Posted: July 2nd, 2012 | No Comments »
I had cause to watch, once again, the fabulous 1928 silent movie Piccadilly the other day. London kitchen char turned cabaret dancer Shosho (Anna May Wong) takes London by storm in its coolest West End nightclub – breaking hearts English and Chinese. The film is amazing on so many levels – and a bit problematic now and again too given the times. However, the nightclub is wonderful and Anna May Wong’s costumes, particularly her coat are fantastic. In one scene she heads down to Limehouse to take her new West End boyfriend “slumming it” in London’s Chinese district with its marvellous multi-racial cast of characters who dance and drink the night away. It’s simply one of the best moments on film, scripted by the novelist Arnold Bennett. You can watch the whole clip here on Youtube where the coolest black guy in the East End gets in trouble for dancing with a rather pushy working girl amidst the multiracial goings on! Here’s some stills:
Shosho (Anna May Wong is unbelievably cool coat) picks up posh bloke in West End and takes him for night in her East End!
Limehouse – our Piccadilly….
Drinks all round…he downs in one while she just sips (damn that trick gets me every time!)
the dancefloor is packed and multiracial down Limehouse way
Here’s comes a working girl – note the Chinese Limehouse dudes having a Friday night pint!
Posted: July 2nd, 2012 | No Comments »
After considering the latest outcry about demolition of relics and history in China from a senior official yesterday I admit that it’s taken me a while to catch up on this sad and sorry story concerns the building from which Chiang Kai-shek led China during World War Two in Chungking (Chongqing) as shown below – it is now rubble thanks to a property developer as this article and series of photos in Caixin shows. The house survived repeated Japanese bombing attempts but couldn’t survive the property developers!
I was reminded of this house when discussing the Carl Crow War Diaries I edited a few years back with some people in New York recently – this was Crow’s impression of the Chiang compound when he visited:
Chiang Kai-Shek’s Residence, Chungking, Tuesday, June 13th 1939
My engagement with Madame Chiang Kai-shek was for 6 o’clock and was purely informal as I was going to have tea with her with no one else present except Holly Tong (effectively her secretary at the time). The Generalissimo might drop in but that was not certain as he has a big military conference on. I was waiting in the Central Publicity office after the regular military briefing when the news came that 27 planes had left Hankow and were on their way to Chungking. They were due to arrive about 5:45. I couldn’t help thinking what a swell story it would make if the danger signal came while I was calling on the Chiangs, and possibly spent an hour or so in the dugout with them. That appeared very probable for we started for their residence at about 5:30. It is not in any sense a hide out, but is prominently located and without the least attempt at camouflage. Unless their espionage system has fallen down, the Japanese must know exactly where it is. But they are so used to deception that I suppose it would never occur to them to believe that the Generalissimo would live where he is supposed to live.
There were plenty of sentries around the place, but unobtrusive. There was no show of pomp or military force. We didn’t pass more than a dozen sentries from the time we left the car and there were none inside the house.
The house was about the same as the house of a well-to-do Chinese in Shanghai. There was nothing ornate about it like the houses of the Shanghai millionaires. From an unimpressive hall we entered directly into the large reception room, which is also the drawing room. The high ceilings were marked by a modernistic glass enclosed lighting system. There were a number of fine old Chinese scrolls on the walls – monotones of floral designs, a landscape or two and one figure. There were plenty of chairs in the room – enough to seat 20 or 30 people.
Posted: July 2nd, 2012 | No Comments »
Thanks to Lu Yongxiang, vice chairman of the National People’s Congress Standing Committee, the great China protecting relics debate is back as it does every few years. It’s a familiar story – much hand wringing ensues, strong words are spoken, examples of tomb raiding and theft handed out, the existing Law on the Protection of Cultural Relics reiterated. And then….nothing….little enforcement and the debate moves on to something else. Of course the debate also usually only deals with ancient relics and leaves out any discussion of anything later or anything that might get in the way of property developers! However, Lu has specifically mentioned both rapacious property developers and lack of enforcement as two reasons why the 1982 law is looking a little impotent right now.
And if you think I’m always a bit hard on property developers, remember this is a senior Communist talking:
“A five-year census of the country’s fixed cultural heritage found several months ago that construction projects were responsible for more than half of 40,000-plus fixed cultural relics, including those located underground and underwater, “disappearing” over the past 30 years.”
The whole article here
Posted: July 1st, 2012 | 2 Comments »
I’m eager to promote this great little book from an old friend Mark O’Neill about his grandfather who was an Irish Presbyterian missionary in Manchuria. I’m also aware that missionary biographies are not a genre much previously favoured on China Rhyming but Mark is a superb journalist and story teller, has worked long and hard on this book and also tracked down his grandfather’s old Chinese medals (which I have blogged about previously). The problem is that, outside of bookshops in Hong Kong, I’m not quite sure how you can order this book from Joint Publishing (HK). Perhaps better internet searchers than me can find a way.
A much more detailed review of the book is here at the Asia Sentinel
Posted: July 1st, 2012 | No Comments »
Regular readers will know I am a great lover of famous men (and it is all men so far I’m afraid but submissions are open from all periods and genders) making comparisons between China and other places (invariably provincial England). Here is a round up of the best so far:
- The usually erudite and brilliant W Somerset Maugham wrote ‘…the bamboo, the Chinese bamboo, transformed by some magic of the mist, look just like the hops of a Kentish field’;
- The American comedian Will Rogers compared the countryside around Harbin to Nebraska when he visited in the early 1930s;
- In the 1870s Jules Verne compared Hong Kong to a town in Kent or Surrey;
- In 1933 Peter Fleming toured China and compared Chengde to Windsor;
- He then compared Peking with Oxford for some reason! – gotta love the Flemster!!;
- Later in 1938 Auden and Isherwood described the countryside around Canton (Guangzhou) as reminiscent of the Severn Valley;
- And then during his stay in China during the Second World War the (yet to be at the time) famous Sinologist Joseph Needham compared Fuzhou to Clapham and, perhaps most bizzarely, wartime Chongqing to the charming Devon seaside resort of Torquay!
And here’s two new additions –
I’d forgotten Noel Coward’s excellent comparison of 1921 Shanghai as ‘a cross between Brussels and Huddersfield’
Then there’s EM Forster’s science fiction short story from 1909 called The Machine Stops where he writes, ‘What was the good of going to Peking when it was just like Shrewsbury? Why return to Shrewsbury when it would all be like Peking?’
Two worthy editions I think you’ll agree…
Huddersfield back then – could it have been just a “reet grim” up Shanghai way in 1921??
Behold the lovely old market town of Shrewsbury…errr, in olden times…a dead ringer for Peking I’m sure we can all agree
Posted: June 30th, 2012 | No Comments »
Given my recent comments on dragon ladies (see Foreign Policy article here) I thought perhaps a little biography of Dragon Lady-related books was in order – not exhaustive and do feel free to add…
The Asian Mystique: Dragon Ladies, Geisha Girls and the Fantasies of the Exotic Orient – Sheridan Prasso
Dragon Lady: The Life and Legend of the Last Empress of China – Sterling Seagrave
The Dragon Empress – Marina Warner
Decadence Mandchoue – Edmund Backhouse
China Under the Empress Dowager – Edmund Backhouse & JOP Bland
The Last Empress – Anchee Min
The Last Empress: Madame Chiang Kai-shek and the Birth of Modern China – Hannah Pakkula
Madame Chiang Kai-shek: China’s Eternal First Lady – Laura Tyson-Li
Madame Mao: The White Boned Devil – Ross Terrill
Madame vamping Truman in her white gloves and trademark qipao
Posted: June 29th, 2012 | No Comments »
As I’m on about the various Chinese bits and pieces of interest in the Museum of London then, though I’m a couple of months late, I have to note this great illustration of the Chinese community celebrating tomb sweeping day (qingming) in London. The illustration below is from the Illustrated London News for April 24th 1909. It shows Chinese in England attending to graves in the “East London Cemetery” (which is still in use out in Plaistow). The Chinese gravestones are interesting (not sure if any are still there? – I’ve never been over to Plaistow, the esteemed ancestors of the French family are all gathered either in North London “crems” or long gone Whitechapel graveyards) and suckling pig is elaborate as well as whisky. The illustration seems to indicate that the curious English found this interesting. The Chinese mens costumes of labouring jackets and flat caps seem accurate from pictures of Limehouse at the time. More details here.
Posted: June 29th, 2012 | No Comments »
I’ll just a list of UK media reviews up for the record and in case anyone’s interested.
Of course The Economist is a biggie
The Scotsman went on at great length and very nicely too
The Sunday Express liked the writing as well as the story, so no complaints this end
The Daily Telegraph was fine too
The Spectator (who like everyone has used the picture of Pamela which is nice to see everywhere)
The Financial Times were great too
Scotland on Sunday was fine as well
and then finally the Guardian reviewed too…
And here’s WH Smith’s at Heathrow where the Queen still rises above me!!
