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‘Nostalgia 他乡’ – Film Screening followed by a bilingual Q&A session with Director, Li Jie in English and Chinese.
SOAS
24th April
5pm to 7.30pm
Saturday 21st January
A colourful talk on Spring Festival and its Symbols at 3.15pm by society
director Peng Wenlan at the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich.
At 4.10pm, Wenlan will be joining Global Fusion Music & Arts on the Big Map in a lively performance of The Jade Emperor featuring the twelve animals of the Chinese zodiac.
A must for children and adults alike!
https://www.rmg.co.uk/whats-on/national-maritime-museum/lunar-new-year
Entry is free but tickets should be booked in advance to ensure a place
Monday 13th February
The British Library will be hosting a panel discussion chaired with Hannah Lowe and Peng Wenlan to look into their families’ personal stories of migration from the Caribbean and India, respectively, chaired by Dr Lucienne Loh of Liverpool University.
To book, please go to: https://www.bl.uk/events/the-british-empire-and-the-chinese-diaspora
The Open University invites us to the 6th session of their Modern Chinese literature online book club on Friday 12th April, 1-2pm UK time (8-9pm Beijing time).
All are welcome to attend and you do not need to have attended any of their prior book club sessions. The session is informal, friendly and held in English.
A note from them on their book club:
“In this session, we’ll be discussing the story Mister Lover (舅舅情人) by WANG Xiaobo (王小波)and translated by Eric Abrahamsen.
You can read the story in Chinese here and a full translation in English on the Paper Republic website here
About the facilitators:
Emily Jones – Emily Jones is a founding Trustee of Paper Republic, a charity which promotes Chinese literature in English translation. She is a graduate of Chinese Studies from the University of Cambridge (1998 – 2002). She also studied Chinese at the Chinese universities of Ningbo and Qingdao and was the recipient of a British Centre for Literary Translation mentorship in translation in 2011. Her publications include novels such as Black Holes (性之罪 ) by He Jiahong (何家弘); short stories such as Fiction and Other Stories (李喬短篇小說精選集) by Lee Chiao
(李喬), as well as poetry.
We are delighted that two translators familiar with Wang Xiaobo’s work will be joining us for the session, Jason Sommer and Zhang Hongling.
Their translations of Wang Xiaobo were published by State University of New York Press in 2007 in the volume titled Wang in Love and Bondage: Three Novellas by Wang Xiaobo . The novellas in that collection are “2015,” “The Golden Age,” and “East Palace, West Palace,” the third being the title of the film adaptation of “Sentiments Like Water.” As we note in the book’s introduction, the story was written expressly for the film, virtually simultaneously, and the film was responsible for perhaps Wang’s widest recognition in the west.
Hongling also wrote an article in 2021, published by The China Project on the anniversary of his death. The article, titled ‘The yin and yang worlds of a Chinese Literary Outlier’ offers some insights into his life and writings. You may want to read this for further background on Wang Xiaobo: The yin and yang worlds of a Chinese literary outlier – The China Project.
Jason’s latest publication is the memoir Shmuel’s Bridge: Following the Tracks to Auschwitz with My Survivor Father. He is author of five poetry collections: most recently Portulans in the University of Chicago Press’s Phoenix Poets Series. A former Stegner Fellow in Poetry at Stanford University, he has won a Whiting Foundation Writers’ Award and has held fellowships at the Bread Loaf and Sewanee writer’s conferences. He has published translations of Irish language poems and, with Hongling, collaborative book-length translations of Chinese fiction: Wang in Love and Bondage: Three Novellas by Wang Xiaobo and The Bathing Women by Tie Ning, which was longlisted for the Man Asia Literary Prize.
For questions to consider for the discussion, please visit our webpage here.
To attend, please register on Eventbrite here.
The session will be held on Zoom and the link will be sent to you closer to the date. We look forward to seeing you
there!
The Online Confucius Institute team at the Open University (online-ci@open.ac.uk)”
TMS Annual General Meeting for 2025 Followed By Her Lotus Year Talk by Paul French
Date: Saturday 19th July 2025
Time: 2 pm
Venue: Caffè Tropea, Russell Square, London WC1B 5EH
Please RSVP by the 1st of July by emailing themeridiansociety@gmail.com. The AGM will be followed by a talk from Paul French, “Her Lotus Year”. Copies of the book will be available for sale on the day.
HER LOTUS YEAR
China, The Roaring Twenties and the Making of Wallis Simpson
Paul French
New York Times bestselling author, Paul French who specialises in the history of 20th century China, examines a controversial and revealing period in the early life of the legendary Wallis Simpson, to tell the untold story of a woman too often maligned by history.
‘Paul French has discovered a side of Wallis Simpson that few, if any, will ever have known existed. From connoisseur to intrepid adventurer, Simpson would have made her mark wherever she ended up in the world.’
Amanda Foreman
In her memoirs, Wallis Simpson described her time in China as her ‘Lotus Year’, referring to Homer’s Lotus Eaters, a group living in a state of dreamy forgetfulness, never to return home. That year, however, was also used to damn Wallis in the eyes of the British establishment. Determined to ‘save’ the monarchy, the British government’s ‘China Dossier’ of Wallis’s rumoured and immoral activities in the Far East portrayed her as sordid, debauched, influenced by foreign agents and unfit to marry a king.
For the first time, Paul French, tells the true story of what really happened to Wallis during that year, dispelling many of the myths and gossip surrounding it. ‘I always knew there was more to Wallis’s China sojourn than the standard biographies revealed’ says French. ‘China in the mid-1920s was an incredible time, a dangerous time – the Jazz Age with a Chinese spin against a backdrop of a new republic faced with civil war and economic chaos. Wallis Simpson joined a far-flung colony of America’s post Great War “Lost Generation.” She spent time in colonial Hong Kong, a Guangzhou torn apart by revolutionary violence, dazzling and fast-paced Shanghai, and the ancient capital of Peking.’
In HER LOTUS YEAR, French reveals for the first time:
• The truth behind the British government’s ‘China Dossier’ which was widely talked about and supposedly circulated at the time of the abdication crisis in an attempt to destroy Wallis’s reputation.
• A fresh perspective on Wallis and her year in China. Having lived and worked in Shanghai for many years French has drawn on his expertise and extensive knowledge of the country and had access to archives in China not available to previous biographers.
• How Wallis’s year in China was fundamental to who she was to become, the woman who Edward VIII ultimately chose over the British throne. She refused to put up with an abusive husband, opted to forge a life on her own, travelled in a country torn apart by warlord armies and discovered what would become a passion for Chinese aesthetics, defining her style and fashion tastes for the rest of her life.
• Wallis as a woman of tremendous courage who may well have served her country as a documents courier between the various disparate and embattled embassies and consulates of the US across a China torn by civil wars.
HER LOTUS YEAR reveals the full story of the incredible and transformative year Wallis Simpson spent in China, a time that hasn’t been fully recorded before but was absolutely fundamental to who Wallis was to become.
c. Sue Anne Tay
THE AUTHOR
Paul French was born in London and lived and worked in Shanghai for many years. His book MIDNIGHT IN PEKING was a New York Times Bestseller and a BBC Radio 4 Book of the Week. He received the Mystery Writers’ of America Edgar award for Best Fact Crime and a Crime Writers’ Association (UK) Dagger award for non-fiction. His most recent book CITY OF DEVILS: A Shanghai Noir, received much praise with The Economist writing, ‘…in Mr French the city has its champion storyteller.’ Both MIDNIGHT IN PEKING and CITY OF DEVILS are currently in development for film. He lives in central London.
Further pre-publication praise for HER LOTUS YEAR
“Riveting and fascinating… … Based on detailed research, not mere speculation, French reveals a crucial part of Wallis’s early life; what did she really get up to in China and how important was this in creating the woman 1930’s British aristocracy was so frightened of?”
Anne Sebba
‘At last a respected writer about China, who knows what he is talking about, fills in the Duchess of Windsor’s year in China with prodigious and convincing research.’
Hugo Vickers
‘Paul French’s expert knowledge of China brings a fresh and humanising perspective to Wallis Simpson, exposing some myths and filling an important gap in the literature.’
Andrew Lownie
‘Rumours have always swirled about the two ‘missing’ years Wallis Simpson spent in China. Here China expert Paul French casts a detailed light on her stay, sifting fact from fiction, with some surprising conclusions.’
Anne de Courcy
‘Wallis Simpson’s time in China between 1924 and 1925 has been too long shrouded in rumour and innuendo. Thank God, then, for Paul French, whose magisterial, beautifully written and impeccably researched account of the future Duchess of Windsor’s activities during this period should henceforth be regarded as the definitive account. Forget the so-called “China Dossier”, which probably never existed anyway; this is all you need to know about the woman who was never queen.’
Alexander Larman
VOICE ESEA presents two panel discussions and a screening of ‘The Six’
Date + Time: 1st May 6pm, 2nd May 9pm GMT+1
Venue: Second Home Spitafields, 68 Hanbury Street, London, E1 5JL
From Silence to Voice: The Bilingual Book Launch of "Haha! Britain”
Organised by The Mothers’ Bridge of Love
Date: Saturday,15th March 2025
Time: 14:00 – 17:00 GM
Venue: Pigott Theatre, British Library,
96 Euston Road London NW1 2DB
For centuries, the Chinese presence in Britain has been marked by quiet perseverance.
Now, Haha! Britain shatters that silence with humour, wit, and heartfelt storytelling. This pioneering bilingual anthology, curated by The Mothers’ Bridge of Love (MBL) and River Cam Breeze, brings together 42 Chinese authors, reflecting on the joys, struggles, and cultural collisions of life in the UK.
A deeply collaborative effort, the book showcases 37 translators, working under the guidance of top British and Chinese publishing editors. The cover design, supported by Feng Tang, reflects the dynamic spirit of the collection, while the calligraphy by Qu Leilei pays tribute to the rich literary heritage of the Chinese diaspora.
Join us for a thought-provoking afternoon as we celebrate the voices
behind Haha! Britain.
For tickets, please click here
Star Nhà Ease: Vietnamese Cinema
Presented by Live Cinema UK & Tuyết Vân Huỳnh
Star Nhà Ease: Vietnamese Cinema presents a captivating collection of Vietnamese cinematic treasures, marking their debut to UK audiences. Co-curated by Cường Minh Bá Phạm, Esther Johnson, and Tuyết Vân Huỳnh. Taking place in cinema’s across the UK in May and June 2024, the season is a celebration and introduction of Vietnamese cinema to UK viewers. See full event listings here, updated weekly.
Star Nhà Ease is dedicated to unveiling the rich tapestry of Vietnamese cinema to UK audiences for the first time. This initiative will focus on expanding the understanding of Vietnam’s unique cinematic identity and spotlighting the wealth of its cinematic achievements, which remain largely unrecognised in the West.
Tracing back to the 1920s, amidst a backdrop of considerable challenges and prolonged conflict, filmmakers have profoundly captured the tumultuous journey of Vietnamese people. Through their art, they have carved out a distinctive cinematic identity, establishing a voice that demands to be heard. As we approach the centenary of Vietnamese cinema in 2024, it presents a fitting moment to introduce UK audiences to a curated selection of rarely seen Vietnamese films.
For more information, please visit their website here: https://livecinemauk.com/work/live-cinema-star-nha-ease-events/