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RAS China in Shanghai - Newsletter Vol 4 No 3 – March 2013

NEWSLETTER Royal Asiatic Society China in Shanghai

MARCH 2013

Copy Deadline for Next Newsletter 20thof this month

Our Society provides a forum for the development and expression of interests and

expertise from within the local community, and from around the globe, to inspire and to enrich cultural life in Asia’s most dynamic metropolis.

RAS China in Shanghai is a branch of The Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland

For full details and updates of all our events please visit our website

www.royalasiaticsociety.org.cn

9th – Anne Witchard at Beijing Bookworm Literary Festival

Lao She in London

PLUS Lao She’s DING – a one act play adapted by Paul French

10th – RAS Panel: Lindsay Shen, Anne

Witchard and Susie Gordon at ‘M’ Shanghai Literary Festival

Tempest in a China Teapot

19th & 23rd – Shelly Bryant

Talk & Walk – Chinese Gardens

26th – Michael Humphries Surgeon on the China Seas - postponed

30th – Vince Ungvary

Talk & Exhibition – Antique Maps

FOCUS GROUPS

Book Club – Monday 11th & Sunday 24th

Study Group - Mondays 18th & 25th

Film Club – Sunday 17th

THIS MONTH’s SPEAKERS: Anne Witchard - Susie Gordon - Lindsay Shen,

Vince Ungvary - Shelly Bryant - Michael Humphries


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PRESIDENT’s NOTE At our last AGM on 27th November 2012, revisions to the Constitution were agreed and adopted to embrace the widening scope of the Royal Asiatic Society China. Members further proposed that we change the name of the Society to reflect these amendments. RAS Council has now considered the name change and has re-worded the Constitution accordingly. I wrote to members on 7th February 2013 advising this proposed change and requesting your Electronic Vote, by 15th February 2013. I am delighted to announce that the votes cast were sixty-six in favour and none against. This will be minuted at the Council Meeting on Thursday 14th March 2013 and the revised Constitution will be put on our website. Very many thanks to all those who voted. The name will be changed from Royal Asiatic Society China in Shanghai to Royal Asiatic Society China. This now paves the way for new chapters forming and avoids confusion over nomenclature. As you know, the RAS China – Suzhou Chapter, launched two years ago with Bill Dodson as Vice President. There are now plans to start a RAS China – Beijing Chapter, which is in the very earliest stages of gestation, thanks to Alan Babington-Smith for co-ordinating this. Alan, Peter Hibbard, Susie Gordon, Bill Dodson and myself will be attending the Beijing Bookworm Literary Festival session with RAS China Monograph author Anne Witchard and the World premier of DING, a one-act play adapted from Lao She by Paul French. Anyone who is interested in finding out more about the Beijing Chapter should contact: [email protected] Some good news… the RAS China Monograph Lao She in London, has just been selected for a major design award from the AAUP (American Association of University Presses). We beat off some stiff competition from other university presses around the world… and triumphed! The London committee noted the innovative way in which the new series combined different ways of publishing, collaborations between presses, groups and academics, and attention to design and presentation. Judging for the 2013 AAUP Book, Jacket and Journal Show took place on 24-25 January at the AAUP Central Office in New York City. Approximately 273 books, 331 jackets and cover design entries, and 4 journals were entered. 51 books and 44 jackets/covers were chosen by the jurors as the very best examples from this pool of excellent design. For more information see: http://www.aaupnet.org/events-a-conferences/book-jacket-and-journal-show/2013-show-information. Our thanks and congratulations are extended to publisher Michael Duckworth and the design team at Hong Kong University Press and RAS Series Editor Paul French. Special thanks to author Anne Witchard and to all our members for helping to fund this series through membership fees. We very much look forward to Monographs 3 & 4 being published later this year. On a recent visit to the UK, I was delighted to meet with Dame Elish Angiolini, Principal of St Hugh’s

College Oxford, where the new University of Oxford China Centre is being built. The building will also house the new University of Oxford China Centre Library, which will contain 60,000 volumes and a large part of the Bodleian Library’s collection of Chinese books. The anticipated opening will be in 2014. I took the opportunity to present to Dame Elish, copies of the RAS China Journal Vol 74 No 1 and RAS China Monographs 1 & 2.

Looking forward to seeing you at our forthcoming events.

Katy Gow

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4pm Sunday 10 March M on the Bund, 7/F No. 5 The Bund (corner Guangdong Road)

RAS Panel

Tempest in a China Teapot The early 20th century race to publish translations and interpretations of Chinese poetry involved fierce rivalries, malicious point-scoring and unabashed mud-slinging. Authors and academics Anne Witchard and Lindsay Shen discuss the backstabbing, bitchiness and tempest in the China teapot that rumbled on through the interwar years in Chinese poetry studies and read some of the major Chinese works in translation that were at the centre of the storm. Lindsay Shen and Anne Witchard, moderated by Susie Gordon. RMB 75, includes a drink; students RMB 20.

Lindsay Shen is Associate Professor at the Sino-British College, Shanghai. She is the Honorary Editor for the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society China in Shanghai. She has published in the fields of design and museum studies in Europe and the United States. Her latest publication is Knowledge is Pleasure: Florence Ayscough in Shanghai for the RAS Shanghai-Hong Kong University Press China Monographs series. Anne Witchard teaches modernism and literature at the University of Westminster in London. She is also author of Thomas Burke's Dark Chinoiserie and, most recently, Lao She in London for the RAS Shanghai-Hong Kong University Press China Monographs series. Anne also runs the conference series and research project, China in Britain: Myths and Realities. Tickets: on sale from February 15, www.mypiao.com, 400-620 6006 (Mon-Fri, 9am-6pm). Cash only, delivery charges apply. Tickets available at the door (M on the Bund/Glamour Bar) during Festival sessions, March 1-17. In person only, no online or telephone bookings. Author List & Program: www.m-literaryfestival.com Updates on Facebook: Shanghai.LiteraryFestival and Twitter: @LitfestShanghai

Beijing Lit Fest - MARCH EVENTS - Shanghai Lit Fest

RAS at BFL There will be an opportunity at the following events for those interested in starting a Beijing Chapter to meet with Beijing resident Alan Babington-Smith and representatives from RAS China in Shanghai.

Lao She in London with Anne Witchard RAS China Monograph Series with HKUP 20:00 - 9th March – 80 rmb 1920. London’s West End. The Bloomsbury Group, Vorticists, Ezra Pound, the cabaret at the Cave of the Golden Calf. In the middle of this scene of risqué flappers and Anna May Wong films, Lao She, one of China’s eminent modern writers, wrote two of his greatest novels. Anne Witchard, a specialist in the modernist milieu of London between the wars, reveals in Lao She in London the writer’s encounter with British high modernism and literature from Dickens to Conrad to Joyce. Join us to hear more on how London shaped one of China’s most influential writers and changed the course of Chinese modernism.

Lao She’s Ding – a One-Act Play 22:00 - 9th March – 50 rmb Fabrizio Massini, Paul French During his time in London, Lao She wrote the short story “Ding” about a young man’s struggle with his own Chinese identity, his struggle between modernity and tradition and experience as a “foreigner.” Join us for a special production of a stage adaptation of this marvelous tale, produced by Elephant in the Room and adapted for the stage by Paul French. MORE DETAILS BELOW

The Bookworm Download Map Building 4, Nan Sanlitun Road, Chaoyang

District, Beijing 100027, P.R China Tel: (010) 6586 9507

Email: [email protected] Web: http://beijingbookworm.com

8pm Saturday 9 March


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A one-man monologue based on the short story of the same name by Lao She, first published in 1935; adapted by Paul French in 2012

DING Performed by Wang Xuankun 王轩堃 Wang Xuankun (王轩堃) graduated from the Central Academy of Drama in 2007 with a degree in directing. He appeared in numerous theatre plays including Huang Ying’s “To be continued” (2007), “Floating city” (Beijing Fringe 2009), tv series and films (e.g. “Niu pi zhi” 牛皮纸, 2010). Directed by Fabrizio Massini Fabrizio Massini has been active as actor and director for many years in Italy. While at the University of London, he combined his two biggest passions, theatre and all things Chinese, and focused his research on modern Chinese theatre and cinema. During his year-long residency at the Central Academy of Drama of Beijing, he co-founded the theatre company “Elephant in the Room”. Besides its own productions, EITR also connects theatre practitioners, producers and organizers, and assist academic institutions in carrying out research and cultural exchange. Massini’s work as a director include “Time out”, “Facehook / 人�网开心” and most recently “Team player / 团队者”.

Adapted by Paul French Long-time Shanghai resident, French is the author of the New York Times bestseller Midnight in Peking (Penguin), a true crime story set in 1937 Peking. Midnight in Peking has been nominated for an Edgar and is currently being developed as a series for UK TV. French has just published a Penguin Special continuing his investigations into the seedy underbelly of 1930s China called The Badlands: Decadent Playground of Old Peking. Composition by George Holloway English composer George Holloway was born in Bristol, studied Classics at Worcester College, University of Oxford, and received his PhD in composition from the University of Southampton. As a composer, his most important mentors have been Robert Saxton and Michael Finnissy. He currently works and studies in Beijing as a composer, conductor and academic. His music has been performed in Europe, America and Asia, and has been broadcast on BBC Radio 3. George taught at the University of Southampton from 2006 to 2012, has been busy as a concert organizer and conductor, and as a choral singer has performed in more than ten different countries and broadcast on BBC radio and abroad. With thanks to: The Beijing Bookworm, Kadi Hughes, Alex Pearson, Penguin China, Anne Witchard and the Royal Asiatic Society China in Shanghai.

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DING LAO SHE’S MODERNIST DAY OUT AT THE BEACH Dr. Anne Witchard Department of English, Linguistics & Cultural Studies, University of Westminster

Lao She (1899-1966) was one of the earliest and most accomplished exponents of politically-oriented literary naturalism during China’s Republican period. His mid-career novels, such as Rickshaw Boy (1936) and later work, such as the play, Teahouse (1957), stand firmly in this tradition, combining writing in the Chinese vernacular with influences from Russian literature as well as western European modernism. However, for more overtly high modernist style we need to delve into the short stories. Lao She began writing short stories around the early/mid-1920s and had published several large collections by the mid-‘30s. The short story “Ding” (1935) comes from this later burst of creativity, directly referencing European modernism in its homage to Joyce’s Ulysses (1922). Ding is also a politically committed text. It is a commentary in part on the treaty port system and Chinese national sovereignty and self-respect – we are in Tsingtao (Qingdao), a port controlled prior to WW1 by the Germans and then by the Japanese after Japan’s declaration of war on Germany in accordance with the Anglo-Japanese Alliance. The failure of the Allied powers at the Versailles Peace Conference in 1919 to restore Chinese rule to Shandong triggered the revolutionary May Fourth Movement. Qingdao reverted to the Republic of China’s rule in 1922, and became a direct-controlled municipality of the ROC in 1929. Such was the situation of Qingdao at the time of “Ding.” Later, in 1938, Japan was to re-occupy Qingdao. Lao She was intrigued by the same major literary issues as European modernists like Joyce and T. S. Eliot; namely how might you write a classical epic for the modern age? The modernist solution, as we see with both Leopold Bloom in (colonial) Dublin and the snapshot of Ding in (semi-colonial) Qingdao, is to take a man and examine the daily minutiae of his life, elevate it and invest it with mythological significance akin to the framework of Homer’s Odyssey. Lao She engages with this modernism as the first Chinese Republic fights its way into the modern world – Ding is the narrow-chested Apollo gasping for breath symbolising Chi-na’s problematic position in the global hierarchy of the 1930s. Ding is an exemplar of the new, young Chinese man – ambitious, acutely aware of his time and place in history, frustrated by so much about his country and culture. Lao She made a pilgrimage to Dublin after being inspired by Joyce’s work. Just before the start of his final teaching term at London’s School of Oriental Studies, in September, 1928, he stayed for a week at the Waverley Hotel, perched on the Summit of Howth from where he could look across Dublin Bay’s crescent-shaped shoreline which curves around to Dun Laoghaire’s Martello tower, home to Stephen Dedalus at the beginning of Ulysses in the first chapter ‘Telemachus’. Like this chapter, “Ding” is written in the form of an interior monologue – a stream of consciousness reminiscent both of Joyce and other modernist writers such as Virginia Woolf. There are many direct allusions – Stephen Dedalus in Ulysses describes the sea as “snot green” while Ding describes the sea as “like phlegm”. Just like Leopold Bloom, Joyce’s flawed but engaging Irish Jew in the chapter ‘Calypso’, Ding obsesses about women, the way they look and what they wear (in the one case tight-laced corsets, in the other foot bindings), while we follow his thoughts as they meander quizzically over the influence of the popular press, the effects of advertising, pecuniary practicalities, colonial exigencies but chiefly the rapidly changing sexual mores of the time. Anne Witchard’s new study Lao She in London (2012) looks at Lao She’s encounter with literary modernism and his early work, particularly his novel of 1920s London and the Chinese in that city, Mr Ma and Son (Er Ma, 1929).


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RAS Lecture & Weekender – DOUBLE FEATURE Tiny Mountains, Miniature Seas: How to Read a Chinese Garden

Talk & Walk - SHELLY BRYANT Talk - Tuesday 19th – 7pm for 7.30 pm start Venue: RAS Library. Cost: Members 30 rmb; Non-M 80 rmb Walk - Saturday 23rd - maximum 30 participants Registration 8.30am – Return to Shanghai approx 6pm. Cost: Members 250 rmb; Non-Members 350 rmb Travel to Suzhou by bus – visit two gardens – lunch.

RAS Weekender - DOUBLE FEATURE Saturday 30th - Talk & Exhibition VINCE UNGVARY “Hidden Treasures” an exploration of antique maps of Asia and China 16th-18th century

Talk: held at Radisson Blu Plaza Xing Guo Hotel at 3.30pm for 4pm start Cost: Members 80 rmb; Non Members 130 rmb – includes one selected drink Depart Radisson at 5.30pm and walk to Gallery to view Exhibition at 5.45pm Exhibition: at the Hong Merchant Gallery, Lane 3, 372 Xing Guo Lu. Click here for Gallery details: http://www.hongmerchant.com/contact.php

Lectures - MARCH - Weekenders RSVP: to RAS Bookings at: [email protected]

Event Notices are sent out one week prior to the event. Details are also featured on our website: www.royalasiaticsociety.org.cn

LECTURE: Tuesday 26th - MICHAEL HUMPHRIES Surgeon on the China Seas. The Journal of Charles Courtney, Surgeon RN recounting experiences and observations of the Second Opium War, 1856 – 1860 With apologies: THIS EVENT IS NOW POSTPONED VENUE: RAS Library - 7pm for 7.30pm start COST: Members 30 rmb; Non Members 80 rmb Copies of the book will be available

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RAS STUDY GROUP 2nd and 4th Monday of the month 7pm for 7:15pm start at Melange Oasis Jiashan Market Shanxi Nan Road Lane 550 No. 37 Building D Suggested Donation : Members - 20 rmb Guests – 50 rmb Co-ordinator: Katie Baker Great Minds of the Eastern Intellectual Tradition (published by The Great Courses) Great Minds of the Eastern Intellectual Tradition is an epic, comprehensive survey of the East's most influential philosophers and thinkers. In 36 lectures, award-winning Professor Grant Hardy of the University of North Carolina at Asheville introduces you to the men and women responsible for molding Asian philosophy and for giving birth to a wide variety of spiritual and ideological systems, including Hinduism, Daoism, Confucianism, Sufism, and Buddhism. By focusing on these key thinkers in their historical contexts, you'll witness the development of these rich traditions as they shaped and defined Eastern cultures through the rise and fall of empires, the friendly and hostile encounters with each other and with the Western world, and the rapid advancements of the modern age.

About the Professor: Dr. Grant Hardy is Professor of History and Religious Studies and Director of the Humanities Program at the University of North Carolina at Asheville. He earned his B.A. in Ancient Greek from Brigham Young University and his Ph.D. in Chinese Language and Literature from Yale University.

Professor Hardy has received a wealth of awards and accolades for both his teaching and his scholarship. At the University of North Carolina, he won the 2002 Distinguished Teacher Award for the Arts and Humanities Faculty, and he was named to a Ruth and Leon Feldman Professorship for 2009 to 2010. He also received a research grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities, and he participated in scholarly symposia at prestigious universities around the world, including Harvard University and the University of Heidelberg.

Professor Hardy has written, co-written, or edited six books, including Worlds of Bronze and Bamboo: Sima Qian's Conquest of History; The Establishment of the Han Empire and Imperial China; and the first volume of the Oxford History of Historical

18th March and 25th March

RAS LIBRARY OPENING TIMES for MARCH

WEDNESDAY AFTERNOON: 2-5pm: 6th - 13th - 20th - 27th

SATURDAY AFTERNOON: 3-6pm

3-6pm: 2nd - 9th - 16th - 23rd

12-3pm: 30th

ACQUISITION REQUESTS and LIBRARY ENQUIRIES should be sent to the Hon Librarian, Ed Allen:

[email protected]

RAS Library - Directions

The Sino-British College, USST No.1195 Fuxing Zhong Road

Shanghai, 200031 PRC

上海市复兴中路1195号上海理工大学中英国际学院

Fuxing Zhong Lu/Shaanxi Nan Lu

Enter the main gate and turn right towards the SBC Learning and Resource Centre Building with the white balcony.

The RAS Library is situated on the ground floor just inside the main entrance to the left of the staircase.

Members may borrow two books Refundable Deposit: 500 rmb (cash)


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Great Minds of the Eastern

Intellectual Tradition (published by The Great Courses)

2013 Screening schedule

February 25 Lecture 1, Life's Great Questions, Asian Perspectives Lecture 2, The Vedas and Upanishads-The Beginning March 18 Lecture 3, Mahavira and Jainism-Extreme Nonviolence Lecture 4, The Buddha-The Middle Way March 25 Lecture 5, The Bhagavad Gita-The Way of Action Lecture 6, Confucius-In Praise of Sage-Kings April 8 Lecture 7, Laozi and Daoism-The Way of Nature Lecture 8, The Hundred Schools of Pre-Imperial China April 22 Lecture 9, Mencius and Xunzi-Confucius's Successors Lecture 10, Sunzi and Han Feizi-Strategy and Legalism May 13 Lecture 11, Zarathustra and Mani-Dualistic Religion Lecture 12, Kautilya and Ashoka-Buddhism and Empire May 27 Lecture 13, Ishvarakrishna and Patanjali-Yoga Lecture 14, Nagarjuna and Vasubandhu-Buddhist Theories June 10 Lecture 15, Sima Qian and Ban Zhao-History and Women Lecture 16, Dong Zhongshu and Ge Hong-Eclecticism June 24 Lecture 17, Xuanzang and Chinese Buddhism Lecture 18, Prince Shotoku, Lady Murasaki, Sei Shonagon July 8 Lecture 19, Saicho to Nichiren-Japanese Buddhism Lecture 20, Shankara, Ramanuja, Madhva-Hindu Vendanta July 22 Lecture 21, Al-Biruni-Islam in India Lecture 22, Nanak and Sirhindi-Sikhism and Sufism August 12 Lecture 23, Han Yu to Zhu Xi-Neo-Confucianism Lecture 24, Wang Yangming-The Study of Heart-Mind August 26 Lecture 25, Dogen and Hakuin- Zen Buddhism Lecture 26, Zeami and Sen no Rikyu-Japanese Aesthetics Sept 9 Lecture 27, Wonhyo to King Sejong-Korean Philosophy Lecture 28, Padmasambhava to Tsongkhapa-Tibetan Ideas Sept 23 Lecture 29, Science and Technology in Premodern Asia Lecture 30, Muhammad Iqbal and Rabindranath Tagore October 14 Lecture 31, Mohandas Gandhi-Satyagraha, or Soul-Force Lecture 32, Fukuzawa Yikichi and Han Yongun October 28 Lecture 33, Kang Youwei and Hu Shi Lecture 34, Sun Yat-sen and Mao Zedong November 11 Lecture 35, Modern Legacies Lecture 36, East and West November 25 TBD December 9 TBD

RSVP is essential as space is limited. [email protected]

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RAS BOOK CLUB at GloLondon, No 1 Wulumuqi Lu 7pm prompt ENTRANCE: includes one selected drink Members – 70 rmb Non members & Guests – 100 rmb

Monday 11th MARCH Lao She in London with guest author Anne Witchard

EXTRA… Book Club for March

Sunday 24th March Change: What Was Communism

by Mo Yan Nobel Prize for Literature 2012

RSVP is essential as space is limited [email protected]

Co-ordinator - Sandy Strand

RAS FILM CLUB PLEASE NOTE - NEW VENUE same building but closer to Sichuan Lu at Chai Bites Lounge Embankment Building, Ground Floor 370, North Suzhou Road Usually 3rd Sunday of the month – 7pm prompt Suggested Donation : Members - 20 rmb Guests – 50 rmb PLEASE NOTE CHANGE OF DATE

31st MARCH

Chungking Express (1994)

Wong Kar Wai

RSVP is essential as space is limited [email protected]

Co-ordinator - Linda Johnson


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RAS CHINA in SHANGHAI MONOGRAPH SERIES with Hong Kong University Press

KINDLE version – OUT NOW - KINDLE version Both available at: www.Amazon.com

http://www.amazon.com/Lao-London-China-Shanghai-

ebook/dp/B00993KZFE/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1350273552&sr=8-2&keywords=lao+she+in+London

http://www.amazon.com/Knowledge-Pleasure-Florence-Ayscough-

ebook/dp/B009RP6LXE/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1350525471&sr=1-1&keywords=knowledge+is+pleasure

BOTH also available at: www.Amazon.co.uk

http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-

keywords=lao+she+in+london http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-

keywords=knowledge+is+pleasure&rh=i%3Aaps%2Ck%3Aknowledge+is+pleasure

Hard copies of Series 1 and 2 are available for purchase at RAS events

& RAS Library opening times CASH & COLLECTION ONLY To reserve your copies email: [email protected]

putting “Monographs” in the subject box

Lao She in London

Anne Witchard RAS China in Shanghai series - 1

August 2012 188 pp. 14 b/w illus. Paperback ISBN 978-988-8139-60-6 RMB 100

Knowledge Is Pleasure Florence Ayscough in Shanghai

Lindsay Shen RAS China in Shanghai series - 2

August 2012 176 pp. 6 colour, 15 b/w illus. Paperback ISBN 978-988-8139-59-0 RMB 100

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RAS CHINA MONOGRAPH SERIES 1 Lao She in London - Anne Witchard

‘London is blacker than lacquer’ Lao She remains revered as one of China’s great modern writers. His life and work have been the subject of volumes of critique, analysis and study. However, the four years the young aspiring writer spent in London between 1924 and 1929 have largely been overlooked. Dr Anne Witchard, a specialist in the modernist milieu of London between the wars, reveals Lao She's encounter with British high modernism and literature from Dickens to Conrad to Joyce. Lao She arrived from his native Peking to the whirl of London's West End scene -‐ Bloomsburyites, Vorticists, avant-gardists of every stripe, Ezra Pound and the cabaret at the Cave of the Golden Calf. Immersed in the West End 1920s world of risqué flappers, the tabloid sensation of England's "most infamous Chinaman Brilliant Chang" and Anna May Wong's scandalous film Piccadilly, simultaneously Lao She spent time in the notorious and much sensationalised East End Chinatown of Limehouse. Out of his experiences came his great novel of London Chinese life and tribulations -‐ Ma & Son: Two Chinese in London. However, as Witchard reveals, Lao She's London years affected his writing and ultimately the course of Chinese modernism in far more profound ways.

"A beautifully written book that combines literary biography with a remarkably succinct account of British modernism and an evocative portrait of interbellum London, as viewed through Chinese eyes. Anne Witchard reminds us eloquently of the key role played by Chinese influences -‐ both classical and modern -‐ in literary modernism, and makes a great contribution to our understanding of Lao She's London years."

Julia Lovell, Birkbeck College, University of London

“Sent by missionaries to teach Chinese in London, the fastidious writer and intellectual Lao She arrived in 1928 in a city brimming with prejudice where tourists visited Whitechapel to see opium dens and experience the Yellow Peril at first hand. Lao She’s novel about London reflects his experience of missionary condescension and popular panic. Anne Witchard’s wonderful weaving of Chinese and British intellectual lives with the horror engendered by characters such as Dr Fu Manchu is a fascinating reminder of how attitudes and prejudices needed to change.”

Frances Wood, Curator, Chinese Collections, British Library

“This perceptive and engaging book explores the London years and writings of one of China's finest twentieth century novelists. Lao She came to Britain to teach Chinese, but as Witchard ably shows, the fiction and essays he wrote here teach us instead new ways to understand 1920s London, Anglo-‐Chinese relations, and the transnational world of modern literature.”

Professor Robert Bickers, Department of History, University of Bristol


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RAS CHINA MONOGRAPH SERIES 2 Lindsay Shen

Knowledge is Pleasure: A Life of Florence Ayscough

'The Sensuous Realist'

Florence Ayscough -‐ poet, translator, Sinologist, Shanghailander, avid collector, pioneering photographer and early feminist champion of women's rights in China. Ayscough's modernist translations of the classical poets still command respect, her ethnographic studies of the lives of Chinese women still engender feminist critiques over three quarters of a century later and her collections of Chinese ceramics and objects now form an important part of several American museum’s Asian art collections. Raised in Shanghai in an archetypal Shanghailander family in the late nineteenth century, Ayscough was to become anything but a typical foreigner in China. Encouraged by the New England poet Amy Lowell, she was to become a much sought after translator in the early years of the new century, not least for her radical interpretations of the Tang Dynasty poet Tu Fu published by the renowned literary critic Harriet Monroe. She later moved on to record China and particularly Chinese women using the new technology of photography, turn the Royal Asiatic Society's Shanghai library into the best on the China Coast and build several impressive collections featuring jars from the Dowager Empress Xi Ci, Ming and Qing ceramics. By the time of her death, Florence Ayscough has left a legacy of collecting and scholarship unrivalled by any other foreign woman in China before or since. In this biography, Dr Lindsay Shen recovers Ayscough for posterity and returns her to us as a woman of amazing intellectual vibrancy and strength.

“In this well-‐researched book, Lindsay Shen has brought Florence Ayscough to life and painted a fascinating picture of the many aspects of the life of the foreign community in old Shanghai. Using enchanting prose, Lindsay shows us a scholarly and unusual woman who, in her study of Chinese language and culture was ahead of her times.”

Jane Portal, Matsutaro Shoriki Chair, Art of Asia, Oceania, and Africa, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

“This is a sensitive and elegantly written biography of one of the most passionate Sinologists of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The author moves fluidly between closely shadowing Florence Ayscough’s remarkable life and immersion in Chinese culture and stepping back to illuminate her setting and kindred spirits. Those previously familiar with only a few of Ayscough’s pioneering achievements will find in this monograph a coherent narrative unfolding before them; those for whom she is an unknown name are in for the delight of discovery. Lindsay Shen is to be admired for recognizing that this impressive story is worth telling and for giving it such vividly human character. “

Elinor Pearlstein, Associate Curator of Chinese Art, Art Institute of Chicago


1195 Fuxing Zhong Lu/Shaanxi Nan Lu www.sbc-usst.edu.cn

Rm 201, Raffles City, 268 Central Tibet Rd www.interfaceglobal.com

THANK YOU to all our recent EVENT PATRONS………

President – Katy Gow Vice Presidents – Tess Johnston, Mike Nethercott, Jan Flohr

Hon Secretary – Patricia Lambert Hon Treasurer – Simon Drakeford Hon Programme Director - vacant

Hon Journal Editor - vacant Hon Librarian – Ed Allen

Hon Research & Publications Director – Paul French Council Member – IT matters – Lynn Fawcett

Council Member – Communication - Alexandra Hendrickson Council Member - Membership – Wendy Stockley

Council Member – Susie Gordon Council Member – Peter Hibbard Council Member – Liz Jennings

Council Member – Neale McGoldrick

Vice President Suzhou Chapter – Bill Dodson

SUZHOU Gunxiufang 77, Shi Quan Jie. www.suzhoubookworm.com

www.earnshawbooks.com

www.hkupress.org

410C North Suzhou Rd Hongkou www.chailiving.com

Jiashan Market Shanxi Nan Road Lane 550 No. 37 Building D www.melange-oasis.com

1 Wulumuqui Lu www.glolondon.com

78 Xing Guo Road, Shanghai 200052 www.radisson.com/shanghaicn_plaza

HON VICE PRESIDENTS

Carma Elliott CMG OBE,

Nenad Djordjevic,

Professor Liu Wei

RAS Council Members 2012-2013

www.coca-cola.com

HONORARY PRESIDENT Mr Brian Davidson

HM Consul General British Consulate Shanghai

Enquiries: [email protected] Membership: [email protected]

20 Huqiu Lu www.rockbundartmuseum.org

PAST PRESIDENTS

2007-2011 – Peter Hibbard MBE

www.m-literaryfestival.com

http://bookwormfestival.com

http://hongmerchant.com


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RAS MEMBERSHIP FORM Any foreign passport holder interested in Asian culture and in promoting the aims of the Society may apply for

membership. (PRC law unfortunately prohibits us from admitting Chinese nationals.) The Society operates a rolling membership system – membership is valid for one year from the date of

registration. Payments are only possible in cash – please remit your fee and completed form to a Council member at one of our events.

PLEASE VISIT the Society’s website for up-to-date news of all events. Past newsletters are also available:

RAS General Enquiries: [email protected]

RAS Membership Enquiries: [email protected]

RAS Library: [email protected]

RAS Event Bookings: [email protected]

RAS Film Club: [email protected] - RAS Book Club: [email protected]

RAS Study Group: [email protected]

ras china in shanghai newsletter - royal asiatic … · lao she in london plus lao she’s ......

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