Josef von Sternberg Week #1 – Amy Jolly’s Chinese Doll

Regular readers will know that many China Rhyming posts are slightly obscure. Here’s one of those – by way of explanation I’ve just visited Essaouira in Morocco, which used to be called Mogador, which is the town that Marlene Dietrich’s character, wandering showgirl Amy Jolly, arrives in at the start of her movie Morocco (1930), directed by Josef von Sternberg (two years before they did Shanghai Express) and from the 1927 Benno Vigny novel Amy Jolly, die Frau aus Marrakesch (which became Mogador in the movie). So visiting Mogador I re-watched the movies and remembered that Amy is, in her apartments in the town, alone with few of her belongings except a Chinese and African doll…what can these mean?

Hard to say but a few theories – the academics appear to have none except that perhaps the African doll presages Dietrich’s Hot Voodoo number in Blonde Venus – but I’m not convinced by that. More likely is that Von Sternberg, a great fan of China (Shanghai Express came later as did 1941’s The Shanghai Gesture and 1952’s Macao, while his autobiography was called Fun in a Chinese Laundry and dwells on his Shanghai and Chinese experiences closely) dropped the doll in the shots to show Amy’s previously wandering proclivities. of course showgirls wander and never return as the script goes with La Bessiere (a rich Frenchman played by Adolphe Menjou) talking to the ship’s deck officer:

Amy (Marlene) with her Chinese doll in Morocco

China Past, Present and Future, Horniman Museum, London – till April

China Past, Present and Future

The history of Chinese migrants in the UK, craft activities celebrating Chinese New Year, and cutting edge arts performances influenced by Chinese culture are among the highlights of early 2015 at the Horniman Museum and Gardens in Forest Hill, South London.

A new exhibition exploring the lives and experiences of the Chinese community in the UK opens on Saturday 17 January. Memories of China offers an insight into the history and contribution of Chinese migrants in the UK in the early 20th century, and their relationship to their homeland. It features artworks, videos and objects – from a compass and a cloisonné hotpot brought from Beijing, to statues of the three deities Fu, Lu and Shou (Happiness, Prosperity and Longevity) traditionally displayed in many Chinese homes and shops.

The exhibition is part of the British Chinese Workforce Heritage project, a three-year oral history project organised by Ming-Ai (London) Institute and funded by a £324,400 grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund. The project charts the waves of Chinese migration to the UK, from the earliest seafarers and traders to the tens of thousands of Chinese who served during the First and Second World Wars. The project also includes those who settled and built the Chinese communities and their experiences in a range of employment industries including laundry, catering, health care, traditional Chinese medicine and newer professions.

Alongside Memories of China, the Horniman is marking Chinese New Year with themed activities for children and families. From Monday 16 to Friday 20 February, Family Art Fun features craft activities inspired by the Chinese New Year, as well as the opportunity for visitors to help create a traditional Chinese Wishing Tree.

Adults can celebrate the Year of the Sheep with a contemporary twist at the Horniman’s Chinese Late on Thursday 26 February. The evening promises a night of cutting-edge art installations, films and performances by Chinese and international artists, revealing how Chinese culture has inspired artists around the world.

Memories of China opens on Saturday 17 January and runs to Sunday 12 April.  Admission to the exhibition is free.

Tickets to the Chinese Late are on sale now.

“Tokyo”, Cocaine & Those Peaky Blinders – The Feedback

I blogged a while back about the word “Tokyo” as slang for cocaine and its use in 1920s London in the second series of Peaky Blinders. It wasn’t a term I was familiar with and asked China Rhyming readers if it was an actual term from the time or just an invention of the scriptwriters? You didn’t disappoint – some responses:

probably e a custom mix from one of the Chinese drug dealers broadly speaking a mix of coke strychnine amphetamine and morphine.

Tokyo rose was cockney rhyming slang for nose, which would make sense…..

Cockney rhyming slang – Cocaine ==> Coke ==> Toke ==> Tokyo

one of the first chemists to synthesize methamphetamine was Japanese. In the series Tommy points out to Arther that Tokyo is used on race horses. I believe that “Tokyo” is slang for any kind of speed.

And, seemingly definitively, from some who’s father was a Bobby (cop) in the 1950’s, in London, and who’s Granddad was a Bobby in the 1920’s. Both spoke Cockney fluently, Tokyo was the slang for Coke, Meth, too much sugar… Pretty much anything that gave you crazy energy!

Chinese and North Africa – 1930s – any anecdotes?

Having just spent some time in North Africa I’m sort of interested, but completely lacking in knowledge, about the history of Chinese in the region in the 1930s and during WW2. It is actually the case that there may not be any history beyond the movies….it may just be that Chinese were incorporated into films about the area at the time to add a little Orientalist mystery…

In Casablanca (1942) Rick (Bogart) sits in the casino portion of Rick’s and alongside him sit two smart modern Chinese women in swank dresses and furs gambling and smoking….

In Pepe Le Moko (1937), Jules Duvivier’s masterpiece about a French criminal (Gabin) trapped in the Algiers kasbah a short intro to the mysteries of the kasbah at the start notes the strange groups that inhabit this netherworld including “Les Chinois”….

Yet I can find no references to the Chinese in Algeria, Morocco or Tunisia during the 1930s or during WW2 (with the exception of Chinese-Vietnamese-French Monsieur D. mentioned in Peter Mayne’s A Year in Marrakesh during the 1950s) …..Any one got anything?????

Another Heritage win in Saigon – The Central Post Office

I blogged late last year on the long running battle to try and save the old French colonial Grand Magasin Charner department store building in Saigon (later and better known now as the Saigon Tax Trade Centre). After public protests some of the original building and its features may now be saved. Now news comes of another “win” hopefully, due to public pressure, in Saigon – the redecoration of the Central Post Office. In September last year the Vietnam Post and Telecommunications Group, which controls the old post office, started a refurbishment. Generally this was welcomed and good – US$235,000 earmarked for restoration, repairs to the leaking roof and replacement of cracked and broken plaster. However, they then started painting the building – a gaudy yellow! This has outraged many and now, after protests, the painting has stopped. Protestors claimed that the bright yellow did not reflect the buildings original patina. Now the decorators will consult with experts on a more suitable colour.

One problem is that sadly the Central Post Office has not yet been declared a national monument. This is odd as the neoclassical structure dates back to 1886 (opening in 1891) and the architect was none other than Gustave Eiffel. the building is currently on a list of structures to be declared national monuments including the Ben Thanh Market and the former Cercle des Officiers (which is also under threat – see this blog post).

the Post Office shortly after completion

The Post Office until quite recently

the rather unpleasant yellow paint job underway

And now under wraps!

the beautiful lobby

Shanghai, Murmansk’s Chinatown Badlands

Talking about Vladivostok’s old Chinatown badlands, Millionka, yesterday I thought I’d post briefly on another interesting old Chinatown in Russia, Murmansk’s “Shanghai” district. Murmansk only dates back really to around the time of WW1 (access to supplies from the allies and a train line to St. Petersburg) and some Chinese went there as labourers during the Great War. The town was important obviously as a port on the arctic circle and provided access for men, food and materiel during the war. Like Millionka, Shanghai was a rough area where Chinese bar owners sold a home-brewed drink known as “hanzha” and organized card games as well as, of course, sold a bit of opium. Apparently many a drunk ended up “Shanghai-ed” the next day on a boat. Sorry, don’t know much else about Shanghai, Murmansk….and I’ve got no photos of the district either I’m afraid…

Murmansk…today

Remembering “Millionka” – Vladivostok’s Chinatown Badlands

“Millionka” (in Russian: Миллионка) was the common name for the “Chinatown” that grew up in the nineteenth century in the Russian Far East city of Vladivostok – around the time of the end of the First World War some reports say that 30% of Vladivostok’s population was Chinese. Nowadays this district, near the port and where once Chinese and Korean junks moored, has the same streets but some of them have been damaged and destroyed – it was considered a rat run of businesses, laundries, restaurants, gambling parlours, threatre and opera houses, brothels, lodging houses and opium dens (regular readers will immediately see why “Millionka” appeals to me!!) – the Tsarist authorities and later the Soviets both considered it a slum, a den of iniquity and a nest of thieves and criminality controlled by gangs and with the police afraid to enter. Soldiers from the First World War and then Whites looking to flee Russia all crowded around the opium dens and brothels of Millionka as Russia saw decades of chaos. In 1914, a reported 1,243 crimes occurred in the district alone. amazingly the area survived, in somewhat muted form, into the Soviet Union era. In 1936 Stalin ordered the area “liquidated” and all Chinese deported. However, at its height, around 1900, Millionka was a labyrinth of alleys housing perhaps as many as 50,000 Chinese in what was roughly the size of two New York City blocks. This may be a conservative figure for the density – one history cites 100,000 Chinese in Millionka plus another 10,000 Koreans. Riots and strikes in 1905 saw the place torched partly and there were regular brawls with Russian sailors, among the gangs of the district and with the authorities.

Pictures of Millionka appear quite hard to find and rare – what I can find are below…..

Millionka in 1922 with Chinese residents and shopkeepers

and a few pics from more recently….

A typical Millionka alleyway…

An inner courtyard in Millionka today not dissimilar to the one in 1922 above…

And another Millionka back court with original wooden stairs

From Peking to Paris: China and the First World War – Asia House, London – February 3rd

Five of the authors from the Penguin China WW1 series all on one stage at one time….!! And they said it could never happen!!

From Peking to Paris: China and the First World War

British forces arrive to fight alongside the Japanese at the Siege of Tsingtao, 1914

During the First World War, 95,000 Chinese farm labourers volunteered to leave their remote villages and work for Britain. They were labelled “the forgotten of the forgotten”, as their stories failed to form part of the public record on the War. This is just one example of many of the lesser known stories relating to China and the Great War. But these stories are now starting to be addressed.

To mark the centenary of the First World War, Penguin China has published a series of short histories on the economic and social costs it brought to China and the Chinese. Each book – written by a leading expert in the field – tells a fascinating tale which will fill the gaps of your China and WWI knowledge, including the only land battle in East Asia fought by Japan and Britain against the German concession in Shandong.

Asia House is pleased to host a panel with several of these authors, who will all talk on their chosen subjects.

Speakers include:

Best-selling author and historian Paul French, the chair of the panel (Betrayal in Paris: How the Treaty of Versailles Led to China’s Long Revolution)

Journalist, best-selling author and China analyst Jonathan Fenby (The Siege of Tsingtao)

Senior Lecturer in English Literature and Cultural Studies, Dr Anne Witchard, from the University of Westminster (England’s Yellow Peril: Sinophobia and the Great War)

Professor of History at University of Bristol, Robert Bickers, (Getting Stuck in For Shanghai: Putting the Kibosh on the Kaiser from the Bund)

Curator of Chinese collections at the British Library, Frances Wood (Picnics Prohibited: Diploma in a Chaotic China during the First World War)

Join us to hear the fascinating and all too often forgotten stories of the Great War.

A drinks reception will follow, with signed copies of the books available to purchase.

Details and booking form here