Hong Kong International Literary Festival 2023 – Paul French in conversation with Uther Charlton-Stevens regarding Anglo-Indians and Eurasians Literature and Film – 11/3, The Fringe Club

Posted: February 27th, 2023 | No Comments »

Author, historian and Fellow of the Royal Asiatic Society, Uther Charlton-Stevens, will talk with writer Paul French about his book Anglo-India and the End of Empire. Learn about the lives of luminaries from mixed communities of European and Asian descent that existed throughout Asia as a result of western colonial trading systems.

Anglo-Chinese Eurasians such as businessman Sir Robert Hotung in Hong Kong, identified himself as Chinese despite his generous support of fellow Eurasians. In contrast, India’s Eurasians, known as Anglo-Indians, almost always saw themselves as more British than Indian. Yet famous examples Merle Oberon and Boris Karloff hid their Anglo-Indian roots, enabling them to rise to fame. Hear their stories for the first time in this riveting session.

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Uther Charlton-Stevens is an author, historian and Fellow of the Royal Asiatic Society. His latest book, Anglo-India and the End of Empire, was released by Hurst Publishers in London and Oxford University Press in New York towards the end of 2022. Rights to the South Asia edition have been sold to HarperCollins India. Charlton-Stevens grew up in Hong Kong before returning to the UK to study at the University of Oxford and the London School of Economics. His writing draws inspiration from the stories told to him in childhood by his Anglo-Indian grandmother, including of her time as an officer in the Women’s Auxiliary Corps in India during the Second World War.

Historian Paul French was born in London and lived and worked in Shanghai for many years. He has contributed to many publications around the world, including the China Economic Quarterly and The Guardian and has written various books about China. His novel Midnight in Peking was a New York Times bestseller, and this and his most recent book, City of Devils: A Shanghai Noir are currently being developed as movies. He is a regular contributor of long-reads to the South China Morning Post weekend magazine and broadcasts often on RTHK3. He is currently working on a biography of the year that Wallis Warfield Spencer, later the Duchess of Windsor, spent in China (1924/1925) for publication in 2024.

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