All things old China - books, anecdotes, stories, podcasts, factoids & ramblings from the author Paul French
Until I blogged yesterday about a new re-issue of Pearl S. Buck’s Letter from Peking I hadn’t really realised how many covers past editions of the book have amassed. I’ll put my favourite of the ones I’ve seen first and then a selection of others….
Buck’s Letter from Peking is one of her lesser known works, certainly less well known than The Good Earth – still, it’s worth a read and just been re-published…
RAS WEEKENDER – PHOTOGRAPHY EXHIBIT
 Liu Heung Shing: Photographs as the Pulse of Daily Life
Saturday 27 July 2013, 4 PM
Hosted by M on the Bund
in conjunction with the Royal Asiatic Society Shanghai
Entrance RMB 75 includes a drink
No booking required
Pulitzer prize-winning photographer HS Liu shares images from 30 years of photographing China, featured in his upcoming photographic exhibition, China Dream, Thirty Years: Liu Heung Shing Photographs. He discusses 30 years of photographing the People’s Republic and the ability of the photographic image to capture zeigeist, with special reference to the 1980s and 1990s. A conversation with Jean Loh.
Liu Heung Shing is a former foreign correspondent and photojournalist who has covered China, the U.S., India, South Korea, and the former Soviet Union. Named one of the 100 most influential people in contemporary photography by Paris Photo, he is also the author of several widely acclaimed books. These include China After Mao (1983) and his latest, China, Portrait of a Country (2008). His work has won numerous awards, including the Pulitzer Prize for Spot News Photography shared with his colleagues at the Associated Press for their coverage of the collapse of the Soviet Union. His exhibition, China Dream, Thirty Years: Liu Heung Shing Photographs is at the China Art Museum, Shanghai, in July.
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Jean Loh is the curator of Beaugeste Photo Gallery in Shanghai. The gallery, which opened in 2007, specializes in Chinese contemporary photography. Jean, who was named “Gallerist of the Year” in 2011 by Photographers’ Companion magazine, presents themed works by the best Chinese contemporary photographers in bimonthly cycles.
Regular readers may recall that last March I adapted a 1935 short story by Lao She – Ding – as a one man monologue piece for the Beijing International Literary Festival. The piece, directed by Beijing based director Fabrizio Massini and with a soundscape by George Holloway was performed by a young Chinese actor Wang Xuankun. It was staged after a presentation by Anne Witchard, the author of the book Lao She in London.
Anyway, I’ve uploaded to Amazon an e-book version of the adapted script of the story along with an essay by Anne Witchard – Ding: Lao She’s Modernist Day Out at the Beach – and some pictures of the performance. A stunning bargain at just 77p on Amazon.co.uk or US$1.15 on Amazon.com.
Apparently it was…Potter and Moore’s Old English Mitcham Lavender. In its day a classic brand despite the fact that in 2013 thoughts of Mitcham do not perhaps immediately turn to the old lavender fields. However Potter and Moore were famous for their perfumes and aftershaves based on Mitcham lavender which was launched in 1927. It certainly seems to have been the best seller at Suzette’s perfume shop on the Yuen Ming Yuen Road.
Whenever I’ve wanted to have some fun with Xinhua journalists doing profile pieces this is my little recipe – they always insist on asking your university (not too difficult) and your age (always provokes a slight reaction!!), and then what’s your favourite Chinese city? – my answer has always been Taipei – the number of times this answer has been printed? Zero. Anyway, I still maintain that Taipei is my favourite Chinese city for all the reasons you’d expect but the literature on the city is precious little as most, even quite seasoned China Hands, rarely if ever go there – which is a shame.
Anyway, perhaps Joseph Allen’s Taipei: City of Displacements resolves some of those errors by being an entire book about that great city. I hope so…and here’s the details…
This cultural study of public space examines the cityscape of Taipei, Taiwan, in rich descriptive prose. Contemplating a series of seemingly banal subjects – maps, public art, parks – Joseph Allen peels back layers of obscured history to reveal forces that caused cultural objects to be celebrated, despised, destroyed, or transformed as Taipei experienced successive regime changes and waves of displacement. In this thoughtful stroll through the city, we learn to look beyond surface ephemera, moving from the general to the particular, to see sociocultural phenomena in their historical and contemporary contexts.
Joseph R. Allen is professor of Chinese literature and cultural studies at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities.
“Through the prism of Taipei’s development, Allen masterfully covers many aspects of visual culture in Taiwan during the past century. The book details cultural debates with insight and draws on many visual forms. Taipei is bound to become a prime source on Taiwan culture.” – Yomi Braester, author of Painting the City Red: Chinese Cinema and the Urban Contract
for the Sun Yat-sen enthusiasts out there who might not know about this new catalogue from the SYS and Hong Kong exhibition running at the HK Museum of History till October 30th….
| Dr Sun Yat-sen & Hong Kong: Dr Sun Yat-sen Museum Exhibition Catalogue | ||
| Produced by Hong Kong Museum of History Published in July 2013 Hard cover, 316 pp Price: HK$155 ISBN: 978-962-7039-76-1 |
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Featuring insightful articles and around 500 historical images and maps, this newly edited catalogue is divided into three main sections: ‘Dr Sun Yat-sen and Modern China’ explores Dr Sun’s life and his path from school to revolution; ‘Hong Kong in the Time of Dr Sun Yat-sen’ explains why Hong Kong proved to be such an effective staging post for Dr Sun’s revolutionary cause in terms of timing, geographical convenience and human talent; ‘The Development of the Dr Sun Yat-sen Museum’ looks at the history of the 100-year-old Kom Tong Hall, which houses the museum today, as well as the colourful life of its original owner, Ho Kom-tong. Shedding light on the indissoluble links that connect Dr Sun with Hong Kong, the catalogue pays tribute to this great historical figure on the 130th anniversary of his first visit to the territory.
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Apologies for self-promotion but this week Midnight in Peking was awarded the Crime Writers’ Association (UK) “Dagger” for non fiction! Am I happy – you bet. Word also of The China List – Penguin China’s special promotion happening right now in Hong Kong at the Hong Kong Book Fair 2013, held from 17-23 July, at Hong Kong Exhibition and Convention Centre. Just get over to the Swindon’s booth…..
