Princess Puffer on-screen

Just a quick follow up to my post recently on the BBC’s new adaptation of The Mystery of Edwin Drood (if that’s what it was seeing as they supplied an ending to Dicken’s unfinished last novel – so part adaptation, part original – and none the worse for that). I noted in that post (here) that word had reached me from the UK TV watching masses that the opening East End opium den scene was included. Finally, thanks to the magic of iTunes (no, I didn’t do those pirates at Youku or the DVD pirate palace up the road here in Shanghai), I got to see the programme and there is a pretty grubby den – nice. Even better Princess Puffer, the den’s madam and based on a Limehouse opium den madam called Opium Sal that Dickens had met, features quite a lot. And very good she is too – nicely spaced out and shabbily rotten. Princess Puffer’s played by Ellie Haddington, an actress who pops up on TV all the time (most recently in the excellent, and for my money modern Gothic, Luther on the BBC). Rather annoyingly, I can’t find a picture of her from Edwin Drood as Princess Puffer, so you’ll have to make do with an old cover of Drood I came across.

Midnight in Peking – How to Write and Pitch a China Best Seller – Shanghai FCC 8/2/12

The Shanghai Foreign Correspondence Club Presents

“How to Write and Pitch a Best Seller”

Paul French

Glo Restaurant

Wednesday, Feb. 8, 12:00 – 2pm.

Doors open at 12:00. Event starts at 12:30.

Venue Details: Glo Restaurant,

1 Wulumuqi Road, across from the U.S. Consulate

Admission: Set menu for members 80RMB; non-members 130 RMB

RSVP: fcc.sfcc@gmail.com

About the Speaker:

Paul French, author of the best-selling “Midnight in Peking,” explains how the book’s success didn’t follow the usual publishing industry routes. Paul will talk about Midnight came to be, the rise of English-language publishing in China, and greater on-the-ground interest from major Western publishers in writing from China. He will also offer tips for authors working on the ground here about how the traditional route to market via New York or London is no longer so crucial.

North Korea – February Film Screenings in Shanghai

Simon Cockerell, General Manager of Koryo Tours will be presenting two evenings of North Korean cinematic delight in Shanghai in February: first at The Apartment on Sunday February 12th, and then at The Public on Wednesday February 16th which also happens to be the 70th anniversary of the birth of Kim Jong Il, so a very auspicious date to see a DPRK-related film!

North Korea has been all over the news of late so if you’ve been wondering what all the fuss is about then why not go along and experience a snippet of this fascinating country through three very different, and very interesting films as well as some short clips of North Korean TV propaganda commonly seen in the country but very rarely in the outside world.

Simon will be on hand to present the films and answer any questions about them and about the experience of visiting North Korea, and he hopes to see you there!

Place: The Apartment – 3/F, 47 Yongfu Lu, near Fuxing Xi Lu永福路47号3楼, 近复兴西路

Tel: (021) 6437 9478

Date: Sunday 12th February

Time: Please arrive by 18:00, seating is limited and the first film will start at 18:15

Cost: No cover charge (Free!), and there will be happy hour pricing on drinks (2 for 1) and burgers

Here are the films that will be shown:

A State of Mind (2004) Second documentary produced by Koryo Tours following the lives of two North Korean schoolgirls and their families over the course of a year as they struggle to prepare themselves for the Mass Games – Pyongyang’s massive Socialist realistpropaganda spectacular, an event which can be seen nowhere else in the world. This is the first film ever to feature footage shot inside local North Korean apartments and gives an unprecedented look at the hopes, dreams, thoughts, and life experiences of ordinary Pyongyangers, as timely as ever!

Starting time: 18:15 – running time 93 mins

Gulangyu Charming?

OK, so it’s been over 6 years I just realised since I last got time to visit Gulangyu Island in Xiamen (Amoy). Then I saw this article on Gulangyu on CNNGo Shanghai, the island that was home to the majority of the foreign population when Amoy was a treaty port. The article (and CNNGo does not run anything but gushing articles for some reason) claims it’s still charming though when I was last on the island, though still blessedly car free, the treaty port era western houses were mostly in a very bad state of repair and basically crumbling away. Since then I’ve heard differing reports about restoration or destruction so any serious information welcome. This article suffers a couple of problems in that the author appears to be a first time visitor so therefore has no idea whether Gulangyu is more or less charming, more or less preserved and protected than it was a decade ago and, sadly, the pictures accompanying the story give no indication as to the state of repair of the island’s housing stock. The fact that the article claims the government is to charge an entry fee worries me – we all saw the ‘tartification’ that happened to Shanghai’s water towns and countless other locations once that happens. Any recent and informed information and opinion on Gulangyu much appreciated.

Shanghai: Art deco capital of the East

I know I am very late with my annual Shanghai Architecture: What We Lost list for 2011 but it is coming along and I’ll get it up in the next couple of weeks – though the destruction last year was slightly less than previous years due to construction slow down and the architecture catastrophe that was the EXPO moving on, there were, and are, still significant casualties. Anyway, before that then here’s a piece celebrating the best architecture in the city from art-deco fan Spencer Doddington on CNNGo Shanghai – click here. Usefully Spencer explains why Shanghai’s art-deco tradition is different from either New York or Miami, the two art-deco American cities most often spoken of in comparison to Shanghai. A picture of South Beach’s marvellous Colony Hotel below – there’s some great Shanghai photos accompanying the CNNGO article

Alexander Graham – A Most Interesting Governor

January 2012  244 pp.  36 b/w illus.

Paperback ISBN 978-988-8083-85-5  HK$180 / US$25.00

“A lively, witty, candid and invaluable guide to understanding the mentality of colonial administration at its highest levels. Like all long-serving colonial governors Grantham was treated almost as a demi-god in the Crown Colony of Hong Kong, and it was only when he had his toes trodden on in a crowded railway carriage while on leave in England that he was powerfully reminded of how ordinary he really was.” — Steve Tsang, author of A Modern History of Hong Kong

- By Alexander Grantham (葛量洪), one of the most important Hong Kong colonial governors whose decade was a very eventful one — postwar reconstruction, 1949 revolution, huge increase in population and industrialization.

– An important first-hand account of the workings of Britain’s colonial system; also contains vivid anecdotes about life behind the scenes in Government House.

- A very readable, personal informal memoir — quite humorous in places.

Sir Alexander Grantham began his career in the British colonial service as a cadet in Hong Kong in 1922. He served in Bermuda, Jamaica and Nigeria, and as Governor of Fiji before returning to Hong Kong as Governor in 1947 until his retirement in 1957.

Advance Warning – Adelaide Writers’ Week This March

I’ll be at Adelaide Writers’ Week this March along with tons of other folk – it’s a stunningly good list, part of the wider Adelaide Festival and I’m glad I get to be there for all of it. Here’s some links, I’ll highlight my stuff closer to the date –

Adelaide Writers’ Week

My major session – rather grandly titled as The China Hand: Paul French (but don’t worry I’ll be talking about books and other people not me and Nick Jose is moderating to stop me doing precisely that!)

Shanghai Policeman Back on the Shelves

EW Peters’s classic account of being a Shanghai copper, Shanghai Policeman, in the 1930s is now reprinted thanks to Earnshaw Books. Shanghai Policeman is a problematic book – Peters is a highly complicated and conflicted character who’s actions and motives are often strange and not always fully explained satisfactorily in the book. Still, it is an interesting mix of kidnappers, robbers, the Shanghai riot squad, beggar boats and English blokes get themselves into some messes in Shanghai (usually female related as ever). The book also sheds a lot of light on Shanghai’s old Eastern District, what is now Yangpu, an area that remains terra incognito to 99.9% of foreigners who ever come to China these days but used to be well known to the older Shanghailanders. There’s a new introduction by Robert Bickers too, so well worth picking up.