OK – so this is now out there in the world as happening next year – my new book explores Wallis Simpson’s time in China published in the UK by Elliot & Thompson & the US with St Martins Press
Her Lotus Year: China, the Roaring Twenties and the Making of Wallis Simpson – he ‘explores the untold, colourful origin story of a woman too often maligned by history’
The latest in my occasional series of old Shanghai signage (use the search box if you want to see other examples). Nice to know, should you have found yourself stumbling around on a Shanghai ferry pier that the Shanghai Municipal Council (SMC) provided lifebuoys should you fall in the Whangpoo…
My new column for November’s issue of Paragrafo (#85), the literary and arts monthly supplement to Macao’s Ponto Finalnewspaper. It’s on the 1951 B-movie Smuggler’s Island and what it tells us about post-war Macao…. I’ll have an English version at some point so fear not non-Portuguese readers….
I saw an early draft of Scott Seligman’s Murder in Manchruia but happy now, courtesy of Potomac Books to receive the final published book…
In Murder in Manchuria, Scott D. Seligman explores an unsolved murder set amid the chaos that reigned in China in the run-up to World War II. The story unfolds against the backdrop of a three-country struggle for control of Manchuria—an area some called China’s “Wild East”—and an explosive mixture of nationalities, religions, and ideologies. Semyon Kaspé, a young Jewish musician, is kidnapped, tortured, and ultimately murdered by disaffected, antisemitic White Russians, secretly acting on the orders of Japanese military overlords who covet his father’s wealth. When local authorities deliberately slow-walk the search for the kidnappers, a young French diplomat takes over and launches his own investigation.
Part cold-case thriller and part social history, the true, tragic saga of Kaspé is told in the context of the larger, improbable story of the lives of the twenty thousand Jews who called Harbin home at the beginning of the twentieth century. Scott D. Seligman recounts the events that led to their arrival and their hasty exodus—and solves a crime that has puzzled historians for decades.
How might cinema make revolution and mobilize the masses? In socialist China, the film exhibition network expanded from fewer than six hundred movie theaters to more than a hundred thousand mobile film projectionist teams. Holding screenings in improvised open-air spaces in rural areas lacking electricity, these roving projectionists brought not only films but also power generators, loudspeakers, slideshows, posters, live performances, and mass ritual participation, amplifying the era’s utopian dreams and violent upheavals.
Cinematic Guerrillas is a media history of Chinese film exhibition and reception that offers fresh insights into the powers and limits of propaganda. Drawing on a wealth of archives, memoirs, interviews, and ethnographic fieldwork, Jie Li examines the media networks and environments, discourses and practices, experiences and memories of film projectionists and their grassroots audiences from the 1940s to the 1980s. She considers the ideology and practice of “cinematic guerrillas”—at once denoting onscreen militants, off-the-grid movie teams, and unruly moviegoers—bridging Maoist iconography, the experiences of projectionists, and popular participation and resistance. Li reconceptualizes socialist media practices as “revolutionary spirit mediumship” that aimed to turn audiences into congregations, contribute to the Mao cult, convert skeptics of revolutionary miracles, and exorcize class enemies.
Cinematic Guerrillas considers cinema’s meanings for revolution and nation building; successive generations of projectionists; workers, peasants, and soldiers; women and ethnic minorities; and national leaders, local cadres, and cultural censors. By reading diverse, vivid, and often surprising accounts of moviegoing, Li excavates Chinese media theories that provide a critical new perspective on world cinema.
Join RASBJ’s jazzy party to celebrate our 10th Anniversary and raise funds for good causes. We’ll donate at least RMB 100 from each ticket to programmes benefiting cultural heritage, the natural world, and arts and society. To learn more about RASBJ go to https://rasbj.glueup.cn/org/rasbeijing/
WHEN: Saturday, November 11, 2023. Doors open at 6:00 PM
北京市朝阳区新源里西20号 金尚源 (Jinshangyuan is next to Raffles Hospital. For Didi, enter Xinyuan Lixi Building No. 20)
PROGRAM HIGHLIGHTS:
Salsa dance class with Julio
(6:30 – 7:30 PM)
Beginners are especially welcome!
Free flow of wine, beer and soft drinks
Wine supplied by
Cheers
Buffet dinner catered by
Turkish Feast
Three Hours of Live Music by Ah-Q Jazz Arkestra
Launch of RASBJ’s good causes programme
with presentations to recipients
Silent auction to support good causes
Stays at vineyards and unique hotels; art and antique maps, fine wine,
exclusive experiences and excursions!
Dancing
DRESS CODE: Festive chic, razzle-dazzle!
HOW MUCH:
RMB 500 for members of RASBJ and partner RAS branches
RMB 700 for non-members. Are you interested in becoming an RASBJ member? Please sign up at https://RASBJ.org/membership/
At least RMB 100 from each ticket will be donated to good causes.
To acknowledge that 11/11 is Singles Day, RASBJ is pleased to offer 11 special “Plus One” tickets for non-member guests of RASBJ members at the member price of RMB 500. Only 11 “Plus One” tickets are available, and purchase is limited to one “Plus One” ticket per RASBJ member. Only a few are left — first come, first served!
HOW TO JOIN THE EVENT: Please click “Register” or “I Will Attend” and follow the instructions. Payment by Alipay may be easier than by WeChat. After successful registration you will receive a confirmation email. If you seem not to have received it, please check your spam folder. Please register no later than the deadline of noon, Thursday November 9.
DIETARY REQUIREMENTS: The buffet covers most dietary preferences, but if you have a strict dietary requirement, please email communications@rasbj.org before noon on November 9, and we will try our best to accommodate you.
REFUND POLICY: Attendees will be refunded in full if RASBJ cancels the event. Registrations for those who have not paid by noon, Thursday November 9 will be cancelled. If you registered/paid but discover you cannot attend, please let us know by emailing communications@rasbj.org before noon on November 9. RASBJ will offer your spot to others; you’ll be refunded if someone takes it.
You’ve probably read famous Shanghailander writer Emily Hahn’s novel “Miss Jill” — now hear author Nick Hordern discuss with Paul French the real-life character upon whom Miss Jill was based. Lorraine Murphy’s life unfolded during the turbulence of 1930’s Shanghai, and later in well-heeled London society. There’s even a Royal Asiatic Society connection.
WHEN: Nov. 1, 2023 Wednesday 7:00-8:00 PM Beijing Time
MORE ABOUT THE EVENT: Author Nick Hordern’s conversation with Paul French will focus on the extraordinary hidden life of Australian Lorraine Murray (1910-2000), the model for the titular character in Emily Hahn’s 1947 novel “Miss Jill”. In 1931 Lorraine travelled to Canada, where she became the mistress of the Japanese diplomat Tokugawa Iemasa. When their relationship ended, she was passing through Shanghai on her way home to Australia when she stayed over, subsequently drifting into the sex industry. In 1936, supported by businessman Edmund Toeg, she quit the brothel where she had been working, but struggled to find a new path, until the American journalist and author Emily Hahn took her under her wing. This was the beginning of a lifelong friendship between the two, during which Emily guided Lorraine away from a life of banality.
As an eyewitness to the 1937 Battle of Shanghai, Lorraine’s horizons began to open out and a series of relationships with journalists – Italian, Japanese and above all with Emily – introduced her to a broader world. Lorraine spent WWII in Australia, including a stint as an informant for a counter-intelligence agency. After the war she joined Emily in England and reconnected with Edmund Toeg; the two married and settled in London, where she re-invented herself as a Knightsbridge society matron. At one point she worked in the library of the Royal Asiatic Society in London.
MORE ABOUT THE SPEAKER: Nick Hordern studied history at the University of Sydney before joining the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs. Postings in Pakistan and Sri Lanka were followed by a stint as a political staffer in Canberra. He then moved across to journalism, working for the Australian Financial Review for sixteen years in various positions, including as Senior Writer. In 2013 he left the newspaper to write full-time; his previous books include two histories: “Sydney Noir: The Golden Years” and “World War Noir: Sydney’s Unpatriotic War”
HOW MUCH: This online event is free for members of RASBJ and of RAS branches in London, Shanghai, Hong Kong and Seoul, as a courtesy; RMB 100 for non-members. Interested in becoming an RASBJ member? Please sign up at http://rasbj.org/membership/
HOW TO JOIN THE EVENT: Please click “Register” or “I will attend” and follow the instructions. After successful registration you’ll receive a confirmation email with a link to join the event. If you seem not to have received it, please check your spam folder.
Members of RAS in London, Shanghai, Hong Kong and Seoul: Please register at least 72 hours in advance to allow time for membership verification. You’ll receive several emails from RASBJ; please check your spam folder to ensure you see all RASBJ emails.
REFUND POLICY: Attendees will be refunded in full if RASBJ cancels the event. Registrations for those who have not paid by noon, October 30 will be cancelled. If you registered/paid but discover you cannot attend, please let us know before noon October 30 by emailing communications@rasbj.org RASBJ will offer your spot to others, and you’ll be refunded if someone takes it.
