City of Devils at Strand Books

City of Devils waiting for Manhattan Christmas shoppers at Strand books down there on Broadway…..

China-Britain Business Council December Q&A – Male Idols & Branding in Chinese Luxury

Chinese male idols continue to be incredible economic engines- my final China-Britain Business Council Focus magazine author Q&A of the year with Amanda Sikarskie, one of the authors (along with Peng Liu & Lan Lan) of Male Idols & Branding in Chinese Luxury (Bloomsbury)….click here…

Barzini’s Peking/Paris im Autombile….

A lovely copy of Peking-Paris im Automobile by Italian journalist Luigi Barzini & Prince Scipione Borghese (who owned the car!) about their adventures on the Peking-Paris car race of 1907 (for more see Kassia St Clair’s Race to the Future, John Murray, 2023)

The Aitken-Alexander Agency 2024 hit list…

The Aitken-Alexander Agency (that’s my agents) 2024 hit list…

Junk at Full Sail

Marvellous painting of a junk at full sail, Anglo-Chinese School, probably late 19th century, artist unknown…

River East, River West

Aube Rey Lescure’s River East, River West (Duckworth) comes highly praised and is set in 2007 Shanghai and 1985 Qingdao…

Shanghai, 2007: feeling betrayed by her American mother’s engagement to their rich landlord Lu Fang, fourteen-year-old Alva begins plotting her escape. But the exclusive American School – a potential ticket out – is not what she imagined.

Qingdao, 1985: newlywed Lu Fang works as a lowly shipping clerk. Though he aspires to a bright future, he is one of many casualties of harsh political reforms. Then China opens up to foreigners and capital, and Lu Fang meets a woman who makes him question what he should settle for…

A mesmerising reversal of the east–west immigrant narrative set against China’s economic boom, River East, River West is a deeply moving exploration of race, identity and family, of capitalism’s false promise and private dreams

Lin Yutang’s The Gay Genius: The Life and Times of Su Tungpo, 1948

Lin Yutang’s 1948 The Gay Genius: The Life and Times of Su Tungpo (William Heinemann)….

From the Poetry Foundation website:

Su Tung-Po (1037–1101) was a Chinese poet, writer, artist, and statesman during China’s Song era. Born to a family of literati in the present-day Sichuan province, he is also known as Po Su Shi, Su Shih, and Su Dongpo. He published under the pseudonym Dongpo Jushi.

Su Tung-Po spent most of his life employed in various governmental positions. His poetry and prose often put him at odds with ruling factions, and he was twice banished from different provinces. These banishments and the small stipends allotted to government officials encouraged him to take up Buddhist meditation. His poetry is infused with Buddhist philosophy, as well as with Confucianism.

Today, Su Tung-Po’s oeuvre is valuable for the quality of its poems, its contributions to 11th-century Chinese travel literature, and its details about the Chinese iron industry.

Peter Fleming’s The Siege at Peking, First Edition, 1959

Peter Fleming’s retirement project was a history of the Boxer Uprising…The Siege at Peking….

The first edition was published by Rupert Hart-Davis in 1959.

“Fleming’s comprehensive account of The Battle of Peking, fought on 14th–15th August 1900, in which the Eight-Nation Alliance relieved the siege of the Peking Legation Quarter during the Boxer Rebellion. Foreign diplomats had been besieged by Boxers (a secret society named after the martial art of Chinese boxing) and the Imperial Chinese Army. Liberators from the alliance included European superpowers (British Indian Infantry, French Indochinese artillery, Russian Cossacks and German troops), joined by the Japanese army and United States Marines.”