Round in 50 – Jazz Age China on the London Stage in 1922

I’m indebted to Anthony Clayton, one of the editors of the forthcoming collection of essays, Lord of Strange Deaths: The Fiendish World of Sax Rohmer (about which more soon), for introducing me to the 1922 London stage musical Round in 50 at the recent excellent Fu Manchu in London: Limehouse, Lao She and Yellow Peril in the Heart of Empire conference at the University of Westminster. Round in 50 ran at the London Hippodrome and featured some amazing representations (fantastical of course) of China in the Jazz Age. The musical, partly written by Rohmer, was a vehicle for the music hall entertainer George Robey and is a take on Around the World in 80 Days though this time in 50 with Phil Fogg. The play featured an elaborate set for Hong Kong and a “Chinese street” where the travellers are robbed. I would direct anyone interested to this great post on the musical, featuring some pictures of the amazing Chinese set, at the blog Jazz Age Club – well worth a look if you like your stage sets a la Chinois!

I don’t have any images from the show myself but the website has plenty to keep you going – but here’s a shot of Rohmer all got up in a Chinoiserie style for you….

Midnight Comes to Dayton – This Friday

A quick self plug – I’ll be at Books & Co at The Greene Shopping Center in Dayton, Ohio this Friday should you happen to be in the area!

Friday Oct 11
PAUL FRENCH

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 11; 7 PM

PAUL FRENCH will discuss the paperback edition of his true-crime book, Midnight in Peking: How the Murder of a Young Englishwoman Haunted the Last Days of Old China. French, an historian and China expert, has opened the books on a 75-year old unsolved murder of Pamela Werner, a British schoolgirl, and offers a glimpse into the last days of Colonial Peking, delving into Peking’s seedy underworld of crime, drugs, and prostitution.

In the tradition of the true crime classics White Mischief and Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, Midnight in Peking transforms a front page murder into an absorbing and emotional expose, bringing the last days of old Peking to life.

Celebrate the Double Ten in 1941 with the China Weekly Review

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Golden Gate Girls Screening in Manchester This Friday

The Chinese Film Forum UK is screening the film Golden Gate Girls (Louisa Wei, Hong Kong 2013) as part of a conference on Chinese Cinemas in and outside of China to be held on 11-13 October 2013 at Cornerhouse, will mark the culmination of two years of funded support from the AHRC.

Golden Gate Girls
Louisa Wei, Hong Kong 2013
In Cantonese, English
88 mins

This highly personal documentary chronicles director Louisa Wei’s efforts to reconstruct the life and career of Esther Eng, a Chinese-American director born in San Francisco in the early 1900s. Today, Eng has been virtually forgotten. Wei’s documentary paints a fascinating picture of how her career in filmmaking broke through gender and racial boundaries in Hollywood and Hong Kong, at a time when opportunities for Chinese women in the industry were few and far between.

Writer/director Louisa Wei will be in attendance for a post-screening Q&A.

Kindly RSVP to: cffuk.mcr@gmail.com

The Chinese Film Forum UK is an AHRC-supported research network based in Manchester that was set up for the research and promotion of transnational Chinese film. The network includes Manchester Metropolitan University, University of Salford, the University of Manchester, Confucius Institute, Chinese Arts Centre and Cornerhouse. More information may be found on our website: www.cffuk.org

Witchita 9 October РWatermark Books & Caf̩ is pleased to welcome Paul French for a reading and book signing of Midnight in Peking

A plug for an event of my own this Wednesday in Witchita….

More detials of the event and Watermark Books here

Midnight in Peking: How the Murder of a Young Englishwoman Haunted the Last Days of Old China by Paul French, took the world by storm when it was published last year. With editions published by Penguin US, Penguin UK, Penguin Australia, Penguin China, and Penguin Canada, it was truly a global publishing event. Midnight in Peking is an absolutely riveting true crime story that has received critical acclaim around the globe. It has also been nominated for an Edgar award in the Best Fact Crime category. French, a historian and China expert, has opened the books on a seventy-five-year-old unsolved murder and offers a glimpse into the last days of Colonial Peking.

Peking, January 1937. In the frigid winter air, the ancient Fox Tower—rumored to be home to the seductive fox spirits who steal men’s souls—keeps silent watch. The morning after Russian Orthodox Christmas celebrations, the city awakens to a hangover—and a murder. The mutilated body of British schoolgirl Pamela Werner is found at the base of the Fox Tower, on the edge of the Badlands. A shiver of fear and shock ripples through Peking. With the Japanese already in Manchuria and encircling Peking, the city is on high alert.

Chinese detective Han and visiting British detective Dennis team up to solve the case, battling time and the meddling of their respective bureaucracies. Dennis, a Scotland Yard man, attempts to recreate Pamela’s last days by combing through her diary and questioning her friends. A puzzling picture emerges of a girl who was sometimes a studious schoolgirl and other times a girl on the cusp of womanhood.

Han and Dennis’s investigation pulls them deep into Peking’s seedy underworld of crime, drugs, and prostitution. As the weeks progress and they get no closer to finding the killer, they are pressured to close the case by their superiors, the press, and the public. Dennis returns to Tientsin and Han closes the official investigation. Unsatisfied, Pamela’s father, ETC Werner, takes up the search for justice. What he uncovers is even more devious that Han and Dennis had suspected. Though no justice is served, the remainder of Werner’s life is consumed with the investigation into his daughter’s murder.

Almost seventy-five years after the murder of Pamela Werner, Paul French finally gives the case the resolution it was denied at the time. In the tradition of the true crime classics White Mischief and Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, Midnight in Paris transforms a front page murder into an absorbing and emotional exposé, bringing the last days of old Peking to life.

Fu Man Chews!! How an Oriental Arch Villain Became a Packet of Sweets!!

Another post on Fu Manchu (well, it is the centenary of the Fu Manchu books this year) – I hadn’t realised quite how much confectionery the old Chinese arch-villain had inspired….and video games and a Chinese take-away in Strabane, Northern Ireland!!

Fu-Man Chew Hormone Gum (??) – a happy smiling Fu…..

Some kinda gummy Fu Man Chew – and a strange sort of Monkey from Journey to the West type Fu Manchu image

Fu Man Chews gumballs

Not forgetting a rather silly video game

And Fu-Man Chew’s Chinese in Strabane

Master Kwaw, Aleister Crowley and the Yellow Peril

Funny how often the old occultist Aleister Crowley (I shouldn’t have to introduce him but if you don’t know him then here’s his scandalous life) comes up in conversation! At last week’s Fu Manchu/Lao She Conference in London Phil Baker, who knows a lot about a lot, related Crowley’s portrait of Master Kwaw, his character who is

“a Taoist advisor to the Japanese “Daimio” in a time of crisis. Kwaw advises a course of study in which people shall be taught the antithesis of their natural tendencies: the prostitute to learn chastity, the prude to learn sexual expression, the religious bigot to learn Huxley’s materialism, the atheist to learn ceremonial magick.”

Baker also suggested that this just might be what Crowley considered a self-portrait when under the influence….

Crowley occasionally assumed what he considered to be Chinese poses and characters in photographs….

Crowley as “Fo Hi, the Chinese God of Joy and Laughter”

As “Kwaw Li Ya – Chinese Poet”

This Week – Midnight in Peking Takes a Tour Through the Mid-West

A little tour through the Mid-West talking about Midnight in Peking….obviously love to see anyone at these great venues…..

9th October – Watermark Books – Witchita, Kansas – 7pm

10th October – St Louis County Library, St Louis, Missouri – 7pm

11th October – Books and Company at the Greene – Dayton, Ohio – 7pm