Shanghai… and it’s amazing what oldtimers pop up to opine!!
So there’s a mad machine at the old Friendship Store (now bars, bookshops and a foodhall etc) where for Rmb9 you can make yourself the front page of the The China Youth Daily (中国青年报). Of course it had to be done….
Veranda Books, 7 Seymour Place, London, W1H 5BA
Wednesday 12th November 2025, 6.30pm
Tickets are free but space is limited to please RSVP here…
Xiaolu Guo is a prolific writer and filmmaker whose work embraces fiction, memoir, and documentary. Xiaolu talks to author Paul French (Midnight in Peking, Her Lotus Year)about her work and her journey as a writer – from China to England, from Chinese to English and from memoir to novels as well as new interests reflected in her recent books My Battle of Hastings, and a bold retelling of Moby Dick, Call me Ishmaelle, both of which of ultimately hark back to her Chinese roots.
A token to travel in old Shanghai on the China General Omnibus Company….
Recently several Japanese photo albums have come up for auction – images taken by Japanese invading soldiers of themselves mostly occupying China during the Second Sino-Japanese War (1937-45)… I’m afraid i can’t really identify any of the locations….
Not what I’d personally want on my desk but here’s a horses hoof inkwell. The top is engraved with the sobriquet ‘Ugly Buck’ of the King’s Dragoon Guards 1864. In 1860 this Regiment played a very active part in the Second Opium War receiving the Battle Honour ‘China’ ‘Taku Forts’ (Tianjin) and ‘Peking’ for their actions…Ugly Buck, the way, was (I think) a horse….
