A Purse from Helen Burton’s The Camel’s Bell, Peking

My great thanks to Tia Gretta of Buenos Aires, Argentina who sent me these pictures of a wonder Camel’s Bell purse. I’ve blogged before about American Helen Burton’s wonderful clothing, furs, accessories, art and curios store, Thew Camel’s Bell, in the Grand Hotel de Pekin on Chang’an Avenue that was open in the inter-war years. I’ve also shown examples of another purse (click here to read that post). Burton produced many purses, handbags and other accessories under her own brand using local materials and seamstresses. This needlepoint purse from Tia is in excellent condition and very beautiful.

Her Lotus Year: Wallis at the American Lido, Peking, 1925

Here’s Wallis (nearest camera) in the summer of 1925 swimming at the lido in the American Legation in Peking. The man sitting beside her is Eddie Mills, an American living in Peking and working for the Salt Gabelle (China’s salt tax agency). Mills had helped Wallis with her luggage on Tianjin Station in December 1924 when she heading to Peking. They remained friends.

Her Lotus Year: China, the Roaring Twenties and the Making of Wallis Simpson is available everywhere in hardback, e-book and audiobook now…

Shanghai Municipal Police Mounted Unit, c.1905

A mounted policeman (with cutlass) in Shanghai c.1905. Photograph by Albert Henry Aiers who served in the SMP from 1902 to 1939. To be honest I’m not sure if this is a member of the SMP’s small mounted unit or a member of The Shanghai Light Horse unit of the Shanghai Volunteers? Any comments from experts most welcome!

And thanks to Robert Bickers at Bristol Uni who tells me: “Walthamstow-born Sidney George Reading (for it is he), once a furniture salesman. Sidney, possibly tiring of China ponies that were too small, left the force after 4 years and was later a tram driver in Brisbane.”

Post Mag Recognised at SOPA Awards

Much deserved recognition for the South China Morning Post weekend magazine “Post” at the SOPA (The Society of Publishers in Asia) awards – a really consistently great mag (to which I occasionally contribute admittedly)….. Click here to read in full… And last weekend’s great cover….

Back to the Cutty Sark…

Visited the Cutty Sark at Greenwich last week. Though I’d walked past it many times I hadn’t actually been aboard since a school trip! I was there as Xiaolu Guo was speaking about her new book – Ishamaelle – set in the world of the old whalers so an East Indiamen seemed fitting.

The Cutty Sark was of course in the China trade for many years – the fastest of the clippers. It visited Shanghai in 1870 for the first time. Here below a couple of entries from AR Lubbock’s The Log of the Cutty Sark (1928)…

Shanghai Race Club Cards

The Shanghai Literary Review| Issue 9 2025

This summer’s issue includes:

• Art by Fan Ho, Xiyadie, Cai Dongdong, and Klaus Capra
• Poetry from Marianne Boruch, Aiden Heung, Alina Stefanescu, Farnaz Fatemi, Malena Mörling, Timothy Yu, and Paula Bohince
• Fiction from Roseanne Pereira
• Nonfiction by Jeff Wasserstrom, Mary Cappello, David Chaffetz, and Cris Mazza
• Critical essays by Jing Wang, Paul Cuff, Yiren Zheng, Zhang Ling, and Carlos Rojas
• Interviews with theater director Wang Chong and filmmaker Paul Rosdy
• Reviews by Flair Donglai Shi 施東來, Jane Rosenberg LaForge, and Qingsheng Xiao
• Translation featuring works by Lo Yu (Fion Tse), Dai Wangshu (Tin Kei Wong), Yang Biwei (Liang Yujing), Zuo Fei (Ana Padilla Fornieles), Feng Zhi, Bian Zhilin, Wen Yiduo, Luo Qilan, & Li Bai (A.Z. Foreman)

To order click here

Alice Leone-Moats – A Date with Mars (1943)

Alice Leone-Moats (1908-1989), an author who was born in Mexico to wealthy and socially prominent American parents. She became the Colliers correspondent in the USSR and China during WW2 who wrote Blind Date with Mars (1943)… In 1944, the State Department cancelled her passport as she had travelled to Vichy-controlled France, and under war-time regulations it was illegal to travel to enemy-controlled territory