hong kong Archives - Blacksmith Books

12 October 2025

Free talk by Les Bird: “Revisiting Hong Kong’s Vietnamese Refugee History”, October 13th

Pete @ Blacksmith2025-10-12T04:56:38+08:00October 12th, 2025|events, hong kong|0 Comments

This session of Tai Kwun Conversations accompanies the opening of a new permanent heritage exhibition at F Hall, which makes reference to the historical function of Victoria Prison as a place of detention for Vietnamese boat people and undocumented immigrants from different places. It brings together two speakers from diverse backgrounds to share personal and collective experiences of the Vietnamese refugee [...]

24 September 2025

Book extract: Riding out Typhoon Rose in Hong Kong

Pete @ Blacksmith2025-09-24T00:16:49+08:00September 24th, 2025|book excerpt, hong kong|0 Comments

Riding Out Typhoon Rose by Iain Ward Typhoon Rose was one of the worst storms to hit Hong Kong in the last fifty years. Winds gusted between 130 knots (150 mph) and 150 knots (172 mph) and some 12 inches of rain fell during the storm. Over 150 people were killed (no one knows the exact number) and nearly 6,000 [...]

26 July 2025

Book excerpt: Hong Kong footballer Derek Currie tells of playing alongside Kenny Dalglish as teenagers

Pete @ Blacksmith2025-07-26T22:56:49+08:00July 26th, 2025|book excerpt, hong kong|0 Comments

The photo is from Kowloon's Kai Tak Stadium tonight, as Liverpool FC play AC Milan: stadium CEO John Sharkey presents Liverpool legend Sir Kenny Dalglish with a copy of When ‘Jesus’ Came to Hong Kong, Derek Currie's book about being the first European football star to play in Asia. Currie came to the city in 1970 to play for [...]

28 April 2025

Video: watch Bill Lascher’s FCC talk about wartime China

Pete @ Blacksmith2025-04-28T01:39:59+08:00April 28th, 2025|authors, china, events, hong kong|0 Comments

The Foreign Correspondents' Club's wall exhibition this month has featured the photography of Melville Jacoby -- an American freelance journalist, United Press stringer, and foreign correspondent for TIME and LIFE magazines who covered WWII in China, French Indochina (present-day Vietnam) and the Philippines. This photo collection of wartime Chungking (Chongqing) was inspired by the book A Danger Shared: A Journalist's [...]

12 March 2025

Book launch and signing with Paul French, 13th March

Pete @ Blacksmith2025-03-12T02:17:14+08:00March 12th, 2025|authors, events, hong kong|0 Comments

In 1924, Wallis Simpson — the American future wife of Britain's king — journeyed across China, witnessing a nation in turmoil. Join prolific old China author Paul French to learn about 'Her Lotus Year', his new essays in Destination Macao, and stories from his bestsellers Midnight in Peking and City of Devils. Date: Thursday, 13 March 2025 Time: 6:30 PM [...]

5 March 2025

Ian Gill tells his multigenerational family story at FCC Club Lunch in Hong Kong: Thursday March 6

Pete @ Blacksmith2025-03-05T14:05:55+08:00March 5th, 2025|authors, events, hong kong|0 Comments

Ian Gill’s first visit to Hong Kong in 1975 takes an unexpected turn when he meets his Chinese mother Billie’s friends, colleagues and fellow ex-prisoners of war, lifting the veil on a tumultuous past in Hong Kong and Shanghai. He moves to Asia and unravels her intriguing journey: from controversial adoption by an English postmaster in Changsha to popular radio [...]

3 March 2025

Book talk in Hong Kong: Searching for Billie, Tracing Surprising Family Roots in China

Pete @ Blacksmith2025-03-03T16:57:22+08:00March 3rd, 2025|authors, events, hong kong|0 Comments

Taking place on Tuesday March 4 at the Royal Geographical Society in Hong Kong. Author Ian Gill talks about the main characters of his Anglo-Chinese family, who lived in China and Hong Kong from the mid-19th century until modern times. The story starts when his great-grandmother married Ted Newman, a Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company steward, in Hong Kong [...]

22 December 2023

Constance Gordon-Cumming’s memorable Christmas in Hong Kong, 1878

Pete @ Blacksmith2023-12-22T20:16:57+08:00December 22nd, 2023|book excerpt, hong kong|0 Comments

This is an excerpt from Wanderings in China: Hong Kong and Canton, Christmas and New Year, 1878/1879 by Constance Gordon-Cumming, a Victorian traveller and artist who arrived in Hong Kong on Christmas Day in 1878. It's introduced and annotated by Paul French as part of his China Revisited series. Merry Christmas, one and all, 145 years later! Care [...]

30 March 2023

Book signing: Hong Kong football legend Derek Currie

Pete @ Blacksmith2023-03-30T03:25:25+08:00March 30th, 2023|authors, events, hong kong|0 Comments

When Scottish footballer Derek Currie was made an offer to travel to Hong Kong in 1970 to play against the one sportsman he had dreamed of meeting on the field, he couldn't say no. From apprentice printer in Glasgow to playing football against Pelé in the Far East, singing with Stevie Wonder and shadow-boxing with Marvelous Marvin Hagler, Currie enjoyed [...]

26 January 2023

Murder on the Outlying Islands of Hong Kong! A book talk on January 28th

Pete @ Blacksmith2023-01-26T22:28:42+08:00January 26th, 2023|authors, events, hong kong|0 Comments

For the next event at Vibe bookshop -- on Saturday 28th January at 2:30pm -- Patricia O'Sullivan will be discussing real-life Hong Kong murders from a century ago! Women carried out some of these crimes on Hong Kong's outlying islands like Cheung Chau and Lantau, as well as in the city. Patricia will also be signing copies of her newest [...]

10 June 2022

Podcast: Mark Isaac-Williams, The Hong Kong I Knew

Pete @ Blacksmith2022-06-10T00:51:24+08:00June 10th, 2022|authors, hong kong, media attention, new books|0 Comments

Returning to Hong Kong in 1947 after the Japanese occupation, seven-year-old Mark Isaac-Williams had the whole of Kowloon as his playground. Billeted with his family in the once-grand but now dilapidated Peninsula hotel, his life was full of adventure – from the rooftop to the basement, he knew the hotel’s every inch. Roller-skating and horseback riding in Kowloon’s streets and [...]

19 October 2021

Join us at our book launch for a real Hong Kong mystery! Saturday, October 23rd

Pete @ Blacksmith2021-10-19T23:03:17+08:00October 19th, 2021|events, hong kong, new books|0 Comments

You are invited to the launch of The Marvellous Adventures of Maggie and Methuselah: A Mystery in Hong Kong! If you love real-life mysteries about missing Hong Kong treasure, adventures in dark tunnels, and above all, crazy rhyme-loving African Grey parrots, you’ll love hearing Sarah Brennan's new story at 3pm on Saturday, 23rd October, at Bookazine, 3rd Floor, Prince's Building, [...]

16 August 2021

An artist reveals what life was like inside the legendary Walled City of Kowloon

Pete @ Blacksmith2021-08-14T20:52:17+08:00August 16th, 2021|hong kong, new books|0 Comments

A new book of photographs and artworks reveals the reality of the Walled City of Kowloon – an astonishing and unique place which was the most densely populated spot on Earth. The Walled City was built on a small parcel of land in Hong Kong that was disputed by Britain and China, which meant neither country exercised full jurisdiction there. [...]

26 July 2021

New book: Love, Money and Friendships, by David T. K. Wong

Pete @ Blacksmith2021-07-29T19:33:25+08:00July 26th, 2021|china, hong kong, new books|0 Comments

Attention, readers of previous titles by Hong Kong writer David T. K. Wong: Volume 4 of his memoirs has just been published. In other news, Wong has been offered an honorary Doctorate of Letters by the University of East Anglia in the UK for his contributions to literature. As far as we know, he is the only Hong Kong writer [...]

3 March 2021

Zoom event, March 3rd: Women, Crime and the Courts, Hong Kong 1841-1941

Pete @ Blacksmith2021-03-03T07:04:20+08:00March 3rd, 2021|events, hong kong, new books|0 Comments

This free online talk is hosted by the Royal Asiatic Society Hong Kong. While women were filling the magistrates courts and prisons of the British Isles during the 19th century, a female criminal in Hong Kong was a rarity. Yet, often in response to the privations of grinding poverty, some did find themselves on the wrong side of the law. [...]

8 February 2021

As we welcome the Year of the Ox, which animal of the Chinese Zodiac are you?

Pete @ Blacksmith2021-02-08T04:46:25+08:00February 8th, 2021|china, hong kong|0 Comments

Sarah Brennan is the author of the Chinese Calendar Tales series. She writes... People are always asking me “Which Chinese calendar animal am I?” So here’s a handy reference so you can work out what animal you are in the Chinese zodiac! Beside each animal is the name of the animal in beautiful Chinese calligraphy, given to me by Scotch [...]

18 December 2020

Published today – Women, Crime and the Courts: Hong Kong 1841-1941

Pete @ Blacksmith2020-12-18T17:22:08+08:00December 18th, 2020|hong kong, new books|0 Comments

Kwan Lai-chun was sick of being made to feel second-class by her husband’s concubine; sick of her mother-in-law’s endless carping about the money she spent; sick of the whole family. Late one sticky, humid night, something snapped in her – and she grabbed the meat chopper. Within minutes, three people were dead: the concubine with over 70 gashes, many of [...]

17 December 2020

Blast from the past, and repeating history: the first books we published

Pete @ Blacksmith2020-12-16T23:38:59+08:00December 17th, 2020|hong kong, publishing|0 Comments

I was making space in the storeroom this week for new books coming in, and I pulled a box down from the top rack of shelving. What a surprise. It contained a few copies of the first two books we ever published, back in 2002 and 2003. My first thought was that I hadn't seen these for ages, and didn't [...]