Pulping Up George Orwell’s Burmese Days

Paula Rabinowitz’s American Pulp: How Paperbacks Brought Modernism to Main Street is a fascinating read for all those who like their pulp fiction. One interesting aspect she covers in the book is the “pulping” of various classics to make them appear sexier, more titillating and interesting to pulp readers who might not normally buy them. One example is the 1952 Popular Library’s edition of George Orwell’s 1934 Burmese Days, the tales of his time as a colonial policeman upcountry in Burma….not sure what exactly anyone buying the book on the strength of the cover art would have made of it though!!…..

LB “Jeff” Jefferies Shanghai Cigarette Box – Rear Window (1954)

Watched Hitchcock’s Rear Window (1954) the other night, an old favourite. But had forgotten that James Stewart’s international photographer character LB “Jeff” Jefferies makes a reference to his Shanghai cigarette box, which is slightly damaged and his girlfriend Lisa (Grace Kelly) would like to replace…..

               Lisa turns to look at him, and moves toward him, carrying the 
               cigarette box.

                                     LISA
                              (Smiling)
                         That's because I bought out the house. 
                         This cigarette box has seen better 
                         days.

               INT. JEFF'S APARTMENT - SUNSET - MEDIUM SHOT

               Lisa facing Jeff in the chair.

                                     JEFF
                         Picked it up in Shanghai -- which 
                         has also seen better days.

                                     LISA
                         It's cracked -- and you never use 
                         it. And it's too ornate. I'm sending 
                         up a plain, flat silver one -- with 
                         just your initials engraved.

                                     JEFF
                         Now that's no way to spend your hard- 
                         earned money!

                                     LISA
                         I wanted to, Jeff.
                              (A sudden intake of 
                              breath)
                         Oh!

               She turns around quickly and dashes to the door, dropping 
               the cigarette box on the table as she passes, THE CAMERA 
               PANNING with her. She goes up the two steps, stops, turns 
               back to Jeff.

The Amazing Ki-hi-chin-fan-foo (Man-Spider-leg mortal) and Pablo Fanque’s Circus

I’ve blogged before about Chung Ling Soo (here) 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. However, he was not the first act to imitate a Chinese, circus and music hall acts pretending to be Chinese have a much longer heritage….

Here is a recollection of the acrobat Ki-hi-chin-fan-foo from The Public Life of W.F. Wallett (a once famous clown and published first in 1870), recalling the act who was, in reality, an Irishman. He was a major attraction and star of Pablo Fanque’s circus (Fanque, born William Darby – pictured below – being the first black man, and possibly the only one, to run a circus in Britain).

The season was a succession of triumphs. One of the principal attractions was a little Irishman whom I engaged in Dublin, who rejoiced in the name of Vilderini, one of the best posture masters the theatrical world ever produced. I engaged him for three months at a liberal salary, on the express understanding that I should shave his head, and convert him into a Chinaman. For which nationality his small eyes, pug nose, high cheek bones, and heavy mouth admirably adapted him. So his head was shaved, all but a small tuft on the top, to which a saddler with waxed twine firmly attached his celestial pig-tail. His eyebrows were shaved off, and his face, neck, and head dyed after the most admired Chinese complexion. Thus metamorphosed, he was announced on the walls as KI HI CHIN FAN FOO (Man-Spider-leg mortal). We had about twenty supernumeraries and the whole equestrian company in Chinese costume. Variegated lanterns, gongs, drums, and cymbals ushered the distinguished Chinaman into the ring, to give his wonderful entertainment. The effect was astonishing, and its success extraordinary. In fact the entire get-up was so well carried out that it occasioned us some annoyance. For there were two rival tea merchants in Glasgow at the time, and each of them had engaged a genuine Chinaman as touter at his door. Every night, as soon as they could escape from their groceries, they came to the circus to solicit an interview with their compatriot. After being denied many nights in succession, they peremptorily demanded to see him. Being again refused, they determined to move for the writ of habeas corpus. That is to say, they applied to the magistrate stating they believed their countryman to be deprived of his liberty except during the time of his performance. We were then compelled to produce our celestial actor, who proved to the satisfaction of the worthy magistrate that he was a free Irishman from Tipperary.

Marco Polo’s Travels – Clothbound Edition

Yea, you can get it for free on line, but this really is a lovely edition of Marco’s Travels from Penguin Classics….Classi…..

The Opium Dens and Brothels of Belcher’s Street, Hong Kong – 1925

Reading Harry Hervey’s 1925 travelogue of his journeys through the Far East, Where Strange Gods Call, I thought his description of a Hong Kong opium den worth setting down. Hervey identifies the den as being ‘…at the end of a slinking alley near the grape-green lamps of Belcher Street (we can assume he means Belcher’s Street in Kennedy Town here). There are any number of alleys along that road, most between new buildings so Hervey’s alley is no more I suspect – anyway, here’s what he encountered….

‘The acrid air of the place stung my nostrils; and the soiled bunks, the dirty walls were cruelly drab. It wasn’t picturesquely evil; it was as colourless as naked lust; and it left in my brain a negative often developed and printed with tragic sharpness upon my imagination.

Of course, a glimpse of the brothels was included in this excursion. They, like the opium houses, were depressing, tawdry places, opening directly upon the street, with ornate scrolls on the walls and narrow curtained recesses. In each was an altar dedicated to the god of pleasure, and th air was rich with the mingled odours of incense and opium, alive with coiling drifts of blue smoke. The girls, some with spots of scarlet on their eyelids,wore the usual brocaded jackets and trousers. Chang explained, in his grandiose manner, that they were called loquiia, and their duties consisted, among other things, of singing and playing to patrons and filling their opium pipes….

The view from Victoria Harbour towards Kennedy Town – early 1930s

More Gypsies in Old Shanghai

I have written about the small Roma (gypsy) community in 1930s Shanghai previously (if you’d like a copy of that paper it’s on Academia.edu or just email me via this blog) and so it’s good to come across another reference to them. This time from the journalist and writer Ilin Natalia Losifovna (1914-1944), a White Russian from Harbin (born in Russia but left as a small child) who moved to Shanghai in the 1930s and wrote for various Russian emigre journals (sometimes under the pen name “Miss Peng”). She was apparently close to the great singer and sometime Shanghai nightclub owner Alexander Vertinsky and, like him, returned to the USSR around 1943. In her autobiography Roads and Destiny she describes a gypsy dance troupe in 1930s Shanghai:

Men in sequined vests, women in multicolored skirts and shawls, their necklaces jangling… The famous Shurik is dancing; he is dark-skinned, aged nine. Beautiful Masha is dancing too, she is about fifteen. Both of them are snatching one-dollar and five dollar banknotes the customers give them.

Of course, as was often the case, this could be regular White Russians done up like gypsies to capitalise on the popularity of gypsy entertainers in the city, but it’s still interesting.

The Shanghai Pedicab

Movies and TV shows about old Shanghai invariably thrown in images of richshaws and their pullers. They’re iconic of Chinese cities – and of course its literature – think Lao She’s Rickshaw Boy. Less commonly shown on screen but commonly referred to in memoirs are the old pedicabs of Shanghai. Pedicabs were definitely a step up from pulling a rickshaw and introduced to the Settlement in 1926, when they are first mentioned as being licensed in a Shanghai Municipal Council annual report. Pedicab numbers soared in the later 1930s as petrol restrictions due to the Japanese invasion made petrol taxis unaffordable.

Incidentally unlicensed pedicabs made somewhat of a comeback to Shanghai in 2010 as more and more people jostled for taxis (click here), but the new authorities of the city were less impressed….

It’s been a while since we had a Chinese parasol! – Fontaine at the Folie Bergere, 1890s

It’s been a while since I had a Chinese parasol on this blog (if you’re interested just put ‘parasol’ in the search box and you’ll find a load) so here’s a poster for the amazing Fontaine from the Folie-Bergere in Paris who had tight rope walked across Niagara Falls – here though using a Chinese parasol for a little extra balance….