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The Pirate King
Yesterday was a hot holiday Monday in London, so naturally I was standing in front of a galleon on the South Bank, talking about Chinese pirates. There’s a film crew in town making a documentary about...
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"I have not told the half of what I saw."
Although they may be self-indulgent and self-regarding, I’ve really been enjoying everybody else’s round-ups of the ten years since the numbers rolled over from 19– to 20–. Herewith the last decade as...
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Coxinga
Throwing stuff in a suitcase for tomorrow’s trip. I’m off to Taiwan for a week’s work on a National Geographic documentary about Coxinga. We shot some footage in London a year ago, but this is the big...
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Mad in Taiwan
In the last week I have been interviewed by Chinese TV, press-passed my way behind the fences and up into the rafters at the boat launch, and chased down the street after two rival Goddess of the Sea...
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A Hero’s Legacy
We’ve just had an impromptu private screening of Koxinga: A Hero’s Legacy, the National Geographic documentary that’s been part of my life, on and off, for the last two years. It’s already been twelve...
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Coxinga on the Kindle
My book Coxinga and the Fall of the Ming Dynasty is suddenly available on the Kindle. I can only guess that the History Press, who inherited it from the now defunct Sutton Publishing, realised they...
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My Book of the Year
And so we come to the Book of the Year round-up. I’m not waiting till the holiday season this time, as I realise that many readers would prefer to hear my thoughts now, just in case it inspires their...
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The Lady in Red
One of the odd obsessions that has occupied me for the last decade is Mazu, the Chinese marine goddess, patron deity of all those in peril on the sea. She began life as a real person, Lin Moniang, a...
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The Blurb I Wish I’d Had
In the year 4341, invaders ransacked the Celestial Empire and placed a child on the Dragon Throne. The last remnants of the Dynasty of Brightness swore to fight them to the death. Their allies were...
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Koxinga: A Hero’s Legacy
Koxinga: A Hero’s Legacy, the documentary I made with National Geographic in 2010, has turned up on Youtube. I am a talking head, all over it like a rash, because of my book on the infamous Pirate King...
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