Hong Kong Volunteer Defence Corps cap badge circa 1931-46

Hong Kong Volunteer Defence Corps cap badge circa 1931-46. Die-cast brass crowned pair of facing dragons.

The Good War of Consul Reeves – Wartime Macao

I welcome any addition to the rather understudied Macao bookshelf. Of course I’m fascinated by Macao and have been for decades – I’ve written about it in my short study on the Jewish refugees who, mostly moving on from an initial sanctuary in Shanghai, reached Macao thinking it might be aroute to safety in the US or UK. See Strangers on the Praia. Next year I’ll also add to my Destination…. series (Destination Shanghai and Destination Peking) with Destination Macao.

So Peter Rose’s The Good War of Consul Reeves, a novelisation of the life and Macao experiences of the wartime British consul in Macao, John Reeves, is most welcome…

Months before the start of the Pacific War in 1941, John Reeves – his career and marriage failing – is posted as British consul to the tiny Portuguese colony of Macao in southern China.

The Japanese soon declare war on the West with their attacks on Pearl Harbor and Hong Kong. But because Portugal is neutral, Macao is left alone and becomes a tiny island of neutrality, an Asian Casablanca surrounded by Japanese-occupied China.

Reeves, a lonely and awkward man, finds himself the only senior representative of the Allies within a radius of thousands of miles. He runs spy rings, collects intelligence, smuggles people to freedom, takes care of refugees and is threatened with assassination – and The Good War of Consul Reeves tells his story.

Yamanaka & Co.’s Ancient Masks, 1913

Always nice to come across items from Yamanaka and Co. This is a copy of a book – Ancient Masks – . published by Yamanaka in London in 1913 and sold through their London showroom at #127 New Bond Street (which I have blogged about before – with photos). The book was presumably to accompany an exhibition/sale.

Sadajiro Yamanaka was a well-known Japanese dealer in Peking in the early twentieth century, who had a beautiful courtyard home-cum-showroom on Ma Hsien Hutong (Maxian Hutong). The family business also had a showroom on New Bond Street, run by Sadajiro’s son.

PS: there is a chapter on Yamanaka and his family business in Chang Qing and Huang Shan’s The Great Plunder

Yangtze Patrol Propaganda Poster

A propaganda poster designed by RE Goode for the gunboats of the USA Navy Yangtze River Patrol (the “Yangpat”). The poster depicts the USS Oahu onthe Yangtze River. The text reads:

“Powerful light draft naval vessels protect American lives, alleviating distress and assisting commerce on the upper Yangtze River. These gunboats penetrate regions over 1300 miles from the sea in a land where transportation and communication is primitive.”

The Oahu was one of six new gunboats launched in 1926 patrolling the river and tributaries from Shanghai to Chungking. She was sunk in battle during WWII in Manila Bay in 1942.

Historical Studies on Comfort Women in Shanghai

• Zhiliang Su (Shanghai Normal University, China) and Fei Yao (Shanghai Normal University, China) – translator: Xie’an Huang (Shanghai International Studies University, China) – Historical Studies on Comfort Women in Shanghai from World Scientific

This book examines the history of the military comfort women system in China. It aims to give readers a deeper insight into the origin, establishment, and operations of comfort stations, as well as tell the sufferings of comfort women, many of whom were coerced into service. It does so by providing historical evidence gathered over 25 years of field studies from 172 comfort stations which were operated in Shanghai, which once had the largest number of military comfort stations, during the Japanese occupation.

Contents:

• Preface
• Introduction: The “Comfort Women” System and Japanese Military Comfort Stations in Shanghai
• Preface
• No. 1 Daiichi Saloon
• No. 2 Miyoshi
• No. 3 Komatsu-Tei
• No. 4 Eiraku-Kan
• No. 5 The “Comfort Women Group”
• No. 6 London Bar
• No. 7 Heart Bar
• No. 8 Eden Bar
• No. 9 Arirang Bar
• No. 10 Girl Bar
• No. 11 Asia Bar
• No. 12 Light Bar
• No. 13 Fun Bar
• No. 14 Babe Bar
• No. 15 Burgers Bar
• No. 16–29 Comfort Stations in Meimeili
• No. 30 Toyo-en
• No. 31 Taisho-kan
• No. 32 Hara-en
• No. 33 Hongkou Entertainment Center
• No. 34 Shanghai Japanese Army Club
• No. 35 Shanghai Garden
• No. 36 Asahi Club
• No. 37 Fugetsusho
• No. 38 Shanghai Moon
• No. 39 Suehiro Comfort Station for the Japanese Navy
• No. 40 Comfort Station at 135 East Baoxing Road
• No. 41–42 Comfort Stations at 135 and 260 East Baoxing Road
• No. 43 Rokuichi-Tei
• No. 44 Comfort Station at No. 52, Sichuanli
• No. 45 Shosho
• No. 46 Nanchang-Shanghai Club
• No. 47 Comfort Station at No. 2, Sanxinli
• No. 48–55 Comfort Stations in Songbaili, Qiujiang Road
• No. 56–58 Comfort Stations in Shunxingli, Qiuxing Road
• No. 59 Comfort Station at No. 3, Yingshengli
• No. 60 Comfort Station at No. 19, Yuleli
• No. 61–62 Furokuta Bar and Idealism Bar
• No. 63 Comfort Station at 116 Qiujiang Branch Road
• No. 64–65 Comfort Stations at 26 and 31 Hannen Road
• No. 66 Suirakusho
• No. 67 Far East Ballroom
• No. 68 Shinden Canteen Shanghai
• No. 69–72 Comfort Stations on Guangdong Street
• No. 73 Friends of Soldiers Association
• No. 74 Sanya Trading Company
• No. 75–77 Hongkou Great Hotel
• No. 78 Kuganu Navy Club
• No. 79 Kagetsu, a Japanese Restaurant on Boone Road
• No. 80 Comfort Station at 338 Wuchang Road
• No. 81 Sunrise Bar
• No. 82 Comfort Station at 260 Thorne Road
• No. 83 Umi-no-ie
• No. 84 Amankora Umi-no-ie
• No. 85 Comfort Station in the International Settlement
• No. 86 Monte Carlo Bar
• No. 87 Tsz Wan Beyanpo Comfort Station on Taicang Road
• No. 88 Comfort Station on Menghua Street
• No. 89 Nanshi Canteen
• No. 90 Comfort Stations near the French Concession
• No. 91 Great Shanghai Hotel
• No. 92 Comfort Station at the Beijing-Shanghai Railway Bureau Building
• No. 93 Comfort Station in Qingningsi, Pudong
• No. 94–95 Two Comfort Stations in Qianchangzhan
• No. 96 Yangjiazhai Comfort Station
• No. 97–111 Comfort Stations in Jiangwan
• No. 112–113 Comfort Stations on Zhengfu Road and Sanmin Road
• No. 114 Comfort Station near Daiko Cotton Mill
• No. 115 Comfort Stations for General Senda and General Fukatani’s Troops
• No. 116 Haneda Bessho
• No. 117 Shanghai Ryo
• No. 118 Totsugeki-Ya
• No. 119 Soldiers’ Club on Gongxing Road
• No. 120–136 Comfort Stations in Wusong Town
• No. 137 Comfort Stations in Shanghai’s Suburbs
• No. 138–142 Comfort Stations in Jiading
• No. 143–145 Three Comfort Stations in Qingpu
• No. 146 Comfort Station in Miaozhen Town, Chongming
• No. 147 Comfort Station in Chengqiao Town, Chongming
• No. 148 Comfort Station in Gaoqiao, Pudong
• No. 149 Comfort Station in Tangqiao, Pudong
• No. 150 Comfort Station at 6 Pushang Road
• No. 151 Songjiang No. 1 Comfort Station
• No. 152–153 Comfort Station at the City Temple of Baoshan and Luodian Comfort Station
• No. 154 Comfort Station at the Mi Family’s Ancestral Temple in Luodian Town
• No. 155 Hasegawa Omigawa Comfort Station in Yanghang
• No. 156–157 Majiazhai and Xujiazhai Comfort Stations
• No. 158 Comfort Station at Toyota Textile Factory
• No. 159–160 Two Comfort Stations on Zhapu Road
• No. 161 Comfort Station in Shun’anli
• No. 162–163 Comfort Stations on Tanggu Road
• No. 164 Comfort Station on Kunshan Road
• No. 165 Longhua Comfort Station
• No. 166 Club for Japanese Navy Corporals on Emei Road
• No. 167 Comfort Station in Youche Village, Zhangyan
• No. 168 Zhujiazhai Comfort Station
• No. 169 Comfort Stations at the Great China University
• No. 170 Myoburou
• No. 171 Comfort Station on Zhongnan Street, Songjiang
• No. 172 Songjiang Special Comfort Station
• Appendix 1
• Appendix 2
• Epilogue

RASBJ online event featuring author Thomas Bird about his first book, “Harmony Express”, with moderator Jeremiah Jenne – 20/3/24

Event Details

WHAT: RASBJ online event featuring author Thomas Bird about his first book, “Harmony Express”, with moderator Dr. Jeremiah Jenne

WHEN: Wednesday March 20, 7pm-8pm (Beijing time) on Zoom

MORE ABOUT THE EVENT: Author Thomas Bird introduces his book about exploring China by train, “Harmony Express”, in conversation with Dr. Jeremiah Jenne. Weaving Chinese history into his travelogue, the author couples the story of China’s long journey to modernity with the development of the national railway network. He investigates the impact of railway imperialism a century ago when China’s railways lagged sorely behind the rest of the world and considers Beijing’s obsession with catching up as represented by its fleet of sleek, fast Harmony-branded trains.

ABOUT THE SPEAKER: A numbe of years ago, Bird’s rock band had just split up, he’d left his job as the Shenzhen editor of a lifestyle magazine and his girlfriend had disappeared from his life. He was poised to make a muse of China Railways. A year morphed into several as Bird whizzed from high-tech Shenzhen to colonial Xiamen at speed; “flew” into Shanghai aboard a Maglev; chugged through rural Sichuan Province aboard an old steam locomotive. Putting the people he meets front and center, Bird delivers a portrait of an era undergoing breakneck change.

HOW MUCH: This online event is free for members of RASBJ; RMB 50 for members of partner RAS branches; RMB 100 for non-members.

Interested in becoming an RASBJ member? Please sign up at https://rasbj.org/membership​​​​

You may find payment via Alipay easier than via Wechat, You can also pay by credit card. We hope to “see” you there!

HOW TO JOIN THE EVENT: No later than noon on 18th March, please click “Register” or “I will Attend” and follow the instructions. After successful registration and payment, you will receive a confirmation email. If you seem not to have received it, please check your spam folder.

Members of partner RAS Branches: Please register 72 hours in advance to allow time for membership verification. You’ll receive three emails from us: the first confirming receipt of your registration request, the second requesting payment, and the third confirming receipt of your payment. Please check your spam folder to ensure you see all RASBJ emails.

Click here for more details.

Thomas Handforth’s Photos for Osbert Sitwell’s Escape With Me! (1939)

I was just rereading Osbert Sitwell’s 1939 travelogue Escape With Me!: An Oriental Sketchbook (where he visits French Indochina and Peking) and noticed that the photographs in the book (with one exception) are by Thomas Handforth. Sitwell was a guest of Harold Acton’s while in Peking and dedicates his book, to Acton and Laurence Sickman (as well as McDonald, the former British Ambassador who rpesumably did some introductions) while noting photos by Handforth (who I’ve blogged about before). For anyone researching the gay ex-pat scene in Peking between the wars here’s one nucleus of it (Sitwell published in 1939 but was in Peking in 1934) . Handforth, from Tacoma, is perhaps best remembered for his illustrated children’s book Mei Li (1939). Here are his photos….

The Chinese May Fourth Generation and the Irish Literary Revival: Writers and Fighters

Simone O’Malley-Sutton’s The Chinese May Fourth Generation and the Irish Literary Revival: Writers and Fighters (Springer, Singapore)….

This book examines how the early twentieth-century Irish Renaissance (Irish Literary Revival) inspired the Chinese Renaissance (the May Fourth generation) of writers to make agentic choices and translingual exchanges. It sheds a new light on “May Fourth” and on the Irish Renaissance by establishing that the Irish Literary Revival (1900-1922) provided an alternative decolonizing model of resistance for the Chinese Renaissance to that provided by the western imperial center. The book also argues that Chinese May Fourth intellectuals translated Irish Revivalist plays by W. B. Yeats, Lady Gregory, Seán O’Casey and Synge and that Chinese peasants performed these plays throughout China during the 1920s and 1930s as a form of anti-imperial resistance. Yet this literary exchange was not simply going one way, since Yeats, Lady Gregory, Synge and O’Casey were also influenced by Chinese developments in literature and politics. Therefore this was a reciprocal encounter based on the circulation of Anti-colonial ideals and mutual transformation.