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A fresh, new look at good ol?Peking
By David Maguire |
June 14, 2009, Sunday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
AS Shanghai-based author Derek Sandhaus notes in the introduction to his new book "Tales of Old Peking," it is not a traditional history but "a jumble of items which evokes the city's past," and neither "is it complete or balanced in any way."
It's an upfront admission to set the reader straight on a 178-page potpourri of fascinating items, images, vivid descriptions, memorabilia, anecdotes, historical facts and trivia related to the bygone days of what is now the national capital.
The book's timeline is almost as long as Chinese history with the first item, a Peking Chronology, which starts "Around 500,000 BC: Peking man appears in the caves of Zhou Kou Dian, southwest of Peking" and the final item headed "The People of China Have Stood Up" over the text of late Chairman Mao Zedong's victorious address to Party officials on September 21, 1949.
In between, it glances with mostly concise prose and extended picture captions at the Great Wall, the Boxers, cricket fighting, the horse races, civil and military ranks, the heathen Christmas, the role of the Jesuits, warlords, Peking Duck, Pekingese dogs, various dynasties, pigtails and foot binding. And, much more.
Sandhaus has lived in Shanghai since the summer of 2006. Originally from around Kansas City in the United States, he studied philosophy and film at Brandeis University in Massachusetts before moving to China.
He started writing about Chinese history in 2007 for a company specializing in historical audio-guided tours of neighborhoods in Shanghai and Beijing.
And he gradually came to form a rough idea about people and events that shaped modern-day China.
Greatly fascinated by what he saw, he expanded into writing history for magazines and blogs and, eventually, the publisher of "Tales of Old Peking," Earnshaw Books.
The book project began in 2008 and Sandhaus finished making tweaks and edits in April this year before the publication was formally launched on May 27.
"The overall process involved equal parts searching for sources, tracking them down and then actually reading and sifting through them," he said of the research work.
"There is a tremendous amount of interesting information out there about China and its profound history, but finding the best of it isn't that easy.
"Many of the sources in the book are out-of-print or otherwise inaccessible and I relied heavily on rummaging through many private libraries or wherever else I could find what I needed."
Out of a mass of literature, he boiled it down into the digestible morsels that now constitute the handy tome whose pictures and images are mostly reproduced in their original monotones with daubs of color here and there.
Foreign residents and travelers of the day constitute much of the source material and therefore the book's dominant perspective.
"The end result is a unique product, a 'from the horse's mouth' approach to history I have never come across before," Sandhaus said.
"Beijing was, and is, an extraordinary city and it was a pleasure getting to rediscover its past, story by story. Old Peking was much different than modern Beijing and the gap widens by the day.
"There are, however, many historical parallels between the experiences of those living there today and those living there 100 years ago. That was one of the key reasons for choosing many of the stories."
There is a welter of books across a range of subjects published each year about contemporary China, with business guides and economic development anecdotes seeming to be the dominant theme.
Yet the focus on China's contemporary culture, its origins and links to comparatively recent history, is overwhelming and much of it is contextualized in "Tales of Old Peking."
"We find Chinese history to be an incredibly rich and enduring topic and we wanted to be able to share some of the forgotten but fascinating bits with a larger audience," Sandhaus said.
The book's grab bag collection of precious bits and pieces defies narrative convention. It is a light read, an anytime, quick flick reference that is companionable with a weightier work or a guide book.
As Sandhaus advises, the book "can be picked up at will and opened at any page. You can read it according to your personal interests in much the same way you would a Web page."
It's an upfront admission to set the reader straight on a 178-page potpourri of fascinating items, images, vivid descriptions, memorabilia, anecdotes, historical facts and trivia related to the bygone days of what is now the national capital.
The book's timeline is almost as long as Chinese history with the first item, a Peking Chronology, which starts "Around 500,000 BC: Peking man appears in the caves of Zhou Kou Dian, southwest of Peking" and the final item headed "The People of China Have Stood Up" over the text of late Chairman Mao Zedong's victorious address to Party officials on September 21, 1949.
In between, it glances with mostly concise prose and extended picture captions at the Great Wall, the Boxers, cricket fighting, the horse races, civil and military ranks, the heathen Christmas, the role of the Jesuits, warlords, Peking Duck, Pekingese dogs, various dynasties, pigtails and foot binding. And, much more.
Sandhaus has lived in Shanghai since the summer of 2006. Originally from around Kansas City in the United States, he studied philosophy and film at Brandeis University in Massachusetts before moving to China.
He started writing about Chinese history in 2007 for a company specializing in historical audio-guided tours of neighborhoods in Shanghai and Beijing.
And he gradually came to form a rough idea about people and events that shaped modern-day China.
Greatly fascinated by what he saw, he expanded into writing history for magazines and blogs and, eventually, the publisher of "Tales of Old Peking," Earnshaw Books.
The book project began in 2008 and Sandhaus finished making tweaks and edits in April this year before the publication was formally launched on May 27.
"The overall process involved equal parts searching for sources, tracking them down and then actually reading and sifting through them," he said of the research work.
"There is a tremendous amount of interesting information out there about China and its profound history, but finding the best of it isn't that easy.
"Many of the sources in the book are out-of-print or otherwise inaccessible and I relied heavily on rummaging through many private libraries or wherever else I could find what I needed."
Out of a mass of literature, he boiled it down into the digestible morsels that now constitute the handy tome whose pictures and images are mostly reproduced in their original monotones with daubs of color here and there.
Foreign residents and travelers of the day constitute much of the source material and therefore the book's dominant perspective.
"The end result is a unique product, a 'from the horse's mouth' approach to history I have never come across before," Sandhaus said.
"Beijing was, and is, an extraordinary city and it was a pleasure getting to rediscover its past, story by story. Old Peking was much different than modern Beijing and the gap widens by the day.
"There are, however, many historical parallels between the experiences of those living there today and those living there 100 years ago. That was one of the key reasons for choosing many of the stories."
There is a welter of books across a range of subjects published each year about contemporary China, with business guides and economic development anecdotes seeming to be the dominant theme.
Yet the focus on China's contemporary culture, its origins and links to comparatively recent history, is overwhelming and much of it is contextualized in "Tales of Old Peking."
"We find Chinese history to be an incredibly rich and enduring topic and we wanted to be able to share some of the forgotten but fascinating bits with a larger audience," Sandhaus said.
The book's grab bag collection of precious bits and pieces defies narrative convention. It is a light read, an anytime, quick flick reference that is companionable with a weightier work or a guide book.
As Sandhaus advises, the book "can be picked up at will and opened at any page. You can read it according to your personal interests in much the same way you would a Web page."
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