Hong Kong has always been something of an anomaly, and an outpost of empire, whether British or Chinese. Once described as a barren island, the former fishing community has been transformed by its own economic miracle into one of Asia's World Cities, taking in its stride the territory's 1997 return to Chinese sovereignty. Beneath the surface of Hong Kong's cliched self-image as Pearl of the Orient and Shopping Paradise, Michael Ingham reveals a city rich in history, myth, and cultural diversity.

Smoked Pearl is Akinsola Olufemi Jeje's first full-length collection of poetry, a semi-autobiographical compilation of poems written between 2005 and 2008. The collection thus indirectly chronicles Jeje's arrival in Hong Kong and his subsequent observations of Hong Kong life, Chinese and world events (Canada, Iraq, Africa, the USA); and his musings on race, culture, everyday life and matters of the heart. By turns exuberant, pensive, angry and poignant, Smoked Pearl speaks from the heart of a black Westerner as he negotiates the complexities of "Asia's world city" and its unique place in...

Fiction. Asian & Asian American Studies. In THAT MAN IN OUR LIVES, New York-Hong Kong author Xu Xi extends the fictional universe of her earlier novels. New York is the perch from which she examines the shifting balance of power between China and the US, set against a tale of lifelong friendships between Gordon Ashberry--"Gordie" or "Hui Guo"--and his two best friends Harold Haight and Larry Woo and their families. Born to wealthy East Coast parents, Gordon is a Sinophile who has never held a job, married or raised children. His one attempt in his thirties to run an aircraft leasing business...