Karen Kao

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About Karen Kao

Karen Kao is the author of The Dancing Girl and the Turtle

Hong Kong Noir • edited by Jason Y. Ng and Susan Blumberg-Kason

Hong Kong is under siege. From property developers razing neighborhoods to build yet more skyscrapers. From the push-and-pull emanating from Beijing to demand greater subservience from this former British colony.  Even without all that pressure, Hong Kong could very well collapse under the weight of its own population, permanent and [...]

The Stolen Bicycle • Wu Ming-Yi

Where I live, a bicycle is a necessity of life. It’s the only sensible way to get around a city like Amsterdam with its winding canals and ditto streets. Everyone here rides: men in three-piece suits, women in stiletto heels and kids on their way to school. Bikes are the main [...]

Palm-of-the-Hand Stories • Kawabata Yasunari   

Reviewed by Karen Kao Kawabata Yasunari was born in 1899 and committed suicide in 1972. He watched Japan open itself to the world, indulge in dreams of empire and survive the ensuing firestorm. His characters were ordinary people: prostitutes, abandoned wives and children. He won the Nobel Prize for Literature [...]