Sorry to be so late posting this but a few days left to catch this exhibition…
Qipao (aka Cheongsam) is at once a fashionable symbol and a symbol of fashions in Chinese culture. Its popularity peaked in mid-20th century Hong Kong, where celebrities paraded everywhere in trendy outfits, exuding graceful beauty. An enduring and significant part of Chinese cultural legacy, the craft of cheongsam making had been inscribed onto the National List of Intangible Cultural Heritage of China. Up to this day, qipaos are frequently featured in our movies.
The ‘Cinderella and Her Qipao’ exhibition is a part of the 2023 Hong Kong Pop Culture Festival and a continuation of our 2017 programme ‘The Stars, the Silver Screen and the Qipao’. Garments from a glorious selection of films that span different eras of Hong Kong filmmaking will be displayed in the new exhibition, recreating the cultural landscapes of the past with qipaos worn on screen by iconic actresses such as Li Lihua, Hsia Moon, Maggie Cheung and Brigitte Lin.
Seminars will be presented as part of the programme and before each seminar will be a screening of the reference film Cinderella and Her Little Angels (1959) which serves as a perfect example of the successful crossover between fashion design and musical film. Actor Peter Chen Ho plays a tailor in the film and the many outfits made by his character—designed by Koo Yik-chun, the founder of Johnson Tailors—are delectable treats for the eyes. Koo’s renowned shop even appears in the film, offering the audience a glimpse of the fashion industry’s glorious glamour.
A new ChinaRhyming Substack for May Day – When Blaxploitation went to Hong Kong and Macao, BBC Radio 4’s The Invention of China, some handy advice to would-be China book writers, those Wild Swans, some unique photos of wartime Chongqing… Click here…
My bimonthly column for Macau Closer (that appears in English, Portuguese and Chinese handily) this March-April looks back at when Hollywood’s Blaxploitation genre took a side trip to Hong Kong and Macao (in league with the Shaw Brothers) in Cleopatra Jones and the Casino of Gold (1975) with Tamara Dobson and Ni Tien teaming up to take on bad-ass Macao casino boss played by Stella Stevens. If you’re in Macao then you can pick up a copy at the marvellous Livraria Portuguesa at 16 rua de São Domingos. Otherwise you can zoom in on this jpg hopefully.
I’ve blogged before on the famous Cathay Restaurant, also known as just The Chinese Restaurant that used to be on Glasshouse Street and was once famous courtesy of the lights in Piccadilly Circus. It was one of London’s oldest and longest running Chinese restaurants (well into the 1970s at least) – use the search box on the home page and just put “Glasshouse” in. Sadly the original building was demolished a few years ago.
Many thanks to ChinaRhyming reader Allan Carter, whose parents knew the establishment’s owners, who sent me an original card from the restaurant….. here the restaurant claims to be the oldest (very debatable) and has the logo – “Where West Eats East” and midnight opening hours!
I posted some time ago about Choys, one of post-war London’s best known and much loved Chinese restaurants on Frith Street, Soho. You can see that post here. My thanks then to ChinaRhyming reader Jonathan Sanders for sending me a menu from the 1950s that his mother kept after visiting the restaurant as a young woman. Quite extensive and well worth reading through. I would note that no alcoholic drinks are included. Most Chinese restaurants were not licensed (I suppose due to the ever-arcane UK licensing laws), however arrangements were made with pubs in the area – the old Shanghai Restaurant on Greek Street, round the corner, had a deal with the old Pillars of Hercules pub (recently sadly gutted and turned into some non-entity of a bar) next door to deliver in beer and wine.
By the way – for Londoners – 45 Frith Street is now the Zima Russian Restaurant.
Stella Benson (1892-1933), feminist, novelist, poet, travel writer and China sojourner who went to China with her husband James (Shaemas) O’Gorman Anderson who worked with the Imperial Chinese Maritime Customs. They lived in Nanning, Beihai and Hong Kong. She talks about her China experiences in her books Worlds Within Worlds, and her most famous novel The Far-Away Bride. She was obviously connected back in England despite living in rather remote places for much of her married life – as witnessed by her portrait by Wyndham Lewis below. She died in Tonkin.
Benson with pupils – Hong Kong 1920
Benson in China c.1930 seeking serenity
Stella Benson by Wyndham Lewis, 1932
Benson and her dog Penko – Pakhoi 1933 – shortly before her death
The following short poem by Empson (1906-1984) is from his 1940 collection, The Gathering Storm (London: Faber & Faber). The poems in the collection were written between Empson’s time in Japan around 1933 and then in China, around 1939. Empson had been given a three-year contract to teach at Peking University but, upon arrival discovered that, due to the Japanese invasion of China, he no longer had a post. He joined the exodus of the university’s staff to Kunking and the hastily organised Lianda (Southwest Associated University). At some point Empson passed through Manchouli (Manzhouli) on the Russo-Inner Mongolian border….
Manchouli
I find it normal, passing these great frontiers,
That you scan the crowds in rags eagerly each side
With awe; that the nations seem real; that their ambitions
Having such achieved variety within one type, seem sane;
