Me and Frances Wood Talk Wallis Simpson in China – Video

Talking with Frances Wood about Wallis for the Royal Asiatic Society Beijing…click here to see on Youtube…

It Happened in Hunan, 1953

Arthur Vale Casselman’s 1953 It Happened in Hunan was published by the Board of International Missions, Evangelical and Reformed Church (Philadelphia). I think it’s about the 1920 famine raged throughout Hunan and killed an estimated two million Hunanese. Riots occurred and several missionaries were murdered. Casselman’s life revolved round the Huping Christian College Campus of the missionary-founded Lakeside College, near Yochow (now Yueyang). But I don’t know much about this so if anyone knows the book, or Casselman, better let me know?

Hong Kong Heritage on Wallis Simpson’s Amazing Year in China

Me on RTHK3’s Hong Kong Heritage with host Annemarie Evans on Wallis Simpson’s infamous year in China….click here to listen

A Very Funny Errata – Author or Printers Mistake?

From Bamber Gascoigne’s (yes, Brits of a certain age will know him from University Challenge – “your starter for ten…”) The Treasures and Dynasties of China (Jonathan Cape, 1973) – so he wasn’t as infallible as he appeared on TV back then!

Running up the Red Flag in Peking, 1924

After leaving it occupied only by the last Tsarist ambassador Prince Nikolai Kudashev for years the new Soviet Union occupied their Peking Legation (the compound opposite the US Legation) in 1923, sent veteran Bolshevik Lev Karakhan as ambassador, & ran up the red flag….

Her Lotus Year Wallis and the Palace Hotel – #2

Following on from my post about Wallis staying at the Palace Hotel on the Shanghai Bund in autumn 1924 the phenomenal Old Shanghai picture researcher (& newly minted Old Shanghai Phd) Katya Knyazeva sent me this gem from 1924 reminding me that the trams ran right outside along the Bund and that, already, it seems the plot to the north of the Palace, across Nanjing Rd, was cleared and would eventually be Victor Sassoon’s Cathay Hotel in 1929….

Her Lotus Year: China, the Roaring Twenties and the Making of Wallis Simpson is available everywhere in hardback, e-book and audiobook now….

Her Lotus Year: Wallis and the Palace Hotel – #1

In 1924 Wallis Simpson arrived in Shanghai and stayed at the Palace Hotel on the Bund (the city’s best at the time). Many biographies have her erroneously at the Astor House, across Suzhou Creek, & indeed she did dine there several times. But the Palace was home, for a few weeks anyway. Both run by Shanghai Hotels Ltd….

Her Lotus Year: China, the Roaring Twenties and the Making of Wallis Simpson is available everywhere in hardback, e-book and audiobook now….

Ling Shu-hua – A Chinese Painter’s Choice, Arts Council, 1967

Came across this catalogue for Ling Shu-hua’s exhibition of her collection of Qing era paintings in 1967 – it was held at the Arts Council Gallery at #4 St James’s Square (which is now The In & Out Naval and Military Club). Incidentally, some of the works were gifted to her, as she mentions in the introduction to the exhibition below, at ‘her father’s house’ in 1923 (that house being on Shih-Chia/Shijia Hutong – now the hutong museum and just along from where Wallis Simpson would stay at #4 in 1925 – small worlds.

Anyway, attached as it may be interesting – the catalogue cover etc, along with Ling Shu-hua’s introduction to her collection and a short commentary by Quentin Bell (showing the Bloomsbury connections remained strong!)…