In the 1980s, Bruce Aitken became one of the world’s most successful money launderers. What started innocently enough, by answering an ad in the newspaper, turned into a globe-trotting lifestyle of moving money – huge sums of money – for some of the world’s most notorious and shadiest characters. From the jungles of Vietnam to the money capitals of the [...]
The Peak is one of the most exclusive areas in Hong Kong. Here the affluent enjoy an idyllic lifestyle in mansions sited amongst the tropical vegetation which has grown up around them. It was not always like this and when the British took over Hong Kong the Peak was just one section of a “barren rock”. No one bothered with [...]
Share If you cannot view this email, please Click Here to view an online version. Unsubscribe/Update Profile | Share With Friends | Subscribe Blacksmith Books, Hong Kong NewsletterMarch 2018 New book: The Peak: An Illustrated History of Hong Kong’s Top District The Peak: An Illustrated History of Hong Kong’s Top Districtby Richard J. GarrettPart of the Royal Asiatic Society Hong [...]
Why did they come? Why do they stay? How did Hong Kong change them and their view of the world? What did they gain and what did they lose? David Nunan has interviewed 74 Hong Kong residents of a wide variety of ages and nationalities. Every one of them has a story. To find out what he discovered, simply come [...]
Both the English and Chinese editions of PEN Hong Kong's anthology Hong Kong 20/20: Reflections on a borrowed place are now available at Kubrick bookshop in Yau Ma Tei! The Chinese version, titled 香港二十, will be launched at Kubrick at 4pm on Saturday March 3. The bookshop is next to the Broadway Cinematheque on Public Square Street. Find out more here.
Come to the Hong Kong Maritime Museum at 4.00pm on Saturday February 24 and hear Patricia O'Sullivan tell the little-known story of the Hong Kong Naval Dockyard Police Force. The history of the force doesn’t suffer so much from lost documentation as from the lack of any in the first place. At some point in the 1850s it emerged by [...]
Share If you cannot view this email, please Click Here to view an online version. Unsubscribe/Update Profile | Share With Friends | Subscribe Blacksmith Books, Hong Kong Newsletter November 2017 New book: Other Voices, Other Eyes Other Voices, Other Eyes: Expatriate Lives in Hong Kong by David NunanThe stories of expats in Hong Kong – the most dynamic, dramatic and [...]
Join us for the sixth edition of "Meet the Authors" at Bookazine! Don't miss the chance to talk to two great writers: John Saeki, author of a colourful and alternative portrait of Hong Kong in the 1950s, The Tiger Hunters of Tai O; and Alice Poon, author of a historical novel about Empress Dowager Xiaozhuang, The Green Phoenix. When: Wednesday [...]
Under-resourced and ill-prepared, three constables at the squalid Police Station on Cheung Chau stood no chance against a ruthless pirate gang in 1912. Five more policemen lost their lives in a bloodbath in Wan Chai that might have been averted. But travel forward just a little and the outcome at a hold-up in Canton Road is very different. These three [...]
Come and hear author David Leffman talk about the “Mercenary Mandarin” at the Royal Geographical Society next week (Wednesday September 20th, 6.30pm, in Central, Hong Kong). In his talk, Leffman covers the extraordinary life of Victorian adventurer William Mesny, who spent most of his adult life in China, becoming a smuggler, a prisoner of the Taiping rebels, an arms dealer [...]
Come and meet seven Hong Kong authors -- Rachel Cartland, Larry Feign, Feng Chi-shun, Peter Mann, Jason Ng, Graham Reels and Guy Shirra -- as they celebrate, discuss and debate the 20 years that have passed since Hong Kong's handover to China in 1997. Thursday June 15, 6pm-7.30pm, at Bookazine in Prince's Building, Central. Free entry, and wine will be [...]
Syd Goldsmith’s first taste of China’s Cultural Revolution is blood on his tongue. It’s 1967. Hong Kong is simmering, plagued by communist-led riots and strikes, crippled transport, punishing water-rationing, takeover threats from Beijing and roadside bombs. And Syd — the only Caucasian Foreign Service Officer at the American Consulate General who speaks Cantonese — is made responsible for reporting and [...]
Ray Hecht says: I’ll be in Shanghai on March 24th, at Garden Books, for a public reading from my novel South China Morning Blues. I’m very excited to be able to do this in Shanghai, the most epic city in China. Last year on my book tour I was able to travel to Beijing, among other cities, and of course all [...]
On the evening of Wednesday January 18th, you're invited to Bookazine's first "Meet the Authors" session in Prince's Building, Central. Among the writers present will be Peter Mann with his new memoir Sheriff of Wan Chai. Wine will be served and stories will be told. Full details in the evite above. Hope to see you there!
Share If you cannot view this email, please Click Here to view an online version. Unsubscribe/Update Profile | Share With Friends | Subscribe Blacksmith Books, Hong Kong Newsletter November 2016 New book: How to Hong Kong How to Hong Kong: An illustrated travel journalby Lena Sin and Nicholas Tay In this joyful travel sketchbook, Hong Kong is captured through the [...]
In 1976, Peter Mann left a gloomy England for the last corner of the British empire: Hong Kong. As a police inspector, he commanded a sub-unit and led a district vice squad in Kowloon, before joining the colonial government’s Administrative Service and working in the fields of transport, housing, security, environment and tourism. He also served as District Officer for [...]
Come and help us celebrate the launch of Fishing in Hong Kong, meet the authors and get a signed copy! This coming Saturday, June 18, 7pm at Cava Restaurant & Bar: 54 Po Tung Road, Sai Kung, Hong Kong.
Guidebook writer David Leffman is heading back to remote parts of Guizhou province on Tuesday, to pick up the trail of William Mesny - the British-born "Mercenary Mandarin" who became a general in the Chinese army. But before he goes, he will be giving an illustrated talk about Mesny to the Royal Asiatic Society in the Centre for Visual Arts, [...]