Colourised Hong Kong Postcards, c.1900

A series of colourised postcards of Hong Kong published in 1900, but of perhaps a slightly earlier city….

Lucky Jack Riley Arrives in San Francisco, April 1941

My thanks to the great China ephemera collector Roy Delbyck for sending me this great photo of “Lucky” Jack Riley, the Slots King of Shanghai arriving in San Francisco for transfer to McNeil Island Penitentiary – if you’ve read my book City of Devils you’ll know all about Jack, what he got up to in Shanghai, and how come he ended up being transported back to the USA to jail – if you haven’t, then you should!

Anyway, as well as Jack looking dapper as ever there are a few other points of interest about the photo…

With him is Shanghai Municipal Police Sergeant George Athelstan Day – who accompanied him across the Pacific in a first class cabin and may have been selected for the job as he was going on leave to his native Canada anyway. Probably a good gig as Riley was legendarily fun and interesting company. This long leave meant Day was outside China on Pearl Harbor and so escaped internment in Shanghai. However, he returned to Asia to serve with Special Operations Executive (SOE) in India in World War Two. (my thanks to Professor Robert Bickers of Bristol Uni for the info on Sergeant Day).

Too Far From Antibes – New Edition

I loved Bede Scott’s novel Too Far From Antibes (Penguin Books Southeast Asia) when it first came out (and reviewed it here in the South China Morning Post). I’m delighted to have blurbed this superb new edition of this retro noiry tale of 1950s Saigon reminiscent of Green, Ambler and Simenon.

Camera Craft/John David Zumbrun Peking Album c.1915

I’m obviously fascinated with old photographs of China, but also (perhaps a little more weirdly) the albums they were often contained in. Just put ‘albums’ in my blog’s search engine and you’ll see many past examples. However, this one is special. This album of Peking photos was sold by the amazing Camera Craft Co, circa 1915. Camera Craft was run by American John David Zumbrun with premises on Legation Street (Dongjiaomin). Zumbrun (below) was very early, ahead (I think) oif other famous Peking photo studios, notably Hartung’s.

The BBC on the Lisbon Maru Doc and New Movie (and not forgetting the original book)

The story of the excellent doc and the historically questionable movie….as well as Tony Banham’s excellent book (from way back in 2010 but still well worth reading)…. click here to read….

Loyal to the End – the Life and Letters of Wen Su

Francis Wann has gathered together his relative Wen Su’s papers to create this treasure trove…. from Earnshaw Books

On February 7, 1906, a male infant was born in Beijing, and the court official Wen Su was called upon to choose a name for him. He chose the name Pu Yi, and also, according to one version of the story, personally placed the boy on the Dragon throne in 1908, just three years before the Qing Dynasty fell.
Wen Su was one of the top imperial officials right at the end of the China’s long dynastic history, and he remained for decades afterwards the most loyal of all the courtiers around the dethroned emperor. He was also an accomplished poet and calligrapher and maintained a long correspondence with his sons and with others that is here collected and published for the first time.

Lantern Slides of China

A series of lantern slides of China tourist sites and views (some of which are easily identifiable and some not) produced by The Photo Bureau of 34 Nanking Road (Nanjing East Road) for sale to tourists who wanted to entertain their friends, Women’s Institute, church groups, schools or whatever back home to a lantern slide show. I’m afraid I don’t have a date for these.

#34 Nanking Road was obviously the Photo Bureau on the ground floor and offered furnished rooms for let on the floors above. The company advertised itself as ‘Makers of Coloured Lantern Slides, Enlargements, Cinema, Amateur Developing and Printing’. The business was owned by a Mr Vandenburgh with Mr Wong as Manager and a Mr Woo as the Chief Artist. The earliest reference I have for them being in business is the mid-1920s. Before that, around the time of the First World War, #34 appears to have been a wine merchants run by a Mr JW Gande who had been in China since the 1880s. Before Gande, in the 1890s and till the early twentieth century the store was owned by a Mr Schlichting, a general merchant whose business was called Sing Tong in Shanghainese I believe, and who lived over the store with his wife.

Anyway, here’s a random selection of lantern slides from The Photo Bureau…

Ballad of a Small Player – Poster and Stills

The poster and first still are out for Edward Berger’s adaptation of Lawrence Osborne’s Macao-set Ballad of a Small Player novel...with Colin Farrell, Tilda Swinton, Fala Chen, Alex Jennings – and just about all filmed on location in Macao…