Fenn’s Character Cards, c.early 20th Century

Fenn’s Character Cards, as used by the College of Chinese Studies, Peking in the early twentieth century. Printed by the Presbyterian Missionaries in China…

Essex Book Festival, June 29 2025

Heads Up: I’ll be at the Essex Book Festival History Day in the amazing Layer Marney Tower, England’s tallest Tudor Gatehouse (ticket holders get access to house & gardens too), near Colchester – June 29 – click here for more details and tickets….

Her Lotus Year: Tiffin at Repulse Bay

Like everyone who stayed at the old Repulse Bay Hotel in Hong Kong – from Emily Hahn to Bertrand Russell, Martha Gellhorn to Eileen Zhang – Wallis enjoyed the famous hotel tiffin. Perhaps to us these days it doesn’t sound that appetising, and the copious amount of wines were extra. Not included on the tiffin menu but always available was a curry dish, a nod to the Kadoorie family owners Bombay days.

Her Lotus Year: China, the Roaring Twenties and the Making of Wallis Simpson is available everywhere in hardback, e-book and audiobook now…

The Midnight in Peking Official Walking Tour is Back On!!…

Retracing the official Penguin Books in China Midnight in Peking Walking Tour – everything still survives!! If you’re in Beijing, or intending to visit, and interested in taking the tour WildChina Travel have trained guides who know the book and the walk inside out….

• Armour Factory Alley (Kuijichang Hutong) – the haunted hutong where Pamela and her father lived with Edgar Snow and Helen Foster-Snow close by…
• The Fox Tower (Dongbianmen) – the last remaining watch tower of Peking and where Pamela’s lifeless body was discovered in January 1937…
• The Tartar Wall – stroll along the longest surviving remnant of the wall that once ringed the entire imperial city.
• The Badlands – the hutongs that once housed the old “Badlands” and its foreign denizens on Heroin Alley, in the Oparina’s bar, Madam Leschinsky’s brothel and the Asbury Church (the Island of Hope).
• The Legation Quarter – The suspicious apartments, St Michael’s Church, the French Legation (where Pamela was last seen alive), The British and Japanese Legations…
• Finally the Grand Hotel de Pekin (Hotel Nuo)…. the centre of “Foreign Colony” life in Peking in 1937….

Macau Closer Jan-Feb 2025 – Killmaster: Macao (1968)

My latest bi-monthly column on Macao and popular culture for Macau Closer magazine – Almost nobody reads Nick Carter-Killmaster bookstoday, which is a shame as some of them are pretty good, including the 31^st in the series, Killmaster: Macao (1968) by Manning Lee Stokes….

Historic Shanghai’s Wallis in Shanghai Walking Tour

The indefatigable Patrick and Tina at Historic Shanghai have created a wonderful Wallis Simpson in Shanghai walk based on the information in my book, Her Lotus Year. It looks amazing…. Booking information here

Pictures of the tour courtesy of Historic Shanghai

A Curious Question – Macao’s Teatro Apollo and Edificio Apolo

A question for the Macao experts….

The Teatro Apollo on Macao’s Avenida de Almeida Ribeiro, close too Senado Square, is well known. Built as a cinema in 1935 with shops and apartments on the front part, and the 1,038-seat auditorium on the ground floor at the rear. It has sadly been messed around with since, but still remains an art-deco treasure of Macao.

However, the other day I came across the Edificio Apolo (one ‘l’) on a back street of the old town. It is a later building, though painted in the light green much beloved of Macao (and now the colour of the newly refurbished and large Hotel Central, also on the Avenida de Almeida Ribeiro). I can’t find any information on Edificio Apolo, it’s origins or if there is any relationship to the Teatro Apollo or a quick bit of opportunism by a developer?

Dominique Fung’s Beneath the Golden Canopy Revisits Cixi – MASSIMODECARLO Gallery, Hong Kong

MASSIMODECARLO in Tai Kwun is pleased to present Beneath the Golden Canopy, Dominique Fung’s first Hong Kong solo show. With her distinctive blend of historical reference and symbolism, Fung paints a world of contradictions, where grandeur is laced with disquiet, authority is performative, and the artifacts of the past refuse to stay still.

At the heart of this new body of work is Empress Dowager Cixi, a figure long debated in historical narratives. The de facto ruler of China from 1861 until her death in 1908, Cixi has been portrayed in the West as ruthless and manipulative, while in China, her legacy remains contested. Fung does not seek to reclaim Cixi, but instead uses her as a lens to explore power, femininity, and the ways in which history is mediated and mythologized.

More details here….