Once shunned as the result of forbidden liaisons, and confined to set roles in society, Eurasians are now celebrated as models and actors, and find themselves ideally placed to take advantage of the growing commercial and cultural exchanges between Asia and the rest of the world. You might call it a Eu-turn in fortunes. Kirsteen Zimmern is a Hong Kong-born [...]
Hong Kong movie star Francis Ng Chun-yu (吳鎮宇) is more than an award-winning actor… he’s also a director, scriptwriter and now the author of Tibetan fairy tale Pelma’s Tears. What led city-born Francis to write about people and events on the far-off Tibetan plateau? The idea came to him when a visit to monasteries and orphanages in the region was [...]
"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 [...]
This month we're offering copies of Jonathan Chamberlain's Chinese Gods to the first three correct answers to our challenge question below. First, here's the book blurb: Chinese folk religion is the underlying belief system of more than a billion Chinese people. Go into any Chinese home, office or restaurant and you will see altars, statues or paper ‘good luck' images. [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
It was some decade. The universities were closed. Students were at war. Poetry was banned. And the word “love,” unless applied to Mao, was expressly forbidden. Artists were denounced, and many opted for suicide. This is the time — its madness, its passion, its complexity — that Xujun Eberlein brings vividly to life in Apologies Forthcoming, her moving collection of [...]
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 [...]
I had the brainwave a year or so ago to start a joint blog with a few other publishers I'm friendly with in Hong Kong. Between us we have plenty of books, authors and events to write about, I thought. But as with so many things which require coordination, it didn't really take off. Publishers barely have time to read [...]
This is an article I wrote for Reading Matters, the in-shop newsletter published by Bookazine. HERE IS THE GOOD NEWS: Hong Kong has a thriving industry of independent publishers. Here is even better news: this is not London or New York, and most (if not all) presses are happy to receive manuscripts directly from authors. So, assuming you’ve written [...]
We're celebrating the Year of the Rat by announcing that many of our fiction and non-fiction titles are now available through a wider set of online retailers: Amazon's network of websites, Barnes & Noble, Target, Blackwell, Waterstones and many others. This is made possible by advances in print-on-demand technology; each book is printed to order. A few years ago, the [...]
Chinese fung shui tells us there is a dragon inhabiting every green valley, protective of the mountains and its route to the sea. Hiking into the hills of Hong Kong for a weekend picnic, Siu Ming and his parents suddenly find their path blocked by a forest fire. Can the mountain dragon help? Or is the mythical creature equally at [...]
Or: Try before you buy. We're emulating Amazon and Google by offering a sneak peek inside Blacksmith Books titles. Just click on the links on each book's webpage to see sample spreads pop up in PDF format. Try it now by going here.
Scandal and corruption, drugs and pirates, triads and flower boats; the Japanese occupation of Hong Kong and the Communist takeover of Canton. Peter Hui was there. He knew everybody and saw everything. This is the real story of Hong Kong, told with the rich flavours of the street. If Peter had been only a little bit different he could have [...]
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 [...]
From Clearwater Bay to Tai Long Wan, the Sai Kung Peninsula is Hong Kong’s back garden – a place where people go to swim, hike, eat seafood alfresco, and otherwise escape the city. But besides the popular beaches and waterfront restaurants, there is an abundance of hidden attractions, and artist Lorette Roberts has discovered them for this book. Such is [...]