BOOKISH ASIA with Plum Rain Press

Scott Crawford and John Ross continue their special ten-part series devoted to Chen Yao-chang’s historical novel A Tale of Three Tribes in Dutch Formosa, translated by Ho Wen-ching.
In Episode 2, covering Chapters 5–8, we head out to sea. We meet Chen Ze, a Chinese mariner operating in the trading world built by Zheng Zhilong (merchant, pirate, admiral and father of the man who would become known as Koxinga). Meanwhile, Maria Hambroeck and her family are making their own long voyage to Formosa.
Read along with us as we work our way through A Tale of Three Tribes in Dutch Formosa.
You can buy book from the Plum Rain Press website:

Paperback / Collector’s Edition:
 A Tale of Three Tribes in Dutch Formosa – paperback
E-book: 
A Tale of Three Tribes in Dutch Formosa – e-book

John Ross and writer Scott Crawford begin a special ten-part read-along series on Chen Yao-Chang’s historical novel A Tale of Three Tribes in Dutch Formosa. The English edition, translated by Wen-ching Ho and edited by Ian Maxwell, is now available as an ebook as well as a paperback from the Plum Rain Press website.

In Episode 1, we are in the Netherlands in 1646. Sixteen-year-old Maria Hambroeck learns that her missionary father is taking the family halfway around the world to Formosa, leaving behind her home – and the young man she loves. Meanwhile, in Mattau in southwest Taiwan, we meet Uma, a young Siraya woman.

John and Scott discuss the characters, plot, and real history behind the novel. Read along with us as we work our way through A Tale of Three Tribes in Dutch Formosa.

You can buy the ebook and paperback at the Plum Rain Press website.

John talks to Lee Moore about his unconventional history book, China’s Backstory, which focuses on four important China-related subjects that frequently make headlines: Taiwan, Xinjiang, the Chinese economy, and Hong Kong. John previously discussed the book’s Taiwan section with Lee on an episode of Formosa Files, and its Xinjiang and Hong Kong sections on the Books on Asia podcast. This time, they turn their attention to China’s economy, focusing on three historical periods that offer powerful lessons for the present day. We think you’ll agree that the conversation is both informative and highly entertaining.

Be sure to check out:
China’s Backstory: The History Beijing Doesn’t Want You to Read
Lee Moore on Formosa Files: “China’s Backstory” and Taiwan before 1800
Lee Moore on the Books on Asia podcast: Xinjiang, the Uyghurs, and China’s Backstory
The Chinese Literature Podcast, hosted by Lee Moore

Minnesotan Sarah Coomber discusses life in small-town Japan in the 1990s, the subject of her beautiful memoir. She arrived there as a recently divorced twenty-four-year-old hoping to spend a quiet, reflective year teaching English on the JET Program. But before long, she wouldbefriend a local salaryman and…

New Zealand writer Frank Beyer (who goes under the name F.E. Beyer) talks to John about novels featuring a much maligned creature: the Western English teacher in East Asia. Frank is something of a connoisseur of these stories, and his latest novel, The Crushed Can, adds to the canon. This fun page-turner is set in Shanghai in 2002, where a young protagonist called Kurt has just made his life more complicated by taking in his friend’s former girlfriend, a Chinese woman called Ronghua.

Exploring the tropes of the foreign English teacher in China, Japan, and South Korea, Frank talks about: Tuvalu by Andrew O’Connor; White Monkey by Carlos Hughes; Foreign Teachers by Sam Wade, American Fuji by Sara Backer; and River East, River West by Aube Rey Lescure.

Other titles discussed or mentioned include: Peter Hessler’s acclaimed River Town: Two Years on the Yangtze, which gets some good-natured ribbing (and is the subject of a running joke in The Crushed Can, where it appears as Lake Town by Paula Hess). Also mentioned are Hessler’s Country Driving (2010) and Other Rivers: A Chinese Education (2024).

John mentions books he’s been involved in publishing: The Cuttlefish by Chris Tharp, Up to the Mountains and Down to the Countryside by Quincy Carroll, and Tom Carter’s An American Bum in China. He also praises John Dalton’s Heaven Lake.

To learn more about or purchase The Crushed Can (and Frank’s first two works, Buenos Aires Triad and Smoko) visit Amazon. You’ll find some of his articles and book reviews at www.febeyer.com.