The Last Tigers of Hong Kong by John Saeki Reviewed by Thomas Gomersall in the 2023 Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society Hong Kong ***** As a lifelong wildlife enthusiast, and a more recent history enthusiast, I find it striking how rarely we seem to examine the two side-by-side, given our long association with animals through the ages. As an [...]
Nine River Films is a Hong Kong-based production company which makes feature films and short documentaries. I was pleased to be interviewed by them about the challenges and pleasures of book publishing. I picked a few of the books we have published over the years and explained what they tell us about Hong Kong's people and history. You can watch [...]
Bestselling author Paul French (Midnight in Peking, City of Devils) has returned to the theme of the Chinese capital to tell 18 true stories of fascinating people who visited the city in the first half of the 20th century. Now he is giving a talk on his new book, hosted by the Royal Asiatic Society Hong Kong. From the ultra-wealthy [...]
I was making space in the storeroom this week for new books coming in, and I pulled a box down from the top rack of shelving. What a surprise. It contained a few copies of the first two books we ever published, back in 2002 and 2003. My first thought was that I hadn't seen these for ages, and didn't [...]
Hong Kong novelist and memoirist David T. K. Wong is happily retired in Malaysia, and at the age of 92 he does not plan a return trip to the Fragrant Harbour any time soon. However he has shipped us a box of 25 signed copies of his novel, The Evergreen Tea House, and they are available on a first-come-first-served basis. [...]
The Blacksmith Books delivery trolley is a valued member of the team. Bought from a hardware shop in Sai Ying Pun for HK$180 more than two decades ago, it has given daily service ever since, carrying boxes full of books along the street to the post office and never complaining. Last week, though, the trolley had an altercation with a [...]
LUNCH TALK Book Conversation: ‘The Rise and Fall of the Hang Seng Index’ SPEAKER Jake van der Kamp Author Thursday, November 19, 2020 12:30pm for 12:45pm – Lunch 1:10pm – Address First Floor, FCC 2 Lower Albert Road Central, Hong Kong Every adult human being is an investment expert: You do it every day when [...]
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 [...]
Any reviews of our books on Amazon are most welcome, but especially when they are as detailed as these ones. The Mercenary Mandarin (Amazon link here) tells the story of William Mesny, a Jersey boy who ran off to sea and arrived in Shanghai in 1860 when he was just 18. Amid the chaos of civil war in 19th-century China, [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
Glenn Leibowitz is the host of Write With Impact. In his latest podcast he interviews former American diplomat Syd Goldsmith, author of Hong Kong on the Brink, a memoir of Hong Kong's brush with the Cultural Revolution in 1967. Glenn says: In our conversation, which we conducted in person in Taipei, Syd shares how, despite never considering himself a writer [...]
The Gresson Street gunfight happened in Wan Chai 100 years ago this week. Why has it been forgotten for so long? Patricia O'Sullivan has spent a decade digging out the full story for her book, Policing Hong Kong – An Irish History. Now, Stuart Heaver has written a feature about the event. A running gunfight was now played out in [...]
In 1976, Peter Mann left England for Hong Kong. As a police inspector, he commanded a sub-unit and led a district vice squad in Kowloon before joining the colonial government. He then served as district officer for Wan Chai. From raids on gambling dens to organising governors’ visits, his work involved him in all levels of Hong Kong society. Come [...]
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 October 2017 Chinese Ghosts Revisited Chinese Ghosts Revisited: A Study of Paranormal Beliefs and Experiences by Charles Emmons Do the Hong Kong Chinese experience ghosts, hauntings, spirit mediumship, ESP and other paranormal [...]
I was pleased to be interviewed about local book publishing by Elaine Yau of the South China Morning Post. We held the interview in the Blacksmith office in Fo Tan and then went to the roof of the industrial building next door for a fun photo shoot by Xiaomei Chen (who has some great photo essays on her website). "Hong [...]
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, [...]
I met up with Geoffrey Emerson, Hong Kong-based historian (left), and Shun Chi Ming, director of the Hong Kong Observatory (centre), to talk about the wartime diary of Graham Heywood. Over tea at the Observatory, a beautiful Victorian building hidden away on a forested hill in the middle of Tsim Sha Tsui, Kowloon, Geoff and CM explained how Heywood's diary [...]