https://www.scmp.com/rss/7072/feed en https://assets.i-scmp.com/static/img/icons/scmp-meta-1200x630.png https://www.scmp.com The second opium war, 1856-60. When in 1856, the 1844 US-China Treaty of Wangxia expired, American envoy to China William Reed set about negotiating new terms of trade, permission for diplomatic residence in Beijing and the extension of religious freedom to Christians.  Following the eventual conclusion of these negotiations, in 1859, his successor, American minister John Ward, embarked in Hong Kong aboard the USS Powhatan destined for Beijing, accompanied by the hired steamer Toey-Wan, on a... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/long-reads/article/2142196/young-americans-first-hand-account-second-opium?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/long-reads/article/2142196/young-americans-first-hand-account-second-opium?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 19 Apr 2018 12:45:45 +0000 Like a Seed with its Singular Purpose by Cyril Wong Firstfruits Publications, HK$100 'If you can be this sad, you can also be this happy.' There's no doubt of the intensity of the experiences Cyril Wong reflects in this, his fifth collection of poetry. The sadness is patent. But the happiness seems something hoped for, rather than achieved, except perhaps in the joy of expression, the joy of creating his work. If the personality presented in each poem is one and the same, this book... https://www.scmp.com/article/571206/reading-intoa-sad-happy-life?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/571206/reading-intoa-sad-happy-life?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 11 Nov 2006 16:00:00 +0000 Summer Cicadas by Jennifer Wong Chameleon Press, HK$99 This first collection of Jennifer Wong's poetry gives insight into being a young, sensitive, Hong Kong Chinese girl who wins an undergraduate scholarship to read English literature at Oxford. There's the excitement of opening the letter of award, with its hopes for the future; then the adaptation to the special culture of Oxford with its 'reading men', Bodleian Library, Radcliffe Camera, college gardens and quads. There's the hope... https://www.scmp.com/article/567673/summer-cicadas?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/567673/summer-cicadas?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 14 Oct 2006 16:00:00 +0000 Plague, Sars, and the Story of Medicine in Hong Kong compiled by the Hong Kong Museum of Medical Sciences Society Hong Kong University Press, HK$250 We all know - the medical profession better than most - that some tasks are best performed by a specialist. Indeed, some distinguished members of the medical profession have assisted or contributed to this book, compiled by the Hong Kong Museum of Medical Sciences Society. But the historical content, and editing, could have been better. The... https://www.scmp.com/article/566044/plague-sars-and-story-medicine-hong-kong?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/566044/plague-sars-and-story-medicine-hong-kong?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 30 Sep 2006 16:00:00 +0000 A Social History of the Chinese Book: Books and Literati Culture in Late Imperial China by Joseph P. McDermott Hong Kong University Press, $175 In the early 19th century, six keys, one brought by each branch of a family lineage, were needed to unlock the door of a private library in Ningpo. Another local family so much wanted access to this library that they married their daughter into the family who owned it. But the new bride found that, as a woman, she couldn't enter. Allegedly, she died... https://www.scmp.com/article/560078/reading-non-fiction?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/560078/reading-non-fiction?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 12 Aug 2006 16:00:00 +0000 Once Upon a Time in Cairo by Sayed Gouda Blacksmith Books, $95 Most people will recognise the characters who populate Once Upon a Time in Cairo. On the one hand, there are the generous, honest and self-reliant; on the other, the self-interested, unprincipled and manipulative. The reader's loyalty is stirred and polarised as readily as by a classic cowboy movie. Will good triumph? Or will injustice prevail? What's fresh is the setting in which the story takes place, and here the title... https://www.scmp.com/article/556751/family-affairs?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/556751/family-affairs?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 15 Jul 2006 16:00:00 +0000 Queen's Road Central and Other Stories by Matthew Harrison Phaeton, $78 This first collection of short stories by Matthew Harrison, a Hong Kong resident for 20 years, is good enough for readers to be eager to know what he'll publish next - and to wonder if he's on the right track. The eight stories, of uneven length, are named after Hong Kong roads or places, and the detailed descriptions they contain of Hong Kong are good and generally seem highly accurate. It's disconcerting,... https://www.scmp.com/article/548716/queens-road-central-and-other-stories?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/548716/queens-road-central-and-other-stories?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 13 May 2006 16:00:00 +0000 Your Secret Life: Poems by Harry Ricketts by Harry Ricketts HeadworX, $138 It used to be said there was no need to worry about what people would say about you once you left Hong Kong. You'd be forgotten before the ship left harbour. Harry Ricketts taught in the Department of English Language and Literature at the University of Hong Kong during the 1970s and his earlier book, People Like Us, was published in Hong Kong by Eurasia in 1977. Ricketts was a tri-culture kid, brought up in Hong... https://www.scmp.com/article/543059/your-secret-life-poems-harry-ricketts?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/543059/your-secret-life-poems-harry-ricketts?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 01 Apr 2006 16:00:00 +0000 Reluctant Heroes: Rickshaw Pullers in Hong Kong and Canton, 1874-1954 by Fung Chi Ming Hong Kong University Press, $250 The title is almost the best part of this book. Reluctant Heroes does show something of the hard lives of rickshaw-pullers and incorporates interviews with some retirees. But nowhere does it show anything about men who sacrificed themselves for an ideal. Although rickshaw- pullers played an important part in the Canton Insurrection of 1927, this book gives their... https://www.scmp.com/article/537026/reluctant-heroes-rickshaw-pullers-hong-kong-and-canton-1874-1954?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/537026/reluctant-heroes-rickshaw-pullers-hong-kong-and-canton-1874-1954?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 18 Feb 2006 16:00:00 +0000 EDUCATION IS PRIZED in Hong Kong for the practical reason that it helps people get good jobs, and entry to the top schools can lead to getting the very best ones. St Paul's Co-Educational College is the alma mater of Arthur Li Kwok-cheung, Secretary for Education and Manpower. Charles Kao, a pioneer in fibre optics and former vice-chancellor of the Chinese University of Hong Kong, attended St Joseph's College. Wah Yan College Hong Kong is where the Chief Executive, Donald Tsang Yam-kuen,... https://www.scmp.com/article/533680/queens-college-basks-role-cradle-leaders?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/533680/queens-college-basks-role-cradle-leaders?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 20 Jan 2006 16:00:00 +0000 Blonde Lotus by Cecilie Gamst Berg Haven Books, $145 Kat Glaso, the Blonde Lotus of the title, shares several characteristics with Cecilie Gamst Berg, who wrote this book. Of similar age, both are Norwegians settled in Hong Kong and both are passionate about Chinese poker and the Cantonese language. The portrait of the author, posing with a group of Chinese blue-collar workers, alludes to the fictional Kat's penchant for Chinese men: hairdressers, cooks, firemen, policemen, even the... https://www.scmp.com/article/532899/blonde-lotus?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/532899/blonde-lotus?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 14 Jan 2006 16:00:00 +0000 Smoke by Peter Suart MCCM Creations, $140 The central characters in Smoke are a young boy, Tik, and a dog called Twistleton Orlando Koterweiss (Tok, for short). They wake up one day to find they're famous, with the world's press intruding on their home on the beach (with typical Suart humour, a thumbnail in-text illustration of the cover of Smoke indicates it's the success of Smoke that's caused the frenzy). 'You're what the kids want and we're gonna give you to 'em. We're not leaving... https://www.scmp.com/article/529810/smoke?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/529810/smoke?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 17 Dec 2005 16:00:00 +0000 The Devil's Feather by Minette Walters Macmillan, $189 I beg you to read this book twice - then let me know if she did it or not. No one who follows the news will be ignorant of the war in Iraq, the mistreatment of prisoners at the Abu Ghraib prison or the kidnapping of female journalists. So this novel's opening events aren't likely to be rejected as unrealistic. Similarly, exposes in recent years about the questionable nature of some newsgathering and the fabrications of some... https://www.scmp.com/article/526750/devils-feather?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/526750/devils-feather?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 26 Nov 2005 16:00:00 +0000 Deadly Slipper: A Novel of Death in the Dordogne by Michelle Wan Doubleday, $187 This murder mystery-cum-thriller certainly keeps you reading. Has the heroine's long-missing twin, Bedie, really been murdered? Will Mara herself become a victim of a previously unsuspected serial killer? It's 19 years since French-Canadian orchid-enthusiast Bedie disappeared in rural France, and many years since the French police let the case lie dormant. Mara, desperate for closure, has returned to the... https://www.scmp.com/article/520696/deadly-slipper-novel-death-dordogne?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/520696/deadly-slipper-novel-death-dordogne?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 15 Oct 2005 16:00:00 +0000 Celebrating St Andrew's Church: 100 Years of History, Life and Personal Faith by Charlotte Vesey St Andrew's Church $120 Charlotte Vesey has probably made a wise decision in not attempting any analysis of the interesting materials that she's collected and compiled in this selected record of 100 years of St Andrew's Church, Kowloon. As one would expect of an institutional history, published by the institution itself, Celebrating St Andrew's Church criticises no one and nothing related to its... https://www.scmp.com/article/502389/celebrating-st-andrews-church-100-years-history-life-and-personal-faith?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/502389/celebrating-st-andrews-church-100-years-history-life-and-personal-faith?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 28 May 2005 16:00:00 +0000 The World as It Shall Be by Emile Souvestre Translated by Margaret Clarke Wesleyan University Press $234 The World as It Shall Be was written to satirise the world and to warn of the dark future humankind was creating. Much of the satire can find a contemporary target today. The feared future Emile Souvestre described was simply the present writ large. Looking around us, a century and a half into that future, we perhaps see the same present and accept the logic for the same future, waiting... https://www.scmp.com/article/497928/world-it-shall-be?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/497928/world-it-shall-be?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 23 Apr 2005 16:00:00 +0000 Memory & Identity: Personal Reflections by Pope John Paul II Weidenfeld & Nicolson $201 To read these words from Pope John Paul must be of interest to many. To Catholics, because the pope is head of the Catholic Church. To Protestants and members of other churches seeking to follow the example of Jesus Christ, because of his Christian leadership. To non-Christians, because of the loyalty he owns among millions of people. And to others, irrespective of religion, at least because of his... https://www.scmp.com/article/495220/memory-identity-personal-reflections?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/495220/memory-identity-personal-reflections?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 02 Apr 2005 16:00:00 +0000 The Maryknoll Sisters in Hong Kong, 1921-1969: In Love with the Chinese by Cindy Yik-Yi Chu Palgrave Macmillan $520 The Maryknoll Sisters arrived in Hong Kong in 1921. They were the third community of Catholic nuns to be established in Hong Kong, long after the French St Paul de Chartres Sisters and the Italian Canossian sisters. But they, too, were pioneers, for they belonged to the first American Catholic community of women founded for overseas missionary work, and Hong Kong was the first... https://www.scmp.com/article/484804/maryknoll-sisters-hong-kong-1921-1969-love-chinese?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/484804/maryknoll-sisters-hong-kong-1921-1969-love-chinese?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 08 Jan 2005 16:00:00 +0000 Yeh Yeh's House: A Memoir by Evelina Chao St Martin's Press $187 Thoughtful and ambitious, musician and novelist Evelina Chao's memoir takes the reader on a five-week trip to China in the 1980s and into her own emotions and consciousness as a second-generation Chinese-American. It's easy and often compulsive reading. The flowing narrative is enlivened by good dialogue in varied voices. It bursts with so much detail an index would not be out of place. Telling what she knows of her parents'... https://www.scmp.com/article/483920/yeh-yehs-house-memoir?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/483920/yeh-yehs-house-memoir?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 01 Jan 2005 16:00:00 +0000 An End to Suffering: The Buddha in the World by Pankaj Mishra Picador $195 In 1992, Pankaj Mishra moved to a small Himalayan village where he lived a simple bachelor's life in cheap rental accommodation, reading, thinking and observing. From here, he made long journeys 'across high mountains and deep valleys', to Buddhist-dominated regions in the inner Himalayas, 'often ... attracted by nothing more than a vague promise of some great happiness awaiting me at the other end'. Gradually, Mishra... https://www.scmp.com/article/478053/end-suffering-buddha-world?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/478053/end-suffering-buddha-world?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 13 Nov 2004 16:00:00 +0000 Building on its past theatrical successes, St Mary's Canossian College's production of the musical play Arion and the Dolphin played to full houses recently. Impressed by previous performances of Orpheus in the Underworld, Animal Farm, Antigone and Under the Spell, students, parents, teachers, former students and teachers and well-wishers crowded the school hall. Their reward was another highly polished production with a popular message. The classical story of how singer Arion was... https://www.scmp.com/article/280253/classical-tale-draws-crowds?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/280253/classical-tale-draws-crowds?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 26 Apr 1999 16:00:00 +0000