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Chameleon
| Gordon Wu: The Man Who Turned the Lights On by Rosemary Sayer 2006 208 pp., 14 b & w illus, 23 x 15.5 cm., Hardbound. ISBN 988-98362-9-7 $23.75 ISBN-13: 978-988-98362-9-0 Sir Gordon Ying Sheung Wu, Chairman of Hopewell Holdings, can be said to personify the driving ambition behind East Asia’s rapid economic rise in the latter part of the 20th century and its dramatic collapse in 1997. Today, Wu is one of Asia’s best-known entrepreneurs and this book traces the birth of a family dynasty. Beginning with the creation of the famous Hong Kong taxi service by Wu’s father, the book recounts Gordon Wu’s life as a small boy during the Second World War in Japanese occupied Hong Kong, through his university studies in the United States, his return to Hong Kong and the building of one of Asia’s best-known companies. He survived the 1997 financial crisis and has once again emerged as a major force in Asian infrastructure. Wu saw huge potential in China years before most people. He listened with keen anticipation to Deng Xiaoping’s famous ‘open door’ economic policy address in 1978: the closed Middle Kingdom was opening its doors and inviting the world to come in. Hopewell Holdings quickly became the largest single investor in China through a bold program of infrastructure creation. Lauded as a visionary, famous for his outspoken views and dubbed as ‘the man who turned the lights on’ by former Philippine president Fidel Ramos, Wu is above all else a survivor. Now in his seventies, he continues to be as innovative and controversial as ever. |
| The Brigadier's Wife by Chris Tao 2006 175 pp., 23.5 x 15.5 cm., Softbound. ISBN 988-98362-7-0 $14.85 ISBN-13: 978-988-98362-7-6 This is a story of love, greed, corruption and brutality that ranges from the snows of the Himalayas to the idyllic islands of the Andaman Sea and the boardrooms of Hong Kong, written under a pseudonym by an Asian insider with a striking new voice. Zhiang, by birth Chinese but away from his homeland, is cursed by the need to find something to replace the traditions that brought him to the world of murder and deceit that defines him. This he finds in Nilar, the beautiful and enigmatic wife of a general in the isolated, unknowable Burmese regime. Brought together by the grimy politics of Southeast Asia, their time together is short and dangerous. Affecting and revealing, mysterious and fascinating, The Brigadier's Wife captures the essence of the country where China and Southeast Asia meet. [Read a review from BK Magazine] |
| History's Fiction by Xu Xi 2005 230 pp., 20.5 x 12.5 cm., Hardbound. ISBN 988-97061-2-1 $11.25 ISBN-13: 978-988-97061-2-8 Xu Xi ranks as one of Hong Kong's foremost contemporary English language novelists. And here, from the turbulent 60s through the 90s, is a "history" of Hong Kong told through fiction. Stories from each decade feature historical incidents but the focus is on the personal. History intrudes into private lives and more in these thirteen tales. "At breakfast, her father said, "There's going to be trouble today." On the radio, news of the unrest dominated. It was early April in 1966, a little over a year before the most major riots in Hong Kong's post-war history." -Democracy "Xu Xi manages to avoid the usual clichés ... explaining the paradox that is Hong Kong and revealing a side of it rarely explored." -South China Morning Post "Haunting" -Simon Elegant "One of Hong Kong's most prominent writers does it again." -Hwee Hwee Tan This new edition includes a reading guide for English teachers and students by Lingnan University's Mike Ingham. |
| Zoom Out by Peter Maize 2005 327 pp., softbound, 25 x 18 cm. ISBN 988-98362-6-2 $8.75 ISBN-13: 978-988-98362-6-9 "The mistake people make is assuming they're in control of their lives." So says a mysterious storyteller in Nepal who offers to help a young adventurer with his quest for enlightenment. The young man unwittingly alters the life of an ambitious TV journalist in Hong Kong, and their paths converge on Beijing during the crest of the Tiananmen Square democracy protests. Zoom Out charts the intersecting journeys of a driven young woman and a lost young man; journeys that wind through Asia, addiction and occasional absurdity. "[Maize] ... has a pleasingly cynical eye. It's a pleasure to for once to read a book in which the city and it's people are reported accurately, if not too favorably." -South China Morning Post "The penetrating portrayal of life in Asia keeps the pages turning" -HK Magazine |
| Gweilo Moments: Notes From Hong Kong on motherhood, adoption, mid-life and cats by Robin Minietta 112 pp., 2005, softbound, 20.5 x 12.5 cm. ISBN 988-97061-7-2 $8.75 ISBN-13: 978-988-97061-7-3 How does one go about opening one's heart to an abused six-year old boy who speaks not one word of English? What do menopause and kudzu have in common? Where do we turn for that extra dose of courage, or an extra dollop of humor to help us through the day? Gweilo Moments, a collection of interlocking essays by Robin Minietta, is a thoughtful-and, provocative-meditation on lives that unfold against the backdrop of Hong Kong. Both poignant and laugh out-loud funny, Minietta's debut book showcases a strong, clear intelligent woman's voice. Robin Minietta, a journalist by training, worked for over a decade as a reporter and producer for public television in the United States. She has won numerous awards for her broadcast work, including an Emmy. Her essays have been published in literary and academic journals in the U.S. Minietta lives in Hong Kong with her husband and three children. "... heartwrenchingly real ... Minietta earns the reader's full attention and grips it until the last page." -Lauren Crothers in the South China Morning Post |
| Shouting at the Mountain: A Hong Kong Story of Love and Commitment by Elsie Tu 2004, 234 pp., paperback, 23.5 x 15.5 cm. ISBN 988-97061-4-8 $17.35 ISBN-13: 978-988-97061-4-2 "I was born Elsie Hume, in the city of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, one year before the First World War took my father to fight in the battlefields in France ... "The kindergarten consisted of sixty pupils located in a large wooden hut with no equipment except a black-board. I hardly knew where to start ..." This is the story of a man and a woman born thousands of miles apart, of different nationality, culture and language, who met in Hong Kong in the most unlikely of circumstances, yet were destined for a life together. Both had known hardship and sorrow in youth; both had similar aspirations to study and dedicate their lives to the service of the underprivileged, to struggle against injustice, and to work for world peace. The only barrier between was that one belonged to a nation of colonizers; the other to the colonized. Their task seemed formidable, but together they succeeded in bringing about changes beyond their imagination. Elsie Tu is one of Hong Kong's best-known activists and writers. Shouting at the Mountain, completed after her husband Andrew's death in 2001, confirms her as an authentic Hong Kong voice. "Elsie Tu is a Hong Kong phenomenon." -David Tang |
| The Emperor’s Old Clothes by Jake van der Kamp 2004 226 pp., paperback, 20 x 13 cm. ISBN 988-97061-1-3 $17.35 ISBN-13: 978-988-97061-1-1 “Our Emperor was not actually naked on his parade. He was wearing a raincoat. He was naked underneath, however, no shirt, no trousers, no hat, no socks, no shoes and, I think it at least possible, no underwear either. It was also a very plain raincoat and very worn. He was perfectly aware that he tempted Fate in emulating the story of the Emperor’s new clothes. Equally, he wanted the parallel made. The difference was that he had not fooled himself with the new clothes he wore on the parade. An old raincoat was exactly what he wanted to wear and the risk that he took in doing it paid it off. That day marked the greatest triumph of his life.” In The Emperor’s Old Clothes, a senior civil servant tells a series of cautionary tales on the perils of big government in the Republic of Loranor, as its well-intentioned Emperor finds the road to Hell is paved with good intentions. This modern retelling of the classic fable by the South China Morning Post’s ace financial columnist Jake van der Kamp will strike a chord with anyone who has despaired at the workings of bureaucracy, and examines why things so often go wrong when politicians try to make everyone happy. |
| Overleaf Hong Kong by Xu Xi 2004 224 pp., paperback, 20.5 x 12.5 cm. ISBN 988-97060-6-7 $11.25 ISBN-13: 978-988-97060-6-7 “In Overleaf Hong Kong, a collection of short stories and essays, Xu Xi explores what it means to be an overseas Chinese, a fascinating state rife with ambiguities. “With a style at once coolly ironic and droll, with a subtlety that resists belaboring the obvious, she plumbs those ambiguities eloquently. Whether it is an imagined Indonesian Chinese schoolgirl dealing with a menacing Japanese officer in wartime Singapore; a fairly affluent, late middle-aged couple vacationing in New Zealand; the author describing a talk to the Chinese Mutual Aid Society in Chicago; or meditating on the idiosyncrasies of life at Jack Kerouac's former home turned artist's colony, she alerts us to the nuances of a seemingly contradictory condition at home everywhere and nowhere. “Xu offers us these works with a sensibility that is keenly observant, generous and compassionate. In a world increasingly fragmented, even as it gets smaller, we would do well to pay attention." -Luis H Francia, critic/poet, author of 'The Eye of the Fish', and 'Memories of Overdevelopment' “Xu Xi proves that literature is not so much about a particular region or people, but rather a part of the global community. Her unparalleled literary reach touches several continents with a new and innovative diasporic global language." -novelist Shawn Wong, author of 'American Knees', 'Homebase' “A multiplicity of viewpoints inform this thoughtful and smart book. Xu Xi writes with clarity, dexterity, and the kind of 'omniscience' that comes from her vantage point of living between worlds: between Hong Kong and America, between the dual heritages of China and Indonesia, between the worlds of tradition and modernity in all its confusing forms. Here is a writer of prose at the height of her abilities as an alchemist of observation."-Robin Hemley, author/editor of 'Invented Eden: The Elusive, Disputed History of the Tasaday'; 'Nola: A Memoir of Faith, Art, and Madness'; 'Turning Life into Fiction' |
| Hong Kong Rose by Xu Xi 2004 314 pp., paperback, 18 x 11 cm. ISBN 988-97060-5-9 $8.75 ISBN-13: 978-988-97060-5-0 "In January 1972, I, Rose Kho, went to college in the United States. By May of '74, I came home with my BS in political science and a minor in mathematics. I married my childhood sweetheart Paul Lie in the summer of '77. Gordie says it was those early American years that really changed my life." Set against the Asian and international airline world, Hong Kong Rose rewinds through a drama set in Hong Kong of the 1970s. Courage, cowardice and compromise weave through this tale of love, and lust, unrequited and transformed, in two of the world's great cities. "Hong Kong Rose explores the lives of those in-between-between the city's Chinese and English speaking milieus, between customs, between a female wife and a male 'mistress'. It depicts Hong Kong from an unusual angle and follows the journey of some of its inhabitants in Xu Xi's well-honed prose." -Evans Chan, critic/filmmaker |
| The Feng Shui Detective's Casebook by Nury Vittachi 2003 335 pp., softbound, 18 x 11 cm. ISBN 988-97060-3-2 $8.75 ISBN-13: 978-988-97060-3-6 The infamous Mr. Wong and his assistant are touring Asia in the third volume of the internationally published comedy crime series. In their latest mission, our cult heroes visit the board members of a multinational company and get mixed up in a variety of adventures ranging from worryingly weird to out-and-out bizarre. They find themselves involved with a Singapore tycoon, a Bangkok movie star and other strange characters—and discover the address of the single finest feng shui spot on the whole planet. |
| Standard Deviations: Growing Up and Coming Down in the New Asia by Karl Taro Greenfeld 2002 287 pp., softbound, 17.5 x 11 cm. ISBN 962-86319-5-0 $8.75 ISBN-13: 978-962-86319-5-7 "I was twenty-three and I had set off for Asia to become a writer, intrigued by lurid tales of booms, busts, drugs, sex, violence, magic. There was a wicked sorcery in Asia, in the economic profligacy of the early nineties, in the way financiers and businessmen took a rapidly wiring and developing continent and looted billions, like a titanic parlor trick converting all that wealth into abandoned office complexes and half-completed shopping malls. . . . I wanted it all-the money, the sex, the drugs. And to this day I believe that if I am honest with myself, despite all I have learned the hard way over the past decade, I would still want it all again, the fucking and the getting loaded and the scheming to get enough money to pay for that life." "An insider's book, a wonderful account of travel in the decadent East." -Paul Theroux |
| The Feng Shui Detective Goes South A Comprehensive Index by Characters and Readings by Nury Vittachi 2002 376 pp., softbound, 18 x 11 cm. ISBN 962-86319-3-4 $8.75 ISBN-13: 978-962-86319-3-3 A skeptical young woman joins a feng shui consultancy—but finds her boss Mr. Wong specializes in a certain type of problem premises: scenes of crime. Then the local Union of Industrial Mystics discovers a runaway teenager destined for death, and the assignments from weird to bizarre. Original, fast-paced and laugh-out-loud funny, The Feng Shui Detective series turns the crime genre on its head. |
| The Feng Shui Detective by Nury Vittachi 2002 305 pp., softbound, 17 x 11.5 cm. ISBN 1-387-80212-7 $8.75 ISBN-13: 978-1-387-80212-8 Nury Vittachi's Feng Shui Detective is a detective story with a twist, for the sleuth is neither a police officer, nor a down-at-heel PI, nor even a mediaeval monk-CF Wong is a geomancer, an expert in the Asian discipline of Feng Shui. [Read a review from BK Magazine] |
Chameleon for Kids & Teens
| Camel Bells in the Windy Desert Coming Of Age In Inner Mongolia by Andrew Tu 2006 132 pp., 1 map, softbound, 20.5 x 13 cm. ISBN 988-99021-2-5 $4.85 ISBN-13: 978-988-99021-2-4 Camel Bells in the Windy Desert is Andrew Tu’s story of growing up in Inner Mongolia during the 1920s and 30s and of his long journey to Chongqing during the War. In Chinese literature, the sound of camel bells has always symbolised the traveller’s heartbreak on leaving home to travel to a distant place. The camel bells came to symbolise much of Andrew’s lonely life as a child, motherless, and handed from family to family, home to home, unwanted. Camel Bells in the Windy Desert is a story of the survival against all odds of a young boy determined to reach his goal of freedom, friendship and knowledge. Like so many others, Andrew Tu came to Hong Kong, where he became an educator and activist for public justice. Andrew’s story is also part of how Hong Kong became what it is today. This new edition, prepared especially for young adults (aged 14 up), contains a new afterword by his wife Elsie Tu who, together with Andrew, continued their story in Shouting at the Mountain (Chameleon Press, 2004). |
| Tang the Tiger Cub by C Kolle & L Roberts 2005 24 pp. all colour, hardbound, 18.5 x 18.5 cm. ISBN 988-97061-0-5 $11.25 ISBN-13: 978-988-97061-0-4 Tang the tiger cub's parents have been captured by trappers. Can Tang, Ping the panda and their new friend May save Tang's parents and the other animals? Published in support of Save China's Tigers Foundation. |
| Monday Redux by Robert Favole 2003 198 pp., softbound, 20 x 12.5 cm. ISBN 962-86319-0-X $4.85 ISBN-13: 978-962-86319-0-2 You only get one chance. Or do you? A school is devastated by a shocking outbreak of violence. One boy realizes he could have prevented it. But he failed. He is traumatized by his failure. But then he's given another chance-which involves taking terrifying risks... Monday Redux is a fast-paced, roller-coaster of a story which you won't be able to put down. But it's also a masterfully written snapshot of the drama of teenage life in a media-driven society. And it is based on events all too horrifically familiar from today's headlines. "A gripping plot with cutting tongue-in-cheek humor" -Paul McGuire, South China Morning Post reviewer "Thrilling time-traveler's tale for the cyber age" -Karmel Schreyer, author of A Singing Bird Will Come: Naomi in Hong Kong |
| Dead Eric Gets a Virus by Nury Vittachi 2002 142 pp., softbound, 20 x 12.5 cm. ISBN 962-86319-7-7 $4.85 ISBN-13: 978-962-86319-7-1 Eric Watts downloads his brain into a supercomputer. The experiment kills him. But the copy of his brain in the computer still works. So he installs a wireless Internet connection into his body and sends it back to school. But now that he's dead, Eric's life just isn't the same, for him-or his only friend Mindy... |
| Golden Dragon by Peter Osborne 2005 105 pp., 9 b & w illus., softbound, 20.5 x 13 cm. ISBN 988-97061-5-6 $4.85 ISBN-13: 978-988-97061-5-9 "You like dragon?" The boy and girl turned quickly to see where the accented English words had come from, the sound so strange in amongst the chanting and chatter in Chinese resonating around the temple walls. Three simple words spoken quietly by a wizened old woman in the shadows of a Chinese temple start Aaron and Elly on a captivating journey into ancient towns, incense-filled temples and crowded chaotic Asian cities. As they follow their father's seemingly random visits to temples and other mysterious places, the children discover new pieces to a series of riddles that seem to be bringing them closer to finding a real dragon. Are the strange people aiding the children's search real, or are they actually dragons themselves? The children's father also seems to be part of their quest-does he really know the Golden Dragon? The children's quest to save the last Golden Dragon takes the reader into the fascinating experience of foreign children living in another country, a journey interwoven with intriguing snippets of Chinese culture, religion, traditions and beliefs. Experienced Asia hand Peter Osborne turns his pen to children's fiction with this first volume of an exciting new series. |
| Robot Junior by Nury Vittachi 2002 60 pp., 36 b & w illus., softbound, 20 x 13 cm. ISBN 962-86319-8-5 $4.85 ISBN-13: 978-962-86319-8-8 In a city which is so crowded that the streets go straight up into the sky, a boy and a girl build a robot. But it turns out like no other robot, because it is programmed to think like a child. This modern classic has already been a hit as a 10-part radio drama series. For ages 6-9. |
| True Adventures of Captain Pig by Ah-Wai Goh 2002 64 pp., 36 b & w illus., softbound, 20 x 12.5 cm. ISBN 962-86319-9-3 $4.85 ISBN-13: 978-962-86319-9-5 Captain Pig is the most daring space explorer of all time. He is also rich, good-looking and a very nice guy. Join Captain Pig and his friends and crewmates Phreddie Phrogue and Professor Hippocrates Oedipus Potamus as they find out why no one on the Sun can read and why Jupiter has that big red spot. For ages 6-10. |
| Empress Emi-Poo by Karmel Schreyer 2005 28 pp., all colour, softbound, 21 x 21 cm. ISBN 988-97061-8-0 $4.85 ISBN-13: 978-988-97061-8-0 Join Empress Emi-poo and her family as she learns to love her potty-and to do what comes naturally. |
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