In August, 1931, Zhu Ziqing went to England to study linguistics and English literature for one year because of Tsinghua’s system arrangement for teaching study leave, and traveled to five European countries. As a foodie, after returning home, he not only involved in eating in the Miscellaneous Notes on a European Journey, but also mentioned the list of Chinese restaurants he had eaten in his diary, which was more in the author’s bibliography, leaving valuable materials for us to understand the situation of Chinese restaurants in Britain, especially in London. Later, Mr. Xia Nai studied in London for more than four years, and also left many records of Chinese restaurants. Therefore, although I am in "Diet Journey to the West"(Sanlian Bookstore Life Bookstore 2021 Edition)There has been a special chapter "English Chinese Food: From Sailors’ Pavilion to Hong Kong Pavilion" to discuss English Chinese restaurants in the late Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China, but this large amount of new historical materials is still enough to become a new chapter.
Zhu ziqing
First, laugh and tease the British diet
Mr. Zhu Ziqing pointed out at the beginning of the article "London Miscellanies, Eating":
When it comes to eating and drinking in Europe, who always thinks of Paris, London is not. Needless to say, just fried yam eggs. French cut into small dominoes, yellow, oily and delicious; Britain’s "Chip" is half yellow and half black, neither too hot nor too cold, and there is no smell in it. You can only be full. Besides, English food is eaten, and the main course is nothing more than fried beef ribs with sheep and two vegetarian dishes; A family has lived for four months, and has only eaten fried veal liver once, which is a new trick.(Zhu Ziqing’s Miscellaneous Notes on European Tour, Sanlian Bookstore, 1983, 155 pages)
London Miscellanies
His friend, Mr. Lin Yutang, has also greatly derogated from the British diet:
British people do not take food seriously, but regard it as a casual thing. This dangerous attitude can be found in their national life. If they know the taste of food, there will be words to express this meaning in their language. There was no word "cooking" in English, and they only had "cooking". They didn’t have proper words to call "chef", but simply called it "cook"; They didn’t say "menu" originally, but just called it "‘dishes’"; They didn’t have a word to call "gourmet", so they called it "Greedy Gut" (greedy belly) in nursery rhymes. In fact, the British don’t admit that they have stomachs … What the British are interested in is how to keep healthy and strong, such as eating more Bovril beef juice, so as to resist the attack of colds and save medical expenses.(Lin Yutang’s Chinese, Xuelin Press, 1994, 325 pages)
Xu Zhongpei, a famous journalist who was a special correspondent of the Central Daily News in London, simply said: "There is no cooking in Britain. Any vegetables are cooked in white. I often say that being a chef in Britain is the easiest job in the world. Anyone who has been to Britain knows that English food is boring."(Xu Zhongpei, London and I China Restaurant, Central Daily Weekly, No.5, 1948. Xu Zhongpei sometimes writes Xu Zhongpei. For example, when this article was published in the seventh issue of 147 Pictorial in the name of China Restaurant in London, it was signed by Xu Zhongpei. )
Zhu Ziqing arrived in Paris by land from Soviet Russia and then went to England, so he ate French food first, which was quite cheap and good: "September 7, 1931, Paris: dinner at the French hotel was worth five francs and seventy-five centimes, one meat and two vegetables, and a bottle of beer was very cheap." Therefore, when I went to London, I ate French food first among foreign dishes, and I even thought it was cheap and good: "September 11, 1931, London: I ate at Lyon restaurant, which was cheap and didn’t take tips, which was very good." I went on the next day, but I didn’t feel so good: "September 12, 1931, London: Dinner at Lyon restaurant, the mutton was very poor, the account was miscalculated, and the rest of the language was not enough." As for going to a small restaurant in England, there is no comment: "October 18, 1931, London: I had dinner with Tao Jun and Wang Zhaojun at a barbecue restaurant in the evening." "October 19th, 1931, London: Lunch at Express Dairy." Probably because it tastes bad. It wasn’t until a month later (Wednesday, November 25th, 1931) that I ate in a relatively high-end Imperial Hotel, but "lunch is good, it is expensive"-the British can still make a good taste for a penny, but the price/performance ratio is not attractive enough, so I "agreed with Tao to go to Lyon restaurant on Friday night"; "December 30, 1931, London: Dine at Lyon Restaurant in Piccadilly Circus", and continue to eat cheap and good French food. Later, Zhu Ziqing also found a great British restaurant with good quality and low price: "On December 8, 1931,London: Go to the Oxford Corner Hotel for dinner with Tao in the evening. As Tu told me, this is the palace of the poor! This nickname was taken by some British students. It’s really the largest restaurant I’ve ever been to. This restaurant is not only huge, but also beautifully decorated and has a good band. We can sit upstairs until twelve o’clock. The food here is much better than ordinary restaurants. "(Collected Works of Zhu Ziqing, Volume 9, Jiangsu Education Press, 1998, pages 41, 42, 59, 77, 95 and 82)
The Oxford Corner Hotel is a "poor man’s palace", and the Imperial Hotel is only relatively high-end. Anyway, "the first-class hotel has never been there". In addition to French food, Italian food, which is famous in continental Europe, is impossible for Zhu Ziqing not to taste, although it is not a first-class hotel:
Italian restaurants have been to two. The family is in Oxford Street, which is quite large, and there are female jugglers and dancers at dinner. I only remember that the first course was oysters and the like; A special dish with seven or eight round squares around the side, each with an oyster, tastes very elegant. The other one, Euston Road, is also a busy place. This family is small, and Tongxin powder is the best; Cut the flour into small circles half a minute long, fry it in yellow oil, spread it flat on a plate and sprinkle with cheese powder, which is relaxed and delicious. There are also fried "gas oysters", which are tender and fragrant, and the crickets and scallops can’t be reached; Only the oyster yellow in Ningbo seems to be close at hand.
Zhu Ziqing stayed in London for a year, but he didn’t cook by himself. He "went to eat two meals a day". It is reasonable to say that there were many restaurants to eat, but apart from remembering several French and Italian restaurants (of course, there are many Chinese restaurants, which will be described later), British local restaurants don’t remember much, either because they are small shops or because they don’t like English restaurants very much. In his love letter to Chen Zhuyin, he also said very briefly: "Most restaurants here are hosted by women. I went to a shop that didn’t give small bills, and the hospitality was good and bad! Some hosts are really scary! If a waiter has long eyelashes, as if he can’t see anything, and another asks what food he wants, these two are the most annoying; They are in the same family, so I don’t go there often. "(Zhu Qiaosen’s "Zhu Ziqing’s Love Letters", letter dated October 21, 1931, Jiangsu Education Press, 2001, 75 pages)
Zhu Ziqing’s daily visit to this small restaurant is probably the tea restaurant that he thinks best represents British cooking:
Old city restaurants and tea restaurants are the local flavor. Tea restaurant and frying shop are actually nicknames for small restaurants. The "rice" in the tea restaurant originally refers to lunch, but the things sold are not simple, and dinner is full; Besides frying beef, lamb chops and ribs, the frying shop also sells other things.
There are three cheap tea restaurants: LYONS, Express Milk Room and ABC Bakery. Each family has opened many stores, all over the city and outside; ABC is less and more expensive, and Laaynes is the most. The fried veal, veal liver and braised duck pieces in the express dairy are also delicious; They burn duck pieces with charcoal fire, so it has a China flavor. ABC fried beef liver can also be eaten, but it’s almost impossible to get old in a hurry; The dim sum is well baked, and several of them are comparable to the French bakery in Beiping. There doesn’t seem to be anything outstanding in Laaynes; But there are two "corner shops" in his house, both at the corner of downtown, but there are delicious foods there. The corner shop has two large rooms, one is upper and lower, and the other is three floors and three large rooms, which can accommodate about 1,500 people. There is a band playing in the evening. As soon as I entered, I saw it was dark and full of people. The corridor was narrow enough, but the weather was quite wide (a British student ridiculed it as "the palace of the poor", which might be good); There I often find and stand for a long time before waiting for an empty seat.(Zhu Ziqing’s Miscellaneous Notes on European Travel, Sanlian Bookstore, 1983, pp. 157-158)
He briefly said these things in his diary, just wondering if this tea restaurant has something to do with the tea restaurants that have been popular in Hong Kong since then. For lack of materials, I won’t go into it for the time being, but the expression in one of his diaries is very close: "January 6, 1932, London: I talked with Liu in the morning. We had lunch in a nearby teahouse. This teahouse is only visited by some workers. "(Collected Works of Zhu Ziqing, Volume 9, Jiangsu Education Press, 1998, 99 pages)
Zhu Ziqing has nothing to say about English restaurants, but he has said many times about the cooking skills of himself and his friend’s landlord, which makes him feel a little abnormal:
November 1, 1931, London: In the morning, it is advisable to go to Xu Zijun’s place and visit Windhoek Carmen. Xu Jun lives in a family with only one guest. The landlord is a widow, originally from Germany. Xu Yunshan cooks and cooks chicken soup as China does. He eats chicken twice a week, and the whole meal is only thirty-five shillings.
December 26, 1931, London: I had breakfast at Liu’s residence. I think the food here is better than ours, because the landlady is very attentive to everything. She also invited us to stay with her all day. Her words are so polite and humble that we can’t refuse them easily.
December 31, 1931, London: The food in Mr. Fu’s residence was good, and I drank too much wine.(Collected Works of Zhu Ziqing, Volume 9, Jiangsu Education Press, 1998, pp. 64, 92 and 95)
In the love letter, he also specifically talked about the cooking skills of his new landlord, and said it better: "November 9, 1932: I moved here on Monday, and everything was still comfortable … The cook was very good and the food was delicious, but after eating well these two days, my stomach became uncomfortable. You can blame it. It’s really an unappreciated stomach."(Zhu Qiaosen’s Handwriting of Zhu Ziqing’s Love Letters, Jiangsu Education Press, 2001, 92 pages)
Second, gather in China restaurant.
Zhu Ziqing said in "Miscellaneous Notes on Europe Tour": "There are seven or eight China Hotels in London, which are very different in price, depending on the place. Although there are some high and low dishes, they are all Cantonese in disguise, far less good than Shanghai Xinya. I asked for a bowl of chicken wonton in a Guangdong building, which is one yuan and sixty cents in China, which is expensive enough. "(Zhu Ziqing’s Miscellaneous Notes on European Tour, Sanlian Bookstore, 1983, 158 pages)It seems too bad and too expensive. However, he went to almost every one of these seven or eight restaurants, leaving their names in his diary, and his impression of the food was far better than this published account. We might as well sort it out one by one. Among them, the one who went the most was Shundonglou, which was first seen in the pen, and was recorded four times:
September 15, 1931, London: Lunch is at Shundong Building, invited by Liu Zhongxi.
October 8, 1931, London: Visiting Liu Zhongxi Jun, meeting Wang Shufang Jun, and studying mechanical engineering in Manchester factory. I met Wu Dingliang Jun, who was a student of No.5 Normal University. I heard his name for a long time, and now I have a doctorate. I still studied statistics from Karl Pearson and thought of getting a doctorate in science. He is very knowledgeable. The canal asked Liu Jun to go to the East Building for dinner, and I also kept pace with it. As a result, wu jun was the host; It is also so troublesome to invite people to a meal in a foreign country.
November 13th, 1931, London: Invited Mr. Zhou to have dinner in Shundong Building, where he met two China ladies who spoke Shanghai dialect. I haven’t heard Shanghainese for two months! Their style and manners are also a Shanghai style, and I hate and admire them, which is really contradictory.
November 28, 1931, London: I had lunch with Liu and Lu in Shundong Building.
Nanjing building was also recorded four times, but the first two times were given a "very good" evaluation, and it was not too expensive!
October 3, 1931, London: The meal was in Nanjing House, one third (pound), one soup and two dishes. It was very good and the dishes were extremely abundant.
October 7, 1931, London: Lunch at Nanjing Building, very good.
October 10, 1931, London: When I went to Nanjing Building for lunch, I met a China student and cursed an American student, saying that there was someone who wrote a paper on the evolution of women’s socks (high waist) and menstrual belt.
December 28, 1931, London: Mr. Luo visited. He told me something about the Christmas party at Nanjing Hotel. He said that someone named He accused everyone of indulging in pleasure at the meeting, but he himself came to London from Cambridge for pleasure!
Xinhua Weizhai recorded three times, two of which were alumni dinners, with Peking University alumni and Tsinghua alumni respectively; In my humble opinion, this is also a Chinese restaurant that has never been seen by others:
December 23, 1931, London: Old alumni of Peking University in London held a luncheon in Xinhua Weizhai, where everyone held a long talk.
December 27, 1931, London: Mr. Jia was invited to have lunch at Xinhua Weizhai.
January 1, 1932, London: Dinner with alumni from Tsinghua University in Xinhua Weizhai.
From the gathering of Nanjing Building mentioned above to the gathering of Xinhua Weizhai, Chinese restaurants are really the gathering place for international students, and Shanghai Building is famous for the gathering of Peking University alumni:
September 24th, 1931, London: Dinner at the Shanghai Building was rare in Chinese. The food is not bad
February 27, 1932, London: Dinner at Shanghai Building, which is famous in London for the gathering of Peking University alumni. At three o’clock, Lin Yutang gave a speech on "The Spirit of the Times of China Culture", and the discussion was very lively and interesting.
In addition to the above Chinese restaurants, Zhu Ziqing also visited Huaying Building and Xinyue Restaurant occasionally:
September 15, 1931, London: Dinner was invited by Mr. Luo, in Huaying Building, inferior to Shundong Building.
January 31, 1932, London: Attended the banquet of Dr. Lin (Yutang) at Xinyue Restaurant. After lunch, go to his place with him. He talked to me about his plans for a Chinese typewriter.(Collected Works of Zhu Ziqing, Volume IX, Jiangsu Education Press, 1998, pp. 43, 54, 70, 78, 51, 53, 55, 94, 89, 93, 97, 46, 118, 43 and 109)
Of course, these are not necessarily Mr. Zhu Ziqing’s complete records, and he has no obligation to remember them in every family. As far as I know, there are six restaurants, namely Shundong Building, Nanjing Hotel, Xinhua Weizhai Building, Shanghai Building, Huaying Building and Xinyue Restaurant, which are generally consistent with the seven or eight he mentioned in London Miscellanies-because he didn’t or didn’t want to or dared to go to the first-class hotel, while the most famous Chinese restaurants in Britain at that time were Xinghua Building and Flower Exploration Building. Mr. Hua Wu (Guo Zixiong) said: "The most luxurious apricot blossom building in Oxford Street was originally the first China restaurant in London. Most of the employers were outsiders, so poor students could not afford it." In Hua Wu’s pen, the flower exploration building can also be called a first-class hotel: "The flower exploration building at the bottom of the wall is very ostentatious, and poor students are not allowed to go."(London Sketch China Restaurant, Cosmic Wind, No.1, 1935)Expensive is only one aspect, and the key is delicious, otherwise it will be unkind; The Flower Exploration Building is worthy of its high price: "There are five or six China restaurants in London, and the equipment is good or bad. The Flower Exploration Building is the most expensive, and the food tastes similar. The expensive food is also very good, which is comparable to Shanghai’s elegance, but the cheap one will not work."(Mao Yugong’s Life in Britain, Jiaotong University Alumni, No.3, 1937, pp. 31-33)
Business Magazine, Volume 5, No.1, 1930, London Xinghualou Restaurant
Zhu Ziqing and poor students can’t afford to go to the Xinghua Building and the Flower Exploration Building, so who should go? The dignitaries can go. For example, when Hu Die, the winner of the film, visited Europe and arrived in Britain in 1935, she was seated here: "I had lunch at the Flower Exploration Building, and I met the Mr. Li, his wife and relatives I met in Paris. This gentleman is not only from Guangdong, but also from Heshan County, which is the same county as me. "(Hu Die’s Miscellaneous Notes on European Travel, Shanghai Liangyou Book Company, 1935, 97 pages)The Flower Exploration Building is often a place of diplomatic protocol: "Formal banquets or foreign guests of both sexes will accompany them to the Flower Exploration Building. The facilities in the restaurant are gorgeous, and the waiters in dresses are very arrogant. They open champagne, chew shark’s fin and drink bird’s nest soup during the music performance. Although it is somewhat incongruous, it is enough for ostentation and extravagance."(Jing Qing’s Talking about Eating, New China, Volume 3, No.20, 1935)As early as 1924, Liang Shiyi, the former Premier of the State, set off for Europe and America on March 5, and had a banquet with Ke Sze Sao, the British ambassador to the United States, in Tanhua Building on July 7 in London. In the evening, the farewell party of the British embassy is also in the Flower Exploration Building.(Chronicle of Liang Shiyi, edited by Fenggang and his disciples, Guangdong People’s Publishing House, 2014, 350 pages)
However, the new flower-exploring building opened later was unexpectedly cheap and fine, but strangely it belonged to the same boss:
I’m in China Restaurant in London, and I almost always go to the new flower exploration building in Wardour street, Piccadilly. Chinese eats a lot there, and gives special treatment to our own China compatriots. There are company dishes, about one shilling and nine servings for one person. There is already one soup and two stir-fried, and the rice is as full as possible, and there is a pot of good rain. The quality of western food is richer than that of five shillings. When I first arrived in London, I unfortunately ran to a flower exploration building, also in Piccadilly, which was opened by the same owner as the new flower exploration building. There is no company food there, and a bowl of sliced pork soup is not enough unless it is five shillings. Later, I went several times before I learned about this new flower exploration building. So in the future, in London, where the living standard is very high, I found this cheap and good canteen to satisfy my hunger.(Cang Sheng’s Miscellaneous Notes on Europe, Life in London, People’s Weekly, No.26, 1935)
Cang Sheng said that the food in Tanhualou was expensive but not delicious, probably because he was not used to the lightness of high-grade Cantonese food. And this is a calculation, and it has exceeded seven or eight. In fact, it is far more than these seven or eight. Jingbo, who came to Britain almost at the same time as Zhu Ziqing, mentioned a elegant building: "There are also several China restaurants in London, and sometimes they go there to satisfy their cravings. Because I’m tired of eating ham and eggs, and I’m just as uninterested as Japanese’ Misuo Xi Lu’, so we often find traces of Daya Building and Nanjing Building. "(Jing Bo’s Life of British Overseas Students, Reading Magazine, Volume 1, No.2, 1931)Mr. Yu Pingbo, who came earlier than Zhu Ziqing, has been in London for less than half a month, but he has repeatedly mentioned a China Lou Chinese restaurant:
On February 22, 1920, I drove at 8: 35 (from Liverpool) and arrived in London at 2 pm. Chen, Wu and Ren Junjun came to meet them and went to the Students’ Union in Britain. ….. Night in China building for dinner, and talk to the club.
24th: In the afternoon, I was managing things. It takes fifty shillings a week to find a house in Qian Yi Chenopodium to the southwest. Dinner at China Building in the evening.
February 28th: In the afternoon, Qian came to Fuyu and met Chen Jun (Xiying). Chen asked Ren, Fu and I to have dinner in China.
March 1st: Xie Fu invited Wu, Ren, Chen, Yang and Zhang to dinner in China Building.(The Complete Works of Yu Pingbo, Volume 10, Huashan Literature and Art Publishing House, 1997, Foreign Diary, A, pp. 162-163)
Two or three years later, Xia Nai, who came to the University of London in the autumn of 1935 to study archaeology and later became a famous archaeologist, went to restaurants from time to time and basically only went to Chinese restaurants, but said that "there are five China hotels in London", which is obviously a glimpse of the scholar-he has eaten more than five Chinese restaurants later, and he has never been to such famous restaurants as Xinghualou and Tanhualou. Besides, he can’t afford to go or he can’t bear to go. It is not easy to study because of the prosperity of the anti-Japanese war, and he wants to study for a few more years with limited funds; By August 31, 1938, his public expenses had expired, and "research work, beaded cataloging, reached No.360", although fruitful, was still not finished. "The accumulation of frugality and food was enough for more than one year", so although I lamented "three years of overseas blood and tears", why bother! " Still insisted on returning to China through Egypt after the outbreak of World War II in Europe in the autumn of 1939. However, he worked in Cairo Museum for more than a year before arriving in Kunming in early 1941 via West Asia, India and Myanmar. "His doctorate in Egyptian archaeology from London University was awarded in 1946 after the war."(Diary of Xia Nai, East China Normal University Press, 2011 edition, Volume II, page 225, with Wang Zhongshu’s Biography of Mr. Xia Nai attached to the first book).
Xia Nai
Like Zhu Ziqing, the Chinese restaurant that Xia Nai visited the most was Shundong Building, and as soon as he arrived in London, he went: "September 3, 1935: arrived in London at 6 pm … and went to Shundong Building to eat Chinese food." The next day, I went again: "September 6, 1935: In the afternoon, Tan (Ji Fu), Zeng (Soyul) and Zhou (Jianbei) came to Shun East Building for dinner." Then I rented a good room (September 6, 1935), "My bedroom is 35 shillings a week, including meals", but I still often go to Chinese restaurants, which is still the first choice for Shundong Building:
September 27th, 1935: I visited Tan Jifu Jun with Chen Fengshu Jun in the morning. He came from Birmingham and will go back to school next week. In the afternoon, I went to the city to watch movies. After the break, I went to Shun East Building to eat Chinese food and drink beer. There were 7 people present (Tan Jun, Zhou Jun, Zeng, Chen and I), and Chen Jun was the host, which cost a total of 35 shillings. The food is not expensive, 2 shillings for each guest, and 1 shilling for a bottle of beer. Even I can drink two bottles, and I drank 15 bottles in total (the small bottle can only hold one cup).
October 6, 1935: At the invitation of Wu Jinding Jun, I went into the city and arrived at Shundong Building. It was originally scheduled to be 12: 30. Today is the first day of winter. The clock in London was set back at 1: 00, and the rest was still at 11: 30. I strolled nearby, including Beijing Building, New Flower Exploration Building and New China Building. (Press: The Beijing Building and the New China Building, which were not mentioned by the above-mentioned scholars)
November 20, 1935: I went to Li Chaoying for an appointment with Jun, and went to Shundong Building for lunch. Mrs. Li Jun was also present, and she was from Hangzhou.
November 22, 1935: Lin Changfeng and Li Chaoying were scheduled to eat together in Shundong Building, and Li Furen was also present.
During the first few months in London in 1935, I only went to Shundonglou and never went to other Chinese restaurants. I really loved it. Dear, go on. In 1936, I first went to the Beijing Building: "February 6, 1936: I went to the British Museum with Wu Jun and had lunch with the Beijing Building to talk casually about the archaeology in China." Throughout the year, except for this time, I have been to Beijing Building, and the rest have continued to go to Shundong Building:
July 25th, 1936: I went to town with Chen Jun, and went to Shundong Building for dinner. Take the 3 o’clock train to Dorchester.
September 14th, 1936: Visit Tang Xiang Long Jun at Guilford Street (guildford Street) and have lunch with Shun Dong Lou.
October 7, 1936: In the afternoon, I went to the British Museum, met with Xiang Juemingjun, talked until the evening, and went to the Shundong Building for dinner.
Next, shortly after the beginning of the new year in 1937, I went out to eat for the first time, and went to a Chinese restaurant and Shun East Building: "January 9, 1937: I went to Wu Qiyuan’s place with Chen Jun in the afternoon, Luo Fengchao and Li Mingqijun lived in a room with Wu Jun, played bridge and went to Shun East Building for dinner." There is a Beiping Building in the middle: "January 23, 1937: I made an appointment with Mr. Li (Ji), Mr. and Mrs. wu jun, Xiang Jueming and Zeng Zhaosui to have dinner at Beiping Building." The rest are basically going to Shun East Building:
February 7, 1937: I went to Zhong Daoming’s appointment and had lunch at Shundong Building. Mr. Li (Ji Zhi) and Mr. wu jun were also present.
May 12, 1937: To China Restaurant, the price was increased today (the coronation day of the Emperor), and a meal cost 3 shillings, which can be described as a rip-off. We’ll call it noodle soup instead, at a shilling and a half. (Press: The restaurant that is so familiar, although it is not clearly said which one, is probably Shundong Building. )
May 17th, 1937: In the evening, I had dinner with Zhong, Zhou, Tang and Chen Sijun in Shundong Building.
May 21, 1937: I went to the Royal Hills and met Mr. Li (Ji). Mr. Li was dissatisfied with the French and German students, saying that they played with women and didn’t study. Less than 10% of the 400 people in Germany actually studied. The companion went to Charing Cross Street to buy books, and went to Shun East Building for dinner.
May 27th, 1937: This week, I continued to listen to Rostovtzeff’s lecture, and I came to listen to Jue Ming and Zeng Zhaosui. Tonight, I went to Shun Dong Lou for dinner with Erjun. wu jun and Pan Jun were present and talked until 10: 30.
June 6, 1937: wu jun and Zeng Jun were invited to dinner in Shundong Building to chat about the domestic archaeological community.
June 12, 1937: In the evening, I had dinner with Tang Xiang Long Jun in Shundong Building, and went to Wu (Jinding) Jun to get his paper.
Since then, the Beijing Building and the Shun East Building have alternated, but the Shun East Building is still the main one:
June 19th, 1937: Zhong Daoming was invited to dinner at the Beijing Building, so that Zhong Jun would return to China next month.
June 27th, 1937: At the invitation of Jun, we should have a dinner in Shundong Building in the evening to see Ms. Zeng and Mr. and Mrs. wu jun off.
July 11th, 1937: china christian council and China Association welcomed Liu Tingfang and Wei Zhuomin, and Cheng Yaosheng invited me to attend. After the meeting, I went to the Beijing Building for dinner with Chen Fengshu and Li Mingbian, and everyone was indignant when I met Zhang Dechang.
July 20, 1937: In the evening, I went to Wu Jun’s appointment and had dinner in Beijing Building.
July 21st, 1937: wu jun and his wife, Zhong Xiang and Zhu Jun had lunch together in Shundong Building.
July 27, 1937: In the evening, I met Tang Jun and Zhong Erjun in Shundong Building, and chatted with Tang Jun, so that Tang Jun would leave England for France the day after tomorrow.
September 15th, 1937: Arrived in London in the evening, found a hotel for Zhu Jun and invited him to Beijing Tower for China dinner.
June 4, 1938: Chen Jun was invited to Beiping Building for dinner in the evening to congratulate him on his master’s degree. Zhu Qingyong is your company.
November 12, 1938: Yesterday in the China Association, I met Huang Zongshijun, a military student, and graduated from No.10 Middle School. He was not at the same level as Wu Xuerong and was from Rui ‘an. Today, let’s go to Oxford for sightseeing … Return to London and have dinner in Shundong Building.
December 4, 1938: In the afternoon, at the invitation of Wang Shengzu, he went to his apartment. Zhu Jun and Wang Tieya Jun were also present. After playing bridge and tea, he continued to stay in the evening and went to Shundong Building for dinner.
June 25th, 1939: Yesterday, Mr. Wang Weicheng came from Oxford, and Mr. Zhu Qingshui had lunch together in Shundong Building.
June 30, 1939: Guide Wang Jun to visit the school building, the Chinese Department Museum and the exhibition of E.E.S. (Egyptian Exploration Society). In the evening, I had dinner with Zhang Zongsui, Xu Baolu Jun and others in Shundong Building.
July 24, 1939: The Anti-Japanese War Daily began to be compiled today, and it arrived every two weeks in turn. Braving the heavy rain to report to the Chinese Association, I came across Mr. Yuan Jiahua, invited him to Shun East Building for China dinner, led him to his apartment, and chatted until 10 o’clock.
September 24, 1938: Wang Weicheng came from Oxford and invited him to Shun East Building for dinner.(Diary of Xia Nai, East China Normal University Press, 2011 edition, Volume I, pages 356-357, 368, 372 and 392; Volume II, pages 10, 56, 69, 74, 88, 90, 92, 109-114, 116-118, 125, 215-216, 232, 233, 249, 250, 252, 260 and 264).
Among the English Chinese restaurants written by most scholars or literati in the Republic of China, Shundong Building is certainly not as high-end and famous as Xinghua Building and Flower Exploration Building, but only the traces of Zhu Ziqing and Xia Nai in those years and the stories of scholars written by them are enough to last for a long time.
China Restaurant in London, Volume 4, No.6, 147 Pictorial, 1946.
Zhu Ziqing occasionally goes to Shanghai Building and Huaying Building, while Xia Nai occasionally goes to Shanghai Building and Zhongshan Building:
September 28th, 1939: At noon, Professor glanville was invited for lunch in Shanghai Building, accompanied by Dr. baumgartel and Miss Macharge (Miss Macharg).
October 21, 1939: The landlord and his wife treated me well. Last week, they took the opportunity of the landlord to leave the camp and invited them to Zhongshan Building for a banquet.(Diary of Xia Nai, Volume II, East China Normal University Press, 2011, pages 260 and 264)
Zhongshan Building is unknown, but Shanghai Building and Huaying Building are quite stories. For example, Xu Zhongpei, a famous reporter of the Central Daily News in London, has a soft spot for Shanghai buildings. She wrote in "London and Me: China Restaurant": "My favorite restaurant is the Shanghai Building, which is located in Greek Street and presided over by a lady of mixed Chinese and English. This restaurant was originally opened by a Chinese. He married an English wife and had a large number of children. When he died, he entrusted the management of his life to the big lady, and the big lady did not live up to it. He managed it prosperously. I think the first reason why I like Shanghai Building is that it has a quiet environment, but the biggest reason is that it has two dishes, one is sausage, the other is tofu, and I can occasionally eat vermicelli soup there. Later, we became acquainted with our eldest sister, who often served us a dish of fermented bean curd with our thanks. "(Xu Zhongpei’s London and I China Restaurant, Central Daily Weekly, No.5, 1948)
Jing Qing’s "Talking about Eating" is also written in the Shanghai Building. In her opinion, it’s just a small restaurant that eats snacks: "Young tycoons, wealthy residents and businessmen, large and small diplomats of embassies … when they have casual snacks, they will go to the Shanghai Building or Shundong Building, and formal banquets or male and female foreign guests will accompany them to the Flower Exploration Building."
In the records of the late 1940s, Shanghai seems to be the top Chinese restaurant: "There are about 30 restaurants in China in London, but only Shanghai Tower and World are appreciated by Chinese himself. The Shanghai building is exceptionally elegant, with two or three elegant rooms and halls, walls full of famous paintings and calligraphy, and several landscapes and figures of Hunan embroidery. With these things, we can also attract western customers and comfort the official and business students from the motherland who go to Britain. In addition to painting and calligraphy, the world also has the scenery of China with oil paintings on the walls, which is also unique. As for the cups, plates and bowls of porcelain, ivory chopsticks are even more exquisite than ordinary restaurants in China.(Tan Naxi’s Memories of Traveling Around: Newspaper Street and China Restaurant in London, Central Daily Weekly, No.10, 1947)If you don’t dare, you must.
Huaying Building is near the New Oxford Street, where Mr. Hua Wu (Guo Zixiong) first ate in London. Its boss is a Cantonese. It is said that he first worked as a servant in another China restaurant. Later, after earning a few dollars, he opened this restaurant alone. His wife is his colleague who used to work as a servant, and from the following description, she should be an English woman. And it is his foreign wife who shows his demeanor:
This proprietress is in her thirties, wearing a pair of small glasses, and her attitude is very mild. Sometimes her classmates catch a cold, so she gives you some medicine to eat, which is very effective. Later, the boss of Huaying Building gave up his business and returned to Guangdong with his wife and two children. Before leaving, the proprietress said, "My husband is Chinese, I want to be Chinese, and my son has to be Chinese and study China. Like you, you will work for your country in the future. I can’t live here permanently and let my sons grow up here, so that when they grow up, the British don’t recognize them as British and Chinese doesn’t recognize them as Chinese. For them, let’s go back to China. China is our country, right? "(Hua Wu’s Sketch of London China Restaurant, Cosmic Wind, No.9, 1936)
In his love letter to Chen Zhuyin during his study tour in Britain, Mr. Zhu Ziqing wrote that "most hotels here are hosted by women" and that "there are also one or two male students who marry Chinese and foreign hybrid women and foreign women, but all of them are waitresses, and no matter how high they are, they will not marry Chinese".(Zhu Qiaosen’s Handwriting of Zhu Ziqing’s Love Letters, Jiangsu Education Press, 2001, 75 pages)Why don’t you write about the hostess in these Chinese restaurants? It’s a pity.
