All things old China - books, anecdotes, stories, podcasts, factoids & ramblings from the author Paul French
Our second Royal Asiatic Society Shanghai–Hong Kong University Press “China Monograph†is now available on Amazon in Kindle form…Go Kindlers….
An interesting event in Beijing from the people behind Beijing Postcards and Simon Rom Gjore at The Hutong:
Join us on Sunday October 21st for a unique peek into the life and times of the mightiest warlord in China during the chaotic 1920s, as well as expat life in the capital of Northeast China, Shenyang.
Robert Christensen, a Dane, went to Mukden (present day Shenyang) in 1922 accompanying the Manchurian Warlord Zhang Zuolin’s biggest ever order of weapons machinery. Shortly after, he was hired by Zhang to build up the largest arsenal in all of China and consequently had the chance to document, in Kodak stills and silent film footage, the life and death of the short, hot-tempered former bandit who ruled Manchuria as his own.
Another history of China – this one Restless Empire (the touchy Chi-Comms won’t like that title!) by (the oddly named – geddit!) Odd Arne Westad starts in 1750 and goes through to, well, “today” the publishers say. Details and blurb as ever….
Tracing China’s course from the eighteenth-century Qing Dynasty to today’s People’s Republic, Restless Empire shows how the country’s worldview has evolved. It explains how Chinese attitudes have been determined by both receptiveness and resistance to outside influence and presents the preoccupations that have set its foreign-relations agenda.
Within two decades China is likely to depose the United States as the world’s largest economy. By then the country expects to have eradicated poverty among its population of more than one and a half billion, and established itself as the world’s technological powerhouse. Meanwhile, some – especially its neighbours – are afraid that China will strengthen its military might in order to bend others to its will.
A new form of Chinese nationalism is rising. Many Chinese are angry about perceived past injustices and fear a loss of identity to commercial forces and foreign influences. So, will China’s attraction to world society dwindle, or will China continue to engage? Will it attempt to recreate a Sino-centric international order in Eastern Asia, or pursue a more harmonious diplomatic route? And can it overcome its lack of democracy and transparency, or are these characteristics hard-wired into the Chinese system? Whatever the case, we ignore China’s international history at our peril.
Odd Arne Westad is one of the world’s foremost experts on both the Cold War and contemporary East Asian history, having won the Bancroft Prize, the Michael Harrington Award and the Akira Iriye International History Book Award for his seminal book The Global Cold War. A Professor of International History at the London School of Economics, he is also co-director of LSE IDEAS, a centre for the study of international affairs, diplomacy and grand strategy.
I mentioned the journal The China Critic in my history of foreign journalists in China Through the Looking Glass (only a bargain six quid on amazon.co.uk at the moment!). So good to see that the China Heritage Quarterly has a feature on the old publication (here). There is also an interesting article with a splendid array of pictures from Rudolf Wagner on the foreign press in late Qing/early Republican China (here).
I am currently busy going through a shoe box of old China stamps I have after reading the news that some rare Sun Yat-sen stamps sold at auction for US$707,000 in Hong Kong – a world record. Seems the good Dr’s face is printed upside down making them extremely rare and getting them more than double what any SYS stamp has ever sold for before. More about it all here.
our first Royal Asiatic Society Shanghai–Hong Kong University Press “China Monograph” is now available on Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk – so ebookers off you go to One-Click!
Tuesday 16th October 2012 at 7.00pm – starts 7.30pm prompt
Tavern, Radisson Plaza Xingguo Hotel 78 Xing Guo Road,Shanghai
兴国宾馆 上海市兴国路78å·
JULIA BOYD
A DANCE WITH THE DRAGON
Peking’s foreign community 1860-1949
With its diplomats and dropouts, philosophers, fossil-hunters, writers, explorers, missionaries and refugees, Peking’s foreign community was as exotic as the city itself. Always a magnet for larger-than-life individuals, Peking attracted such personalities as Reginald Johnston (tutor to the last emperor), Bertrand Russell, Wallis Simpson, Edgar Snow, J.D. Rockefeller, Jr., Morrison of The Times and the notorious Sir Edmund Backhouse. The last great capital to remain untouched by the modern world Peking both entranced and horrified its foreign residents whose response was to create their own extraordinary world of parties, picnics and club gossip. Ignoring the poverty outside their gates, they danced, played and squabbled among themselves, oblivious to the great political events unfolding around them that were to shape modern China.
Drawing on a variety of unpublished diaries and letters, Julia Boyd will tell the story of this small band of foreigners and explore life within the walled enclave of the foreign legation quarter. Based on her recent book, A Dance with the Dragon (London: I.B. Tauris, 2012), Julia’s lecture will draw a dazzling portrait of an eclectic foreign community and of China itself, one that is essential in understanding China and its attitude to foreigners today.
Julia Boyd is the author of Hannah Riddell, An Englishwoman in Japan and The Excellent Doctor Blackwell, a life of the first woman physician. A former governor of the English-Speaking Union, Julia is married to John Boyd who was posted twice to Beijing during the Cultural Revolution and is a former British Ambassador to Japan. They then spent ten years in Cambridge when John was Master of Churchill College and now live in London.
ENTRANCE: RMB 80 (RAS members) and RMB 130 (non-members). Â
Includes one drink: 150ml glass of red or white wine / draft beer / soft drink / tea or coffee.
Those unable to make the donation but wishing to attend may contact us for exemption, prior to the RAS Weekender.
PRIORITY BOOKING for Members until 13th October 2012.
MEMBERSHIP applications and membership renewals will be available at this event.
RAS MONOGRAPHS – Series 1 & 2 will be available for sale at this event. 100 rmb each
RSVP: to RAS Bookings at: bookings@royalasiaticsociety.org.cn
I’ve noted the Shanghai childhood of the great artist Peter Max previously. But I read that he recently visited Shanghai in search of his old nanny and visited his old childhood haunts on Hongkou and the former Jewish ghetto. Details on his visit, reminiscences of old Shanghai and thoughts on the city today here.
