Under-resourced and ill-prepared, three constables at the squalid Police Station on Cheung Chau stood no chance against a ruthless pirate gang in 1912. Five more policemen lost their lives in a bloodbath in Wan Chai that might have been averted. But travel forward just a little and the outcome at a hold-up in Canton Road is very different. These three [...]
Eating Smoke author Chris Thrall is the subject of a fascinating new podcast on BFBS, the British Forces Broadcasting Service. 'Coming Home: Chris Thrall' is a feature-length story about addiction, redemption and recovery chronicling Royal Marine Chris Thrall's journey from Royal Marine Commando to a crystal meth addicted gang member of the notorious Hong Kong Triads. Chris joined the Royal [...]
Author John Saeki talks us through the process of writing his new novel, The Tiger Hunters of Tai O. The Tiger Hunters of Tai O came into existence as a direct result of hiking on Lantau island. Hikes are a great way of putting yourself in touch with places that have resisted change over the decades. You can walk off [...]
Come and meet seven Hong Kong authors -- Rachel Cartland, Larry Feign, Feng Chi-shun, Peter Mann, Jason Ng, Graham Reels and Guy Shirra -- as they celebrate, discuss and debate the 20 years that have passed since Hong Kong's handover to China in 1997. Thursday June 15, 6pm-7.30pm, at Bookazine in Prince's Building, Central. Free entry, and wine will be [...]
Fifty years ago today, Syd Goldsmith was almost beaten to death by an angry mob in Hong Kong. On May 11, 1967, amid rumours of unrest at a factory, Syd, then a young US diplomat on his first offshore posting, was sent out into the streets to get a first-hand look. He quickly found himself in deep trouble amid the [...]
Lena Sin, one half of the team behind How to Hong Kong, tells us how their illustrated book came about... The idea for How to Hong Kong sprung from my husband’s mind, not mine. Though it would become something of an obsession for me, I was steadfastly against it at the beginning. “I think you should write a book about [...]
Ray Hecht says: I’ll be in Shanghai on March 24th, at Garden Books, for a public reading from my novel South China Morning Blues. I’m very excited to be able to do this in Shanghai, the most epic city in China. Last year on my book tour I was able to travel to Beijing, among other cities, and of course all [...]
On the evening of Wednesday January 18th, you're invited to Bookazine's first "Meet the Authors" session in Prince's Building, Central. Among the writers present will be Peter Mann with his new memoir Sheriff of Wan Chai. Wine will be served and stories will be told. Full details in the evite above. Hope to see you there!
The Umbrella Movement of 2014 put Hong Kong on the map and elevated the city to a model for pro-democracy campaigns across the globe. Umbrellas in Bloom is the first book in English to chronicle this history-making event, written by a Hong Kong-born author based on his firsthand account at the main protest sites. Jason Y. Ng will talk about [...]
These days Chris Thrall is a successful author. But it wasn't always so. In the 1990s he left the Royal Marines to find his fortune in Hong Kong, but instead found himself homeless and hooked on crystal methamphetamine. In a downward spiral, he also began working for a triad society as a doorman in one of their nightclubs in Wan [...]
Watch this short film by Andrew Guthrie which tells the story of Paul Au: how he was smuggled into Hong Kong from wartime Vietnam in the 1970s and how he set up a second-hand vinyl record shop in Sham Shui Po, a low-rent district in north Kowloon, which is still popular today. The full story -- with lots of photos [...]
Jason Y. Ng, author of Umbrellas in Bloom: Hong Kong's Occupy Movement Uncovered, will give a talk hosted by Singapore's Select Centre, on Thursday June 2nd, at 7.30pm. Location: 72-13 TheatreWorks, Mohamed Sultan Road, which is near Clarke Quay. Free admission. All details in this link!
The Umbrella Movement put Hong Kong on the world map and elevated this docile, money-minded Asian island to a model for pro-democracy campaigns across the globe. Umbrellas in Bloom is the first book available in English to chronicle this history-making event, written by columnist Jason Y. Ng based on his firsthand account at the main protest sites. Join us for [...]
Guidebook writer David Leffman is heading back to remote parts of Guizhou province on Tuesday, to pick up the trail of William Mesny - the British-born "Mercenary Mandarin" who became a general in the Chinese army. But before he goes, he will be giving an illustrated talk about Mesny to the Royal Asiatic Society in the Centre for Visual Arts, [...]
Apologies to all the readers who pre-ordered Jason Y. Ng's Umbrellas in Bloom as long as two months ago. Two printers refused to handle the book because of its subject matter, and so we had a long delay in getting it published. However, it has finally arrived and we sent copies out today, to bookshops in Hong Kong and by [...]
Press Release South China Morning Blues: Stories that detail a life in 21st century China for Asians and Gweilos alike China. To the rest of the world, it is a booming, menacing powerhouse that threatens to engulf everything with its ever growing economy. To those who reside in it, it is more complex than that. As the author of a [...]
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 [...]
"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 [...]