A letter from the heart, written by a father to his profoundly handicapped daughter You think you’ve got life sorted and then a child like Stevie comes along. But don’t think of Stevie as a tragedy. Don’t think of Stevie as a problem. Stevie was just a little girl. A gift to the world. A lot of bad things happened [...]
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 [...]
Three copies of Bernd Hagemann's Sleeping Chinese are on their way to readers who can stay awake long enough to answer this question: There are sixty minutes in an hour. But how many winks are there in a nap? Answers to pete at blacksmithbooks dot com, Asian postal addresses only. (Does not include the Land of Nod).
Our newest book -- Diamond Hill, Feng Chi-shun's tale of growing up in a Kowloon-side squatter village in the 1950s -- is launched at the Foreign Correspondents' Club at 5pm on Monday 12th October. All welcome! But if you can't make it to the FCC, three copies of the book are on offer to those who can answer this question: [...]
This month's prize giveaway is the Chinese edition of Ken Ing's Wing Chun Warrior. It's in Hong Kong shops retailing at HK$78. For Chinese readers, here's the blurb: 梁紹鴻，Duncan Leung，詠春善戰者。由兒時好友、已故電影巨星李小龍介紹去學詠春功夫。1955年，年僅十三歲的他以「三跪九叩」之禮，拜詠春第六代葉問為師，成為葉問的「第一私家門徒」。 1955至59這四年間，葉問親自上門，悉心教導梁紹鴻，傾囊相授，跟他練習，還傳授「實踐」詠春的秘訣。梁紹鴻天天練武、練功六小時；要學以致用，他就上街打架、上武館「講手」，實踐所學。他對中國武術各門各派的打鬥經驗可謂獨一無二。1964年，一次行俠仗義令梁紹鴻有緣遇上一位老人。那老人教他「空手入白刃」、「貼身搏擊」、「無聲殺敵」等技巧。1974至76年，梁紹鴻在美國紐約設館授徒。中、外習武者上館挑戰可謂無日無之，他未嘗敗北，因此應付外國武藝的經驗也相當豐富，可謂世上絕無僅有。 1976至2002年間，梁紹鴻在美國弗吉利亞灘 （Virginia Beach）定居，受聘於美國海軍海豹隊（U.S. Navy Seals）、美國聯邦調查局（ FBI ）及美國特警部隊 （SWAT）。2002年8月，梁紹鴻接受可能是他有生以來最大的挑戰：要在兩年內，培養六名中國少年成為世界級職業「散打」拳手。於是，他到了中國去完成這能人所不能的使命。 The first three readers (with Asian mailing addresses) who tell us this -- Where did martial arts master Duncan Leung open [...]
Has it ever occurred to you that at practically every conference you attend almost all of the speakers are terribly boring? When you yourself made your last presentation did people come up to you afterwards to talk to you? Are you sure you made an impression? The irony is that almost all speakers have probably been advised or trained to [...]
This month we're giving away three copies of Wing Chun Warrior by Ken Ing. The book has just been reviewed by Kent Ewing at Asia Times Online, who says: The story of Duncan Leung — childhood friend of Bruce Lee and disciple of Wing Chun master Yip Man — is valuable not only for the insights it offers into Chinese [...]
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. [...]