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Why does the issue of Tibet rouse such passions on both sides? And is there any way to find common ground?
Chinese-speaking journalist Annelie Rozeboom worked as a foreign correspondent in China for ten years. During that time she was able to interview numerous Tibetan people inside and outside Tibet, as well as Chinese residents, Western observers and the Dalai Lama himself. As these people explain their life stories, it becomes clear to the reader why they think the way they do. The book also shows how history washed over this remote kingdom and how the Tibetans and the Chinese came to take such opposing positions.
Waiting for the Dalai Lama is a uniquely valuable book which approaches the emotive issue of Tibet from all angles.
Look inside this book
Click on this link to view sample pages from Waiting for the Dalai Lama. You will need a pdf reader to view this excerpt.
Overcoming vertigo — and countless injuries which have left him officially disabled — the 'Human Spider' has scaled nearly 100 skyscrapers worldwide: from the Petronas Towers in Malaysia to Taipei 101, from Chicago's Sears Tower to the Golden Gate Bridge. Reward and punishment have been received in equal measure — the flamboyant Frenchman has gained international fame and raised thousands of dollars for charity, but has also been arrested, beaten and prosecuted.
Many people ask whether it is madness to undertake such perilous ascents without the use of safety equipment. But in Alain's view, it is madness not to follow your dreams! This is the inspiring story of a man who has conquered fear and exceeded his own limits: the world's greatest urban climber.
"For Robert, tall buildings are his mountains. He eulogises the views from their summits and (police permitting) revels in the freedom." — The Guardian
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Click on the links below to view sample pages from With Bare Hands. You will need a pdf reader to view these excerpts.
Illustrated by Harry Harrison
Meet Run Run Rat – a loveable rodent with a mission. He’s determined to find fame and glory when he sets out to travel the length and breadth of China. But fame and glory find him in the most unexpected way when he reaches Beijing on the eve of the Olympics Marathon… this funny story in rhyme will inspire anyone from 5 to 105 who believes that victory belongs to those who persevere!
The story features the Beijing Summer Olympics 2008 and famous Chinese sites including the Great Wall, the Terracotta Warriors, Guilin River and Harbin.
Ages 5 to 10
Illustrated by Harry Harrison
An entire set of all 12 Chinese Calendar Tales, plus companion title The Tale of Pin Yin Panda, in a beautiful display box. Perfect as a gift for Chinese New Year, Christmas, birthdays or any other special occasion!
Includes:
The Tale of Run Run Rat / The Tale of Oswald Ox / The Tale of Temujin [Tiger] / The Tale of Rhonda Rabbit / The Tale of Chester Choi [Dragon] / The Tale of Sybil Snake / The Tale of a Dark Horse / The Tale of Rodney Ram / The Tale of Ming Kee Monkey / The Tale of Rickshaw Rooster / The Tale of Desmond Dog / The Tale of Ping Pong Pig / The Tale of Pin Yin Panda
Illustrated by Harry Harrison
Pin Yin Panda has beauty, brains and a healthy ego to match. So on Chinese New Year’s Eve she makes a surprise announcement: next year will be the first Year of the Panda! Will the tradition of millennia be swept aside or will this practically perfect panda be put in her place? And what does the Edinburgh Zoo have to do with it? Find out in this funny and fabulous new companion story to the Chinese Calendar Tales!
Features the Legend of Lord Buddha’s Race, panda diplomacy and 12 Chinese Zodiac stickers. Launched at Edinburgh Zoo 2012!
Age range: 7 to 12
With sensitivity and tenderness, Starkie Mak has captured a tale of the immigrant experience, from the eyes of a child. Masterfully rendered with careful homage paid to the children’s books that have touched the hearts of so many, Mak’s brush strokes and calligraphy evoke the turbulent emotions and difficulties a child must surely experience when having their little world upended, only to have a much larger and foreign world unfold before them.
In a heartbreaking parting, a child says goodbye to her family and is left with her imagination as guide. In search of a new life in a new land, a child retreats into the realm of fantasy. Through the devastating pain of childhood loss emerges the joy of a child’s triumph.
Illustrated by Harry Harrison
“This is a story for girls and boys
Who don’t like putting away their toys;
Who think a bed is a trampoline
And can’t be bothered to keep things clean….”
From the creators of The Chinese Calendar Tales comes a tale of dastardly deeds and good clean fun! It’s the eve of the annual Tidy Town competition, and the Neats are working day and night to make their town look exactly right. But then the Grots hatch an evil plan with rather unexpected results!
More rollicking fun with fast-paced rhyme and fabulous illustrations by the best-selling Brennan/Harrison team.
Ages 4 to 8
Illustrated by Mariko Jesse, translated by Liang Yue
Published by Sixth Finger Press, distributed by Blacksmith Books
A television-loving crocodile named Crafty swims from his riverside village to find fame in the big city. His arrival is front-page news all around the world! But once there, he begins to question what he really wants.
Inspired by the real-life saltwater crocodile that visited Hong Kong, The Crocodile who Wanted to be Famous blends fact, fiction and fable – a genuine classic in the making.
Not your typical photo book!
David Bellis, founder of the popular local history website Gwulo, shows you a selection of his favourite photos of old Hong Kong. So far, so familiar.
But then he takes you on a deep dive to discover and understand the photos’ most minute and revealing details. Plague-ridden rats, flapper hats, and chocolates are just a few of the surprising clues you’ll investigate. Finally, David helps you piece the clues together to uncover the photos’ hidden stories.
Part of a five-volume series; to see the other books, click here.
Not your typical photo book!
David Bellis puts more of his favourite old Hong Kong photos under the magnifying glass, revealing the photos’ secrets, and uncovering their hidden stories. Flying Italian miners, and the most beautiful woman you’ll never see are just two of the surprises in store for you.
David runs the popular local history website Gwulo, home to over 15,000 photographs of old Hong Kong.
Part of a five-volume series; to see the other books, click here.
Not your typical photo book!
Grab your flippers, mask, and magnifying glass – Volume 3 is full of old photos of people in, on, under, and around Hong Kong’s famous Victoria Harbour. Many of the photos are published for the first time, and although they’re old, they are sharp and packed with detail. So join David Bellis in uncovering the photos’ secrets, deciphering their stories, and meeting the people of old Hong Kong.
David runs the award-winning local history website Gwulo, home to over 20,000 photos of old Hong Kong.
Part of a five-volume series; to see the other books, click here.
Not your typical photo book!
Revisit old Hong Kong through this book’s collection of rare photos, many of them over 100 years old. Then join David to explore the photos’ details, and so discover their hidden stories: the women who toiled up the Peak’s slopes each day, carrying heavy loads of bricks and coal on their shoulders, buried treasure still waiting to be found, Kowloon’s vanishing hills, and many more.
David runs the award-winning local history website Gwulo, home to over 25,000 photos of old Hong Kong.
Part of a five-volume series; to see the other books, click here.
Not your typical photo book!
Meet the people of old Hong Kong through these rare photos, dating from the 1950s right back to the 1880s. There are cobblers, conjurors, compradores, croquet players, soldiers, sailors, Scottish golfers, hawkers, a Hungarian motorcyclist, and more! Who among them called Hong Kong ‘home’? Join David Bellis to find out, as he uncovers clues in the photos’ details that reveal each person’s story.
David runs Gwulo.com, the award-winning local history website with over 30,000 photos of old Hong Kong.
Part of a five-volume series; to see the other books, click here.
China – what’s not to love?
Join longtime Hong Kong resident and Cantonese fundamentalist Cecilie Gamst Berg as she ploughs through the non-stop surreal-fest that is today’s China, stopping occasionally to ruminate about the travails of trying to make Cantonese a world language, and how the Chinese have invented a new English: Manglish.
In this book you’ll find answers to everything you wanted to know about China, such as:
Travelling by horse, train and sleeper bus from the deserts of Xinjiang, across the mountains of Tibet and Sichuan to the water buffalo fields of Hong Kong, Cecilie shows you how China is not only the most happening place on Earth, but also the most fun.
Look inside this book
Click on this link to view sample pages from Don't Joke on the Stairs. You will need a pdf reader to view this excerpt.
Western men are beguiled in their thousands by the enchanting women of Thailand. But many make poor choices when it comes to marrying women whose needs, habits and expectations are very different from their own, and a clash of cultures can ruin a romance.
Who better to advise than a Thai woman herself? No topic is taboo as Pop Soisangwan offers insider knowledge on how to secure a successful match. Illustrated with humorous cartoons.
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Click on this link to view sample pages from Thai the Knot. You will need a pdf reader to view this excerpt.
Winner of the third annual Tartt Fiction Award
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 short stories about the millions who lived during China’s Cultural Revolution.
An award-winning writer who now lives in Massachusetts, Eberlein has nothing to apologize for. Her stories are electrifying. About half of the stories take place during the years of the Cultural Revolution; the other half in its aftermath. How many come from personal experience is hard to say. Eberlein, who lived through the Cultural Revolution’s decade as a child and teenager, had a sister who died as a Red Guard, and that event seems fictionalized in one of the stories.
Apologies Forthcoming shines a revealing light on some of the people whose lives were changed forever by the ten years that turned China upside down. Eberlein does the great service of illuminating the interior lives of a peculiar generation, many of whom are now leading China’s phenomenal awakening.
Look inside this book
Click on the link to view sample pages from Apologies Forthcoming. You will need a pdf reader to view this excerpt.
In the depths of the 2003 SARS crisis, Mike Rowse (盧維思), a career Hong Kong civil servant, was handed the poisoned chalice of HarbourFest – intended to be (and which in many ways was) a psychological and commercial shot in the arm. Politics, as it often does, took precedence over sense, and Rowse was scapegoated for the perceived failings of this attempt to pull off a world-class entertainment festival in only three months.
Rowse endured disciplinary hearings and ended up taking the Hong Kong Government to court. He won.
This true story of HarbourFest is not just an insider’s account of the workings of the Hong Kong Government; it is also a thoughtful treatise on the drawbacks of the Ministerial Accountability System, a system which failed HarbourFest and Rowse, there being No Minister who ever took responsibility.
Illustrated by Harry Harrison
Meet Oswald Ox, bone idle on the farm, just chewing his cud and rolling in the mud while all the other animals are hard at work. No wonder he’s in trouble! Then the winter stores go missing, and Oswald is firmly in the frame. Will wisdom and dignity triumph over meanness and greed? A tale for our times…
Features Chinese farming practices including the use of oxen, rice paddies and farm animals.
Ages 7 to 10
Illustrated by Harry Harrison
Temujin the Tiger is the Terror of the East. He’s wrought a trail of destruction and fine dining from Mongolia right up to the gates of the Grand Imperial Palace in Beijing! But Princess Precious is pretty awful as well, with a talent for tantrums and an ear-piercing scream! Watch what happens when two irresistible forces collide in this hilarious rhyming tale for kids of all ages!
Features Genghis Khan and the Imperial Palace in Beijing.
Age range: 6 to 10
Illustrated by Harry Harrison
It’s 221BC, and the mighty Emperor Qin Shi Huang is not amused. Somebody or something is stealing from the royal vegetable patch! Enter Rhonda Rabbit, one very bad bunny, with extremely annoying habits and an appetite to match! Will the Emperor save his greens, or will Rhonda Rabbit live to crunch another day? Find out in this funny and fabulous Chinese Calendar Tale!
Features the mighty Emperor Qin Shi Huang, the Great Wall of China and the Legend of the Rabbit in the Moon.
Age range: 7 to 12
Illustrated by Harry Harrison
Chester Choi is one bad dragon. He just loves children… eating them, that is! But Chester has a secret – he’s desperately lonely and what he really wants is a friend. A tale of greed, bad upbringing and the transformative power of love!
Features the dragon in Chinese mythology and the South China Sea.
Age range: 5 to 8
Illustrated by Harry Harrison
“This is a tale of two small towns
Which grace the district of Twinkle Downs:-
The first where people are good and smart
And do their chores with a happy heart;
The second where they are bad and mean
And never bother to wash or clean….”
Hold onto your hats! The Grots are up to their filthy tricks once more at the Twinkle Downs’ annual Maypole Dance! But they soon learn that life isn’t meant to be greasy when the Neats get even again in this rib-tickling sequel to A Dirty Story.
More rollicking fun for the whole family with Sarah Brennan’s funny, fast-paced rhymes and Harry Harrison’s hilarious illustrations.
Ages 4 to 8