Shanghai Scottish Company of the SVC Spoon

Not seen one of these before – a spoon adorned with the thistle crest of the Scottish Company of the Shanghai Volunteer Corps…..

Basil Pao’s The Last Emperor Revisited

The Last Emperor Revisited, from Hong Kong University Press with photographs by Basil Pao; Introductions by Jeremy Thomas, Vittorio Storaro and James Acheson. In July 1986, Basil Pao joined the multi-national cast and crew in Beijing for the filming of Bernardo Bertolucci’s The Last Emperor. His principal role in the production was to appear as the young emperor Pu Yi’s father Prince Chun. But he also served as a 3rd Assistant Director and Special Stills Photographer.

This book is a true behind-the scenes look at the making of the epic, now legendary film through the exquisite eye of a photographer who had unlimited access to everyone and everything everywhere. The images feature an international cast of characters contributing to the creation of the masterpiece, from the director, the filmmakers and actors, to the farmers, workers and students from in and around Beijing who had been recruited as extras because they had interesting, often striking faces. It contains over 250 photographs, including some of Pao’s most stunning and iconic images of the film, along with a treasure trove of ‘never-been-seen’ pictures captured during the filming in Beijing and in Italy.

In Pao’s own words: “It is the chronicle of a truly extraordinary experience that completely changed my life.”

Basil Pao is a photographer and graphic designer from Hong Kong who has worked extensively behind the scenes for various film and television productions, notably with the BBC and Michael Palin on numerous travel programs. His stills, travel essays and corporate works have been published widely around the world.

Destination Shanghai – RTHK3 Abridged Chapters – Penelope Fitzgerald Writes The Bookshop in Shanghai (1977)

Listen to an abridged version of the chapter – Bored in the Broadway Mansions: Penelope Fitzgerald (1977) from Destination Shanghai (Blacksmith Books)

A Good Review of Chiang Yee & His Circle from Qingquan Qiao in the Journal of Post Colonial Writing

A good review of Chiang Yee and his circle: Chinese artistic and intellectual life in Britain, 1930–1950 (Hong Komng University Press) in the Journal of Postcolonial Writing from Qingquan Qiao of Shanghai International Studies University…

…the collection aims to demonstrate the importance of Chinese intellectuals to British cultural history and to the reshaping of British conceptions about China…[its] particular strength lies in the contributors’ meticulous use of different types of historical materials to illustrate the Chinese intellectual community’s internal diversity and its many connections to a wider cultural context.”

Book #36 on The China Project Ultimate China Bookshelf – Peter Hessler’s River Town (2001)

This week’s book (#36) on The China Project Ultimate China Bookshelf is Peter Hessler’s River Town from 2001 – the book that launched a thousand blogs and book projects by Americans in early 2000s China, but has yet to be betterered arguably….click here

Destination Shanghai – RTHK3 Abridged Chapters – Lily Flohr – Weimar on the Huangpu (1941)

Listen to an abridged version of the chapter – Weimar on the Whangpoo: Lily Flohr (1941) from Destination Shanghai (Blacksmith Books)

Destination Shanghai – RTHK3 Abridged Chapters – Langston Hughes & Irene West in Shanghai (1933)

Listen to an abridged version of the chapter – Two Poets Meet in Frenchtown: Langston Hughes & Irene West (1933) from Destination Shanghai (Blacksmith Books)

Destination Shanghai – RTHK3 Abridged Chapters – Florence Broadhurst Teaches Shanghai to Dance

Listen to an abridged version of the chapter – Bobby Broadhurst Teaches Shanghai to Dance:
Florence Broadhurst (1926) from Destination Shanghai (Blacksmith Books)