Royal Asiatic Society China in Shanghai

RAS China in Shanghai - Newsletter Vol 2 No 7 – July/August 2011
2010
NEWSLETTER
Royal Asiatic Society China in Shanghai
Our Society provides a forum for the
development and expression of interests and
expertise from within the local community, and
from around the globe, to inspire and to enrich
cultural life in Asia’s most dynamic metropolis.
SUMMER LECTURES
Dr Ni Yibin
Cracking
Mysteries in
Chinese
Images
JULY/AUGUST 2011
RAS WEEKENDER
Ni Yibin
Cracking Mysteries in Chinese Images
Saturday 9 th July & Sunday 10 th July
9.45am – 2pm
RAS LECTURE SERIES
Ni Yibin
Cracking Mysteries in Chinese Images
7pm Monday 29 th August,
7pm Tuesday 30 th August,
7pm Wednesday 31 st August,
7pm Thursday 1 st September
COMING SOON….
RAS FILM CLUB in July
WILDWALL WEEKENDER
with William Lindesay OBE
Friday 21 st – Sunday 23 rd October
For full details and updates of all our events
please visit our website
www.royalasiaticsociety.org.cn
Copy Deadline for Next Newsletter 20 th August
RAS China in Shanghai is a Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland
Hon Treasurer - Jan Flohr
Hon Programme Director - Michelle Blumenthal
Hon Editor - Spencer Dodington
Hon Librarian - Kim Taylor

RAS China in Shanghai - Newsletter Vol 2 No 7 – July/August 2011
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PRESIDENT’s NOTE
Dear Members and Friends,
Just a note of thanks to you all for your
support over the first half of a very interesting
season, and my best wishes for the summer.
We are making a break from convention this
year by introducing a couple of events over
the summer months and will be back in full
swing with our lecture series in September.
Looking forward to seeing you then.
My very best regards,
Peter
RAS Weekender
Friday 21st to Sunday 23rd October, 2011
A WildWall Weekender @ The Barracks
with host William Lindesay, OBE
Please visit our website for full details
INTERESTING QUOTATION
A Small World
... a few words may be devoted
to the tens of thousands of
emigrants, who have in the past
left the shores of China, mainly
from Kwangtung and Fukien
Provinces, to help other
countries to colonise and thus
consolidate their possessions.
Their activities include the
development of tin-mining and
rubber cultivation in Malaya and
Netherlands East Indies; the
introduction of the sugar
industry into the Philippines as
far back as the Yuan era, into
British West Indies and even
Hawaii; the building of those
immense railway trunk-lines
across Canada and America; and
the marked transformation of
immense areas of arid territory in
California, Australia and Mexico
into fertile fruit orchards.
Wherever Chinese have travelled
and settled down, they and their
descendants have brought with
them the well-tried benefits of
their ancient philosophy, culture
and industry.
From an address to the Society
by Dr. Wu Liende, member and
benefactor, in 1933

RAS EVENTS
JUNE: It was fascinating to learn how the issues
of prostitution and urbanisation in Suzhou in the
Republic period, were approached and dealt with.
The lecture shed light on both the contemporary
society and the history of the time in Peter
Carroll’s lecture on the subject (right).
J.O.P. Bland
and the Shanghai question
was the subject of Daniel
Hopper’s presentation (left).
Daniel regaled us with the
most recent research into the
goings on of the Shanghai
Municipal Council under
Bland’s leadership, as well as
detailing Bland’s dreams for
Shanghai at that early time.
The RAS Wild Wall
Weekender did not go ahead but we are hoping that the
expression of interest among members is genuine and so have
offered this very special trip for the October calendar.
Thank you to all our wonderful presenters. We look forward to
welcoming you back to RAS in future years.
FORTHCOMING: Cracking Mysteries in Chinese Images will be the subject of a four-part lecture series
by Dr. Ni Yibin in July over the weekend of the 9-10 th. It will be held in the event space of Sasha’s in
Shanghai. Full details appear at the end of this Newsletter and on our website. Dr. Ni will repeat the
series at the end of August over four evenings.
The RAS Film Club will start slowly with screenings in July and August, and plans a full schedule
throughout our calendar year on the 3 rd Sunday of each month. Members will receive notification of the
films chosen for these first two sessions.
The RAS Chinese Modern History Study Group will start with our member Katie Baker leading a
group of members in the viewing and discussion of a DVD series on the subject. The group plans to
meet on the 2 nd and 4 th Monday of each month to view a lecture from the Prof Richard Baum series.
Please see our website for full details.
The development of the lecture programme for the 2011-2012 season is coming along well and we are
delighted to advise that we have RAS lectures and RAS Weekenders confirmed for September, October
and November of 2011. In addition the RAS Book Club, RAS Film Club and RAS Modern Chinese History
Study Group have their individual programmes available for consideration.
A brief reminder that the Programme section now has a new e-mail address:
bookings@royalasiaticsociety.org.cn. Please use this address for all enquiries and bookings related to
the programme.
We wish you all a wonderful summer break, and look forward to seeing members and friends at the
events in July and August as well as in the new season.
Michelle
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RAS China in Shanghai - Newsletter Vol 2 No 7 – July/August 2011
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RAS BOOK CLUB
Monday 6.30pm
The PuLi Hotel and Spa
5 th SEPTEMBER
The Last Empress:
Madame Chiang Kai‐Shek
and the Birth of Modern China
by Hannah Pakula
14 th NOVEMBER
The Real Story of Ah‐Q
and Other Tales of China
by Lu Xun
12 th DECEMBER ‐ TBD
10 th OCTOBER
Empire Made Me: An
Englishman adrift in
Shanghai
by Robert Bickers
(and Robert Bickers may
attend)
Event: RAS Book Club
Location: The PuLi Hotel and Spa,
The Library –
Ground floor off the Long Bar.
1 ChangDe Road,
between Nanjing Xi Lu and Yan’an Lu,
Jing’an District
Shanghai 200040 China
T +86 21 3203 9999
F +86 21 3251 8988
information@thepuli.com
Questions or suggestions:
Contact: Alexandra Hendrickson
Book Club Leader
Tel: 86-21-6171 7885
Cell: 86 136 6185 9016
ahendrickson@dhrinternational.com
USEFUL LINKS
Royal Asiatic Society China in Shanghai
(est.1857-1952, reconvened 2007)
Royal Asiatic Society London
(est. 1823)
Royal Asiatic Society, Hong Kong Branch
(est. 1847)
Royal Asiatic Society, Korea Branch
(est. 1900)
Malaysian Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society
(est. 1877)
The Asiatic Society of Japan
(est. 1872)
The Royal Asiatic Society, Calcutta
(est. 1783)
The Asiatic Society, Mumbai
(est. 1804)
The Siam Society
(est. 1904)
Royal Asiatic Society of Sri Lanka
RAS Members
visiting Japan…..
Following a recent communication
with The Asiatic Society of Japan, we
would like to pass the following
message to our members:
Thank you for getting in touch - and
please encourage your members to
attend our lectures when they are in
Tokyo. Information about them can be
found on our website:
www.asjapan.org.
The Asiatic Society of Japan
c/o Tokyo Health Care University
4-1-17 Higashi-Gotanda
Shinagawa-ku
Tokyo 141-8648
Japan

RAS China in Shanghai - Newsletter Vol 2 No 7 – July/August 2011
2010
THANK YOU to all our
recent EVENT PATRONS………
www.waldorfastoria.com
1195 Fuxing Middle Road
www.sbc-usst.edu.cn
1 ChangDe Road JingAn District
www.thepuli.com
748 Julu Road
www.mesa-manifesto.com
RAS Council Members
www.earnshawbooks.com
SUZHOU Gunxiufang
77, Shi Quan Jie.
www.suzhoubookworm.com
www.hkupress.org
President - Peter Hibbard MBE
Hon Secretary & Newsletter - Katy Gow
Hon Treasurer - Jan Flohr
Hon Programme Director - Michelle Blumenthal
Hon Editor - Spencer Dodington
Hon Librarian - Kim Taylor
Hon Research & Publications Director – Paul French
Hon Membership Secretary – Wendy Stockley
Council Member – Lynn Fawcett
Council Member – Alexandra Hendrickson
Council Member – Charles Johnson
Council Member – Tess Johnston
Ex Officio – Jennifer Wen
Vice President Suzhou – Bill Dodson
Hon Vice Presidents:
Carma Elliott CMG, Nenad Djordjevic, Professor Liu Wei
Enquiries: enquiry@royalasiaticsociety.org.cn
T8 Club Lounge
No.8 Xintiandi North Part, Lane 181 Taicang Road
www.t8shanghai.com
www.sha.britcham.org
Rm 201, Raffles City, 268 Central Tibet Rd
www.interfaceglobal.com
78 Xing Guo Road, Shanghai 200052
www.radisson.com/shanghaicn_plaza
RAS JOURNALS
Journals are available at RAS events
Members – one free copy
Further copies available - 150rmb
Bookings: bookings@royalasiaticsociety.org.cn Membership: membership@royalasiaticsociety.org.cn

RAS China in Shanghai - Newsletter Vol 2 No 7 – July/August 2011
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RSVP: to RAS Bookings at: bookings@royalasiaticsociety.org.cn
RAS WEEKENDER LECTURE SERIES
Dates: Saturday July 9 th and Sunday July 10 th, 2011
9.45am – 2.00pm
Venue: Sasha’s, 11 Dongping Road (corner of Hengshan Road) 3 rd Floor event space
Dr. Ni Yibin
Cracking Mysteries in Chinese Images
The story pictures that illustrated numerous Chinese art pieces can provide fascinating
insights into the Chinese culture and society that created them. These art pieces, which
bear scenes from Chinese classics, mythology, legends, and contemporary musical
operas, originally served as one of the most important sources for civil education in
Chinese society; their function was similar to that of the statues, carved reliefs,
paintings, and stained glass windows in Gothic churches. Their significance in educating
as well as entertaining members of imperial courts and well-to-do families, particularly
the illiterate women, children, and servants, are equivalent to contemporary visual
media.
Much of the meaning behind this imagery has been lost to the average viewer in
contemporary China, and even to most Chinese art historians both in China and the
West. That is why when such images appear on the market or in exhibition catalogues,
they are often given either an uninformative, matter-of-fact description such as “a man
and a woman in a garden,” or they are vaguely attributed to one of several well-known
Chinese works of fiction, Romance of the Western Chamber or Romance of the Three
Kingdoms. The messages that these scenes embody actually extend far beyond the fiction
and drama with which they are most generally associated.
In this lecture series, Dr. Ni will share with his audience a visual feast of hundreds of
images of original Chinese art pieces that he has collected from the four continents of the
world and enlighten his audience with the results of his research during the past decade.
This series will be held in a four parts; titles of the lectures as follows;
[1] Recovering Lost Meaning in Chinese Decorative Arts
[2] Understanding The Meaning of Images in Chinese Art
[3] How do the Chinese say ‘Happy Birthday’ with graphic designs? Let me count the
ways.
[4] Without the Female Nude, What Titillated the Traditional Chinese Male Voyeur?

Dr Ni Yibin, born in Shanghai, obtained his degrees of Master of Arts and Doctor of
Philosophy at University College London, and studied Chinese art at the School of
Oriental and African Studies, University of London. He taught Chinese art and culture at
the University Scholars’ Programme, National University of Singapore. He is very widely
consulted, and has published book chapters and articles on Chinese art history and
lectured in the US institutions of high education including Harvard, Yale, and UCLA as
well as in Singapore, Hong Kong, and China.
In 2008, Sir Michael Butler on the occasion of the exhibition catalogue of the exhibition
of Porcelain of the Late Ming, wrote: ‘I first met Dr Ni Yibin about a decade ago, and in
an unusual way. The former U.K. Prime Minister Sir Edward Heath, who used to live
quite close to me in England, telephoned me one day and asked if I would show my
porcelain to a brilliant young Chinese scholar from Shanghai whom he was befriending.
I said I would be delighted and asked them to lunch, although I was a little nervous of
how long Sir Edward himself would be interested in the porcelain as he was not famous
for his patience! What would he do while we were looking at the pots?
I need not have worried. After lunch he came and sat with us while we talked and did
not show signs of wanting to make a move till after tea at 5pm. When he was leaving he
said he never imagined there could be so many interesting things to say about porcelain.
Yibin was already then interested in identifying the narrative scenes on C17th porcelain,
a quest which he has pursued with extraordinary success. He has helped me by
identifying many of the scenes on pieces in my Shunzhi Exhibition in 2002 and the
Shanghai Exhibition in 2005 and again those in this catalogue. He has become the
leading authority in the world on the subject, with an enormous data base of pictures of
the scenes and of the matching paintings and woodblock prints from which they are
derived, as well as identifying ancient legends from the subject matter of the scenes. He
is now very widely consulted. In my view he has made a major contribution to the study
of the period and has hugely enlivened the entries in this and other catalogues. I value
his contributions enormously, and could not be more grateful to him. We have met often
in the last decade and had a lot of fun together. I treasure his friendship.’
Entrance: RMB 500.00 (RAS members) and RMB 650.00 (non-members) including lunch
and tea and coffee. Those unable to make the donation but wishing to attend may
contact us for exemption, prior to the RAS Lecture Series. Membership applications and
membership renewals will be available at these events.
RSVP: to RAS Bookings at: bookings@royalasiaticsociety.org.cn
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RAS China in Shanghai - Newsletter Vol 2 No 7 – July/August 2011
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RAS MEMBERSHIP FORM
The Society operates a rolling membership system – membership is valid for one year from the date of
registration. Payments are only possible in cash – please remit your fee and completed form to a Council
member at one of our events.
PLEASE VISIT the Society’s website for up-to-date news of all events.
Past newsletters are also available:
www.royalasiaticsociety.org.cn
Membership Enquiries: membership@royalasiaticsociety.org.cn
General Enquiries: enquiry@royalasiaticsociety.org.cn
Event Bookings: bookings@royalasiaticsociety.org.cn