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 [...]
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If you missed out on our summer email newsletter, you can read it here below... 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 August 2015 New biography: Shanghai's Baghdadi Jews Shanghai’s Baghdadi Jews: A Collection of Biographical ReflectionsA compilation of 26 [...]
This internship began with a long email to an unknown (to me) English publisher in Hong Kong (whom I found by googling “English publisher Hong Kong”), and a desperate hope that said unknown publisher would respond and give me some work experience in the summer. But as the days wore on, and the weeks, which then turned into two months, [...]
"This book is a record of descendants of Baghdadi Jewish merchants who settled in the Treaty Port of Shanghai in the mid-19th century," says Maisie Meyer. "They are authentic voices, allowing us a glimpse of bygone days of privilege, and the rich diversity that made the community so vibrant. It offers infinite perspectives of personalities whose lives were shaped by [...]
Hong Kong is a complex city, and one that is full of contradictions. Nowhere else can a person stay for years, decades even, and still not fully understand the place. Which other city can be ranked ‘the world’s freest economy’ for 21 years in a row and yet still leave its’ residents feeling like the prisoners of greedy businessmen? Jason [...]
Scaffolders. Tram drivers. Recyclers. Sign holders. Hawkers. Shoe shiners. We see these workers every day in Hong Kong, and yet hardly ever realize it. They are mostly invisible — labourers who we are so used to seeing out on the streets that our minds often blur them out when we walk past them. Yet these workers often toil the hardest [...]
We're pleased to announce that Paper Tigress, Rachel Cartland's memoir of her years in the Hong Kong government, sold out. And it's now reprinted and is back in the shops. To mark the occasion, we print below the text of a speech Rachel gave to a Hong Kong business group late last year. A Difficult Passage I was a Hong [...]
Our author Shannon Young has been interviewed on RTHK Radio 3 twice this month. Click the links below to listen online! 1. Shannon Young is a young American writer currently living in Hong Kong who writes under two names. Her travel memoir about the year she followed a man she met at a fencing club to Hong Kong, only for [...]
Even four decades after the passing of Asian martial-arts superstar Bruce Lee, his achievements still attract adoration from millions of movie fans. The biggest fan of all may be Jon Benn, who befriended the high-kicking hero while playing “the Big Boss”, a villain in Lee’s acclaimed 1972 movie The Way of the Dragon. In Remembering Bruce Lee, a tell-tale autobiography, [...]
Fred Schneiter moved to Hong Kong in the 1960s and wasted no time in getting to know the food. Here’s a story and a recipe for Chinese broccoli with oyster sauce from his new book, The Taste of Old Hong Kong. If unaccustomed to chopsticks you’ll find the going easier—in initial encounters—simply by maintaining an affirmative attitude. Dismiss any thought [...]
Dai grilled fish scented with lemongrass and fresh herbs is one of the great fish dishes of China's Yunnan province, alongside the Bai fish stew made with carp from Dali’s commanding Erhai Lake. The fish from Yunnan’s majestic lakes are generally highly prized. It is a land-locked province, and so it is unusual to find seafood and salt-water fish, but [...]
Author Shannon Young visited the studios of RTHK Radio 3 to tell Noreen Mir about the making of her latest book, Year of Fire Dragons. Her new memoir is a wide-eyed newcomer’s account of Hong Kong wrapped up in an international long distance love story. Click here to listen online to the 10-minute interview. When she's not writing books, Shannon [...]
Fred Schneiter moved to Hong Kong in the 1960s and wasted no time in getting to know the food. Here's a recipe (and a reminiscence) from the old Causeway Bay typhoon shelter. It appears in his new book, The Taste of Old Hong Kong. Living in one of the world’s major tourist destinations, the culinary epicenter of the China Seas [...]
An American Woman’s Story of Coming of Age in Hong Kong n 2010, bookish 22-year-old Shannon follows her Eurasian boyfriend to Hong Kong, eager to forge a new love story in his hometown. But when work sends him to London a month later, Shannon embarks on a wide-eyed newcomer's journey through Hong Kong – alone. She teaches in a local [...]
Many expats live in Hong Kong long-term, but language barriers make it hard to get to know the everyday local population. So we're delighted to receive a wonderful review in the South China Morning Post for our new book, Street Life Hong Kong: Here, we get a first-hand look at how life is for so many in our city. We [...]
If you missed Eating Smoke author Chris Thrall's "ask me anything" online question-and-answer session last week, which attracted 201 comments, you can now read through the whole discussion. Here it is on Reddit.
Look at the picture. That's our author Fred Schneiter and his children, on their arrival in Hong Kong at Chinese New Year in 1964. Fred has written a combination of cookbook and memoir that includes 70 of the best recipes he collected over his three decades roaming the China coast, with a mix of adventurous and nostalgic stories thrown in. [...]