For families, there is nothing worse than trekking out to a particular place for a day out, bringing all the paraphernalia required for travelling with children, not to mention the children themselves, only to find the opening times, details or directions you were given were wrong or incomplete.

That’s the view of Cindy Miller Stephens, an expat mother-of-three who spent a number of years meticulously documenting information on parks, museums, beaches, markets, hikes/walks and other venues and activities throughout Hong Kong. She always enjoyed referring friends and business acquaintances to unusual or far-flung outings to enjoy with their children, and was eventually encouraged to compile all of her information into a book. The result was Hong Kong for Kids: A Parent’s Guide. Now released in its second edition, the comprehensive guidebook is expanded and fully revised for 2011.

Attention to detail is what makes this book so valuable. It covers everything from how old the children should be to visit each venue, where the nearest kid-friendly food can be found and even whether or not a baby-changing table can be found nearby!

“Hong Kong can be a very difficult place to navigate, especially with children in tow. However, once someone has shown you the way, it becomes very clear,” Cindy says. “Hong Kong for Kids attempts to be a friendly ‘door opener’ for resident families and visitors.

“Hong Kong is a wonderful, challenging and fantastic place to explore for families with children. The biggest obstacles between families and a great time out will be eliminated by this book – namely, how to identify and then locate a fun-filled outing.”

Each chapter is a self-contained resource which includes: addresses, websites, phone numbers, directions in Chinese for taxi drivers, detailed descriptions of the venue, age ranges, every kind of available public transportation – MTR, bus, tram, ferry, taxi, walking – detailed driving directions, contact details for educators, nearby child-friendly restaurants, special programs and tours and things you need to know that are only word-of-mouth.

For people who drive in Hong Kong, the book is a remarkable resource, giving explicit directions that cannot be found anywhere on the internet or on road maps. Even where to park and when not to bring a car are covered.

The author and her children have visited every destination in this book at least once, often with other parents and their children as well. The venues selected for inclusion are only those that were found to be worthy of a visit. Every site has been family-tested to eliminate the possibility of hauling children around Hong Kong only to be disappointed once they arrive. The book is not about rating venues, it is about identifying the best things that are currently here to be explored.

“Hong Kong has changed so much in the last few years,” Cindy says. “It never used to be known as a child-friendly city but all that has changed. The breadth and depth of things to do in Hong Kong with children has sparked the expansion of this book to include 30% more destinations as well as a complete overhaul of the entries that were included in the first edition.

“For the first edition of Hong Kong for Kids, there was a need to include an icon which depicted whether or not the venue had seated toilets or squat toilets, which can be very difficult for kids to use. This icon has been eliminated from the new edition, as 99% of the locations listed now have sit-down toilets! Hallelujah! This is just one indicator of how far Hong Kong has come in a short time in terms of its new-found family friendliness.”

The author’s family has spent the last 10 years discovering Hong Kong and they feel that few cities offer a more exciting or diverse list of options for families than this city. But it’s not only parents who have found the thorough details and directions useful.

“Many people have purchased this book and used it to help their family and friends who are visiting Hong Kong to get around and find great spots to experience, whether or not they have children,” Cindy says. “In fact, the title might have been: Hong Kong for Kids and Grandparents and Out of Town Visitors and Residents!”

About the author: Cindy Miller Stephens is an American who has lived in Hong Kong for 15 years. As a child she was an expat living in France and travelled the globe extensively with her parents, visiting Hong Kong for the first time in 1977. Cindy writes about Hong Kong while raising her three daughters ages 6, 10 and 13. She lives in Hong Kong.

Book details

Title: Hong Kong for Kids: A Parent’s Guide

ISBN: 978-988-19003-2-6

Format: Paperback, 140mm x 216mm, 424 pages, with 38 colour maps

Published: November 2011

Cover price: HK$148 / US$18.95

Click the images to see at larger size!

In the latest issue of Cha, the excellent Hong Kong-based online literary journal which publishes fiction, creative non-fiction, reviews and photography, I’ve shared some insights from what I’ve learned about publishing over the past seven years in business.

People often express amazement that English-language publishers can survive in Hong Kong. I share their surprise. Hong Kong is a small place, and the mother tongue of 98% of its population is Chinese. Nevertheless, Hong Kong can be a reliable market for English books if you publish what people want.

Read the full piece, and similar items from other regional publishers, at Cha.

Kathryn Chua is a 17-year-old author; the latest – and youngest – in the wave of rising stars from Asia writing in English. Midnight Walking is her first published novel.

Come and meet Kathryn on the 19th November at Bookazine in Central, Hong Kong! Click the invite to see at larger size. Drinks and snacks will be served. Free scary tattoos for every attendee, and scary sweets from Sim’s sweetshop!

And read an interview with Kathryn (and her mum) in the SCMP’s Family Post.

Does a man need a stint in jail to complete his life experiences?

When John T. Hung was writing his book “Master of None” from inside Stanley Prison, apart from the experience of imprisonment, he also recounted the many events and people that have affected his life. The most dramatic changes in Hong Kong took place from 1970 to the present, which coincided with the period of his active career. As a fourth-generation Eurasian resident of Hong Kong, he poses questions about whether we may have lost sight of who we are.

Listen to John Hung talk about his life and his new book at the Foreign Correspondents’ Club in Central, Hong Kong on Thursday Oct 20th. All details here.

Thanks to everybody who came to our launch party in the Stanley Street cha chan tang last night. The owners were pleased as they sold 100+ bottles of cheap beer.

Author Cecilie Gamst Berg has now made a movie to explain what you’ll learn by reading the book!

Have you signed up for our email newsletter yet? It goes out once every two months or so, depending on the number of events and book launches on the calendar.

The latest one can be seen online if you click here. And you can sign up at this link. Thanks for letting us keep you informed!

Cantonese can be difficult, and people are often put off learning it. But Norwegian Cantonese teacher Cecilie Gamst Berg has hit on the best strategy: she avoids boring classrooms and teaches Cantonese in the places you will actually need it — in shops, taxis and bars. OK, mostly in bars, but sometimes in cha chaan teng (local Chinese cafés) too. Join us at a cha chaan teng in Central for the launch of her new book: Don’t Joke on the Stairs!

Click image to see invite at full size. Buy book to find out the meaning of “the slippery are very crafty”!

Thanks to the South China Morning Post for a great review of Chris Thrall’s crystal meth memoir!

A triad-controlled nightclub, of course, is not a clever place to work if you’re addicted to a drug with a tendency to induce horrifying paranoia. A lot of bad stuff is going to happen and it’s very easy for an Ice-addled mind to imagine that even worse stuff is also going on. This is at the heart of Thrall’s nightmare and it’s a narrative device that makes Eating Smoke work so well.

…  Before his downward spiral begins, there’s a lot of enthusiastic reminiscing about long, intoxicated nights in Wan Chai nightspots, both as doorman and patron. Thrall is refreshingly unapologetic about the main reason for his drug addiction: before the madness took hold, he really enjoyed taking drugs. He’s an engaging narrator whose charm and essential decency are first twisted and then eventually dissolved by his addiction.

Click the image to see at full (readable) size.

Walking is the best way to get to know any city, and Macau — the former Portuguese colony returned to China in 1999 — is made for walking. Only seven miles square, one can easily walk from the Border Gate to the A-Ma Temple at the tip of Macau in a day.

Todd Crowell’s guidebook Explore Macau describes eight routes around the urban peninsula and its outlying islands, sufficient to explore and understand this fascinating old city and its unique blend of European and Asian architecture, cuisine and cultures. Here we excerpt one of Todd’s guided walks. Click the map to see at larger size.

Walk No. 3: From Lilau Square to Barra Point

Route: Down Rua George Chinnery to Lilau Square, continuing on down Calçada da Barra to the A-Ma Temple, then around Barra Point to Avenida da Praia Grande.

Chief Points of Interest: Lilau Square, Mandarin House, Moorish Barracks, A-Ma Temple, Macau Maritime Museum, Penha Hill, Santa Sancha Palace and the former Bela Vista Hotel.

The name Rua George Chinnery (1) just behind St. Lawrence’s Church enshrines the memory of the 19th-century British artist who lived near here and whose ink drawings and paintings form the main impressions of Macau as it must have looked more than 100 years ago. The artist actually rented rooms (now gone) on the neighboring Rua Ignacio Baptista, which was close to some of his favorite subjects: St. Lawrence’s Church and the Chapel of St. Joseph Seminary. Of course to see Chinnery’s most famous scenery one needs to go down to the Praia Grande although you will have to use your imagination to screen out the reclamation. To plunge into this neighborhood is a little like stepping back into old Macau, a town of narrow streets, hidden nooks and patios and the sounds of hawkers.

Stroll down this short street to the end and turn left. On one side is the Patio da Ilusao, or Illusion Courtyard, hidden behind a typical Portuguese gateway. Cut through Rua Alleluia to Lilau Square (2), the quiet heart of the old Macanese community, built around a fountain. This neighborhood shows the results of considerable attention by the cultural affairs department. The late 19th-century residences on all sides of the small square have been restored in bright pinks, greens and yellows and decorated with black gas lanterns. It is worth pausing for a coffee or cold drink from a kiosk in the square under the shade of a huge banyan tree. The fountain that originally stood in the square was dismantled in the 1940s. The government has reconstructed a replacement water fountain in one end of the square, a large square granite block, which seems incongruously modern in the setting. An old folk poem recalls:

Who drinks the waters of Lilau
Will never forget Macau
He either marries here in Macau
Or else returns to Macau (more…)

Chris Thrall’s Eating Smoke, his memoir of a wild year spent in the gritty underbelly of Hong Kong — a true story of drugs, crime and psychosis –  is now on the shelves of local bookshops!

Chris Thrall left the Royal Marines to find his fortune in Hong Kong, but instead found himself homeless and hooked on crystal meth. Soon he began working for the 14K, Hong Kong’s largest crime family, as a doorman in one of their nightclubs in the Wan Chai red-light district.

Dealing with violence, psychosis and the ‘foreign triad’ – a secretive expat clique which, unbeknown to the world, works hand-in-hand with the Chinese mafia – he had to survive in the world’s most unforgiving city, addicted to the world’s most dangerous drug.

Over the past few months, Eating Smoke became the most popular pre-release book ever on Facebook, with over 14,000 fans. If you haven’t yet seen the fan page, take a look here.

You can read an excerpt of the book on our website. Chris has now made a trailer, and it’s up on Youtube. Watch below!

In the run-up to the 2011 Hong Kong Book Fair, which opens this week, Blacksmith Books is featured in a Hong Kong Trader story about publishing in Asia.

Hong Kong has always been viewed by the publishing world as a place to print books rather than to have them published. That’s changing due to shifting global focus on Asia. At Blacksmith Books, bestsellers are tales of a not-often seen Hong Kong. Triads and opium dens, decrepit squatter villages, deities and mythological gods fill works of non-fiction.

“It’s the true stories of Hong Kong people that sell like hotcakes,” says Pete Spurrier, Blacksmith’s founder and publisher. And it isn’t just Hong Kong people reading his publications. He breaks even selling to the local market. His profit comes from overseas.

A writer and editor by trade, Mr Spurrier set up Blacksmith in 2004, when three friends had ideas for books and no house to publish them. All three sold out their initial print runs, and despite a brief sales blip during the 2008 financial crisis, some 70 per cent of titles at Blacksmith regularly sell out. About half are sold in Hong Kong and half to the rest of the world, including Southeast Asia, the United Kingdom, the United States and Canada, where titles are available in mainstream chain bookstores.

Mr Spurrier believes content is key. Blacksmith’s list of Asia-centric materials grows alongside global interest in the region. “We are very lucky that China is always in the news across the world,” he says.

Read the full story, involving other local publishers MCCM Creations, ThingsAsian, P3 Publishing and Chameleon Press, here.

Find out by reading this interview with the author of King Hui and the new Alphabet of Vietnam.

What is your most recent book? Tell us a bit about it.

My latest book is a novel called The Alphabet of Vietnam. Vietnam is a word that simultaneously conjures up a country and a war – and not just any war. It was a war that revealed to America a glimpse of the darkness of its own psyche. This novel is an exploration of this darkness and its continuing ability to infect the present. In short, when men come back from war, they bring the war back with them.

Jack Gauss is a middle aged, balding, overweight history teacher seemingly happy in his childless marriage to Norma. But then his brother, Joe, commits suicide. Jack soon discovers that his brother has led a hidden life as a serial kidnapper and killer of young women. He also discovers that Wash, Joe’s Vietnam buddy, is still hiding out in a cabin in the Appalachian mountains with a girl. In a final letter to Jack, Joe asks him to go and rescue the girl.

So starts a novel that sends Jack into the Appalachian hills, and later to Vietnam where he tries to understand the war and Joe’s experience of it. There, he discovers the work of a popular but officially disapproved of Vietnamese feminist poet whose work he translates. This narrative is also central to the novel.

What is the best advice you could give other writers about writing or publishing?

To my mind there are two things that make a worthy writer: life and commitment. Why do we think the next great novel is going to come from a young person? It is the middle aged and elderly who have lived life. Fiction that is not informed by a mind that has had some experience of life is not worth reading. So live life and explore yourself in that life – be aware, listen, feel.

The second thing is to write and keep writing. It doesn’t matter what. You have to believe that once you have mastered the tools of writing and made the writing of words seem like a natural extension of the brain that the narratives will come.

Read on…

There is a darkness in men’s hearts that war sets free. When their war is over, they bring that darkness back home with them. It’s a short trail from the jungles of Vietnam to the forests of the Appalachian Mountains.

Read this excerpt from the new novel by Jonathan Chamberlain — in shops on June 16th.

Chapter 1

I’m sitting here waiting for her in the usual place, Betty’s Bookshop. I check my watch. She’s late. I look out the window to see if I can see her coming. I can’t. Up till now she’s been pretty good about the time thing. That’s something I hate – people being late. But I guess it doesn’t matter. I don’t mind sitting here, reading. Betty has set out one corner of the shop with a few tables and a coffee machine. There’s a rack of leaflets of upcoming events. And for those of us who are too mean and cheap to buy a half-way decent coffee, she also provides free coffee. It’s the worst. Not much different from dirty dishwater. But hey, it’s free. You get what you pay for.

So here I am. Betty is behind the cash register with one of her girls. That’s the way Betty swings. She may not know about coffee but she does know how to run a bookshop. And if it takes a dyke co-operative to achieve that, I have no qualms. That’s just fine with me. Joe would cackle invective at the thought. ‘You fucking pinko liberal shit.’ I can hear him drawl out the words with mocking venom. It’s almost as if he’s still alive and living in the synapses of my brain. I’m not alone here. The girl at the next table is pale, no breasts, just skin and bones, face studded, spotty, shoulder tattooed, hair matted. Got a baby with her. How on earth did she get a guy to pop her cherry? (That’s the way bro, Joe cackles. You tell ’em.)

I check the time again. Alice is ten minutes late. I can read from the confusions of feeling that I’m feeling about this that I’ve kind of fallen for her. She makes my stomach quiver in a loose bowel sort of way. This is a new feeling for me. It was never like this with Norma. And Maddie screamed into and out of my life like a blazing comet. Falling in love at fifty-five is no joke. It’s crazy. Silly. I feel a fool. She used to scare me. Not because she’s scary. She isn’t. Not at all. It’s me. I’m pathetic. Emotionally very wobbly. Vulnerable. Like jelly. Not because of her. Because of everything else. I just didn’t know it until I met her. Then I saw how impossible it was to just reach out. You’ve got to reach out from a place. I didn’t have that place. There was nothing there. And she was beautiful and pretended not to see how it was with me. And she is so strong and confident and clear eyed and everything a person should be and I am still stuck in this thing that I should have got myself out of long ago. But I’m getting out of it now. Something’s happening. That’s scary too. A different kind of scary. I want her to know how I’m feeling but I’m scared it’s too strong. Don’t worry, I tell myself. She’s not going anywhere. You don’t have to rush anything. Just let the way you like her seep into your words and the way you talk and the way you wave your arms and the way you smile. Let her know. But you don’t have to dump it on her all at once. Let her feel it. And if she likes it she’ll let you know. That’s what I tell myself. I call myself ‘you’. Like I’m my own father. Weird.

But I’m not sure yet what to make of her new Cadillac. ‘My husband left it,’ she explained when she showed it to me. ‘He came to see me to sort a few things out and when he left, he gave me his Cadillac. He’s gone now. He won’t be back. He’s gone from my life.’

‘How can you be so sure?’ I asked.

‘I just know.’ And there was a firmness about the way she said it so I know she knows something she’s not telling me. Like he’s got terminal cancer or something. But I don’t understand about the Cadillac. But then again, why should it make sense? Some things just don’t make sense.

Above the coffee machine there’s a TV. The flicker of it caught my eye. The sound is off but the images are clear enough. Our soldiers in Iraq. They’re coming back. Barack says so. Yippee! And then what? We still haven’t learned from Vietnam. You send soldiers to fight meaningless, vicious, enemy dehumanizing wars and they come back home, they bring the war back with them. And the grand violence of our policy makers gets transmuted into little parcels – small individually wrapped little packets – of hate and rage and brutality. I know about this. I feel a surge of disgust. I can’t look at the screen any more. I can’t watch it. The knowledge I carry is sour in my belly. And then there she is! Alice. She’s sitting right there at the table smiling at me. She must have snuck up on me. Christ! I jump with the shock of her being there suddenly. (more…)

Following his recent climbs in Dubai and Istanbul, French daredevil Alain Robert, author of With Bare Hands, was interviewed by Al Jazeera’s Riz Khan:

Here we print an excerpt from Ken Ing’s Wing Chun Warrior — the biography of Duncan Leung, a kung fu master who studied under the famous Yip Man. Scroll to the end for cartoons which illustrate the story!

Bruce Lee and I Beaten

Hong Kong, 1958

Subdue the dragon, tame the tiger — Journey to the West

Wu Cheng-en was an author of the Ming Dynasty who wrote Journey to the West, one of the four classical Chinese novels. In Buddhist mythology, there were two Buddhist arhats ( luo han – an eminent monk who has achieved enlightenment), one of whom subdued a dragon with incantations and the other who tamed a tiger with an abbot’s staff. The saying ‘Subdue the dragon and tame the tiger’ is often used to describe the ability of an individual to overcome powerful adversaries. In China, the tiger is considered the king of the animal kingdom, and the Chinese character for tiger is invariably associated with brave generals and warriors.

It may be hard to believe, but one day Bruce Lee and Duncan Leung were beaten one after the other on the same day by a seasoned pugilist. It did happen. It was when they were young and inexperienced – as the Chinese would say, when they did not know the height of heaven or the thickness of the earth (不知天高地厚). The following episode is a revelation of how two Wing Chun greats, the dragon and the tiger, were defeated by a Cai Li Fo (蔡李佛) master when they were both young and inexperienced, and how the tiger took his revenge when he returned two weeks later.

*  *  *

After taking private lessons with Sifu for over two years, I thought I was pretty good. And indeed I was, although maybe not as good as I believed. Fellow students and I roamed the streets, looking for opportunities to fight. We had become bored simply because fighting against people who didn’t know much Kung Fu no longer had any appeal. We needed greater challenges.

We became bold and began venturing into Kung Fu studios to test our Wing Chun against different Kung Fu styles. Our ruse was simple. Still in our uniforms after school, we would go into a studio and ask to see the head instructor. Eager to recruit new students and anxious to impress, the unsuspecting instructor would glorify the effectiveness of his style and usually exaggerate his own expertise. He could not wait to demonstrate what he could do.

We’d pretend to be interested and say something like: “The forms look good, but I’ve heard about this Wing Chun. I wonder if yours is any good against that.” The instructor would invariably reply: “Of course. What is Wing Chun any way? Let me show you.” Thereby he fell into our trap, and a free fight ensued.

Sometimes we would just enroll in the school, pay the initial fee, and start learning. Usually it was the elder Kung Fu brothers who initiated us. After a couple of lessons we would question the effectiveness of the style and his expertise. And then a fight would follow.

We were never sure of the outcome. Some instructors were humbled for daring to pit their knowledge and expertise against ours. But we had our fair share of defeats. Our overblown confidence, arrogance, and contempt did not go unpunished. Against elder brothers we rarely lost. But, one time, Bruce Lee and I wandered into a studio and were given a lesson we would never forget. (more…)

Walking is the best way to get to know any city, and Macau — the former Portuguese colony returned to China in 1999 — is made for walking. Only seven miles square, one can easily walk from the Border Gate to the A-Ma Temple at the tip of Macau in a day.

Todd Crowell’s new guidebook describes eight walking routes around the urban peninsula and its outlying islands, sufficient to explore and understand this fascinating old city and its unique blend of European and Asian architecture, cuisine and cultures.

We have a different plan for this month’s book giveaway: we’ll give a free copy of Explore Macau to the first eight people to share this post on our Facebook page!

Boa sorte! — as they say in Portuguese.

If you’re free on the afternoon of Saturday 14th May, why not join us at Hong Kong’s historic old police headquarters — at 10 Hollywood Road, Central — for a series of author talks about different aspects of Hong Kong culture. Entry is free, and signed books will be available. This mini book fair is part of a wider exhibition by Hong Kong artists which goes on throughout May and June. The police station building itself, built in 1910, is fascinating to wander around.

Click the poster below to read all the details at larger size. Hope to see you there!

You are invited to a New York book event: HONG KONG ON AIR

As the Hong Kong handover boom fizzles into the Asian economic bust, a young American couple’s marriage and careers tumble into a maze of television news, betrayal, high finance, and cheap lingerie. Come and meet totally globalized New York author Muhammad Cohen.

“In this irreverent comic novel, The World of Suzie Wong meets CNBC’s Squawk Box, and sweatshop lingerie proves a harsh mistress. Hong Kong On Air is a multicultural comedy of manners, a witty, gritty backstage look at intersecting worlds during extraordinary times that all can relate to, no matter where we live.” — Tracy Quan, author, Diary of a Manhattan Call Girl

“… a truly hilarious satirical novel.” – Jewish Times Asia

“… reveals timeless truths about television news as seen from the hot seats on both sides of the camera.” – Lorraine Hahn, broadcast journalist

“Cohen’s tale about the chaos in the lives of players during Hong Kong’s handover brought back many memories to an old hat TV anchor like myself… it’s uncanny how much of my own dysfunctional life I saw in his prose.” – Bernard Lo, veteran television news presenter

Friday May 6th 2011, 6:30-8:00pm, at Book Culture, 536 West 112th Street (east of Broadway)

As an update to our earlier preview of Eating Smoke, Chris Thrall’s memoir of a crazy year spent living on the edge in Hong Kong, Chris has now been interviewed by Time Out.

So Chris, how much contact did you really have with the triads?

I had contact with them every day. One of my fellow doormen was a 6’7” assassin that used to be smuggled into China to do a hit on someone and smuggled back into Hong Kong. So from that perspective I was quite up close and personal. I won’t give too much away in regard to my own involvement; I think that would ruin it for the reader. It was a phenomenal insight into the underworld. It could be incredibly traumatic.

Read the full story at Time Out Hong Kong.

Here’s what people have been saying about Kirsteen Zimmern’s The Eurasian Face:

“Zimmern … has taken what she called “a fleeting glimpse into the lives and faces of a number of Eurasians,” and ended up fascinated by what she discovered. She has produced a lovely and evocative book to tell their stories.” –- Asia Sentinel

“Half Chinese and half Scottish, Kirsteen Zimmern is Eurasian, although you wouldn’t think it to look at her. She gets this reaction all the time, shock and awe from both East and West as she reveals her ‘other side’ by speaking fluent Cantonese. This was among many reasons why, despite being a mother to four and a working barrister, she began assembling The Eurasian Face – a handsome new hardbound book published by Blacksmith.” –- Time Out Hong Kong

“In a city like Hong Kong, which is made up almost entirely of immigrants, ask the question, “Where are you from?” and you’re unlikely to receive a straightforward answer. … One of the most fascinating aspects of the book is that it offers not only an insight into people’s self-perceptions but also a glimpse into history, in particular how attitudes towards interracial unions were perceived in the not-too-distant past.” –- HK Magazine

Try your hand at winning a copy of the book by answering the following easy question:

Where did Kirsteen Zimmern grow up?

The first three correct answers in the comments section below will be the winners… and we’ll send the prize books to any address in Asia. Good luck!

If you have 15 minutes spare, you could listen in to a walk I took around So Kon Po with Radio 3′s Annemarie Evans. Most people only visit the area during the annual Rugby Sevens tournament but there are half a dozen things to see beside the stadium. As well as the headquarters of the Po Leung Kuk, an organization set up in the 1870s to combat the then-commonplace trade in slave girls, the quiet district hosts a monument to the Happy Valley racecourse disaster of 1918, the remains of squatter villages, a Confucius Hall and a surprisingly large and imposing chapel within the walls of St. Paul’s Convent (pictured) which is still run by the order of French nuns who founded it.

I also spoke to man-about-China Paul French (no relation to the convent) about local heritage preservation in general for his Ethical Corporation podcast, again listenable at the link.

The full So Kon Po walk is described and illustrated in The Heritage Hiker’s Guide to Hong Kong, published by FormAsia a few months ago. I don’t have any images handy from this route, but below you can see some other spreads from the book. There’s a nice mix of modern and archive photography. Click to see at larger size.

There’s a full-page interview with extreme climber Alain Robert in today’s China Daily.

Asked why he’s not afraid of the dangers posed by his unaided ascents, Alain explains his approach to life.

“A lot of people are dreaming but they don’t have the guts to make their dreams come true. At least I’m the one who did it. I’m not afraid of dying, I’m afraid of not living.”

Muhammad Cohen’s Hong Kong On Air is now available in the US, and it’s caught the attention of New Yorker Tracy Quan — author of Diary of a Manhattan Call Girl — who says:

“In this irreverent comic novel, The World of Suzie Wong meets CNBC’s Squawk Box, and sweatshop lingerie proves a harsh mistress. Hong Kong On Air is a multicultural comedy of manners, a witty, gritty backstage look at intersecting worlds during extraordinary times that all can relate to, no matter where we live.”

The recent notoriety of Amy Chua’s Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother has prompted a deluge of similar manuscripts through our door — okay, six — and Quan has an angle on Tiger Moms too; read her latest column here.

Thanks to Time Out Hong Kong for a full-page interview with Annelie Rozeboom, author of our newest title: a book of interviews which explores the life stories of Chinese and Tibetan people in and around Tibet. Click to see at full size.

Also read a great review of the book in Cairns Media Magazine:

Almost everything that’s revealed in Waiting for the Dalai Lama sends extra rays of light into dark corners of the Tibet debate, taking readers closer to an objective, accurate assessment. Will anyone else in Asia publish a more forthright and revealing book this year? Unlike most questions about Tibet, this one has an obvious answer – almost certainly not.

Watch a slideshow of images from Graham Earnshaw’s trek across China, set to a fitting soundtrack: a song the author has composed about his westward journey.

How long would it take to walk across the world’s most populous country? Find out by listening to Graham Earnshaw’s story. He’ll be speaking at Garden Books — 325 Changle Road, Shanghai — at 6pm on Saturday 26th February. 40 RMB includes one drink.

Graham’s book The Great Walk of China is 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 the people he meets along the way, the Chinese-speaking author paints a portrait of a nation struggling to come to terms with its newfound identity and its place in the world. Our wandering guide never backs away from sensitive and sometimes uncomfortable topics, and captures the essential kindness and generosity of the Chinese people with brilliant clarity.

The Great Walk of China was reviewed last month by US newspaper the Christian Science Monitor: “A journalist’s journey by foot from Shanghai to Tibet offers a fascinating look at a part of China seldom seen by foreigners”.

For information on the event:  (021) 5404 8728 or garden_books@yahoo.cn.

Extreme urban climber Alain Robert is in Hong Kong this week to give a talk at the Royal Geographical Society (6:30pm, Tuesday Jan 25th, details at the link). This reminds me to post an excerpt from his hair-raising autobiography With Bare Hands.

Alain has made a career out of thumbing his nose at the authorities and doing what people tell him is either illegal or impossible or both. In this excerpt from Chapter 10, we find him preparing to climb the world’s tallest building, unaware of the deadly surprise that awaits him at the top…

In the clouds: Alain's elevated position is marked with a red circle

Fears and the Sears

The second ascent I made in Chicago was very special, one that still gives me goose-bumps when I look back on it. Before the Petronas Towers claimed the title, the Sears Tower in Chicago had stood as the world’s tallest building since 1973. And what an incredible tower it is! Not just for its height and pure presence, but for its unique design. The Sears Tower is square at its base but as it climbs it tapers inwards with several receding tiers to leave the segmented core standing proudly clear of the impressively aerial city of Chicago. Cloaked in villainous black, there is more than a hint of Darth Vader about this awesome monster.

The first time I laid eyes on the building it never occurred to me to climb it. That was back in 1994 when I was climbing my first building for that Sector documentary, the climb that inadvertently started it all. At that time it was still the tallest building in the world and I was hugely impressed. Even before I got to the Sears I was astounded by the height of the other buildings in Chicago, and also taken aback by the completely vertical nature of them. The sheer glass fascinated me. But standing at 442 metres with 109 floors – or 110 if you count the mechanical penthouse – the Sears Tower was the zenith of the world’s skyscrapers.

I remember I was especially aroused by its height when I visited the Observation Skydeck on the 103rd floor to find a building to climb for Sector. From my vantage point 412 metres up I could look down on a multitude of monoliths, as if I were sitting in an aircraft. Back then I was very much afraid of the prospect of climbing anything man-made and I was not as proud as I am now. Never in a million years would I have believed that anyone could climb that building – and I would have been astonished if I were to find out that the person who would attempt to climb it solo would be me!

But the Citicorp Citibank Building tipped the first domino and led me on a journey all over the world. Over the years, my confidence and ambitions grew and my eye turned towards the irresistible Sears Tower. I made five trips to the city to research the building. I kept delaying ascending it as I would decide it was too risky, too dangerous – but I would always come back for another look. I studied its structure with binoculars from the pavement or from neighbouring buildings, or indeed from inside the Sears Tower itself. I would approach it stealthily at night like a cat burglar and make a few quiet trial climbs at the lower levels to try to crack its code. By night I would study the shift patterns of the security teams and monitor the security cameras to probe for weaknesses. Watching the cameras is fair game, I believe, since they are always watching us. If they have the right to watch us, follow us, snoop around trying to work out what we are doing and where we are going, then I claim the right to do the same in reverse.

On top of my surveillance I had to canvass legal opinion around town to find a good lawyer willing to defend me. Step by step, my dream started to emerge as a possibility. As time passed I peeled further layers of wrapping paper off the Sears Tower and after exhaustive research I became convinced that it was technically possible to do it. It took time to get to this point. In fact it took five years of research and preparations before I was eventually comfortable enough to consider climbing it. Even though I knew it was a technical possibility I was still intimidated by the scale of the challenge – 442 metres plus the difficulties I knew I would face on the way up! This would put my other escalations in the shade. And I could not escape the hard truth that the nature of the technique I would need to employ, coupled with the scale of the tower, could well end with my defeat.

But there is something fabulous about continuously working towards your wildest dream. My relationship with the Sears was a love affair involving five years of flirtation and admiration, five years of passion and yearning. But as with true love, one is happy to wait. One wishes to prolong the intoxicating courtship so that when the magical night does arrive, when one finally gets one’s hands on a lover, to explore her and reach those dizzying heights, it is beautiful, meaningful, perfect. I was in no rush to conquer my beloved. In between trips to Chicago I would climb buildings around the world to prepare myself for the biggest challenge of my life. (more…)

A sneak preview on the right of an upcoming title which has been receiving a lot of attention on the internet. Watch this space for launch date! Or you can follow author Chris Thrall’s Facebook page to stay updated.

The Eurasian Face has also had a lot of publicity recently. It’s just been reviewed by the online newspaper Asia Sentinel.

To round off the year, in case you didn’t see it, here’s one of my favourite videos of 2010. The Chinese Red Army opera troupe performs a moving tribute to Michael Jackson. All the best for 2011!

Hong Kong is a mixed bag of a city. It is where Mercedes cars outnumber taxi cabs, partygoers count down to Christmas every December 24, and larger-than-life billboards of fortune tellers and cram school tutors compete with breathtaking skylines.

HONG KONG State of Mind is a collection of essays by a popular local blogger who zeroes in on the city’s idiosyncrasies with deadpan precision. At once an outsider looking in and an insider looking out, Jason Y. Ng has created something for everyone: a travel journal for the passing visitor, a user’s manual for the wide-eyed expat, and an open diary for the native Hong Konger looking for moments of reflection.

“Honest, insightful and immensely entertaining,” says Joseph Chow, editor-in-chief of Elle. It’s available now for HK$108, or you can win a prize copy by answering this question:

What should the S.A.R. in “Hong Kong S.A.R.” really stand for?

The best five answers in the comments section below will be the winners… and we’ll send the prize books to any address in Asia.

Also, if you are still searching for gifts, don’t forget that Lorette Roberts’ 2011 desk calendar — Sketches of Hong Kong — is still in the shops. Merry Christmas!

Photo by Lisa Xu

Thanks to everyone who came to our book launch at Lotus! The crowd was bigger than we expected, so it was lucky we had an open-fronted venue which allowed people to spill onto the street. Kirsteen Zimmern was supposed to say a few words at 7:30, but it was past 9:00 before she was able to edge out from behind the book-signing table. More photos if you click the picture.

Early reactions to The Eurasian Face have been good — as well as achieving window display in several bookshops around town, the book has already been featured in HK Magazine and the South China Morning Post. You can also hear Kirsteen talk about her motivations for writing the book on RTHK Radio 3.

If you haven’t seen the book yet, you can take a glimpse inside it by clicking here. It’s the perfect Christmas present for any Eurasian you know!

You are invited to the launch of The Eurasian Face by Kirsteen Zimmern! Click the image for a larger version.

No one represents diversity better than Eurasians: those people with a mix of Caucasian and Asian heritage. Once a source of shame, the Eurasian face has become the face that sells. It is the face with which everyone can identify. In an ever-shrinking world, the search is on for a one-size-fits-all global image, and Eurasians have become the world’s poster boys and girls. Taking advantage of increasingly tolerant times and the growing commercial and cultural exchanges between Asia and the rest of the world, Eurasians have found success as actors, entrepreneurs, professionals and athletes.

The Eurasian Face – a book of bilingual interviews and black-and-white portraits taken in Hong Kong and Singapore – reveals how seventy Eurasians of diverse backgrounds see their place in the world today.

Join us for a glass of wine on Thursday, 9th December 2010, 7:00pm, at LOTUS, 5 Staunton Street, Soho, Hong Kong. Tel: 2543 6290. Hope to see you there!

We’ve sold Jonathan Chamberlain’s Chinese Gods into French, for publication next year by Éditions GOPE. Like us, they publish books about Asia, and their forthcoming titles include a translation of The World of Suzie Wong. So if you’d like to learn about Lei Kung and Lu Pan in the language of love, look out for Les Dieus Chinoises in your nearest French bookshop sometime in 2011.

As the weather cools, I’m pleased to announce the publication of The Heritage Hiker’s Guide to Hong Kong — available from all local bookshops from later this week, or directly from the website of FormAsia Books.

When I began to write the book which became the first in this series – a walking guide to Hong Kong’s high peaks and long-distance trails – I had no idea it would lead to an illustrated book about local history.

Before recent times, there was less call for a book like this. The accepted view was that Hong Kong people cared little for their heritage. Besides the clans of the New Territories, few residents had deep roots in Hong Kong; many had used the city only as a stepping stone between China and a more prosperous life overseas. And before the issue of 1997 had been settled, the future of Hong Kong itself was uncertain. Everything was seen as transient. Who would spend too much time worrying about a ‘borrowed place living on borrowed time’?

But since the protests against the demolition of the Star Ferry pier a few years ago, that has all changed. Hong Kong people – and especially young people – have woken up to the value of a connection to their past. Historic places, those which evoke collective memories, now have legions of defenders sworn to protect them at all costs.

This new interest in shared heritage is part of a wider trend towards protest of all kinds in Hong Kong: against delays in more representative elections, against reclamation of the harbour and other harm to the environment, against the profiteering of developers, and most vociferously against the perceived collusion between government and big business. Angry citizens are now ready to confront the government on every issue – a problem the colonial authorities rarely faced. Already it seems that their voices have been heard, and the tide has turned for the better on heritage conservation.

Hong Kong has been many things: a string of fishing villages; a centre of the opium trade; a refuge for revolutionaries; a freewheeling market where fortunes could be made; a prize of war; a window on China; a colony with an expiry date; a beautiful city. It can be hard to find reminders of ages gone by, but they still exist. I hope this guidebook will help you discover some of them.

Blacksmith Books at the American Women's Association Bazaar, 3rd November; photo by Lisa Xu

In the news this week:

Bernd Hagemann, author of Sleeping Chinese, was interviewed by Urbanatomy Guangzhou;

Alain Robert’s spine-tingling book With Bare Hands was given four stars by US climbing magazine Rock and Ice;

Great Walk of China author Graham Earnshaw was interviewed by Paul French for the Ethical Corporation podcast;

and Blacksmith Books was featured in a China Daily story about Hong Kong publishers.

Have a good weekend!

Philip Chan Yan-kin, legendary Hong Kong movie actor, director, and producer, has said the following about Feng Chi-shun’s Kowloon memoir Diamond Hill:

It was with red, teary eyes and a pain in my stomach that I closed the last page of Feng Chi-shun’s flashback of his youthful days in and around the infamous Diamond Hill. For me, the place itself was the subject of endless speculations of exotic food, treasures and mythical characters. I once had a plan to leave home with 30 cents in my pocket to seek the ‘Sifu’, a master of kung fu who lived as a hermit but would occasionally show his presence toying with two steel balls in one palm. I am glad that plan was abandoned because the only balls you’d find in Diamond Hill were fish balls. It was also where I first discovered ‘hand-made fashion’ when I stole my grandma’s money from the lucky money in her incense pot (plus from my mother’s handbag) to place my first-ever order for a hand-made pair of horseskin shoes from the Shanghainese cobbler ‘Jazz’. The same cobbler could fix a metal plate along the front of the soles to provide stylish complexity and an effective attack weapon.

Reading Diamond Hill was a roller coaster ride in a time machine: adrenalin-driven, fast and furious, and very heart-warming. A book that should be read then passed on to any person whom you think should share the treasures of Feng’s excavation of a culture long lost but not to be forgotten.

Thanks, Philip!

Chi will be signing copies of his book from 2.30pm – 4.30pm at the American Women’s Association’s annual bazaar. Venue: the Excelsior Hotel in Causeway Bay, Hong Kong, this Wednesday November 3rd. Other local writers including Liza Chu, Jason Wordie, Sarah Brennan, Joanne O’Callagan and Yvonne Dow will also be in attendance at the Authors’ Mix n’ Mingle, with complimentary coffee and tea. The fair runs from 10am to 6pm — enquiries 2527 2961. Hope to see you there!

The USA Pavilion’s official blog has a post about author/photographer Tom Carter’s talk at the Expo. Together with artist Terence Lloren, Tom shared the challenges and rewards of living and travelling in China.

At the end of their presentation, both artists stood on stage. They fielded questions and shared anecdotes with an engaged crowd. Though their mediums and perspectives were unique, their missions shared the common bond of showcasing the diversity and appreciating the value of the human experience. Each implored the audience to take a deeper look at their host city and country during the Expo, and reminded us that art, like life, does not have to fit into any conventional form.

Read on at the Pavilion’s blog.