Vignettes of the World
Seeing the world through literature.
Midnight in Peking, a book by Paul French Midnight in Peking has all the captivating elements that make it an amazing work of historical fiction. Based on a true crime that occurred in a time long past in the last century, it fuses history, diplomatic …
I spent a delightful afternoon at the Central Library reading one of the few copies of Sunset Survivors available in Hong Kong’s public libraries. A good friend recommended this book to me and I enjoyed reading the stories very much. Here is what I took …
“Like its elegantly designed streets and architecture, most Vietnamese generally regard the food from Hue to be the most refined in all of the country.” Songs of Sapa at 78. Luke Nguyen on Vietnamese Food For anyone interested in the food of Vietnam, I recommend …
Book Review: Hong Kong Internment, 1942-1945 by Geoffrey Charles Emerson This is a great introduction to Hong Kong’s World War II history. Originally written as a master’s thesis for history, this work approaches the subject matter with sympathy and life-breathing details. One of the main …
Book Review: Not Giving Up (Trans. Original in Korean, Translated into Chinese), 2017 By Bok Yi Choi The word Bon, in Hanja[1], is first, the character for “man” over a “cross,” then furthermore a “cross” below. Overall, it is an imagery of a man bearing …
By Ha Jin It was an emotional experience reading this book. Told from the perspective of Anling, a foreman at Jinling Women’s College in Nanjing, the narrative pries open one of the most painful chapters in modern Chinese history—the Rape of Nanking. The story begins …
By Patrick H. Hase “The leased area [the New Territories] was not seen as an economic advantage to the City (indeed, it was initially assumed that it would be a drain on the Colony’s finances), but it was seen as greatly strengthening the City’s security …
By Paul French “Even the Albanians described North Korea as an ‘unbelievably closed society.’”[i] Famine, credit default, constant blackouts, economic collapse, failed piecemeal reforms, nuclear weapons, repression – the indicators of a failed state are no longer hidden from the world now, despite North …
By Han Kang Ah, what a surprise. I thought this would be a lighthearted and fun book about a Korean woman who decided to turn vegetarian in a culture where meat is consumed as much as air is breathed. As it turned out, not only …
