RAS Shanghai – Peter Hibbard Musing on Shanghai and, eeerrr, Yorkshire – 21/7/15

Posted: July 19th, 2015 | 2 Comments »

RAS LECTURE  

Tuesday 21 July  2015

7:00 PM for 7:15 PM start

Radisson Blu Plaza Xingguo Hotel, Tavern Bar

78 XingGuo Road, Shanghai

Peter Hibbard on

Musings on Shanghai and Yorkshire

Peter Hibbard made the monumental move from the centre of Shanghai to Holmbridge, a small village in West Yorkshire, in July 2013. Two years on he is back – to take all those pictures he never thought worth taking and to gather material for a new edition of his book The Bund: China Faces West – but most importantly to visit family and friends. Please do join him this evening for a long overdue get together and a richly illustrated talk on some connections between his old and new homes.

Yorkshire, a proud and beautiful place, is known to many as “God’s own country.”* It certainly produced some ecclesiastical giants. Foremost among them was James Hudson Taylor who founded the China Inland Mission in 1865. Their headquarters were in Shanghai before liberation. Yorkshire’s magnificent countryside and fine architecture, including its numerous churches, was the topic of an illustrated talk given by the much-admired Rev. C. E. Darwent to the Shanghai public in January 1913. Darwent took up his post as Minister at the Union Church in Shanghai in 1899 following many years in Yorkshire. He was an active RAS member, founder of the Shanghai Photographic Society and author of a renowned guidebook to the city.

Tonight Peter will reveal how Barnsley is promoting Hudson Taylor’s heritage to attract Chinese tourists, retrace Darwent’s colourful Yorkshire journey and look at some historical commercial links between Bradford and Shanghai. He will also contest Noel Coward’s claim that Shanghai was ‘a cross between Brussels and Huddersfield’.

* = just for the record the operator of this blog does not in any way endorse the ridiculous idea that Yorkshire (or anywhere within 100 miles of it, is “God’s own country” or believe that anyone in their sane mind would contest anything Noel Coward ever said or has any idea what the Shanghainese is for “ecky thump”.

Peter Hibbard MBE, an urban planner and sociologist, turned his attentions to the development of the Chinese tourism industry in 1983. He was a Visiting Scholar at Hong Kong University’s Centre of Asian Studies in 1985/86 and lectured in tourism studies at the Beijing Institute of Tourism thereafter, before moving to Shanghai in 1991. He has devoted much of his life to researching the historical development of Shanghai and of tourism in China. Peter is very much concerned with promoting links with the past and with fostering awareness, understanding and appreciation of Shanghai’s unique historical inheritance. He was President of the re-convened Royal Asiatic Society China in Shanghai from to 2007 to 2011 and is the author of “The Bund Shanghai: China Faces West”, “Beyond Hospitality: The History of the Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels, Ltd.” among other works.

Talk Cost: RMB 70.00 (RAS members) and RMB 100.00 (non-members). Includes glass of wine or soft drink. Those unable to make the donation but wishing to attend may contact us for exemption.

 

Membership applications and membership renewals will be available at this event.  Those unable to make the donation but wishing to attend may contact us for exemption.

RAS Monographs: Series 1 & 2 will be available for sale at this event. RMB 100 each (cash sale only).

 

To RSVP:  Please “Reply” to this email or write to

 RAS Bookings at: bookings@royalasiaticsociety.org.cn

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