Englishman Tim Symonds is the author of five Sherlock Holmes novels, most recently the highly enjoyable Sherlock Holmes and the Nine-Dragon Sigil, which takes Holmes and Watson to the Forbidden City in Peking during the last days of the Qing dynasty. * * * What does the "Nine-Dragon Sigil" in the book [...]
A Canadian freelance writer from Saskatchewan, Joe Henley has called Taipei home since graduating from journalism school in 2005. He is also a metal/punk musician and has written extensively about the music scene in Asia. His first novel, a thriller set in Taiwan called Sons of the Republic, was published in [...]
Californian Ken Berglund spent four and a half years in Taiwan working as an English teacher, the subject of his first book, An American Teacher in Taiwan (read my review of the book here). He married a local lass, had two kids, and then moved back to America with his [...]
Beijing-based writer Isham Cook talks to fellow American James Lande, the author of Yang Shen: The God from the West, an epic novel set during the bloody Taiping Rebellion of the mid-nineteenth century. What got you interested in this particular time period in Chinese history? The late Ch’ing Dynasty was where [...]
Rosie Milne is an English writer based in Singapore. She is the author of How To Change Your Life, Holding the Baby, and most recently, Olivia & Sophia, a historical novel describing the Southeast Asian adventures of Sir Stamford Raffles (1781-1826) and his two wives. What was the inspiration for Olivia [...]
Arthur Meursault is the author of the dark comedy Party Members (due out in August). Set in the fictional Chinese city of Huaishi, it follows the exploits of Yang Wei, a mid-level government official led astray by greed and corruption. Meursault left his native England as a teenager, throwing himself into [...]
Vincent Stoia is the author of two horror novels set in China, Jin Village and Dark Blossom. Dark Blossom tells the story of a courtesan caught up in a struggle involving various gods, ghouls and the imperial court. Jin Village describes an archaeological dig in a remote mountainous corner of the country; the archaeologists [...]
Patrick Wayland is the author of three novels: The Jade Lady (2012), Deadman Bay (2015), and The Nialhaus Proxy (2016). He was born in Corpus Christi, Texas, graduated from The University of Texas at San Antonio, worked in Silicon Valley in the high-tech industry, and later studied Asian languages in Hong [...]
Old Taiwan Hand Richard Saunders has done more to get his fellow expats exploring the island than any other person or organization. He is the founder of the group Taipei Hikers, and regularly leads day and weekend hikes around Taipei, and longer treks to Taiwan’s 3,000-meter-plus mountains. He has written hundreds [...]
Alec Ash is an English writer and journalist living in Beijing. He is the founder of a writer's colony called the Anthill, and the author of Wish Lanterns: Young Lives in New China. Wish Lanterns, which follows the lives of six young Chinese, is a fascinating close-up look at China's millennials. What was the [...]