Two war posters celebrating the 19th Route Army in the 1932 Sino-Japanese War in Shanghai. Both titled “Nineteenth Route Army in the Battle at Shanghai”. The design features 15 wartime scenes from the Shanghai War of 1932 including soldiers, horses, canons, planes, boats, nurses and battlefield conflicts. The main defence force at the The Battle of Shanghai was the 19th Route Army.
Part 2 (of 3 – it’s such a massive & complex book!) of my chat with Jeff Quest of The Le Carre Podcast onThe Honourable Schoolboy where we deep-dive Liese Worth, the Kuo Brothers, Smiley’s problems & Westerby’s motivations (you can find part 1 at the same site) – click here
My September author Q&A for the China-Britain Business Council’s Focus magazine – Michael Sheridan, author The Red Emperor: Xi Jinping and His New China (Headline Books) understanding Xi’s motivations is key to understanding China’s business landscape going forward. Click here
John Hambleton Holdcroft’s (1926-2014) Hong Kong Harbour scene is perhaps interesting as, though painted in the twentieth century it is a representation of Victoria harbour in the nineteenth century. Similarly so with his image of HMS Tamar, which was gone by 1941. So I’m not sure when, or if, Holdcroft was in Hong Kong (he may have worked from photographs, other China School paintings) – if any has more information I’d love to know?
John Hambleton Holdcroft was born in Bristol, educated at the Bristol Cathedral School, war service with the Black Watch regiment and then returned to Bristol to study at The West England College of Art. He later spent time at the artists’ colony on the Channel Island of Sark (where Mervyn Peake was). He later worked with the Oslo Museum on producing a series of large pen drawings of the city and, in 1960 he returned to London to work for the advertising firm Mather & Crowther. In 1967 John moved to St Leonard’s to take up the post of Head of Graphic Design at Hastings College.
So, it’s a royal book if you’re into the royals & a China book if you’re into China – but here’s Her Lotus Year(out Nov 12th everywhere – St. Martin’s Press in the US; Elliott & Thompson in the UK) on US Town and Country magazine’s Best New Royal Books of 2024 list! –
I recently posted some pictures of the Tientsin (Tianjin) Race Club from the Spring season, 1921. So this cup, that recently came up for auction, was of some interest having been awarded a year or two prior…
An early 20th Century silver three-handled trophy cup manufactured by Gorham Manufacturing Co, of Birmingham c.1910. The inscription ‘THE / GREAT WAR “VICTORY” CUP / WON BY / MR. A. H. WATTS ON “PENDINAS” / TIENTSIN CHAMPIONS / SPRING 1919’.
I believe the British Watts family had been resident in Tientsin for a generation or two running Watts & Co. (later, or earlier, called Watts & Buck Co.) – exchange and share brokers, auctioneers and estate agents. AH worked, at least for a time, for the Chinese Engineering and Mining Company. I think AH’s father was James Watts (Private J. Watts, a member of the Tientsin Volunteer Force) who is mentioned in regard to Tientsin during the Boxer Uprising:
“The successful defence (of Tientsin) was in a large measure due to the presence in the town of a Russian force of some one thousand seven hundred men, which had been prevented from following Admiral Seymour in his gallant attempt to rescue the Legations by the fact that the railway was cut. The most brilliant individual achievement, and the one which resulted in the relief of the city was that of Mr. James Watts. All communications with Tientsin had been destroyed, and when ammunition was running low and the defenders were talking of surrender, he volunteered to lead a troop of Cossacks through the enemy’s lines with despatches to the foreign admirals at Taku. He successfully accomplished his dangerous mission on June 19, 1900, and relief was immediately sent to the besieged. His name in connection with this act of heroism will ever be remembered gratefully in Tientsin. In recognition of his signal services the British Government, after some delay, conferred upon Mr. Watts a Companionship of the Order of St. Michael and St. George, and, in the meantime, the German Emperor signified his intention of conferring a decoration on the gallant Englishman—a spontaneous mark of appreciation, which Mr. Watts values highly.”
Two armorial dishes enameled with a coat-of-arms and the inscription ‘PALACIO DO GOVERNO DE MACAU’ and gilt exotic bird motifs…These dishes are from one of four Chinese services which were made for King Dom Luís I, King of Portugal (1838-1889), who reigned from 1861.
Jiaming Tang’s Cinema Love (John Murray) is a remarkable book for a number of reasons…
For over thirty years, Old Second and Bao Mei have cobbled together a meagre existence in New York City’s Chinatown. But unlike other couples, these two share an unusual past. In rural Fuzhou, before they emigrated, they frequented the Workers’ Cinema, where gay men cruised for love.While classic war films played, Old Second and his fellow countrymen found intimacy in the privacy of the Workers’ Cinema’s screening rooms. Elsewhere, in the box office, Bao Mei sold tickets to closeted men – guarding their secrets and finding her own happiness with the projectionist. But when secrets are unveiled, they set in motion a series of haunting events that propel Old Second and Bao Mei towards an uncertain future in America.
