'History doesn’t repeat itself, but it does rhyme' - Mark Twain.
A gallimaufry of random China history and research interests
Monday, April 20, 2009
JG Ballard – 1930-2009
After a long illness JG Ballard died yesterday. He will be truly missed.
Of course he was one of Britain’s greatest modern writers but will be remembered by many for Empire of the Sun, the fictionalized account of his own childhood in a Shanghai (Lunghwa) internment camp. Steven Spielberg turned the novel into a 1987 film, which was nominated for six Oscars, and as far as movie versions of books go wasn’t bad at all.
Born in Shanghai on November 15, 1930, Ballard was the son of a British executive. He was growing up in the city’s privileged expatriate community when the Japanese invaded. At the age of 12, he was interned with his mother and father in a camp where he would spend two and a half years.
Recently Ballard had written again about Shanghai in his autobiography Miracles of Life: Shanghai to Shepperton.
For those interested the former Ballard family still stands and is now a restaurant on Panyu Lu near the corner with Xinhua Road. I can’t recommend the food but a stroll by to doff your cap in respect is in order if in you are in the area.
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As someone who divides their time pretty evenly writing about China now and China back then this seemed like a place to throw all the interesting bits that fall through the cracks somehow and never get used anywhere else.
It's basically the stuff that doesn't get used in my writing about modern China or in the books I do about old China - i.e. probably of little interest to anyone but me and therefore ideally suited to an obscure blog up a dark cul-de-sac of the Internet.
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1 comment:
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