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

Collecting Chinese and Japanese Porcelain: In Pre-revolutionary Paris

An interesting study of early French collecting of Chinese porcelain from Stephanie Castelluccio…

SHANGHAI: From Modernism To Modernity

No idea if this book (Francesco Consentino’s Shanghai: From Modernism to Modernity) is interesting or has anything new to say, but in the interests of covering the whole territory….

The 1885 Map of San Francisco’s Chinatown

A quick post to draw China Rhyming readers attention to this article on the most amazing map of San Francisco’s Chinatown in 1885. Click here. The map details opium houses, gambling parlours and brothels in detail and is a fascinating snapshot of the streets at that time. I know of no other map for any other Chinatown, either in America or elsewhere such as Limehouse with such detail. If you have any interest in Chinatowns then this is an absolute must see map. Indeed maps detailing ethnic populations are quite rare though I know the 1899 map of Jewish East London which is also fascinating, but no Chinese specific maps I’m afraid.

The Fu Manchu Complex – From October 1 at the Ovalhouse, London

Opening at the Ovalhouse Threatre on October 1…..

The Fu Manchu Complex

by Daniel York

Challenging the ‘Yellow Peril’ racist stereotype, five East Asian actors white up to play the traditional colonials in this hilarious murder mystery in the East End, using physical comedy and the style of the Victorian music hall in a pastiche of classic British cinema.

Who is Fu Manchu: sinister Chinaman, criminal genius, racist myth..?

Battling through clouds of opium, spiffing chaps Dr Petrie and Inspector Nayland Smith must do anything to stop the dastardly plans of evil criminal mastermind Dr Fu Manchu; but will their colonial angst allow them to do away with the villainous evil genius and save merry old England? And as their blundering leads them to ever more absurd conclusions, we ask, who is the real Fu Manchu?

2013 sees the hundredth anniversary of the publication of the first novel featuring Sax Rohmer’s lurid and fantastical racist creation, the evil Dr. Fu Manchu. A century on we re-examine the skewed perceptions that have arisen around this pervasive myth.

Venue: Downstairs

Book /  Box office: 020 7582 7680

Far China Station: The U.S. Navy in Asian Waters, 1800-1898

Robert Johnson’s Far China Station is an interesting addition to the naval literature on Sino-American history…

Far China Station was the first work to put nineteenth century American naval and diplomatic affairs in the Far East into clear perspective. Johnson examines the origins of the East India Squadron, defines its import role in the implementation of foreign policy and describes the dangers routinely faced by the squadron’s ships and sailors. Great and gallant ships move through the pages from the famous Olympia and the majestic Columbus to the plodding Palos. Naval heroes and the not-so-great, angry mobs, Japanese rebels, leaky boilers, imperious officials and infirm admirals are set against a background of uncertain anchorages, storms at sea, and the ravages of disease in the last years of the Old Navy.

Touring London with Mr Ma and Son – Gordon Street

Fantastic to see that Penguin Modern Classics (well done Penguin China!) have reissued Lao She’s great 1920s novel of London Mr Ma and Son.

Seems a good time to wander the street where Mr Ma and his son’s lodged in London after their arrival – Gordon Street, WC1 in Bloomsbury. As Lao she writes:

“Number X Gordon street was the widowed Mrs. Wedderburn’s house. It wasn’t very big, just a small three-storied building, with no more than seven or eight rooms. At the front, by the door, there was a row of green railings. The three white stone steps were scrubbed spotless, and the brass knocker on the red- painted door was polished sparkling bright. On entering the house, you came first to the drawing-room, behind which was a small dining-room. If you passed through the dining-room, took a turn, and descended some stairs, you‟d come to a further three, small rooms. Upstairs there were just another three rooms, one facing onto the street, and two at the back.”

Lao She notes – “There were quite a few Chinese living in this street.”

Sadly Gordon Street – best known for the buildings that are now part of University College London, took some direct hits from the Luftwaffe during the Blitz (actually Graham Greene was a fire watcher in the area and remembered it in his autobiography Ways of Escape, while Henry Green wrote of a firefighting crew during the Blitz working in the area in his wonderful novel Caught) so most of the houses Lao She would have known are gone now….

The UCL Union building on Gordon Street – note the old London road name signs underneath and partially obscured by the new…

 

Some of the larger buildings on Gordon Street….

 

The southern end of Gordon Street becomes Gordon Square with some remaining buildings perhaps more like Mrs Wedderburn’s

PS: don’t forget that you can still sign up (for free) to the Fu Manchu in London: Lao She, Limehouse and the Yellow Peril in the Heart of Empire conference at the University of Westminster on Friday October 4th – click here for more details.