All things old China - books, anecdotes, stories, podcasts, factoids & ramblings from the author Paul French
Burmese preservation activist Thant Myint-U posted this sad, sad picture from Rangoon of a lost house, destroyed to provide parking….
I recently contributed a small piece to the Visualising China blog on Sir Victor Sassoon’s Metropole Hotel in Shanghai (the one constructed in the 1930s on Kiangse Road (Jiangxi Road), rather than the older, decidedly more notorious, Metropole Hotel that stood on the Bubbling Well Road by the racecourse and was long gone by then. The Metropole, scarily about to get “Refurbished” (and China Rhymers will know why that should fear into their hearts) is adjacent to Hamilton House and I do note some of the varied businesses that rented office space there over the years – here then are some ads for those businesses….
And so it’s the Christmas reading selection again which, as usual, includes no books published by me or written by me and only ones that impressed. Not much of a year for non-fiction I thought as nothing grabbed me especially and there didn’t seem to be much for those of us who exist between the exalted academic tome and the perfunctory Stations of the Cross China book. Still, a few interesting fictional outings I thought….
Lawrence Osbourne’s The Ballad of a Small Player was without doubt the stand out novel of the year that dealt with a China theme…and the China reading/Sinology crowd almost entirely missed it!! An amazing portrait of contemporary Macao and the peculiarities of losing your wallet and your mind in this Chinese gambling mecca. Osbourne writes like a demon possessed and has an uncanny eye for the small stuff that elevates a novel to greatness…and he, unlike few other novelists these days, doesn’t suffer from verbal diarrhea, but rather keeps it tight, taut and concise. It’s been a while since we had a great novel about contemporary China by a non-Chinese – this is it – it may take a while before another comes along I fear.
Susan Barker’s The Incarnations was also an amazing piece of work combining deep research, great writing and genre-bending styles across the story of a Beijing cabbie and his previous lives through Chinese history. Like Osbourne, Barker hasn’t really had quite the level of attention she should have and there have been a few snide and stupid reviews that reflect poorly on the reviewers (OK – this one had some cheap shots) but hopefully this is a book that will build a fan base over the long term. I’m pretty convinced it’ll come to be seen as a great book in time as it grows on people and word spreads.
Edward Wilson’s The Whitehall Mandarin was a Le Carre-esque romp through the 1960s and 70s from British spies to the jungles of Vietnam – however, there’s a Chinese twist which makes this worth reading. Wilson is probably the best espionage writer pumping out great books at the moment and this is a good way in….
James Ellroy’s Perfidia was always going to be a must read as soon as it came out – it’s a wild and crazy romp from the noir master set on the eve and aftermath of Pearl Harbor with plenty on the fallout in LA Chinatown….
And, for those who thought it might appear, there will be no recommendation of Richard Flanagan’s The Narrow Road to the Deep North, despite the literary establishment fawning over it – Flanagan’s Japanese characters are straight out of a 1950s B movie, lack any nuance and are stereotypical. Very, very disappointing. Surely, long after we’ve shown many sides of the German war experience, we can do better representations of the Japanese and their various motivations and experiences – but reading Flanagan, it appears not! Mini-rant over. Merry Christmas.
A new collection of essays on China at the end of World War Two with some notable contributors….
Negotiating China’s Destiny explains how China developed from a country that hardly mattered internationally into the important world power it is today. Before World War II, China had suffered through five wars with European powers as well as American imperial policies resulting in economic, military and political domination. This shifted dramatically during WWII, when alliances needed to be realigned, resulting in the evolution of China’s relationships with the USSR, the U.S., Britain, France, India, and Japan. Based on key historical archives, memoirs, and periodicals from across East Asia and the West, this book explains how China was able to become one of the Allies with a seat on the Security Council, thus changing the course of its future. Breaking with U.S.-centered analyses which stressed the incompetence of Chinese Nationalist diplomacy, Negotiating China’s Destiny makes the first sustained use of the diaries of Chiang Kai-shek (which have only become available in the last few years) and who is revealed as instrumental in asserting China’s claims at this pivotal point. Negotiating China’s Destiny demonstrates that China’s concerns were far broader than previously acknowledged and that despite the country’s military weakness, it pursued its policy of enhancing its international stature, recovering control over borderlands it had lost to European imperialism in the nineteenth and early twentieth century, and becoming recognized as an important allied power with determination and success.
Sadly the GMC building I posted about recently is not the only architectural relic from the French colonial period threatened with demolition in Saigon. The former French Officers’ Club (Cercle des Officiers), the oldest surviving French colonial building in the city, is also threatened. The building, 45-47 Le Duan, is now the home of the Ho Chi Minh City District 1 People’s Committee, which is proposing to knock it down and build themselves a new structure on the site 0- US$75.5 million has apparently been earmarked for the demolition and rebuilding project.
The colonial era structure was built in 1876 at the command of Rear Admiral-Governor Victor Guy Duperré (30 September 1874 – 30 January 1876) to provide social and recreational facilities for high-ranking members of the French armed forces. the plan now is to raise only part of the building the committee does not believe has much heritage value, but the demolition would destroy the original design of the building. The building is extremely spacious and has beautiful shuttered windows and cool verandas, typical of the period’s best architecture in French Indo-China. The French inhabited the building until the retreat at Dien Bien Phu in 1954.
the entire district in central Saigon is a tourist spot but has already seen a great deal of destruction. Close by a beautiful old art deco apartment building at 213 Dong Khoi Street has gone and another, that dates back to 1888, is threatened at 159-161 Ly Tu Trong Street.
The Cercle des Officiers as was originally….
The still well preserved exterior that is now threatened…
RAS Book Club
 
Thursday, 18 December 2014, 7:00-9:00pm
 RAS Library
The Sino-British College, USST
1195 Fuxing Road Middle Road near South Shaanxi Road
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China’s War with Japan 1937-1945: The Struggle for Survival
by Rana Mitter
Hosted by RAS members Christopher Murphy and Raymond Kolter
RSVP: to RAS Bookings at: bookevents@
RESERVATIONS ESSENTIAL AS SPACE IS LIMITED AT THIS EVENT.
ENTRANCE CONTRIBUTION: Members 20 RMB Non-members 50 RMB. 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.
RAS MONOGRAPHS – Series 1 & 2 will be available for sale at this event. 100 rmb each (cash sale only)
WEBSITE: www.royalasiaticsociety.org.cn
The former Les Grands Magasins Charner, or simply GMC, in Saigon building may well go, if developers get their way and the public and preservationists are thwarted. Built in 1880, it was one of the finest examples of architecture from the French Indo-China colonial period left in the city. From the start the building always had slight Indo-Chinoiserie flourishes with a traditional western clock tower topped of by a pagoda-like structure. It was a retail architectural style familiar to the French of the grand magasin/Bon Marche type and stood on the corner of rue Bonard (the old name of Le Loi Street) and rue Charner (the old name of Nguyen Hue Street). In 1942 (when Saigon and Indo-China was run by a collaborationist Vichy French administration) the building was mucked about with a bit – the clock tower taken down and replaced with a GMC banner. In the 1960s it became a high end shopping centre in Communist Vietnam. Though the exterior changed and was further mucked about with the interior was still littered with French decorative touches, wonderful bannisters and French cockerel motifs. There was a campaign to save it, mostly from traders within the complex but it’s gone now – the site will become a skyscraper!
The original GMC – late nineteenth century
interior slightly later…
interior staircase…
surviving bannister iron work
GMC after adaptations to the exterior in 1942
a 1927 advertisement for GMC Saigon
Surviving cockerel bannister contour at GMC
Surviving flower bannister contour at GMC
The Siege of Tsingtao – Jonathan Fenby
Monday 15 December 2014, 6.45pm
Swedenborg Hall
20-21 Bloomsbury Way
(Hall entrance on Barter St)
London WC1A 2TH
Free (Booking recommended)
Book online here
In 1914, Europe was not the only continent coming to terms with a new form of conflict. Through a mix of complex alliances and global ambition, the war had spread to northern China, where the German-held port of Tsingtao became a key battleground. To strike a blow at Kaiser Wilhelm’s naval forces, Britain and its ally Japan laid siege to the port during October and November of that year. In this lecture celebrated historian Jonathan Fenby will examine the causes of the battle, the ulterior motives for it, and the path on which it set East Asia for decades to come.
The Siege of Tsingtao was to be the only armed clash of the First World War in East Asia, and – involving 32,000 troops, a death toll of less than 500, and fewer than 2,000 wounded – was a tiny affair compared to the conflict being fought in Europe. But, coming at a time of retreat in Europe it was a tonic from afar, described at the time by the British cabinet as ‘the heaviest blow delivered at German world-power’. Indeed, the victory ensured that the First World War would not extend in the region beyond 1914, as Germany’s naval squadron was deprived of an operational base in East Asia and was subsequently destroyed by the British as it tried to return to Europe.
Following Japan’s victory in Russia in 1904-05, this second triumph over a European adversary also marked a fresh advance for the rising regional nation. Japan was to reap the rewards of declaring war against Germany when, at the Treaty of Versailles, they were granted concession over Tsingtao, sparking tensions with China that were to have significant long-term ramifications.
Jonathan Fenby, a former editor of the Observer and South China Morning Post, is editor in chief of the information website, Trusted Sources.
He has worked as a foreign correspondent for the Economist and Reuters and held senior editorial positions at the Guardian and the Independent in Britain. He contributes to publications, broadcasting stations and websites in the UK, Europe, the United States and the Far East.
He has written books on France (On The Brink), Hong Kong (Dealing with the Dragon) and the unreported story of the deadliest British naval disaster (The Sinking of the Lancastria). In 2007 Jonathan published Alliance; the Inside Story of how Roosevelt, Stalin and Churchill won one war & began another (Simon & Schuster) which the Guardian review described as “the best sort of historyâ€. He is an author of several popular books on China, including the acclaimed Tiger Head, Snake Tails, The Penguin History of Modern China, Generalissimo: Chiang Kai-shek and the China He Lost, and Will China Dominate the 21st Century. His latest book, The Siege of Tsingtao: China Penguin Specials, was published in 2014 as part of a series marking the 100th anniversary of the First World War.
He is on the board of the European Journalism Centre and is a research associate at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) at London University.
To reserve your place, please call the Japan Society office on 020 3075 1996 or email events@japansociety.org.uk or submit the online booking form.
surviving