No comments about Michelin Guide Hong Kong and Macau (Michelin Guides) (Michelin Guides).

1 comments about Hong Kong: Front Door/Back Door.

1. The Architecture of Density
   
   Words: Rebecca Walker
   Images: www.photomichaelwolf.com
   
   German-born photographer Michael Wolf has been described by some as `humanly alert'. KEE talks to him about the urban dynamics of a complex culture.
   
   Michael Wolf views ordinary things in extraordinary ways. Culturally astute, Wolf's artistic inspiration comes from the local culture in which he immerses himself. Wolf has been fascinated by China's complex urban dynamics since moving to Asia as a contract photographer 10 years ago and his photography focuses on the idiosyncrasies of the Asian way of life. Insightful and absorbing, his latest book "Hong Kong, The Front Door/The Back Door" deals with the SAR's cultural identity through depictions of the city's architecture.
   
   Wolf was born in Munich and grew up in the USA. He began a career in photography after graduating from the University of Essen in Germany, freelancing for various international publications including Time, Spiegel and Stern. In the early 1990s Wolf had an epiphany. "I was sitting in my room in Amsterdam and suddenly knew I needed to make a big change in my life. I had a picture of the globe in my head and when I came to Asia I knew that was where I needed to go."
   
   His decision was a good one and it was in China that he found his ultimate inspiration. "I love the visual chaos of China. It is a photographers dream," says the photographer. Wolf's poignant portrayals of the lives and living conditions of his cultural environment are subjective and personal and have earned him international acclaim. As described by Art Critic Kenneth Baker, "By their formal intelligence and acuity of observation, Wolf's Hong Kong pictures easily earn the status of art works."
   
   Wolf's first book, "China in Transition" (2001) documents the disappearing grandeur of the Middle Kingdom in China. It is a compelling portrait of old culture embarking into modernity and casts a moving gaze at China and its people on the threshold of the third millennium. His second book, "Sitting in China" (2002) depicts a multifaceted China, from its chairs to the mindset of its people. Through a diverse assortment of compelling images, Wolf documents the beauty of the ugly, the stretching of time, the art of improvisation, and the nature of the stool as a portrait of its user. He often depicts discarded objects of the man-made world in his photographs and is interested in the "beauty inherent in used objects." He explains, "My parents are both artists and from an early age my mother took me to flea markets to rummage through a myriad of used knick-knacks. I love pattern and character, and the feeling that something has a history."
   
   Wolf's third book, "Chinese Propaganda Posters" (2003) showcases his vast personal collection of colourful propagandist artworks and cultural artifacts produced between the birth of the People's Republic of China in 1949 and the early 1980s. "Chinese Propaganda Posters" is whimsically structured to correspond with the chapters of Mao's Red Book and gives a sense of how the illiterate masses used images to define themselves in Communist China. "The posters give a sense of how the Chinese viewed their future at that time. The discrepancy between fantasy and reality really fascinates me and the posters are also very stylistically beautiful."
   
   In his latest release, "Hong Kong: Front Door/Back Door" (2005), Wolf continues to explore the theme of the organic metropolis. Hong Kong is one of the most densely populated metropolitan areas in the world and Wolf's photographs seek out the human spirit in the urban jungle. The images in the book depict the high-rises that shape the spatial experience of Hong Kong's citizens. Since Wolf himself is one of those citizens (he has been a Hong Kong resident since 1994), his photographs have a distinctively personal essence. "To me the concept of the `back-door' is far more interesting than the front. The back alleys contain a tremendous visual wealth. When you enter through the font door of someone's house you see what they want you to see: the best version. The back door on the other hand tells a culture's true story."
   
   A close look at one of Wolf's architectural images uncovers irregularities such as plants, laundry and scaffolding that interrupt the orderly design of monolithic apartment buildings. The monotonous regularity of each façade is given a distinct personality through human details. "When people don't have enough space, they improvise and adapt. There are many symbols of Chinese thriftiness in the book that are very telling of the Eastern mindset. In the West we throw things away when they break. In the East people take the time to fix things, it doesn't matter what things look like, as long as they work."
   
   Thought-provoking texts by art critic Kenneth Baker and designer Douglas Young are included in "Front Door/Back Door". The two pay a humanistic tribute to the ingenuity of city-dwellers and their content examines peoples' lifestyle choices and explores the concepts of form, function, identity, and design. As stated by Baker in the book's introduction: "The new Hong Kong residential architecture has turned the lives of the Hong Kong people inside-out." This assertion is supported by Young who says, "Buildings that begin as monoliths are slowly humanised by their inhabitants; architecture becomes a framework upon which people can hang their personal personalities."
   
   Young describes Hong Kong as a "city of contrasts" and says, "Architects (in Hong Kong) have ingeniously stretched the tolerance of strict building codes by squeezing as many households as possible into a given site." Wolf chose to collaborate with Young and Baker on this project because he was drawn to their cultural knowledge and artistic sensibility. "Douglas Young has a very interesting local vision of Hong Kong whereas Kenneth Baker puts the photographs into context artistically on an international level."
   
   Wolf's interest in the people and societal changes taking place in China earned his images first prize in the `Contemporary Issues' section of the 2005 World Press Photo Awards. Held annually, the awards have come to be regarded as the most prestigious for photojournalism in the world. Says Wolf, "I have been a photojournalist for over 30 years, so it's great to be rewarded for all my hard work."
   
   Wolf is interested in exploring a wide range of multi-faceted artistic pursuits and says he has an ever-increasing urge to work on his own projects. His installation art piece, "The Real Toy Story", is one such example. In 2004 he spent four weeks collecting over 20,000 toys from various charity shops and flea-markets, all with `Made in China' stamps. He then visited five toy factories in China where he photographed the workers producing the toys and the resulting artwork was an elaborate installation that incorporated 16,000 toys and embedded photographs. The installation was extremely well received by art critics worldwide and will be exhibited at the Museum of Contemporary Photography in Chicago in 2006.
   
   With the next 12 months booked in advance, Wolf shows no sign of slowing down. He stands by his motto: "If you are a vision and real conviction, you will find success." And that he has.

5 comments about Notes from the Other China - Adventures in Asia.

1. Troy Parfitt has produced a thoroughly enjoyable and witty account of his adventures in Asia. Surely he must be one of those people that you see in the cafe scribbling madly in their diary as the book departs more detail than I could ever remember. Particularly striking is his non-judgmental demeanor and writing style. Personally, if I had gone through what he had in Korea, I would be much more condemning of that society. Whether you're going to Asia or 'been there, done that', this book is so insightful that it makes it a must-read. A perfect outsider looking in tale from a long-term Asian expat. Ranks right up there with Theroux - just without all the railway romanticism.



2. Troy Parfitt's first book, Notes from the Other China is an entertaining book, based on the author's experiences of living, working & travelling in Asia for just over a decade. He has mostly been based in North East Asia, and consequentially, much of the content focuses on South Korea and Taiwan, which gives the book a very different outlook, as these two countries are usually ignored in travel books on Asia. However , he has travelled to other countries such as the Philippines, Vietnam and Nepal, which are regularly covered in the travel genre; yet here too, Troy Parfitt manages to provide a different perspective with his somewhat cynical, though very humorous comments and observations. These make a refreshing change from the usual overly gushing praise, that is all too frequently bestowed by travel writers.
   
   As a long term ex-pat in Asia, I could tell straight away the Parfitt's tales had the authentic ring of a someone who has lived in Asia, rather than merely passing through. Typically, I find travel books to be written by enthusiastic amateurs; their short term stays are reflected in their short term views of Asian countries. Troy Parfitt, by contrast, is a seasoned veteran of life in the Orient and that's what makes his book stand out from in the cluttered and crowded travel genre. This book is a true gem.



3. Troy Parfitt's exquisite travelogue "Notes From the Other China: Adventures in Asia" is an insightful and a laugh-out-loud funny exposé of the culture, history and politics of the Asian people. The book is based on the author's decade-long experience as an English teacher in Taiwan, the "other China," and the less-traveled parts of Korea, the Philippines, Japan, Thailand, Cambodia, Nepal and Vietnam.
   In just a few sentences his masterful writing captures the spirit of the people and their customs and the eye-popping beauty of the countries.
   Parfitt's descriptions made me feel as if I was right there with him. For example when describing the Philippines' island of Mindoro he wrote, "The view...was dominated by a jutting mountain liberally adorned with craning palms. Its summit was in perpetual possession of a lazy swirl of wispy clouds that clung motionlessly, as if magnetized."
   Parfitt's intelligent, captivating and witty writing is reminiscent of Bill Bryson's travel books, "A Walk in the Woods" and "In a Sunburned Country. I look forward to reading more of Parfitt's work.



4. In some ways, Parfitt's writing mirrors the experiences he shares of working, living and traveling in Southeast Asia - it has its ups and downs. On the positive side, Parfitt has a great sense of humor and he often had me chuckling out loud when I read his funny takes on his many and varied experiences as he recounts his life and travels in different parts of southeast Asia. In this way, he reminds me of Bill Bryson's sharp wit. On the other hand, his frequent use of sarcasm and "only joking" bits sometimes leaves the reader wondering if the funny anecdote just related actually happened or was an exaggeration.
   
   It's refreshing to read a travel account from a "man-in-the-streets" perspective, where you get insights and information that you might otherwise not get from a more cultured approach. There is a down-to-earth honesty in Parfitt's recollections that make the reader connect with his experiences, and which in some ways makes other travel writers' books appear somewhat contrived, as almost after the fact, retrospective insights. Parfitt's voice could be that of your best buddy sharing his thoughts over a beer. His detailed descriptions of his dealings with tour guides, other tourists, hotel managers, bus drivers et al are fun to read, and Parfitt keeps you yearning for more. At the same time, sometimes Parfitt makes too many generalizations about other nationalities, generalizations which could be found offensive by some. But again, I would give him some slack because he is not writing from an academic or "professional" travel writer perspective, but from an unsheltered and exposed position.
   
   There is a good bit of history to give context to Parfitt's journeys, and one feels well-informed about each locale's background. In the end, despite the flaws, I would still recommend this book for some good laughs and a ground-level look at southeast Asia.



5. It seems like Mr. Parfitt's idea of an interesting experience is one where everything goes badly. Unfortunately, this leads to him writing about everything that is wrong with Taiwan, and not much about what is right. But perhaps this is exactly why only a small part of the book is actually about Taiwan: Mr. Parfitt complains so much about so many parts of Asia that perhaps he is continually moving to try to find a place that doesn't drive him crazy. In fact, the book is really more about Asia than just Taiwan, and the "notes" are really little more than extended complaints, so it really should be titled, "Rants from Asia".
   
   I'd like to suggest that part of the reason why Mr. Parfitt finds life difficult in Taiwan is that he appears to have a rather contrarian personality, as demonstrated by his description of attending Mormon church services just to ask difficult questions. I was particularly annoyed when he discussed the difficulty of making bank transactions using his English name. Apparently, he doesn't have a Chinese name, and he claims that even if he did have one, it wouldn't make much difference because it wouldn't be legally binding and wouldn't appear on his identification. In fact, this is completely false. As an American living in Taiwan, I can assure Mr. Parfitt that my Chinese name does appear not only on my identification, but on my household registration, both of which are legal documents. So the entire chapter on the difficulties that Taiwanese people have with Western names is actually totally pointless. Mr. Parfitt says that he speaks Chinese, so the only excuse for not having a Chinese name is a desire to make life difficult for others, and therefore for himself.
   
   The book actually contains many other completely untrue claims. The claim that most Taiwanese people don't know how they feel about mainland China is particularly ludicrous. To a person, every Taiwanese I have spoken to thinks that the mainland Chinese government is evil, corrupt, immoral, and/or imperialist. This is of course completely unsurprising, given the threat posed by the mainland -- but perhaps this is all lost on Mr. Parfitt.
   
   When my wife read this book, she said to me "This guy's a grump. I want to write to him and tell him, 'You're a grump.'" And so I write: Mr. Parfitt, you're a grump.

No comments about Where Underpants Come from: From Checkout to Cotton Field - Travels Through the New China.

5 comments about Hong Kong.

1. Two lions made of bronze guard the entrance of the old Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank building on the Bund in Shanghai. One looks cross, the other one snarls. Their paws shine from the touch of thousands of hands. Many people hope that some of the lions' power (and some of the bank's wealth) will rub off on them. The two guards of good fortune even had names once. In the 19th century, the snarler was called Stephen, and the cross lion was called Stitt in honor of their resemblance to two senior managers at the bank's offices in Hong Kong.

   This piece of trivia is part of the fun of reading Jan Morris's "Hong Kong: Epilogue to an Empire". As the subtitle suggests, the main focus of the book is on the British influence in Hong Kong. This is particularly evident in the four chapters that deal with selected periods of the history of Hong Kong: (1) the 1840s when Hong Kong was founded on a barren island as the base for British drug trafficking into China, (2) the 1880s when the colony and the British Empire were at the pinnacle of their power, (3) the 1920s when Shanghai began to eclipse the city, and (4) the 1940s when Hong Kong was occupied by the Japanese and later became the refuge for Chinese (many of them entrepreneurs from Shanghai) who fled the Communist revolution in China. The historical chapters are well-researched, and Morris enjoys elaborating on the quirks of the British in Hong Kong. The historical chapters are embedded in five chapters that take a more anecdotal look at the social, cultural, administrative, and economic aspects of life in Hong Kong. The chapter on administration is aptly named "Control Systems". Not surprisingly for Hong Kong, the most extensive and interesting chapter deals with business and the economy. "Means of Support" is a very understated title for this aspect of life in Hong Kong. It would be more fitting to call it "Get rich quick". Jan Morris knows how to sprinkle delightful illustrations of Chinese industriousness and entrepreneurial talent into her tale. With a smirk she revels in the "endless variety of ingenuity, given to the world by such splendid-sounding concerns as "the Grand Dragon Universal Sales Company, the Ever-Rich Industrial Company, or the perhaps unfortunately named Flying Junk Industrial Company Ltd."

   The book has only two shortcomings. One is the fact that most parts of the book have been written in 1987, and only minor revisions were added in 1997, just before Hong Kong became a Special Administrative Region of China. To understand today's Hong Kong, the epilogue to an empire ought to be appended by a prologue to an uncertain future. The other shortcoming is the effect of Ms. Morris's expatriate perspective on Hong Kong. Her point of view omits many aspects that shape the life of the Chinese who have always been the majority of the city's inhabitants. There is still some truth in William Somerset Maugham's observation in the 1920s: the vast majority of foreign residents has not the slightest notion what is happening among the Chinese masses. Yet, in defense of Ms. Morris I want to state that she writes about what she knows best - and that is a writer's job.

   Currently Ms. Morris's book is the best work about the vibrant, greedy, contradictory, and ultimately inscrutable city of Hong Kong, a place where it seems that only the temporary is permanent (except for the constant, ubiquitous noise of jack-hammers maybe), nothing is rooted and everyone is trying to move on. There is no simple denominator for this city and its inhabitants.

   Having lived in Hong Kong for half a year, I can recommend Jan Morris's book as an entertaining introduction to the history and character of this fascinating city. I have enjoyed her Western perspective and her sense of humor as evidenced in her illustration why the Hong Kong Chinese are opportunists of genius: "When communal lavatories were first installed in Hong Kong, Chinese entrepreneurs took to sitting on them for so long that people were obliged to bribe them to come off."




2. I read and re-read this book over and over again while living in Hong Kong in the late nineteen nineties, both before and after the end of British rule.

   I found it both an absorbing, exciting read, and a useful practical guide - I explored many parts of Hong Kong after first reading about them in this book - for example, some of the more remote peaks of the New Territories where there are wonderful hiking trails set up in British days, full of beauty and history (they are Hong Kong's best kept secret - the only antitidote for the city's overcrowding). Also, the author's description of the ceaseless (aargh!) jack-hammering in urban areas is almost poetic (every expat's nightmare).

   Her description of Western expatriate life is informative and amusing - and accurate - some expats resent this kind of blunt description!

   Her account of the Chinese population must not be missed as she goes into great detail of the sad and poignant refugee movement that sent millions of Chinese fleeing into Hong Kong from mainland China to become the city's residents of today - if you are going to Hong Kong (or are simply interested), do take this book along, as the refugee status of the population is a very painful subject (understandably) for Hong Kong Chinese and you will here little about it in post - handover Hong Kong, but an essential element in understanding how the place ticks.

   Like many wonderful, accurate books about Hong Kong (Timothy Mo's the Monkey King; Paul Theroux's Kowloon Tong - read those if you like this one), Jan Morris's Hong Kong can be a painful read for some - Hong Kong's sad history of insecurity ensures that. But the detached reader, with this book, is in for a truly enjoyable experience that will be both a wealth of information and insight. Cracking good prose, too. UK edition is updated to 1997.




3. If lace doilies could read, they'd love Jan Morris. Yes, she's a facile writer. Her sentences are at once both sinewy and elegant, and her book is rich with detail. However, reading Hong Kong by Jan Morris is like surveying the wreckage after a car bomb explodes a national archive. Miles of shelves have dumped their contents; and all the pages have been blown off their bookbindings. What remains are heaps of torched and scattered passages having little to no connection, except in catastrophic coincidence. To think of it another way, imagine learning animal husbandry by studying the floor of the butcher shop: odd scraps of meat, tangled ligaments, knotty tendons, and splattered blood. Collectively, they suggest "animal," but all the meaning and life has been stripped away. No one is going to learn to raise pigs that way. Similarly, I couldn't understand Hong Kong by reading Hong Kong. Perhaps I'm too harsh. Her book was neither a terrorist act nor even a massacre. In fact, at times her flowery writing is intoxicating. Nevertheless, I got the feeling that in her mind, Morris writes to seduce William F. Buckley, Jr., and that's just sick.



4. At least one of the reviewers on this list was unkind about the book, but I think it only fails, in the manner that all single-volume histories do, by trying to cover so much in so little. I have only read the unrevised 1990 Penguin paperback and only after I had already worked in Hong Kong in the early 90's. I wish I had read it before I went there, because it would have helped me to make sense of the total assault on the senses that HK is.
   If you want, or need, to have more context than a guidebook will provide, this is where you will get it.



5. At least one of the reviewers on this list was unkind about the book, but I think it only fails, in the manner that all single-volume histories do, by trying to cover so much in so little. I have only read the unrevised 1990 Penguin paperback and only after I had already worked in Hong Kong in the early 90's. I wish I had read it before I went there, because it would have helped me to make sense of the total assault on the senses that HK is.
   If you want, or need, to have more context than a guidebook will provide, this is where you will get it.

5 comments about National Geographic Traveler China (National Geographic Traveler).

1. The photos and color are beautiful, as you would expect from National Geographic, but the actual guides to major sightseeing areas are fairly poor. They are somewhat "snobby" with too much criticism of places "for tourists." The book is actually hard to handle since, I assume for the sake of the photos, the paper is very heavy and glassy, certainly nothing you could actually bring with you on your trip to China.



2. Excellent book for general knowedge on planning a trip. worththe $.



3. I found this book invaluable on my recent trip to China. It is not a typical tourist book, however, it provides a treasure of genuinely valuable background information for the serious traveler.



4. Very good book for someone planning to make a trip to China.



5. This volume is a mine of fascinating and important information, with comprehensive yet succinct narration and explanation about Chinese history, customs and culture, along with a great array of pictures and maps as well as practical guidance for preparing for and making a trip to mainland China.

No comments about The Silk Roads: A Route and Planning Guide.

No comments about Prisoners of the Scrambling Dragon.

4 comments about Travels in the Netherworld: Buddhist Popular Narratives of Death and the Afterlife in Tibet.

1. Why is a 200-page book, which is basically just historical research, list for $65? This makes this book unappealing to anyone but Buddhist scholars, who have the least to gain from it! Shameful.



2. This book rocks. It's a fast-paced narrative about journeys to the netherworld and back: the stories of a Tibetan housewife, a young lama, a noble and a Buddhist monk. The beauty of this book is that it is both a lasting contribution to our understanding of Tibetan Buddhism and yet completely accessible to a wide audience. Cuevas writes with verve. Five stars!



3. Well written with excellent research. Anyone interested in
   Tibetan studies will definitely find this a much needed addition to
   their library and a wonderful book to read.



4. Scholars of Tibetan Buddhism typically focus on doctrine and rituals; Tibetan enthusiasts typically romanticizes Tibetan Buddhism to be a religion of peace and otherness. This book is a refreshing history of how the Tibetans actually conceived of their own worlds (living and the dead), how they lived their lives, and how the rich lore about the world of the dead was transmitted. The mastery of primary sources used for the research of this book is impressive. I would highly recommend it to anyone interested in Tibetan culture, and specifically the religious praxis. The book is well worth the investment!

No comments about China by Bike: Taiwan, Hong Kong, China's East Coast (By Bike).