If you're in Central on Monday lunchtime, you could spend half an hour queueing up with the office drones for a bowl of instant noodles. Alternatively you could drop into Bookazine on the third floor of Prince's Building, where prize-winning Irish author Colm Tóibín will be signing books including his latest novel Brooklyn. Tóibín has been short-listed for the Man Booker [...]
The first time I visited Macau was to find a smuggler. Nothing as exciting as opium, gold or indentured coolies, three Macau exports before it became a gambling emporium, of course. No, my flat mate in Hong Kong wanted to bring his treasured Burmese cats into Hong Kong and he could not abide being separated from them for the six-month [...]
Katie Lau of the SCMP interviewed Feng Chi-shun last week about his new book, Diamond Hill: Memories of growing up in a Hong Kong squatter village. Click on the image below to open the story in full size.
CRI reporter Dominic Swire talks to Belgian entrepreneur Jack Leblanc about his 20 years in China, and how he turned from a physics teacher into a successful businessman. Listen to the radio interview online. Leblanc recalls several anecdotes from his recent book Business Republic of China, along with explaining the importance of guanxi, and how the shortest route between A [...]
Two Blacksmith Books authors were featured in the South China Morning Post this week, and as the newspaper's website is behind a paywall, we reproduce their interviews here for overseas readers. Xujun Eberlein spoke about her book Apologies Forthcoming in the Asia Specific column, while Bernd Hagemann revealed how he collected the photographs for Sleeping Chinese in the Life section.
This memoir of a native son of a Kowloon-side squatter village – the first book ever on Diamond Hill, in either Chinese or English – is a revelation. Shocking in places, wistful in others, it presents the early days of a life shaped by a now-extinct community. Penned by a high-achieving Hong Kong professional, Feng Chi-shun’s sharp recollections of his [...]
A crippling fear of public speaking has probably shorted out more promising careers than any other single factor. In today’s high-stress environment, top performers are expected to be able to address shareholder meetings, do real-time podcasts and live TV, take part in panel discussions and speak to groups of all sizes, whether in key pitches or at large [...]
Has it ever occurred to you that at practically every conference you attend almost all of the speakers are terribly boring? When you yourself made your last presentation did people come up to you afterwards to talk to you? Are you sure you made an impression? The irony is that almost all speakers have probably been advised or trained to [...]
Some years ago now, I crossed the border from Kazakhstan into Xinjiang in China's far northwest, and found myself stuck in Urumchi with the equivalent of US$50 and no onward tickets. It wasn't a problem; saving my cash for food, I 'hitch-hiked' on China's trains by boarding them at small-town stations and then jumping off before the ticket collectors reached [...]
Mild-mannered photographer Bernd Hagemann tiptoes around Shanghai with his camera. He has to keep quiet to avoid waking his snoring subjects. But despite his low profile, his photo website Sleeping Chinese has been getting a lot of attention from media as far afield as Apple Daily and La Repubblica. Britain's Daily Telegraph reports: "Bernd Hagemann moved to the Far East [...]
From Australia's National Nine News this afternoon: A Frenchman with an apparent aversion to lifts has been arrested in Sydney after climbing one of the city's skyscrapers. A female office worker who stopped to watch after a morning meeting said it was thrilling to see someone climb the building. "I think it's really important for people to push the limit," [...]
Once shunned as the result of forbidden liaisons, and confined to set roles in society, Eurasians are now celebrated as models and actors, and find themselves ideally placed to take advantage of the growing commercial and cultural exchanges between Asia and the rest of the world. You might call it a Eu-turn in fortunes. Kirsteen Zimmern is a Hong Kong-born [...]
Hong Kong movie star Francis Ng Chun-yu (吳鎮宇) is more than an award-winning actor… he’s also a director, scriptwriter and now the author of Tibetan fairy tale Pelma’s Tears. What led city-born Francis to write about people and events on the far-off Tibetan plateau? The idea came to him when a visit to monasteries and orphanages in the region was [...]
"Successful negotiations in China require great reserves of the most precious commodity of all: Time. The ability to squander it as if you had a lifetime to wait will earn you the goodwill of your Chinese partners." Jack Leblanc's Business Republic of China has been recommended by the China Economic Review, Inside-Out China and, most recently, James Chau, newsreader at [...]
Amid hordes of protesters at the G20 summit in London, one stood out above the rest: With Bare Hands author Alain Robert climbed the Lloyds Building to draw attention to climate change. The fearless wall crawler is also the subject of an in-depth feature story in the New Yorker this month, as well as stories in The Independent and The [...]
It’s interesting how a new book can single-handedly open up a new section of the market. We always publish in the Asian niche, but the publication of Wing Chun Warrior has suddenly brought interest from a host of Chinese-language bookshops that we’ve not previously sold through. The key to this was an appearance by author Ken Ing on RTHK Radio [...]
On Saturday I attended a very enjoyable event at the Hong Kong International Literary Festival: a panel of three authors, Rana Dasgupta, Xujun Eberlein and Nam Le discussing the art of the short story. Moderator was Chris Wood of the Asia Literary Review. Thankfully not all the panellists agreed with one another, so there was an element of back-and-forth which [...]
To Singapore, where Southeast Asia's largest bookshop -- Kinokuniya on Orchard Road -- has agreed to host a book signing event with Alain Robert. The French wall-climber, author of With Bare Hands, is in town for a few days and we've taken the chance to line up some interviews with Singaporean newspapers and Mediacorp radio. Despite having lived in the [...]