Description
Not your typical photo book!
Grab your flippers, mask, and magnifying glass – Volume 3 is full of old photos of people in, on, under, and around Hong Kong’s famous harbour. Many of the photos are published for the first time, and although they’re old, they are sharp and packed with detail. So join David in uncovering the photos’ secrets, deciphering their stories, and meeting the people of old Hong Kong.
David runs the award-winning local history website Gwulo, home to over 20,000 photos of old Hong Kong.
- “Spend an hour in David’s company, and you’ll look at old photos with new eyes. His engaging description of a photo’s details sharpens how you yourself look at it, and what was just an old picture becomes an engrossing story. Hurrah for Volume 3 … and let’s hope for 4, 5 and more!” — Stephen Davies, University of Hong Kong
- “When David Bellis examines historical photographs of old Hong Kong, he sees things that the rest of us miss. In this new volume of never-before-seen images, accompanied by an informed and lively commentary, the creator of Gwulo.com brings us yet more fascinating stories from Hong Kong’s past.” — Peter Cunich (author of Old Hong Kong), Department of History, University of Hong Kong
- “What is so extraordinary about Bellis is the detail and knowledge that he brings to such a wide array of subjects as he decodes for us, in the most accessible ways, what we are actually looking at.” — Veronica Pearson, Journal of the HK Branch of the RAS
- “Old photos of Hong Kong’s harbours show city’s vibrant maritime life since the 1890s. From Chinese women who cleaned and painted the sides of ships to the coal stokers who fuelled the ship’s boilers, it’s a glimpse of a forgotten past.” — Annemarie Evans, South China Morning Post
About the author
David Bellis loves putting old Hong Kong photographs under the magnifying glass to uncover their hidden secrets and discover their stories. He shares what he finds through his website, his books, and a series of illustrated talks.
His website, www.Gwulo.com, hosts a lively community of people who are interested in Hong Kong’s history. It is also a valuable historical resource in its own right, hosting over 34,000 pages, including over 20,000 photos.
You can sign up for David’s free weekly e-mail newsletter at www.Gwulo.com/subscribe or get notified of new issues via Twitter @Gwulo or Facebook.com/Gwulo
David is originally from Wales, first visited Hong Kong in 1989, and has lived there since 1992. He hated history lessons at school and studied computer science. But apart from the odd bit of computer programming to keep the website running, he now spends most of his time writing about history. It’s a funny old life!
