Tom Carter's photo book CHINA: Portrait of a People is the cover story for this month's Shanghai TALK Magazine. After two years teaching English in Shandong and Beijing, Tom Carter still felt like he didn’t know the “real” China, so the self-proclaimed nomad put his camera and life savings into a backpack and began an epic trek through the Middle [...]
Will you be near Suzhou this weekend? Travel photographer Tom Carter, author of CHINA: Portrait of a People, will be meeting readers at the Suzhou Bookworm and speaking about his two-year backpacking adventure across the 33 provinces of China. Saturday May 29th 2010, from 7:00pm - 9:00pm, at The Suzhou Bookworm. Address: Gunxiufang 77, Shiquan Road, Suzhou, Jiangsu, China.
How long would it take to walk across the world’s most populous country? Graham Earnshaw is finding out. The long-time Hong Kong and China journalist is making a journey into China’s heartland, away from its surging coastal cities, where the ripples of prosperity are only just beginning to be felt and many find themselves left behind. Through his conversations with [...]
If you were unable to attend the Beijing Bookworm Literary Festival in March, all is not lost: City Weekend magazine has uploaded podcasts of their talks. Thanks to them, you can listen to Graham Earnshaw and Jack Leblanc talk about their China books. Thanks also to James Chau for moderating Jack's session.
As part of the "Ten Slow Days" exhibition at Hong Kong's Fringe Club, a group of writers, publishers, designers and editors will be discussing what books mean to them, and how they go about creating them. Saturday 13th March, 2:30pm, Fringe Studio. Free admission. Enquiries: 3106 4010.
The Beijing Bookworm -- the city's best known bookshop -- holds its Literary Festival again from the 5th-19th of March 2010, and two Blacksmith authors are among the 70 writers taking part. First, on Saturday 6th March, Graham Earnshaw will be talking about how many pairs of shoes he has worn out during his epic westward trek across the People's [...]
If you were unable to attend the FCC launch of Mike Rowse's tell-all book No Minister, have no fear -- the former civil servant will be signing copies at two Hong Kong bookstores in early December. Mike will first be at Dymocks in Prince's Building, Central, at 1:00 pm on Thursday 3rd; and he follows this up with an appearance [...]
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 [...]
A new book out next week lifts the lid on a still-simmering political hot potato: In the depths of the 2003 SARS crisis, Mike Rowse (盧維思), a career Hong Kong civil servant, was handed the poisoned chalice of HarbourFest – intended to be (and which in many ways was) a psychological and commercial shot in the arm. Politics, as it [...]
Read on for a rare Indiana Jones style story which has been picked up by the BBC... Danzan Ravjaa (1803-1856), the Fifth Noyon Incarnate Lama of the Gobi Desert, is perhaps Mongolia's most beloved saint. The Fourth had caused so many scandals that the Manchu Emperor of the day banned his reincarnation. Consequently, when the young child was enthroned as [...]
The Hong Kong Book Fair -- the week-long book sales event that drew 800,000 people last year -- is on again as of today in Wan Chai's Convention Centre. We're taking a break this year and not manning a stand, but some of our titles can be found at Booth 1A01-26, in Hall 1. This includes the new Chinese edition [...]
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 [...]
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," [...]
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 [...]
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 the Hong Kong Arts Centre in Wanchai last night, where a performance of keyboard, guitar and electric violin heralded the opening of the new MCCM bookshop. Led by Mary Chan, MCCM has been publishing bilingual art and design titles since 2001, but this is their first venture into retail. The shop occupies one side of the Arts Centre lobby [...]
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 [...]