Exotic Hong Kong takes center stage in this sumptuous novel, set in the 1940s and '50s. It's a city teeming with people, sights, sounds, and smells, and it's home to a group of foreign nationals who enjoy the good life among the local moneyed set, in a tight-knit social enclave distanced from the culture at large. Comfortable, clever, and even a bit dazzling, they revel in their fancy dinners and fun parties. But their sheltered lives take an abrupt turn after the Japanese occupation, and though their reactions are varied -- denial, resistance, submission -- the toll it takes on all is soon laid bare. 

Enter Claire Pendleton from London. Months after her husband is transferred to Hong Kong in 1951, she accepts a position as a piano teacher to the daughter of a wealthy couple, the Chens. Claire begins to see the appeal of the sweltering city and is soon taken in by the Chen's driver, the curiously underutilized Will Truesdale. A handsome charmer with a mysterious limp, Will appears to be the perfect companion for Claire, who's often left to her own devices. But a further examination leaves her with more questions than answers.

An intricately woven tale of lives changed by historical events, Lee's debut brings this hothouse flower of a city alive with passion, and imagines characters both unforgettable and tragic.

The Piano Teacher

Set in the turbulent days of the founding of Hong Kong in the 1840s, Tai-Pan is the story of Dirk Struan, the ruler - the Tai-Pan - of the most powerful trading company in the Far East. He is also a pirate, an opium smuggler, and a master manipulator of men. This is the story of his fight to establish himself and his dynasty as the undisputed masters of the Orient.

Tai-Pan (Asian Saga, #2)

In this “moody thriller,” a family business is targeted for takeover as control of Hong Kong shifts from the British to the Chinese ("The New York Times").
  
 Ninety-nine years of colonial rule are ending as the British prepare to hand over Hong Kong to China. Betty Mullard and her son, Bunt, have lived here for years, mostly keeping apart from their foreign surroundings, except for some indulgence in the local food, or in Bunt’s case, the local girls. The handover is not a concern for them—until the mysterious Mr. Hung from the mainland offers them a large sum for their family business.
  
 They refuse. But they fail to realize that Mr. Hung is unlike the other Chinese people they’ve known: he will accept no refusals. When a young female employee whom Bunt has been dating vanishes, he is forced to make important decisions for the first time in his life—but his good intentions are pitted against the will of Mr. Hung, and the threat of the ultimate betrayal.
  
 “A compact, provocative gem of a novel” ("The Boston Globe"), from an award-winning author acclaimed for both his fiction and his travel memoirs—including "Deep South", "The Great Railway Bazaar", and "The Mosquito Coast"—"Kowloon Tong" was praised by Bette Bao Lord in "The Washington Post Book World" as “a taut, illuminating story that transcends its timely subject.”

Kowloon Tong: A Novel of Hong Kong

Martin Booth died in February 2004, shortly after finishing the book that would be his epitaph - this wonderfully remembered, beautifully told memoir of a childhood lived to the full in a far-flung outpost of the British Empire...

An inquisitive seven-year-old, Martin Booth found himself with the whole of Hong Kong at his feet when his father was posted there in the early 1950s. Unrestricted by parental control and blessed with bright blond hair that signified good luck to the Chinese, he had free access to hidden corners of the colony normally closed to a Gweilo, a 'pale fellow' like him. Befriending rickshaw coolies and local stallholders, he learnt Cantonese, sampled delicacies such as boiled water beetles and one-hundred-year-old eggs, and participated in colourful festivals. He even entered the forbidden Kowloon Walled City, wandered into the secret lair of the Triads and visited an opium den. Along the way he encountered a colourful array of people, from the plink plonk man with his dancing monkey to Nagasaki Jim, a drunken child molester, and the Queen of Kowloon, the crazed tramp who may have been a member of the Romanov family.

Shadowed by the unhappiness of his warring parents, a broad-minded mother who, like her son, was keen to embrace all things Chinese, and a bigoted father who was enraged by his family's interest in 'going native', Martin Booth's compelling memoir is a journey into Chinese culture and an extinct colonial way of life that glows with infectious curiosity and humour.

Gweilo: Memories Of A Hong Kong Childhood

This major history of Hong Kong tells the remarkable story of how a cluster of remote fishing villages grew into an icon of capitalism. The story began in 1842 with the founding of the Crown Colony after the First Anglo-Chinese war - the original 'Opium War'. As premier power in Europe and an expansionist empire, Britain first created in Hong Kong a major naval station and the principal base to open the Celestial Chinese Empire to trade. Working in parallel with the locals, the British built it up to become a focus for investment in the region and an international centre with global shipping, banking and financial interests. Yet by far the most momentous change in the history of this prosperous, capitalist colony was its return in 1997 to 'Mother China', the most powerful Communist state in the world.



Steve Tsang, drawing on a vast array of official and private sources, both Chinese and European, traces the development of the classic Crown Colony government with its Governors, elite Administrative Officers and non-elected Executive and Legislative Councils, and British-based legal and education systems. Whilst this structure sheltered and nurtured the astounding economic take-off, the vital engine of this development was the mass-immigration of Chinese - hard-working, entrepreneurial, quick to absorb Western ideas while retaining Chinese traditions - blending with expatriate European business interests. The author goes on to examine the effect of the trauma of invasion and defeat at the hands of the Japanese in the Second World War, the stirrings of democracy, the beginnings of Hong Kong identity and the growing influence of China. The story culminates in the saga of the end of the empire with the emotional hauling down of the Union flag and the raising of China's colours.

A Modern History of Hong Kong: 1841-1997

The tai-pan, Ian Dunross, struggles to rescue Struan's from the precarious financial position left by his predecessor. To do this, he seeks partnership with an American millionaire, while trying to ward off his arch-rival Quillan Gornt, who seeks to destroy Struan's once and for all. Meanwhile, Chinese communists, Taiwanese nationalists, and Soviet spies illegally vie for influence in Hong Kong while the British government seeks to prevent this. And nobody, it seems, can get anything done without enlisting the aid of Hong Kong's criminal underworld. Other obstacles include water shortages, landslides, bank runs and stock market crashes.

Nov. 1987 Dell jumbo mass market paperback, 21st printing. James Clavell.

Noble House (Asian Saga, #5)

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 a bestselling author and columnist based on his firsthand experience at the main protest sites. 

Jason Y. Ng takes a no-holds-barred, fly-on-the-wall approach to covering politics. His latest offering steps through the 79-day struggle, from the firing of the first shot of tear gas by riot police to the evacuation of the last protester from the downtown encampments. It is all you need to know about the occupy movement: who took part in it, why it happened, how it transpired, and what it did and did not achieve.

Together with HONG KONG State of Mind (2010) and No City for Slow Men (2013), Umbrellas in Bloom forms Ng's "Hong Kong Trilogy" that traces the city's sociopolitical developments since its return to Chinese rule.

Umbrellas in Bloom: Hong Kong's Occupy Movement Uncovered

From the author of 'The Debt to Pleasure' and 'Mr Phillips', 'Fragrant Harbour' is an international saga on an epic scale - with a love story at its heart. The story concerns the lives of four individuals and spans Asia's last 70 years of history.

Fragrant Harbour

"A Many-Splendoured Thing" tells the story of a married British foreign correspondent called Mark Elliot (Ian Morrison in real life and based in Singapore where he lived with his wife and children) who falls in love with a Eurasian doctor originally from Mainland China who trained at the Royal Free Hospital Medical College in London University, only to encounter prejudice from her family and from Hong Kong society.

On the surface it is a love story but there is an historical perspective relating to China, Hong Kong and the peoples and societies that populated the island. This includes many who have fled from the final stages of the Chinese Civil War, both Chinese and Europeans long settled in China.

It portrays an insight into class and race prejudice that is as relevant today in Hong Kong as it was in the fifties. Although it is technically a novel, the book is strongly autobiographical. Han Suyin's real life lover was killed in The Korean War in 1950. Two years later, she married Leon F. Comber, a British officer in the Malayan Special Branch,

A Many-Splendoured Thing

The timeless story of the love affair between a British artist and a Chinese prostitute.

Robert is the only resident of the Nam Kok hotel not renting his room by the hour when he meets Suzie at the bar. She becomes his muse and they fall in love. But even in Hong Kong, where many white expatriates have Chinese mistresses, their romance could jeopardize the things they each hold dear. Set in the mid-1950s, "The World of Suzie Wong" is a beautifully written time capsule of a novel. First published more than fifty years ago, it resonated with readers worldwide, inspiring a film starring William H olden, a ballet, and even a reggae song. Now readers can experience the romance of this groundbreaking story anew.

The World of Suzie Wong

Before there was "Dragon Ball Z", there was Akira Toriyama's action epic "Dragon Ball", starring the younger version of Son Goku and all the other "Dragon Ball Z" heroes! Meet a naive young monkey-tailed boy named Goku, whose quiet life changes when he meets Bulma, a girl who is on a quest to collect seven "Dragon Balls." If she gathers them all, an incredibly powerful dragon will appear and grant her one wish. But the precious orbs are scattered all over the world, and Bulma needs Goku's help (and his super-strength)! With a magic staff for a weapon and a flying cloud for a ride, Goku sets out on the adventure of a lifetime...

Dragon Ball, Vol. 1: The Monkey King (Dragon Ball, #1)

A long-term resident and expert observer of dissent in Hong Kong takes readers to the front lines of Hong Kong’s revolution.

Through the long, hot summer of 2019, Hong Kong burned. Anti-government protests, sparked by a government proposal to introduce a controversial extradition law, grew into a pro-democracy movement that engulfed the city for months. Protesters fought street battles with police, and the unrest brought the People’s Liberation Army to the very doorstep of Hong Kong. Driven primarily by students and youth protesters with their ‘Be Water!’ philosophy, borrowed from hometown hero Bruce Lee, this leaderless, technology-driven protest movement defied a global superpower and changed Hong Kong, perhaps forever. But it also changed China, and challenged China’s global standing.

Antony Dapiran provides the first detailed account of the protests, reveals the activists’ unique tactics, and explains how the movement fits into the city’s long history of dissent. "City on Fire" explores what the protests will mean for the future of Hong Kong, China, and China’s place in the world.

City on Fire: The Fight for Hong Kong

From a little-known fishing community at the periphery of China, Hong Kong developed into one of the world's most spectacular and cosmopolitan metropoles after a century and a half of British imperial rule. This history of Hong Kong -- from its occupation by the British in 1841 to its return to Chinese sovereignty in 1997 -- includes the foundation of modern Hong Kong; its developments as an imperial outpost, its transformation into the "pearl" of the British Empire and of the Orient and the events leading to the end of British rule. Based on extensive research in British and Chinese sources, both official and private, the book addresses the changing relations between the local Chinese and the expatriate communities in 156 years of British rule, and the emergence of a local identity. It ends with a critical but dispassionate examination of Hong Kong's transition from a British Crown Colony to a Chinese Special Administrative Region.

A Modern History of Hong Kong

Winner of over 20 awards including Rubery Award BOOK OF THE YEAR and Writer’s Digest GRAND PRIZE ... An Extraordinary Multigenerational Saga

A high position bestowed by China's empress dowager grants power and wealth to the Sun family. For Isabel, growing up in glamorous 1930s and '40s Shanghai, it is a life of utmost privilege. But while her scholar father and fashionable mother shelter her from civil war and Japanese occupation, they cannot shield the family forever.

When Mao comes to power, eighteen-year-old Isabel journeys to Hong Kong, not realizing that she will make it her home--and that she will never see her father again. Meanwhile, the family she has left behind struggles to survive, only to have their world shattered by the Cultural Revolution. Isabel returns to Shanghai fifty years later with her daughter, Claire, to confront their family's past--one they discover is filled with love and betrayal, kidnappers and concubines, glittering pleasure palaces and underworld crime bosses.

Lavishly illustrated and meticulously researched, Remembering Shanghai follows five generations from a hardscrabble village to vibrant Shanghai to the bright lights of Hong Kong. By turns harrowing and heartwarming, this vivid memoir explores identity, loss and the unpredictable nature of life against the epic backdrop of a nation and a people in turmoil.

Remembering Shanghai: A Memoir of Socialites, Scholars and Scoundrels

Readers of Women of the Silk never forgot the moving, powerful story of Pei, brought to work in the silk house as a girl, grown into a quiet but determined young woman whose life is subject to cruel twists of fate, including the loss of her closest friend, Lin. Now we finally learn what happened to Pei, as she leaves the silk house for Hong Kong in the 1930s, arriving with a young orphan, Ji Shen, in her care. Her first job, in the home of a wealthy family, ends in disgrace, but soon Pei and Ji Shen find a new life in the home of Mrs. Finch, a British ex-patriate who welcomes them as the daughters she never had. Their idyllic life is interrupted, however, by war, and the Japanese occupation. Pei is once again forced to make her own way, struggling to survive and to keep her extended family alive as well. In this story of hardship and survival, Tsukiyama paints a portrait of women fighting the forces of war and time to make a life for themselves.

The Language of Threads (Women of the Silk #2)

Summer 1967. The turmoil of the Maoist revolution is spilling over into Hong Kong and causing unrest as war rages in neighboring Vietnam. "White Ghost Girls" is the story of Frankie and Kate, two American sisters living in a foreign land in a chaotic time. With their war-photographer father off in Vietnam, Marianne, their beautiful but remote mother, keeps the family close by. Although bound by a closeness of living overseas, the sisters could not be more different -- Frankie pulses with curiosity and risk, while Kate is all eyes and ears. Marianne spends her days painting watercolors of the lush surroundings, leaving the girls largely unsupervised, while their Chinese nanny, Ah Bing, does her best to look after them. One day in a village market, they decide to explore -- with tragic results. In Alice Greenway's exquisite gem of a novel, two girls tumble into their teenage years against an extraordinary backdrop both sensuous and dangerous. This astonishing literary debut is a tale of sacrifice and solidarity that gleams with the kind of intense, complicated love that only exists between sisters.

White Ghost Girls

The rise of Hong Kong is the story of a miraculous post-War boom, when Chinese refugees flocked to a small British colony, and, in less than fifty years, transformed it into one of the great financial centers of the world. The unraveling of Hong Kong, on the other hand, shatters the grand illusion of China ever having the intention of allowing democratic norms to take root inside its borders. Hong Kong’s people were subjects of the British Empire for more than a hundred years, and now seem destined to remain the subordinates of today’s greatest rising power.

Vigil: Hong Kong on the Brink

There is nowhere else in the world quite like Chungking Mansions, a dilapidated seventeen-story commercial and residential structure in the heart of Hong Kong’s tourist district. A remarkably motley group of people call the building home; Pakistani phone stall operators, Chinese guesthouse workers, Nepalese heroin addicts, Indonesian sex workers, and traders and asylum seekers from all over Asia and Africa live and work there—even backpacking tourists rent rooms. In short, it is possibly the most globalized spot on the planet.

 But as "Ghetto at the Center of the World" shows us, a trip to Chungking Mansions reveals a far less glamorous side of globalization. A world away from the gleaming headquarters of multinational corporations, Chungking Mansions is emblematic of the way globalization actually works for most of the world’s people. Gordon Mathews’s intimate portrayal of the building’s polyethnic residents lays bare their intricate connections to the international circulation of goods, money, and ideas. We come to understand the day-to-day realities of globalization through the stories of entrepreneurs from Africa carting cell phones in their luggage to sell back home and temporary workers from South Asia struggling to earn money to bring to their families. And we see that this so-called ghetto—which inspires fear in many of Hong Kong’s other residents, despite its low crime rate—is not a place of darkness and desperation but a beacon of hope.

 Gordon Mathews’s compendium of riveting stories enthralls and instructs in equal measure, making" Ghetto at the Center of the World" not just a fascinating tour of a singular place but also a peek into the future of life on our shrinking planet.

Ghetto at the Center of the World: Chungking Mansions, Hong Kong

Hong Kong: City of Dreams showcases the rich history, diverse cultures and stunning sights of Hong Kong. Evocative texts and stunning photos bring the Hong Kong experience to life, giving readers a taste of what they can expect to see and experience in the City of Dreams.

Hong Kong: The City of Dreams

Unexpectedly appointed magistrate in a country district in Hongkong, the author found himself plunged into a Chinese world about which he knew next to nothing an had to learn as fast as possible.

This he does, taking the reader with him through the errors, puzzles, and bafflements of sixteen cases which came into his court.

Whether he is dealing with cows, watercress beds, squatters, dragons, quarrelling wives, or a Buddhist abbot, the author brings his reader into each case as if the reader were the actual judge, and at a given moment the solution comes to the reader as it came to the magistrate.

Austin Coates has lived the greater part of his life in the East, since 1944, when war service brought him to India. Born in London in 1922, son of the composer Eric Coates, he combined the early part of his writing career with work as a colonial administrator, diplomat, and adviser on Chinese affairs. He left government service in 1962, and has since resided mainly in Hongkong.

Myself a Mandarin: Memoirs of a Special Magistrate

Hong Kong is a mixed bag of a city. It is where Mercedes outnumber taxi cabs, party-goers 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 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.

Together with No City For Slow Men (2013) and Umbrellas in Bloom (2016), HONG KONG State of Mind forms Ng’s "Hong Kong Trilogy" that traces the city’s sociopolitical developments since its return to Chinese rule.

HONG KONG State of Mind: 37 Views of a City That Doesn't Blink

Author and popular blogger Jason Y. Ng has a knack for making the familiar both fascinating and achingly funny. Three years after his bestselling début HONG KONG State of Mind, the razor-sharp observer returns with a sequel that is bigger and every bit as poignant.

No City for Slow Men is a collection of 36 essays that examine some of the pressing social, cultural and existential issues facing Hong Kong. It takes us on a tour de force from the gravity-defying property market to the plunging depths of old age poverty, from the storied streets of Sheung Wan to the beckoning island of Cheung Chau, from the culture-shocked Western expat to the misunderstood Mainland Chinese and the disenfranchised foreign domestic worker. The result is a treatise on Hong Kong life that is thought-provoking, touching and immensely entertaining.

Together with HONG KONG State of Mind (2010) and Umbrellas in Bloom (2016), (2010), No City For Slow Men forms Ng’s "Hong Kong Trilogy" that traces the city’s sociopolitical developments since its return to Chinese rule.

No City for Slow Men: Hong Kong's quirks and quandaries laid bare

'Joshua Wong is the future that has already come. ... Together we are one loud voice that cannot be silenced.' – Greta Thunberg

'If we want freedom, we need to learn from Hong Kong. With values, tactics, and courage, Joshua Wong shows us the way.' – Timothy Snyder

- Introduction by Ai Weiwei - 

An urgent manifesto for global democracy from the leading 23-year-old Hong Kong activist - Nobel Peace Prize nominee and "TIME", "Forbes "and "Fortune" world leader.

At what point do you stand up to power?

When he was 14, Joshua Wong made history. While the adults stayed silent, Joshua staged the first ever student protest in Hong Kong to oppose National Education – and won.

Since then, Joshua has led the Umbrella Movement, founded a political party, and rallied the international community around the anti-Extradition Bill protests, which have seen 2 million people – more than a quarter of the population – take to Hong Kong’s streets. His actions have sparked worldwide attention, earned him a Nobel Peace Prize nomination, and landed him in jail twice.

Composed in three parts, "Unfree Speech" chronicles Joshua’s path to activism, collects the letters he wrote as a political prisoner, and closes with a powerful and urgent call for all of us globally to defend our democratic values.

When we stay silent, no one is safe. When we free our speech, our voice becomes one.

Unfree Speech: The Threat to Global Democracy and Why We Must Act, Now

Few groups are more secretive than the Asian "godfathers," the tiny group of obscenely wealthy businessmen who control the economic fates of Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Hong Kong, and the Philippines. Mysterious, shrewd, and ruthless, these tycoons represented eight of the twenty-five wealthiest people on the planet in the 1990s and they continue to command multibillion-dollar personal fortunes, controlling everything from banking and real estate to shipping and gambling--yet their names would not be familiar to regular readers of The Wall Street Journal. Who are they and how do they do it? That is the question Joe Studwell, author of the acclaimed book The China Dream, answers in this incisive behind-the-scenes exploration of the outsize figures behind the veil. Studwell has spent fifteen years as a reporter in the region and uses his unprecedented access to debunk one myth after another while simultaneously painting intimate and revealing portraits of the godfathers--who they really are and how they make, build, and maintain their fortunes. He also examines the political and economic environments in which the godfathers operate, which are remarkably similar to the ones exploited by turn-of-the-century American tycoons. Studwell also explains how the region's political choices--and not the godfathers--will determine if Southeast Asian countries move toward first-world status or continue to circle, Latin American-like, in the purgatory of underdevelopment. Asian Godfathers is an explosive book that lifts the curtain on a world of staggering secrecy and hypocrisy and reveals--for the first time--who the leaders of one of the world's most important and tumultuous marketsreally are, how they got to the top, and how they keep themselves there.

Asian Godfathers: Money and Power in Hong Kong and Southeast Asia

The dramatic real life stories of four young people caught up in the mass exodus of Shanghai in the wake of China's 1949 Communist revolution--a precursor to the struggles faced by emigrants today. 


Shanghai has historically been China's jewel, its richest, most modern and westernized city. The bustling metropolis was home to sophisticated intellectuals, entrepreneurs, and a thriving middle class when Mao's proletarian revolution emerged victorious from the long civil war. Terrified of the horrors the Communists would wreak upon their lives, citizens of Shanghai who could afford to fled in every direction. Seventy years later, members of the last generation to fully recall this massive exodus have revealed their stories to Chinese American journalist Helen Zia, who interviewed hundreds of exiles about their journey through one of the most tumultuous events of the twentieth century. From these moving accounts, Zia weaves together the stories of four young Shanghai residents who wrestled with the decision to abandon everything for an uncertain life as refugees in Hong Kong, Taiwan, and the United States.

Benny, who as a teenager became the unwilling heir to his father's dark wartime legacy, must decide either to escape to Hong Kong or navigate the intricacies of a newly Communist China. The resolute Annuo, forced to flee her home with her father, a defeated Nationalist official, becomes an unwelcome exile in Taiwan. The financially strapped Ho fights deportation from the U.S. in order to continue his studies while his family struggles at home. And Bing, given away by her poor parents, faces the prospect of a new life among strangers in America. The lives of these men and women are marvelously portrayed, revealing the dignity and triumph of personal survival.

Last Boat Out of Shanghai: The Epic Story of the Chinese Who Fled Mao's Revolution

The Sassoons and the Kadoories--two Jewish families from Baghdad--had long been successful in business, politics, and society. They kept up their intrigues and opium smuggling while helping to rescue 18,000 Jews from Hitler's Europe, and though they soon faced the tsunami that was communism, their legacy remains today.

The Last Kings of Shanghai: The Rival Jewish Dynasties That Helped Create Modern China

On the same day as the Pearl Harbor attack, forces of the Japanese Empire attacked the British Crown Colony of Hong Kong without warning. Philip Cracknell provides a research-driven narrative about the Battle for Hong Kong in 1941, which commenced on 8 December and lasted for three weeks until the surrender on Christmas Day 1941. Hong Kong had become a strategic liability, an isolated outpost. It would be sacrificed but not without a fight. The main priorities for the British in Asia were Malaya and Singapore. The Crown colony was gallantly defended but it was a battle against overwhelming odds.Crucially, as a resident of Hong Kong for thirty years, the author knows every inch of the ground. He challenges some assumptions, for example the whereabouts of ‘A’ Coy, Winnipeg Grenadiers on 19 December, when the company was destroyed during a fighting retreat.What exactly happened and where were the actions fought? One can still see so much evidence, in the form of pillboxes, gun batteries and weapons pits. Bullets and other relics can still be picked up lying on the ground. The defending troops mainly consisted of British, Canadian, Indian and Hong Kong Chinese. Dozens were massacred, including over fifty St John’s Ambulance personnel - a grim pointer to the hell of the Pacific war that followed. Over the following nearly four years of occupation, an estimated 10,000 Hong Kong civilians were executed. The battle for Hong Kong is a story that deserves to be better known.

Battle for Hong Kong, December 1941

THE FAN TAN PLAYERS opens in 1928 in Macao on a cyclone-drenched Quasimodo Sunday. Nadia Shashkova, now in her late twenties, but originally a child refugee from pre-revolutionary Russia, is contemplating her diminishing marital prospects. None of the Portuguese suitors who pay their respects appeal to her in the slightest. Independent, astute, an outsider, Nadia is haunted by secrets from her childhood, memories of violence and rupture, and one terrible secret above all others will not let her go. Enter Iain Sutherland, an enigmatic Scot who is, officially, a British Consular representative, and who is very interested in Nadia for a number of reasons. As Nadia and Iain learn about each others' histories, neither of them can anticipate what the future holds for each of them a journey into Russia to find something that has been lost, internment in a Japanese prisoner-of-war camp, a courageous rescue. THE FAN TAN PLAYERS is an opulent family saga, set in Macao, Russia, the Scottish Highlands and Hong Kong in the 1920s, 1930s and 1940s. Exotic and beautifully written, it is a story of love, history, adversity and adventure.

The Fan Tan Players

On a routine night in Hong Kong, Detective Chief Inspector Harry Feiffer encounters an axe murderer, the husband of a misplaced tourist, and a madame planning revenge on a big-time gangster. The debut novel of the zany Yellowthread Street series.

Yellowthread Street (Yellowthread Street #1)

As cofounder of the internationally-known, highly-controversial radical political troupe, The Living Theater, author Judith Malina is one of the leading female countercultural figures of the 50s, 60s, 70s and beyond. in "Moon Poem", she creates an intimate memoir in a unique format with a collection of personal notes written on every full moon for 50 years from 1964 to 2014.

These never-before-published short snippets, reveal her most private thoughts and inform what the The Living Theatre was performing as they wound their way from New York City to Italy, France, Belgium, Germany and Brazil in a nomadic series of notable performances of such underground classics as "The Brig", "The Connection", and "Paradise Now". Malina is relentless in her commitment to the full moon schedule, writing regardless of her current life circumstance. Notes issue forth from hotels, trains—even prison, offering a light on the consequences of holding true to her code of the theatrical expression of her pacifist-anarchist principles.

The format of the book is well-suited for modern readers interested in history of the counterculture. In addition, the book includes 50+ rare historical photos from Living Theatre performances and intimate settings.

Full Moon Stages: Personal Notes from 50 Years of the Living Theatre

Fan Ho: A Hong Kong Memoir

Underground Front is a pioneering examination of the role that the Chinese Communist Party has played in Hong Kong since the creation of the Party in 1921, through to the present day. This book brings events right up to date and includes the results of a survey about the Hong Kong public’s attitude towards the CCP. The numerous appendices on the key targets of the party’s united front activities also make it an especially useful read for all who are interested in Hong Kong history and politics, and readers who are interested in the history of modern China.

Underground Front: The Chinese Communist Party in Hong Kong

From the dazzling choreography of martial arts movies to the gore of the "heroic bloodshed" genre, Hong Kong action films are masterpieces of style and fury, and a prime source of inspiration for Hollywood. Tracing the background of this enticing film genre from the influences of Chinese opera to the mixture of fantasy and fast-paced action of the present day style, this is essential reading for both the intrigued layman and the die-hard Hong Kong fan. Photos, 95 in color.

Hong Kong Action Cinema

Dragon Ride: True Stories of Adventure, Miracles, and Evangelism from China

The Chinese system is like no other known to man, now or in history. This book explains how the system works and where it may be moving.

Drawing on Chinese and international sources, on extensive collaboration with Chinese scholars, and on the political science of state analysis, Stein Ringen concludes that under the new leadership of Xi Jinping, the system of government has been transformed into a new regime radically harder and more ideological than the legacy of Deng Xiaoping. China is less strong economically and more dictatorial politically than the world has wanted to believe.

By analyzing the leadership of Xi Jinping, the meaning of "socialist market economy," corruption, the party-state apparatus, the reach of the party, the mechanisms of repression, taxation and public services, and state-society relations, "The Perfect Dictatorship" broadens the field of China studies, as well as the fields of political economy, comparative politics, development, and welfare state studies.

The Perfect Dictatorship: China in the 21st Century

Beneath the kitchen floor is the world of the Borrowers -- Pod and Homily Clock and their daughter, Arrietty. In their tiny home, matchboxes double as roomy dressers and postage stamps hang on the walls like paintings. Whatever the Clocks need they simply "borrow" from the "human beans" who live above them. It's a comfortable life, but boring if you're a kid. Only Pod is allowed to venture into the house above, because the danger of being seen by a human is too great. Borrowers who are seen by humans are never seen again. Yet Arrietty won't listen. There is a human boy up there, and Arrietty is desperate for a friend.

The Borrowers (The Borrowers, #1)

A Concise History of Hong Kong (Critical Issues in History) (Critical Issues in World and International History)

In terms of Chinese dynasties, Hong Kong's history has been short - but its tale has been told by a cosmopolitan cast of traders and taipans, adventurers and assassins, refugees and revolutionaries. And despite the city's pace of change, traces of this colourful past can still be found.

Let this walking guide show you the way. Hidden behind Hong Kong's modern facade, there are wartime tunnels, backstreet shophouses, ancient shrines and colonial forts - and there's a story to each one. With clear maps and archive photography, this book will lead you on your own explorations of Hong Kong's heritage.

The Heritage Hiker's Guide to Hong Kong

At the end of the Second World War, Hong Kong lived up to its description as "the barren island." It had few natural resources, its trade and infrastructure lay in tatters, its small manufacturing base had been destroyed and its income per capita was less than a quarter of its mother country, Britain. As a British colony it fell to a small number of civil servants to confront these difficult challenges, largely alone. But by the time of the handover of Hong Kong to China in 1997, it was one of the most prosperous nations on Earth. By 2015 its GDP per capita was over 40% higher than Britain's. How did that happen? Around the world, post-war governments were turning to industrial planning, Keynesian deficits and high inflation to stimulate their economies. How much did the civil servants in Hong Kong adopt from this emerging global consensus? Virtually nothing. They rejected the idea that governments should play an active role in industrial planning - instead believing in the ability of entrepreneurs to find the best opportunities. They rejected the idea of spending more than the government raised in taxes - instead aiming to keep a year's spending as a reserve. They rejected the idea of high taxes - instead keeping taxes low, believing that private investment would earn high returns, and expand the long-term tax base. This strategy was created and implemented by no more than a handful of men over a fifty-year period. Perhaps the most important of them all was John Cowperthwaite, who ran the trade and industry department after the war and then spent twenty years as deputy and then actual Financial Secretary before his retirement in 1971. He, more than anyone, shaped the economic policies of Hong Kong for the quarter century after the war and set the stage for a remarkable economic expansion. His resolve was tested constantly over his period in office, and it was only due to his determination, independence, and intellectual rigor that he was not diverted from the path in which he believed so strongly. This book examines the man behind the story, and the successful economic policies that he and others crafted with the people of Hong Kong.

Architect of Prosperity: Sir John Cowperthwaite and the Making of Hong Kong

Sacred poetry from twelve mystics and saints, rendered brilliantly by Daniel Ladinsky, beloved interpreter of verses by the fourteenth-century Persian poet Hafiz 

In this luminous collection, Daniel Ladinsky—best known for his gifted and bestselling interpretations of the great Sufi poet Hafiz—brings together the timeless work of twelve of the world's finest spiritual writers, six from the East and six from the West. Once again Ladinsky reveals his talent for creating profound and playful renditions of classic poems for a modern audience. Rumi's joyous, ecstatic love poems; St. Francis's loving observations of nature through the eyes of Catholicism; Kabir's wild, freeing humor that synthesizes Hindu, Muslim, and Christian beliefs; St. Teresa's sensual verse; and the mystical, healing words of Sufi poet Hafiz—these along with inspiring works by Rabia, Meister Eckhart, St. Thomas Aquinas, Mira, St. Catherine of Siena, St. Teresa of Avila, St. John of the Cross, and Tukaram are all “love poems by God,” from writers considered to be "conduits of the divine." A spiritual treasure to cherish always.

Love Poems from God: Twelve Sacred Voices from the East and West

We Shall Suffer There is the first work that documents the experiences of Hong Kong’s prisoners of war and civilian internees from their capture by the Japanese in December 1941 to liberation, rescue, and repatriation. While the prisoner-of-war main camps in Hong Kong itself have been mentioned in many other works, there has so far been no definitive chronology of their operation. Where the camps in Japan (to which many of the Hong Kong POWs were sent in six main drafts) have been mentioned, coverage has been superficial and limited in scope, and many camps have been entirely overlooked. This book includes them all, and the movements between them, using only primary sources and only—as far as possible—the words of those involved.

We Shall Suffer There: Hong Kong’s Defenders Imprisoned, 1942–45

"Defying the Dragon" tells a remarkable story of audacity: of how the people of Hong Kong challenged the authority of the People's Republic of China, just as its president reached the height of his powers. Is Xi's China as unshakeable as it seems? What are its real interests in Hong Kong? Why are Beijing's time-honored ways and means no longer working there? And where does this leave the Hongkongers themselves?

Stephen Vines has lived in Hong Kong for over three decades, described by the last governor, Lord Patten, as 'one of Hong Kong's most distinguished and long-serving journalists'. In this book he unpacks the history of the Hong Kong-China relationship and its wider significance - right up to the astonishing convergence of political turmoil and international insecurity following the outbreak of coronavirus.

Vividly describing the 2019-20 uprising from street level, Vines explains how and why it unfolded and charts its enormous, global repercussions. Now, amidst the pandemic, the international community is reassessing its relationship with Beijing, at the very moment when Hong Kong's rebellion has exposed the regime's inherent weakness. In a crisis that has become existential all round, what lies ahead for Hong Kong, China and the world?


Defying the Dragon: Hong Kong and the World's Largest Dictatorship

Hong Kong was first captured on camera when the British arrived to lay claim to its "fragrant harbour" in 1841. Its fascinating history has been documented through photography ever since—from its rapid expansion as a Crown Colony to its handover to China in 1997 and its present status as one of the world’s leading international financial centers. Pairing rare and previously unpublished photographs with contemporary views taken from the same location, "Hong Kong: Then and Now "highlights the rich and varied history of this constantly evolving metropolis, from Victoria Harbour, the Hong Kong Club, and the Star Ferry to Kowloon Walled CIty, Chek Lap Kok Airport, and the gleaming skyscrapers of its central banking district. Sites include: Victoria Harbour, the Peak, the Star Ferry Pier, Man Ho Temple, Ladder Street, Queen's Road Central, Hong Kong Club, Prince's Building, HSBC, Noonday Gun, Happy Valley Racecourse, Tiger Balm Garden, Peninsula Hotel, Kai Tak Airport, Kowloon Walled City, Shenzhen, Repulse Bay, Chek Lap Kok Airport, and St. Paul's (Macau). Rare archival photographs of Hong Kong have been carefully matched with specially commissioned color photos to reveal the past and present of this fascinating city.

Hong Kong Then and Now®

Between 1949 and 1997, Hong Kong transformed from a struggling British colonial outpost into a global financial capital. "Made in Hong Kong" delivers a new narrative of this metamorphosis, revealing Hong Kong both as a critical engine in the expansion and remaking of postwar global capitalism and as the linchpin of Sino-U.S. trade since the 1970s.



Peter E. Hamilton explores the role of an overlooked transnational Chinese elite who fled to Hong Kong amid war and revolution. Despite losing material possessions, these industrialists, bankers, academics, and other professionals retained crucial connections to the United States. They used these relationships to enmesh themselves and Hong Kong with the U.S. through commercial ties and higher education. By the 1960s, Hong Kong had become a manufacturing powerhouse supplying American consumers, and by the 1970s it was the world's largest sender of foreign students to American colleges and universities. Hong Kong's reorientation toward U.S. international leadership enabled its transplanted Chinese elites to benefit from expanding American influence in Asia and positioned them to act as shepherds to China's reengagement with global capitalism. After China's reforms accelerated under Deng Xiaoping, Hong Kong became a crucial node for China's export-driven development, connecting Chinese labor with the U.S. market.

Analyzing untapped archival sources from around the world, this book demonstrates why we cannot understand postwar globalization, China's economic rise, or today's Sino-U.S. trade relationship without centering Hong Kong.

Hong Kong

The Piano Teacher

Janice Y.K. Lee

Tai-Pan (Asian Saga, #2)

James Clavell

Kowloon Tong: A Novel of Hong Kong

Paul Theroux

Gweilo: Memories Of A Hong Kong Childhood

Martin Booth

A Modern History of Hong Kong: 1841-1997

Steve Tsang

Noble House (Asian Saga, #5)

James Clavell

Umbrellas in Bloom: Hong Kong's Occupy Movement Uncovered

Jason Y. Ng

Fragrant Harbour

John Lanchester

A Many-Splendoured Thing

Han Suyin

The World of Suzie Wong

Richard Mason

Dragon Ball, Vol. 1: The Monkey King (Dragon Ball, #1)

Akira Toriyama

City on Fire: The Fight for Hong Kong

Antony Dapiran

A Modern History of Hong Kong

Steve Tsang

Remembering Shanghai: A Memoir of Socialites, Scholars and Scoundrels

Claire Chao

The Language of Threads (Women of the Silk #2)

Gail Tsukiyama

White Ghost Girls

Alice Greenway

Vigil: Hong Kong on the Brink

Jeffrey Wasserstrom

Ghetto at the Center of the World: Chungking Mansions, Hong Kong

Gordon Mathews

Hong Kong: The City of Dreams

Nury Vittachi

Myself a Mandarin: Memoirs of a Special Magistrate

Austin Coates

HONG KONG State of Mind: 37 Views of a City That Doesn't Blink

Jason Y. Ng

No City for Slow Men: Hong Kong's quirks and quandaries laid bare

Jason Y. Ng

Unfree Speech: The Threat to Global Democracy and Why We Must Act, Now

Joshua Wong

Asian Godfathers: Money and Power in Hong Kong and Southeast Asia

Joe Studwell

Last Boat Out of Shanghai: The Epic Story of the Chinese Who Fled Mao's Revolution

Helen Zia

The Last Kings of Shanghai: The Rival Jewish Dynasties That Helped Create Modern China

Jonathan Kaufman

Battle for Hong Kong, December 1941

Philip Cracknell

The Fan Tan Players

Julian Lees

Yellowthread Street (Yellowthread Street #1)

William Marshall

Full Moon Stages: Personal Notes from 50 Years of the Living Theatre

Judith Malina

Fan Ho: A Hong Kong Memoir

Fan Ho

Underground Front: The Chinese Communist Party in Hong Kong

Christine Loh

Hong Kong Action Cinema

Bey Logan

Dragon Ride: True Stories of Adventure, Miracles, and Evangelism from China

Grace Jacob

The Perfect Dictatorship: China in the 21st Century

Stein Ringen

The Borrowers (The Borrowers, #1)

Mary Norton

A Concise History of Hong Kong (Critical Issues in History) (Critical Issues in World and International History)

John Mark Carroll

The Heritage Hiker's Guide to Hong Kong

Pete Spurrier

Architect of Prosperity: Sir John Cowperthwaite and the Making of Hong Kong

Neil Monnery

Love Poems from God: Twelve Sacred Voices from the East and West