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Adam Wright

Articles about sex and love, the Hong Kong riots in the 1960s and Hong Kong’s democracy movement were among the South China Morning Post’s most popular books stories in 2019.
Here are the top five.
5. Mixed-race love in Thailand
Patcharin Lapanun’s Love, Money and Obligation: Transnational Marriage in a Northeastern Thai Village is a powerful reminder of how interconnected the world has become – and how love can develop between people from completely different backgrounds.

4. Joshua Wong’s manifesto
This preview of Unfree Speech: The Threat to Global Democracy and Why We Must Act Now, said the title, by Hong Kong democracy activist Joshua Wong, would be “a powerful and urgent manifesto for global democracy”, according to its publisher.

3. Unhappy in Hong Kong
British writer Rajeev Balasubramanyam, in an interview to promote his new book Professor Chandra Follows his Bliss, said Hong Kong was “effectively a creative desert … It’s not a place that values intellectuals or artists particularly. What it gives you is money. And intellectuals and artists need money”.

2. Sex and love in China
Author and journalist Xinran Xue has written a number of non-fiction books about women in contemporary China.
In The Promise: Love and Loss in Modern China she goes back in time to examine the changes in love and marriage since the Republican era.

1. Gurkhas quell ‘60s riots
In Gurkha Odyssey, Peter Duffell, former commander of the British forces in Hong Kong, tells the story of 200 years of service by the Nepalese Gurkhas.
In an edited excerpt, Duffell describes a city rocked by riots during the 1960s – events that resonate today as the city again struggles with unrest.



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Anne Hathaway reportedly to lead Verity, latest Colleen Hoover movie adaptation

Books and literature

Our five most read Asian book stories of 2019, about activist Joshua Wong’s philosophy, love and loss in China, and more

Joshua Wong is the centre of attention as he speaks to protesters against extradition law changes in Hong Kong a day after his release from prison in June. Photo: Sam Tsang

Gurkhas patrolling near Market Street in Sha Tau Kok border. 24AUG67

Rajeev Balasubramanyam during an interview in London. Photo: Mike Clarke [FEATURES POSTMAGAZINE MYLIFE 2019]

TO GO WITH Thailand-society-marriage-Western-lifestyle,FEATURE by Rachel O'BRIEN This picture taken on January 12, 2010 shows Australian man Ronnie Behnke (L) and his Thai wife Parnom posing for a picture at their house in Parnom's home village in the Isaan province of Khon Kaen, northeastern Thailand. An estimated 60-70,000 cross-cultural couples now live in the region according to Buapan Promphakping, associate professor in social development at local Khon Kaen University. The trend began back in the 1960s when thousands of US soldiers were stationed in the area during the Vietnam War. But it has continued apace, particularly as hordes of poor Isaan women have left home to find work in the tourist hubs -- many as bar girls -- where they can meet foreign men and bring them back to settle in the northeast. AFP PHOTO/Christophe ARCHAMBAULT (Photo by CHRISTOPHE ARCHAMBAULT / AFP)

Activist Joshua Wong Chi-fung reacts when attending the protest outside Government Headquarter in Admiralty. Wong speaks in the protest to show support to the pro-democracy protesters who were jailed for 13 months on 15 August, 2017. Thirteen protesters are jailed for unlawful assembly outside the Legislative Council on June 13, 2014 in a protest against the government's development plan in the northeastern New Territories. 16AUG17. SCMP/ Sam Tsang

(180422) -- HANGZHOU, April 22, 2018 (Xinhua) -- Newly-weds attend a group wedding ceremony in Hangzhou, capital of east China's Zhejiang Province, April 21, 2018. These 108 couples, coming from different parts of China, live and work in Hangzhou. (Xinhua/Li Zhong) (ry)

The best books of 2019: five picks by Bill Gates, including An American Marriage – also a Barack Obama pick

Bill Gates, the billionaire co-founder of Microsoft, has released a list of the top five books on his reading shelf this year. Photo: Reuters

These Truths Jill Lepore

Growth cover

An American Marriage cover

Prepared cover

Why We Sleep cover

Manga comic about Uygur woman’s ordeal in China a viral hit, despite lack of publicity and shunning by publishers

Artwork from What Has Happened To Me

Cover of What Has Happened To Me

Uygur woman Mihrigul Tursun telling of her experiences inside China’s Xinjiang internment camps on a CNN news report. Source: CNN

Kilsoo Haan – the Korean secret agent who warned the US about Pearl Harbour attack

On December 7, 1941, Imperial Japanese air and naval forces launched a surprise attack on the US naval base Pearl Harbour, in Hawaii. Secret agent Kilsoo Haan tried, to no avail, to warn the US what was coming.

US President Franklin D. Roosevelt addressed the joint 76th session of United States Congress in the House chamber of the U.S. Capitol on January 3, 1940 in Washington, DC., United States. - US President Franklin D. Roosevelt delivered a message to renew his pledge to keep us out of war and to plead for national unity. (Photo by - / ACME / AFP)

Action Likely in Pacific

Pyongyang architecture: North Korean capital as not seen before in dreamy, pastel-coloured book filled with stunning photos

Pyongyang's Monument to Party Founding

Pyongyang Ice Rink

Model City Pyongyang cover by Cristiano Bianchi and Kristina Drapic

North Korea's May Day Stadium

North Koreans outside the Grand People's Study House in Pyongyang

Electronics Industry Hall in Pyongyang

Lifestyle

Arts & Culture

Culture

Books


Hong Kong activist’s manifesto for global democracy, love in 20th century China and in Thailand – the books that most interested you tackled big issues
The item that most interested readers was an extract of a history of the Nepalese Gurkhas in the British Army covering the 1960s riots in Hong Kong



History, democracy, and creativity – or rather, the lack of it in contemporary Hong Kong – our most read stories of 2019 covered some big topics. None are bigger than love, the subject of Xinran Xue’s latest book about China.


Joshua Wong

Hong Kong protests

Hong Kong culture

Year in Review 2019