Paul French 💙’s Tweets

Jun 27

I’ve been working on scripts, longreads & audio projects for a while. But now it’s time to get back to books. Been wanting to do the little known story of Wallis Simpson’s ‘Lotus Year’ in China (1924/25) for ages & now it’s happening thanks to

And some Christmas fan fiction!

Festive fiction: Murder on the Shanghai Express – a Christmas whodunit

’Twas the night before Christmas, and for senior detective John Creighton, the journey from Peking to join his family is derailed by a body, a brandy and a bloody whodunit.

I am fairly confidant that Ben Shapiro has read none of my 116 (& counting)

@CrimeReads

Crime & the City columns… given that each column has an average of approx two dozen books noted that’s around 2,700 books with possible misdirections in them.

Classical trash: how Taiwan’s musical bin lorries transformed ‘garbage island’

16h

Madeline/Shanghai Lil (Dietrich) born this day 1901…

Todays obscure blog post - my annual (10 years & running now!) round up of references to opium in popular culture (with links to previous years)…any recent additions welcome…. chinarhyming.com/2022/12/27/opi

Classical trash: how Taiwan’s musical bin lorries transformed ‘garbage island’. This was a fun story to do, with ⁦

@chihui__lin

⁩

theguardian.com

Army of yellow garbage trucks blasting out classical jingles brings out a Pavlovian response to take out bins

21h

A heads up for a great new contemporary Chinese novel, Cherries on a Pomegranate Tree by Li Er (translated by

@DaveHaysom

published by

@sinoistbooks

), out at CNY. In one-child China, when a mother runs from home because of her illegal pregnancy, it’s Kong Fanhua’s problem.

Is China still waging war on tech companies? - Focus - China Britain Business Council

My monthly author Q&A for

@ChinaBritain

Focus mag - Andrew Collier’s China’s Technology War: Why Beijing Took Down its Tech Giants (Palgrave Macmillan, 2022) discusses the political & economic context of China’s tech “crackdown” -

focus.cbbc.org

Baidu, Alibaba and Tencent have been hammered by Beijing's tech crackdown and common prosperity policies, so will they recover in 2023?

I did not know this (

@DwyerMurphy

probably did though)

Quote Tweet

Richard Osman

@richardosman

A reminder to anyone watching #TheGreatEscape that when Steve McQueen makes his escape leap on his motorbike, he is being played by a stuntman. But McQueen loved riding motorbikes, so he is actually playing one of the Nazis chasing himself.

The best China fiction novels of 2022 - Focus - China Britain Business Council

In case you’re pondering how to spend your Christmas book tokens (yes, they’re still a thing)…

focus.cbbc.org

From Perhat Tursun's window into Xinjiang, to an excellent upcoming Beijing novel by Tom Pellman, here's what China fiction to read now

The new ZiKaWei Library, right next to St Ignatius church.

Quote Tweet

Shanghai Let's meet

@ShLetsMeet

Here comes a new destination for local #bookworms. After 3 years of renovation, the iconic district #library

in Xujiahui area is about to open to the public. Zikawei Library features a Basilica-style atrium with 8 themed bookshelves on the sides, and a capacity of 800 seats.

Thank you Paul French for a generous shout out

A little fictional speculation on a possible previous adventure Madeline had on the Shanghai Express - a Christmas whodunit from 1929 - scmp.com/magazines/post

Todays obscure blogpost - Shanghai jazz gets a mention in Claude Mackay’s Home to Harlem (1928) which i happened to read recently…. chinarhyming.com/wp-admin/post.

Retweeted

China Books of The Year

@NewChinaBooks

We love lists. Here's another end-year selection of China books put together by

@alecash

Christmas Day movie selection on

Blown away by Gary Phillips’ One Shot Harry (

@soho_press

) - fantastic historic (early 60s) LA noir. Definitely a top crime read of 2022…

An Old China Christmas Whodunit from me to you courtesy of

@SCMPNews

- Detective Chief Inspector John Creighton’s journey home for the holidays is derailed by a death, a dagger and a few drinks. Sit back and enjoy the ride on the Shanghai Express -

Festive fiction: Murder on the Shanghai Express – a Christmas whodunit

’Twas the night before Christmas, and for senior detective John Creighton, the journey from Peking to join his family is derailed by a body, a brandy and a bloody whodunit.

A Christmas whodunit from me

@SCMPNews

set on a snowy Shanghai Express….Merry Christmas….

Quote Tweet

South China Morning Post

@SCMPNews

Christmas fiction: Murder on the Shanghai Express – an original whodunit scmp.com/magazines/post

No more COVID restrictions in China, malls and cinemas are open, some people even forced to work with COVID, but no Christmas service allowed for any church "to prolonge the lives of the community", says Xuhui district in Shanghai

109

Up for auction 18/1/23 - GEORGE CHINNERY (1774-1852). Attributed to. A CHINESE SAMPAN GIRL OF MACAO. Oil on canvas 28 x 23cm. ** Lined; some scattered retouching; some craquelure. easyliveauction.com/catalogue/lot/

Xmas listening? Destination Shanghai RTHK podcasts – a charming Swiss gangster hits the ‘Hai, so too Langston Hughes, A chanteuse flees Hitler to Hongkew, Cathay showgirls in peril, Charlie Chan arrives from Hollywood, Fairbanks/Pickford woo the old town: player.fm/series/destina

At ⁦

⁩ I helped round up the best China books of 2022 along with ⁦

⁩ ⁦

⁩ and ⁦

⁩

During Christmas 1942, cultural differences between China and its western allies were thrown into stark relief. Click here to read an excerpt from Peter Harmsen's new book on how the holiday was marked 80 years ago: chinaww2.com/2022/12/24/chr #China #Japan #WW2

The bizarre marketing for this book keeps taunting me wherever i go this winter!

Ranked: the 12 best Asian films of 2022, from RRR to Decision to Leave and Plan 75 | South China Morning Post

The 12 best Asian films of 2022: RRR, Decision to Leave, Plan 75 and more

South Korean thriller Decision to Leave won best director at Cannes, while in RRR the world discovered another directing talent. It was a banner year for Hong Kong cinema, too.

Alexander Vertinsky’s Christmas Eve Party at the Balalaika Shanghai… chinarhyming.com/2022/12/24/the

A range of China books from 2022 - my own choices being ⁦

@AdamBrookesWord

⁩ & ⁦

@lawrenceosborne

⁩ for China books of 2022 – The China Project

As you might expect, a rather serious list from ⁦

@thechinaproj

⁩ contributors, but they let me sneak in some history & a novel. The Best China books of 2022 – The China Project

In France they have mustard flavoured crisps…..

3/3 Yufeng Lucas Wu on a Peking opera family troupe from the 1600s plus book reviews from Frances Wood, Edith Terry & others. All edited by

@melindaliu1984

Email communications@rasbj.org for this, or any recent past, issues.

2/3 Graham Earnshaw on QEII’s 1986 China visit, Sven Serrano on Ivan Goncharov & the Russian Mission to Japan, Julie Chun on Shanghai girl cigarette ads,George Godula on the history of Kiessling Cafés, John Van Fleet on the economic reforms of 1978,

1/3 The Journal of

2022 is now out. Articles inc me on Hsiao Chien, Hsiung Shih-I & George Orwell at the BBC Eastern Service in WW2, Duncan Hewitt on JG Ballard’s Shanghai origins,

@jayjamescarter

on Doolittle Raids,

@JeremiahJenne

on Missionary Claude-Marie Chevrier,

Todays somewhat obscure blogpost - when (1929 to be precise) Vermont undertakers used images of the Summer Palace to advertise their services....

The fourth & final of my Old China Christmas Crackers for

@RTHK_HK

- today Errol Flynn who, long before he was famous, found himself reluctantly on guard duty with the HK Volunteers in Shanghai at Christmas 1931. He was not happy!! rthk.hk/radio/radio3/p

Nepal to release serial killer Charles ‘The Serpent’ Sobhraj

1/2 Out in France Alexis Jenni’s bio of Fridtjof Nansen (

@EditionsPaulsen

), the polar explorer & champion of the Nansen Pass refugee travel doc issued by the League of Nations to stateless refugees. Useful to anyone studying Russian exiles in China many of who were on Nansens.

Charles Sohbraj, who preyed on backpackers in the 1970s, is due to be released from jail. His biography is even more nuts than the Netflix series.

aljazeera.com

The French national, also known as ‘The Bikini Killer’, has been accused of murdering more than 20 backpackers in Asia.

BBC Urged To Review Ads For China By UK Lawmaker Sanctioned By Xi Jinping’s Regime

BBC Urged To Review Ads For China By Lord David Alton – Deadline

deadline.com

The BBC has been urged to rethink its decision to make adverts for organs of the Chinese state media.

An interesting article on the perfidies of Golden Bat cigarettes in China in WW2 by artist Samuel Porteous

The Japanese cigarette brand weaponised against Chinese smokers in wartime

Shanghai-based Canadian artist Samuel Porteous drew inspiration from vintage adverts for three cigarette brands popular in 1930s China, one of which, he writes, hid a dirty secret.