2013 Editor Lindsay Shen, Phd
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Journal of the royal asiatic society china Vol. 75 no. 1, 2013 Editor Lindsay Shen, PhD. Copyright 2013 RAS China. The Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society China is published by Earnshaw Books on behalf of the Royal Asiatic Society China. Contributions The editors of the Journal invite submission of original unpublished scholarly articles and book reviews on the religion and philosophy, art and architecture, archaeology, anthropology and environment, of China. Books sent for review will be donated to the Royal Asiatic Society China Library. Contributors receive a copy of the Journal. Subscriptions Members receive a copy of the journal, with their paid annual membership fee. Individual copies will be sold to non-members, as available. Library Policy Copies and back issues of the Journal are available in the library. The library is available to members. www.royalasiaticsociety.org.cn Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society China Vol. 75 No. 1, 2013 978-988-8422-44-9 © 2013 Royal Asiatic Society China The copyright of each article rests with the author. EB086 Designed and produced for RAS China by Earnshaw Books Ltd. (Hong Kong) Room 1801, 18F, Public Bank Centre, 120 Des Voeux Road Central, Hong Kong All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in material form, by any means, whether graphic, electronic, mechanical or other, including photocopying or information storage, in whole or in part. May not be used to prepare other publications without written permission from the publisher. The Royal Asiatic Society China thanks Earnshaw Books for its valuable contribution and support. contents foreword 1 letter from the editor 3 Journal of the royal asiatic society china adVisory committee 2012 5 RAS china council 2009-2013 6 new PersPectiVes Peer reviewed research articles Xin Qiji (1140-1207): Patriotism, Idle Sorrow, and Poetic Creation by Paul Hansen 10 Cultural Translation and Post hoc Intellectual Conceit: Critical Reflections on the Conflating of Traditional Chinese Cultural Thought and Practice, and the Theory and Practice of Deconstruction in Relation to the Theorising of Contemporary Chinese Art by Paul Gladston 32 Books of Change: A Western Family’s Writings on China, 1855-1949 by Tim Chamberlain 55 The Scottish Shanghailander Alexander Wylie (1815-1887): Missionary, Man of Letters, Mathematician by Ian Gow 77 Harriet Monroe, Amy Lowell and Witter Bynner: the scramble for Chinese poetry by Anne Witchard 103 selected essays Lu Xun’s Thoughts on Parental Influence by Sophie Leacacos 135 ix discoVeries Peer reviewed research articles Collecting Research Materials in Shanghai: A Qing Dynasty Astrologer’s Predictions for the Future by Ronald Suleski 139 selected essays Finding Eliza in the Bibliotheca Zikawei by Lindsay Shen 162 Managing Cinemas in Old Shanghai by Tess Johnston 171 The Story of the Sketchbook by Sarah Keenlyside 178 Places Peer reviewed research articles The Early Hotels of the Shanghai Foreign Settlement by Eric Politzer 182 Gypsies of Shanghai: the Roma Community of Late 1930s and 1940s Shanghai and its Role in the City’s Entertainment Industry by Paul French 206 selected essays A Brief History of Shanghai’s Future by Jeffrey Wasserstrom 221 The Seven Ages of Dongjiadu: Urban Form in Shanghai’s Old Docks by Katya Knyazeva 231 Yangpu: Past, Present and Future: The Engine of Shanghai by Michelle Blumenthal 254 A New Course in History by Peter Hibbard 260 x Fox Spirits, Gate Towers and Old Peking by M. A. Aldrich 264 Chasing Ghosts in Old Tianjin by Bill Savadove 270 The North Korea Mass Games by Gary Jones 279 The Trading Melting Pot of Kashgar by Sam Chambers, with photographs by André Eichman 289 Book reViews Eileen Chang: Romancing Languages, Cultures and Genres, ed. Kam Louie reviewed by Karen S. Kingsbury 302 Dictionary of Hong Kong Biography, eds. May Holdsworth and Christopher Munn reviewed by Frances Wood 304 Décadence Mandchoue: The China Memoirs of Sir Edmund Trelawny Backhouse, ed. Derek Sandhaus reviewed by Paul French 306 Qian Qianyi’s Reflections of Yellow Mountain: Traces of a Late-Ming Hatchet and Chisel by Stephen McDowall reviewed by Tamara H. Bentley 312 Lao She in London by Anne Witchard reviewed by Jo Lusby 315 Knowledge is Pleasure: Florence Ayscough in Shanghai by Lindsay Shen reviewed by Sue Anne Tay 318 Writing in(to) Architecture: China’s Architectural Design and Construction Since 1949 by Sylvia Chan reviewed by Austin Williams 323 xi Midnight in Peking – How the murder of a young Englishwoman haunted the last days of Old China by Paul French reviewed by Alex Sparks 326 Shanghai Fury: Australian Heroes of Revolutionary China by Peter Thompson reviewed by Liu Wei 328 The Scramble for China: Foreign Devils in the Qing Empire, 1832-1914 by Robert Bickers reviewed by Derek Sandhaus 330 Over There: The Pictorial Chronicle of the Chinese Labour Corps in the Great War by the Weihai Municipal Archives reviewed by Alex Sparks 334 Reluctant Regulators: How the West Created and How China Survived the Global Financial Crisis by Leo F. Goodstadt reviewed by Frank Mulligan 336 Structure, Audience and Soft Power in East Asian Pop Culture by Chua Beng Huat reviewed by William F. Smith 339 Beijing Record: A Physical and Political History of Planning Modern Beijing by Wang Jun reviewed by Jeremy Goldkorn 342 Chinatowns in a Transnational World, Myths and Realities of an Urban Phenomenon, eds. Vanessa Künnemann and Ruth Mayer reviewed by Cindy Hing-Yuk Wong 347 China’s Vanishing Worlds: Countryside, Traditions and Cultural Spaces by Matthias Messmer and Hsin-Mei Chuang reviewed by Neale McGoldrick 351 Europe and China: Strategic Partners or Rivals?, ed. Roland Vogt reviewed by Austin Williams 354 contriButors 357 xii FOREWORD Volume 75 of the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society China, represents not only a commitment to the continuation of the “re- launched” publication but in addition, a move towards raising the quality of the Journal through the establishment of an international Editorial Advisory Committee and a new broader format. It is designed to provide a vehicle for RAS members to contribute their insights on China, as well as offering the opportunity for scholars and others internationally to submit their papers. As President and previously as Hon. Secretary, I am delighted to have witnessed the emergence of the Journal as the fruits of tremendous enthusiasm, commitment and hard work of those who launched the first edition and those, especially the present Council, who helped with this volume. The result is, I believe, a superb issue, rich in insights on a wide range of subjects and from a wide range of scholars as well as excellent contributions from knowledgeable present-day RAS members. The Journal is one pillar of the RAS Council commitment to continuing to carry the baton to fulfill the wishes of the Founding President, Dr Bridgman, as Peter Hibbard mentions below. A second pillar, which further strengthens the RAS commitment to spread greater knowledge of China, is the development of the new RAS China Monograph Series, published by Hong Kong University Press and launched in 2012 with the first two monographs. The newly established RAS Library, a third pillar, provides a resource and home for all our archival material. The fourth pillar, the RAS Programme, features a Lecture Series offering a platform for speakers to present to our members, and includes Focus Group meetings for discussion and debate on books, films, history and culture. Producing a high quality Journal is no easy task and I would like to thank Hon. Editor, Dr. Lindsay Shen, and all those who have contributed by way of editing, proofreading, insights, design and publication, and of course, the authors and Advisory Committee Members, who have all willingly and selflessly helped to make this new issue possible and I really hope you enjoy reading its contents. katy Gow, President 1 Back in 1857, Dr Elijah Coleman Bridgman, an accomplished Sinologue and the first American missionary to set foot in China in 1830, was elected President of our Society’s forerunner, the Shanghai Scientific and Literary Society. Bridgman had the foresight to see that Shanghai would soon become one of the greatest centres of influence in the Eastern hemisphere and in his inaugural address to the Society, in October that year, he asserted that “literature and science must surely find a nursery here.” He also remarked that: As the Society advances its researches, ways and means will be required in order that we may add our own literary and scientific contributions to the list of new publications, which characterize and make illustrious the remarkable age in which we live. A public journal … will be an essential auxiliary. From a body of educated men as large as that now resident in Northern China ... It seems to me the public has the right to expect a publication of this kind. And thus, the Society’s first journal was published in June 1858 – around the same time that it became the North China Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society (NCBRAS). When the Society was reconvened in 2007, we were very much committed to both recognizing and building upon its fine heritage and our first Journal in over 60 years was published in April 2010. That Journal, bearing number 74, now sits aside volume number 73 published in 1948, on the shelves of the new Royal Asiatic Society China Library. This archive – a library for our membership – carried on a tradition, established in the 1860s, when the NCBRAS library was born. At the heart of our new library is one of only four almost complete sets of our former Journal to be found in Asia. The revival of both the Journal and the Library have been made possible through the hard work and generous support of many of our members and friends, to whom the Society owes a great deal in its continuing pursuit to promote the age-old ideals of intellectual and cultural enrichment in the city that Dr Bridgman had high hopes for.