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Paul French

@chinarhyming.bsky.social

1.1K followers 160 following 1.9K posts

Author, historian, maker of books and radio - Midnight in Peking, City of Devils, Murders of Old China, Peking Noir, The Defectors… Her Lotus Year: China, the Roaring Twenties and the Making of Wallis Simpson now out everywhere. Agent - Aitken-Alexander

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Paul French @chinarhyming.bsky.social · 3h

October 14 2025 - ChinaRhyming - Upcoming Hong Kong, Macao and China Events

A busy time of events, talks, walks, discussions on Repulse Bay, China travel writing & bad Brits in Macao...plus some tip for visiting the old Portuguese colony & a nice review or two...

open.substack.com/pub/paulfren...

October 14 2025 - ChinaRhyming - Upcoming Hong Kong, Macao and China Events

A busy time of events, talks, walks, discussions on Repulse Bay, China travel writing and bad Brits in Macao...plus some tip for visiting the old Portuguese colony and a nice review or two...

open.substack.com

Paul French @chinarhyming.bsky.social · 4h

Episode 2 of The Murderous Marchesa of Peking available now… www.facebook.com/share/v/1RmP...

Paul French @chinarhyming.bsky.social · 7h

Hu Shuan'an (1916-1988), Roaring Tiger Scroll, give to Thatcher by the Chinese. The Thatcher archive records though are not sure if she got this one in 1979 from Premier Hua Guofeng on his visit to London or in 1982 after her visit to the Beijing Art Academy. Anyway, they’ve put it up for sale….

Paul French @chinarhyming.bsky.social · 10h

Repect duly accorded the Macao egg tart….

www.macaubusiness.com/sar-lists-po...

SAR lists Portuguese folk dance, egg tart as Intangible Cultural Heritage | Macau Business

Macau, MNA | Macau has announced the inscription of 12 items - including Portuguese folk dance and local egg tarts inspired by the pastel de nata - on the Intangible Cultural Heritage List of the Spec...

www.macaubusiness.com

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Paul French @chinarhyming.bsky.social · 11h

A curiosity up for auction, a scroll painting with a little mystery we can soon solve I reckon - “Late 20th C, Landscape with Mountains, a Boy & Ox, Signed 'Li ?' Any ideas on the artist?

Given to Mrs Thatcher in 1982 after a visit to the Beijing Fine Art Academy.

Paul French @chinarhyming.bsky.social · 17h

Part 2 of The Murderous Marchesa of Peking (written, adapted and read by me!), RTHK3’s The Brew, Tuesday 12.40PM (catch up with the first episode here - www.facebook.com/share/v/1Asd...

Paul French @chinarhyming.bsky.social · 23h

This week a CrimeReads Crime and the City for those who just can't let the summer go - Capri....

crimereads.com/crime-and-th...

Crime and the City: Capri

Capri – a beautiful island in the Tyrrhenian Sea, off Sorento, on the south side of the Gulf of Naples in Italy’s Campania region. Catch it when it’s not too touristy (spring and autumn) but expect…

crimereads.com

Paul French @chinarhyming.bsky.social · 1d

RTHK3’s The Brew is running an adaptation of my story about The Murderous Marchesa of Peking all this week with 4 episodes at 12:40pm daily.

A 1920s love triangle and a diplomatic outrage….

Outisde HK you can listen to this (audio only) on Facebook live - www.facebook.com/share/v/1Asd...

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Paul French @chinarhyming.bsky.social · 1d

I’ve posted JL George furniture before. The firm interests me because they are a good example of a big Shanghai firm that moved to HK in the late-40s. Here a camphor wood-lined & decorated hardwood chest with interior tray made in Shanghai before 1949 at their premises on Avenue Road (Beijing Xi Lu)

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Paul French @chinarhyming.bsky.social · 1d

Wallis’s love affair in Peking was with Italian naval officer Alberto da Zara. in his 1949 autobiography he recalls Wallis and their summer together in 1925. It’s never been translated into English….

Her Lotus Year is available everywhere in hardback, e-book and audiobook now…

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Paul French @chinarhyming.bsky.social · 2d

I feel like it’s time for the first ‘Santa’s Grotto is Really in Shenzhen’ (or variant of) story in the UK press - awaiting with bated breath…

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Paul French @chinarhyming.bsky.social · 2d

I’m sure all those feigning outrage are at church this morning

Paul French @chinarhyming.bsky.social · 2d

M.F Griffith (by day a Hong Kong education inspector who created several art syllabuses from the 1950s to 1970s), Watercolour, Hong Kong Village Study, Signed & Dated 1977

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Paul French @chinarhyming.bsky.social · 2d

Three village headmen, village near Weihai, Shandong province, 1910, photograph probably taken by Reginald Johnston

Paul French @chinarhyming.bsky.social · 2d

Weihai City Wall, 1910, photo probably by Reginald Johnston….

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Paul French @chinarhyming.bsky.social · 2d

If you’re visiting London there’s a few reasons to be interested in my VoiceMap Publishers walking tour: Marylebone’s Garden Squares: From Village Green to Georgian Grandeur -
Browse the whole tour here…

voicemap.me/tour/london/...

Beatlemania on Montagu Square

Once across, turn left and walk until you see a blue plaque. Close to the corner of Montagu Place and Montagu Square is #34 - and this is Beatles country. Let's stop here. Ringo Starr rented the...

voicemap.me

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Paul French @chinarhyming.bsky.social · 3d

Always lovely to learn there’s an essential art you never lost….

Paul French @chinarhyming.bsky.social · 3d

Military and police parsde, Shanghai, February 1949 with Garrison Commander-in-chief Tang taking the salute. 15,000 soldiers, motorised police, police volunteers, “economic police” (basically armed tax collectors), firefighters. Photo taken by Warren Lee for ACME Newspictures.

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Paul French @chinarhyming.bsky.social · 4d

The Drum Tower, Gulou, The Bell Tower, photographed in 1913 by John David Zumbrun

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Paul French @chinarhyming.bsky.social · 4d

US Marines enter Tianjin, October 1 1945…

Paul French @chinarhyming.bsky.social · 4d

If you’re inAustralia and want any of my books from Blacksmith Books (the Destination…. Series etc) they’re on Woodslane….

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Paul French @chinarhyming.bsky.social · 4d

The Bell Tower, Zhonglou, photographed in 1913 by John David Zumbrun

Paul French @chinarhyming.bsky.social · 5d

Kevin Schoenmakers on panda hunters in the China Books Review...

chinabooksreview.com/2025/10/02/p...

Wanted: Pandas, Dead or Alive | China Books Review

In 1928, the eldest two sons of President Theodore Roosevelt set out to capture or kill a giant panda. Their hunting trip accidentally contributed to the cause of wildlife conservation.

chinabooksreview.com

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Paul French @chinarhyming.bsky.social · 5d

My CrimeReads Crime and the City column heads to Santa Fe...

crimereads.com/crime-and-th...

crimereads.com

Paul French @chinarhyming.bsky.social · 5d

Though they haven’t had a serious electoral challenge on their right since the BUF pre-war