Bøker utgitt av Blacksmith Books

China's treaty port era extended from the 1840s to 1943, during which time foreigners had a significant presence. This book contains more than 700 photographs of many buildings from this period, most of them commissioned by non-Chinese people and companies. Many argue that they should never have been built, let alone still be standing. But this book is not concerned with the rights and wrongs of how these buildings came to be. It simply celebrates their existence. A significant number are innately beautiful and all of them embody a history that has clear and present links to our own time and thus remain relevant. This book was driven by the author's interest in the history of China's treaty port era, in which several generations of his family played a part. It is a tribute to the buildings that remain as a reminder of the past, and a guide to where to find them.

As a youth in Saigon's Chinatown of the 1960s and 70s, Paul Au was greatly affected by American 'hippie' culture and Rock & Roll. He was smuggled into Hong Kong in 1974 to escape the South Vietnamese military draft. At first living in rooftop squats, he started to trade used vinyl records on the streets of Kowloon, and finally established an underground reputation for his eclectic blend and unending supply of recorded music.

Viviamo in un tempo di grandi sconvolgimenti, un tempo in cui dobbiamo affrontare una pandemia, guerre, crisi energetiche. Ci sembra di non aver vissuto mai tempi così difficili e cerchiamo di immaginare il futuro cercando di non cedere alla disperazione e al pessimismo sistematico. Previsioni nefaste si affacciano sulle colonne dei giornali, che adombrano la possibilità di una guerra nucleare che renderebbe la distruzione dell'umanità una prospettiva del tutto realistica; dall'altro lato, l'estinzione dell'umanità a causa del mutamento del clima è prospettata da alcuni come un'ipotesi non irrealistica.In un contesto globale come quello che stiamo vivendo, la domanda sulla sensatezza di alcuni argomenti di riflessione è sicuramente non priva di sue ragioni. A che cosa serve, in un mondo frammentato e disperato, ragionare sull'arte, sulla letteratura, sulla musica? E quale sensatezza può avere presentare uno studio sulla musica sacra cattolica, che costituisce un aspetto della pratica musicale che riguarda una minoranza sempre più esigua di persone, quelli che ancora frequentano la chiesa, e in realtà una minoranza di questa minoranza? Non si tratta di un argomento irrilevante, sia nel contesto della cultura generale, sia all'interno di un mondo cattolico che sembra sempre più affaccendato negli interessi di tipo sociale, umanitario, lasciando al margine il contenuto della Rivelazione e quindi necessariamente la liturgia, che della dimensione propriamente religiosa è espressione diretta, e quindi la musica sacra, che rappresenta a sua volta l'espressione della liturgia. Sembra, in sostanza, che ci siano cose più importanti di cui occuparci, anche all'interno dello stesso mondo cattolico.In realtà l'importanza della musica sacra, che non appare a prima vista, è assai notevole e può svolgere un ruolo quasi rivelatorio nell'attuale situazione culturale e religiosa dell'Occidente (ex)-cattolico.

Everyone loves dinosaurs, but so many other wonderfully weird (and often giant) animals used to roam the Earth too - they just never had as good a publicist. The planet has seen tons of bizarre-looking mammals, which were closer to us both in biology and in time. What if they took a holiday from being extinct? Take a trip around the globe with these outlandish time tourists as they visit the modern-day places they once called home!

When Scottish footballer Derek Currie received an offer to move to Hong Kong to play against the one sportsman he had dreamed of meeting on the field, he couldn't say no. From playing football against Pelé in the Far East, to singing with Stevie Wonder and shadow-boxing with Marvelous Marvin Hagler, Currie enjoyed a magical life as one of the first three European professional footballers in Asia. He was quickly nicknamed 'Jesus' by local fans.

Benjamin Couch "BC" Henry was a missionary in Hong Kong and southern China in the late 19th century. Yet he was also a keen observer, a skilled naturalist and an intrepid explorer. The bulk of his career was spent in what was then known as "Ling-nam", the Pearl River Delta and environs of Guangzhou (Canton). These excerpts of Henry's travelogue LING-NAM, published in 1886, contain one of the most detailed walking tours of Guangzhou that has survived.

Victorian traveler Constance Gordon-Cumming roamed far and wide, from the Scottish Highlands to the American West, the islands of Hawaii to southern China. Her trip to Hong Kong was momentous: she arrived just before Christmas 1878 to inadvertently witness the terrible "Great Fire". She moved on to explore the streets, temples and Chinese New Year festivities in Guangzhou. She is that rare travel writer who, while plunging into the crowds, manages to observe the minutiae of life around her.

As a young American, Harry Hervey dreamt of traveling to Asia. In 1923, he arrived to see Hong Kong, Macao and Guangzhou. His impressions of southern China are lyrical and detailed, atmospheric and informative. From the basement "dives" of Kennedy Town to the private dining rooms of Queen's Road, Macao's Praia Grande to its fan-tan houses, Hervey is a fascinating flaneur. So too in Guangzhou, where Hervey encounters those fleeing warlord violence and receives an audience with Sun Yat-sen.

Tigers came to Hong Kong. They preyed on pigs, chickens, cattle and deer. They sometimes killed people. They came most years through to the end of the 1950s. As long as there were South China tigers in the wild, Hong Kong saw some of them. They stopped coming when they were on their way to extinction in China. Not many people know this, but it's true. And this is the first history of the Hong Kong tiger.

Major Max Devlin is on a joint SIS/CIA assignment to train an elite unit of India''s All-Tibetan Special Frontier Force the 22s for covert ops inside Tibet. A welcome escape to Chakrata in North India turns explosive when his US counterpart earns himself a shamanic curse. Their host, an Indian cabinet peopled by self-serving ministers, is split on where national interests lie. A deviously ambitious intelligence officer waits in the wings. Local politicians whose salacious sons perish at the hands of Devlin and his Gurkha sergeant, Deepraj, are in vengeful pursuit. Once across the border and high on the Himalayas, death and torture await the 22s. Caught in the geopolitical web are three remarkable women two officers and a combat surgeon whose courage, faith and skill will be tested to the limits. Faced with a clash between his principles as a soldier and his cherished career in the Royal Gurkha Rifles, Devlin must decide how the die is cast.

Welly the wild boar loves nothing better than eating fluffy egg puffs! He roams his home city of Hong Kong in search of his favourite snack, but he finds many other tasty foods to try along the way. This poetic tale of a loveable local creature will introduce you to traditional Hong Kong snacks and persuade you to go out and try some for yourself. See how many of these street foods you can find!

"We had no jurisdiction outside Hong Kong waters. But we could see their vessels sinking in heavy seas. It was life or death. We just went." Former Marine Police officer Les Bird tells of the harrowing journey to Hong Kong made by tens of thousands of refugees in the years following the Vietnam War. He photographed their makeshift boats and his pictures tell the stories of these desperate refugees searching for a new life.

"Ayo Gorkhali!" - "The Gurkhas are upon you!" - is the battle cry of one of the world's most famous fighting forces. Yet the Gurkha story is not only about bravery in combat. It is also a story of tragedy.In WWI, 200,000 Gurkhas out of Nepal's five million people participated in the British cause. A further 250,000 Gurkhas fought in WWII. This book tells the Gurkhas' story from the beginning to the present day.

Asia, 1996. What do you do when you have failed to find the meaning of life in India, your money has run out, your girlfriend has gone, and prospects at home are limited? Go further east, young man! Meet Joe Walsh, a backpacker who is determined to put a wayward life behind him and make it big in Hong Kong, where fortune still favours the British and opportunities are there for the taking. In the final full year of British-ruled Hong Kong, tourists and hordes of transient workers are exploiting the economy as well as the occasion.Arriving almost penniless, with issues in love and life, Joe decides to make the most of this opportunity: he discovers one of the world's most exciting cities, finds challenging new jobs, makes friends with an extraordinary cast of characters, and dates local women. He finds himself absorbed into a vibrant social scene through the communal existence of a travellers' hostel, where drink, drugs and casual sex are a way of life. A stint selling sandwiches gives way to an English-teaching job, where he can at last start to live out his ambitions. But an already stressful existence worsens after a night out goes wrong. As personal relationships sour and the pressures of long hours, minimum pay, classroom clashes and abject living conditions mount, Joe is forced to confront people he wishes he'd never met, face hazards that are not signposted, and answer important questions that cannot be put off a moment longer.

Fighting to survive on a patrol launch during a typhoon. Investigating a murder by a Vietnamese gangster in a refugee camp. Battling riots during the Cultural Revolution, countering drug smuggling by the triads, and dealing with bank robbers. These are some of the stories told in this compilation of experiences from 50 former Royal Hong Kong Police officers.

Jack Leblanc arrived in China intending to teach. He was to spend the next two decades on a very different learning curve as he became involved in business ventures in almost every part of the Middle Kingdom.From farmyard to factory, boardroom to banquet, Leblanc witnessed the transformation of China from a socialist economy into the world's greatest experiment in capitalism. It dawned upon him that the key to success is to manage the differences in Chinese and Western business behavior.

Kwan was sick of feeling second-class to her husband's concubine. Late one humid night, she grabbed the cleaver. Within minutes, three people were dead: the concubine with over 70 gashes.Kwan became the last woman in Hong Kong to suffer the death penalty. Behind the stories of the city's female murderers lie complex webs of jealousies, poverty and despair.

New York Times bestselling author Paul French (Midnight in Peking) returns to the Chinese capital to tell 18 true stories of fascinating people - many Americans among them - who visited the city in the first half of the 20th century. From the ultra-wealthy Woolworths heiress Barbara Hutton and her husband the Prince Mdivani, to the poor "e;American girl"e; Mona Monteith, who worked in the city as a prostitute; from socialite Wallis Simpson and novelist JP Marquand, who held court on the rooftop of the Grand Hotel de Pekin, to Hollywood screenwriter Harry Hervey, who sought inspiration walking atop the Tartar Wall; from Edgar and Helen Foster Snow - Peking's 'It' couple of 1935 - to Martha Sawyers, who did so much to aid China against Japan in World War II; Destination Peking brings a lost pre-communist era back to life.

Based on true stories and new research, Paul French weaves together the stories of those Jewish refugees who moved on from wartime Shanghai to seek a possible route to freedom via the Portuguese colony of Macao - "the Casablanca of the Orient". The delicately balanced neutral enclave became their wartime home, amid Nazi and Japanese spies, escaped Allied prisoners from Hong Kong, and displaced Chinese. Strangers on the Praia relates the story of one young woman's struggle for freedom that would ultimately prove an act of brave resistance.

"Life is an investment exercise and you are your own best investment adviser."Jake van der Kamp has worked as an Asian investment analyst and as a financial columnist. In this book he offers a "how to" manual on investment. He argues that you are already your own best adviser on when and what investments to make - and you should rely on professionals only for advice on how and where to do so.

French artist Zabovisited Hong Kong in the 1960s, and condensed his year-long stay intoa book of cartoons which has come to be known as an emblem of theera. Life in Hong Kong's streets and trades is humorously illustratedwith a touch of satire, covering popular habits, social etiquette, traditions and the customs of local people and foreign residents.Even half a century later, Zabo's portrayal of Hong Kong stillrings true.

In Great Leaps, Colin Flahive explores China's rural-urban migration against the backdrop of his own transition from Colorado to southwest China. There he opened a café that became much more than an outpost of Western cuisine in a far-flung corner of the world.Salvador's Coffee House became home to more than 50 young women from mountain villages. Most knew nothing about coffee, but they moved to the city to work at Salvador's and earn their independence.

I cant visualise us getting out of this, but I want to TRY to believe in a future, wrote 23-year-old Barbara Anslow (then Redwood) in her diary on 8th December 1941, a few hours after Japan first attacked Hong Kong. Barbaras 1941-1945 diaries (with post-war explanations where necessary) are an invaluable source of information on the civilian experience in British Hong Kong during the second world war. The diaries record her thoughts and experiences through the fighting, the surrender, three-and-a-half years of internment in Stanley Camp, then liberation and adjustment to normal life. The diaries have been quoted by leading historians on the subject. Now they are available in print for the first time, making them available to a wider audience.

On July 1, 1997, the red flag of China was hoisted over Hong Kong - and the untried idea of "one country, two systems" was put into practice. Farewell, My Colony is a real-time journal of the end of an era. American journalist Todd Crowell captures a unique moment in history as Britain soldiers through the last months of its colonial rule, China waits restlessly to resume its sovereignty, and Hong Kong buzzes with speculation.