Los Angeles Review of Books Luminary Dinner with Lisa See – November 8th

As you may know I occasionally review and blog for the Los Angeles Review of Books, an excellent institution well worthy of support. You can support the LARB by subscribing or buying their publication online or attending a luminary dinner. The next LARB Luminary Dinner happens to have a China feel to it as Lisa See (subject of several blog posts over the years) is the luminary being given dinner. If you’re in the LA area it should be a good dinner, a good cause, and a good luminary.

The next LARB Luminary Dinner will feature American writer and novelist Lisa See, author of On Gold Mountain: The One-Hundred-Year Odyssey of My Chinese-American Family and the New York Times bestselling novels Flower Net, The Interior, Snow Flower and the Secret Fan, Peony in Love, Shanghai Girls, and China Dolls. Both Shanghai Girls and Snow Flower and the Secret Fan received honorable mentions from the Asian/Pacific American Awards for Literature. Ms. See was honored as National Woman of the Year by the Organization of Chinese American Women in 2001 and was the recipient of the Chinese American Museum’s History Makers Award in Fall 2003

A Few Posts on Madrid #4 – Classical Chinese Studies on the Metro

Any slightly forgetful Sinologists or classical Chinese scholars on the Madrid metro system are in luck. This handy book vending machine spotted on the Getafe Central metro station contains Lao Tzu and several other Chinese classics handily….

A Few Posts on Madrid #3 – The Palacio Real

The Palacio Real is the home of the royal family in Spain, used for official occasions. The Palacio Real’s Gasparini Room, named after its Italian creator, was Charles III’s robing room. The lovely ceiling, encrusted with stuccoed fruit and flowers, is a superb example of 18th-century Chinoiserie.

A Few Posts on Madrid #2 – The Chinoiserie fountains of the Palace of Aranjuez

The Royal Palace of Aranjuez is the home of the King of Spain in Madrid, but it’s open to the public. Ir was mostly completed in the mid-18th century so Chinoiserie would have to appear somewhere. The gardens also feature a number of fountains and pavilions (first two images below) as well as what are called “kiosks”, officially “Kioscos chinescos” (bottom image), which look fairly unique to me.

A Few Posts on Madrid #1 – The Original Cafe Oriental

A recent trip involved a great deal of mooching around Madrid and, of course, yielded a few China/Chinoiserie-related posts. Today Madrid’s well known Cafe de Oriente is situated on the Plaza de Oriente near the Royal Theatre and opposite the Royal Palace. It is one of Europe’s noted literary cafes but is a late twentieth century construction with a neo-Baroque interior. It’s a nice place to stop for a drink. However, the original Cafe de Oriente (or Oriental Cafe) was some way away along the Calle Gran Via between the streets of Carmen and Atlantico in the basement of a hotel – a few photos of the exterior survive….I’m not sure any exist of the interior….

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The Oriental Club, New York, 1920s

Sadly the Oriental Club is a fiction, created for the 1960 film The Rise and Fall of Legs Diamond, a bio-pic of the life and times of the Irish-American gangster Jack “Legs” Diamond. As well as being a gangster and a thief Diamond was an accomplished dancer, as well as having several mistresses associated with the Ziegfeld Follies. In the movie version of his life (which is not entirely accurate) Diamond, played by Ray Danton, and his girlfriend Alice, played by Karen Steele, enter a dance competition in 1920s Manhattan at a place called the Oriental Club. Though, in reality, Diamond did participate in such events none of his biographies record the Oriental Club so I’m assuming it’s fictitious (though dancehalls called the Oriental did exist at the time, most notably in New Orleans). Anyway, here’s some stills of the place, that didn’t exist, but would have been fun to visit if it did….

The real Jack “Legs” Diamond

Jack’s real life dancing partner – Ziegfeld Follie girl Marion “Kiki” Roberts

Early views of Hong Kong Exhibition, From 28th October, Hong Kong

Jonathan Wattis has an exhibition of early views of Hong Kong for all to see at The Rotunda in Hong Kong’s Exchange Square running from the 28th of October. The exhibition runs till the 12th of November and includes original paintings and prints as well as some pictures from the Chater Collection of early Hong Kong photographs from 1860-1935.

A.R. Johnston’s Record Office believed to be the first Government House c.1845

by unknown Chinese artist

Andrew Field on Shanghai: Rise and Fall of a Dancing Metropolis – 28/10/14, Shanghai

Andrew Field, author of Shanghai’s Dancing World and the recent Mu Shiying: China’s Lost Modernist will be speaking on Shanghai’s old dancehall culture on the 28th October in Shanghai – details below (ignore the date – it’s apparently wrong, but the venue is right)