World Film Locations: Shanghai

The World Film Locations series has added Shanghai to its list with John Berra and Wei Ju’s new book. The book is most interesting to China Rhymers when it talks about old Shanghai’s indigenous movie business and those that recreate old Shanghai – Shanghai Triad, Lust/Caution etc. I’m not overly bothered about Skyfall etc as the reason for these recent films being partly or wholly set in Shanghai seems rather obvious given the cityscape and potential of Chinese eyeballs and ticket sales.

Celebrating Shanghai’s rich cinematic history, the films covered here represent a lengthy time period, from the first Golden Age of Chinese Cinema in the 1930s to the city’s status as an international production hub in 2013. Given the enduring status of Shanghai as the “Paris of the East,” World Film Locations: Shanghai emphasizes the city’s cosmopolitan glamour through locations that are steeped in cinematic exoticism, while also probing the reality behind the image by investigating its backstreets and residential zones. To facilitate this study of Shanghai’s dual identity through reference to film locations, the book includes films from both the commercial and independent sectors, with a balance between images captured by local filmmakers and the visions of Western directors who have also utilized the city for their projects.

With numerous essays that reflect Shanghai’s relationship to film and scene reviews of such iconic titles as Street Angel, Temptress Moon, Kung Fu Hustle, and Skyfall, World Film Locations: Shanghai is essential reading for all scholars of China’s urban culture.

Belvoir Castle’s Chinoiserie wallpaper and “Chinese Rooms”

I’ve just been reading Catherine Bailey’s The Secret Rooms: A True Gothic Mystery (a good read by the way – though more about World War One than anything overtly Gothic). The book centres around  Belvoir Castle (the Duke of Rutland’s residence) and notes the castle as being famous for its Chinoiserie rooms (Bailey notes several “Chinese rooms”) and, in particular, the exquisite Chinoiserie wallpaper that covered many other rooms. Belvoir (in Grantham Leicestershire)  has been overhauled quite a bit and seems to do a nice turn in weddings and I’m afraid I don’t have any old shots – but the wallpaper remains Chinoiserie.

The Penguin China Specials: First World War Series

Regular readers will know that the first two books in this great series from Penguin China have already been published and are available on Kindle and, in Asia, in hard copy form. Here are the titles in the rest of the series (including my own coming soon) – they all look fantastic (click on the image to enlarge)…..

Rare ‘China Magazine’ 1860s Photographs of China & Hong Kong

Some photographs of China and Hong Kong from the 1860s, believed to be among the earliest of their kind in existence, came up for auction the other day. The scenes of ordinary Chinese life and Hong Kong streets and harbour are remarkable. The photographs are taken from the China Magazine, which began as a weekly publication on March 7 1868 and continued monthly until it reached its fourth and final volume in 1870.

Here’s a link to a selection of the images in the Daily Mail

The People’s Republic of Amnesia: Tiananmen Revisited – 25 Years Since the Tiananmen Massacre

Louisa Lim’s The People’s Republic of Amnesia is now published. I’ve read and was greatly impressed but am reviewing elsewhere so here’s the blurb….

On June 4, 1989, People’s Liberation Army soldiers opened fire on unarmed civilians in Beijing, killing untold hundreds of people. A quarter-century later, this defining event remains buried in China’s modern history, successfully expunged from collective memory. In The People’s Republic of Amnesia, NPR correspondent Louisa Lim charts how the events of June 4th changed China, and how China changed the events of June 4th by rewriting its own history.

Lim reveals new details about those fateful days, including how one of the country’s most senior politicians lost a family member to an army bullet, as well as the inside story of the young soldiers sent to clear Tiananmen Square. She also introduces us to individuals whose lives were transformed by the events of Tiananmen Square, such as a founder of the Tiananmen Mothers, whose son was shot by martial law troops; and one of the most important government officials in the country, who post-Tiananmen became one of its most prominent dissidents. And she examines how June 4th shaped China’s national identity, fostering a generation of young nationalists, who know little and care less about 1989. For the first time, Lim uncovers the details of a brutal crackdown in a second Chinese city that until now has been a near-perfect case study in the state’s ability to rewrite history, excising the most painful episodes. By tracking down eyewitnesses, discovering US diplomatic cables, and combing through official Chinese records, Lim offers the first account of a story that has remained untold for a quarter of a century. The People’s Republic of Amnesia is an original, powerfully gripping, and ultimately unforgettable book about a national tragedy and an unhealed wound.

China’s ‘Leftover’ Women: London Events This Week

A new title has just been published in the Asian Arguments series I edit for Zed Books – Leta Hong Fincher’s Leftover Women: The Resurgence of Gender Equality in China. This week Leta will be making a few appearances and speaking in London…this Thursday lunchtime at Probsthain‘s for a talk and signing and then in the evening at the Royal Asiatic Society in an event with the Young China Watchers London branch – details of both events below…..

Meridian Society talk – London 15/4 – “May 30th Changes Everything”

New York’s Chinatown

China Rhyming is away in New York this week and taking a short break from posting…so here’s a few shots of Manhattan’s old Chinatown….