Extra: Bookstore Encounter in Asia

In Thailand, you can find good selection of English-language books at Asia Books, a local chain with retail stores in popular areas of Bangkok. Except for the ones in Siam Paragon and Central World (two main shopping malls), most of its branches are small and stock a limited but nevertheless interesting range of fiction and general interest titles in English. I especially love their sections on Thailand and Southeast Asia, where you will find novels, history books, coffee-table books set in the region written by both foreign and local writers. Fiction wise, Thailand imports UK editions so there is a much better chance to locate paperbacks that are yet to be released in the USA. And for the same reason, the selection reflects a greater emphasis on European titles. The non-fiction is just as fulfilling. Here you will find off-the-beaten-path books about prostitution, prison tell-all, homeopathic cure. For me it’s always a great place to start when I only bring enough readings to accompany my flight to Thailand—I know I’ll always find something here. Between Asia Books and its Japanese-owned rival, Kinokuniya, which also carries titles in English language, I fill up my luggage with books to be read after I return home.

Eslite, the swanky new Taiwanese mega bookstore in Causeway Bay, Hong Kong does not live up to my expectation. The selection, at least in English-language books, doesn’t measure up that of Page One. Eslite boasts the ample space for readers to enjoy the books. But from my experience, while the three-storey powerhouse is packed to the rafters with almost every tome imaginable, it’s not poised to become my favorite stop to buy books. It’s more a lifestyle store than a bookstore—they have a tea shop, stationery annex, and boutique. None of the books on my list are in stock at Eslite, despite a third of its collection is in English language. Eslite also groups books in Chinese and English under the same category, which I find confusing. Eslite provides a great reading ambiance, but not necessarily the most eclectic titles. If you are looking for a place for casual, after-work reading, Eslite is not it. After all, most Hong Kongers aren’t avid readers. It’s also true that the minority who do read probably won’t go to Eslite.

Deep Night & Books Set in Hong Kong

My unofficial breakfast reading club, which consists of three members, often share books we read. The latest acquisition is Deep Night by Caroline Petit. This book was getting curiously meager attention among media and book blogger. Only one review was available on Amazon. Being a native of Hong Kong who grew up under the colonial flag, the story immediately appeals to me: In 1937 in Hong Kong Jonathan Hawatyne and his fiancee antiques dealer Leah Kolbe attend a movie when the second Sino-Japanese War begins. They are separated as the Japanese easily take the city. However, Leah flees the dangerous occupation by boat to Macau where she fortunately finds work and some safety at the British Consulate.

Here I include a list of books set in my hometown, Hong Kong. During the 150 some years that the city was in the rein of the Brits, it’s been a locale of wonder, opportunity, adventure, and source of wealth. Authors have also been fascinated by this unique place. The former colony has etched its way into (particularly 20th century) literary tomes. Just off the top of my head includes:

Fragrant Harbor John Lanchester
This is meant to be re-read. An Englishman finds his way into the heart of a local nun. They had to make the decision for each other when war broke out and as Hong Kong fell to the Japanese. Set in 1930s and 40s.

Noble House James Clavell
I consider my utter accomplishment this year to have finally read this fast-paced classic thriller set in 1960s Hong Kong. It left me on the edge of my seat!

The Piano Teacher Janice Y.K. Lee
The novel, set in 1940s on the verge of war, transports readers to a time when everyone was confronted with impossible choices: between love and safety, between fortune and family.

The Painted Veil W. Somerset Maugham
Inspired by lines of Dante, delves into the infinite complexities of human hearts in the context of love, loss, regret, happiness, forgiveness and isolation. It ponders on the very irony that too much of love can be hurtful.

Kowloon Tong: A Novel of Hong Kong Paul Theroux
I don’t remember it being a favorite, but his incisive prose on the snobbish Brits who would refuse to assimilate to the local culture makes it a worthy read. Their arrogance is also tamed by a Chinese man who never takes refusal.

Gweilo: Memories of a Hong Kong Childhood Martin Booth
A most engaging and loving memoir, socially rich in details as it relates the intercourse of different walks of life in Hong Kong. His description of the relationships between foreigners and the local people, as epitomised by his parents, his father’s superiors, Amercian sailors, long-term lodgers in the hotels and their employees, shopkeepers, servants and ordinary locals, is acute, with observations worthy of a sociologist’s.

The World of Suzie Wong Richard Mason
An Englishman who has left national service and moved to Hong Kong for a new career befriends a bargirl named Suzie Wong.

Love in a Fallen City Eileen Chang
A collection of stories set in Hong Kong between 1940s and 60s. Chang focuses on women struggling to break free from the feudalistic traditions of the past as they make their way to Hong Kong after World War II.

The Monkey King Timothy Mo
The Poons, according to gossip in post-war Hong Kong, have plenty of money. But when Wallace Nolasco marries May Ling, daughter of the house of Poon, he finds he has been sold short. Wallace is relegated to the bottom of the household pecking order.

White Ghost Girls Kate Greenway
An autobiographical novel about two western girls living in Hong Kong in 1967 while their dad is a photo-journalist in Vietnam.

Paper Lanterns Christine Coleman
Set both in the UK and Hong Kong, in the past and present, Christine Coleman’s latest novel presents the story of Ann, plain and seemingly insecure, dealing with a litany of revelations that shakes her ideas about herself, and her family, to the core.

Echoes of the Rainbow (2010)

Director by: Alex Law
Principal cast: Simon Yam, Sandra Ng, Arif Lee, Buzz Cheung
Country: Hong Kong, China
118 minutes

I am grateful that the SF Film Society has run a screening of Alex Law’s Echoes of the Rainbow 歲月神偷 (2010) this past weekend as a part of the new Hong Kong Cinema program. The film, which took home Crystal-Bear Award for best children’s film in Berlin Film Festival, premiered in Hong Kong in spring 2010. It’s been a pleasant surprise that it finally makes its way to San Francisco. The director himself surprised the audience with his presence and a Q&A session afterward.

The usual writer Alex Law tries his hand at directing and the result is extraordinary. The story is hybridly autobiographical of Law and his brother, who grew up in 1960s Hong Kong, when police bribery and gangs were rife. Paradoxically, it was a time when the former British colony was full of opportunity if you worked hard. On a small budget, the film is bittersweet drama that focuses on a working-class family, in which the father (Simon Yam) is an illiterate shoemaker who believes hard work combined with perseverance was the path to a brighter future. Simon Yam earns the much-pined-for Best Actor award stature with this memorable role, a drastic departure from his usual tough-guy characters in triad movies. Co-star Sandra Ng, known for her comedic roles, plays the shoemaker’s wife who struggles with her husband to create a better life for their two sons (Arif Lee and Buzz Cheung) amid moments of tragedy and joy.

Moments of this retrospective film strike chord with me. As seen through the eyes of the little brother, eight-year-old Big Ears, who aspires to be an astronaut, Echoes of the Rainbow achieves the delicate balance between bitterness and sweetness. One particular scene really grabs me: The little boy scraped up what little allowance money he had to finance a mooncake payment plan—just so he can have two double-yolk lotus-paste mooncakes to himself. Failure of his clandestine scheme is met with tears and scolding from his parents. But he quickly forgets his misery and once again wanders around the neighborhood with his head in a fish-bowl. Children, to me, always preserve memories, regardless of the nature. Law’s scripts really bring out that innocence and c’est-la’vie attitude in children.

Echoes of the Rainbow is very simplistic and accessible film, almost too predictable, as the older brother’s fateful end is foretold. Arif Lee is stiff and lackluster compared to the rest of the cast, albeit he is a sound singer. His portrayal of an intelligent and athletic teenager at the revered Diocesan Boys’ School is eclipsed by Buzz Cheung’s lively performance. Evoking the era with English-language songs and stills of Hong Kong, the film is a trip down the memory lane. It reminisces of a time when poverty didn’t discriminate, as everyone was poor and it wasn’t something to be ashamed of. The film also raises awareness of the ever-changing Hong Kong and saves the street where the film sets from being torn down by the Urban Renewal Authority of Hong Kong. I definitely enjoy this film but am not sure if it will be a solid favorite. It’s a welcome deviation from the usual slapstick comedies and gritty crime thrillers.

[339] Diamond Hill – Chi-shun Feng

” Nobody knew why it was called Diamond Hill. There were certainly no diamond mines, nor diamonds on anyone’s fingers. ‘Diamond’ in Chinese can also mean excavation of stones and slate. It felt like a sick joke on the thousands of people there struggling to survive in poverty. ” [15]

A big thank you to my friend R for sending this thoughtful book, which is published by a local press in Hong Kong. Diamond Hill is a residential neighborhood in Hong Kong. I remember posing the same question to my mother when she took me to visit my grandmother’s distant relatives. That was 1970s. Feng’s family moved to Diamond Hill in 1956, when huge influx of immigrants from mainland arrived in the British colony. Everybody was an immigrant, Feng recalls, not so much the difference in ethnicity but the dialects spoken. The memoir of a native son of a Kowloon-side squatter village presents the early days of a life shaped by a now-extinct community.

Hong Kong in the 50s and 60s was a city of dirt-poor refugees, who had fled post-war hardship or communist rule in Mainland China. A minority were luckier and brought with them wealth and business know-how. And in the case of the garment industry owners, expensive machinery was transferred from big cities in China such as Shanghai to restart the business in Hong Kong. [42]

Despite the financial and commerce hub that it is now, upbringing of the generation that is responsible for the success of the city was not so rosy. Most people inhabit in houses built in a random fashion: legal ones built of bricks and mortar, and illegal shanty huts built in spaces between. The latter was especially susceptible to fire, which destroyed half of the Diamond Hill neighborhood in 1960s. To accommodate the victims, the government launched what has been known as the largest public housing project in the world.

Yesterday the news reported that Hong Kong housing cost tops the world, with the average price of an apartment being 11 times the average annual income. The picture Feng paints is certainly at loggerhead to what the city is now. The harsh but colorful world in which Feng grew up—the makeshift eating dives called dai pai dongs, kite flying, the pawn shops, the firecrackers—is no more, and the great value of Diamond Hill is that his story is also, in large part, the story of Hong Kong. Once upon a time, Hong Kong itself, its British colonial rulers and Chinese elite aside, was one big squatter village that transformed into a manufacturing mecca and then again into the financial center that it is today.

There were many shops down the road which tempted me. For breakfast, they sold congee and yauh ja gwai, a fried dough stick which you could split into two long pieces by pulling them apart in the middle. They still sell the thing today, but it is pre-cooked and soggy. Back then it was deep-fried in front of our eyes, and it was quite a spectacle. [79]

We seldom ate out, and if we did, there was coaching from the parents as to what to do to order and how to behave. Going to a tea house for dim sum was usually on a Sunday around noon, and it was quite an ordeal because every other family seemed to have the same agenda and scrambling for an open table could take hours. The usual practice, uncouth as it might have been, was to stand and wait beside some strangers’ table and stare at them eating until they called for the tab and quit. [86]

So right, and that was the reason I never missed having dim sum when I was a kid. That scrambling for table was dreadful! Food is a powerful trip down memory lane because it possesses that power of association. Ever wonder why something no longer tastes the same as when we ate it as kids? It seems to be the case for everything. While Feng doesn’t miss the shanty huts he grew up in, gone along the old Hong KOng were irreplaceable memories and nostalgia. In the British colonial government and Chinese’s collective rush to turn Hong Kong into Asia’s “world city” (official slogan), officials have torn down history and paved over the collective memory of its citizens. This book is a must read for those who learn about history of Hong Kong from a native’s perspective. This memoir evokes and mirrors that of Martin Booth’s who penned Gweilo: A Memoir of a Hong Kong Childhood. Like Booth’s the book is full of color and packed with incident, and is evocative of the noise and bustle of Hong Kong half a century ago, but more edgier in style.

198 pp. [Read/Skim/Toss] [Buy/Borrow]

Hong Kong English

I cannot to wait for the special order of Hong Kong English (Dialects of English) by Jane Setter, and went to pick up a copy at Cal bookstore. Unlike most humor titles that make fun of erroneous and improper use of English as a characteristic of the speakers, this book describes Hong Kong English as a linguistic phenomenon from the perspective of language structure and historical, sociocultural, and sociopolitical development. The term is often used by the locals as a disparagement rather than to describe a linguistic identity. When the former British colony returns to motherland, English, though widely spoken, is no longer the primary medium of legislature. History of the city, which has known to be where the East meets the West, has it that Hong Kong has always been a place that is a hodge podge of Western ideas, from language down to the everyday eating habits.

It’s not uncommon to hear local speakers incorporate English phrases into their speech. The issue of voicing consonants set aside, Hong Kong English distinguishes itself from British and American English in grammar. As the book has duly pointed out, confusion with verb tenses and agreement of singular or plural nouns, as they have no direct equivalents in Chinese grammar, is rife in daily speech. Similarly, as there are no plural forms in Chinese (which depends on measure words to express quantity), so plural and singular forms tend to be confused, if not altogether ignored. Recently I am aware of incorporation of Chinese colloquial suffixes in English-language sentences. In informal conversation like instant messengers, sentence-final particles or interjections of Cantonese origin such as ar, la, lu, ma and wor—particles that emphasizes an emotional tone—are used at the ends of English sentences. Long overdue, this book is an academic treatise of the linguistic phenomenon that is often mistaken as pidgin.

Noble House: TV Series

Noble House is an eight-hour Classic TV Miniseries produced and broadcast in 1988 by NBC. Based on the fantastic and richly detailed novel of the same name by James Clavell, it features a large cast headlined by Pierce Brosnan, who portrays business tycoon Ian Dunross.

Clavell weaves many intricate story lines into a coherent pattern. Complexity is what makes this series sizzle, as these local businessmen, foreign tycoons, police investigators, all of whom expatriates, mentally wrestle with the local triads and compadore in a complicated, multi-layered plot redolent of double dealing and triple crossing. Unlike many half-baked popular fiction, the characters in Noble House are etched and developed, duly reflecting the biracial and colonial psyche of the last British overseas sovereignty.

Preppy, thoughtful Pierce Brosnan is Ian Dunross, the taipan, meaning big boss in Cantonese, at Struan & Company and the title has been passed down at least 150 years, The newly appointed taipan is weathering a crisis concerning a sinking ship. Insidiously rising is another crisis brought on my his arch rival, Quillan Gornt (Rhys-Davles), wants to destroy Dunross and take over Noble House. Meanwhile, two American tycoons (Deborah Raffin and Ben Masters) have come to Hong Kong to make a financial deal with Dunross.

The novel is set in 1963 but the mini series takes place in a recent modernity of 1987. Aside from the cast and brilliant script, Hong Kong has clearly stolen the show. With eight weeks of exterior shots in the former British colony, Noble House has captured the exotica, intrigue and local psyche of the city. As the complicated double-dealing and kidnapping unfold, so do the custom and traditions of a city. The eight weeks of exterior shots have taken the cast to the Peak Star Ferry, Central, Aberdeen, Jumbo Floating Restaurant, The Peninsula, Happy Valley racecourse, Repulse Bay, and other landmarks. This is full of double talk, and wit that will leave you laughing until you bust a gut. I do hope that for verisimilitude’s sake the Chinese triads and locals would have conversed in native tongue rather than English.

2 Discs, 355 minutes

Books Set in Hong Kong

Last week at Green Apple Books my friend picked out The Piano Teacher by Janice Y.K. Lee upon my recommendation. The conversation ensued a list of books set in my hometown, Hong Kong. During the 150 some years that the city was in the rein of the Brits, it’s been a locale of wonder, opportunity, adventure, and source of wealth. Authors have also been fascinated by this unique place. The former colony has etched its way into (particularly 20th century) literary tomes. Just off the top of my head includes:

Fragrant Harbor John Lanchester
This is meant to be re-read. An Englishman finds his way into the heart of a local nun. They had to make the decision for each other when war broke out and as Hong Kong fell to the Japanese. Set in 1930s and 40s.

Noble House James Clavell
I consider my utter accomplishment this year to have finally read this fast-paced classic thriller set in 1960s Hong Kong. It left me on the edge of my seat!

The Piano Teacher Janice Y.K. Lee
The novel, set in 1940s on the verge of war, transports readers to a time when everyone was confronted with impossible choices: between love and safety, between fortune and family.

The Painted Veil W. Somerset Maugham
Inspired by lines of Dante, delves into the infinite complexities of human hearts in the context of love, loss, regret, happiness, forgiveness and isolation. It ponders on the very irony that too much of love can be hurtful.

Kowloon Tong: A Novel of Hong Kong Paul Theroux
I don’t remember it being a favorite, but his incisive prose on the snobbish Brits who would refuse to assimilate to the local culture makes it a worthy read. Their arrogance is also tamed by a Chinese man who never takes refusal.

Gweilo: Memories of a Hong Kong Childhood Martin Booth
A most engaging and loving memoir, socially rich in details as it relates the intercourse of different walks of life in Hong Kong. His description of the relationships between foreigners and the local people, as epitomised by his parents, his father’s superiors, Amercian sailors, long-term lodgers in the hotels and their employees, shopkeepers, servants and ordinary locals, is acute, with observations worthy of a sociologist’s.

The World of Suzie Wong Richard Mason
An Englishman who has left national service and moved to Hong Kong for a new career befriends a bargirl named Suzie Wong.

Love in a Fallen City Eileen Chang
A collection of stories set in Hong Kong between 1940s and 60s. Chang focuses on women struggling to break free from the feudalistic traditions of the past as they make their way to Hong Kong after World War II.

The Monkey King Timothy Mo
The Poons, according to gossip in post-war Hong Kong, have plenty of money. But when Wallace Nolasco marries May Ling, daughter of the house of Poon, he finds he has been sold short. Wallace is relegated to the bottom of the household pecking order.

White Ghost Girls Kate Greenway
An autobiographical novel about two western girls living in Hong Kong in 1967 while their dad is a photo-journalist in Vietnam.

Paper Lanterns Christine Coleman
Set both in the UK and Hong Kong, in the past and present, Christine Coleman’s latest novel presents the story of Ann, plain and seemingly insecure, dealing with a litany of revelations that shakes her ideas about herself, and her family, to the core.

40 Hong Kong Foods

CNN Go selects 40 Hong Kong foods one can’t live without. It as much fuels my homesickness as whets my appetite.

Yum/Neh 1. Hong Kong-style French toast: fried in butter and served in more butter and syrup, perfect comfort food
Yum/Neh 2. Scrambled egg sandwich: plump, full of eggy flavour and light, not greasy
Yum/Neh 3. Stinky tofu: I never understand this fermented tofu. Keep that away from me.
Yum/Neh 4. Hong Kong style-cheeseburgers: palm-sized, minimalist (ketchup, home-made mayo, half a slice of processed cheese) encased in butter roll
Yum/Neh 5. Sweet tofu soup: smooth and soft tofu doused in a lightly sweet syrup and sprinkled with yellow sugar
Yum/Neh 6. ‘Pineapple’ bun: the ultimate Hong Kong pastry—firm on the outside, soft on the inside and topped by crunchy, sugary pastry; I easily inhale 2
Yum/Neh 7. Chicken feet: deep fried then stewed in a blackbean sauce, the Chinese consider this a delicacy but not me
Yum/Neh 8. Miniature wife cakes: traditional Chinese pastry with a combo of lard and sweet pastes made from various beans and roots
Yum/Neh 9. Ginger milk curd: made by gently simmering sweetened milk and then mixing it with fresh ginger juice, which causes the milk to curdle
Yum/Neh 10. Five-layer roast pork: top layer of crackling skin, then alternating slivers of fat with moist meat, and a final salty-spiced layer at the bottom
Yum/Neh 11. Indonesian satay: skewers sizzle in a very satisfying way on a sizzling plate
Yum/Neh 12. Meat mountain: a mishmash of ground pork, mushrooms, water chestnuts and preserved vegetables, seasoned with simple soy sauce and sesame oil; I have never had this, probably won’t
Yum/Neh 13. Cantonese preserved sausage: mix of slightly-sweet pork fat and meat; sausage is never my cup of tea
Yum/Neh 14. Trendy hot pot
Yum/Neh 15. Beef brisket: huge chunks of it being slowly stewed in giant pots of sauce in noodle shop; another huge favorite among locals that I don’t care about
Yum/Neh 16. Egg tarts: custard egg in either a flaky puff pasty shell or in a sweet shortbread crust; great comfort food
Yum/Neh 17. Yung Kee’s roast goose: even specially pack their goose as carry-on luggage for departing travelers
Yum/Neh 18. Thai food in Kowloon City: small Thai community makes up Kowloon City’s ‘Little Thailand’
Yum/Neh 19. Roast pigeon: braised in soy sauce, rice wine and star anise before being roasted to crispy perfection; I still think pigeon is rat with wings
Yum/Neh 20. Snake soup: brothy mix of snake meat, mushrooms, ginger and pork–it’s chicken soup for Chinese; I might have some if I’m not told what it is
Yum/Neh 21. Lotus seed paste: rich, velvety lotus seed paste that can be stuffed in fluffy white buns
Yum/Neh 22. Typhoon-shelter crab: crab sauteed with plenty of spices; if I’m not allergic I will love this
Yum/Neh 23. Egg noodles: Salty shrimp roe is generously sprinkled all over strips of noodles that have just the right amount of elasticity and egginess
Yum/Neh 24. Milk tea: colonialism in a cup is special blend of black Ceylon tea that is strained through silk stockings and mixed with evaporated milk
Yum/Neh 25. Cantonese barbecued pork: it’s a taste of heaven, Be sure to order ‘half fatty, half skinny’ cha siu for the best cut: moist, not greasy, honeyed yet smoky
Yum/Neh 26. Cha siu baau: barbecued pork stuffed into a bun, I like it if the bun is not too doughy
Yum/Neh 27: Claypot rice: I don’t like the charcoal-cooked crusty rice through which fat from meat toppings drift
Yum/Neh 28. North Point mini egg cakes: mini toasted egg cake that is crackly on the outside and spongy on the inside
Yum/Neh 29. Thai shrimp sashimi: dished up in a bed of ice and garnished with a slice of raw garlic
Yum/Neh 30. Mulberry Mistletoe tea: some dessert herbal tea? Not my cup of tea!
Yum/Neh 31. Block 13 Cow Offal: Fatty, richly marinated beef innards
Yum/Neh 32. Congee
Yum/Neh 33. Bowl pudding: palm-sized puddings steamed in porcelain bowls (buut tsai goh) were widely sold by street hawkers
Yum/Neh 34. Tonkichi’s tonkatsu: Japanese style pork chops deep fried to perfect crunchiness
Yum/Neh 35. B Boy’s grass jelly: huge serving of grass jelly topped with plenty of mixed fruit and condensed milk
Yum/Neh 36. Mango pudding in mango sauce with extra mango
Yum/Neh 37. Sweet and sour pork: No, it isn’t just for gwailos. Sweet and sour pork, called ‘gu lo yuk,’ is also a comfort food craved by Hong Kongers
Yum/Neh 38. Louis’ steak: colonial-influenced institutions serve tender meat on hot griddle plates
Yum/Neh 39. Fishballs: probably the most ubiquitous street food
Yum/Neh 40. Swiss chicken wings: the story goes that a foreigner, bowled over by the wings’ sweet and salty taste, tried to ask the staff for the name of the ‘sweet’ dish

[293] Noble House: The Epic Novel of Modern Hong Kong – James Clavell

” It’s a Hong Kong characteristic. If you live here there’s never enough time, whatever you work. Always too much to do. People are always arriving, leaving, friends, business people. There’s always a crisis—flood fire, mud slide, boom, scandal, business opportunity, funeral, banquet or cocktail party for visiting VIPs—or some disaster. ” [65: 1104]

As the title suggests, Noble House is set in Hong Kong, in 1960s, with a complex and engaging tale tying together a multitude of disparate elements: business and political intrigues, kidnapping, murder, espionage, financial double-dealing, and natural disaster. One a night of torrential rain in 1960, Alastair Struan, the current taipan (big boss, ultimate ruler) of the Noble House, a trading and finance company that is the main artery of the colony’s economy, confers the title of taipan on Ian Dunross Struan; he must take an oath to uphold the traditions and oaths established by the first taipan and founder of Noble House, Dirk Struan, the mightiest trader in China from the 19th century. Dirk Struan’s illegitimate marriage to a woman in the Chen clan had perpetually interlinked the English family with the Chinese by ownership and blood. It is later discovered that the true reason of their century-long relationship is a triad that had asked the Noble House of a huge (and dangerous) favor to provide sanction and financial succor to a Boxer Rebellion insurgent against the Qing Dynasty.

One reason’s because we’re such a closely knit society, very interrelated, and everyone knows everyone else—and almost all their secrets. Another’s because hatreds here go back generations and have been nurtured for generations. When you hate you hate with all your heart. Another’s because this is a piratical society with very few curbs so you can get away with all sorts of vengeances. Oh yes. [13: 262]

Most of the actions take place over the course of one week in August 1963, as a typhoon is closing in on Hong Kong. Inside Ian’s office penthouse in Central the taipan is weathering another storm, a financial predicament that would throw the Noble House in total disarray, and that its being the “dragon back” of colony’s economic well-being, the fall of the Noble House means Hong Kong will also be down the sewer. Under the insidious eyes of the KGB, the CIA, and the People’s Republic of China, British and American businessmen maneuver for control of Hong Kong’s oldest trading house.

I don’t want his head, or death or anything like that—just an early demise of the Noble House. Once Struan’s is obliterated we become the Noble House. [11:231]

Just when the betrayer (who passes information on to American tycoon) of Noble House is inexplicably kidnapped by triad thugs who also prey on a priced heirloom of the trading house, Ian’s arch enemy, Quillan Gornt of Rothwell-Gornt joins force with Linc Bartlett, an American billionaire who craves a share of the pie, to attack the cash-light Noble House. Quillan has his former mistress, an Eurasian named Orlanda Ramos, manipulate Bartlett to close the deal. Special intelligence that Ian Dunross receives also triggers an international espionage war that traces back to the Soviet Union’s scheme to weaken China and its tie to the West. As time is running out, the taipan has to secure financial backing and identify the spy that has infiltrated the Noble House from the Soviet Communists.

Clavell weaves many intricate story lines into a coherent pattern. Complexity, how these plots bear no resemblance of any connection, compels me to read on. Unlike many half-baked popular fiction, the characters in Noble House are etched and developed, duly reflecting the biracial and colonial psyche of the last British overseas sovereignty. Clavell is considerate to apologize to the Hong Kong yun (Hong Kongers) in the book’s disclaimer for rearranging events and places, and for taking incidents out of context, but the book is very rich and authentic in local flavor and culture, steeped in lore and history. It’s utter delight to revisit Hong Kong in the 1960s through his writing: the boat houses, the make-shift tenements that accommodated huge influx of immigrants from China, the panoramic view of the Peak, and the tragic mudslide that demolished an entire building on Kotewall Road in the mid-level. The tragedy, coincidentally, occurred today, June 18, 47 years ago.

1370 pp. Dell mass paperback. [Read/Skim/Toss] [Buy/Borrow]

Homeward Bound; Reading Updates

A week in Hong Kong has quickly slipped by; it was comforting (and emotional) to see my father recovering so well from a stroke he suffered three months ago. It’s out of my expectation that in his company at home I have read so profusely, propelling ahead of my mental reading schedule. Brightness Falls, Persuasion, and The Man from Beijing were all perused this week. Settled down here at The Pier, Cathay Pacific’s business class lounge at Hong Kong International Airport, I’m almost through with Cannery Row by John Steinbeck over tasty breakfast and mimosa. What should I read for the next 2 hours before boarding? and the 12-hour flight over the Pacific? Sarah Waters, Dorothy Sayers, or Henning Mankell for another Swedish thriller?

For the aircraft junkies, my seat has been re-assigned after the airline announced a change of equipment for today’s flight, now a brand-new Boeing 777-300ER. I’m more than happy for the adjustment to be spared from the aging Boeing 747-400. Did I mention how relaxing the airport experience was? It’s well-lighted by natural light and spacious, with plenty of shops—they even have Moleskine notebooks just when I needed a new one! I have remarked on the romanticism of air travel. This morning, right at this moment, I entertain an eerie sensation that I shall be led into the cabin, by a special someone, without knowledge of where I’m flying. How about an re-enactment of Agatha Christie mystery on board up in the air? Am I being too morbid?