Paul French
@chinarhyming.bsky.social
Author, historian, maker of books and radio - Midnight in Peking, City of Devils, Murders of Old China, Peking Noir, The Defectors… Her Lotus Year: China, the Roaring Twenties and the Making of Wallis Simpson now out everywhere. Agent - Aitken-Alexander
For me, like so many, Martin Parr (1952-2025) was mostly about capturing the essence & minutiae in photography of this weird and wonderful thing called Britishness. But he also went to Shanghai around 1997 & discovered the crazy American Dream Park at Jiading & captured it in all its weirdness…
December 7, 2025 at 6:27 PM
For me, like so many, Martin Parr (1952-2025) was mostly about capturing the essence & minutiae in photography of this weird and wonderful thing called Britishness. But he also went to Shanghai around 1997 & discovered the crazy American Dream Park at Jiading & captured it in all its weirdness…
looking down into the walled city of Weihaiwei (Weihai) and the European area of Port Edward (now Huancui District) with Liukong (Liugong) Island offshore, c.1910
December 6, 2025 at 10:34 PM
looking down into the walled city of Weihaiwei (Weihai) and the European area of Port Edward (now Huancui District) with Liukong (Liugong) Island offshore, c.1910
Daunt Books Marylebone China section… with a little Wallis (& other Christmas gift ideas)…..
December 6, 2025 at 2:31 PM
Daunt Books Marylebone China section… with a little Wallis (& other Christmas gift ideas)…..
February 16 1949, the 60-strong motorcycle detachment of the Shanghai Self-Defense Corps leads a parade along Bubbling Well Road (Nanjing West Road) by the racecourse to suggest preparedness against ongoing communist advances towards the city. Photo by Warren Lee.
December 6, 2025 at 8:52 AM
February 16 1949, the 60-strong motorcycle detachment of the Shanghai Self-Defense Corps leads a parade along Bubbling Well Road (Nanjing West Road) by the racecourse to suggest preparedness against ongoing communist advances towards the city. Photo by Warren Lee.
David Guerrero’s You Won’t See Me (Penguin Southeast Asia)– A very fun read about when the Beatles ghosted Imelda Marcos in 1966 Manila….
December 5, 2025 at 4:04 PM
David Guerrero’s You Won’t See Me (Penguin Southeast Asia)– A very fun read about when the Beatles ghosted Imelda Marcos in 1966 Manila….
Excellent to see Misha Glenny will be taking over the chair for BBC Radio 4’s In Our Time from Melvyn Bragg. Had great fun chatting with Misha last year for the 4-part The Invention of China, which if you haven’t listened yet is right here…..
www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...
www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...
BBC Radio 4 - The Invention Of..., China, The First Emperor
Misha Glenny on where China came from and what it is now.
www.bbc.co.uk
December 4, 2025 at 11:47 PM
Excellent to see Misha Glenny will be taking over the chair for BBC Radio 4’s In Our Time from Melvyn Bragg. Had great fun chatting with Misha last year for the 4-part The Invention of China, which if you haven’t listened yet is right here…..
www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...
www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...
Last shout for signed exlibris bookplates for Christmas - let me know and i’ll get one in the post to you asap….
December 4, 2025 at 11:40 PM
Last shout for signed exlibris bookplates for Christmas - let me know and i’ll get one in the post to you asap….
Cecil Beaton’s portrait of Osbert Sitwell. later Sitwell sojourned in Peking with his friend Harold Acton. He stayed in the Grand Hotel de Pekin (now the Hotel Nuo) on Chang’an Jie. The photo is included in the current Cecil Beaton's Fashionable World exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery.
December 4, 2025 at 8:34 PM
Cecil Beaton’s portrait of Osbert Sitwell. later Sitwell sojourned in Peking with his friend Harold Acton. He stayed in the Grand Hotel de Pekin (now the Hotel Nuo) on Chang’an Jie. The photo is included in the current Cecil Beaton's Fashionable World exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery.
Cecil Beaton's "Japanese”, 1959, included in the National Portrait Gallery’s ongoing exhibition Cecil Beaton’s Fashionable World.
December 4, 2025 at 3:42 PM
Cecil Beaton's "Japanese”, 1959, included in the National Portrait Gallery’s ongoing exhibition Cecil Beaton’s Fashionable World.
Writer John Hopkins’ 1960s diaries of living in Tangier (Taurus Parke, 2021) has some wild stories….
December 4, 2025 at 12:12 PM
Writer John Hopkins’ 1960s diaries of living in Tangier (Taurus Parke, 2021) has some wild stories….
“A Chinese soldier at a demonstration by Chinese Surprise Troops at Pihu Training Centre in Fukien Province, China, 1944.” An images Beaton took in WW2 for the Ministry of Information included in the National Portrait Gallery’s exhibition Cecil Beaton’s Fashionable World to show his wartime work
December 4, 2025 at 8:55 AM
“A Chinese soldier at a demonstration by Chinese Surprise Troops at Pihu Training Centre in Fukien Province, China, 1944.” An images Beaton took in WW2 for the Ministry of Information included in the National Portrait Gallery’s exhibition Cecil Beaton’s Fashionable World to show his wartime work
Wallis in the Cecil Beaton’s Fashionable World exhibition ongoing at the National Portrait Gallery, London…
Her Lotus Year: China, the Roaring Twenties and the Making of Wallis Simpson is available everywhere in hardback, e-book and audiobook now…
Her Lotus Year: China, the Roaring Twenties and the Making of Wallis Simpson is available everywhere in hardback, e-book and audiobook now…
December 3, 2025 at 9:51 PM
Wallis in the Cecil Beaton’s Fashionable World exhibition ongoing at the National Portrait Gallery, London…
Her Lotus Year: China, the Roaring Twenties and the Making of Wallis Simpson is available everywhere in hardback, e-book and audiobook now…
Her Lotus Year: China, the Roaring Twenties and the Making of Wallis Simpson is available everywhere in hardback, e-book and audiobook now…
This week CrimeReads Crime and the City heads to Santo Domingo to see what’s happening with writing about the Dominican Republic…
crimereads.com/crime-and-th...
crimereads.com/crime-and-th...
Crime and the City: Santo Domingo
Santo Domingo, capital of the Dominican Republic. Biggest city in the Dominican Republic, and the biggest city in the Caribbean too, with just over a million people. Once upon a time of course a p…
crimereads.com
December 3, 2025 at 4:55 PM
This week CrimeReads Crime and the City heads to Santo Domingo to see what’s happening with writing about the Dominican Republic…
crimereads.com/crime-and-th...
crimereads.com/crime-and-th...
Cecil Beaton. Chinese Album, B.T. Batsford Ltd. London. Winter, 1945-6. First edition
December 3, 2025 at 4:28 PM
Cecil Beaton. Chinese Album, B.T. Batsford Ltd. London. Winter, 1945-6. First edition
A Christmas treat for a China Hand in your life?- all 3 of my Destination books - Shanghai, Peking & Macao - nearly 600 pages, over 50 essays and dozens of old photos & maps of old China!! - Save 20% by buying the book bundle from Blacksmith Books…
www.blacksmithbooks.com/books/paul-f..
www.blacksmithbooks.com/books/paul-f..
Paul French’s Destinations book bundle: 20% off
Paul French travels to the most storied cities in China to tell the tales of fascinating people who visited or lived there in the 19th and 20th centuries.
www.blacksmithbooks.com
December 3, 2025 at 7:04 AM
A Christmas treat for a China Hand in your life?- all 3 of my Destination books - Shanghai, Peking & Macao - nearly 600 pages, over 50 essays and dozens of old photos & maps of old China!! - Save 20% by buying the book bundle from Blacksmith Books…
www.blacksmithbooks.com/books/paul-f..
www.blacksmithbooks.com/books/paul-f..
Some pages from Edward Sheldon Wilkinson. Shanghai Birds. A Study of Bird Life in Shanghai and the Surrounding Districts. Shanghai: North-China Daily News & Herald Limited, 1929
December 3, 2025 at 6:18 AM
Some pages from Edward Sheldon Wilkinson. Shanghai Birds. A Study of Bird Life in Shanghai and the Surrounding Districts. Shanghai: North-China Daily News & Herald Limited, 1929
Anna May Wong photographed by Cecil Beaton at his Sussex Gardens studio, c.1929 for Beaton’s The Book of Beauty (1930). Anna May is surrounded by gypsophila held up by billiard cues! The photo is included in the current Cecil Beaton's Fashionable World exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery.
December 2, 2025 at 10:25 PM
Anna May Wong photographed by Cecil Beaton at his Sussex Gardens studio, c.1929 for Beaton’s The Book of Beauty (1930). Anna May is surrounded by gypsophila held up by billiard cues! The photo is included in the current Cecil Beaton's Fashionable World exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery.
The Zhengyangmen (aka Qianmen/Chienmen), Beijing, with a blue sky on a crisp October afternoon this year….
December 2, 2025 at 9:03 AM
The Zhengyangmen (aka Qianmen/Chienmen), Beijing, with a blue sky on a crisp October afternoon this year….
A great Stoppard anecdote from @oldfactoryfilms.bsky.social
December 2, 2025 at 8:25 AM
A great Stoppard anecdote from @oldfactoryfilms.bsky.social
Men by the roadside, Shandong province, c.1910
December 1, 2025 at 7:34 PM
Men by the roadside, Shandong province, c.1910
Hapoened to be googling to see if a short review I wrote recently had been published… Google’s “AI Overview” decided to tell me about two books I supposedly authored in 1998 and 2008 - needless to say I wrote neither of these, they’re pure invention - title, date, content!!!!
December 1, 2025 at 10:15 AM
Hapoened to be googling to see if a short review I wrote recently had been published… Google’s “AI Overview” decided to tell me about two books I supposedly authored in 1998 and 2008 - needless to say I wrote neither of these, they’re pure invention - title, date, content!!!!
Rua das Estelgens, Macao’s former “rag trade” street, 1986
December 1, 2025 at 4:17 AM
Rua das Estelgens, Macao’s former “rag trade” street, 1986
Your regular reminder that the Torygraph is a sickness and not a newspaper
November 30, 2025 at 10:18 PM
Your regular reminder that the Torygraph is a sickness and not a newspaper
Betty Crow (daughter of Carl Crow) with her stepfather Norris G Wood at the 1935 St Andrew’s Ball at the Cercle Sportif Français, French Concession, Shanghai
November 30, 2025 at 7:24 PM
Betty Crow (daughter of Carl Crow) with her stepfather Norris G Wood at the 1935 St Andrew’s Ball at the Cercle Sportif Français, French Concession, Shanghai
North Americans!! Black Friday/Cyber Monday deal across all e-book retailers- Her Lotus Year $2.99 till December 1.... Go on, treat yourself, you deserve it!
November 30, 2025 at 11:05 AM
North Americans!! Black Friday/Cyber Monday deal across all e-book retailers- Her Lotus Year $2.99 till December 1.... Go on, treat yourself, you deserve it!