20th April 2021
Gregory James gave a talk entitled “Jaffa cakes and filter coffee: Some challenges for lexicography” at an international virtual symposium in memory of CreA S. Ramakrishnan, Creating a book culture in the contemporary Tamil community.
2nd February 2021
Gregory James received the Veeramamunivar Award and gold medal of the Government of Tamil Nadu, for his work in Tamil lexicography and translation.
17th November 2018
Gregory James gave a talk entitled “Some paradoxes of the Chinese Labour Corps recruitment” at a seminar, Commemorating the Chinese Labour Corps, of the Meridian Society, held at the British Library, London.
20th September 2018
Gregory James gave a talk entitled “Sacrifices of the Tamil diaspora during the First World War” to staff and students of the Institute of Tamil Studies, Chennai.
19th September 2018
Gregory James gave a talk entitled “Sacrifices of the Tamil diaspora during the First World War” to staff and students of the Departments of Tamil Literature and History at the University of Madras.
3rd August 2018
Gregory James gave a talk on Translation to staff and students of the Department of Tamil, Pondicherry University. At a meeting of a local literary society, he released Cilluc cillāy nilā, a book of haikus in Tamil by P. Ramasami, and delivered a talk on aspects of the Thirukkural to attendees at the function.
2nd August 2018
Gregory James gave a speech of thanks on the occasion of the ceremonial launch of Poems of Questions, held at the University of Madras.
1st August 2018
Gregory James gave talks on Translation to staff and students of the International Institute of Tamil Studies, Chennai; and to students of the Department of Tamil Literature at the University of Madras.
27th June 2018
Gregory James delivered the keynote address, “Thirukkural – the Book of Happiness”, and a plenary presentation, “Thiruvalluvar, Wesley, Booth and temperance”, at the Second International Conference on Thirukkural, Thirukkural beyond the frontiers of Tamil India, organised by the Institute of Asian Studies, Chennai, and the International Thirukkural Foundation, Mauritius, held at Liverpool Hope University.
18th June 2018
We are pleased to announce the publication of Poems of Questions, Gregory James’s translations from Tamil of poems by the Sahitya Akademi laureate, Erode Tamilanban. The book has been published in Chennai by Arimaa Nokku: ISBN 978-81-908490-8-1. Further details can be had from us at info@bayvieweducational.com.hk.
28th March 2018
Gregory James delivered the inaugural address, “The marches of lexicography” at a seminar on The frontiers of lexicography, held at the University of Madras, Chennai. The seminar was organised by the Department of Tamil Literature, as part of a campus-wide series of events to commemorate the university’s post-centenary diamond jubilee.
5th July 2017
Gregory James delivered a paper, “A man behind the man behind the gun: The British forces’ Chinese labour recruitment during the First World War” at a symposium, Chinese dragons, British lions, held at Regent’s University London. The symposium was organised by the Ming-Ai (London) Institute and Regent’s University London, as part of the British Chinese Armed Forces Heritage Project.
3rd July 2017
Gregory James took part in a Question and Answer session following the screening of Tricks on the Dead at Westgate Hall, Canterbury, England, organised by Gateways to the First World War, a centre for public engagement with the Great War centenary, managed by the University of Kent in partnership with the Universities of Brighton, Greenwich, Portsmouth, Leeds, and Queen Mary, London.
25th June 2017
Gregory James took part in a Question and Answer session following the screening of Tricks on the Dead at the Phoenix Centre, Exeter, England, organised by Hikmat Devon, a user-led co-operative that works with members of the black and minority ethnic communities across Devon.
21st June 2017
Gregory James took part in a Question and Answer panel session following the screening of the award-winning
Rare Earth Media film, directed by Jordan Paterson, Tricks on the Dead, at the House of Lords, London, hosted by Baroness Burt, UK Liberal Democrat Equalities Spokesperson.
17th May 2017
Gregory James gave the inaugural address, and presented a paper entitled, “Hold on! – Thiruvalluvar and Kipling compared”, at the International Conference on Thirukkural, Thirukkural as an ethical corpus of universal appeal, organised by the Institute of Asian Studies, Chennai, and the International Association of Tamil Diaspora, Mauritius, at Scott Christian College, Nagercoil, India.
19th April 2017
Gregory James exhibited his book, The Chinese Labour Corps (1916-1920), at the Meridian Society’s Chinese Labour Corps Project launch, held at the School of Oriental and African Studies, London, hosted by the SOAS China Institute.
6th April 2017
Gregory James delivered a paper, “A man behind the man behind the gun: The British forces’ Chinese labour recruitment during the First World War” at a symposium, Chinese dragons, British lions, held at the University of Hong Kong. The symposium was organised by the Ming-Ai (London) Institute and Regent’s University London, as part of the British Chinese Armed Forces Heritage Project.
4th May 2016
Gregory James delivered a paper, “The Chinese sacrifices during the First World War” at a symposium on China and the Great War, held at the Imperial War Museum, London. The symposium was organised by the University of Westminster.
“Gregory James … gave a surprisingly exuberant analysis of the statistical realities of the number of Chinese fatalities which occurred. Using the enormous figures frequently claimed in the media as his launching point he then proceeded to elaborate the documentary records which belie the realities concerning the fatalities which occurred among the Chinese labourers during the war and in the years immediately after when they were still under contract. He has done this by means of an exhaustive trawl through the official War Office records, correlating them alongside other primary sources … to produce an impressively detailed and comprehensive computerised and searchable database. … This database is clearly an important historical resource, but sadly at present it is not publicly accessible.” (Tim Chamberlain, Waymarks blog, 22nd May 2016)
10th/11th October 2015
Gregory James delivered two invited plenary addresses, “Tamil sacrifices during the First World War” on 10th October, and “Towards a new dictionary for the Tamil diaspora” on the 11th, at the European Tamil Conference, held in Paris, France. The conference was organised by the Institut international des études supérieures, Paris.
13th/14th August 2015
Gregory James gave an invited plenary address, entitled, “Some European notices of Bodhidharma”, and the valedictory presentation, entitled, “Bodhidharma in English: Some statistics”, at an International Symposium on Bodhidharma, at the Institute of Asian Studies, Chennai, India.
5th December 2014
Gregory James gave a keynote presentation, and participated in a panel discussion, at a seminar on the Chinese Labour Corps in Belgium during the First World War, held in the Department of History, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, organised by the Consulate General of Belgium in Guangzhou, in partnership with Sun Yat-sen University and the Confucius Institute in Bruges.
15th November 2014
At the Great War centenary commemoration Charity Dinner, in aid of the Royal British Legion (Hong Kong and China Branch), at the Hebe Haven Yacht Club, Hong Kong, Gregory James delivered a short illustrated presentation on the Chinese Labour Corps.
23rd July 2014
Gregory James delivered an invited plenary address, “Tamil sacrifices during the First World War”, at the International Conference on Tamil Diaspora, held at the Mahatma Gandhi Institute, Mauritius. The conference was organised by the Mauritian Ministry of Arts and Culture, the International Tamil Diaspora Association, Mauritius, and the Institute of Asian Studies, Chennai.
21st March 2014
The Chinese Labour Corps (1916–1920) was featured in an article entitled “Forgotten labourers”, in “Kent and the Great War”, a commemorative supplement to the East Kent Mercury.
March 2014
The Chinese Labour Corps (1916–1920) was reviewed in Medal News, Vol. 52, No. 3, p. 43.
22nd January 2014
Gregory James gave an introduction to the Chinese Labour Corps, and discussed the medals awarded to the Corps’ labourers and officers, at a meeting of the Hong Kong Branch of the Orders and Medals Research Society. He exhibited some of the CLC medals from his collection, and explained how to identify genuine and counterfeit examples.
“Gregory captivated the gathering for about two hours with an almost endless series of fascinating slides, anecdotes and sheer wealth of research information about this little known formation. … [He] proved to have a command of his subject that very few would be able to match.” (John Leighton, OMRSHKB blog, 23rd January 2014)
13th January 2014
Gregory James, author of The Chinese Labour Corps (1916–1920), was interviewed for a docudrama, Tricks on the Dead: The story of the Chinese Labour Corps in WWI, directed by Jordan Paterson.