Sunday Feature: A Chinese Odyssey in London

A Chinese Odyssey in London

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Sunday Feature: A Chinese Odyssey: Artists, Poets and Exiles in Interwar London

A Chinese Odyssey: Artists, Poets and Exiles in Interwar London

BBC Radio 3 - Sunday Feature, A Chinese Odyssey: Artists, Poets and Exiles in Interwar London

Paul French explores a unique moment in British-Chinese solidarity between 1937 to 1945.

Between 1937 and 1945, a small group of émigré Chinese artists and intellectuals living in London forged a unique bond between Britain and China. Paul French recovers the story.

Paul French explores a unique moment in British-Chinese solidarity between 1937 and 1945 when a small group of Chinese artists and intellectuals forged a unique bond between Britain and China through their work and presence. Paul French recovers the story.

On the first night of the Blitz, a bomb destroyed the Hampstead home of the best-selling Chinese artist and author, Chiang Yee. That night began the scattering of what had been an incredibly productive, influential and vibrant circle of Chinese émigré poets, journalists, playwrights, translators and artists who had gathered in London NW3.

Chiang Yee, Hsiung Shih-I, Dymia Hsiung and Hsiao Chien had found a new, seemingly temporary home in  London as they sough to raise awareness of the struggles for freedom in China as it was torn apart by the Sino-Japanese war in 1937. Both in love with Britain, despite its Empire racism, and in turn popular and well known on the British cultural scene crafting popular travel guides to the British terrain, a best-selling West End play, Lady Precious Stream, and broadcasting frequently to Britain and the Empire about China's fate and freedom as the rest of the world hurtled towards war.

Despite their influence and impact at the time, their historical presence has been almost totally overlooked. Paul French retells this unique odyssey, a moment of war-born internationalism that placed such a creative group of exiles at the heart of empire.

Producer: Mark Burman

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A Chinese Odyssey: Artists, Poets and Exiles in Interwar London

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