China’s last emperor (Puyi), his empress (Wanrong), and concubine (Wenxiu) spent two years sequestered in the Forbidden City before their expulsion in 1924. Around them were holdover dowagers, scheming eunuchs, corrupt officials, and two foreign teachers of English. Many people know Puyi’s tutor, Reginald Johnston, either from Johnston’s memoir, Twilight in the Forbidden City, or from Peter O’Toole’s portrayal in Bernardo Bertolucci’s Puyi biopic, The Last Emperor. But it is Wanrong’s tutor, the young American Isabel Ingram, and her letters that are at the heart of our guest’s new book about these pivotal two years in Chinese history.

Author Paul French has made a career of evocative stories of old China, including the New York Times bestseller Midnight in Peking and City of Devils: A Shanghai Noir. The Economist has called him “a champion storyteller.”

His new book, The Last Emperor of China: Twilight of the Forbidden City (out today in the UK), is built around the unpublished letters of Ingram and Johnston. They describe the trials and tribulations (but also the small pleasures and moments of joy) shared by three remarkable young people: Puyi, Wanrong, and Wenxiu. They longed to escape, but when they were finally expelled from the courtyards of Beijing’s imperial palace, they found only despair and tragedy.

Paul joins Jeremiah to discuss the origins of this book, his use of previously unpublished sources, including memoirs, diaries, and letters, and whether the more lurid rumors of the relationship between Puyi and his empress have any basis in fact.

In this Barbarians at the Gate x China Books Review crossover, Jeremiah Jenne is joined by CBR Associate Editor Alexander Boyd to discuss the latest addition to the China Archives: W. Somerset Maugham's On a Chinese Screen (1922), a collection of vignettes from Maugham's trip through China in the winter of 1919–1920.

Maugham came to China and mostly found... the English. Missionaries who profess love for a country they secretly loathe, taipans dreading burial in Chinese soil, diplomats who could be posted to Peking or Bern without noticing the difference. Jeremiah and Alexander match these hundred-year-old archetypes to expats they have known, and chart the "Cycle of China Funk," the wave pattern that should replace the PowerPoint version of culture shock and adaptation. They follow Maugham's habit of recycling real people into his fiction, including handing the scholar Gu Hongming's rebuke of Western power to a stage villain in East of Suez. And they bring Gerald Haxton out of the shadows: the hard-drinking companion who made the whole trip and never appears in the book.

Next month on the China Archives: Shen Fu's Six Records of a Floating Life.

Keywords: Somerset Maugham, On a Chinese Screen, China Books Review, Barbarians at the Gate podcast, Gu Hongming, Gerald Haxton, expat life in China, China travel writing, British colonialism in China, China Archives

It’s the summer travel season, and one of the most popular sites here in Beijing is the Palace Museum at the Forbidden City. To talk about China’s most famous imperial palace, we are joined by Matthew Hu Xinyu, Trustee of the Beijing Cultural Heritage Protection Center (CHP) and founder of the Courtyard Institute. Matthew provides us with updates on renovated sections of the Palace Museum previously inaccessible to tourists, such as the Palace of Compassion and Tranquility (Cining Gong 慈宁宫), where the Empress Dowager celebrated her birthdays and worshipped the Buddha, and the living quarters of the imperial concubines located north and west of Longzong Gate. Matthew also gives us a fascinating overview of the complex task of renovating the centuries-old compound and the challenges the Palace Museum faces in restoring, protecting, and exhibiting its 1.8 million artifacts.

Palaces, artifacts, and historical figures mentioned on the podcast:

Hall of Mental Cultivation, Yangxin Dian养心殿

Palace of Established Happiness建福宮Jianfu Gong

jinzhuan金砖 ”metal/gold bricks”

Dr. Shan Jixiang 单霁翔, curator of the Palace Museum from 2012 to 2019

Imperial Fasting Palace Zhai Gong斋宫

“Dwelling in the Fuchun Mountains” Fuchun Shanju Tu 富春山居圖, a famous Yuan Dynasty painting by Huang Gongwang (黃公望, 1269-1354). The painting was divided into two pieces after being rescued from a fire. The two sections were later separated; the main section is now housed at the Taipei Palace Museum, and the smaller section, referred to as “The Remaining Mountain,” 剩山圖 Sheng Shan Tu, is part of the Beijing collection.

“Precious Works of the Stone Canal Pavilion” 石渠宝笈 Shiqu Baoji. A vast Qing collection of paintings and calligraphy by emperors and famous artists, divided into categories such as books, paintings, scrolls, and calligraphy.

Hall of Three Rarities Sanxi Tang 三希堂

“Reign behind the curtain” Chuilian tingzheng垂帘听政

Retirement Lodge Juanqin Zhai倦勤斋

Palace of Longevity and Health Shoukang Gong寿康宫

Fragile Cargo: China’s Wartime Race to Save the Treasures of the Forbidden City by Adam Brookes. “The gripping true story of the bold and determined museum curators who saved the priceless treasures of China’s Forbidden City in the years leading up to World War II and beyond.”

“Masters in the Forbidden City” Wo zai Gugong xiu wenwu 我在故宫修文物. State media documentary on the ongoing restoration projects of the Forbidden City. Available on YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pw6awYYu_6s

This episode originally aired in July 2023.