Paul French
Author, historian, maker of books and radio - Midnight in Peking, City of Devils, Murders of Old China, Peking Noir, The Defectors, Her Lotus Year. Return to the City of Darkness - Kowloon Walled City on BBC R3 Feb 15. Agent - Aitken-Alexander
- Chinese farmer hoeing, location unknown, c.1910
- The new British Museum show covers Samurai in popular culture - most recently of course the multi-award winning reboot of James Clavell’s Shogun and Netflix’s Last Samurai Standing….
- the Hong Mong Antiquities Authority has added two structures in the Western District on Hong Kong Island to its collection of preserved and protected monuments: the Main Building of Old Tsan Yuk Maternity Hospital in Sai Ying Pun and Kwong Fook Tsz in Sheung Wan. www.timeout.com/hong-kong/ne...
- Tickets for all events for HKIlF 2026 on sale now including Amitav Ghosh, Hu Anyan, Hernan Diaz, Emma Pei Yin, Lawrence Osborne, Bonnie Tsui& man more. I’ll be talking with John le Carre’s biographer Adam Sisman on Fri, Mar 6 at the Fringe Club. www.eventbrite.com/cc/hong-kong...
- Hong Kong waterfront, a 1909 postcard so the picture is obviously somewhat earlier….
- The BM's exhibition Samurai is open. One of the most fascinating is of Christian samurai, Hasekura Tsunenaga. In 1613 he led a mission to Madrid and Rome to see Pope Paul V. They arrived in 1615 and he had his portrait painted in silk clothes by the Urbino artist Archita Ricci.
- Retelling Wallis Simpson’s adventures in 1920s China with EA Festival’s Joanne Ooi at China Tang at The Dorchester (who are hosting a literary supper club series in partnership with EA Festivals to celebrate their twentieth anniversary)….
- a view of Hong Kong Cricket Club New Pavilion. 1907
- A really great line up for this years Macao Literary Festival in March - macaudailytimes.com.mo/15th-macau-l...
- Chinese School (C1964) Watercolour, Hong Kong boats at the port.
- My long read for the South China Morning Post weekend magazine on the refurbishment of the 1928 Modernist Hotel Central, adjacent to Macao’s Senado Square. Once a haunt of gamblers, gangsters, spies, celebrities and Ian Fleming…. www.scmp.com/postmag/cult...
- This fortnight @crimereads.bsky.social Crime and the City heads to the Japanese port city of Osaka.. crimereads.com/crime-and-th...
- “Samurai” opens this week at the British Museum (through to May) - there’s a lot to see and a lot of ideas about Samurai culture - and armour of course 1) mounted archer armour 2) armoured helmets 3) child’s ceremonial armour
- In case you ever wondered what a yangnyeom chicken meha-mountain covered in cheese looked like….
- It’s hard not to conclude that the Daily Torygraph is not just a newsletter produced in an insane asylum….
- I must say that the NHK TV version of Keigo Shinzo’s manga Hirayasumi is very enjoyable television indeed…..
- Floor tiles at BBC’s Broadcasting House (1932), BH was Designed by Colonel George Val Myer to a classic Art Deco design and still includes the original mosaic floors…
- “Samurai” opens at the British Museum on Tuesday (3/2) and if you’ve got kids into the current wave of Samurai TV shows, video games, manga, then they’re going to love it, and learn a lot…
- Maybe i’ll finally get a job…..
- Always more dirt and venality with Mandelson - time to remove the peerage surely??
- Rosamund Pike in Shanghai - the icing on the cake of the PM’s trip really
- Rosamund Pike in Shanghai - the icing on the cake of the PM’s trip really
- Reposted by Paul FrenchThis might be the most China story I've seen all year. Villagers paint a patriotic Tiananmen mural. State media praises it. Tourists arrive. Officials panic. ….So they paint it over in blue.
- Labour delivering from the China visit - the very youth vote secured….
- Examples of "Shanghai" range Losol ware, a highly collectable, c.1912–1936 Art Nouveau, flow-blue style earthenware manufactured by Keeling & Co Ltd of Burslem, England. The Shanghai pattern features vibrant, multicoloured scenes including flowers (such as peonies), green foliage, and exotic birds…
- Excellent to hear Adam Tooze select Jonathan Chatwin’s The Southern Tour (Bloomsbury Asian Arguments) as one of his 3 book choices on the Ezra Klein podcast… podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/t...
- The view from the Weihaiwei (Weihai) city wall, c.1908, probably by Reginald Johnston
- Heads up - coming Feb 15th on BBC R3 and then BBC.com & the BBC Sounds app.... my exploration in sound and memory of the old Kowloon Walled City as part of BBC radio's "Between the Ears" ('thought-provoking features that make adventurous use of sound exploring a wide variety of subjects')
- January 30 2026 - ChinaRhyming - Some details of a new VoiceMap GPS walking tour of Kowloon's art-deco treasures, exploring the newly revamped 1920s Hotel Central in Macao, the last fortnight on ChinaRhyming....and more.... open.substack.com/pub/paulfren...
- Headman standing next to a tablet presented by the British administered Government of Weihaiwei, c.1908 The text reads (approx) “Saving the Northern People from Danger". I think this photo was by Reginald Johnston, then Assistant Commissioner of the Weihaiwei Leased Territory….
- Shanghai Bund facing up Nanjing Road, c.early 1900s. An unusual angle as taken from the riverfront behind the statue of Harry Parkes (UK Minister to Japan, China & Korea, from 1865) with the Palace Hotel (opened 1908) to the left & older buildings to replaced by the Cathay Hotel to the right.
