Next month at Veranda Books, in Seymour Place, Marylebone (just back from Maerble Arch)has been designated Asia Month, a 4-week focus on the translated literature of Japan, Korea, Vietnam and China. Veranda is a fantastic bookshop specialising in translated fiction and non-fiction from around the worlld. As a taster before we explore the poetic, here’s a round-up of the prosaic: our current favourite books about China from the non-fiction shelves.
Follow their website for more events and recommendations…
Where to begin making sense of China, land of 1.4 billion souls, home to 300 languages, and countless stories to be told. If you’re curious to know more, Veranda suggest these…
Breakneckby Dan Wang Highly-regarded technology writer Wang spent the last 6 years in China witnessing its messy, miraculous growth and declining relations with the West up close. A brilliant blend of political, economic and societal analysis.
Private Revolutions: Coming of Age in a New China by Yuan Yang Born in China, raised in the UK, Yang returned to her homeland as a journalist and brings us this intimate account of the lives of 4 women born in the late 80s/90s. Through this lens, Yang exposes the seismic shifts in Chinese society and their impact on the population.
Daughters of the Bamboo Groveby Barbara Demick The gripping true story of separated twins and their respective fates in China and the USA, this book asks questions about the consequences of the one-child policy and tackles assumptions about the quality of life in the East vs West. Demick’s seminal book on North Korea, Nothing to Envy was shortlisted for – and won – a number of prizes, and this outstanding book looks set to be similarly garlanded.
Emperor of the Seas: Kublai Khan and the Making of China by Jack Weatherford For history buffs wanting a deeper understanding of just how deeply-rooted China’s influence is, this is a vibrant account of how the grandson of Genghis Khan conquered China and established the most powerful navy in the world.
The Sunset Session: A Literary Celebration of the Hotel Central, at this year’s Macao Literary Festival for all (cocktail) history and literature lovers – March 9 – 6.30pm on the panoramic rooftop.
Join writer and China historian Paul French along with journalist and broadcaster Annemarie Evans for a rooftop cocktail and celebration of the Hotel Central’s literary heritage.
Revel in the history of this amazing hotel, its generations of denizens, packed gaming rooms and scandals, all illustrated with the writings of Han Suyin, Ernest Gann, Richard Mason and Ian Fleming, among others. And all with the amazing views from the Hotel Central’s roof.
Lib-Dem leader Ed Davey’s comments in the House of Commons yesterday that British tax exiles in Dubai should now be made to pay tax in the UK made me think of Arthur Ransome. In particular his controversial trip to Shanghai a century ago. While there he wrote back about what he saw as the “Shanghai Mindset”, back when the term “ex-pat” was rarely used and had different connotations than today (of forced exile rather than fiscal convenience). Davey said,
‘As we protect them, it’s only right for tax exiles to start paying taxes to fund our Armed Forces just like the rest of us do.’
English author and journalist Arthur Ransome turned up in Shanghai in 1927 reporting for the Manchester Guardian. The British-dominated International Settlement had virtually no income tax (despite land/property taxes, duties and a few indirect taxes). British subjects were not required to pay taxes back in the UK. Ransome wrote:
‘The Shanghailanders hold that loyalty begins at home and that their primary allegiance is to Shanghai … Shanghailanders of English extraction belong, if they belong to England at all, to an England that no longer exists.’
Perhaps the Sinologist and former Chinese Maritime Customs Officer LA Lyall said it even better, and evoking thoughts for today too:
‘The British residents in Shanghai are the spoilt children of the Empire. They pay no taxes to China, except that landowners pay a very small land tax, and no taxes to England. Judges and consuls are provided for them; they are protected by the British fleet, and for several years they have had in addition a British army to defend them; and for all this expenditure the British taxpayer pays.’
Of course the more bellicose Brits in Shanghai who had long had it both ways – i.e. paid no taxes, but got regiments and gunboats – responded as expected. The North-China Daily News wrote ‘…the most objectionable misrepresentation…’ and reprinted any number of letters of the “Angry of Bubbling Well Road” variety.
‘History doesn’t repeat itself but it often rhymes’ – Mark Twain (reputedly).
(For ore on Ransome’s trip to Shanghai see the chapter in my collection Destination Shanghai– Blacksmith Books, 2018)
Heads up for March 7th 3.15pm at this year’s Macao International Literary Festival. I’ll be talking to the prolific novelist Lawrence Osborne about his novel Ballad of A Small Player. Set in Macao it’s about trying to escape yourself, running away and, perhaps, seeking redemption for your sins through winning, or losing, at the tables.
As Netflix just made a film version with Colin Farrell, Fala Chen, Alex Jennings and Tilda Swinton we’ll also be joined by the producer Mike Goodridge of GoodChaos (Santosh, The Left Handed Girl, Sisu) to discuss the problems and fun of adapting Ballad for the movies. And they’ll also be a cinema screening of the movie at the beautiful Art Deco Cinema Alegria (Estrada do Repouso) the same evening followed by a Q&A.
So, you’ve got time to read the book and then come join us on March 7th for what I’m sure will be a great conversation.
Heads up for Friday night, March 6 – Nightcaps and Narratives at the Hong Kong International Literary Festival 2026 – I’ll be with an amazing groups of writers – Hernan Diaz, Emma Pei Yin, the poet Anthony Tao, Xu Xi for an evening of a few drinks, a lot of conversation and some readings all in the amazing surroundings of the China Club…. and all celebrating the festival’s 25th anniversary….tickets here…
I’m looking to commission some new titles for my Asian Arguments series for Bloomsbury Publishing. Contemporary issues, concisely written, approx 65k words. Perspectives from journalists, NGO folk, think tankers, academics aiming for a wider trade market, all welcome…
Subjects that particularly interest me right now:
Organised crime, cyber fraud, scam economies
China-Afghanistan relations
Xinjiang and Central Asia society/relationships
Nomadic communities
Mongolia and the commodities curse
China-Russian Far East developments
The state and prospects for the Japanese far right
Any other good ideas….
(At the moment i’m good for anything related to Myanmar, Hong Kong, DPRK)
Next title in the series, Jerome Sauvage’s Witness to North Korea is out this August….
The whole series is here – https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/series/asian-arguments/
Anyone with ideas and the right background to write the book drop me an email (paul@chinarhyming.com)
A Hong Kong University Zoom – Eileen Chang spent less than three years living in Hong Kong, but her student days at the University of Hong Kong proved to be a formative experience that would help
