The Tailor from Gary, Indiana who inherited a nightclub in 1930s Peking

A bizarre tale from the Santa Ana Register I don’t know the end of…..In January 1937 48-year-old Jacob Schwarz, a tailor living a quiet life in Gary, Indiana received notice that his aunt, the fantastically named Blimme Ginsberg, had died in Peking. In her will she had left Jacob $2,500 worth of diamond jewellery, a collection of perforated Oriental coins (apparently virtually worthless unfortunately)…and a nightclub. Jacob had not seen his aunt since he was five years old, though had kept up a regular correspondence with her. Blimme apparently ran a nightclub in Peking, though sadly the newspaper report does not reveal its name or location. Jacob opted to stay by his steam press in Gary and turned over the management of the nightclub to an attorney of his acquaintance in Tientsin (Tianjin). Jacob told the papers in Gary that he intended to go and see the club in a year or so – given that a few months later Peking was invaded by the Japanese I’m guessing he never went.

And so a little mystery – who was Blimme Ginsberg and what and where was her nightclub?

I have no idea and no trace of her can be found (by me at least)…but out there somewhere….???

The Legendary White Russian Ladies of Shanghai

The legend of the White Russian ladies of Shanghai has been an enduring one – here, from a 1936 pulp story about White Russians in China, an image that sums them all up – beautiful, tantalising and alluring with their “low husky” voices…

China’s Civil War: A Social History, 1945-1949

Diana Lary’s China’s Civil War: A Social History, 1945-49 is a compact and enjoyable read about the period concentrating on how the CCP’s rise to power affecting ordinary people as well as notables such as Lao She, JG Ballard etc….social history getting beyond the technicalities of the ‘Who Lost China?’ debate…

China’s Civil War is the first book of its kind to offer a social history in English of the Civil War in 1945–9 that brought the Chinese Communist Party to power. Integrating history and memory, it surveys a period of intense upheaval and chaos to show how the Communist Party and its armies succeeded in overthrowing the Nationalist government to bring political and social revolution to China. Drawing from a collection of biographies, memoirs, illustrations and oral histories, Diana Lary gives a voice to those who experienced the war first-hand, exemplifying the direct effects of warfare – the separations and divisions, the exiles and losses, and the social upheaval that resulted from the conflict. Lary explores the long-term impact on Chinese societies on the Mainland, Taiwan and Hong Kong, which have all diverged far from pre-war Chinese society.

How Time Changes in China – And Why There are no Time Zones

Anyone who’s ever been to the extreme north-east of China, Turkestan or stood in the dark requiring flood lights to watch the horses at Happy Valley at half past six of an evening will perhaps have asked themselves if China always had a one-nation-one-time zone policy. Of course it makes no sense whatsoever and is just a silly Maoist policy to show some sort of unified China.

It was not always so in saner times. One of the first acts of the new Republican government in 1912  was to divide China into five time zones ranging from GMT+5.5 to GMT+8.5 – Kunlun time, Sinkiang-Tibet time, Kansu-Szechuan time, Chungyuan Standard time and Changpai time. These time zones held till 1949 when Mao said there was only one leader and only one time.

Plus there was sensibly also summer time, allowing for more daylight (very nice for farmers) – but only in the treaty ports of Tientsin and Shanghai. Other parts of China, seeing the sense in it, adopted it as various stages and parts of China kept it till the early 1960s.

So now you know…

Magic in the Moonlight – now on DVD and with a lovely Chinoiserie opening

Woody Allen’s Magic in the Moonlight has a fun Chinoiserie opening featuring a European dressed as a Celestial Chinese performing magic tricks (Colin Firth). Of course this character Wei Ling Soo is based upon Chung Ling Soo, actually William Ellsworth Robinson, an American magician who worked mostly in Britain before the First World War impersonating a Chinese magician in full mandarin regalia until a catching a bullet trick went wrong and he ended up dead at the Wood Green Empire. I’ve blogged about him repeatedly (just stick Chung Ling Soo in the search box).

Anyway, it’s pleasant Chinois entertainment and interestingly the production designer for the film Anne Seibel has put up some of her designs and sketches for the Chinoiserie portions of the film on line here.

Gaspare Alessandri – Who Once Boxed in Shanghai

Just a little follow up to the article I posted on the near riot at a boxing match at the Canidrome in 1938 between the US Marine Chuck Haines and an Italian Savoy Grenadier. That newspaper article gave the Italian boxer’s name as Daspar Allesandri However, I believe they actually mean Gaspare Alessandri who is listed as a professional Italian boxer, born 1908 (or 1911 or 1912 in some records) in Ancona, and who boxed in Italy (mostly in Rome) between 1932 and 1936. This was presumably before he joined the grenadiers and was shipped out to Shanghai where he boxed for the Italian army. It seems Alessandri lost on the third round of a lightweight fight to Haines. Despite the arguments on the night he probably did – Alessandri’s professional record was won 0-lost 3- drew 2. In Italy he boxed featherweight rather than light. Not exactly stellar. In 1932 Alessandri boxed featherweight for Italy at the Los Angeles Olympics – he beat a French fighter before losing his next two fights to a German and a Swede. I think Alessandri died in 1997 aged a very respectable 89 in Rome.

The Canidrome

Meeting the Love of Your Life on the Bubbling Well Road

Sooo romantic – from a 1936 pulp story about a man who met the love of his life while shopping on Shanghai’s Bubbling Well Road….

More Troublesome Italians Rioting in Shanghai

I blogged recently about Italian soldiers and nationalists rioting at the Isis cinema in Hongkew in 1937….seems they kept getting into trouble…here they are rioting again in 1938. This time the problem was a boxing match at the old Canidrome Gardens when Chuck Haines, a member of the US Fourth Marines stationed in Shanghai, decked Daspar Allesandri, an Italian Savoy Grenadier stationed in the city, in the third round. Seems the Italians weren’t happy! They may have had reason to be pissed off – it was regularly alleged that fights were fixed at the Canidrome. On the other hand the Marines famously had some tasty boxers in their ranks. Seems the Garde Municipal Frenchtown flics waded in and stopped a full scale riot occurring….Probably they all departed for Blood Alley, got drunk and then finished off their arguments out in the street.