Events
Apart from our regular lectures, that are generally held on the second Tuesday of each month at 7.00 p.m. the Society also hosts more impromptu meetings and talks throughout the year as part of its RAS Studio series. The RAS Studio offers a platform for members, visitors and the wider Shanghai community to make a contribution to Shanghai's cultural life. The Society also arranges walking tours (RAS Rambles), tours and visits in Shanghai and beyond.
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PAST EVENTS (2007 - June 2009)
LECTURES:
Karen Kingsbury - RAS Lecture - On Eileen Chang - May 28, 2009- Venue - ‘Factory’ Building
Jim Hargett: How and Why Did Mount Emei Become a Famous Buddhist Mountain? - January 6, 2009
Ambassador Christopher Bo Bramsen: Vilhelm Meyer - China's Great Dane - November 3, 2008
Chris Buckley: A Collector's Life - September 9, 2008
Pixie Gray: In Search of One's Identity - August 29, 2008
Vincent Asselin: Designing New Parks for Shanghai - June 10, 2008
Professor Nicholas Tapp: Ethnic Minorities in China - May 6, 2008
Professor Zu'en Chen: Japanese Society in Concession-Era Shanghai 1870-1945 - April 22, 2008
James Miller: Nature and Daoism - January 8, 2008
Zhang Jianguo: Weihaiwei under British Rule - November 30, 2007
Peter Hibbard: Beyond the Bund - October 17, 2007
Jane Portal, Beth McKillop: China in England: The Latest Museum Story - June 24, 2007
Paolo Sabbatini: Matteo Ricci's Memory Palace - May 23, 2007
RAS STUDIO:
Jean Loh: An Introduction to China's Contemporary Photography - February 24, 2009
Terry Bennett: Early Photographs and Photographers in Shanghai 1842-1860 - October 16, 2008
Olivier Horn: An Evening with Film-maker Olivier Horn (Beijing Love) - April 8, 2008
RAS WEEKENDERS :
Peter Hibbard - RAS Weekender - A walk behind the Bund - June 13, 2009 - Venue - Park Hotel
SAS Alumnae introduced by Betty Barr - RAS Weekender - April 18, 2009 - Venue - T8 Club Lounge
Nenad Djordovic - Tour of Clubs & Associations of Old Shanghai - February 28, 2009
Peter Hibbard: RAS Ramble - Waitanyuan - February 2, 2008
Peter Hibbard: RAS Ramble - Waitanyuan - January 19, 2008
OTHER ACTIVITIES:
THE RAS ANNUAL SOIREE 2008 - November 22, 2008
FIRST ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING - October 14, 2008
Annual Soiree - December 11, 2007
RAS LECTURE
Tuesday 23rd June, 2009 at 7:00 p.m.
‘Factory’ Building 4 No. 29 Shajing Road HongKou (opposite 1933)
上海市虹口区沙泾路29号4号楼
Dr. Frank Hoffman
SOCIAL HARMONY AND DOCTRINAL DIFFERENCE:
THERAVADA BUDDHISM AND INDIGENOUS RELIGION IN A DAI LUE RELIGIOUS SYSTEM
Dr. Hoffman takes as his starting point; Guan Jian's work: Tai Minorities in China, Volume 2: The Indigenous Religion and Theravada Buddhism in Ban Da Tiu – A Dai Lue Village in Yunnan (China). Here Guan Jian maintains that there is one religious system with two religions contained within; Indigenous Religion and Theravada Buddhism. The focus of the paper is to raise philosophical questions about the meanings of terms such as “inter-religious”, “intra-religious”, and the meaning of, and conditions for, “inter - religious dialogue”.
Dr. Hoffman teaches Philosophy at West Chester University near Philadelphia, and is a visiting Scholar in South Asia Studies at University of Pennsylvania. Frank J. Hoffman received his M.A. degree in Asian and Comparative Philosophy in the University of Hawaii. After completion of his M.A. degree, Frank Hoffman did dissertation research in Sri Lanka and completed his PhD degree at the University of London, King’s College. His specializations are Early Indian Pali Buddhism and Philosophy of Religion; his current interests include Daoism, Process Philosophy, and Buddhism in Western China.
Dr. Hoffman has traveled widely and has lectured in China, India, England, Hawaii, Germany, Japan, and Korea. His publications include: Rationality and Mind in early Buddhism, Pali Buddhism (with Mahinda Deegalle) and Breaking Barriers (with Godabarisha Mishra).
He is currently Associate Professor of Philosophy and Religious Studies at West Chester University and Associate Director of Ethnic Studies. Dr. F. Hoffman is Associate Editor of the international journal; Asian Philosophy, and is a Vice President of the Greater Philadelphia Philosophy Consortium.
ENTRANCE: RMB 30 (RAS members) and RMB 80 (non-members)
Those unable to make the donation but wishing to attend may contact us for exemption, prior to the RAS Lecture. Membership applications and membership renewals will be available at this event.
DIRECTIONS FOR UNDERGROUND
From Line No. 4
Get off at Hailun Lu station
Come out of Exit No. 2; as you leave the station exit you will be facing Tongjia Lu
Turn right and go along Tongjia lu until you reach a T Junction and you will be facing Hailun Lu,
Turn left on Hailun Lu until you reach Liaoning Lu (next to the creek)
Turn right into Liaoning Lu and walk along the creek until you reach the 2nd bridge (its black where as the previous ones are blue)
Turn left across the bridge and 1933 is in front to left hand side and FACTORY is on the right hand side.
RAS Weekender – Saturday, 13th June 2009
Meet outside the Park Hotel, 170 West Nanjing Road at 9.30 a.m.
Cars, Clubs and Couture: A Walk with Peter Hibbard
Peter Hibbard will re-visit a walk he published in the Time Out Guide to Shanghai in 2006. Things have certainly changed over the last couple of years and by tracing the route described below, with some interesting deviations into surviving old lanes, Peter will highlight what has changed and what the future holds for some areas that are currently being redeveloped and those likely to be so in the near future.
The walk will take around two and a half hours and will terminate at the junction of South Maoming Road and Huaihai Road, near the Okura Garden Hotel.
Some things in Shanghai just don’t change - or not that much anyway. The area around Nanjing Road West, which was largely developed as a swanky commercial and residential section of the former Western District in the 1920s and early 1930s, is again being redeveloped in much the same manner - and a cocktail of historical threads and tracks remain. From its construction, beginning in 1862, the former Bubbling Well Road was the place for that, horse-driven, evening drive and by the 1920s it was home to the classiest car showrooms and garages in town.
Just look what’s on offer (price on application) in the showroom next to the Marriott - seductive Ferrari’s and Maserati’s yearning for a diminutive Shanghai femme fatale, wearing plasma screen-sized sunglasses, to take a ride. On the eastern side of Huangpi Bei Lu the clock tower of the former Shanghai Race Club, known as ‘Big Bertie’, after the club’s chairman Bertie Burkill, stills keeps as bad time as it did when it was installed in 1934. The Shanghai Automobile Club, of which Bertie was a founding member, used to parade their dressed-up cars on the racecourse grounds.
Head westwards on Nanjing Xi Lu where, just across the street, Ciro’s Plaza (No. 388) stands on the site of one of old Shanghai’s classiest night clubs, Ciro’s - naturally, owned by the legendary Sir Victor Sassoon. Sassoon was also big at the race club and many of his brethren were buried at the Jewish cemetery where the JW Marriott now stands. Carry on up the road to the Shanghai TV Station with its huge LCD display at No. 651 - set on the site of the snobby British Country Club, where British Jews like Sassoon were given the brush off.
Almost opposite, however, the building at No. 722 briefly housed the Jewish Club in the early 1940s. Opened in 1929, as a sumptuous London-style club, it was originally the home of another horse racing club before being taken over as club premises for the US Fourth Marines.
Look behind the advertising signs at No. 702, to spot the intricate Moorish 1916 features of the Star Garage Building next door. The garage, once owned by another Sephardic Jew, Edward Ezra, used to tout Dodge and Hupmobile cars in its showrooms. Cross the road and weave up Wujiang Lu, its winding course once that of a creek, and take a left on Shimen Yi Lu. This was old Shanghai’s premiere fashion street, formerly known as Yates Road, renowned for its lingerie and lace and for the deftness of its tailors in copying the latest Paris fashions. The Brits knew it as ‘the land of thousand nighties.’ Its wares speak polyester today.
Carry on and take a right at the Four Seasons Hotel onto Weihai Lu. The high rise tower opposite the hotel houses the headquarters of SAIC, the controlling partner in deals with car giants VW and GM. Just as it was 70 years ago, car parts mechanically materialize from the neighbouring streets and alleys. Take another left at Maoming Bei Lu, the ‘land of car parts,’ past a property (No. 39) once owned by the Kadoorie family and home to the World Jewish Youth Organisation. Cross over Yan’an Zhong Lu onto Maoming Nan Lu, passing an old garage on the eastern corner and the Lyceum Theatre (No. 57), the past home of the Amateur Dramatic Club, before ending up at the former French Club - now the Okura Garden Hotel. The over-built block with its Italian Baroque style arches at the back of the hotel on Changle Lu, which looks as if it had classy tenants in the past, was nothing more than a showy service garage. Reliving its past, couture is back in the former shops of Sir Victor Sassoon’s Cathay Estate - now reborn as the ‘Parade on Maoming Lu’ opposite the hotel.
DONATION: 100 Rmb for members, 200 Rmb for guests. Money raised from this walk will go towards restoring some of our historic Journals of the North China Branch of the RAS that are currently in a very poor condition.
Strictly limited to a maximum number of 20 participants on a first come, first served basis – RAS members will be given priority. Membership applications and renewals will be available on the morning. Those unable to make the donation but wishing to attend may contact us for exemption.
To see the pictures of the event, please click here.
RAS LECTURE
Tuesday 2nd June, 2009 at 7:00 p.m.
1oz3, Australian Lifestyle, No. 1 Yueyang Road (function room)
(Opposite Pushkin Monument at the junction of Fenyang, Yueyang, Dongping & Taojiang Roads)
Paul J. Bailey
Globalisation, Labour and Cultural Interaction: Chinese Contract Workers in WW1 France
One of the least-known episodes of World War One was the use of Chinese contract workers (most of whom came from the northern province of Shandong) by the British and French governments for a variety of war-related work in transportation and construction, munitions production, and machine-repair and maintenance. This talk will place the episode (focusing in particular on the French recruitment) in the larger contexts of the history of Chinese labour overseas that began with the illegal ‘coolie’ trade of the 19th century on the one hand, and Sino-French cultural relations and mutual perceptions in the early 20th century on the other. The talk will also briefly explore the experience of the Chinese workers themselves while in France—noting, for example, how an embryonic national consciousness developed amongst them that transcended more local and regional loyalties--and will conclude with the long-term significance of the episode, especially in relation to Maoist China’s political use of Chinese labour overseas in its relations with Africa in the 1960s.
Paul J. Bailey is Professor of Modern Chinese History at the University of Edinburgh. He did his doctorate at the University of British Columbia (Canada), during which time he studied and carried out research at Beijing University (1980-1981). Professor Bailey previously taught at Lingnan College and Middle School (Hong Kong) and the University of Durham (UK).He has published six books on China, and is currently engaged in the writing of two more—one on the Chinese contract workers in World War One France, entitled The Sino-French Connection, and the other a study of gender and sociocultural change in modern China, entitled Women and Gender in Twentieth Century China.
ENTRANCE: RMB 30 (RAS members) and RMB 80 (non-members)
To see the pictures of the event, please click here.
Saturday May 30th, 2009 @ 4.00pm
T8 Club Lounge
No.8 Xintiandi North Part Lane 181 Taicang Road Shanghai
MISHI SARAN
CHASING THE MONK’S SHADOW: A JOURNEY IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF XUANZANG
"In the seventh century AD, the Chinese monk Xuanzang set off on an epic journey to India to study Buddhist philosophy from the Indian masters. Traveling along the Silk Road, braving brigands and blizzards, Xuanzang finally reached India, where his spiritual quest took him to Buddhist holy places and monasteries throughout the subcontinent. Fourteen hundred years later, Mishi Saran follows in Xuanzang's footsteps to the fabled oasis cities of China and Central Asia, and the Buddhist sites and now-vanished kingdoms in India, Pakistan and Afghanistan that Xuanzang wrote about. Traveling seamlessly back and forth in time between the seventh century and the twenty-first, Saran uncovers the past with consummate skill even as she brings alive the present through her vivid and engaging descriptions of people and places. A riveting mix of lively reportage, high adventure, historical inquiry and personal memoir, this delightfully written book is a path-breaking travelogue."
Mishi Saran was born in India in 1968 and spent the first ten years of her life in New Delhi. Since then, she has lived in Switzerland, Indonesia, the United States, China, Hong Kong and Korea. She moved to Shanghai in 2006 with her husband. She is fluent in Mandarin, French and Hindi. Following an undergraduate degree in Chinese Studies from Wellesley College (USA) in 1990, she worked in Hong Kong as a news reporter and then as a freelance writer. Her articles have appeared in a variety of international publications including the Financial Times, the International Herald Tribune, the South China Morning Post, the Asian Wall Street Journal, and the Far Eastern Economic Review. Her short stories have won awards and been broadcast on the BBC. She is currently working on a novel.
DONATION: RMB 80.00 for members and RMB 150.00 for non members including one drink. (tea/coffee/sparkling water/glass of wine/standard cocktail). Those unable to make the donation but wishing to attend, may contact us for exemption, prior to the ‘Weekender’ Membership applications and membership renewals will be available this afternoon.
To see the pictures of the event, please click here.
Thursday the 28th May, 2009, 7:00 p.m.
‘Factory’ Building 4 No. 29 Shajing Road HongKou (opposite 1933)
上海市虹口区沙泾路29号4号楼
Dr. Karen Kingsbury
Eileen Chang's Shanghainese Life and Writing
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Eileen Chang is a towering figure in modern Chinese literature—and a continuing cultural celebrity. As an icon, she rides high on a stream of desire that bubbles up, again and again, in Taiwan, Hong Kong, Beijing, and of course Shanghai itself. Her fame is one sense a carefully managed product, staged and promoted by publishers and devotees, but the persistence of her “brand” reminds us that there must also be deeper, more intrinsic reasons for her appeal.
To understand Chang's popularity, and her staying power, we need first to examine the formative effects of her original literary and political context, that hybrid swirl of Chinese and Western cultural influences, in a society deeply but ambiguously divided by partisan ideologies. Next, we should consider her family's exemplary, if troubled history—males in aristocratic decline and “New Woman” females seeking Western-style autonomy—a topic on which her recently released memoir-novel, A Little Reunion, sheds new light. Last of all, we turn to Chang's own claim of a specifically Shanghainese identity. What did she mean by that? What does that claim mean now, for today's Shanghainese?
Karen S. Kingsbury completed her doctorate in Comparative Literature at Columbia University, then taught English language and literature at Tunghai University in Taiwan, from 1992-2006. She now teaches women's and world literature, including modern Chinese film and fiction, at Presbyterian College, a liberal arts college in Clinton, South Carolina. In 2006, NYRB published her translated collection of Eileen Chang's stories and novellas from the 1940's, Love in a Fallen City. She is currently translating Chang's 1968 novel, Half a Lifelong Love.
ENTRANCE: RMB 30 (RAS members) and RMB 80 (non-members)
Membership applications and membership renewals will be available this evening.
DIRECTIONS FOR UNDERGROUND
From Line No. 4
Get off at Hailun Lu station
Come out of Exit No. 2; as you leave the station exit you will be facing Tongjia Lu
Turn right and go along Tongjia lu until you reach a T Junction and you will be facing Hailun Lu,
Turn left on Hailun Lu until you reach Liaoning Lu (next to the creek)
Turn right into Liaoning Lu and walk along the creek until you reach the 2nd bridge (its black where as the previous ones are blue)
Turn left across the bridge and 1933 is in front to left hand side and Factory is on the right hand side.
RAS LECTURE
Tuesday, May 5th 2009, 7:00 p.m.
1oz3, Australian Lifestyle, No. 1 Yueyang Road (function room)
(Opposite Pushkin Monument at the junction of Fenyang, Yueyang, Dongping & Taojiang Roads)
Dr. Maisie Meyer
The Shanghai Express: From the Rivers of Babylon to the Whangpoo
Focusing a group of adventurous Baghdadi Jewish merchants who began settling in Shanghai in the mid-19th century and organized a community that maintained itself with distinction for a century, Dr. Meyer takes her audience on an exciting journey, of how, in this outpost of the Jewish Diaspora that never numbered more than a thousand people, the Baghdadis accomplished deeds that leave us shaking our heads in wonder. We are introduced to the customs and occupations that the Baghdadis carried with them to China, and we are quickly made aware of the nature and commitments of the vibrant community they created and nurtured. We learn about the business acumen the transplanted Sephardim displayed, and how this, enabled Shanghai to become one of the world’s leading financial centers. We learn too, with lingering regret, of their participation in the opium trade—in an era, it must be understood, that this was entirely legal and even socially acceptable. We take a glimpse at the institutions they established to safeguard their Judaic heritage in their alien surroundings, and we commemorate their heroic, though unsuccessful, efforts to bring what was left of the ancient Jewish community of Kaifeng back to the Judaism of its forebears. We observe the relationship between the Baghdadis and the Russian Jews who began arriving in Shanghai around 1895 as refugees from Czarist persecution, and in time attained a population of 6-8,000. The humanitarian efforts of the Shanghai Baghdadi Jews to accommodate some 20,000 victims of Nazi persecution reflect further credit to the ethos of this remarkable community. And we end with a feeling of sadness that because of the Japanese occupation of Shanghai in the World War II period and, shortly thereafter, the city’s incorporation into the Peoples’ Republic of China the Jews of Shanghai were forced to leave the country and scatter across the globe. Obviously, the Baghdadi Jews of Shanghai stand out as having established one of the most noteworthy communities in the Jewish Diaspora.
Dr. Meyer graduated with honors in both English and Humanities. She obtained her M.A. degree in International History, and was awarded a Ph.D from the London School of Economics in 1994. She has lectured widely on the Baghdadi Jewish community of Shanghai and has written numerous articles in various journals. She is the author of From the Rivers of Babylon to the Whangpoo: A Century of Sephardi Jewish Life in Shanghai (Lanham M.D.2003). and is currently editing An Illustrated Saga of the Baghdadi Jews of Shanghai and researching on Baghdadi Jews in other parts of southeast Asia and for a biography on Sir Victor Sassoon.
ENTRANCE: RMB 30 (RAS members) and RMB 80 (non-members)
RAS – Weekender - Saturday 25th April 2009 at 9.45am
Shanghai Bowuguan / Shanghai Museum
with HELGA ELLEMEET
Shanghai Museum 201 Renmin Avenue/ 201 Renmin Dadao
Meet in the central atrium
Chinese potters’ first started to make ceramics on a larger scale when the early settlements appeared in the Neolithic times, more than six thousand years ago; illustrating the long history of pottery in the Chinese society.
Clay, the most important material for pottery, has always been available cheaply and in abundance in many parts of China. This leads us to understand the huge scale on which ceramics have been produced over such a long span of time.
Varied access to techniques for the potters, different types of clay, regional styles, and wide - ranging demands by diverse groups of people in different times, all contributed to a wide variety of ceramic products.
The ceramics department of the Shanghai Museum exhibits an extensive collection of high quality pieces from the Neolithic times to the beginning of the twentieth century.
Walking through this fine collection, looking at the diverse intriguing forms, fine glazes, beautiful decorations and admiring the artistry and craftsmanship is enough to make one feel perfectly happy. However in focusing solely on the artistic qualities of the objects one forgets that none of the objects were created to be showcased on the shelves of a museum.
On the contrary, originally all these artifacts were made to be used; as vessels to store things, pots to cook in, as objects for use in rituals or as tomb-ware for use in the afterlife. They may have been used by the court, for export or simply mass-produced.
Helga Ellemeet, a Dutch Sinologist studied Chinese at Leiden and Xiamen Universities. Later working as a museum guide in Hong Kong and Singapore, she became particularly interested in Song Dynasty ceramics and the Neolithic culture in China.
DONATION: 100 Rmb for members, Rmb 200 for guests – lunch not included. Those unable to make the donation but wishing to attend may contact us for exemption, prior to the ‘Weekender’. Lunch will be arranged for those wishing to attend, in a nearby restaurant. Strictly limited to a maximum number of 20 participants on a first come, first served basis – RAS members will be given priority. Membership applications and membership renewals will be available on the morning.
To see the pictures of the event, please click here.
RAS LECTURE
Tuesday 21st April, 2009 at 7.00pm
Globus Wines @ 1933 10 Sha Jing Lu (by Jiu Long Hotel, near Zhou Jia Zhui Lu/ Li Yang Lu)
Murder, adultery and suicide in the British courts of Weihaiwei
By Dr Carol G. S. Tan
After a decade of being no more than a quiet backwater, the territory of Weihaiwei, its British administration and system of courts received unwelcomed attention in the English press in China when in 1912 three Chinese defendants, including a woman who had recently given birth to a child, were sentenced to death in two separate trials. This lecture traces the various criticisms made in the press and the responses to those criticisms and examines the impact of this episode on the criminal justice system of Weihaiwei.
Carol Tan is Senior Lecturer in Law at SOAS, University of London. She has held full time appointments at the University of Hong Kong and visiting appointments at Duke University Law School, National Taiwan University and Shandong University (Weihai) and at other universities. She is author of British Rule in China: Law and Justice in Weihaiwei 1898-1930 (London: Wildy, Simmonds and Hill, 2008).
ENTRANCE: 30 Rmb for members, 80 Rmb for guests –
Membership applications and membership renewals will be available this evening.
To see the pictures of the event, please click here.
RAS WEEKENDER
Saturday April 18th, 2009 @ 4.00pm
T8 Club Lounge
No.8 Xintiandi North Part Lane 181 Taicang Road Shanghai
SHANGHAI AMERICAN SCHOOL ALUMNAE (SASA)
Hosted by SAS Alumnae BETTY BARR
Anne Lockwood Romasco, Mayna Advent, Teddy Heinrichsohn and
Walter Nance
Betty Barr, beloved long-time Shanghai resident, educator, author and an enthusiastic supporter of RAS will introduce her old friends Anne Lockwood Romasco, Mayna Advent, Teddy Heinrichsohn and Walter Nance. Along with Betty they attended the Shanghai American School before, during and immediately after World War II and have been instrumental in establishing and developing its alumnae association.
Now living in all parts of the globe, the RAS is extremely grateful to them for agreeing to come and talk about their formative experiences in China and about how those long-established bonds live on to this day as they celebrate their reunion here. Please join us to share in this rare, rich and personal insight into Shanghai’s past and present.
DONATION:
RMB 80.00 for members and RMB 150.00 for non members including one drink. (tea/coffee/sparkling water/glass of wine/standard cocktail). Those unable to make the donation but wishing to attend, may contact us for exemption, prior to the ‘Weekender’
Membership applications and membership renewals will be available this afternoon.
To see the pictures of the event, please click here.
RAS STUDIO
Tuesday 14th April, 2009 at 7.00pm
1oz3, Australian Lifestyle, No. 1 Yueyang Road (function room)
(Opposite Pushkin Monument at the junction of Fenyang, Yueyang, Dongping & Taojiang Roads)
Shanghai, 1942–1945: The Henry Pringle story
By Dr John Gray
Ten months after the Japanese occupation of Shanghai, in December 1941, the then 40-years-old, China-born Britisher Henry Pringle, was arrested by the Japanese military police. He spent the next three years as a prisoner-of-war.
This talk marks the publication by Earnshaw Books of an illustrated book Bridge House Survivor by Henry Pringle about his traumatic prison experiences. It was completed in October 1948 however the communist revolution intervened and in December he and his family left for Australia where there was no interest in its publication.
The speaker will talk about the author’s prison experiences and the influence they had on his later life, at the same time providing background on his earlier life in China. A unique 20-minute DVD of home-movie film taken by the author about his imprisonment will be shown.
John Gray is married to Eileen (Pixie) Gray, the youngest daughter of the late Henry Pringle. Pixie has written the book’s introduction as well as the edited transcript, included in the book, of her talk to the RAS last August. John’s main interest in his retirement is the history of Australia’s national capital. He has published two books.
ENTRANCE: 30 Rmb for members, 80 Rmb for guests –
Membership applications and membership renewals will be available this evening.
To see the pictures of the event, please click here.
RAS STUDIO EVENT
Monday, March 30, 2008, 7:00 p.m.
1oz3, Australian Lifestyle, No. 1 Yueyang Road (function room)
(Opposite Pushkin Monument at the junction of Fenyang, Yueyang, Dongping & Taojiang Roads)
MARK KITTO
Moganshan, Missionaries and a Murder
After a long absence, the name Moganshan has once again entered the lexicon of the international community of Shanghai, especially on a Friday afternoon. The mountain resort built by missionaries a hundred years ago as the city’s summer heat retreat is quietly resuming that role, if now mainly for long weekends, and without the church services. A mere two hour drive from Shanghai, the collection of western style stone houses has hardly changed. Moganshan is a neglected, jaded jewel. And everyone who has discovered the delights of its peace and quiet vows to return.
Mark Kitto, known by many China Hands as the founder and loser of the that’s magazine series, has made Moganshan his family’s home and runs a small coffee shop and restaurant. He has also written a book about the place, and his life there, called China Cuckoo (publication late February 2009).
Mark will talk about the history of Moganshan, the missionaries, and a ‘shocking murder’ that occurred one winter’s night, many years ago. His sources include the North-China Daily News, the venerable precursor of Mark’s own magazines, the memories of his elderly neighbours, and a lucky glance at some secret files.
Cheeky Note: Anyone wishing to ask particularly difficult questions might want to purchase and mug up a copy of China Cuckoo in advance of tonight’s talk. Available on Amazon and at all good bookshops from early March.
ENTRANCE: RMB 30 (RAS members) and RMB 80 (non-members)
To see the pictures of the event, please click here
RAS – Weekender - Saturday 28th March 2009 at 9.45am
Shanghai Zhiwuyuan / Shanghai Botanic Gardens
with Alison Jefferson
Meeting: Shanghai Botanic Garden, Entrance No.2, 997 Longwu Rd, Shanghai. (about 2 km south of Longhua Temple) car parking available).
Address in Chinese:上海植物园；龙吴路997号，二号门
We cannot possibly cover the whole of the garden in just the few hours available, so I will concentrate on the spring gardens.
Our first stop will be the Cymbidium room; the small flowered terrestrial species of cymbidium are highly esteemed in China for their grace and scent. To quote Valder whilst they ‘are modest in appearance, their scent is considered to be the most perfect amongst all flowers, the ‘ancestor of all fragrances’. These plants have an important history in China and they have been written about for a long time as well as being used in medicine. In the Song dynasty orchid growing became the hobby of many scholars and in 1233 Zhao Shigeng published the first monograph on this subject.
As we wonder through this delightful enclosed garden we will see other spring flowering plants including a lovely Magnolia souliangana and cherry blossom.
We then proceed along the magnificent alley of Magnolia grandiflora to reach the Magnolia Garden. In 1986 the Standing Committee of the Shanghai Municipal People’s Congress adopted the white Magnolia denudata as the city flower. Its flowers have an ‘eye’ which usually lookup to the sky and so it symbolizes the pioneering nature and enterprising spirit of the city.
From here we will walk through the Peony Garden, the flowers will not be open until mid to late April, but the fresh spring growth will hopefully tempt you to revisit this garden. The very modest Azalea Garden sports several interesting azaleas, camellias and rhododendrons and although it is a wonderfully secluded part of the garden it fails to do justice to the plants in these groups and especially to the rhododendron which sparked off the mania for collecting this plant to send back to Victorian England.
From here we circle anticlockwise around the main path were hopefully the impressive collection of Prunus mume will still be in flower, but even if these have begun to fade there are plenty of other wonderful trees and shrubs to see as we head back to our starting place with hopefully a good appetite for lunch.
PRACTICAL DETAILS:
MEETING POINT: Shanghai Botanic Garden, Entrance No.2, 997 Longwu Rd, Shanghai. (about 2 km south of Longhua Temple)
TIME: Registration at 9.45 and the walk will start at 10.00 promptly, so please do arrive on time as we have a lot to see and sadly there is no coffee house at the entrance.
DONATION: 100 Rmb for members, Rmb 200 for guests – entrance ticket included, lunch not included. Those unable to make the donation but wishing to attend, may contact us for exemption, prior to the ‘Weekender’
Strictly limited to a maximum number of 20 participants on a first come, first served basis – RAS members will be given priority.
Ticket: You will be given an entrance ticket, but do hold onto itas the tear off strips give you access to the various gardens.
Attire: Strong walking boots are recommended
Weather: The walk will continue come hail or sunshine
Lunch: Will be at the Jen Dow Vegetarian Restaurant, next to the Longhua Temple, Tel: 64572299. This is about a 10 minute drive from the garden.
When booking your place, please indicate whether you will be attending lunch, in order to make the restaurant booking.
Handouts: You will be given a map and plant list if requested.
Guide: Alison Jefferson is keen to point out that she is just an enthusiastic amateur, but she wants to share her findings with those who might be interested.
To see the pictures of the event, please click here
Tuesday, March 24, 2009, 7:00 p.m.
Venue: Globus Wines @ 1933 10 Sha Jing Lu (by Jiu Long Hotel, near Zhou Jia Zhui Lu/ Li Yang Lu)
Dr. Cyril Cannon
Public Success, Private Sorrow: the life and times of Charles Henry Brewitt-Taylor (1857-1938)
Brewitt-Taylor achieved distinction as a Chinese scholar with his masterly translation, The Romance of the Three Kingdoms, the first of the major traditional Chinese novels to be fully translated into English. He first came to China in 1880 to teach mathematics, navigation and nautical astronomy at the Foochow Naval Dockyard School, but for most of his forty years in China, he worked for the Chinese Customs Service. He lived through a fascinating period of Chinese history – the beginnings of modernization in China, and the last years of the Qing dynasty and the early Republic. He was trapped in the British Legation during the Boxer turmoil, when the first complete draft of his translation was destroyed. He went on to occupy a number of senior positions in the Customs Service as Commissioner, Shanghai Postmaster, and first Director of the important Customs College. Nevertheless, his public success was marked by personal sorrow when his first wife died following childbirth and his second wife spent many years in mental asylums; two of his homes in China were destroyed, and in addition to the loss of several babies both his sons predeceased him. The lecture outlines his life, his public success and his personal sorrows from his humble beginnings to his final years.
Following 15 years in the printing industry Dr. Cyril Cannon did his undergraduate and doctorate degrees at the London School of Economics. He was founding Head of Department of Humanities and Social Studies at what is now South Bank University, London, before being appointed Deputy Director responsible for academic affairs at the forerunner to Plymouth University. He then worked in Hong Kong for nearly ten years helping to set up the precursor to City University as the member of senior management responsible for academic planning. Following retirement he was appointed Academic Consultant to Lingnan College, Hong Kong, on its path to university status.
Brewitt-Taylor was also an ordinary and life member of our predecessor, the North China Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, for a record 53 years.
ENTRANCE: RMB 30 (RAS members) and RMB 80 (non-members)
To see the pictures of the event, please click here.
OUR INAUGURAL RAS WEEKENDER EVENT
A VERY RICH LIFE – SHANGHAI COMMUNITIES OF OLD
Saturday, February 28, 2009 2.00pm - 4.30pm
Meet in the tea lounge of the Astor House Hotel Lobby, 15 Huangpu Road, at 2.00 p.m. for an introduction, followed by a walk in the vicinity concluding at 4.30 p.m.
The astonishing life of old Shanghai’s clubs, associations and societies has been vividly rekindled with the recent publication of Nenad Djordovic’s book Old Shanghai Clubs & Associations, A Directory of the Rich Life of Foreigners in Shanghai from the 1840s to the 1950s. This afternoon you will not only have the chance to hear and read about it, with his book being available for purchase, but also to see many buildings once occupied by illustrious organisations as Nenad traces a path through the pages of Shanghai’s history.
Nenad Djordjevic was born in Belgrade in 1970. He studied history in Stockholm and Belgrade and took a masters degree at Belgrade University in 1994. After working as a historian in the Archives of Yugoslavia he joined the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1997 His first diplomatic mission was to Pyongyang in 2000. From 2002 to 2006 he was responsible for cultural, political and consular affairs in Beijing and he is currently Consul-Gerant of Serbia in Shanghai. He has published several historical articles and written a book on North Korean ideology. He is an Honorary Vice President of RAS China in Shanghai.
DONATION: 100 Rmb for members, Rmb 200 for guests – drinks not included. Those unable to make the donation but wishing to attend, may contact us for exemption, prior to the ‘Weekender’
Strictly limited to a maximum number of 20 participants on a first come, first served basis – RAS members will be given priority.
An Introduction to China’s Contemporary Photography
By Jean Loh
Tuesday, February 24th 7.00 p.m. (refreshments) 7.30 p.m. (talk)
Australian Lifestyle, No. 1 Yueyang Road (function room)
（Address in Chinese: 岳阳路1号） Tel: 64332917
(Opposite Pushkin Monument at the junction of Fenyang, Yueyang, Dongping & Taojiang Roads)
Jean Loh is one of Shanghai’s most widely respected curators of photography, producing consistently high caliber, meticulously presented and thought provoking exhibitions at his beaugeste gallery on Taikang Lu. His talk will be a general introduction to China’s contemporary photography, and its presence in museum exhibitions and collections, and at art festivals, galleries and auction houses. He will address its historical development, and its current role within the sometimes controversial Chinese contemporary art scene and market, while also speculating on its future.
Jean Loh is a graduate of the Sorbonne University and Sciences-Po Paris. He is a collector of photography, founder of a graphic design studio in Shanghai, gallery owner, and publisher of art and photography books. As an independent designer and curator he has worked for many Chinese institutions including the Shanghai Art Museum, Shanghai Library, and Guangdong Museum of Art.
ENTRANCE: 30 Rmb for members, 80 Rmb for guests – drinks, snacks & meals available
Membership applications and membership renewals will be available this evening
Xujiahui and Tu Shan Wan: The Other Origin of European Culture in Shanghai
By Professor Li Tiangang
Tuesday February 10th 7p.m. (refreshments) 7.30p.m. (talk)
Figaro Coffee Shop, 2nd floor. 160 Xingye Road, Xintiandi
Today Xujiahui may be better known for its commercial activity, but during the 19th century this area was the site of a remarkable episode in Shanghai’s religious, cultural and scientific history. In the mid 16th century a group of Roman Jesuits arrived in China with the aim of bringing Catholicism to China. This talk explores their impact on Shanghai, and the creation of the Jesuit compound at Xujiahui that became famous for its scholarship, charitable work and scientific endeavor. A lasting monument to this is the library at Xujiahui, which houses the surviving part of the Jesuit library, as well as the former library of the North China Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society.
Li Tiangang is Professor in the Department of Religious Studies, College of Philosophy, Fudan University, Shanghai. He has held appointments as a Visiting Scholar at many prestigious North American and European institutions including the University of British Columbia, Vancouver; the Maison des Sciences de L’homme, Paris; and the Harvard Yenching Institute. He is the author of numerous publications on religious studies, as well as Shanghai history.
ENTRANCE: 30 Rmb for members, 80 Rmb for guests – includes tea or coffee.
Membership applications and membership renewals will be available this evening.
Jim Hargett: How and Why Did Mount Emei Become a Famous Buddhist Mountain?
Tuesday January 6th, 2009. 7pm (refreshments), 7.30pm (talk)
Figaro Coffee Shop, 2nd floor. 160 Xingye Road, Xintiandi
We are honoured to have Jim Hargett, Professor of Chinese at the University at Albany, State University of New York, present our January lecture. His talk will focus on how and why certain mountains in China become “famous mountains” (how and why these mountains acquire religious associations); and how Mount Emei in Sichuan became a “famous Buddhist mountain.”
Jim Hargett was born in New York and spent his formative years growing up outside of Gaoxiong in southern Taiwan, where his father worked as a road engineer. After earning his bachelor’s degree at the University of Bridgeport (Connecticut), he then attended Indiana University, where he earned masters and doctorate degrees in Chinese. He is now Professor of Chinese in the Department of East Asian Studies at the University at Albany-SUNY. Jim spent the 2002-03 academic year in Shanghai on a Fulbright Fellowship. His research and writing that year resulted in the publication of the book Stairway to Heaven: A Journey to the Summit of Mount Emei (SUNY Press, 2006). Earlier this year his Riding the River Home: A Complete and Annotated Translation of Fan Chengda’s (1126-1193) Diary of a Boat Trip to Wu was published by the Chinese University Press in Hong Kong. Jim’s annotated English translation of Fan Chengda’s twelfth-century miscellany on Guangxi and Hainan, Treatises of the Supervisor and Guardian of the Cinnamon Sea, will be published by the University of Washington Press in 2009.
ENTRANCE: Rmb 30 for RAS members and Rmb 80 for non-members.
GOLDEN LILY (SAI JINHUA), THE BOXERS, AND THE OCCUPATION OF BEIJING, 1900
By Dr. Liu Wei
Tuesday December 9, 2008, 7pm (refreshments), 7.30pm (talk)
Figaro Coffee Shop, 2nd floor. 160 Xingye Road, Xintiandi
We are pleased to welcome RAS Honorary Vice-President Dr. Liu Wei to deliver a talk on the Occupation of Beijing in1900 by the coalition forces of Germany, Britain, France, Spain, Italy, Portugal, the United States and Japan—and one Chinese woman who, by an extraordinary turn of events, joined the ad hoc government of Beijing.
Golden Lily (Sai Jinhua) started her career as a sing-song girl. After marrying one of China’s first professional diplomats, she became the wife of China’s Ambassador to Berlin. Following her husband’s death, she resumed her earlier career successfully in both Shanghai and Beijing, before being caught in the eye of the storm.
The talk will be accompanied by a 30-minute documentary (with English subtitles) made by Liu Wei.
Dr. Liu Wei is one of the individuals who helped re-establish the RAS in China in 2006. He serves as the Director of Long Island University’s China Center and Associate Professor in history and politics at Zhejiang University. He is the author of A History of Modern International Relations (Zhejiang, 2004), and a major contributor to Environmental Argument and Cultural Difference (Oxford, 2008) and European civilization: A History of Conflict and Integration (Guizhou, 2001). He writes regularly for The Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society in London. Dr. Liu worked as a presenter and documentary film producer for Central China Television (CCTV) from 1994-2002, and continues his on-screen career today on a freelance basis.
ENTRANCE: 30 Rmb for members, 80 Rmb for guests – includes tea or coffee.
THE RAS ANNUAL SOIREE 2008
Saturday, November 22nd at 7.00 p.m.
Astor House (Pujiang) Hotel, 15 Huangpu Road
Dear RAS members and friends,
Former president Arthur de Carle Sowerby instituted the RAS Annual Soiree in 1938 with the showing of a ‘motion picture’ and a lecture on the ‘People of the Philippines.’
There will be no lecture this time around but we hope that the occasion will provide a great chance for you to meet fellow members and guests from Shanghai and from RAS Hong Kong for an interesting and fun evening within the historic surroundings of the former ballroom of what was Asia’s leading hotel in the early 20th century.
However, on this 70th anniversary event, we will be screening a movie. And a very, very special one too! As a backdrop to the evening there will be a continuous screening of remarkable scenes from the private and public life of the Pringle family who lived in Shanghai in the late 1930s and the 1940s. Dance music from the 1920s to the 1940s will provide accompaniment and the magnificent original dance floor will be uncovered for the night. Party food and a beer or soft drink are included with admission; discounted wine and beer will also be on offer.
Please join us on this historic occasion!
Dress: Semi-formal with a hint of vintage should you so wish.
PLEASE RSVP by Tuesday November 18: Lindsay.shen@royalasiaticsociety.org.cn
Rmb 200 for members
Rmb 300 for guests
The RAS China in Shanghai is pleased to host an afternoon with Elizabeth Gill Lui, author and photographer of the newly released book:
Open Hearts Open Doors
Reflections on China’s Past & Future
Saturday November 15, 2:30 p.m.
T8 Club Lounge
No.8 Xintiandi North Part Lane 181 Taicang Road Shanghai
The author will discuss the book’s scope accompanied by a visual presentation and discussion of issues surrounding the critical urgency of working to address the diminishing landscape of traditional cultural environments in China.
Elizabeth Gill Lui is an internationally recognized fine art and architectural photographer and educator. Open Hearts Open Doors presents over 250 images shot by the artist between 1995 and 2007, while a visiting artist in the Department of Architecture at The Chinese University of Hong Kong.
The book explores the relationship between Chinese citizens and their unique, and dramatically changing architectural heritage. Accompanying the photographs is a collection of opinions expressed by a diverse group of noteworthy contributors from China and beyond, who reflect on the issues facing China today as it struggles to balance development and growth with heritage preservation. Central to the discussion is a consideration of cultural identity in the context of a rapidly modernizing economy. The epilogue is written by I.M. Pei. The book is published by the Cornell University Press.
Members RMB 30.00
Non-Members RMB 80.00
Ambassador Christopher Bo Bramsen:
Vilhelm Meyer – China’s Great Dane
Monday November 3rd, 2008 at 7.00 p.m.
VENUE: Figaro Coffee Shop, 2nd floor. 160 Xingye Road, Xintiandi
During the first part of the 20th century, Vilhelm Meyer was one of the leading foreign businessmen in Shanghai who, as head of Andersen, Meyer & Co. Ltd. contributed significantly to the industrial development of China. He lived with his family in Shanghai from 1902 until he died in 1935, when the company was sold to General Electric. His grandson, Ambassador Christopher Bo Bramsen, will talk about the fascinating life of the Meyer family in pre-war China.
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Ambassador Bramsen served as Danish Consul General in Shanghai from 1994 to 1995, and in Beijing as Denmark’s Ambassador to China from 1995 to 2001. After 40 years of service in the Danish Government, Ambassador Bramsen left the Ministry of Foreign Affairs earlier this year as Chief of Protocol and has established his own consultancy firm, “Bramsen China Link”. He has been appointed adjunct professor at the Asia Research Centre of the Copenhagen Business School and is also Chairman of the board of “Danes Worldwide”, an association for Danes living abroad. He is designated to become Denmark’s Commissioner General at the World Exposition in Shanghai, EXPO 2010. |
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Bramsen has written several books about China and Denmark, most recently the book “Peace and Friendship – Denmark’s Official Relations with China, 1674 – 2008”, written in English and Chinese. He tells the fascinating story of his grandfather’s family and business life in China in the book “Open Doors – Vilhelm Meyer and the Establishment of General Electric in China” that was published in 2001.
EARLY PHOTOGRAPHS AND PHOTOGRAPHERS IN SHANGHAI 1842-1860
By Terry Bennett
Thursday, October 16th 2008, 7:00 p.m.
Figaro Coffee Shop, 2nd floor. 160 Xingye Road, Xintiandi
Although there is currently worldwide interest in contemporary Chinese art and photography, research into the history of photography in China is still at a very early stage. In this illustrated talk Terry Bennett will look at the earliest-recorded photography in Shanghai and show a number of incredible early images of the city – many of which have never been seen by the public in any form before.
Terry Bennett was born in England in 1950 and is a researcher and lecturer on early East-Asian photography. He has published seven books on the subject, the latest being Photography In Japan 1853-1912, which helped to win him the Photographic Society of Japan’s International Award for 2007. Terry is now working on an important series of volumes covering the history of Chinese photography. The first volume, History of Photography In China 1842-1860, will be published in early 2009.
All are welcome
ENTRANCE: 30 Rmb for members, 50 Rmb for guests
NOTICE OF OUR FIRST ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING
Tuesday October 14th, 2008 at 7.00 p.m.
VENUE: InterfaceFLOR Room 201 (Second floor), Raffles City, 268 Central Tibet (Xizang) Road - in the office tower to the rear of the shopping mall with the entrance on the corner of Yunnan Road and Hankou Road. Tel: 6340 3868
All bona fide members of the Society are cordially invited to attend our first Annual General Meeting with the aim of electing a new Council and of passing an amendment to our existing Constitution.
We look forward to seeing you all there.
The RAS China in Shanghai Council
Chris Buckley: A Collector’s Life
Tuesday September 9th, 2008 at 7.00 p.m.
VENUE: InterfaceFLOR Room 201 (Second floor), Raffles City, 268 Central Tibet (Xizang) Road - in the office tower to the rear of the shopping mall with the entrance from Yunnan Road (between Hankou and Fuzhou Roads). Tel: 6340 3868
Chris Buckley, textile collector, designer, entrepreneur and writer, will share some collecting experiences over a decade and a half, and will reflect on the fate of traditional skills and the importance of collecting and research. The talk will be illustrated both with photographs and with examples from Chris's collection.
Chris is from the UK and was educated at Oxford, where he received a PhD in Chemistry. Aside from a short period in Japan he has lived in China since the mid 1990s. He made his first visit to Tibet in 1996, from which point his enduring interest in Tibetan art and culture has developed. He has been a student of Tibetan art, and a collector of crafts (especially textiles and furniture) since that time. Chris is just as much interested in contemporary Tibetan crafts as in the antique variety, and in 2006 he founded the Tibet Tanva weaving company to make handmade woven textiles, especially carpets. Part of Tanva's remit is to revive traditional skills, including a project to research and restore traditional natural dyeing to Tibet, in collaboration with the Tibet Poverty Alleviation Fund (a Lhasa-based NGO).
Aside from Tibetan textiles, Chris is also broadly interested in Chinese textiles and costume, including antique Chinese silk textiles and costume and textiles from ethnic minority groups. He has made many collecting trips to Tibet and other parts of China. Chris runs the well-known Torana Carpet stores in Beijing and Shanghai, where the carpets from his weaving company in Lhasa can be found, as well as antique carpets.
PLEASE RSVP: Catherine Yin:catherine.yin@royalasiaticsociety.org.cn
ENTRANCE: 30 Rmb for members, 50 Rmb for guests
In Search of One’s Identity
Friday 29 August 2008, 7:00 p.m.
VENUE: coffee shop, 26th floor, Jie Fang News Building, 300 Hankou Road, near Shandong Road
Pixie Gray has sought answers to her ancestry as to how her grandparents John Dunbar and Florence Eugene Pringle (nee Marsh) came to be in China. Pixie will give you some insight into their lives from their births in New Hartley, Northumberland and Lambeth, Surrey, England in 1863 and 1858 respectively. At the time of the census in 1881 they were both still living at their respective family homes. He, a son of a coal miner and a coal miner himself in an area NE of Newcastle-on-Tyne and she, a seamstress in West Derby, Lancashire. However, it would appear that in the 1891 census they must have left England for their new adventures to a mystic land far away. For John Dunbar it was to work in North China’s coalmines as a coal-mining engineer but why did Florence leave her home to travel so far? A marriage license and two birth notices registered in Northern China have been found which began a list of descendants who resided in China till 1948. This is their story…
Eileen (Pixie) Gray is the younger daughter of Henry Forsythe and Isabella McKendrick Pringle (nee Holmes). Pixie was born in Paulun Hospital, Shanghai on 19 March 1936 and apart from a sojourn in Hong Kong in 1937, lived in Shanghai till October 1941 when she and her mother and older sister, Elizabeth were sent by their father to Australia prior to the bombing of Pearl Harbour. Henry stayed behind and was imprisoned by the Japanese. The three lived in Australia until late 1946 when they returned to Shanghai where both girls attended the Shanghai British School. In late 1948 it was clear to their parents that the life they once led in their beloved China was no longer tenable and once again they fled, this time back to Australia where the girls finished their education. Elizabeth became a secretary and Pixie a primary school teacher specialising in music. Despite financial difficulties for many years during their teenage years, a life rich in culture was pursued. After Pixie’s marriage to John Gray in 1959 and subsequent parenthood Pixie returned to teaching and spent a life involved in music in her community. She was awarded an OAM (Medal in the Order of Australia) in 2006 for this work.
Vincent Asselin: Designing New Parks for Shanghai
Tuesday June 10th, 2008 at 7.00 p.m.
VENUE: InterfaceFLOR Room 201 (Second floor), Raffles City, 268 Central Tibet (Xizang) Road - in the office tower to the rear of the shopping mall with the entrance from Yunnan Road (between Hankou and Fuzhou Roads). Tel: 6340 3868
Shanghai’s historic parks and gardens are among the city’s cultural treasures. During the past decade, alongside its extraordinary architectural transformation, the city has committed itself to a continued process of “greening” as a way to enhance the lives of urban residents. One of the most prominent landscape architects involved has been Vincent Asselin, who was awarded a Magnolia Silver Award for his outstanding contributions to the city. Through a very visual presentation, Asselin will discuss his work on Fuxing, Xujiahui,and Yanan Zhong Lu Parks, as well as a Beijing project at Badaling, close to the Great Wall.
Asselin is a graduate of the University of Montreal (1978 Bachelor of Landscape Architecture; 1995 Master in Applied Sciences-Landscape Architecture). He is a principal of WAA-Williams, Asselin, Ackaoui et Associés inc. Consultants en Architecture de paysage, Design urbain et Urbanisme. The firm’s head office is based in Montreal, and has a very extensive portfolio of projects including large urban parks and public spaces as well as studies and research in historical preservation urban and environmental planning.
WAA has now opened a branch office in Shanghai and is undertaking numerous high profile projects in Wuhan, Harbin, Beijing and Shanghai.
PLEASE RSVP: Catherine Yin: catherine.yin@royalasiaticsociety.org.cn
ENTRANCE: 30 Rmb for members, 50 Rmb for guests
A VERY SPECIAL AFTERNOON LECTURE COMMEMORATING
150 YEARS IN SHANGHAI
SATURDAY MAY 17, 2.30 p.m. at 1933
MORE ON THE MUSEUM STORY by JANE PORTAL
With a spirit of adventure come and join us on this historic occasion to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the founding of the Royal Asiatic Society in Shanghai!
Jane Portal, Curator of Chinese and Korean collections at the BritishMuseum, will be giving a presentation on the BritishMuseum’s relations with China, including Shanghai. She will also be screening a 30-minute documentary called The British Museum Goes East, originally aired on BBC2, that tells the story of setting up the Art and Empire exhibition at the Shanghai Museum in 2006, juxtaposed with the British Museum’s negotiations in Xi'an for the now legendary First Emperor exhibition in London.
In the light of unforeseen last minute difficulties the RAS China in Shanghai is exceedingly grateful to Paul Liu, Chairman, and to David Laris, Creative Director, of Axons Concepts for their spontaneous and generous help in providing a magnificent and unique historical venue to allow this momentous meeting to go ahead. David Laris will be saying a few words about their project, one that shares many ambitions with those of RAS. Carma Elliot OBE, British Consul General Shanghai and Honorary Vice President of the Society, will also give a short address.
The event will be held on the fourth floor of 1933 at No.10 Shajing Road. Originally designed as the Shanghai Municipal Council Abattoir it was completed in 1933, the same year as the RAS building. Light refreshments will be on offer.
Following the talk guests are invited to join Peter Hibbard, the Society’s President, and Jane Portal, for a walk passing by the former RAS building and terminating at Three on The Bund, the first building in Shanghai to be designed by inspirational RAS Council member ‘Tug’ Wilson, who later designed the RAS building itself.
There will be an entrance charge of Rmb 40 for members and Rmb 70 for guests.
Please RSVP to Lindsay.shen@royalasiaticsociety.org.cn by May 14
ETHNIC MINORITIES IN CHINA
Professor Nicholas Tapp
Tuesday, May 6th, 7:00 p.m.
VENUE: InterfaceFLOR Room 201 (Second floor), Raffles City, 268 Central Tibet (Xizang) Road - in the office tower to the rear of the shopping mall with the entrance from Yunnan Road (between Hankou and Fuzhou Roads). Tel: 6340 3868
China’s ethnic minorities are currently much in the news, but many of the smaller minorities remain unknown outside China. This talk provides a general introduction to the history and implementation of ethnic policy in China and an account of the huge ethnic diversity there is within China. It compares policy with practice and outlines some of the main issues confronting minority populations in China today.
Nicholas Tapp has been studying China’s ethnic minorities for 20 years. He is a specialist in the Hmong (Miao) of China and Thailand, and has also studied this minority in Laos, Vietnam, and in the context of their overseas diaspora. Prof. Tapp holds an M.A. from the University of Cambridge, and an M.A. and Ph.D. in Social Anthropology from the University of London (School of Oriental and African Studies). His publications include Rebellion and Sovereignty: the White Hmong of Northern Thailand (1989); and The Hmong of China: Context, Agency and the Imaginary (2002).
Nicholas Tapp is currently Professor of Anthropology in the Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies at The Australian National University, and has taught at The Chinese University of Hong Kong, and Edinburgh University, Scotland. He has long been associated with the Royal Asiatic Society in London and Hong Kong.
PLEASE RSVP: Lindsay.shen@royalasiaticsociety.org.cn
ENTRANCE: 30 Rmb for members, 50 Rmb for guests
JAPANESE SOCIETY IN CONCESSION-ERA SHANGHAI, 1870-1945
Tuesday April 22, 2008 at 7.30 p.m.
VENUE: InterfaceFLOR Room 201 (Second floor), Raffles City, 268 Central Tibet Road - in the office tower to the rear of the shopping mall with the entrance from Yunnan Road (between Hankou and Fuzhou Roads). Tel: 6340 3868
Much of the voluminous catalogue of publications on foreign society in ‘Old Shanghai’ focuses on the lives of the British, American, Jewish and Russian communities. Apart from accounts of war activities very little has been written of, or heard about, the former Japanese presence in this city. This evening Professor Zu’en Chen will fill in some of those empty pages in Shanghai’s modern history by giving an account of the origins and development of this distinctive community. He will examine the nature of their society; looking at who they were, where they worked and lived, and how they fitted into the polyglot international community.
Zu’en Chen, a Fudan University graduate, is professor of Modern Chinese History at the School of Arts and Humanities, Donghua University, a research fellow at Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences and Vice Secretary General of the Shanghai Association for Historical Studies of Sino-Japanese Relations. He has published a number of books on his subject includingJapanese Immigrants in Shanghai, published by the Shanghai Lexicographical Publishing House and Looking for Japanese — Japanese residents in Modern Shanghai, published by the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences. He has also published a wide range of papers on aspects of Japanese culture and society on topics ranging from advertising and architecture, to education and postwar repatriation.
PLEASE RSVP: Lindsay.shen@royalasiaticsociety.org.cn
ENTRANCE: 30 Rmb for members, 50 Rmb for guests
- Shanghai -
March 4, 2008 Lecture
Kim Taylor: Defending His Territory: Wu Liande and the Control of Cholera in Early Republican China, 1911-37
Dear RAS members and friends:
We are pleased to welcome RAS Council member Dr. Kim Taylor to deliver a talk on the extraordinary contribution made by Dr. Wu Liande to epidemic disease prevention in early 20th century China. Wu Liande (M.A., M.D., Cantab.) (Mast. P.H., Johns Hopkins) is best known for his pioneering work in the introduction of modern measures of public health into China following a severe outbreak of pneumonic plague in Manchuria from 1910-11. He went on to achieve real prominence on the national and international medical scenes as head of the North Manchurian Plague Prevention Service (1912-30) and then of the Shanghai-based National Quarantine Service (1930-37). These were turbulent times in Chinese history and the containment of epidemic disease was not merely a health issue but also a visible measure of China’s administrative health. And it was cholera, not plague, which was the prominent, recurring epidemic disease that came to dominate Wu Liande’s public health agenda. As such, non-clinical portrayals of it, such as histories of disease and medical advertising, came to reflect nationalistic sensitivities in which foreign powers were implicated in the introduction of infectious diseases into China. Kim will discuss how cholera served as the means by which Wu Liande was able to remain on the frontline of disease control throughout his prominent career, and the attendant implications of disease control which led to cholera being perceived as an ‘Agent of the West’. Dr. Wu Liande was also a RAS Council member and the financial saviour of the former RAS building that opened in Shanghai in 1933.
Dr. Kim Taylor trained in the History of Chinese Medicine at the Department of History and Philosophy of Science, University of Cambridge. She went on to hold a Wellcome Trust Fellowship at the Needham Research Institute, Cambridge, a specialist research centre for the history of Chinese science. She is the author of Chinese Medicine in Early Communist China: A Medicine of Revolution (London: RoutledgeCurzon, 2005). Her research interests include the history of disease, medicine and the imperial world, and nineteenth-and twentieth-century Chinese medicine. She is also the founder of Kaimu Productions, a Shanghai-based documentary film production company.
DATE: Tuesday March 4th, 2008
TIME: 7.00 p.m.
PLACE: InterfaceFLOR Room 201 (Second floor), RafflesCity, 268 Central Tibet Road. Entrance to office tower on Yunnan Road. Tel: 63403868
There will be a Rmb 30 charge for RAS members and Rmb 50 charge for non-members.
Peter Hibbard (President) and the RAS China in Shanghai Council.
- Shanghai -
January 8, 2008 Lecture
James Miller: Nature and Daoism
Dear RAS members and friends:
We are honoured to have James Miller, currently a visiting professor at FudanUniversity, present our January lecture. This talk examines how religious Daoists have viewed the natural world, and how this viewpoint has shaped their interactions with nature in terms of philosophy, ethics and practice. It will focus on China's sacred geography, the various mountains and grottos in which Daoists have historically engaged in meditation and self-cultivation, and the relationship between the inner landscape of the body and the surrounding environment.
James Miller was born in Lancashire, England and studied Chinese and Theology at Durham and CambridgeUniversities before moving to North America. There he completed a PhD on Chinese Religions at BostonUniversity and is now Associate Professor of Chinese Religions at Queen's University, Canada. He is currently in Shanghai doing sabbatical research on religion, nature and modernization as a visiting research professor in the department of sociology at FudanUniversity. He has published Daoism and Ecology (co-edited with Norman Girardot and Liu Xiaogan: Harvard University Press 2001), Daoism: A Short Introduction (Oneworld 2003), and most recently an edited volume surveying Chinese religious traditions at home and abroad, called Chinese Religions in Contemporary Societies.
Appropriately, our venue for this event was recently awarded the LEED Gold certification from the U.S. Green Building Council—the first space in China to achieve this commendation for environmental sustainability.
DATE: Tuesday, January 8th, 2008
TIME: 7.00 p.m.
PLACE: InterfaceFLOR, Room 201 (second floor), RafflesCity (office tower), 268 Central Tibet Road. Entrance from rear on Central Yunnan Road.
Tel: 6340 3868
There will be a Rmb 30 charge for RAS members and Rmb 50 charge for non-members.
Please RSVP by January 5th:Lindsay.shen@royalasiaticsociety.org.cn
- Shanghai -
Dear RAS members and friends,
November 30th presentation: Weihaiwei under British Rule
As you will be aware the speaker at our next lecture is Mr. Zhang Jianguo. We are very honoured to have him here and to set the stage for his exclusive presentation for the Society. The story that he will tell is without parallel and begins when a British visitor, who came into China 1980, announced that he was going to Weihaiwei, the place of his birth in 1913. The entry official had never heard of such a place.
And the city authorities themselves had little knowledge of Weihaiwei (Weihai as it was known until 1951) in the early twentieth century when it was annexed as a British leased territory. When the British relinquished control in 1930 they took their archives with them - leaving a massive gap in the city’s historical records. Fortunately the city took on the task of recovering that history. As director of the city archives, Mr. Zhang paid numerous visits to the UK, examining dusty archival materials and building up friendships with many descendants of former Weihai residents and a host of others. One result of this long endeavour, with the assistance of the Society for Anglo-Chinese Understanding (SACU), has been the publication of a fascinating and comprehensive account of that lost history.
We are looking forward to your support in attending this event and in re-establishing Shanghai’s foremost international cultural society. Please tell your friends!
DATE: Friday November 30th
TIME: 7.00 p.m.
PLACE:Astor House (Pujiang) Hotel, 4th Floor conference room
15 Huangpu Road, Hongkou district
There will be an Rmb 30 charge for RAS members and Rmb 50 charge for non-members for this event to cover the cost of hiring this venue. Chinese tea will be served.
Mr. Zhang’s book Weihaiwei under British Rule will be available for sale at the event.
Mr. Zhang will be delivering his talk in Chinese, and Spencer Dodington has kindly volunteered his services to act as translator.
Peter Hibbard (President) and the RAS Shanghai Branch Council.
24.11.07
- Shanghai -
Peter Hibbard: Beyond the Bund
The story of the Royal Asiatic Society is very much part of the story of the Bund, today as well as yesterday. Presently the magnificent former R.A.S. building lies dormant awaiting a new beginning alongside a whole host of illustrious neighbours in the ‘Waitanyuan’ area to the west of the Bund. The buildings surround the historic grounds of the former British Consulate and were largely executed between 1924 and 1933. Apart from their fantastic architectural merits, they sustained a curious mix of commerce, culture and Christianity. Financiers held committee positions within Christian Societies, as did missionaries turned business men. Above all the area was the major centre for British social and civic life in the 19th century. Shanghailanders could glee over Gilbert & Sullivan opera’s at the 600-odd seat Lyceum Theatre, be put on trial at the British Court for their foibles, attend services and fetes at the Union Church, take to the waters from the Rowing Club or engage in learned activities at the RAS North China Branch.
Peter Hibbard will illustrate the history of this remarkable area and will highlight some of the practical, social and preservation issues relating to its ongoing development. Peter has recently published The Bund Shanghai: China Faces West and is engaged as the project historian for the restoration of the north wing of the Peace Hotel. He also conducts private walking tours covering many parts of the city. Peter is not only a Shanghai enthusiast but also a real historical explorer.
Date: Wednesday, 17th October 2007
Time: 6:30 p.m.
Venue:Deke Erh Art Centre, Tai Kang Road, Lane 210, Building 2B, Shanghai 20025
All are welcome. This is a Regular Meeting of the Society. There is a 50 RMB charge for coffee or tea for Fellows and an 80 RMB charge for non-Fellows
- Shanghai -
CHINA IN ENGLAND
The Latest Museum Story
by Jane Portal, Beth McKillop
The Royal Asiatic Society presents a joint illustrated lecture by the keepers of the Asian departments of the British Museum and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. Beth McKillop will talk about 150 years of China at the Victoria and Albert Museum and will illustrate the genesis and development of the renowned museum’s collection with examples of imperial robes and furniture, ceramics and sculptures. Looking forward to next year, she will explain the V &A’s major exhibition of China Design Now, which has a strong Shanghai element. Jane Portal is with the British Museum and currently is curator of the First Empower exhibition, opening in September, which will include 20 terra cotta figures, bronze birds, stone armour and other recently excavated material from Xi’an. In the coming years, both museums have active programmes in Shanghai.
Date: Sunday, 24 June 2007
Time: 5:30 pm
Venue: Deke Erh Art Center, Tai Kang Road, Lane 210, Building 2B, Shanghai 200025.
Contact: r.a.s.hangzhou@gmail.com
All are welcome. The lecture is part of the Regular Meeting of the Royal Asiatic Society.
There is a 50 RMB charge for members and 80 RMB for non-members with unlimited coffee or tea.
- Shanghai -
Matteo Ricci’s Memory Palace
The great Jesuit missionary, Matteo Ricci, died this month in 1610. To commemorate his work, the Royal Asiatic Society is pleased to offer a free lecture by Mr. Paolo Sabbatini, a distinguished Italian scholar.
Matteo Ricci was the first European since Marco Polo 200 years earlier to live and work in China. He rediscovered China for the West, spending almost thirty years here, and died in Beijing where his tomb still stands. He had studied science in Rome and brought the latest discoveries and ideas of the Renaissance with him. Living first like a Buddhist monk and then a Confucian scholar, he mastered similar interests here. One particular fascination was the structure of the Chinese language. With his logical and highly trained mind, he developed a system for both Chinese and Westerners to remember words and ideas, which he called a MemoryPalace. He left some writings on it without, however, ever explaining it in detail.
Paolo Sabbatini has studied the “Art of Memory” for many years and has organized a possible reconstruction of Matteo Ricci’s system, which he is willing to share with those interested.
Date: Wednesday, 23 May 2007
Time: 7:30 pm
Venue: Deke Erh Art Center,Taikang Lu, Lane 210, Building No. 2B, Shanghai
All are welcome. This is a Regular Meeting of the Society. There will be a charge of 50 RMB per person for unlimited coffee or tea.
An evening with British Beekeeper John Hamilton
BEEKEEPING, MIGRATORY AND TRADITIONAL, IN JAPAN, CHINA AND KOREA
Thursday, May 8th 2008, 7:00 p.m.
Figaro Coffee Shop, 2nd floor. 160 Xingye Road, Xintiandi
John Hamilton lives in Japan and keeps bees, both native and western, around his house in Aichi. His talk for us comes at the end of a week of visiting beekeepers in Jiangsu and Anhui provinces. John will tell of his encounters with Chinese beekeepers and their bees, especially in Hubei (two queen hives in February, delicious Jingtiao honey), Heilongjiang (very good lime honey) and Taiwan (famous for Royal Jelly). He will also talk about migratory beekeeping in Japan (loading beehives onto lorries, the problem of bears, the large wasps that attack hives in September), and about log hive beekeeping with native bees in the villages in Korea close to the demilitarized zone. John will bring his equipment with him – bee net, smoker, whisky, books about beekeeping in China, magnifying glass and hopefully samples of honey from Anhui.
Professor John Hamilton, a graduate of University College Oxford, teaches in the Faculty of Law at AichiUniversity. In 1946 the University, formerly the Toa Dobun Shoin in Shanghai, occupied an abandoned army camp in Toyohashi as staff and students returned to Japan. It still survives as the main campus today. Close relations with China, especially with NankaiUniversity in Tianjin, have continued, and today it is one of the leading universities for Chinese studies in Japan. Thanks to university research funding, John became acquainted with the bees of China upon attending the World Congress of Beekeepers (Apimondia) in Beijing in 1992. The event attracted a swarm of around 5,000 beekeepers from around the globe, including 800 from China.
PLEASE RSVP: Lindsay.shen@royalasiaticsociety.org.cn
ENTRANCE: 30 Rmb for members, 50 Rmb for guests
An Evening with French Filmmaker Olivier Horn
Tuesday, April 8 2008, 7:00 p.m.
Figaro Coffee Shop, 2nd floor. 160 Xingye Road, Xintiandi
Oliver Horn will be showing and talking about his documentary film Beijing Love, alove story of two youngsters he filmed over a period of four years in the late 1990s. Whilst on a 1997 visit to Beijing in search of ‘reborn traditions’ Olivier noticed a ‘big shot’ flower market trader in a passionate embrace with his girlfriend. He was so taken aback that he went up to speak to them, and although he didn’t realize it then, the couple were the ‘secret goal’ of his trip. Olivier will also be talking about his experiences of living and working in China over the last three decades.
Olivier Horn was born in Paris in 1957 and first came to China in 1979 to teach French at the Beijing University of Foreign Languages. He began his filmmaking career at the age of 30 with the documentary Cheng Thing, portraying histravels through China with a Chinese poet, linguist and revolutionary. He has produced several works about Chinese culture and history, as well as about modern Chinese society. Recent projects include Victor Segalen, a French poet in the Heavenly Empire (1995), Chinese People of Paris (2002) and The Taklamakan Mummies, an archeological road-movie through the Taklamakan desert (2003). Olivier is currently visiting Shanghai to work on a long documentary film about the city in the 1930s, The Adventurers' Paradise, for French and German cultural public television ARTE.
This 50-minute film will be screened in French with English subtitles.
PLEASE RSVP: Lindsay.shen@royalasiaticsociety.org.cn
30 Rmb for members
50 Rmb for guests
OUR INAUGURAL RAS STUDIO EVENT
Tuesday, March 18, 2008, 7:00 p.m.
Figaro Coffee Shop, 2nd floor. 160 Xingye Road, Xintiandi
The Social Being of Shanghai through its Clubs, Associations and Societies
In recent times Shanghai has witnessed a proliferation of new societies and clubs, as well, of course, as the reinstatement of the RAS itself. In days gone by Shanghai boasted an astonishing number of such associations encompassing a diversity of interests ranging from those of missionaries and charity workers to those involved with music, women’s issues, recreation, science, culture, sport, and politics, to name but a few. During his residence here Nenad Djordjevic’s passion for Shanghai’s past and culture has expressed itself in a consummate quest to reveal the nature of expatriate and Chinese clubs from the city’s earliest days as a treaty port to the present day. He will be talking about the historical importance played by them in defining Shanghai’s social being and in shaping its multifarious image and reputation.
Nenad Djordjevic was born in Belgrade (Serbia) in 1970. He studied history in Stockholm and Belgrade and took a masters degree at BelgradeUniversity in 1994. After working as a historian in the Archives of Yugoslavia he joined the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1997 His first diplomatic mission was to Pyongyang in 2000. From 2002 to 2006 he was responsible for cultural, political and consular affairs in Beijing and he is currently Consul-Gerant of Serbia in Shanghai. He has published several historical articles and written a book on North Korean ideology. He was recently elected Honorary Vice President of the RAS.
PLEASE RSVP: Lindsay.shen@royalasiaticsociety.org.cn
30 Rmb for members
50 Rmb for guests
No.2
DATE: SATURDAY,FEBRUARY 2nd
DEPARTURE TIME: 09.30
STARTING POINT: LOBBY, ASTOR HOUSE (PUJIANG) HOTEL, 15 HUANGPU ROAD
Peter Hibbard will be leading a walking tour for RAS members to raise funds for the establishment of the new RAS library on February 2nd.
The magnificent former RAS library collection, which is now safely housed in the Bibiloteca at Xujiahui, had as its core a collection purchased by public donation from one of its early Council members, Dr. Alexander Wylie, in 1868. With a sense of déjà vu some 140 years on we are presented with a similar set of circumstances as Mike Nethercott (RAS Vice President) and Dr. Liu Wei (former RAS Vice President and current Council member) have dug deep into their pockets to secure 79 precious volumes of the RAS North China Branch (Shanghai) Journals dating from 1859 to 1948 that the Society wishes to purchase to form the nucleus of its new collection.
Peter’s walk and commentary will highlight the early development of the RAS and its former home in the ‘Waitanyuan’ and neighbouring areas, as well as looking back at the lively history of those areas themselves. With the kind courtesy of the RockBund project we will be allowed special access to view the interior of the former RAS building. The tour will terminate atop the post office building, with its fine postal museum, at the junction of North Suzhou Road and North Sichuan Road.
THE TOUR WILL TAKE AROUND 2.5 HOURS AND WILL BE STRICTLY LIMITED TO 20 PARTICIPANTS ON A FIRST COME, FIRST SERVED BASIS.
PLEASE RSVP AS SOON AS POSSIBLE TO ENSURE YOUR PLACE.
A MINIMUM DONATION OF RMB 150 A PERSON IS SUGGESTED - ALL PROCEEDS WILL GO TO OUR LIBRARY FUND.
No.1
DATE: SATURDAY,JANUARY19th
TIME: 09.30
STARTING POINT: LOBBY, ASTOR HOUSE (PUJIANG) HOTEL, 15 HUANGPU ROAD
Peter Hibbard will be leading a walking tour for RAS members to raise funds for the establishment of the new RAS library on January 19th.
The magnificent former RAS library collection, which is now safely housed in the Bibiloteca at Xujiahui, had as its core a collection purchased by public donation from one of its early Council members, Dr. Alexander Wylie, in 1868. With a sense of déjà vu some 140 years on we are presented with a similar set of circumstances as Mike Nethercott (RAS Vice President) and Dr. Liu Wei (former RAS Vice President and current Council member) have dug deep into their pockets to secure 79 precious volumes of the RAS North China Branch (Shanghai) Journals dating from 1859 to 1948 that the Society wishes to purchase to form the nucleus of its new collection.
Peter’s walk and commentary will highlight the early development of the RAS and its former home in the ‘Waitanyuan’ and neighbouring areas, as well as looking back at the lively history of those areas themselves. With the kind courtesy of the RockBund project we will be allowed special access to view the interior of the former RAS building. The tour will terminate atop the post office building, with its fine postal museum, at the junction of North Suzhou Road and North Sichuan Road.
THE TOUR WILL TAKE AROUND 2.5 HOURS AND WILL BE STRICTLY LIMITED TO 20 PARTICIPANTS ON A FIRST COME, FIRST SERVED BASIS.
PLEASE RSVP AS SOON AS POSSIBLE TO ENSURE YOUR PLACE.
A MINIMUM DONATION OF RMB 100 PERSON IS SUGGESTED - ALL PROCEEDS WILL GO TO OUR LIBRARY FUND.
- Shanghai -
THE RAS ANNUAL SOIREE
Dear RAS members and friends,
The new Council of the RAS is pleased to announce the resurrection of the RAS Annual Soiree. The first one was held in December 1938. Refreshments and sandwiches were served, a ‘motion picture’ was shown and a lecture was delivered on the ‘People of the Philippines.’
There will be no lecture this time around but we hope that the occasion will provide a great chance for you to meet fellow members for a fun evening in convivial surroundings. However, we will be screening a movie. And a very, very special one too! As a backdrop to the evening there will be a private screening of clips, largely shot in Shanghai in the 1930s, taken by the legendary Sir Victor Sassoon. Refreshments, sandwiches, finger food and canapés will also be on offer at this Filipino-managed venue.
Please join us on this historic occasion!
Date: Tuesday, December 11, 2007
Time: 7:00 p.m.
Venue: Figaro Coffee Shop, 2nd floor.
160 Xingye Road.
Xintiandi
Please RSVP by Saturday 8th December to:
fionalindsayshen@gmail.com
Price: Rmb 100 members
Rmb 150 non-members
Includes food and one cup of tea or coffee. Imported red and white wine will be on sale at just Rmb 25 a glass. New members are more than welcome to join on the night!
