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Roving Through Southern China

An American's Explorations of Hong Kong, Macao and Canton in the Early1920s
  • ISBN-13: 9789887674832
  • Publisher: BLACKSMITH BOOKS
    Imprint: BLACKSMITH BOOKS
  • By Harry A. Franck, Introduction by Paul French
  • Price: AUD $25.99
  • Stock: 0 in stock
  • Availability: This book is temporarily out of stock, order will be despatched as soon as fresh stock is received.
  • Local release date: 01/09/2024
  • Format: Paperback (182.00mm X 112.00mm) 120 pages Weight: 0g
  • Categories: Asian history [HBJF]
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In the 1920s the American travel writer Harry A Franck was known to readers as the "Prince of Vagabonds". His wanderings were family affairs and he arrived in southern China in 1923 with his wife, their two young children and his mother. Franck always claimed that his travel plans were random, subject to chance encounters and whatever caught his eye.

He arrives in a Hong Kong which is building modern department stores and large houses while labourers sleep on straw mats beside the harbour. In Macao he visits temples, ancient forts and, of course, casinos. And then to Canton (Guangzhou), a city in flux where new buildings are transforming the waterfront, the ancient city walls are being demolished, and the traditional rookeries of small lanes are being replaced by wide asphalt roads as the city rapidly modernises.

Franck also provides us with a highly detailed description of Shamian Island a year after the tumultuous strikes and boycotts that meant naval gunboats and barbed wire still protected the small foreign enclave.

Paul French was born in London, educated there and in Glasgow, and lived and worked in Shanghai for many years. His book Midnight in Peking was a New York Times bestseller, a BBC Radio 4 Book of the Week, a Mystery Writers of America Edgar award winner for Best Fact Crime and a Crime Writers Association (UK) Dagger award for non-fiction. His book City of Devils: A Shanghai Noir has received much praise, with The Economist writing: in Mr French the city has its champion storyteller. Both Midnight in Peking and City of Devils are currently being developed for television. Stories from Destination Shanghai have been serialised on RTHK Radio 3. Strangers on the Praia is being developed for film.

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