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Paul French

@chinarhyming.bsky.social
1.3K followers 173 following 3.3K posts

Author of Midnight in Peking, City of Devils, Murders of Old China, Peking Noir, The Defectors, Her Lotus Year. The Last Emperor of China is out now. Return to the City of Darkness - Kowloon Walled City now on BBCSounds. Agent - Aitken-Alexander

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Paul French @chinarhyming.bsky.social · 2m
Delhi - City of Spies by Melanie Singh Hughes - 1954 and 3 newcomers arrive in a city, rife with spies and secrets, amid the fall out from Partition and during the burgeoning Cold War
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Paul French @chinarhyming.bsky.social · 6h
Diving straight in to Heather Salter’s The Shanghai Agents (Cambridge University Press)….(and love a printed cover and dust jacket!)
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Pete Cowell @cowellhk.bsky.social · 8h
Another absolute triumph by @chinarhyming.bsky.social. Fascinating insights into palace life, people and tumultuous events at the end of one epoch and dawn of several new ones. Quite a tragic tale, but gripping. Was also struck by the Gormenghast comparison. Thoroughly recommended. #BookSky #China
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Paul French @chinarhyming.bsky.social · 16h
A copy of the China Maritime Customs Service List, Forty-Eighth Issue, Shanghai, Statistical Department of the Inspectorate General of Customs, 1922….
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Paul French @chinarhyming.bsky.social · 23h
A few tix left for this in October 23 in London: Join Xiaolu Guo & Paul French at the British Library as they explore how China's imperial past continues to shape its present, drawing on their latest books Everyday Tang and The Last Emperor of China… events.bl.uk/events/dynas...
events.bl.uk
Dynasties in Dialogue: The Tang, the Qing, and China Today | British Library
Join acclaimed writers Xiaolu Guo and Paul French for a fascinating conversation exploring how China's imperial past continues to shape its present.Drawing
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Elliott & Thompson @eandtbooks.bsky.social · 14/10/2026
Join Xiaolu Guo and Paul French at @britishlibrary.bsky.social as they explore how China's imperial past continues to shape its present, drawing on their latest books #EverydayTang and #TheLastEmperorOfChina. 🎟️23 October: events.bl.uk/events/dynas... @chinarhyming.bsky.social
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Paul French @chinarhyming.bsky.social · 14/10/2026
October 14 2026 - ChinaRhyming - In the 1920s & 1930s Hope Danby was a familiar name in Peking’s “Foreign Colony”. She knew just about everyone who was anyone, edited and proofread many books, and wrote a few of her own too... paulfrench.substack.com/p/october-14...
paulfrench.substack.com
October 14 2026 - ChinaRhyming - Hope Danby’s In Charming Peking (1930) & Her Beijing Life
In the 1920s & 1930s Hope Danby was a familiar name in Peking’s “Foreign Colony”. She knew just about everyone who was anyone, edited and proofread many books, and wrote a few of her own too...
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Paul French @chinarhyming.bsky.social · 14/10/2026
The 2000s and avian flu was periodically swirling around China attracting headlines and McDonalds decided to run this image of “trustworthy/reassuring” chicken!! So enticing….
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Paul French @chinarhyming.bsky.social · 13/10/2026
Not the most encouraging initialism in international finance…. Photo from 2004 in Ningbo
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Paul French @chinarhyming.bsky.social · 13/10/2026
The Former Banque Belge pour l'Étranger also the offices of the Belgian Consulate and Texaco), Jiefang Beilu (formerly Victoria Road in the British Concession and Rue de France in the French Concession), Tianjin, 1921. Now a China Construction Bank branch, photographed here early 2000s.
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Paul French @chinarhyming.bsky.social · 12/10/2026
The Dalian Hotel, Zhongshan Hotel, 2004, originally the the South Manchuria Railway operated Dairen Yamato Hotel (1914)….
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The Syllabus @the-syllabus.bsky.social · 12/10/2026
This piece argues that drained pools, ruined clubs, barricaded enclaves, gang warfare, and human remains recur in J.G. Ballard's fiction because they first appeared in Shanghai's "Badlands." By @chinarhyming.bsky.social in @chinabooksreview.com buff.ly/P2QborZ
buff.ly
J. G. Ballard’s Dystopian Shanghai | China Books Review
How the English novelist J. G. Ballard’s boyhood in war-torn Shanghai influenced his darkest fiction.
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Paul French @chinarhyming.bsky.social · 12/10/2026
A deep dive on le Carre’s wild boy Rikki Tarr…. podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/t...
podcasts.apple.com
The le Carré Cast - A podcast on John le Carré novels
Books Podcast · Monthly · Exploring the works of John le Carré, each episode looks at a specific novel or an unexplored aspect of his life and work. Join us as we take a deep dive into the world of es...
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Paul French @chinarhyming.bsky.social · 12/10/2026
Thomas Burke’s City of Encounters, (London: Constable, 1932). The jacket design is by the artist and suffragette Gladys Hynes who was better known as a surrealist painter and contributor to the Omega Workshops. It was included in the exhibition Gladys Hynes: Radical Lives at Charleston at Lewes.
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Paul French @chinarhyming.bsky.social · 11/10/2026
Neil Paterson’s The China Run had some major fans in 1948. W Somerset Maugham named it his Book of the Year in the New York Times that year as did the novelists HE Bates and Eric Linklater. What was the fuss about? paulfrench.substack.com/p/october-9-...
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Paul French @chinarhyming.bsky.social · 11/10/2026
Whoever is arranging the revolving wall photo exhibits at the Hong Kong FCC is doing a great job - now they have Katharina Hesse’s often stark yet poetic portraits. On till October 31….
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Paul French @chinarhyming.bsky.social · 11/10/2026
Shocked I tell you, shocked….
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Paul French @chinarhyming.bsky.social · 11/10/2026
Chinese wristwatch featuring a "Friendship" (友谊) dial & Tiananmen Square motif from Zuanshi (Diamond), c.1960s. Zuanshi was a Shanghai-based company that launched in 1958 producing wristwatches & stopwatches. The company closed down in the late 1970s after merging with a Hangzhou watch company.
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Paul French @chinarhyming.bsky.social · 10/10/2026
Daunt Books, Marylebone High Street….
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Paul French @chinarhyming.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
Harvesting lotus at the Forbidden City…..
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Paul French @chinarhyming.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
October 9 2026 - ChinaRhyming - The forgotten “biography” of a Scots woman supposedly sailing a China clipper in the tea trade. But is it true? Plus the skinny on Ricki Tarr, a British Library event, Wallis on Kobo and Chinarhyming paulfrench.substack.com/p/october-9-...
paulfrench.substack.com
October 9 2026 - ChinaRhyming - The Incredible (but dubious) Tale of Christian West of Banff, Female Captain of a China Trade Clipper....
The forgotten “biography” of a Scots woman supposedly sailing a China clipper in the tea trade. But is it true? Plus the skinny on Ricki Tarr, a British Library event, Wallis on Kobo and Chinarhyming
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Paul French @chinarhyming.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
BTW: paperback, ebook and audiobook of Her Lotus Year: China, The Roaring Twenties and the Making of Wallis Simpson is now on Kobo….
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Paul French @chinarhyming.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
Talking with Melinda Liu at the Royal Asiatic Society Beijing about The Last Emperor of China: Twilight in the Forbidden City….. m.youtube.com/watch?v=QC1N...
m.youtube.com
Author Paul French on his new book "The Last Emperor of China", Sept. 16, 2026
YouTube video by Royal Asiatic Society Beijing
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Paul French @chinarhyming.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
This album contains photos of a trip to Nanjing, Hangzhou & Shanghai around 1911 or just after (one photo shows a Coronation float in Shanghai for King George V). You can see the entire album here - chinarhyming.com/2026/10/08/p...
chinarhyming.com
China Rhyming » Blog Archive » Photo Album of Nanjing and Shanghai, c.1911
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Paul French @chinarhyming.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
As people often ask where to get Midnight in Peking in China (& I rarely know!) - it seems Shanghai Foreign Languages Bookstore on Fuzhou Lu has stock….
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Paul French @chinarhyming.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
Pedder’s Wharf was at the northern end of Pedder Street along the original waterfront (The Praya) in Victoria, Hong Kong. It wxiated drom the 1840s to 1890s names after Lieutenant William Pedder, the first Harbour Master of Hong Kong and first lieutenant of the iron warship Nemesis.
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Paul French @chinarhyming.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
A panorama of Victoria Harbour, Hong Kong Island, here dubbed the “English Quarter”, c.late 19th century.
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Paul French @chinarhyming.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
My thanks to Tina Kanagaratnam of Historic Shanghai who found herself in Hodges Figgis, Ireland’s oldest bookshop, on Dublin’s Dawson Street….and spotted the Last Emperor and Wallis on display….
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Paul French @chinarhyming.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
"Trained to Empire, trained to rule the waves... All gone." Back on the Le Carre Cast with a new 2-parter - Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy: Ricki Tarr Declassified. podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/t...
podcasts.apple.com
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy – Ricki Tarr Declassifed Part 1
Podcast Episode · The le Carré Cast - A podcast on John le Carré novels · 5 October · 46min
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Paul French @chinarhyming.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
The fountain at the Hong Kong Botanic Gardens which stood in the gardens from 1868 until the early 1930s.
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Paul French @chinarhyming.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
The marble stupa (pagoda) at the West Yellow Temple (Xihuang Temple, Peking, 1650 by Shunzhi in memory of the 5th Dalai Lama, Ngawang Lobsang Gyatso. This picture c.1910. French label at the bottom reads "Vue d'ensemble de la pagode du Temple jaune" (Overview of the Yellow Temple pagoda).
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History Rage Podcast @historyrage.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
HUGE THANKS TO @chinarhyming.bsky.social for joining me to rage about Puyi, China’s last emperor! 👑🇨🇳 We talked about: 📸 Bicycles, cinema & tennis in the Forbidden City ☎️ Puyi’s prank phone calls ❤️ The evidence that he and Wanrong were far more intimate than we’ve been told. #HistoryRage #History
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Paul French @chinarhyming.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
October 2 2026 - The Last Emperor on the Big Screen amp; Who Was Isabel Ingram...A chance to see the Last Emperor on the big screen, the American angle on life in the Forbidden City, a new series of city histories and recently on ChinaRhyming paulfrench.substack.com/p/october-2-...
paulfrench.substack.com
October 2 2026 - The Last Emperor on the Big Screen & Who Was Isabel Ingram...
A chance to see the Last Emperor on the big screen, the American angle on life in the Forbidden City, a new series of city histories and recently on ChinaRhyming.com
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Paul French @chinarhyming.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
The Last Emperor of China: Twilight of the Forbidden City (Elliot & Thompson) has arrived in Australia!! Spotted in the wild here at Gleebooks in Sydney….
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Paul French @chinarhyming.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
Another Trump win
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Paul French @chinarhyming.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
A Zoom for anyone who might be interested - October 12 UK time…
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Paul French @chinarhyming.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
Behind Mayfair’s Grand Facades: A Walking Tour of the Hidden Lanes "Such a lovely meandering tour that takes you into some beautiful mews" "We spent five days in Mayfair so far and who knew these places even existed. Thanks for sharing your knowledge & great stories." voicemap.me/tour/london/...
voicemap.me
Behind Mayfair’s Grand Facades: A Walking Tour of the Hidden Lanes | London self-guided audio tour | VoiceMap
Uncover mews where servants slept, kings sinned and generals prayed with this self-guided tour of London, the United Kingdom. For the best experience, install the VoiceMap audio guide app with automat...
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Paul French @chinarhyming.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
WWII American Air Force silk cloth Asia Escape Maps: - Vladivostok, first edition, 1944 - Keijo (Seoul), second edition, 1943 - French Indochina & Central China, second edition, 1943
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Paul French @chinarhyming.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
Anna May Wong: An Intimate Portrait - Shirley Jennifer Lim brings us a story of tenacity and determination in this lush biography, sure to become the essential account of Anna May Wong's life and legacy. Published by Abrams.
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Paul French @chinarhyming.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
Loving @dauntbooks.bsky.social Marylebone
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Paul French @chinarhyming.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
A 1960 Penguin Special edition of Kuo Ping-chia's (1908-2004) China: New Age and New Outlook (originally published 1956). You can read Kuo's interesting bio, below…
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Paul French @chinarhyming.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
A piece on writing The Last Emperor of China for Aspects of History…. aspectsofhistory.com/recovering-t...
aspectsofhistory.com
Recovering the Last Emperor and Empress of China - Aspects of History
Paul French discusses how recently discovered diary from an American tutor who lived with Puyi and Wanrong offers an new perspective on the young couple’s marriage and the usual portrayal of China’s l...
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Paul French @chinarhyming.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
October 2 2026 - ChinaRhyming - Ballard’s Shanghai, the Hongkou Ghetto, 4 Last Emperor locations in Beijing and some events this month.... paulfrench.substack.com/p/october-2-...
paulfrench.substack.com
October 2 2026 - ChinaRhyming - Ballard’s Shanghai, the Hongkou Ghetto and some events this month
October - from JG Ballard’s Shanghai to that of the Jewish refugees of WW2; Beijing’s Last Emperor locations, books in Oz & future events
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Paul French @chinarhyming.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
Frederik Logervall’s Embers of War is a detailed study of the end of French colonialism in Indochina and the ensuing liberation struggles that to the mire the United States eventually found itself in losing a war to the Vietcong.
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Paul French @chinarhyming.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
Lovely to visit the beautiful John Sandoe bookshop in Chelsea and thanks to them for being my bookseller at the Chelsea History Festival…..
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Laurence Westwood @lwestwoodauthor.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
#histbookchat Great essay from Paul French @chinarhyming.bsky.social on the dystopian fiction of J.G. Ballard and war-torn Shanghai!
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Paul French @chinarhyming.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Dragon dance, Hong Kong, Coronation Day of George VI, May 12 1937
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Paul French @chinarhyming.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
A piece for That’s mags in China - 4 Last Emperor of China Locations to Visit in Beijing (that aren’t the Forbidden City, which is a bit obvious….) - Zhangwang Hutong; Mao’er Hutong; Dengshikou and; Prince Chun’s Mansion…. www.thatsmags.com/shanghai/pos...
thatsmags.com
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Paul French @chinarhyming.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Late 19th century Chinese silver card case hallmarked for WingNam, Hong Kong, with pierced and repoussé decoration of a dragon amongst clouds.
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Paul French @chinarhyming.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Many thanks Foyles, Charing Cross Road….appreciated
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