Batgung

Title: Hong Kong on Air

Author: Muhammad Cohen 

Published: 2007

Genre: satire/comic 

Period: 1997 Read more »

Title: Love in a Fallen City

Author: Eileen Chang

Published: the stories included in this volume were all published in the 1940s; the volume itself was published in 2007

Genre: short stories; two in this volume -- 'Aloeswood Incense' and 'Jasmine Tea' -- are set in Hong Kong Read more »

Title: Hong Kong

Author: Stephen Coonts

Published: 2000

Genre: judging from its lurid orange cover (with two junks on the harbor outlined in black, of course) and the blurbs on the back -- 'High-octane techno-wizardry!' (USA Today) -- let's call it a 'high-tech, weapons-intensive thriller in the Tom Clancy mode'.

Period: 2000 Read more »

Title: Hong Kong Rose

Author: Xu Xi

Published: 1999

Genre: chicklit that's wearing its one really good outfit as it aspires to literary respectabilty

Period: The groovy '70s! Read more »

Title: Hiroshima Joe

Author: Martin Booth

Published: 1985

Genre: war + prison novel

Period: Just two periods: the WWII years, and 1952. There's also a brief epilogue set in 1985. Read more »

I've embarked on a new project for batgung.com: reading and reviewing some of the many (many!) novels that are set at least partially here in Hong Kong.

Even though everyone's heard of Taipan, of course, and read it -- except me -- I didn't start there.

Note that this series of reviews will include several criteria for assessment that are very Hong Kong-specific, but I'll also try to let you know if the book is any good or not, and hence worth reading. Read more »

Title: Fragrant Harbour

Author: John Lanchester

Published: 2002

Period: The action here spans the bulk of the 20^th century, but the book’s most important sections focus on the WWII years and the decade in the run-up to the 1997 handover. Read more »

Title: The Painted Veil

Author: M Somerset Maugham

Published: 1925

Period: Around 1920 or so; the book's action takes place in a single summer. Read more »