In 1989, When Walt Hackman's son was tragically murdered his world collapsed around him. Seeking peace of mind and a new beginning, Walt sought to honor his son's memory by bringing to life a dream that his son shared with him but had long been delayed - to live on a Chinese junk. And the first thing: to build one.What followed was 5 trips to China in 4 years, dealing with people of totally different customs and culture, learning about Chinese history, poetry, and cuisine while lea...

Walt Hackman's "No Problem, Mr. Walt" is more than a poignant travel memoir. It is written by a father and easygoing voyager about his travels throughout China in his extraordinary quest to build an authentic wooden Chinese junk boat—in China! This delightful book is filled with humor, drama, and suspense juxtaposed with Chinese history, anecdotes, poetry, and recipes.Synopsis: When Walt's son was tragically murdered, his world collapsed around him. Seeking peace of mind and a new b...

A New York Times Notable book, this memoir by a journalist who lived in a small city in China is "a vivid and touching tribute to a place and its people" ( Kirkus Reviews, starred review).In the heart of China's Sichuan province, amid the terraced hills of the Yangtze River valley, lies the remote town of Fuling. Like many other small cities in this ever-evolving country, Fuling is heading down a new path of change and growth, which came into remar...

When the murder of a woman is reported to the Shanghai police while Inspector Chen is on vacation, Sergeant Yu is forced to take charge of the investigation. The victim, Yin Lige, a novelist known for her banned book, has been found dead in her tiny, humble room off the stairwell of a converted multi-family house. It seems that only a neighbor could have committed the crime, for the building is kept locked at night. But there is no apparent motive. Sergeant Yu tries to unravel the reclusiv...

11 days in TAIPEI, TAIWAN with my best friends. No naggy parents, no pesky siblings. I should be ecstatic, right? But nooo…Mum decided my first trip abroad should be culturally enriching. Which meant boring Chinese lessons. I told myself, stay positive! There’d be lots of bubble tea, all the street snacks I could find, sightseeing…

An unforgettable portrait of individuals who hope, struggle, and grow along a single street cutting through the heart of Shanghai, from one of the most acclaimed broadcast journalists reporting on China.Modern Shanghai: a global city in the midst of a renaissance, where dreamers arrive each day to partake in a mad torrent of capital, ideas, and opportunity. Marketplace’s Rob Schmitz is one of them. He immerses himself in his neighborhood, forging deep rela...

Journalist Michael Meyer has spent his adult life in China, first in a small village as a Peace Corps volunteer, the last decade in Beijing--where he has witnessed the extraordinary transformation the country has experienced in that time. For the past two years he has been completely immersed in the ancient city, living on one of its famed hutong in a century-old courtyard home he shares with several families, teaching English at a local elementary school--while all around him "pr...

As the fiftieth anniversary of the People's Republic of China approaches on October 1, 1999, Jan Wong reflects on her body of work as a foreign correspondent there. Despite the fact that everything is changing, she discovers that not much really changes, and what she wrote several years ago about love, work and living still holds, as do the conflicts over who rules, who survives, and who gets the bigger slice of Peking Duck.From a peasant tax revolt through the new consume...

In 2006, the Prime Minister apologized to the Chinese people for the legislated discrimination created by Canada’s head tax laws in the first half of the twentieth century, acknowledging the far-reaching and long-term consequences it has had on their families. A Cowherd in Paradise is the story of one such family.The book chronicles the remarkable lives of Wong Guey Dang (1902–1983) and Jiang Tew Thloo (1911–2002). Ah Dang was born into an impoverished family and sold as a...

A lively tour through Japan, Korea, and China, exploring their intertwined cultures and fraught history, by the author of The Almost Nearly Perfect People.There is an ancient Chinese proverb that states, "Two tigers cannot share the same mountain." However, in East Asia, there are three tigers on that mountain—China, Korea, and Japan—and they have a long history of turmoil and tension with one another. In this entertaining and thought-provoking travelogue, ...

'Deeply moving story of self-sacrifice and pride' - Jennifer Byrne, Australian Women's WeeklyOne family's epic tale of survival in tumultuous twentieth-century China.Li Feng grew up in Mao's communist China with her mother's motto burning in her ears - Success demands two things: unconditional sacrifice and absolute mental focus. Finally breaking free of her mother's overbearing clutches and fleeing to Sydney as an adult, Li strugg...

An extraordinary memoir of one woman's experiences in China.********************************Tessa Keswick first travelled to China in 1982 and immediately fell in love with its history, culture and landscape.Over the next thirty years, she travelled extensively in China, visiting its temples and landmarks, the sites of its most famous battles, and the birthplaces of its best-known poets and philosophers. She also witnessed China's transformation, as hundreds of milli...