Midnight in Peking Chinese Edition Now in the Shops Across the PRC

The Chinese language edition of Midnight in Peking is now in the shops and online in China for the stunningly low price of just RMB35 (actually priced at the high end of the China book market!). My translator was a very cool guy who really diligently worked to try and keep the style and sense of place. It’s going to be interesting to see what Chinese readers think…and below the details for my Chinese readers from Beijing Youth…

英国历史学家还原老北平悬疑罪案 

荣获2013“爱伦•坡奖最佳犯罪实录奖”

这一切居然是真的!

 

“帕梅拉•沃纳的尸体现在就躺在北京的二环路下，那里曾经是英国公墓。在过去的70多年里，她就一如她生前一样——孤单地待在那里。

狐狸塔至今仍俯瞰着盔甲厂胡同，俯瞰着曾经一度混杂不堪的北平黑市。它俯瞰着鞑靼城墙，俯瞰着1937年那个寒冷的早上帕梅拉尸体被发现的地方。现在，只有上了年纪的老北京还记得狐狸塔，而狐狸精也只会出现在老人家的故事里。还有谁记得有外国姑娘在城墙下被分尸的悲惨命运呢？”

 

《午夜北平》(MIDNIGHT IN PEKING)是一本献给帕梅拉的书。

1937年1月，日本全面侵华前夕，年轻的英籍少女——英国外交官19岁的女儿帕梅拉在北平被谋杀，残忍至极的凶杀现场震惊了整个北平。中英警方随即展开调查，但因随后战乱延绵和双方当局的阻挠，案件的侦破不断被搁置，最后竟不了了之，凶手逍遥法外，直到如今。

“我第一次读到帕梅拉•沃纳的故事是在美国记者埃德加•斯诺的传记里。这位记者的畅销著作《红星照耀中国》在上世纪30年代将毛泽东推向了全世界。当时有一条脚注说埃德加的妻子海伦在帕梅拉遭到分解的尸体被发现后很是紧张。因为他们家离案发地点很近，而且海伦••••••福斯特•斯诺也经常晚上骑车回家。这条脚注还提到了狐狸精‘情欲魅惑’的说法，还有帕梅拉的父亲作为英国前外交官的身份以及案子最后一直未能查明凶手的结果。”

75年后，英国人保罗•法兰奇对这个偶然邂逅的故事无法忘怀。“对我来说，是在一个寒冷的冬日，在英国图书馆的报纸存档里意外看到一张帕梅拉的照片时才终于决定一定要把这个故事讲出来。”

保罗•法兰奇出生于伦敦，1986年到复旦大学学习一年中文后，在中国生活了二十年。他是中国问题分析师和评论家，著有《镜里看中国：从鸦片战争到毛泽东时代的驻华外国记者》、《卡尔•克劳——神奇的中国通：一位美国人在上海的生活和冒险》、《北韩：偏执的半岛的现代史》《旧上海的A到Z》。

他开始为之辗转中外，翻阅所有案卷，走访案发地点和相关人员。“一桩让当时北平中外社区都谣言四起议论纷纷的案子，在这座已经被日军包围、岌岌可危的城市里投下了巨大的恐慌，帕梅拉案对无数人来说是个预兆，预示着一座面临灭顶之灾的城市中即将爆发的狂躁。”最终，伴随着骇人罪案被揭密的，还有一个业已消失的古城、一个终结的时代——颓废的北平、冷酷的洋人、古老的城墙、被淡忘的地名、东郊民巷领馆区……

“从头到尾我都觉得帕梅拉••沃纳不应被人忘记，而且不管多晚，都一定要还她一个公平。”在保罗•法兰奇看来，“这一切居然都是真的!”是这个悲剧最骇人的力量和最终极的意义所在。

2013年3月《午夜北平》出版。4月，保罗•法兰奇因为它被美国侦探作家协会（WMA）授予“埃德加•爱伦•坡最佳犯罪实录奖”。

创立于1946年该奖，系以美国前总统林肯和著名音乐家萧伯纳最为激赏的世界侦探小说开山鼻祖埃德加•爱伦•坡（Edgar Allen Poe）的名字命名。自创设以来，备受推崇。全世界的侦探小说作家莫不以获得此奖为荣。该奖亦被誉“世界侦探小说领域的奥斯卡奖”，几乎所有荣获最佳小说奖的作品，最后都被成功改编成电影或电视剧集，尽享赞誉。

据悉，《午夜北平》的电视改编权已被英国Kudos Film and Television公司购下，相关剧集将于9月在中国开拍。其中帕梅拉的父亲，前英国外交官、著名汉学家爱德华•沃纳一角，已确定将由《哈利•波特》中邓不利多校长的饰演者出演，而其中最主要的中国人角色，北平公安局东南分局侦探队韩世清队长，则署意香港演员黄秋生。

                      文/本报记者吴菲

Tom Ford Goes to China for his Smellies – inspired by flowers and, eerr, whores

Tom Ford has several new scents out using China and the Orient as a motif – Fleur de Chine and Shanghai Lily (the prostitute in Shanghai Express, or perhaps a brand of Chinese cervical cap, but who’s caring?), both in the Atelier d’Orient collection.

 Fleur de Chine ~ “Dramatic. Smouldering. Seductive. Tom Ford’s Fleur de chine eau de parfum is an unequivocally romantic and haunting floral fragrance touched with a reverence for the great scents of the past. Precious asian flowers, including hualan flower and star magnolia, are arranged in a bouquet of rare beauty for a scent that lingers on.”

Shanghai Lily ~ “Opulent. Tantalising. Elegant. Tom Ford’s Shanghai Lily eau de parfum is a floral oriental scent that transports the senses into a world of rare and opulent ingredients from the historic silk road. Warm spices, elegant florals and addictive notes of vanilla and frankincense create a hazy reverie of glamour and temptation.”

And the real Shanghai Lily (we never miss a chance for a Dietrich pic here!)…

The Singapore-Hendon Nexus – courtesy of a London Pro

Regular readers will know that I like to find strange comparisons in literature where famous writers compare places in China to rather mundane locations elsewhere – there’s a ton them here with links from previously. Here’s a Singapore related one…

To Beg I am Ashamed was supposedly the memoir of a London prostitute by Sheila Cousins published in 1938 (though some say it was ghost written by Graham Greene). Towards the end of the book the central character is whisked of to Malaya by a client and notes of Singapore:

‘For Singapore, when you get to know it, is merely Hendon Central with the sea round’

eerrr, OK….this of course seems a bit silly now, but then in the 1930s perhaps not so much on reflection (climate aside obviously).

Singapore in the 1930s

Hendon – not overly dismilar to a lot of the architecture Singapore had from the British around the that time…

Melville Jacoby on the Pamela Werner Murder

My thanks to Bill Lascher, who is currently researching a new biography of the great American China correspondent Melville Jacoby, sadly killed in a plane crash during World War Two. Bill has already published a short piece of Jacoby’s writing from Chungking during the war as an e-book Monsieur Big Hat.

As his research progresses he is turning up lots of fascinating details about Jacoby’s time in China – this from a letter Melville wrote in July 1937 from Peking to his parents which will interest anyone who’s read Midnight in Peking and is familiar with the murder of Pamela Werner…

“Then there was a brutal killing of an English girl a few months back just after an argument. Lots of undercover work up here that doesn’t receive publicity but comes to light now. Some naturally is untrue.”

Sporting Gender: Women Athletes and Celebrity-Making During China’s National Crisis, 1931-45

Gao Yunxiang’s Sporting Gender looks extremely interesting….

When China hosted the 2008 Summer Olympics — and amazed international observers with both its pageantry and gold-medal count — it made a very public statement about the country’s surge to global power. Yet, China has a much longer history of using sport to communicate a political message.
Sporting Gender is the first book to explore the rise to fame of female athletes in China during its national crisis of 1931-45 brought on by the Japanese invasion. By re-mapping lives and careers of individual female athletes, administrators, and film actors within a wartime context, Gao shows how these women coped with the conflicting demands of nationalist causes, unwanted male attention, and modern fame. While addressing the themes of state control, media influence, fashion, and changes in gender roles, she argues that the athletic female form helped to create a new ideal of modern womanhood in China at time when women’s emancipation and national needs went hand in hand. This book brings vividly to life the histories of these athletes and demonstrates how intertwined they were with the aims of the state and the needs of society.

Yunxiang Gao is an associate professor of East Asian history at Ryerson University.

Yichang – Up Through the Gorges in 1935

I spent a couple of days in Yichang this week and thought I’d dig out a few reminiscences about the place from the great master Old China Hand, Carl Crow. Crow journeyed up the Yangtze to Sichuan in 1935 partly for a spot of tourism and to see the Three Gorges and partly to see some advertising clients of his up in Sichuan. He decided (though a new aeroplane service was available) to make the voyage by boat….

The Yangtse at Yichang this week…

From my biography of Crow – A Tough Old China Hand

Foochow Races 1885

This year’s London Antiquarian Book Fair at Olympia was the usual host of things that are lovely but you can’t afford (or maybe you can…but I can’t!). One particularly lovely China-related item attracted a lot of attention – a programme for the second day of a horse (Mongolian ponies really) racing event at Foochow (Fuzhou) in 1885 courtesy of the dealers Voyager Press Rare Books of Canada (who have lots of lovely Chin and Asia stuff on their website). The event was on Tuesday, December 15th 1885 and you can expect all that all of treaty port society was there – tea traders massing in the stands! Races that day included the “Tea Merchants Cup” and the “Min” Stakes named for the local Chinese dialect of the region and the “Chaasze Cup” named for a famed British tea merchant. To top it all the programme was printed on silk! The sellers were asking GBP650 – not sure if anyone was lucky enough to have 650 quid to part with to let them own this beautiful object of old treaty port China?

You can see the programme here

Foochow around that time

The Prolific Frank Dikotter is at it Again – The Tragedy of Liberation: A History of the Chinese Revolution 1945-1957

Even I am amazed at Dikotter’s rate of output!! This of course looks excellent and would appear to chime with the general ChinaRhyming view of modern Chinese history – The Tragedy of Liberation….