RIP Lane 185 Jinan Road

As long as this blog’s been going I’ve been occasionally posting on the long term destruction around the faux-old Xintiandi development in Shanghai. Anyone evenly fairly conversant with the way things work in Shanghai will know that eventually nothing in that area will survive and it’s been going down at a rate of knots for nearly two decades now. It’s a tragedy; it’s civic vandalism; it’s a city stripping itself of its heritage down to every last brick. Still, the awfulness of the destruction of Lane 185 Jinan Road No.2 off Fuxing Road (that’s formerly Rue Bluntschli and Rue Lafayette in the old French Concession) is heart rending. Sue Anne Tay, of the excellent Shanghai Street Stories blog, has published some great photographs of the lane before it meets the bulldozers imminently….

As she notes:

This is it people, those who have not had a chance to admire the few gems in Lane 185 Jinan Lu No 2 (济南路185弄20号) off Fuxing Lu (复兴路), south of Xintiandi, go while they are tearing it down. The first house, now taken over by the demolition office, has intricate wooden panels, ceilings and beams reflecting the Eight Immortals (八仙), bats and peaches. Down the lane is the elaborate and grand shikumen entrance House of Yi (yi is ease of pleasure) (逸庐). Lovely shikumen with hanging stone pavilions, elaborate motifs etc.

Shanghai’s Russian Daily News, 1940

I’m putting this letterhead up for the Shanghai-based Russian Daily News because I know nothing about it and can find no references to it at all. So maybe someone else knows something. Here’s what I do know, and it’s paltry:

• The Shanghai Municipal Police kept the letterhead on file as a publication to be monitored;
• This letterhead was in use and included in the SMP files in 1940;
• The address, as you can see, was Avenue Foch in Frenchtown – now Yan’an Road.

And that’s it!

Lao She’s 90th Anniversary of Teaching Mandarin at SOAS

A special event this Thursday evening at SOAS to celebrate the 90th anniversary of Lao She’s arrival in London in 1924 to teach Mandarin at SOAS – where his students included a young China-obsessed Graham Greene!! (see my post on that here)

The Rise of Political Intellectuals in Modern China: May Fourth Societies and the Roots of Mass-Party Politics

Shakhar Rahav’s The Rise of Political Intellectuals in Modern China concentrates not on Shanghai and Peking but on Wuhan around the May 4th Movement…..

• Histories of China’s May Fourth movement have focused on the seaboard metropoles of Beijing and Shanghai. This book is the first in English to look at the movement from the hinterland city of Wuhan. It thus highlights the ways in which hinterland activism helped shape the movement.
• Rather than focusing on ideology or organization, the book explains the movement’s success in terms of social relations and social networks.
• Previous studies of the period have acknowledged the importance of myriad small societies in the political changes that presaged the Chinese Communist party. Studying the development and everyday conduct of such societies, the book illuminates what they meant for their members at the time.
• Studies of the movement have emphasized its importance for the rise of Communism. This study attempts to explain the transition from politics conducted through a web of small societies, to a politics conducted by means of mass-oriented political parties.
• May Fourth is usually taught by referring to a handful of historical personages who operated in Beijing. This book offers a narrative account that occurs in major hinterland city-Wuhan-and it circles around a unique protagonist-Yun Daiying-whose career intersected with that of well known figures who later acquired much significance, such as Mao Zedong. The book thus illuminates the period and better known activists, like Mao, from a fresh and unexpected angle.

Japanese infantry passing Hongkew High School, Shanghai – 1937

Today a picture of Japanese troops moving through Hongkew in 1937 at the start of the war in China and the assault on Shanghai. The school they are moving past is the Anglo-Chinese High School on Range Road (now Wujin Road) run by the Church Missionary Society, originally founded in 1850. I’m not sure how much of that school still exists – it was the No.2 Primary School in the 1960s and is now part of the Jiaotong University medical school (I think).

Newly Reissued – The Golden Ghetto: The American Commercial Community at Canton and the Shaping of American China Policy, 1784-1844

Jacques M Downs’s history of the American’s at Canton and their own little bit of dope dealing (which, let’s be honest, they like to overlook and forget now and again!) is now reissued by Hong Kong University Press….

Before the opening of the treaty ports in the 1840s, Canton was the only Chinese port where foreign merchants were allowed to trade. The Golden Ghetto takes us into the world of one of this city’s most important foreign communities–the Americans–during the decades between the American Revolution of 1776 and the signing of the Sino-US Treaty of Wanghia in 1844. American merchants lived in isolation from Chinese society in sybaritic, albeit usually celibate luxury. Making use of exhaustive research, Downs provides an especially clear explanation of the Canton commercial setting generally and of the role of American merchants. Many of these men made fortunes and returned home to become important figures in the rapidly developing United States. The book devotes particular attention to the biographical details of the principal American traders, the leading American firms, and their operations in Canton and the United States. Opium smuggling receives special emphasis, as does the important topic of early diplomatic relations between the United States and China.Since its first publication in 1997, The Golden Ghetto has been recognized as the leading work on Americans trading at Canton. Long out of print, this new edition makes this key work again available, both to scholars and a wider readership.

RAS Shanghai – West Meets East – The Jesuits and the Mapping of China – 16C-18C – 10/3/15

RAS LECTURE  

Tuesday 10 March 2015

7:00 PM for 7:15 PM start

Radisson Blu Plaza Xingguo Hotel, Tavern Bar

78 XingGuo Road, Shanghai

VINCE UNGVARY ON

“West Meets East –

The Jesuits and the Mapping of China – 16C-18C”

Jesuit missionaries had begun to visit and live in China since the mid 1500’s. While their missions where primarily to spread Christianity, it was their advanced knowledge of Science, Mathematics, Astronomy & Cartography that was seen as valuable to the Chinese Court and learned classes. Thus using cartographic media, these Jesuits both recorded China via ‘western style’ maps to pass knowledge to Europe, and showed Chinese Emperors and high officials maps of the world which they had never seen before. A fascinating story of the early interactions between East & West.

Vince Ungvary is a professional antique map dealer who has been collecting antique maps of China & Asia for the past 20+ years and is a member of the International Map Collectors Society (IMCOS). Vince will also be displaying a wide range beautiful museum-grade, original antique maps of China and Asia, some from the Jesuits in the mid 1600’s. All antique maps displayed will be available for purchase along with a Certificate of Authenticity.

Talk Cost: RMB 70.00 (RAS members) and RMB 100.00 (non-members). Includes glass of wine or soft drink. Those unable to make the donation but wishing to attend may contact us for exemption.

Membership applications and membership renewals will be available at this event.  Those unable to make the donation but wishing to attend may contact us for exemption.

RAS Monographs: Series 1 & 2 will be available for sale at this event. RMB 100 each (cash sale only).

To RSVP:  Please “Reply” to this email or write to

RAS Bookings at: bookings@royalasiaticsociety.org.cn

The Campaign to Save Trent Park in Enfield

A post that is, rather longwindedly perhaps of interest to China Rhymers. Trent Park is a Grade II listed mansion that now sits in the Trent Country Park in the north London borough of Enfield (where I happen to come from – the borough not the mansion you understand). The building was for many years part of Middlesex University and in WW2 was a POW camp for German officers (mostly Luftwaffe pilots captured during the Battle for Britain and their rooms had hidden microphones so we could listen in on them). It is a beautiful building, in good condition (at least the exterior is and, the last time I was there, the interior was in pretty good condition too) and surrounded by nice grounds and an orangery. there used to be a lovely outdoor swimming pool which I used once but not sure if that is still there. However, the current owners are in liquidation and the future of the site is uncertain. There is a campaign to preserve the building and you can sign a petition to ensure that the London Borough of Enfield does so here.

And so here is the longwinded link to China:

In 1909 the estate was sold to Sir Philip Sassoon who entertained the likes of Chaplin and Churchill at the mansion;

Sir Philip’s cousin was Siegfried Sassoon, the war poet;

Sir Philip was the son of Sir Edward Albert Sassoon, himself the son of David Sassoon, best associated with the Sassoon’s trading empire in India;

Sir Victor Sassoon was a cousin and he of course went to Shanghai and did rather well for himself.

Trent Park as it is today

The Orangery and swimming pool (where I once took a summer dip)

Trent Park surrounded by barbed wire and guards when it was a POW camp in WW2