Her Lotus Year: Wallis in The Independent

A piece by me on Wallis Simpson in China in the 1920s for The Independent – apologies it’s paywalled but some of you might be subscribers….click here…

The Arthur Waley Blue Plaque

There’s a Blue Plaque to Arthur Waley – and I didn’t know. Should have as a) it was put up in 1995 and b) it’s in my home territory of North London at 50 Southwood Lane, Highgate, London, N6!

Tianjin Cosmopolis: An Alternative History of Globalization

Pierre Singaravelou‘s Tianjin Cosmopolis (Columbia University Press)….(translated by Stephen W Sawyer)…

At the turn of the twentieth century, the city of Tianjin was the diplomatic capital of the Middle Kingdom, where foreign consuls met Chinese dignitaries, and a hub of commerce and culture. Yet in the eyes of foreigners, the city remained provincial. After the tumult of the Boxer Rebellion, however, Tianjin transformed, when a little-known international political project turned it for a time into one of the most cosmopolitan places in the world.

Pierre Singaravélou tells the story of Tianjin’s emergence as a transnational metropolis, arguing that the city’s experience challenges conventional narratives of the origins of globalization. He focuses on the aftermath of the Boxer Rebellion, when a number of imperial powers established an international military government that sought to modernize the city and its environs. Under its reign, people from all over the West and Asia flocked to Tianjin, in a whirlwind of commercial and cultural exchange. This provisional government embarked on ambitious public works and public health projects, attempting to transform not only the city’s infrastructure but also its residents’ behavior—all while the imperial powers seized large foreign concessions. Singaravélou traces the many tensions of the global city: between accommodation and resistance for Tianjin’s residents, between colonization and internationalization within the provisional government, and between cooperation and competition among the imperial powers. Bringing together global and local perspectives, Tianjin Cosmopolis offers a new vantage point on the imperial globalization of the early twentieth century.

Her Lotus Year: Anting Men Street

Anting Men (Andingmen) Street, 1922, photographed by Donald Mennie – not that far by rickshaw from Wallis’s home on Shijia Hutong…. she would head that way to visit the Yonghegong (Lama Temple) sometimes….

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

BBC Radio Ulster – The Ticket – August 1 2025 – 6pm

I’ll be talking Wallis Simpson and 1920s China on The Ticket with Kathy Clugston on BBC Radio Ulster at 6pm tonight…. (BBC Sounds afterwards) …. click here

A Snapshot into 1930s Macao: the Legacy of Melville Jacoby

An interview in Macao News with Bill Lascher about Mel Jacoby’s time in pre-war Macao (and a little bit about my part in the journey to print!) and the collection of Mel’s photos of China, Macao and Asia in the 1930s and World War Two – A Danger Shared (Blacksmith Books). Click here to read….

China Revisited #1-5 – Buy the Bundle….

China Revisited is a series of extracted reprints of mid-nineteenth to early-twentieth century Western impressions of Hong Kong, Macao and China. The series comprises excerpts from travelogues or memoirs written by missionaries, diplomats, military personnel, journalists, tourists and temporary sojourners. I publish them with Blacksmith Books in Hong Kong and add introductions and annotations throughout…

Save 20% by buying this bundle which includes the following items in the series. Please click on their titles below to read full details.

1 x Where Strange Gods Call: Harry Hervey’s 1920s Hong Kong, Macao and Canton Sojourns

1 x Wanderings in China: Hong Kong and Canton, Christmas and New Year, 1878/1879

1 x LING-NAM: Hong Kong, Canton and Hainan Island in the 1880s

1 x Roving Through Southern China: An American’s Explorations of Hong Kong, Macao and Canton in the early 1920s

1 x The Mystic Flowery Land: A Curious Imperial Maritime Customs Officer’s Roamings in Hong Kong and Canton in Southern China’s Plague Year

J L Hedge, Royal Army Service Corps, Shanghai Defence Force 1932 -1933 – Shanghai Photos