China Revisited is a new series of extracted reprints of mid-19th to early-20th century Western impressions of Hong Kong, Macao and southern China. The series comprises excerpts from travelogues or memoirs written by missionaries, diplomats, military personnel, journalists, tourists and temporary sojourners. They came to China from Europe or the United States, some to work or to serve the interests [...]
You are invited to the launch of The Chakrata Incident, 6pm-7pm, Wednesday October 12. Come to Bookazine in Prince's Building, meet multi-talented author Neville Sarony and get your book signed! Neville's military thrillers draw on his own experience as an army officer. What's the new book about? Here's the blurb. Major Max Devlin, poised for a commanding post in the [...]
Returning to Hong Kong in 1947 after the Japanese occupation, seven-year-old Mark Isaac-Williams had the whole of Kowloon as his playground. Billeted with his family in the once-grand but now dilapidated Peninsula hotel, his life was full of adventure – from the rooftop to the basement, he knew the hotel’s every inch. Roller-skating and horseback riding in Kowloon’s streets and [...]
You are invited to the launch of The Marvellous Adventures of Maggie and Methuselah: A Mystery in Hong Kong! If you love real-life mysteries about missing Hong Kong treasure, adventures in dark tunnels, and above all, crazy rhyme-loving African Grey parrots, you’ll love hearing Sarah Brennan's new story at 3pm on Saturday, 23rd October, at Bookazine, 3rd Floor, Prince's Building, [...]
A new book of photographs and artworks reveals the reality of the Walled City of Kowloon – an astonishing and unique place which was the most densely populated spot on Earth. The Walled City was built on a small parcel of land in Hong Kong that was disputed by Britain and China, which meant neither country exercised full jurisdiction there. [...]
Attention, readers of previous titles by Hong Kong writer David T. K. Wong: Volume 4 of his memoirs has just been published. In other news, Wong has been offered an honorary Doctorate of Letters by the University of East Anglia in the UK for his contributions to literature. As far as we know, he is the only Hong Kong writer [...]
This free online talk is hosted by the Royal Asiatic Society Hong Kong. While women were filling the magistrates courts and prisons of the British Isles during the 19th century, a female criminal in Hong Kong was a rarity. Yet, often in response to the privations of grinding poverty, some did find themselves on the wrong side of the law. [...]
Bestselling author Paul French returns to the Chinese capital in Destination Peking to tell 18 true stories of fascinating people who visited the city in the first half of the 20th century. From the ultra-wealthy Woolworths heiress Barbara Hutton and her husband the Russian emigré Prince Mdivani, to the poor “American girl” Mona Monteith who worked in the city as [...]
Kwan Lai-chun was sick of being made to feel second-class by her husband’s concubine; sick of her mother-in-law’s endless carping about the money she spent; sick of the whole family. Late one sticky, humid night, something snapped in her – and she grabbed the meat chopper. Within minutes, three people were dead: the concubine with over 70 gashes, many of [...]
Watch this video of Nicholas Kitto, author of the new Trading Places, a Photographic Journey Through China’s Former Treaty Ports, talking about his experiences which culminated in the publication of his book. The presentation, to members of the Royal Asiatic Society Hong Kong, explains how Nick became interested in China's Treaty Port era -- it started with his father [...]
Based on true stories and new research, Paul French weaves together the stories of those Jewish refugees who moved on from wartime Shanghai to seek a possible route to freedom via the Portuguese colony of Macao – “the Casablanca of the Orient”. The delicately balanced neutral enclave became their wartime home, amid Nazi and Japanese spies, escaped Allied prisoners from [...]
"Every adult human being is an investment expert. Life is an investment exercise and you are your own best investment adviser.” Jake van der Kamp is a native of the Netherlands, a citizen of Canada and a resident of Hong Kong. In his earlier years in Hong Kong he worked as an investment analyst and research director for Sun Hung [...]
China’s treaty ports were cities along its coast and on major rivers which were forcibly opened to foreign trade by the Western powers, starting from the early 19th century. The treaty port era extended from then until 1943, and during this time foreigners had a significant presence in China. This new book contains more than 700 photographs of many buildings [...]
David Wong started his working life as a dishwasher in a Chinese restaurant before becoming a teacher, colonial bureaucrat, businessman, and a writer of short stories and novels. In the wake of the Hong Kong protests, memories of the colonial past are fading. This new edition of David T. K. Wong’s sweeping historical novel brings the past vividly [...]
"Urbex" is shorthand for "urban exploration", and HK Urbex are a group of anonymous, adrenaline-fuelled explorers who investigate the hidden, abandoned and forgotten corners of Hong Kong. Their first book is out now. "HK Urbex is an underground collective that documents deserted, off-limits spaces, its photographers protecting their identities with hats, hoods, masks and pseudonyms," says the South China Morning [...]
Designing a Life tells the inspiring story of Kai-Yin Lo, a determined Hong Kong woman born to a wealthy family who had to build her own future following an abrupt change in the family’s fortunes. “Kai-Yin is a polymath and a phenomenon, having seamlessly juggled an analytical career as a scholar, historian, teacher and editor, with the artistic and imaginative [...]
You are invited to the launch of Kai-Yin Lo's autobiography at Fine Art Asia 2019 in Hong Kong. To launch Designing a Life: A Cross-Cultural Journey, Kai-Yin Lo will be in dialogue with Ms Suhanya Raffel, Executive Director of M+ Museum, and Dr Edmund Lee, Executive Director of the Hong Kong Design Centre. The talk will be moderated by Ms [...]
Please join us at Kidnapped Bookshop in Sai Kung for the launch of the second novel from Paul Letters: a Hong Kong wartime drama entitled The Slightest Chance! Hong Kong, 1941. Anglo-Australian civil servant Dominic Sotherly’s colonial sojourn in Hong Kong becomes complicated by his double life in both war and love. Enigmatic Englishwoman Gwen Harmison possesses secrets of her [...]