Book reviews
Books
Book review- Ten Cities That Made an Empire
At its peak, the British Empire owned territories around the world on almost every continent from Africa to Asia to Australia. I’m sure most of us have been to countries that made up this empire. At its core were illustrious cities like Bombay, Hong Kong, Cape Town and New Delhi, which provided the industry, commerce, […]
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Book reviews
Books
Book review- Finding George Orwell in Burma
It is a good thing I didn’t read this book before I went to Myanmar (Burma). If I did, I probably wouldn’t have had such a carefree mindset. Finding George Orwell in Burma is an American writer’s attempt in 2003 to trace Orwell’s life in the country which had a huge influence on him. Orwell spent five […]
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Book reviews
Books
Book review- The Ministry of Utmost Happiness
Twenty years ago, Indian writer Arundhati Roy wrote a novel that ended up winning a Booker Prize. In 2017, she released her second novel, The Ministry of Utmost Happiness, which sounds like a cheery, whimsical work, but that is not the type of writer Roy is. So while I was slightly taken by surprise when the […]
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Hikes
Hong Kong travel
Travel
Hiking Hong Kong’s Lion Rock
As one of Hong Kong’s most well-known mountains, Lion Rock is regarded as a symbol of Hong Kong’s working-class resilience as it developed into a prosperous financial hub in the latter half of the 20th-century. This idea originated from a local 1970s TV show called “Below the Lion Rock” about working-class families living in communities […]
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Southeast Asia travel
Thailand travel
Travel
Bangkok’s Chrao Phraya River
The Chao Phraya River curves along Bangkok, bisecting the older, western part of Thonburi from the more populated and bustling eastern part. If you plan to go to places like the Grand Palace, Wat Pho, Wat Arun or Khao San Road, you’ll probably take a boat on the Chao Phraya. Boat ferries run along […]
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Book reviews
Books
Taiwan
Book review- Green Island
Green Island is a novel about the life of a Taiwanese man imprisoned after the 228 Tragedy in 1948 and his family as they endure Taiwan’s decades of repressive martial law before it became a democracy in the late 1980s. I read Green Island earlier this year at almost the same time that across the Taiwan […]
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Japan travel
Travel
Kyoto’s Nijo castle
Kyoto is a city full of historic temples, but it also has several imperial and shogunate castles right in the middle of town. The most well-known one is Nijo Castle, which served as the shogun’s residence after it was built in 1603, and then became an imperial castle after the fall of the Tokugawa Shogunate […]
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