Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

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

Posts Media Videos Starter Packs

Paul French @chinarhyming.bsky.social · 57m

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...

2 2

Paul French @chinarhyming.bsky.social · 1h

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)

1 3

Paul French @chinarhyming.bsky.social · 14h

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…

1 3

Paul French @chinarhyming.bsky.social · 21h

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…

1 6

Paul French @chinarhyming.bsky.social · 22h

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

Paul French @chinarhyming.bsky.social · 22h

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

1 3

Paul French @chinarhyming.bsky.social · 1d

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

Paul French @chinarhyming.bsky.social · 1d

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

1 5

Paul French @chinarhyming.bsky.social · 1d

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

1 2

Paul French @chinarhyming.bsky.social · 1d

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

Paul French @chinarhyming.bsky.social · 1d

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.

2 7

Paul French @chinarhyming.bsky.social · 2d

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

1 9

Paul French @chinarhyming.bsky.social · 3d

US Marines enter Tianjin, October 1 1945…

Paul French @chinarhyming.bsky.social · 3d

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

1 3

Paul French @chinarhyming.bsky.social · 3d

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

Paul French @chinarhyming.bsky.social · 3d

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

1 4

Paul French @chinarhyming.bsky.social · 3d

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

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

crimereads.com

Paul French @chinarhyming.bsky.social · 3d

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

Paul French @chinarhyming.bsky.social · 4d

The Lama Temple, the Yonghe Temple, established in 1694, is based on the Tibetan Buddhist school of Gelug, also known as the Yellow Hat Sect. Photograph by John David Zumbrun, 1913…

Paul French @chinarhyming.bsky.social · 4d

Worship at an ancestral tomb, near Weihai, Shandong province, photograph by Ah Fong of Weihai, c.1910

2 6

Paul French @chinarhyming.bsky.social · 4d

I think Jiangxi wins hands down

1 1

Paul French @chinarhyming.bsky.social · 4d

Nov 2 (with me leading the tour) -
Email WildChina Travel directly at [email protected] and specify "MiP tour on November 2nd"

Paul French @chinarhyming.bsky.social · 4d

Here we go again - the Nasty Party being nasty and hopeless as ever

Paul French @chinarhyming.bsky.social · 5d

I’ll be at Britcham Macao October 23rd….

Paul French @chinarhyming.bsky.social · 5d

Guling, formerly romanized as Kuling and colloquially “Cooling”, a summer resort located on top of Mount Lu in Jiujiang, Jiangxi. It was formerly a resort reserved for European missionaries a s famiusly a retreat for Chiang Kai-shel and Madame Chiang (Soong Mei-ling). Photographed in 1949…..

1 2