A painting titled Mountains Near Shanghai by Major-General Walter Fane C.B. (British, 1828–1885) – though I have no exact date or which mountains these are I’m afraid – and I’m not entirely sure it isn’t mis-labelled. I assume ‘near’ means at least a few hours away.
Anyway, Fane was a British Indian Army officer on the North West frontier. In 1860 he raised the irregular cavalry force of Fane’s Horse to fight in China during the Second Opium War. He took part in the looting of Peking in October 1860 and the burning on the Yangmingyuan (Old Summer Palace)…. for which he was awarded the Companion of the Order of Bath (hopefully those people involved with China who accept British “honours” and gee-gaws think upon that!). And apparently he still found time to do a bit of painting…
From late December 1924 to the summer of 1925 Wallis lived at #4 Shih-Chia (Shijia) Hutong, the home of Herman and Katherine Rogers. The only pictures we have of Wallis there are outside or sitting on some internal steps so revealing little of the scope and grandeur of the siheyuan (a courtyard surrounded by buildings on all four sides).
However, further along the street lived the Ling family and (then a student at Yenching University), a 24-year-old Ling Shuhua (aka Ling Ruitang, Su Hua Ling), the daughter of a former mayor of Peking and later to become a noted writer, artist and art collector. In her memoir – Ancient Melodies (under the name Su Hua), 1953 and written when she was living in London, Su Hua included this sketch of the Ling family home, which must have been approximate to the Rogers’s courtyard close by. The Ling family courtyard is now the Shijia Hutong Museum.
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…
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….
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…
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….
My latest bi-monthly column on Macao and popular culture for Macau Closermagazine – Almost nobody reads Nick Carter-Killmaster bookstoday, which is a shame as some of them are pretty good, including the 31st in the series, Killmaster: Macao (1968) by Manning Lee Stokes….
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
The Palace Hotel on the Bund (where Wallis stayed)
The Palace’s lobby
The Astor House Hotel, where Wallis dined several times
The old Astor House ballroom, where Wallis danced
The former US Consulate
Garden Bridge was there in Wallis’ day, and then, as now, a most convenient way to go between the Bund and Hongkou. No Broadway Mansions back in ‘24 though!
The former Rowing Club, designed by Scott & Carter. What’s the Wallis connection? Her closest Shanghai friend, “Robbie,” worked for the firm early in his career.
The former British Consulate, looking quite lovely on this spring day. The vice-consul here was head of special intelligence, and in later years was very likely the source of the information in Wallis’ “China Dossier”.
No Peace Hotel when Wallis visited, that went up in 1929. But it didn’t stop scurrilous rumors about Victor Sassoon, racy photos, etc…
