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.
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 [...]
Thanks to ULN at the insightful blog Chinayouren for his review of Chinese Gods: … in terms of surprises, this book delivers from the preface. First, you discover it was actually written and self-published by Chamberlain 30 years ago, inspired by a series of painted glass figures he collected from local markets. It goes on to describe an unusual interview [...]
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," [...]
"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 [...]
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 [...]
Just months after he was expelled from China for climbing Shanghai's tallest building without permission, a daring French climber is preparing to scale another Chinese peak — but this time at the invitation of the government. Alain Robert, dubbed the French Spiderman for his ascents up some of the world's tallest buildings without climbing gear, will scale one of China's [...]
Author Muhammad Cohen appeared on television twice during September to talk about his new novel, Hong Kong On Air. Click on the links to watch the clips from TDM Macau with Herbert Ramos and Bloomberg with Bernard Lo.
Yeeshan Yang’s book of investigative journalism Whispers and Moans has been brought to the big screen by Hong Kong filmmaker Herman Yau. Starring Athena Chu, Candice Yu and Monie Tung, the movie (Chinese title: 性工作者十日談) had its premiere at the Hong Kong International Film Festival on 28th March. The prolific Herman Yau is this year’s Director in Focus. There’s an [...]