In 1986, Jonathan Chamberlain and his wife Bernadette had their first child, Stevie, a daughter. Stevie was immediately diagnosed with Down’s syndrome. A few months later it became clear that she had a serious heart defect that required a ‘hole in the heart’ operation. Something went wrong during the operation and Stevie suffered a momentary lack of oxygen that left [...]
A new book on the financial crisis considers children's advice for preventing the next one! May Moon Rescues the World Economy also helps children learn about the causes of the recent recession. The new book follows May Moon and the Secrets of the CPAs and How to Raise a Money-Wise Child which were published in 2005 as part of the [...]
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.
If you haven't done so already, take a look at RTHK Radio 3's great book club website Bookmarks -- it features audio interviews with all the authors who have recently visited the Naked Lunch studio, including Graham Earnshaw (right); plus readings, recommendations of Chinese literature and book news.
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 [...]
Mike Rowse's No Minister & No, Minister: The True Story of HarbourFest, which came out last November, has been adapted into Chinese and will be published next week under the title 問責 不 問責 - 巨星滙的真相. More details by the weekend.
Why limit yourself to the English menu when ordering dim sum? Cantonese teacher Liza Chu has a part-time career as a Hong Kong dim sum guide, and she has distilled her knowledge of Chinese cuisine and dining etiquette into a practical guidebook to eating out. Each photographed dish is identified with Chinese characters and pronunciation, and icons alert those with [...]
As someone who makes a living partly from writing guidebooks, I was a natural choice to show a friend of a friend around on their brief stopover in Hong Kong recently. She was only in town for a few hours, so I met her at her hotel on the Tsim Sha Tsui waterfront and planned to take her on a [...]
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.
Stephen Greer’s new Asia business memoir Starting from Scrap has just been reviewed in the Wall Street Journal. Greer arrived in Hong Kong in 1993, a recent college grad with no financing, scant experience, and only a notion of starting some kind of business. Fourteen years later, his company Hartwell Pacific was a $250-million enterprise and a player in the [...]
There’s an interesting article in today’s Sunday Morning Post about Wang Jingwei, the wartime Chinese leader who collaborated with the Japanese to set up a puppet government in Nanjing, and who has been reviled by Chinese ever since as a traitor. Indeed, his very name carries the same derogatory associations as ‘Quisling’ in the West. It seems that Wang’s calligraphy [...]
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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.
In advance of Graham Earnshaw’s talk at the Beijing Bookworm on Saturday, here’s a chapter from his brand new book, The Great Walk of China. After crossing flat country for most of the distance from Shanghai, Graham finds himself in the Dabie Mountains of rural Anhui Province. Chapter 2: Drinking Games The day’s walk was over and I returned to [...]
In related developments, Hong Kong residents are taking to the hills in record numbers -- at least, if sales of this guidebook are anything to go by. Other Asian cities don't have such spectacular mountains and beaches so close at hand, so we're lucky to have such a wonderful natural resource. Check out some of the photos in this book [...]
With students at Chinese colleges accused this month of conducting cyber attacks on US businesses in and outside China, plus the alleged Mossad involvement in the assassination of a Hamas leader in Dubai, I’m reminded of Paul Ulrich’s spy thriller Saudi Match Point, in which Chinese and American spies compete to seize control of the Saudi oilfields. An excerpt below. [...]
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 [...]
How long would it take to walk from Shanghai to the edges of Tibet? Long-time China resident Graham Earnshaw is in the process of finding out. His westward trek is described in his new book, The Great Walk of China, out at the end of this month. Through his conversations with the people he meets along the way, Earnshaw paints a [...]