In the Summer of 1986, Patrick was living with an old Chinese Professor of Chemistry and his wife in north Beijing. He’d acquired a second-hand twin periscope Seagull camera from a pawn shop on Wangfujin. He proceeded to record the street scenes he encountered on his long cycle rides between Peking University, Beijing Normal University campus (where he worked as an associate professor), and the Newsweek office in western Beijing.
The rolls of negatives – over 100 of them comprising 800+ photographs – languished in a shoe box in Patrick’s family home in Hong Kong until 2020. This ‘trove of lost photographs’, featured in October 2022’s Financial Times’, ‘HTSI’ magazine, ‘captures a country on the brink of social change and a landscape eclipsed from history’.
Patrick will share his thoughts on art history and photography in the context of these unique images of China in transition, presented in a lecture and pop-up exhibition format. “We are all the luckier for seeing these pictures through the deeply empathetic lens that Patrick M Dransfield brought to Beijing in 1986.” Rana Mitter OBE FBA, ST Lee Chair in US-China relations at Harvard Kennedy School.
“Three years, several emails, and one pandemic later, Patrick’s lost hoard of photographs has finally made it into the October 17th 2020 edition of the Financial Times’ HTSI’ magazine. ‘My Beijing Spring’ traces his observations as a young but enthusiastic photographer, and offers a fascinating portrait of a way of life that has since immeasurably changed.” Jo Ellison, Editor, HTSI magazine, Financial Times.
The Speaker
Patrick M Dransfield, author and legal professional
Patrick M Dransfield remembers first experiencing ‘wanderlust’ when, at the age of six, his father, Dr Philip Brook Dransfield, read his diaries recorded when Philip was a young petty officer in the Royal Navy visiting Hong Kong, China, Japan, Australia, and the Dutch East Indies in 1945-6. The worlds of travel and eastern philosophies continue to fascinate – along with Patrick’s profound wish to escape the mundane through art and literature.
Patrick majored in English and History of Art at Leeds University and holds a Master’s in Chinese History, Politics and Anthropology from the University of London’s School of Oriental & African Studies (SOAS).
He is a qualified Trainer and Coach, author of two novels, The Inner Circle Wu Xing series and Track of Time: Moments of Transition, a book based on the Hong Kong Foreign Correspondents’ Club Wall Exhibition of his ‘Old Beijing’ photographs of October 2020.
After twenty-seven years of living and working in Hong Kong, Patrick now lives and works in Abu Dhabi; he is in frequent demand as a professional trainer and public speaker.
PROGRAMME
Time: 7:00 pm – 8:00 pm (Reception starts at 6:30 pm)
Admission: $175 for members, $220 for guests /non-members (Light refreshments are included in the admission fee)
Registration: Please email membership@royalasiaticsociety.org.hk and provide your membership number, if applicable, at the time of registration. Please kindly complete your registration by advance payment via Stripe’s payment links below (using your Credit Card):
Members ($175):
https://buy.stripe.com/14A28scVKeEM5GPa095EY2H
Non-member / Guest ($220):
https://buy.stripe.com/7sYbJ208YcwE0mv2xH5EY2I
Details about the other payment option will be sent on registration. Upon receipt of payment, your registration will be confirmed by email. Registration will be closed at 12 noon on 1 November 2025.