Table of Contents
Introduction 11
A note on names and spellings 15
The Carl Crow Map of Peiping 18
The Rooftop of the Grand Hôtel de Pékin: Wallis Spencer's Peking World & Those Who Went Up on the Roof (1924) 21
Peking's Favourite Bolshevik: Lev Karakhan (1923) 41
An "American Girl" in Peking: Mona Monteith (1901) 57
Two Aesthetes of Peking: Desmond Parsons & Robert Byron (1937) 73
Peking Takedown - Two Shootouts in Old Peiping: Dewolfe Schatzel & PJ Lawless (1938) 91
Not the Best Peking Christmas: Denton Welch (1932) 113
"Peking is Like Paris": Isamu Noguchi (1930) 131
The Last Days of Edmund Backhouse: Sir Edmund Trelawny Backhouse, 2nd Baronet (1944) 147
Finding Love and Mr Moto in Peking: JP Marquand & Adelaide Hooker (1935) 165
Nazi Parties in Peking: Eugen, Helma & the Nazis of Occupied Peking (1943) 183
The Peiping World of Peonies and Ponies: Harold Acton (1941) 205
Who was the Real Olga? Olga Fischer-Togo (1922) 235
The Artist and the Madonna of China: Bertha Lum (1930) 251
The Heiress, the Prince and White Russia in Peking: Barbara Hutton & Prince Mdivani (1934) 263
Two American Ladies in Peking: Ellen Newbold La Motte & Emily Crane Chadbourne (1919) 281
Harry Hervey's Peking of the Imagination: Harry Hervey (1924) 301
The Woman Who Created the Wartime Image of China in America: Martha Sawyers (1941) 323
Drinks with the Foster Snows of Kuei Chia Chang Hutong: Edgar & Helen Foster Snow (1936) 339
Appendix
Placenames, old and new 360
Acknowledgements 363
Image credits 367