https://www.scmp.com/rss/2596/feed en https://assets.i-scmp.com/static/img/icons/scmp-meta-1200x630.png https://www.scmp.com China 1949: Year of Revolution by Graham Hutchings, Bloomsbury Academic The conflict between the Kuomintang and the Chinese Communists was one of the biggest civil wars in human history. It involved more than five million soldiers and led to a change of government and the dislocation of millions of people. More than 70 years after the Kuomintang moved their government to Taiwan, the civil war remains unfinished. The reunification of China is still uncertain; it seems far in the future. China... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/books/article/3119794/china-1949-graham-hutchings-asks-why-did-communists?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/books/article/3119794/china-1949-graham-hutchings-asks-why-did-communists?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 30 Jan 2021 08:45:12 +0000 As Kumiko Nakagawa walks through the front door of the department store, four staff members bow and say in unison " Irasshaimase". "It feels just like home," says the tourist, with a smile. However, we are not in Japan, but close to the centre of Tainan, in the southwest of Taiwan, in what used to be the Hayashi department store. When it first opened, in 1932, its five storeys made the store the tallest building in the city and it was the only one with a lift. It was the shop of choice for the... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/travel-leisure/article/1935909/tainan-chinese-city-celebrates-its-japanese?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/travel-leisure/article/1935909/tainan-chinese-city-celebrates-its-japanese?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 14 Apr 2016 22:15:45 +0000 The Sacred Routes of Uyghur History by Rian Thum Harvard University Press The Sacred Routes of Uyghur History may be a scholarly book about the manuscripts of Uygur history and not politics, but it is timely. Beijing is facing the most serious armed threat to its rule in Xinjiang since the 1950s, especially in the southern areas. In recent weeks dozens of people have been killed, including the chief imam of a major mosque in Kashgar. This book will help the general reader understand the... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/books/article/1579146/ancient-manuscripts-tell-proud-independent-people?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/books/article/1579146/ancient-manuscripts-tell-proud-independent-people?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 23 Aug 2014 23:15:15 +0000 The Visitor - Andre Palmeiro and the Jesuits in Asia by Liam Matthew Brockey Harvard University Press 4 stars Mark O'Neill "We all ask God and especially those who live here in China to send a ray from heaven into the soul of this young man, so that he recognises the truth that we preach and opens a wide gate for the spread of His holy law in this great kingdom." So wrote Andre Palmeiro, a senior Jesuit on a visit to Peking in 1629. He was speaking of the young Chongzhen emperor of the late... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/books/article/1569123/book-review-visitor-liam-matthew-brockey?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/books/article/1569123/book-review-visitor-liam-matthew-brockey?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 10 Aug 2014 04:46:15 +0000 What Do You Pack? If You're Never Coming Back by Roberto Di Marco Orchid Press 4 stars Mark O'Neill A retired German widower living a bored and lonely life envies his best friend, 63-year-old bachelor Vincent, who has moved to Thailand, married a 29-year-old woman, and found a new life. Two years later, the man is stunned to hear Vincent has died in a motorcycle accident in Pattaya, and that his wife has inherited his considerable wealth. But is Vincent's death accident or murder? The widower... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/books/article/1546501/book-review-what-do-you-pack-if-you-are-never-coming-back-roberto-di?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/books/article/1546501/book-review-what-do-you-pack-if-you-are-never-coming-back-roberto-di?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 06 Jul 2014 09:15:45 +0000 Strategic Reassurance and Resolve by James Steinberg and Michael O'Hanlon Princeton University Press 4 stars Mark O'Neill "The sheer magnitude of the rise of China, in the face of America's continued power and global network of alliances, is unprecedented in the history of nations. But so too could the accomplishment of these giants of the 21st century in showing that an established superpower and a rising superpower need not allow their relationship to produce hegemonic rivalry of major... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/books/article/1518622/book-review-strategic-reassurance-and-resolve-james-steinberg-and?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/books/article/1518622/book-review-strategic-reassurance-and-resolve-james-steinberg-and?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 25 May 2014 07:42:02 +0000 Asia's Cauldron: The South China Sea and the End to a Stable Pacific by Robert Kaplan Random House 4 stars Mark O'Neill In Asia's Cauldron, Robert Kaplan asks if there will be a war between China and the United States over the South China Sea. The American journalist and political commentator, who has written 15 books on foreign affairs and travel which have been translated into many languages, is chief geopolitical analyst for Stratfor, a private global intelligence firm. His thesis is that... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/books/article/1476061/book-review-asias-cauldron-south-china-sea-and-end-stable-pacific?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/books/article/1476061/book-review-asias-cauldron-south-china-sea-and-end-stable-pacific?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 13 Apr 2014 08:00:30 +0000 The Contest of the Century: The New Era of Competition with China by Geoff Dyer Allen Lane 4 stars Mark O'Neill Acu, 280 kilometres north of Rio de Janeiro, has been transformed from a seaside village into a huge port with a pier 3.2km-long which can handle Chinese ships that carry 400,000 tonnes of iron ore in a single journey. It is the "new highway" to China, which has overtaken the US to become the largest trading partner and largest foreign investor in Brazil. This reshaping of the... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/books/article/1453968/book-review-contest-century-geoff-dyer?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/books/article/1453968/book-review-contest-century-geoff-dyer?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 23 Mar 2014 07:52:52 +0000 Tibet, the Last Cry by Eric Meyer Blacksmith Books 4 stars Mark O'Neill Few are the foreign journalists who have visited Tibet. The number is even fewer since the Lhasa riots of March 2008 and the start of self-immolations in 2009, in which more than 40 have died. So the debate over Tibet is locked between the accusations of the exiled government in India and the unforgiving Beijing. This book is welcome in providing first-hand accounts of the lives and the extraordinary landscape of Tibet... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/books/article/1427766/book-review-tibet-last-cry-eric-meyer?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/books/article/1427766/book-review-tibet-last-cry-eric-meyer?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 16 Feb 2014 10:46:55 +0000 An Irishman in China by Zhao Changtian (translated by Yang Shuhui and Yang Yunqin) Better Link Press 4 stars Mark O'Neill In 19th-century China, there was no foreigner like Robert Hart. An Irishman, he served the Qing empire with devotion for 45 years, 40 of them as inspector-general of the Chinese Imperial Maritime Customs. Three days after his death in September 1911, the emperor conferred on him the title of "Senior Guardian of the Heir Apparent", the highest honour that he could give to... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/books/article/1402285/book-review-irishman-china-zhao-changtian?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/books/article/1402285/book-review-irishman-china-zhao-changtian?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 12 Jan 2014 08:05:15 +0000 The Great Equal Society: Confucianism, China and the 21st Century by Kim Young-oak & Kim Jung-kyu World Scientific Pub 4 stars Mark O'Neill This well-written book explains how China could become a model for the world - setting the example the US has failed to provide - based on its ancient philosophy: Confucianism. Co-author Kim Young-oak is professor of Korean studies at Hanshin University and a leading intellectual in South Korea. Kim Jung-kyu is director of ACA Investments, a private... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/books/article/1374496/book-review-great-equal-society-kim-young-oak-and-kim-jung-kyu?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/books/article/1374496/book-review-great-equal-society-kim-young-oak-and-kim-jung-kyu?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 09 Dec 2013 00:49:26 +0000 Canton Elegy: A Father's Letter of Sacrifice, Survival and Love by Stephen Lee Jin-nom & Howard Webster Watkins Publishing 4 stars Mark O'Neill "The story you are about to read will have to make do for the conversations we never had … I thank God for the loan of the four souls that were given into my care." So reads the prologue of Canton Elegy, the moving autobiography of Stephen Lee Jin-nom written in 1955 as a record for his four children and the children they would have in the future. He... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/books/article/1350738/book-canton-elegy-stephen-lee-jin-nom-and-howard-webster?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/books/article/1350738/book-canton-elegy-stephen-lee-jin-nom-and-howard-webster?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 10 Nov 2013 09:17:19 +0000 The Lost Generation: The Rustication of China's Educated Youth (1968-1980) by Michel Bonnin Chinese University of Hong Kong Press 5 stars Mark O'Neill This book is about one of the most extraordinary experiments in human history: Mao Zedong's decision to send 17 million young Chinese from the cities to the countryside during the Cultural Revolution. They stayed an average of six years and as long as 11 years; most believed they would remain there for good. It scarred them for the rest of... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/books/article/1334564/book-review-lost-generation-michel-bonnin?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/books/article/1334564/book-review-lost-generation-michel-bonnin?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 20 Oct 2013 09:07:26 +0000 The Tragedy of Liberation: A History of the Chinese Revolution 1945-1957 by Frank Dikotter Bloomsbury 5 stars Mark O'Neill The Tragedy of Liberation is a meticulous chronicle of the violence used by China's Communist Party to take and consolidate power over the first eight years of its rule. It puts the civilian death toll from 1949 to 1957 at more than five million. The book is the second volume of a trilogy by Frank Dikotter, chair professor of humanities at the University of Hong Kong.... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/books/article/1324256/book-review-tragedy-liberation-frank-dikotter?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/books/article/1324256/book-review-tragedy-liberation-frank-dikotter?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 05 Oct 2013 16:00:00 +0000 The China Choice: Why We Should Share Power by Hugh White Oxford University Press 4 stars Mark O'Neill This book argues that the US must give up leadership of Asia and share power with China, to avoid war and terrible consequences for the world. Author Hugh White, professor of strategic studies at the Australian National University's Strategic and Defence Studies Centre and principal author of Australia's 2000 Defence White Paper, has been a leading figure in public debates on defence and... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/books/article/1309038/book-review-china-choice-hugh-white?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/books/article/1309038/book-review-china-choice-hugh-white?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 14 Sep 2013 16:00:00 +0000 Party Time: Who Runs China and How by Rowan Callick Black Inc Mark O'Neill "China's Communist Party has become the most powerful organisation in the world, even overtaking the Vatican, whose authority, focused by Pope John Paul II, helped destroy the Soviet empire in the 1980s." This book is about that organisation. "It rules today in a manner that is routine, impersonal, even somewhat boring to some of its members - but also relentless and unapologetic," writes Rowan Callick, Asia-Pacific... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/books/article/1300602/book-review-party-time-who-runs-china-and-how-rowan-callick?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/books/article/1300602/book-review-party-time-who-runs-china-and-how-rowan-callick?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 31 Aug 2013 16:00:00 +0000 Hong Kong Under Chinese Rule by Zheng Yongnian and Yew Chiew Ping World Scientific Publishing 3 stars Mark O'Neill This book is a collection of well-researched and well-argued analyses about Hong Kong since the handover written by experts from the East Asian Institute of the National University of Singapore. It covers the city's economic integration and relations with China, problems of governance, Hong Kong identity and nation-building, the implementation of the minimum wage, and the... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/books/article/1298835/book-review-hong-kong-under-chinese-rule?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/books/article/1298835/book-review-hong-kong-under-chinese-rule?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 24 Aug 2013 16:00:00 +0000 The Specter of "The People" - Urban Poverty in Northeast China by Mun Young Cho Cornell University Press 3 stars "Northeast China was the first area liberated by the Communist Party during the civil war. Since then, we northeasterners have devoted all our resources to the state without compensation. What came to us after all these sacrifices? Total neglect! Total betrayal!" These are the words of Zhang Luoyong, a laid-off worker in the northeastern city of Harbin. He and his former colleagues... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/books/article/1291254/book-review-specter-people-mun-young-cho?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/books/article/1291254/book-review-specter-people-mun-young-cho?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 27 Jul 2013 16:00:00 +0000 Portugal, China and the Macau Negotiations 1986-1999 by Carmen Amado Mendes HKU Press In 1985, as Portugal prepared to negotiate the handover of Macau, its foreign ministry did not have a single diplomat who spoke Putonghua nor a department dedicated to its last colony. In addition, the country had two, often conflicting, centres of power: its president and prime minister. Yet this weak, declining country was still able to strike a good deal with Beijing and achieve many of its objectives: a... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/books/article/1270903/book-review-portugal-china-and-macau-negotiations-1986-1999-carmen?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/books/article/1270903/book-review-portugal-china-and-macau-negotiations-1986-1999-carmen?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 29 Jun 2013 16:00:00 +0000 Stumbling Giant: The Threats to China's Future by Timothy Beardson Yale University Press This is an authoritative and well-researched book about the future of China by a man working at the centre of Asia's economy for the past 30 years. His conclusion is that the mainland will not overtake the United States as the world's super-power during this century. That is the judgment of Timothy Beardson, who founded Crosby Financial Holdings in Hong Kong in 1984. It became the first investment bank to... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/books/article/1265842/book-review-stumbling-giant-timothy-beardson?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/books/article/1265842/book-review-stumbling-giant-timothy-beardson?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 22 Jun 2013 16:00:00 +0000 Why Philanthropy Matters by Zoltan J. Acs Princeton University Press This book is a good exposition of the history and development of philanthropy in the United States and its positive effect on education, science, medicine and other fields. Author Zoltan J. Acs is a professor at George Mason University in Virginia, and so Why Philanthropy Matters: How the Wealthy Give, and What It Means for Our Economic Well-Being is well researched and well argued. But its weakness is that it speaks only... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/books/article/1223787/book-review-why-philanthropy-matters-zoltan-j-acs?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/books/article/1223787/book-review-why-philanthropy-matters-zoltan-j-acs?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 27 Apr 2013 16:00:00 +0000 The Lius of Shanghai by Sherman Cochran and Andrew Hsieh Harvard University Press "At that moment I felt that the fire of war had burned its way to the front door of my own home." These were the words of the sixth son of a wealthy Shanghai family when the Japanese army attacked the city in August 1937 in one of the most intense battles of world history. They come from an excellent book, The Lius of Shanghai, written by two American professors of Chinese history: it is based on 2,000 letters... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/books/article/1212984/book-review-lius-shanghai-sherman-cochran-and-andrew-hsieh?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/books/article/1212984/book-review-lius-shanghai-sherman-cochran-and-andrew-hsieh?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 13 Apr 2013 16:00:00 +0000 Letters From a Burmese Grandfather by Randolph O'Hara Orchid Press With the end of the military dictatorship and the possibility Aung San Suu Kyi might become president, Myanmar has become a hot news story. The military junta that had ruled since 1962 cut it off from the outside world, leaving the rest of us with little knowledge or understanding of this ancient kingdom. Now we have an opportunity to learn of the life of the court in the early years of the 19th century, just before the country... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/books/article/1202468/book-review-letters-burmese-grandfather-randolph-ohara?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/books/article/1202468/book-review-letters-burmese-grandfather-randolph-ohara?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 30 Mar 2013 16:00:00 +0000 The Great Rebalancing by Michael Pettis Princeton University Press China will be forced to make a drastic change to its development model that will result in average GDP growth of three per cent or less over 10 years. Its economy will have a long and bumpy landing. That is Michael Pettis' dramatic prediction in his book, The Great Rebalancing: Trade, Conflict and the Perilous Road Ahead for the World Economy. The professor of finance and economics at Beijing University argues that China's... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/books/article/1186287/book-review-great-rebalancing-michael-pettis?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/books/article/1186287/book-review-great-rebalancing-michael-pettis?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 09 Mar 2013 16:00:00 +0000 China's Urban Billion by Tom Miller Zed Books This is a lively and readable book about one of the biggest challenges for the mainland's rulers over the next 20 years: how to build well-planned and affordable cities for the one billion people who will live in them by 2030? How to avoid the giant slums full of drugs, crime and unemployment in many countries of the developing world? Over the past 30 years, China's urban population has increased by 500 million and it is planning to add another... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/books/article/1125521/book-review-chinas-urban-billion-tom-miller?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/books/article/1125521/book-review-chinas-urban-billion-tom-miller?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 12 Jan 2013 16:00:00 +0000 The Chinese of Macau, A Decade After the Handover  by Jean A. Berlie Proverse   This is a book about the Chinese residents of Macau in the 13 years since the handover. During that time, the SAR has been transformed by extraordinary growth in the gaming industry and the population, and by a flood of mainland visitors. The author is Jean Berlie, a researcher at the University of Hong Kong. Born in Togo in a French family, he speaks Cantonese and Putonghua. He found that the population increased... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/books/article/1109783/book-review-chinese-macau-jean-berlie?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/books/article/1109783/book-review-chinese-macau-jean-berlie?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 22 Dec 2012 16:00:00 +0000 My First Trip to China edited by Liu Kin-ming East Slope Publishing Limited   Mark O'Neill It is 1972 and American lawyer Jerome Cohen is sitting in a Beijing restaurant drinking hot soy milk. Eager to start a conversation, he asks those around him the name of the soup. No-one dares to answer. "Defend the motherland against spies" reads a notice on the wall. Finally, one says "not clear" - the best formula on the mainland to avoid a difficult question. Cohen is one of 30 people who have... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/books/article/1105361/book-review-my-first-trip-china?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/books/article/1105361/book-review-my-first-trip-china?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 15 Dec 2012 16:00:00 +0000 A World Connecting 1870-1945 edited by Akira Iriye et al Belknap Press (Harvard)   A book for scholars and students, A World Connecting is the first of six volumes that will comprise a history of the world, running from prehistoric times to the present. It consists of five chapters by seven historians, with a new approach to the study of each era and of world history. This volume covers 75 years that saw many of the most important events of the modern era. Each chapter contains a remarkable... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/books/article/1094607/book-review-world-connecting-1870-1945?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/books/article/1094607/book-review-world-connecting-1870-1945?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 01 Dec 2012 16:00:00 +0000 China's Environmental Challenges by Judith Shapiro Polity Press This is a well researched and balanced book about one of the great issues of our time - what the world's second-largest economy and biggest emitter of carbon dioxide is doing to its environment and that of the world. The answer is complex and contradictory, with responsibility lying with those abroad who consume goods made in China as well as with the government and people of the country. Judith Shapiro, an American, is well... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/books/article/1083942/book-review-chinas-environmental-challenges-judith-shapiro?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/books/article/1083942/book-review-chinas-environmental-challenges-judith-shapiro?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 17 Nov 2012 16:00:00 +0000 "To distribute resources evenly will only ruin the Great Leap Forward. When there is not enough to eat, people starve to death. It is better to let half the people die so that the other half can eat their fill." These words were spoken by Mao Zedong at a conference in Shanghai on March 25, 1959. It is proof irrefutable that he knew of and condoned mass starvation in the second year of the Great Famine, and the quote is contained in The Great Famine in China, 1958-1962, a documentary history... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/books/article/1022582/calamity-made-man?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/books/article/1022582/calamity-made-man?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 25 Aug 2012 16:00:00 +0000 Scattered Sand by Pai Hsiao-hung Verso Books   Mark O'Neill "Bosses can do anything they like. They do not care about breaking the rules, precisely because they are not enforced." These are the words of Peng, a 21-year-old migrant worker from a village in Liaoning province struggling to make a living in Shenyang and Beijing to support his family. The 200 million migrant workers who produce half of China's GDP are the subject of Scattered Sand, an excellent book of reportage by Pai Hsiao-hung,... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/books/article/1022576/sharp-end-chinas-economic-miracle?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/books/article/1022576/sharp-end-chinas-economic-miracle?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 25 Aug 2012 16:00:00 +0000 Bao Bao's Odyssey by Paul Ting Proverse Hong Kong In an exclusive guesthouse in a suburb of Shanghai, a 16-year-old boy is brought into a large room to meet Chairman Mao. 'We know you are a liar and every word from your mouth is a lie,' shouts the Great Helmsman, before ordering guards to drag him away. This is a nightmare, part of the rich and vivid life described in Bao Bao's Odyssey: From Mao's Shanghai to Capitalist Hong Kong, by Paul Ting. The Fuzhou-born Ting left China when he was a... https://www.scmp.com/article/1006792/bao-baos-odyssey?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/1006792/bao-baos-odyssey?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 14 Jul 2012 16:00:00 +0000 Is China Buying the World? by Peter Nolan Polity Press This excellent book aims to demolish the idea - widely believed in the West - that, with its record level of foreign exchange reserves, China is 'buying the world'. The author, Peter Nolan, is professor of Chinese Development at Cambridge University. He 'knows more about Chinese companies and their international competition than anyone else on earth, including in China', says the Financial Times on the book's jacket. A statement that is... https://www.scmp.com/article/1006173/china-buying-world?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/1006173/china-buying-world?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 07 Jul 2012 16:00:00 +0000 World.Wide.Web by Bertil Lintner Orchid Press An American immigration officer interviews a Chinese seeking asylum on the basis that he is a Christian who fears for his life if he's sent home. Asked how Jesus died, the man replies: 'The communists shot him with a machine gun.' This is one of many astonishing details in World.Wide.Web, an excellent book which describes the vast migration of Chinese since the start of the reform era in 1978. 'Western intelligence officials believe that perhaps as... https://www.scmp.com/article/1003482/worldwideweb?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/1003482/worldwideweb?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 09 Jun 2012 16:00:00 +0000 The End of Cheap China by Shaun Rein John Wiley & Sons This is a lively, well-written book about the transformation of China's economy and how it will change the world profoundly. Author Shaun Rein is the founder and managing director of China Market Research Group, which advises Fortune 500 companies. The quality of the book comes from Rein's interviews with Chinese people and companies, and his working in the country for several years. It has chapters on billionaires, labour, women, food,... https://www.scmp.com/article/1002081/end-cheap-china?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/1002081/end-cheap-china?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 26 May 2012 16:00:00 +0000 The Little Red Guard by Huang Wenguang Riverhead Books 'At the age of nine, I slept next to a coffin that Father had made for Grandma's 73rd birthday. He forbade us from calling it a 'coffin' and insisted that we refer to it as 'shou mu', which means something like longevity wood.' That is the dramatic opening to The Little Red Guard, a moving story about author Huang Wenguang's childhood in Xian and his grandmother's obsession with having a traditional burial. The year was 1973 and Huang's... https://www.scmp.com/article/1000209/little-red-guard?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/1000209/little-red-guard?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 05 May 2012 16:00:00 +0000 Europe and China: Strategic Partners or Rivals? edited by Roland Vogt HKU Press This is a book of 10 essays by Chinese and foreign scholars about the complex relationship between China and the European Union. This relationship lacks the drama of that between Washington and Beijing, when the world's superpower is facing the country that is becoming its biggest rival. When the two presidents meet, they command the countries of which they are in charge. But the European states operating in China -... https://www.scmp.com/article/997690/europe-and-china-strategic-partners-or-rivals?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/997690/europe-and-china-strategic-partners-or-rivals?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 07 Apr 2012 16:00:00 +0000 Remembering China from Taiwan by Mahlon Meyer HKU Press In the late 1980s, Ko Jen-tao resigned from his job as a senior police officer in Taipei so that he could go to Nanjing and visit the elderly mother he had not seen for 40 years. En route, at Guangzhou airport, police removed everything from his suitcase, even his dental floss. But they had not reached his wallet with US$10,000 in cash inside when he was allowed to board the plane after saying he was going to see his mother. He... https://www.scmp.com/article/995090/remembering-china-taiwan?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/995090/remembering-china-taiwan?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 10 Mar 2012 16:00:00 +0000 Chinese Hordes and Human Waves by Brigadier Brian Parritt Pen and Sword This is a book about the Korean war by a British soldier who took part as an artillery officer and went on to serve 37 years in the British Army, culminating in five years as director of the Intelligence Corps. It is divided into two halves: his own combat experience in the last seven months, and his analysis of how the war started and why the United States, the world's most powerful military, was unable to prevent it. What... https://www.scmp.com/article/992391/chinese-hordes-and-human-waves?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/992391/chinese-hordes-and-human-waves?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 11 Feb 2012 16:00:00 +0000 Wearing a smart business suit, Lin Hsiu-li sips a cappuccino in a Taipei coffee shop. 'I have a good job in the government, I have an apartment and enjoy my life,' she says. 'Raising a child costs at least NT$5 million [HK$1.27 million]. 'The men in Taiwan cannot keep up with the women. Why should I marry?' Lin is one of the more than 7.5 million single people in Taiwan, with singletons accounting for 42 per cent of the over-20 population in 2009. The civil servant's attitude helps explain why... https://www.scmp.com/article/991723/singled-out?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/991723/singled-out?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 04 Feb 2012 16:00:00 +0000 The Growth Map by Jim O'Neill Portfolio Penguin Jim O'Neill is one of the world's most quoted economic advisers. It was he who in 2001 coined the acronym 'BRIC' to describe the world's four fastest-growing countries and predicted that they would overtake the six largest Western economies within 40 years. BRIC - Brazil, Russia, India and China - has become part of the English language; their success over the past decade has surpassed his most ambitious forecasts. (In 2010, South Africa was... https://www.scmp.com/article/991134/growth-map?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/991134/growth-map?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 28 Jan 2012 16:00:00 +0000 Walmart in China edited by Anita Chan Cornell University Press When inspectors visited a factory in Shenzhen making toys for Walmart, management and workers were given advance warning. Managers coached workers on what to say; they were offered a 50-yuan bonus if they answered correctly and would be fired if they gave the wrong answers. Company rules stated a maximum work week of 72 hours but employees were often required to working until midnight - four hours past the daily limit - especially ... https://www.scmp.com/article/990194/walmart-china?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/990194/walmart-china?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 14 Jan 2012 16:00:00 +0000 China as a Leader of the World Economy by Gregory Chow World Scientific China's GDP will continue to grow by at least eight per cent for another decade and will overtake that of the United States by 2019. That is the prediction of Chinese-American economist Gregory Chow in his new book, China as a Leader of the World Economy, which presents a favourable analysis of the mainland's planning model. Professor of economics at Princeton University, Chow is the author of 15 books and more than... https://www.scmp.com/article/988936/china-leader-world-economy?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/988936/china-leader-world-economy?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 31 Dec 2011 16:00:00 +0000 The End of the Revolution - China and the Limits of Modernity by Wang Hui Verso Books Wang Hui is a professor in the Department of Chinese Language and Literature at Tsinghua University in Beijing. In May 2008, the US Foreign Policy magazine named him as one of the top 100 public intellectuals in the world. He has been visiting professor at Harvard, Stanford, Berkeley and other universities, and has written dozens of articles and books. This book contains seven essays written in Chinese in... https://www.scmp.com/article/986736/end-revolution-china-and-limits-modernity?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/986736/end-revolution-china-and-limits-modernity?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 03 Dec 2011 16:00:00 +0000 Noriko Suzuki remembers with horror the last days of the second world war. The 16-year-old was part of a settlement of Japanese farmers in Inner Mongolia. When the Soviet army invaded the region, on August 9, 1945, she and the other Japanese fled. 'Our leader ordered mothers to strangle their children to stop them crying and give away our location to the Soviets. They shut their eyes, wrapped their hands around their children's necks and did as they were told. As their babies went silent,... https://www.scmp.com/article/986704/orphans-manchukuo?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/986704/orphans-manchukuo?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 03 Dec 2011 16:00:00 +0000 One of the world's leading experts of Putonghua believes that the influence of foreign languages, especially English, has greatly damaged the language in Hong Kong and even more on the mainland. Yu Guangzhong was born in the Nationalist capital of Nanjing in October 1928 and has been a professor since 1956, in Taiwan, the United States, and at Chinese University in Hong Kong from 1974 to 1985. He has written dozens of books and poems, and has been quoted in textbooks in Taiwan, Hong Kong and... https://www.scmp.com/article/984202/rapid-spread-english-infecting-putonghua?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/984202/rapid-spread-english-infecting-putonghua?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 07 Nov 2011 16:00:00 +0000 On a mountaintop north of its capital, Taiwan has begun a new and perilous experiment - the construction of the island's first residential skyscraper aimed at investors from the mainland. Even before the ground is broken, 20 units have been sold. Mainland money and people have poured into property markets around the world - from Hong Kong to Honolulu, from Toronto to St Tropez - in a trend that accelerated when the financial crisis of 2008 brought down prices in developed countries. But Taiwan... https://www.scmp.com/article/983966/shut-out?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/983966/shut-out?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 05 Nov 2011 16:00:00 +0000 The year 1911 has been celebrated as belonging to Sun Yat-sen, the father of China's revolution. But if history had played out slightly differently, it could have been known as the year of Kang You-wei, the father of constitutional monarchy in China. A brilliant intellectual, Kang proposed that China follow the constitutional models of Japan, Sweden and Britain, and he inspired the young Guangxu Emperor to adopt many of his ideas in 1898. But after the Hundred Days' Reform, the Empress... https://www.scmp.com/article/983454/man-who-could-have-changed-chinas-history?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/983454/man-who-could-have-changed-chinas-history?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 30 Oct 2011 16:00:00 +0000 Where China Meets India - Burma and the New Crossroads of Asia by Thant Myint-U Farrar, Straus and Giroux This is an excellent book about one of Asia's most isolated and least known countries - Myanmar, or Burma, the name many still use. Since independence in 1948 and especially since a military junta took power in 1962, it has fallen far behind dynamic neighbours such as Thailand and Malaysia. But now it has become the centre of a new Great Game between two emerging superpowers: China and... https://www.scmp.com/article/982624/where-china-meets-india-burma-and-new-crossroads-asia?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/982624/where-china-meets-india-burma-and-new-crossroads-asia?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 22 Oct 2011 16:00:00 +0000 MEDAL OF HONOUR On August 20, I learned of an auction to be held five days later of the medal the Chinese government awarded in 1920 to my grandfather, Frederick O'Neill, an Irish Presbyterian missionary in Manchuria. He received the Order of the Striped Tiger for his work with the [British] Chinese Labour Corps, a group of 96,000 people who helped Allied forces in France and Belgium from 1917 to 1919. At the auction, in Tsim Sha Tsui, I paid US$5,000 for the medal. It was an enormous... https://www.scmp.com/article/981975/frederick-oneill?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/981975/frederick-oneill?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 15 Oct 2011 16:00:00 +0000