All things old China - books, anecdotes, stories, podcasts, factoids & ramblings from the author Paul French
Normal service is resumed on the ChinaRhyming Substack after some travel time –
https://open.substack.com/pub/paulfrench/p/april-1-2025-chinarhyming-walking?r=4ire&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true
Any Portuguese readers – here I am talking Wallis Simpson from Macao!
Hidden Heritage and Marginal Voices in Chinese Diasporas: Opera, Food and Water
Thu 3 Apr 2025 1:00 PM – 3:00 PM BST
Join us for an exciting event jointly organised by Hub on Migration, Exile, Languages and Space (HOMELandS) Research Centre and the Contemporary China Centre at the University of Westminster. The panel brings together expert researchers from different countries and universities who will share with us their most recent research into diasporic Chinese heritage. Based on case studies of Chinese diasporas in Canada, Britain and Macao and through the lens of opera, food and water respectively, their fascinating work unveil the hidden heritage and marginal voices of underrepresented individuals, families and communities, asking new questions on memory, identity and belonging in Chinese diasporas and beyond.
Speakers: Prof. Wing Chung Ng (University of Texas at San Antonio), Dr. Rui Su (Middlesex University) and Dr. Mariana Pinto Leitão Pereira (University of York)
Discussant: Prof. Cangbai Wang (University of Westminster)
The event is chaired by Professor Gerda Wielander
More info and book a slot click here
This type of Chinese silk embroidered souvenir from Peking appear regularly for sale at auction. They were locally embroidered and sold to soldiers who then usually slipped in a portrait photograph and sent them home as rememberances of their time in China. This one is slightly different in that a photo of Yuan Shi-kai, then head of the Beiyang Army (& about to be deposed upon Cixi’s death) was added.
This example is from the 2nd Cameron Highlanders with their cap badges and 10 embroidered flags of foreign nations represented in the Legation Quarter as well as the Qing. Peking N. (north) China is scrolled across the bottom. It is from 1908, the only year the Cameron Highlanders were in China. Hundreds, if not thousands, of these were sold to foreign troops in Peking from the late 19th century to the 1920s.
Spending time at the Biblioteca Sir Robert Ho Tung in St Augustine’s Square, Macao. Built 1894, purchased by Ho Tung 1918 as a home & bequeathed to Macao as a library in 1956. The frontage & much of the original interior are well preserved & a sizeable modern addition added at the rear cleverly doesn’t affect perspective…
A great limited time deal on the kindle of Her Lotus Year: China, the Roaring Twenties & the Making of Wallis Simpson at amazon.uk….
Domingo à tarde – Barra – Macao Literary Festival – 3pm
An exhibition of amazing photograohy from Mel Jacoby curated by his biographer Bill Lascher opening in the Hong Kong FCC Monday.
BTW: the book of Jacoby’s incredible 1930s and wartime photography in Asia is also still available from Blacksmith Books – A Danger Shared – a must have for anyone interested im the region period….
The exhibit opens on April 1 in the FCC’s main bar and lounge and will run through April 30. Bill will be at the club for its opening and for a lunchtime book talk the following day and an evening event for the Royal Geographical Society – Hong Kong.