by Emma Zhang Ha Jin, The Banished Immortal: A Life of Li Bai, Patheon, 2019. 320 pgs. From the pen of the writer who compassionately commemorated the courageous deeds ofContinue readingMan of Letters: Ha Jin’s The Banished Immortal: A Life of Li Bai

by Aurelio Asiain Gergana Ivanova, Unbinding The Pillow Book: The Many Lives of a Japanese Classic, Columbia University Press, 2018. 240 pgs. What is The Pillow Book? Most people withContinue readingAn Incessantly Growing, Proliferating, Echoing Book: Gergana Ivanova’s Unbinding The Pillow Book: The Many Lives of a Japanese Classic

by Wong Wen Pu ❀ Kirsten Han, The Silhouette of Oppression, Epigram Books, 2019. 48 pgs. ❀ Alfian Sa’at, A Manifesto for Arts Funding, Epigram Books, 2019. 48 pgs. ❀Continue readingRational Conversations: Some Essays on Political and Civic Sustainability in Singapore

by Michael Tsang Xu Xi, Insignificance, Typhoon Media/Signal 8 Press, 2018. 190 pgs. Compared to her previous work, the stories in Xu Xi’s Insignificance reveal the author’s ingrained disappointment andContinue readingIs Hong Kong Losing One of Its Finest Anglophone Fiction Writers?: Xu Xi’s Insignificance

by Ilaria Maria Sala Quelling the Demons’ Revolt: A Novel from Ming China, Luo Guanzhong (attributed author) Patrick Hanan (translator), Columbia University Press, 2017. 240 pgs. The pleasure of readingContinue readingMy Kind of Demons: Quelling the Demons’ Revolt: A Novel from Ming China

by Jason S Polley Yi T’aejun (author), Janet Poole (translator), Dust and Other Stories, Columbia University Press, 2018. 304 pgs. Janet Poole’s translation of selected Yi T’aejun short stories firstContinue reading“Deep down he felt a little jealous of his own writing”; or, “time never passes as quickly as when holding a pen”: Yi T’aejun’s Dust and Other Stories

by Mario Rustan Patrick H. Hase, Forgotten Heroes: San On County and its Magistrates in the Late Ming and Early Qing, City University of Hong Kong Press, 2017. 388 pgs.Continue readingHong Kong Noir 1688: Patrick H. Hase’s Forgotten Heroes: San On County and its Magistrates in the Late Ming and Early Qing

by Michael Ka-chi Cheuk Gao Xingjian (author), Gilbert C. F. Fong (translator), Wandering Mind and Metaphysical Thoughts, The Chinese University Press, 2018. 244 pgs. As the first Chinese-language writer to winContinue readingThe Hedgehog and The Worm: Gao Xingjiang’s Wandering Mind and Metaphysical Thoughts

by Pinky Lui Chung-Man Marshall Moore, Inhospitable, Camphor Press, 2018. 302 pgs. Ghosts are real in Marshall Moore’s Inhospitable. Either as the spirits of the departed or as a psychologicalContinue readingGhosts in the Flesh: Marshall Moore’s Inhospitable

by Dragoș Ilca Sheng Keyi (author), Shelly Bryant (translator), Wild Fruit, Penguin, 2018. 350 pgs. Wild Fruit is split into three sections, each documenting the various stories of Li Xiaohan’sContinue readingBuilding It Up So That It May Fall Again: Sheng Keyi’s Wild Fruit

by Stephanie Studzinski ❀ Greg Santos, Blackbirds, Eyewear Publishing, 2018. 44 pgs. ❀ Anuradha Vijayakrishnan, The Who-Am-I Bird, Bombaykala Books, 2018. 70 pgs. ❀ Vaughan Rapatahana, Ternion, erbacce-press, 2017. 96Continue readingFour Birds of a Far Flown Feather: Four Poetry Collections

by Kate Rogers Konstandinos Mahoney, Tutti Frutti, SPM Publications, 2018. 78 pgs. Tutti Frutti is a wonderful collection of condensed, original, witty poems. It both celebrates and exposes family members,Continue readingThe Love Songs of Dino Mahoney

by Claire Cuccio Makoto Ōoka (author), Janine Beichman (translator), Beneath the Sleepless Tossing of the Planets: Selected Poems, Kurodahan Press, 2018. 192 pgs. What is Poetry? #3 Precisely the processContinue readingPoetry Universe: Makoto Ōoka’s Beneath the Sleepless Tossing of the Planets: Selected Poems

by Carolyn Lau ❀ Huang Lihai (author), Kit Kelen and Chris Song (translators), feed birds rainbows, ASM and Cerberus Press, 2014. 132 pgs. ❀ Yao Feng (author), Kit Kelen, KarenContinue readingOn Three Bilingual Pocket Books by Poet-travellers

by Akin Jeje Jason Y. Ng and Susan Blumberg-Kason (editors), Hong Kong Noir, Akashic, 2018. 256 pgs. Elegiac rather than horrific, more melancholic than murderous, Hong Kong Noir‘s fourteen talesContinue readingHong Kong Noir

by Susan Blumberg-Kason Ivy Ngeow, Heart of Glass, Unbound Digital, 2018. 256 pgs. I was in New York in January for a Hong Kong book event, and the discussion wasContinue readingLove and Longing in Macau: Ivy Ngeow’s Heart of Glass

by Ophelia Tung Ho Yiu ❀ Kit Kelen, As to the ladders of whichway, ASM, 2014. 165 pgs. ❀ Roger Palmer and Tim Simpson, macao macau, Black Dog Publishing, 2014.Continue readingOn Melancholy and Displacement: Kit Kelen’s As to the ladders of whichway and Roger Palmer and Tim Simpson’s macao macau

by Gabrielle Flores Gina Apostol, Insurrecto, Soho Press, 2018. 336 pgs. It’s hard to begin a review for a novel that begins many, many, many times over. Viet Thanh NguyenContinue readingThe Frustrating Elegance of Gina Apostol’s Insurrecto

by Jennifer Mackenzie Brian Castro & John Young, Macau Days, Art+Australia Publishing, 2017. 187 pgs. For more than five centuries, the days spent in Macau have inspired and nourished thoseContinue readingA Trilingual History of Benevolence: Brian Castro & John Young’s Macau Days

by Susan Blumberg-Kason Nigel Collett, A Death in Hong Kong: The MacLennan Case of 1980 and the Suppression of a Scandal, City University of Hong Kong Press, 2018. 552 pgs.Continue readingNigel Collett’s A Death in Hong Kong: The MacLennan Case of 1980 and the Suppression of a Scandal