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Samuel Porteous
Samuel Porteous
Samuel Porteous is an award-winning Shanghai-based Canadian artist and author. His work focuses on the special place China holds in the Western imagination. This spring Chinese versions of his biography, “Ching Ling Foo: America’s First Chinese Superstar”, will be published in Hong Kong and mainland China.

Wu Tingfang went from court translator to English barrister, helped negotiate an end to the Sino-Japanese war, then went to Washington, where his diplomatic skills earned him kudos. Until he overreached.

In the late 19th century, singer Chee Toy, the ‘daughter’ of the celebrated Chinese conjuror Ching Ling Foo, captivated US audiences, before returning as an even more impressive young woman.

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Bret Harte’s 1870 poem The Heathen Chinee gained enormous popularity in America, crystallising anti-Chinese sentiment and becoming ‘the hallmark of the China exclusion movement’.

Shanghai-based Canadian artist Samuel Porteous drew inspiration from vintage adverts for three cigarette brands popular in 1930s China, one of which, he writes, hid a dirty secret.

Starting in 1898, the ‘Original Chinese Conjuror’ Ching Ling Foo took America by storm, his touring traditional Chinese magic act making him one of the highest paid entertainers in the country.