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May 2013
27
April 2013
Hong Kong Noir
Our newest book, Hong Kong Noir: Fifteen true tales from the dark side of the city, has been on the South China Morning Post’s top five bestseller list since Christmas. Author Feng Chi-shun has been interviewed by RTHK Radio 3 and HK Magazine, and the book has been reviewed by Susan Blumberg-Kason, the SCMP and Asia Times, which said: Who [...]
19
February 2013
Pam Shookman and the Hong Kong Cancer Fund
From Peter Wood, husband of author Pam Shookman: At the beginning of September 2009 Pam was diagnosed with Stage 4 bladder cancer. That afternoon we stumbled out of the urologist’s office into the unreal bustle of Central and headed straight for the Joel Robuchon café. There was only one possible response to cancer, Pam announced: cakes from the café and [...]
9
February 2013
Guung hay fart choy! And here are some other New Year greetings
Here's some Chinese New Year greeting advice from our new book Hong Kong Unveiled: Bye neen, 拜年, praise the year; shake your fist enclosed in your other hand (it doesn’t matter which hand is on the outside) as a greeting while saying something auspicious to family members and all you meet during Chinese New Year. Auspicious sayings: Guung hay fart [...]
15
January 2013
“Kowloon: Unknown Territory” – photo exhibition at the FCC
The Foreign Correspondents' Club in Hong Kong is holding a wall exhibition of Ira Chaplain's photos from Kowloon: Unknown Territory. "In my 19 years spent in various parts of Hong Kong, I have never lived in Kowloon. Before I took this assignment, like so many in this city, my life existed largely on Hong Kong side. I never knew the [...]
19
November 2012
Nov 26: Come to the Blacksmith/Bookazine Booksigning Extravaganza!
As we count down the final four weeks to Christmas, come and get your Hong Kong gift books signed at Bookazine. We’ve brought together 14 Blacksmith authors who have all written about Hong Kong. Come and meet them over a festive glass of wine, and get your books signed by: Jonathan Chamberlain, author of King Hui: The Man Who Owned [...]
1
November 2012
Book launch and photo exhibition, Nov 7th — Kowloon: Unknown Territory
What do "deep water pier", "nine dragons city" and "mandarin's lake" have in common with "Wong Tai Sin", the name of a Taoist deity? They're all districts in Kowloon. This new book is an exploration of what is often seen as Hong Kong's shadow-side, from the viewpoints of community, consumerism, art, food, fashion and sex – 15 years after the [...]
19
July 2012
Mainland mothers in Hong Kong
The issue of mainland Chinese mothers coming to Hong Kong to give birth is much in the news lately, with some people hoping new chief executive Leung Chun-ying will take steps to limit the number of beds available to mainland mothers. I thought it was a good time to excerpt this story from Yeeshan Yang’s book Whispers and Moans — [...]
18
June 2012
Money for Nothing
Robert Wang spoke about Hong Kong's tycoons on RTHK Radio 3's "Money for Nothing" programme. The show's name is a nice reflection of something top tycoon Li Ka-shing once said to the author: "Robert, there is so much money lying on the ground, I don't have the time to bend down and pick it all up." Photo courtesy of RTHK. [...]
23
May 2012
New memoir is a best-seller
Robert Wang's Walking the Tycoons' Rope got off to a great start -- No. 1 on the South China Morning Post's best-sellers list on its first week of release. Well done Robert, and we hope it stays there!
11
May 2012
New book: Walking the Tycoons’ Rope
Author Robert Wang spoke about his new book on Radio 3 yesterday, and you can now listen to the interview online. Hear how he fled from civil-war Shanghai in 1949 and took a perilous journey to Hong Kong, jumping from the train when it came under attack. Robert's memoir of his incredible life, Walking The Tycoons' Rope, is Dymocks' book [...]
6
May 2012
Book signing, May 19th: Don’t Joke on the Stairs
Come and hear from longtime Lantau resident 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. You’ll find answers to everything you wanted to know about China, such as: What [...]
7
April 2012
Recap: Meet the authors in Hong Kong
Blacksmith publisher Pete Spurrier was among four writers who shared their insights with Hong Kong members of the Asian American Journalists Association on the evening of April 3. Pete has written guidebooks to Hong Kong, while the other authors -- Cameron Dueck, Michelle Yu and Blossom Kan -- have written travelogues and novels, so there were different perspectives and a [...]
6
February 2012
John Hung’s interview in Ming Pao
The author of Master of None was interviewed at length by Ming Pao, the Hong Kong newspaper. The translated text is reproduced below. (To read it in the original Chinese, click the image on the right). Freedom Behind Bars – John Hung “Human beings created justice, as well as injustice,” he said. A man who has been treated unfairly in [...]
11
January 2012
Stint in prison just the ticket for taipan’s next chapter
From the South China Morning Post Lai See column: A flyer came across our desk yesterday inviting us to a booksigning event featuring John Hung’s book Master of None, How a Hong Kong High- Flyer Overcame the Devastating Experience of Imprisonment. Hung, it will be recalled, not so long ago stepped out of Stanley Prison after a 16-month sojourn for [...]
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January 2012
16
December 2011
16
December 2011
New guidebook to Hong Kong removes the danger of disappointment on days out with kids
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 [...]