I am possibly being a bit paranoid, but the blogosphere has gone very silent since I went to China. I just want to check that the blog is still working. There was a rogue comment on my Philip Larkin post, which I have now deleted; but I do know that he has been hacking into other sites (not Larkin, that is; the strange commenter).
Apparently the odd blog comment directed readers to a Chinese page with a scantily clad young lady. Larkin might well have approved, but I'm not so sure about it.
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18 comments:
Welcome home! Yes, I knew you had a global and broad minded fan-base, but even I was surprised by that contribution. Quite spooky that it was in Chinese...
Hi.
Here is another comment. I guess spammers get everywhere these days.
I was in Shanghai nearly 30 years ago and I know it has changed hugely since then. We were with an Australian group tour and one of the men had been posted there during the war. He took a small group of us to the famous Peace Hotel night club where the jazz band played ancient instruments from yellowed sheet music and we were served cocktails by waiters in Mao suits. We flew all over China for 4 weeks in ancient Russian Aleutian planes for which the Russians had stopped providing spare parts and the Chinese were making their own copies from moulds. Very scary. it was altogether a most fascinating experience.
Do you have a release date yet for your Chanel book, Justine? (Amazon are listing one that's been and gone).
Welcome back - I missed your blog and Iwas reading new Tove Janson as my summer read as it cooled me off. Next is Woman in White as that too will soothe me as it is so hot here.
What a relief. I was worrying that my blog had been hacked into and shut down. Jaywalker -- thanks for your fascinating story. Shanghai must have looked totally different then, because so much of it has been built in the last 10 years. So were you there in the 1960s, when Shanghai was lying dormant?
Cornflower -- my Chanel book is now coming out next spring. I've recently had access to a lot of new material, which I wanted to include -- after all, I only get once chance to write a book about Coco Chanel, and it's got to be as perfect as possible. But it's all going well...
Enid -- it's pouring with rain here, and dark; very Dickensian. But I'd far rather be reading The Woman in White in the sunlight, like you.
Justine, I just wanted to say how much I enjoyed listening to you on the Radio 4 podcast about Chanel herself and our relationship with clothes in general. Your story about trying on Mademoiselle's coat and finding her hankie still smelling of No5 gave me goosebumps! Can't wait for the book!
Happy to comment. Just found you had a blog and am now following. Loved your Daphne. Tho' mine had a different cover (I'm in US). Also just read Piers Dudgeon's book on Du Maurier's, Barrie, etc. - did you? If so, did you like?
Justine - I think I was in Shanghai in 1982 so it's 27 years ago. China had just been recently opened up to tourists and Australians started going on organised tours as you were not allowed to move about freely. The Chinese literally stood around us staring with fascination at our clothes and western faces and touching us. When we crossed into China from the New Territories we had to list every item of jewellery we had on and had to have it checked off when we left. It was January and unbelievably cold - minus 14 on the Great Wall. In Xian after seeing the Entombed Warriors we got to the airport to find they had "no planes left" so we were taken back to the hotel where a few hours later the guide came running in to us to tell us "we find plane - you all come quick". The toilets were beyond description and the food was often inedible. Washing up was done in cold water and the breakfast glasses sometimes had the previous night's lipstick stains on them. The hotels varied between Communist concrete boxes with Mao furniture to brand new joint venture multi-storeys where shoddy building meant nothing worked properly. I could go on with many, many stories but had better stop.
I lived in Shanghai until I was two years old, leaving in 1982, just when China was opening to the west. I remember nothing from that time, but I remember subsequent trips to China in the mid-80's, my first trip to Xi'an in 1983 or 1984, and another trip to Xiamen in 1985 or 86.
I did not return until 2002, and the first thing that struck me as we drove from the airport into a small city somewhere in Guizhou Province, one of the poorest regions of the country, was how dark everything was, how dim even the streetlights were. We spent several days in the countryside in the guesthouse of a school (long story), and at night we slept in rooms lit by what seemed like 10-watt bulbs, hanging nakedly from the ceiling.
The big cities, though, are as brightly light and fast-moving as anywhere else, if not faster. I try to visit Shanghai once a year, to see my grandfather. The city grows more and more international each year, more foreigners coming from all over the world to live or work or play. I hope you had a wonderful trip, despite the jetlag.
Kiki -- thanks for your comment. And to everyone else, as well. Um, in no particular order, I have read Piers Dudgeon's book, which I thought was interesting, particularly the early section on George du Maurier and mesmerism; though his interpretation of Barrie is more clear-cut than mine (or rather, I think Barrie's life, as well as his work, can be read in a number of different ways).
Jaywalker -- your trip to China sounds terrifying, as well as memorable; opening a window that most of us will have never got close to seeing.
Kairu, the more I hear about your past, the more fascinating it sounds. I hope you'll write a book about it (or maybe you already have done?). I'm going to post my piece on Shanghai -- it's in today's Sunday Telegraph, but was cut to fit, so here's the longer version.
Comments in Chinese, more often than not, are spam- no need to be alarmed! And I think the Chinese forewalls block all blogspot blogs on principle, you really shouldn't worry about it.
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