In this online talk to the Royal Geographical Society, well-known historian, raconteur and author Paul French talks of the Chinese capital, telling numerous true stories of fascinating people who visited the city in the first half of the 20th century. From Bolsheviks and Nazis to artists and bank robbers, to English aesthetes, to transplanted New York Bowery Balladeers, he describes [...]
Sarah Brennan is the author of the Chinese Calendar Tales series. She writes... People are always asking me “Which Chinese calendar animal am I?” So here’s a handy reference so you can work out what animal you are in the Chinese zodiac! Beside each animal is the name of the animal in beautiful Chinese calligraphy, given to me by Scotch [...]
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 [...]
This year has been the age of book launches by Zoom! Click the video below to watch a book talk from Salvador's Coffee House, Kunming, by Colin Flahive. Flahive is the author of Great Leaps: Finding home in a changing China. In the book, and in this talk, he explains how he discovered China as a backpacker in his early [...]
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 [...]
To celebrate this year’s Hong Kong International Literary Festival, the Morning Brew show with Phil Whelan on RTHK Radio 3 will be broadcasting four more excerpts from Paul French’s book Destination Shanghai, read by the author... Monday 9/11 - 11.40am - Florence Broadhurst Teaches Shanghai to Dance (1926) Tuesday 10/11 - 11.40am - Langston Hughes’s Shanghai Sojourn (1935) Wednesday 11/11 [...]
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 [...]
In this talk for the Royal Geographical Society Hong Kong, well-known China historian, raconteur and author Paul French talks of Macau during World War II. Based on true stories and new research, he attempts to weave together the stories of those Jewish refugees who in the war moved on from their temporary haven of Shanghai. Many sought a possible route [...]
"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 [...]
Confessions of a Hong Kong Naturalist is a natural history memoir, tracing the journey from novice to expert of aspiring naturalist Graham Reels as he follows a trail of discovery into the miraculously fascinating and diverse world of Hong Kong’s wildlife. Read this excerpt from his book. It is taken from Chapter 9, Far-flung Shores. Graham says: “The background is [...]
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 [...]