Books
Photo trove offers window on life in China’s wartime capital Chongqing
A new book published by Hong Kong’s Blacksmith Books features images of Chongqing shot by war correspondent Melville Jacoby that paint a picture of life in China’s temporary capital on the Yangtze.
Then & Now | The eclectic publisher jailed for plotting to kill Mao Zedong
After World War II, Henri Vetch built a publishing career in China before being jailed for plotting to assassinate Mao Zedong and later taking the helm of the freshly minted Hong Kong University press.
How Half the Sky spurred Hongkonger to start ethical shoe brand
Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn’s 2009 book Half the Sky opened the eyes of Natalie Chow, co-founder of Hong Kong-based sustainable and ethical shoe brand Kibo, to human trafficking and slavery.
Raped at 14, she was haunted for years – now her dream has come true
Fresh from her talk at the Hong Kong International Literary Festival, newly minted author Sonia Leung tells Kate Whitehead about life in a Diamond Hill slum, a devastating rape and how she finally followed her dream.
Which Jane Austen book changed this mental health charity founder’s life?
Lucy Lord MBE, a decorated obstetrician who is also the founder and executive chair of mental health charity Mind HK, reveals the Jane Austen book that she has read over and over again for 50 years.
‘It helped to shape me’: Hong Kong Arts Festival director’s eye-opening read
Flora Yu, executive director of the Hong Kong Arts Festival, explains how the classic Chinese novel Dream of the Red Chamber, one of the world’s great works of literature, changed her life.
Book extract: new thinking about Marco Polo’s China travels, often doubted
With his outlandish stories of the East, Marco Polo has always drawn scepticism. But historian and author Christopher Harding’s latest book makes the intrepid Venetian’s travels harder to doubt.
‘Thrill of the forbidden’: Charles Baudelaire’s dark, taboo-busting poetry
Nicolas Chow, chairman for Asia and worldwide head of Asian art at Sotheby’s, explains how French poet Charles Baudelaire’s book Les Fleurs du Mal (The Flowers of Evil) changed his life.
Best books of 2023 – with a twist – from Elon Musk biography to Yellow Face
From an Elon Musk biography and Prince Harry’s Spare to Yellow Face and Hong Kong poetry, Post Magazine’s round-up of 2023’s best books takes as its theme the Cambridge Dictionary word of the year, hallucinate.
How F. Scott Fitzgerald’s first book changed fashion label founder’s life
Christine Chow, co-founder and creative director of Hong Kong sustainable fashion label Tove & Libra, explains the impact F. Scott Fitzgerald’s first book ‘This Side of Paradise’ had on her young self.
Mobile internet meets nomad tradition on the Mongolian steppe
With the lifestyle of nomads on the Mongolian steppe under threat, many are embracing the mobile internet to stay connected and ease their labour without giving up the best of their traditional ways.
‘Exceed expectations, you’re not always rewarded’: Anna Karenina’s message
Reading Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy’s novel of ‘immense beauty’, taught Lynn Fung, director of a Hong Kong museum founded by her father, lessons about family dynamics and what others expect of you.
Why ordering a Chinese meal is ‘like a symphony’ for author Fuchsia Dunlop
Fuchsia Dunlop, award-winning cook and writer, wants people around the world to understand that when they eat Chinese food they are enjoying ‘a very sophisticated cuisine’. It’s the theme of her latest book.
Why is this sustainable fashion marketplace founder rereading Shakespeare?
Laura Williamson, founder of Hong Kong-based sustainable fashion marketplace Plantdays, is going back over the complete works of Shakespeare because it ‘really forces you to think’.
Chinese text that helped Gay Games Hong Kong co-chair embrace being a lesbian
Lisa Lam, co-chair of the Gay Games Hong Kong, says the Zhuangzi, a foundational work of Chinese philosophy and literature, gave her perspective on being a lesbian.
Hong Kong Biodiversity Museum founder on a challenge to how he saw nature
Benoit Guénard of the Hong Kong Biodiversity Museum explains how botanist Francis Hallé’s ‘In Praise of Plants’ made him realise we need to think in different ways for different species.
‘She would not eat so she could buy a pen’: NGO founder on her inspiration
Alicia Lui, founder of Women In Sports Empowered Hong Kong, talks about how her life changed when she read the diary of a poor Chinese schoolgirl from a remote region of Ningxia.
Should we allow designer babies? Nobel laureate’s work troubles blind CEO
Chong Chan-yau, CEO of Hong Kong NGO CarbonCare InnoLab, who has been blind since he was six, talks about how a book about a CRISPR gene-editing pioneer changed his life.
‘It’s not just a cookbook’: eye-opening tome on Indian royal cuisine
Palash Mitra, who gained a Michelin star when heading Hong Kong’s New Punjab Club, talks about how ‘Dining with the Nawabs’ goes deep into all aspects of Indian royal cuisine.
John le Carré’s time in Hong Kong, and a detail about it that he got wrong
Characters the British writer met in Hong Kong made it into one of his Cold War spy novels, as did an error he admitted cribbing from an out-of-date guidebook and which taught him to get the small stuff right.