The Shanghai office of the Old China Hand Press, located in Deke’s Art Center here, continues to flourish. Gradually the busy office’s activities seem to be taking over more and more of the “industrial chic” old factory that also serves as an events and exhibition space -- and writing and publishing books is taking up more and more of Deke’s and my time and talents.

　　Deke still spends a part of the year traveling in China’s far west, photographing in black and white the border provinces for a future book and photo exhibitions. He is deeply immersed in researching the four major influences on the culture of China’s western provinces, from Alexander the Great through the Arabian and Indian influences to that of the Han Chinese themselves. He recently also traveled to 52 cities in China to photograph old bank buildings, featured in the just-published TREASURE HOUSES – HISTORIC BUILDINGS OF THE INDUSTRIAL AND COMMERCIAL BANK OF CHINA, jointly commissioned by the bank’s Beijing and Shanghai offices. Deke has now become so captivated by China’s old banking houses that he has assembled a rich archive of old photos and material, not only of banks but also of the old treaty ports’ customs houses and post offices. So look for two more books in the same format on these two subjects in the coming years.
　　 In our last Gazette we informed you that a new villa compound is to be built on the site of Deke’s Folk Art Museum in Qingpu County. The bulldozers are now at the door, but he has yet to find a new site for his large collection. Regardless, soon a glitzy gated compound will gobble up the peaceful village where Deke had hoped to escape Shanghai’s relentless (and destructive) building frenzy.

　　Tess is still in the clutches of what the Queen once referred to as her Anno Horribilis, i.e., not one of her better years. Her best friend (her dachshund Lamb Chop) left her in the spring, her consulate job evaporated in the fall, and then she was struck from behind by a car in a zebra crossing (this is China). Although still plagued by visa problems (where will it all end?) the worst seems to be over and she was able to travel in October to the USA. There she continued her search for material for a forthcoming book, PALE SHADOWS OF THE EMPIRE about the White Russians in Shanghai. Although she intends to spend more of her unencumbered time traveling, she continues to research, write, and lecture here to clients from abroad, as well as to local clubs and educational groups.

　　Our next book, ART DECO IN SHANGHAI, is in the compilation stage and we have collected such a mass of material that we may split it into two volumes: one featuring decorative objects from Deke’s collection and the other Shanghai’s Art Deco architecture. As mentioned previously, we have been collecting material for this book for years, and when Tess’s visited the V&A’s Art Deco Exhibit in London last year she was pleased to find in the museum’s elegant exhibition catalogue a photograph and quote from some of the material we used in our original A LAST LOOK. We are really looking forward to completing our two China centric volumes in the coming year.
　　 Deke’s splendid book, A TREASURE TROVE, covered the old banking houses of Shanghai for the new Banking Museum in Pudong. As it parallels a book we were planning on the same subject (ours featuring only Western banks), we have now moved that volume farther back in the queue in order to move into new fields of interest. Still in the queue, as mentioned in previous Gazettes, is THE SECOND SHANGHAI WAR – SHANGHAI 1937, by Malcolm Rosholt. Now in his 90’s, he has just finished his biography, RAINBOW AROUND THE MOON, and is trying to find time to revise for us his photographic record of this little-known war, one he covered as a young Shanghai correspondent.

To help you sort out our 18 publications, we reprise here first our joint volumes, then Deke’s solo ones (where Tess served as the Press’s English-language editor).
　　A LAST LOOK - WESTERN ARCHITECTURE IN OLD SHANGHAI - REVISITED provides an updated, expanded and evocative overview of Western architecture and expatriate lifestyles in one of the world's legendary cities. It also includes 1939 listings of Shanghai's old apartment houses, banks and clubs. (The original version is sold out; this revised 240pp. (now hardcover) edition came out in October 2004.)
　　 NEAR TO HEAVEN - WESTERN ARCHITECTURE IN CHINA'S OLD SUMMER RESORTS features Western buildings in the old hill resorts of Kuling/Lushan, Kuliang, Kikungshan and Mokanshan, and the seaside resort Peitaiho. (Sold out, not to be reprinted.)
　　 GOD AND COUNTRY - WESTERN RELIGIOUS ARCHITECTURE IN OLD CHINA has contemporary photos of China's churches and synagogues plus old black and white ones of churches and church-related hospitals and schools. There is a "Jewish Legacy" chapter plus a 77-page listing of Catholic and Protestant missions and missionaries in China in 1934, both alphabetically and by name of the mission station.
　　 FAR FROM HOME - WESTERN ARCHITECTURE IN CHINA'S NORTHERN TREATY PORTS covers Harbin, Dalny (Dalian), Tientsin, Chefoo, Tsingtao and Hankow north of the Yangtze River, with a supplemental listing European and American business concerns and representatives who were operating in China and Hong Kong in 1928.
　　 THE LAST COLONIES - WESTERN ARCHITECTURE IN CHINA'S SOUTHERN TREATY PORTS covers Shanghai, Ningpo, Foochow, Amoy, Swatow, Canton, and the former British Crown Colony of Hong Kong. Included as an annex is a 1936 Shanghai Trade Directory.
　　 HALLOWED HALLS - PROTESTANT COLLEGES IN OLD CHINA, generously illustrated with both new and old photos and site plans, covers China's thirteen top universities, all founded by Protestant missionaries over the past hundred years.
　　 FRENCHTOWN SHANGHAI - WESTERN ARCHITECTURE IN SHANGHAI’S OLD FRENCH CONCESSION, again with both old and new photos, is the most comprehensive of our books, covering the best of the buildings -- plus a look into the lifestyle of the residents -- of Shanghai’s most fashionable and fascinating foreign concession.
　　 THE OLD VILLA HOTELS OF SHANGHAI features Deke's contemporary photos of both the interiors and exteriors of nine of Shanghai's old mansions, all now converted into boutique hotels. Published for the local market, the captions and text are in both Chinese and English. (Hard cover.)
　　 We also reissued in 1995 a very different sort of publication, the EMIGRANTEN ADRESSBUCH. Originally published in Shanghai in November 1939, this small replica contains the names, local addresses, cities of origin and previous occupations of thousands of German and Austrian Jews who fled to Shanghai before 1939.
　　 In our edited series of first-person narratives, the following are still available:
　　 THAT LAST GLORIOUS SUMMER, SHANGHAI <-> JAPAN 1939 by Rena Krasno. During a summer spent in Japan, Rena’s sympathetic observations of the Japanese people, along with those of their government’s preparations for war, yield some of the most perceptive insights ever published in the West on pre-war life in Japan.
　　 SHANGHAI BOY SHANGHAI GIRL – LIVES IN PARALLEL, by George Wang and Betty Barr. In the 1920’s and 1930’s two children grew up in Shanghai, but only the 1970’s did their paths finally cross. George was an impoverished Chinese boy and Betty a cosseted child of missionary parents in Shanghai. The story of their parallel lives in Shanghai is a revealing one.
　　 BETWEEN TWO WORLDS - LESSONS LEARNED IN SHANGHAI, by the same authors, the sequel follows the lives of this Shanghainese and Shanghailander from 1949, where their first book ended, up to their marriage here twenty years ago.
　　 The Press published these books by Deke in the past year, primarily for Chinese readers but with extensive English-language captions and text.
　　 GOLDEN XUJIAHUI covers Shanghai’s old “Siccawei” area, formerly the site of Catholic mission activities and now a center for major business and retail ventures. It is lavishly illustrated with contemporary photographs.
　　 A TREASURE TROVE covers a selection of exhibits from the new Shanghai Banking Museum in the heart of Shanghai’s “Wall Street” in Pudong. There are not only photos of current banks in Shanghai but also banking-related items of historic interest from the past.
　　 CHINESE SPECIMENS PRINTED BY THE AMERICAN BANK NOTE COMPANY features in three volumes the Bank Museum’s bank note specimens from 1905 to 1949. Photographed are 1113 specimens, 533 fronts and 580 backs, with full explanations in both English and Chinese. (Three volumes.)
　　 TREASURE HOUSES – HISTORIC BUILDINGS OF THE INDUSTRIAL AND COMMERCIAL BANK OF CHINA, jointly commissioned by the bank’s Beijing and Shanghai offices, covers their old bank buildings in 52 cities in China, with extensive historical text.
　　 IN THE HEART OF THE FRENCH CONCESSION parallels our earlier joint volume on the Concession, but now as seen from a Chinese perspective. It features thumbnail sketches (in Chinese) of famous Shanghainese who once lived in Frenchtown, ranging from KMT and Communist officials to artists, writers and film stars.

　　Still in stock is our first book in German, by Dr. Steffi Schmitt and entitled SHANGHAI PROMENADE, the most comprehensive (at 600+ pages!) work on Shanghai in German ever published here. (US$58 or equiv. For more detailed information or to order, contact the author at Yanlord Gardens, Block 21, #20A, 99 Puming Lu, Pudong, Shanghai 200120 or: steffisspecial@yahoo.com.)
　　Although not published by the Press, we would like to mention a book written by an old Shanghailander, a sentimental journey back to the 1930’s and 1940’s here: BORN IN SHANGHAI by Mildred O’Leary Katemopoulos. The lifestyles and the landmarks of old Shanghai come vividly to life in this charming portrait of a bygone era. [Hardcover, 142pp, US$30.00 postpaid by surface mail. To order, contact the author at 4008 Ballen Court, Modesto, CA 95356, USA, or: bishanghai@aol.com]

　　For anyone who wants us to look up businesses, home addresses, families, friends, neighbors, schools, churches, clubs, etc., we have our informative Hong Books (for all China) and Shanghai Directories for most of the years 1925 to 1949. In German we have a 1937 Hong Book and a 1939 Shanghai Directory.
　　We also have English-language telephone directories for 1941 and 1949, and Deke has several Chinese-language ones. If you come to Shanghai we can also share with you our 200+ detailed strip maps of the French Concession and the International Settlement. We can, upon request, photograph buildings and photocopy directory entries and mail the copies to you. We also have a listing of all the Western tombstones still existing here. (For a listing of Shanghai’s 80+ Jewish tombstones, contact Dvir Bar-Gal at: shanghaijews@hotmail.com)
　　We don't charge for any of this but we do hope for something in return. We are constantly searching for material that we may use in research for our books and that can help us to answer queries. The more we have the more we are able to help our readers, our researchers, and ourselves. We especially treasure and use manuscripts, diaries and personal narratives, letters, newspaper clippings, old maps, photos, theatre and concert programs, anything that adds pieces to the mosaic of expatriate life in China over the past hundred years.
　　As mentioned, we are currently searching for material for a forthcoming book on the White Russians in Shanghai, and welcome any material from White Russian communities anywhere in the world (so spread the word!). With permission -- and attribution -- we use the material to enrich all our books.
　　We are totally dedicated to our subject matter and to leaving our own small historical treasure trove for future generations. When Tess can no longer use it, the English-language material goes to the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, a fitting home, we think. So in the future, look there for the "Johnston Collection" or visit Deke’s Chinese collection in Shanghai at:

My check to OLD CHINA HAND PRESS is enclosed.

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To order, send order blank and check made out to
OLD CHINA HAND PRESS, in US dollars (on a U.S. bank).
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MAIL TO

Tess Johnston
Old China Hand Research Service
Donghu Lu 70/3/201
Shanghai 200031, China