An exhibition of amazing photograohy from Mel Jacoby curated by his biographer Bill Lascher opening in the Hong Kong FCC Monday.
BTW: the book of Jacoby’s incredible 1930s and wartime photography in Asia is also still available from Blacksmith Books – A Danger Shared – a must have for anyone interested im the region period….
The exhibit opens on April 1 in the FCC’s main bar and lounge and will run through April 30. Bill will be at the club for its opening and for a lunchtime book talk the following day and an evening event for the Royal Geographical Society – Hong Kong.
Koo Vi Kyuin, better known to everyone as Wellington Koo (and now often Gu Weijun in China). He had grown up in a well-to-do Shanghai cosmopolitan family and was educated at Shanghai’s St. John’s University and at Columbia in New York. In 1912, he had returned to work for President Yuan Shih-kai and then, at just twenty-seven, was appointed China’s ambassador to the United States. In China and abroad, Koo was best known for having been the Chinese diplomat who refused to sign the Treaty of Versailles at the 1919 Paris Peace Conference over objections to Japan’s Great War land grab in Shantung. He had since served as both China’s foreign minister and finance minister.
He was still only thirty-seven and married to the beautiful daughter of a Chinese-Javanese sugar baron, Oei Hui-lan. They were the most celebrated couple on the Peking circuit, and Wallis attended a dinner at their home at least once in the company of her then lover Alberto da Zara. How they got along is not recorded—at the time, Oei Hui-lan was apparently exasperated at the number of dinners she was having to arrange in their home.
Twenty years later, Madame Koo was in London, as her husband was the wartime Chinese ambassador to Britain. Wallis was now the Duchess of Windsor, and the infamous China Dossier had spread a great deal of gossip about her China time. Madame Koo made the comment that Wallis knew only four words of Chinese: “Boy, pass the champagne.” This is a somewhat catty story in a rather catty memoir, not to mention the phrase being actually unrenderable in the exact form Oei Hui-lan suggests.
This portrait is by Olive Snell, a South African born English artist – her portrait of Oei Hui-lan was painted in 1927, a few years after Wallis met her in Peking.
While Chiang Yee may not be a household name for Modern British History readers, this multidisciplinary collection expands both our knowledge of cultural encounters between China and the West, as well as the diasporic experiences of Chinese intellectuals in early twentieth-century England. It will also be of interest to historians of Chinese art and literature, of Second World War at home, as well as of race and ethnic minorities in modern Britain.
Dr Sha Zhou (Manchester Uni) – Modern British History Journal
An event on my new essay collection Destination Macao (Blacksmith Books) at the University of Macau this Friday evening….Ranging from the epic poet Luis de Camões in the 1550s to Ian Fleming in the 1950s….
The Royal Asiatic Society hosted a dinner in the ballroom of the old Grand Hotel de Pekin (now the Hotel Nuo) – where Wallis checked in when she first arrived in Peking just before Christmas 1924. It was an amazing evening – the brave went for 1920s costume, the British Ambassador came, and we all took a photo on the lobby staircase Wallis must have gone up and down a dozen times or more. You can imagine how mind blowing for me this all was!
What am I up to in Macao? Well, talking to some schools, the University of Macao and, next weekend, the wonderful Macao Literary Festival.
Wallis in China of course is in demand, but it also happens that the third in my “Destination…” series of collected essays and articles has just been published by Hong Kong’s Blacksmith Books. Following “Destination Shanghai” and “Destination Peking”, “Destination Macao” is 15 tales of pirates, traders, smugglers, sojourners, rebels, moviemakers, writers, poets and many more who lived, visited or somehow interacted with the Portuguese colony.
Ranging from the epic poet Luis de Camões in the 1550s to Ian Fleming in the 1950s by way of, among others, Camilo Pessanha, George Chinnery, Fernando Pessoa, Josef von Sternberg, Maurice Dekobra, WH Auden, the Macanese writer Deolinda da Conceição, the Russian emigre painter George Smirnoff and Stanley Ho.
All three “Destination…” collections are available now from Blacksmith Books, Bookazine branches in Hong Kong, Livraria Portuguesa in Macao and soon everywhere online and bookshops worldwide (ships are sailing!)….
Enid Tsui has been a journalist in arts since the late 2000s. Currently based in Hong Kong, she is the Arts Editor of the South China Morning Post, where she writes and commissions stories about the art market, events and cultural policies. She has an MA in art history. Her book Art in Hong Kong: Portrait of a City in Flux was published in January 2025 by Lund Humphries. As part of the “Hot Topics in the Art World” series, it provides historical context for Hong Kong’s contemporary art scene and a comprehensive look at the city’s evolving art scene and offers a nuanced perspective on Hong Kong’s future as a global art centre.
The talk will begin at 11am with Enid’s examination of how recent political changes, the COVID-19 pandemic, and a wave of talent loss have impacted Hong Kong’s artistic identity. The talk will be followed by a book-buying and signing opportunity.
Guests are encouraged to arrive on the 6th floor between 10:30am and 11am for the opportunity to preview Christie’s Art Month Opening Preview Sale as an exclusive perk of purchasing a ticket.
Date: 24 March (Monday) / Time: 10:30am-12noon / Venue: Christie’s Address: 6/F, The Henderson, 2 Murray Road, Central
Art in Hong Kongis a fascinating analysis of the history, current status and possible future of Hong Kong as an international art hub, written by a local journalist who has reported on the city’s cultural landscape for many years. Enid Tsui presents a balanced and insightful picture of recent changes in the city which was once the poster-child of artistic freedom in Asia as well as the undisputed leader of the region’s booming contemporary-art market. Some of Hong Kong’s traditional advantages now look precarious following new laws imposed by China curbing freedom of expression and the city’s long period of isolation during the Covid-19 pandemic. Yet despite the exodus of talent from Hong Kong and growing uncertainties over the ‘red lines’ of censorship, there are more world-class art institutions in the city than ever before and the market has proved resilient, with international auction houses and galleries continuing to expand their presence there.
This book lifts the lid on a diverse art scene in a city of fascinating contradictions: a former British colony where artists have long been inspired by the interplay between east and west, and where the new M+ museum and other venues have to tread a tightrope between celebrating a distinct and vibrant culture based on different influences and abiding by the new national security regime.
