All things old China - books, anecdotes, stories, podcasts, factoids & ramblings from the author Paul French
Well done to Martin Alexander and Phillip Kim in Hong Kong for saving and bringing back the Asia Literary Review….a job well done….The Spring 2015 issue is out now and all details of contents and how to order are here….
File this one under the ever more packed heading ‘nothing new under the sun’ – models who have traditionally worked the Shanghai Auto Show went on strike recently after they were banned from their usual activities of causing a scrum of males to bash their camera phones in excitement as they drape themselves over unexciting Volkswagens.
Back in 1949 Time photographer hit the ‘Hai and found taxi-dancers from the city’s nightclubs and dancehalls up in arms and protesting at the curtailment of their long-established business….
In both cases much attention was drawn to the incidents and disputes presumably as both auto show models in 2015 and taxi dancers in 1949 are rather more interesting to look at than coal miners or textile factory workers?
At the end of April 1824 Samuel Russell and Philip Ammidon announced to the readers of the New York Evening Post that they had founded their business at Canton dealing in silks, tea and opium. By the 1840s they had risen to be the largest American trading Hong in Canton. Russell himself withdrew from the company and returned to America in 1836. The firm finally folded in 1891.
The idea that the West is obsessed with ridiculously high property prices in Shanghai – “it’s a bubble”, “no it’s not”, “yes it is” – and that they are indeed ridiculously high is, of course, nothing new. The American newspapers in 1935 were incredulous that an acre of land on the Shanghai Bund was worth four million dollars!! Of course four mill wouldn’t get you much these days and yuo can’t buy land anymore anyway….
Sulmaan Wasif Khan’s Muslim, Trader, Nomad, Spy looks to be of interest for those looking at the origins of the PRC’s occupation of Tibet, war against Tibetan culture and hatred of the Dalai Lama….
In 1959, the Dalai Lama fled Lhasa, leaving the People’s Republic of China with a crisis on its Tibetan frontier. Sulmaan Wasif Khan tells the story of the PRC’s response to that crisis and, in doing so, brings to life an extraordinary cast of characters: Chinese diplomats appalled by sky burials, Guomindang spies working with Tibetans in Nepal, traders carrying salt across the Himalayas, and Tibetan Muslims rioting in Lhasa. What Chinese policymakers confronted in Tibet, Khan argues, was not a “”third world”” but a “”fourth world”” problem: Beijing was dealing with peoples whose ways were defined by statelessness. As it sought to tighten control over the restive borderlands, Mao’s China moved from a lighter hand to a harder, heavier imperial structure. That change triggered long-lasting shifts in Chinese foreign policy. Moving from capital cities to far-flung mountain villages, from top diplomats to nomads crossing disputed boundaries in search of pasture, this book shows Cold War China as it has never been seen before and reveals the deep influence of the Tibetan crisis on the political fabric of present-day China.
The tag line for this blog is Mark Twain’s ‘history doesn’t repeat itself, but it does rhyme.’ Reading Christina Larson’s recent piece on the Los Angeles Review of Books China blog, Two Views of a Hutong, definitely rhymed. Peking’s last few remaining hutongs as hipster ex-pat hangouts complete with plenty of bike riding, small dog ownership, tai-chi on the roof, gourmet granola shops (whatever they are!) and houses full of young folk from overseas apparently watching earnest documentaries and working for media companies or non-profits (same thing these days really). We could probably add to that anecdotes about searching for authentic food, language classes, developing a taste for Chinese opera, claiming years of long China service and extensive travel and repeatedly stating how much better and more authentic Peking is compared to the generally loathed arriviste alternative Shanghai. So here they are then, all these ex-pats in Peking seeking both the authentic China experience and modern comforts…nothing new though, thus was it ever, and I still believe Harold Acton perfectly captured both kinds of foreigner in Peking in his 1941 novel Peonies and Ponies.
Acton, the archetypal English aesthete resided in Peking between 1932 and 1939, studied Chinese, translated poetry and novels and hang out
(as much as anybody “hung out” in the 1930s) with the upper echelons of ex-pat society. The very readable Peonies and Ponies (and I wonder how many Peking hipsters have a copy on their hutong bookshelves these days?) gives us two types of ex-pat in the city, neatly condensed and still, I’m convinced, apposite today. So, Beijing ex-pat strolling your hutong after a DVD and some tai-chi in search of high quality granola, are you a Mrs. Mascot or a Philip Flower?
Mrs. Mascot:
“Peking’s such loads of fun. Jugglers, fortune-tellers, acrobats, puppet-shows, temple tiffins, treasure hunts and Paomachang picnics – not to speak of costume jamborees, galas and fancy dress affairs – always something original! Home-made natural fun, not imported or artificially manufactured as in Shanghai. And there’s always a delicious spice of the unexpected.”
or Philip Flower:
“Sufficient to know and be profoundly grateful, to realise that he was as far as it was possible to be from post-war politics and the general jumpiness of Europe while comfortably within the orbit of its dubious civilisation, imbibing serenity from the geometrical quietude of China’s ancient capital. And everything about him still remained supernatural, brought grist for pantheistic reverie and wonder.”
Those who like their Shanghai history on the seedy and criminal side may be interested in a piece I have in a new true crime anthology – Truly Criminal – from the UK Crime Writers’ Association and published by The History Press. It concerns the murder of an East European prostitute known as Eliza Shapera in 1907 in the notorious red light district north of Soochow Creek (Suzhou Creek) called The Trenches. The wasn’t room in the article for footnotes so for anyone who’s read the piece here are some references to the places and roads mentioned and their current names that may be of interest.
Woosung Road – Wusong Road
Scott Road – Shanyang Road/Shande Road
Kiangse Road – Jiangxi Road
the junction of Szechuan Road and Dixwell Road- Sichuan Road North and Liyang Road
Hongkew Park – Lu Xun Park
Yangtsepoo – Yangpu
Hongkew – Hongkou
Whangpoo River – Huangpu Rover
the Astor House Hotel – Pujiang Hotel
Siccawei- Xujiahui
Pootung – Pudong
Sawgin Road – Shajing Road
Following on from yesterday’s post about my new true crime short story A Murder in the Shanghai Trenches, as there wasn’t any room for pictures in Truly Criminal, here are a few….if you want to know how these locations are relevant you’ll need to buy the book and read the true story of the murder of Eliza Shapera in Hongkew in 1907 I’m afraid….
The old Hongkew police station with water tower in the background…this building was replaced by a larger and more modern structure in 1930
Hongkew Park
The bridge across Soochow Creek to Kiangse Road – facing from north to south, i.e. towards Kiangse Road with its water tower (not the same tower as above obviously)
The North China Herald on ‘The Hongkew Tragedy’, September 27th, 1907
The Russian Consulate (with red roof) on the banks of the Whangpoo at junction with Soochow Creek and the Astor House Hotel behind (with green roof)
Siccawei Creek