Sidelights on Peking Life
We have recently discovered Sidelights on Peking Life from 1927, a book that easily qualifies as one of the best books on Hutong life in the capital that we have ever come across.
The author Robert William Swallow is, however, something of an enigma. So far we have not been able to find a single photograph of him. However, we put the brilliant detective Emma Harper on the case and she has been able to piece together bits and pieces to begin constructing a biography of this mysterious character.
Robert William Swallow was born in 1878 in Ningbo, Zhijiang Province. His parents were missionaries, and Robert would learn Chinese with a fluency that other foreigners often remarked upon. He was sent back to England for his education, and was apparently a very skilled football player. After graduating from university, he returned to China and worked at various universities as a professor. He returned to Europe during the First World War, serving as a technical officer and translator in the Chinese Labour Corps. After the war he once again returned to China and set himself up as businessman dealing in Chinese curios, living for a time in Kaifeng, Henan province. He also started to publish regular articles on Chinese culture and customs in the North China Herald, including a series of columns under the title “Sidelights of Peking Life”. His book of the same name, first published in 1927, appears to be a collection of these articles. He also published a book on Chinese bronze mirrors, which despite the starkly different subject matter is written in the same remarkably light, entertaining, and capturing way.
In the introduction to “Sidelights…” Swallow is described as a person with a bohemian temperament and a remarkable gift for making Chinese people feel at ease with him. It is not difficult to believe that Robert Swallow spent considerable time with Beijing’s Chinese residents as the book reads like an insiders’ guide to the city, in a way that we don’t recall having seen in any other writings on the city. Robert Swallow never married, and died suddenly at his home in Shanghai in 1938 at only 60 years old.
Click here to read his stories about ghosts in the hutong, or buy a paper copy here.
BookClub Weekly Update
Pawnbrokers in Beijing
You may not have noticed, but pawnbrokers are still seen pretty much all over the city of Beijing. The pawnbrokers have a long history in the capital, and in his excellent 1927 book “Sidelights on Peking Life” Robert Swallow describes how the Chinese pawnbroker was seen as a much more respectable institution than his equivalent in Europe.
The Merciless World of Beijing Opera
In in his remarkable 1927 book “Sidelights on Peking Life,” Robert Swallow delves into the merciless world of Beijing opera. He recounts that “the system is hard and in many ways a cruel one, the youngsters being herded together in dark insanitary rooms, and no mercy is shown to those who fail to satisfy the demands of their instructors. In fact the system is known tas hsi（打戏）,“beating” (in) the theatrical (idea), and the stick was, and is still, and is still looked upon as its only means of persuasion.”
Hutong Ghost stories
In Confucius’ Analects, the great philosopher acknowledges that ghosts exist, but he also advises people not to disturb the spirits of the underworld. However, when Robert Swallow lived in the Hutong alleyways of Beijing in 1927, he collected so many strange tales and descriptions of haunted houses that it seems that not everybody listened to the old sage….
City of Migration
Originally early hopefuls travelling to Beijing crossed the Marco Polo bridge on their way to the capital on foot. It is not an exaggeration to say that this crossing is the very reason that Beijing exists in its present location.
When Was Prostitution Legalized in Beijing?
In the early 1900s, prostitution was legalized in Beijing. A trade that had existed in a grey zone outside the city wall ever since the capital was built was now placed at center stage.
Did Kuaidi Exist Already During the Qing Dynasty?
In 1927 Robert Swallow wrote in Sidelights on Peking Life: "Almost everything that the Chinese householder needs may be bought at his door."
How Does History Define A Beijinger?
“Many people live in Peking, but there are few Pekinese." is the very first sentence of Robert Swallows Sidelights on Peking Life from 1927, but what defines a person from Beijing?