Telling Better China Stories – China Media Project

An interesting article on the state of Chinese publishing overseas from the China Media Project, with a few quotes from, among others, me….click here….

Jonathan Chatwin’s The Southern Tour – Published May 16

The next book in my Bloomsbury Asian Arguments series is Jon Chatwin’s The Southern Tour – preorder here

Madmen in Shanghai – A Social History of Advertising in Modern China (1914–1956)

Cecile Armand’s Madmen in Shanghai: A Social History of Advertising in Modern China (1914–1956) (De Gruyter)…

Madmen in Shanghai: A Social History of Advertising in Modern China (1914–1956) provides a novel perspective on the emergence of Chinese consumer society through an extensive historical investigation of the advertising industry in pre-Communist China. Utilizing a diverse array of previously unexplored primary sources, including professional literature, newspapers, photographs, and municipal archives, it charts the development and growing influence of the advertising profession, fostered by professional organizations, agencies, and prominent practitioners. It underscores the crucial role of this hybrid and transnational profession in introducing an expanding array of consumer products and in shaping the enduring narrative of the “four hundred million customers.” This book will be of interest to scholars specializing in modern Chinese history, urban and consumer studies, media and mass communication, and also for professionals engaged in the fields of advertising and marketing.

Cécile Armand, Aix-Marseille University, France.

A PAIR OF DECORATIVE CHINESE SILVER TAZZAS Presented to Lieut. B.H Ryves 14th Sikhs

Here a pair of Chinese silver tazzas (saucer like cups/dishes) presented to Lieut. B.H Ryves of the 14th Sikhs By His Brother Officers, December 1900. Each tazza having eight repoussé decorative panels, depicting various birds, figures, animal scenes amongst foliage raised by a stylised stem, modelled after dragon with carp body/chiwen.

The 14th King George’s Own Ferozepore Sikhs were formed in 1846. The regiment was part of the international force – the 8-Power Alled Army – sent to China to supress the Boxer Rebellion, end the siege of the Legations, and subsequently looted Peking. They remained in China for two years.

A Great Story of the WW2 Great Game in China in a Photo

Here’s a photograph of an anonymous (at least to me) British SIS officer in Yatung, Tibet, in 1939. The photograph was taken by German photographer/explorer Ernst Shafer. Shafer (below with pipe) was himself an SS Officer in German intelligence under the patronage of Himmler. Great story to be dug out here some day when I get some time…

BBC Radio 4’s The Invention of China Episode 3 – the new Republic

Heads up: tomorrow (Monday) – ep3 of BBCRadio4 at 11am GMT & then BBCSounds The Invention of China with Misha Glenny on the end of the Qing & the Chinese Republic (& me on why BJ is an odd spot for a capital city)…

The Lion Book Shop & Circulating Library, Moulmein Road, Shanghai

I recently found time to closely read Rachel Meller’s family memoir of the Shanghai Jewish refugees, The Box with a Sunflower Clasp. Every new book on the Jewish ghetto gives you a few more slithers of information you didn’t know before. For me, particularly, in Meller’s book it was the Lion Book Shop.

The Lion Book Shop was a second hand bookshop and circulating library (allowing everyone to borrow books at a very low cost, partly because the owner bought in cheaply pirated copies of many books to keep costs down) run by a German Jewish refugee, Bruno Loewenberg. I think it opened in 1938. The shop and library was in a multi-tenancy house at 328 Moulmein Road (Maoming Road North) in the International Settlement/corner of Bubbling Well Road.

In 1943 Loewenberg had to close the Moulmein location and moved to several new locations in the heart of the ghetto – 605 Tongshan Road (Tangshan Road) and 52 Chusan Road (Zhoushan Road). Loewenberg survived the war and made it to America – his whole incredible story is one of the major narratives in The Box with a Sunflower Clasp.

Books by Alfred Koehn of Peking

Embroidery Wishes, a collection of 47 tipped in woodcuts or wood engravings self published by Alfred Koehn a German diplomat and botany enthusiast in Peking in WW2. He had previouisly been posted to Tokyo. In Peking, he established a hutong residence and his own publishing house, “The Lotus Court”. He wrote and printed a number of books on the two countries. he also published The Year of the Pig in 1947 – a guide to the complex beliefs enshrined in the traditional Chinese calendar, listing auspicious and inauspicious activities for each day of the year, as well as important weather forecasts. Also included is a catalogue of “commonly accepted superstitions”: the twitching of the right eye in the late evening foreshadows a new business opportunity, while the chatter of a magpie in the early morning brings wealth, happiness, and plenty to eat and drink.