In my work various Beijing hutongs often come to prominence – the former home of Pamela Werner on Kuijiachang Hutong by Beijing Railway Station in Midnight in Peking, or Wallis Simpson’s old Beijing digs on Shijia Hutong by Jinbao Jie. And so now with rediscovering Last Empress Wanrong’s family courtyard for my new book.
I’ve long enjoyed the calm and relatively good preservation of Mao’er Hutong (Hat Maker Lane), which runs from Dianmen Outer Street in the west to the better known touristy Nanluoguxiang in the east. It dates back to the Ming and was home to high-ranking officials and the Manchu Yellow Banner during the Qing. And there is also the compound (#35-37) of the Gobulo clan of the Plain White Banner. It was home to Wanrong’s father, the Qing high official, Rongyuan when she was born in 1906 and so her primary family residence.
Though there is no official plaque or museum to Wanrong on Mao’er Hutong her presence is remembered, though the current ongoing (and generally welcome) preservation of Beijing’s surviving hutongs has perhaps reduced it. Some years ago I remember a lot of scratched tributes to Wanrong by her old courtyard entrance which, on a recent visit this year, seemed to have been painted over.
Anyway, here are a few photos of Mao’er Hutong showing its remaining calm nature, some fresh coats of paint and refurbishments, though behind closed doors. But who knows – Beijing’s current fetish for Hutong improvement and opening more museums may yet result in a Xuantong Empress Museum on Mao’er Hutong.
English artist Edward Roper Stapleton Sandys (1845-1909) best known for his work in New Zealand but who visited Hong Kong- ‘Shau-Ki-Wan’ (Shaukeiwan) and Victoria Peak, both c.1880s
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A Bank of China branch, Shenyang, I photographed in August 2004. Housed in a fantastic modernist building.
The former site of the Fengtian Automatic Telephone Exchange Building is located at No. 34 Taiyuan Street, Heping District, Shenyang City, and was built in 1928. Designed in 1927 by the Civil Engineering Department of the former Kwantung Government’s Internal Affairs Bureau, the three-story reinforced concrete structure was listed as an immovable cultural relic of Shenyang City in 2004 and upgraded to a protected cultural relic unit of Shenyang City in 2008, with a designated protection area and construction control zone.
The building’s facade is divided into three sections with dense vertical lines, blending Western retro architecture with traditional Chinese architectural features, while retaining some Western decorative patterns. It belongs to the Japanese modern architectural style.
In 2024, the building was converted into a hotel. The conversion process followed the relevant requirements for cultural relic protection. It’s not the Jianli Guji Hotel.
Thanks to everyone who came out to Hatchards on Piccadilly last night to hear myself and Frances Wood on The Last Emperor (and Empress) of China, and to Hatchards for organising tickets, books, wine. If you happen to be passing their lovely store they have signed copies too…
Another quick post from the Gwen John retrospective now on at M2 in Edinburgh. Japonisme influences in 1920s Paris – Gwen John, “The Japanese Doll”, c.1920, Oil on canvas. A still life set against the same backdrop of the artist’s Paris studio room.
In a letter to Rodin written around 1908, John described walking to ‘a certain shop on the Boulevard Montparnasse… where they have Japanese prints in the windows and dolls and all kinds of other Japanese things. When I go for a walk I always go there to look in the windows.’
Hey Hong Kong – my new book The Last Emperor of China: Twilight of the Forbidden City is now available in all branches of Bookazine. It’s their Book of the Week and there’s 10% off with their B+Rewards loyalty scheme….
A visit to Modern 2 in Edinburgh and the Gwen John exhibition, Strange Beauties(until 4/1/27).
John (1876-1939), the sister of Augustus John , studied at the Slade under Henry Tonks and then under Whistler in Paris. I wrote recently about Whistler’s appreciation of Chinese objets and Japanese art for the South China Morning Post reviewing the Whistler retrospective at London’s Tate (which ends incidentally on September 27). Click here to read.
John adopted Whistler’s appreciation of Japanese art and attempted to replicate it making her sketches, ‘definite and clean like Japanese drawings.’ Here, as an example given in the M2 exhibition, is “Self Portrait, Nude”, Sketching, graphite pencil on paper from c.1910
