Author interviews

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Author Interview: John Dougill

John Dougill grew up in Grimsby, England. Since 1988 he has lived in Kyoto, Japan, where he is professor of British Studies at Ryukoku University. He has written numerous books about Japan (on travel, religion, and history) and England. His 2012 In Search of Japan's Hidden Christians: A Story of Suppression, [...]

Author Interview: Greg McCann

Taiwan-based American Greg McCann fell in love with the little-known wilderness of northeast Cambodia while doing doctoral research on the animist beliefs of the highlander tribes and how their belief in mountain spirits and traditional taboos translated into a form of environmental conservation. He wrote a book about his experiences, [...]

Author Interview: Liam D’Arcy-Brown

Liam D'Arcy-Brown is the author of three books on China: Green Dragon, Sombre Warrior: Travels to China's Extremes (2003), The Emperor's River: Travels to the Heart of a Resurgent China (2010) and Chusan: The Opium Wars & the Forgotten Story of Britain's First Chinese Island. He studied Chinese at St. Anne's [...]

Author Interview: Troy Parfitt

Troy Parfitt is the author of Notes from the Other China: Adventures in Asia (2007), Why China Will Never Rule the World: Travels in the Two Chinas (2011), and War Torn: Adventures in the Brave New Canada (2015). Originally from New Brunswick, Canada, he is currently living in Scotland. Why China Will [...]

Author Interview: Nicki Chen

Nicki Chen is the author of Tiger Tail Soup, a historical novel that tells the story of a Chinese woman struggling to survive during the Japanese invasion. The novel is set on Kulangsu (Gulangyu), a small island near the city of Xiamen. Why did you set Tiger Tail Soup on [...]

Author Interview: Shawna Yang Ryan

Shawna Yang Ryan is a former Fulbright scholar and the author of Water Ghosts (Penguin Press 2009) and mostly recently Green Island (Knopf 2016), a novel exploring the dark days of Taiwan's post-WW II White Terror period. Originally from California, Shawna Yang Ryan now lives on Oahu, where she teaches in the [...]

Author Interview: David Eimer

Now based in Bangkok, British journalist David Eimer was the China Correspondent for the Sunday Telegraph from 2007 to 2012. He is the author of The Emperor Far Away: Travels at the Edge of China What was the inspiration for writing The Emperor Far Away? The genesis for the book [...]

Author Interview: Chris Tharp

American Chris Tharp has called Busan, South Korea home for over a decade. He is the author of  Dispatches from the Peninsula: Six Years in South Korea and The Worst Motorcycle in Laos: Rough Travels in Asia. Both books are published by Signal 8 Press. How did you end up living [...]

Author Interview: Bradley Winterton

Bradley Winterton is a British freelance writer and book-reviewer living in Asia. He’s the author of three travel guidebooks (to Bali, Thailand and Japan, the last as co-author), and two books on operas at Macau’s annual International Music Festival. He hasn’t been home to the UK since 1990. He started [...]

Author Interview: David Leffman

British travel writer David Leffman has written numerous guide books, including ones for Australia, China, Hong Kong, Indonesia and Iceland. He is also the author of The Mercenary Mandarin: How a British adventurer became a general in Qing-dynasty China, which tells the amazing story of Jersey-born William Mesny. Mesny ran off to [...]