Hong Kong

An Imitation of Life takes the reader into a bizarre world where the extraordinary characters are lively distortions of people we may know. Aside from cockroach-eating Celia, Uncle Ed can "disappear" himself as well as objects in his magic show. Her adoptive parents Barry and Lettie together run the Butchette, a building created from the remains of Barry's Butchery and Lettie's Laundrette after the earthquake.

Steps to Paradise and Beyond is the second volume of Verner Bickley's autobiography. He describes the events and issues that were important to him during a period of his life spent in Hawaii and Saudi Arabia. In Hawaii from 1971 to 1981, he served as the Director of the Culture Learning Institute at the East-West Center, established by the U.S. Congress. For nine years, Verner led a small team of anthropologists, cross-cultural psychologists and linguists, focusing on the different ways in which individuals and whole societies cope in bicultural and multicultural contexts and how they address problems presented by different cultural norms.

In Man's Last Song, the human race faces imminent extinction. The year is 2090. The global population has shrunk to less than half a million; median age about 60. After 40 years of near-universal sterility, humanity is vanishing while the rest of the planet makes a healthy comeback. A few survivors in Hong Kong face the challenge of adjusting to life as post-modern savages, rediscovering instincts that have long been suppressed by civilisation. To these post-modern cavemen and cavewomen dwelling in the concrete remains of an empty metropolis, life has become a lonely journey of self-discovery in which they reassess also mankind.

A Shimmering Sea ells of a quest for home, told through a vivid and lyrical sequence of narratives. Sophronia Liu chronicles first her beginnings in 1950s Hong Kong, and about her family. Some 20 years later, when Liu was a student in the American Midwest, memories of these people and places flooded back to haunt her. Responding to their call, Sophronia eventually returned to Hong Kong in 2006, to live near her native village and continue to write. She died on 14 January 2013, one day after her 60th birthday.

The last decade has seen Hong Kong blossom into one of Asia's true artistic hotspots, with its galleries, art projects and fairs now flourishing along with local and international audiences. At the centre of this cultural renaissance are the artists themselves - working as both products and interpreters of Hong Kong's complex historical legacy. Though often finding themselves at odds with society's values, they have developed a wholly unique genre of art that acts as a vital bridge between a place and its people. The artist interviews in Contemporary Art in Hong Kong expose the countless links between history, culture and identity as well as Ha Thuc's conviction that art not only reflects society, but can also mould it.

Rainie once pursued the epic dreams of her childhood - until piece by piece, the dreams faded into the grey tedium of age, jadedness and a life defined by others. But in spite of the gloom of her existence, Rainie still harbours aspirations to greatness. Somehow, she will do something big, go someplace wonderful - because she knows that today is just another rainy day. Rainie dons her raincoat and wellies and ventures into the drizzly midst, beginning a journey back to the courage and confidence to face life's challenges… and even its dreams. Along the way, she realises that after the rain, shines the sun.

White trees blossom and the sky glows with turquoise; memories float in a singing wind. This is the White Forest where Oowa and his friends live, abundant with treasures of life waiting to be discovered. They trade their pleasant memories for the things they need. But what Oowa definitely needs most is a smile. A journey through the White Tunnel to all the joys and pains of memory is the only way Oowa might gather enough good memories to smile again. However, just as the journey begins, he discovers something unexpected about yesterday and tomorrow…

Reflection and Refraction is a retrospective collection of self-portraits and floral works shot by the renowned Daido Moriyama over the course of four decades. Having witnessed the startling transformation of postwar Japan, Moriyama possesses a dark, intense eroticism and an appreciation for the tragic. His black-and-white photographs form a cumulative record - in the language of the everyday - of Japan's often contradictory social fabric. Underpinned by his forceful points of view, Moriyama's extraordinary 'street snap' style brings a loose and casual aesthetic to scenes that would otherwise appear uninteresting, occupying a unique space between the objective and the subjective, the illusory and the real.

This is the third edition of Tokyo Compression. With Tokyo Compression, Michael Wolf struck a nerve. His portraits of people who are on their way in the Tokyo subway, constrained between glass, steel and fellow travelers, have won many awards and were shown in exhibitions around the globe. The first two editions of this book were sold out. This third edition includes many so far unreleased images and an entirely new "hidden track" at the end of the book.

Focused on the specific visual elements Michael Wolf has depicted high density living in one of the world's most crowded cities like nobody has before. For Architecture of Density, Wolf fashioned a distinctive style of photography. He removes any sky or horizon line from the frame and flattens the space until it becomes a relentless abstraction of urban expansion, with no escape for the viewer's eye. Wolf photographs crumbling buildings in need of repair, brand new buildings under construction covered in bamboo scaffolding, as well as fully occupied residential complexes. Wolf's disorienting vantage point gives the viewer the feeling that the buildings extend indefinitely, which perhaps is the spatial experience of Hong Kong's inhabitants. Alert observers can also spot many traces of life on the facades, caused by inhabitants and users.

Romain Jacquet-Lagreze landed in Hong Kong for the first time in 2009. While living in the Yau Tsim Mong area, he became fascinated by the heterogenous character of the city's urban spaces, with modern buildings side-by-side among traditional tong lau. Driven by an ever-stronger curiosity, he began an intensive exploration of the city, trying to capture its diverse atmospheres. Eventually, he realised that the sole common aspect of all these places was the awe one feels when gazing up at the sky between the huge buildings…

After miraculously rediscovering his heart in A Time for the Heart, Oowa lived happily forva time in his own little world. But one day, he met a little girl who never smiled. Others thought this glum child strange and shunned her, but Oowa befriended her and soon discovered that she wasn't so glum after all: she simply did not know how to smile. Oowa set out to teach her, to no avail. In Smile, please, readers follow Oowa as he discovers the secret of the girl's missing smile - and in the process, reveals something within himself that could actually change her whole world.

Usually placed outside the entrance of a building, canopies serve the practical purpose of protecting those entering and exiting from the elements. Just as importantly, as the first and last thing a person encounters in a building, canopies are an essential aesthetic element of architecture. In Sheltered: Two Visions of Canopy Design, fa?ade designers Johnny Choi and Michael Lee walk the reader under, over and through a selection of their most interesting canopy projects in Hong Kong, Macau and Shanghai. As well as showcasing the finished product, the authors recount the evolution of their designs through sketches, renderings, and succinct but informatively written project descriptions. In each case, a remarkable picture emerges of the sophisticated balance of material, form, engineering and proportion that constitute these outwardly simple structures.

Kowloon King is Joel Chung's third collection of works commemorating Tsang Tsou-choi, the late Hong Kong graffiti artist self-styled as 'Kowloon King'. Chung personally knew Tsang for more than 15 years, and was dismayed by the gradual erasure of his works in the years following his death. Subsequently, Chung initiated Disappearance, a project to recreate some of Kowloon King's graffiti. By reviving these distinctive creations, Chung attempted to alert Hong Kong to the systematic vanishing of its old buildings and traditions, and reveal the emptiness of an existence devoid of art, music, poetry, crazy ideas and love.

The Lower Ngau Tau Kok Estate was constructed in the 1960s as one of Hong Kong's earliest public housing developments. Just prior to its scheduled demolition four decades later, John Choy was commissioned to photograph the soon-to-be deserted estate. To his surprise, Choy found himself deeply affected by the crumbling housing blocks and their residents. He became determined to create an in-depth record of not just the estate, but a unique way of life. Created over a period of a year, Lower Ngau Tau Kok Estate gives a sense of how the human spirit transcends the narrow physical confines of the man-made environment. By keeping the spotlight firmly and intimately on the estate's residents, Choy's photographs build an unusually full impression of individual subjects and the bonds between them.

Oasis Volume 2 introduces another intriguing line up of artists 'at home' in their studios. The spaces, works and psyches of renowned artists Wucius Wong, Yank Wong and Danny Lee Chin-fai, among others, are lavishly featured along with cultural commentary from internationally recognised figures such as graphic designer Kan Tai-keung, painter Wan Qingli and calligrapher Yip Man-yam. The latest edition of Oasis also has the honour of being edited by esteemed artist-academic Victor Lai, whose immense experience and social network have allowed this volume to match and transcend its predecessor. As with the original Oasis, the volume is beautifully illustrated and includes detailed descriptions of each artist's professional life, lists of their exhibitions, awards and activities, and well as a unique studio location map. A must-have for art lovers everywhere.

Oasis Volume 1 invites the reader to the birthplace of art: 25 unique studios in which the best of Hong Kong's painting, sculpture, photography, architecture, installation and mixed-media work take shape. The spaces range from luxurious homes to starkly-lit workshops in industrial buildings, and each offers fascinating insight into the psyches of the artists who inhabit them. Oasis - Artists' Studios in Hong Kong welcomes readers into the day-to-day world of the artist. In spontaneous face-to-face interviews, artists describe how their studios have stimulated their creativity, how their works relate to their neighbourhoods, and how these creations can help shape our perspectives in ways both subtle and obvious. Lavishly illustrated with professional photographs that are works of art in themselves, Oasis - Artists' Studios in Hong Kong includes detailed descriptions of each artist's professional life, with lists of their exhibitions, awards and activities within the world of art, as well as a unique studio location map.

King Chung is, as his colleagues have described him, "probably the best" architectural model maker in Hong Kong. But this is not simply a book about how models are made, but rather his personal story of a lifetime's work, which has closely tracked Hong Kong's rapid development and changes in livelihood, trade, society, finance, urban planning, housing, transportation and culture.

This book is an exploration of what is often seen as Hong Kong's shadow-side, from the viewpoints of community, consumerism, art, food, fashion and sex - 15 years after the handover. Scores of colour photographs bring the peninsula to the reader in a salute to street culture and the ordinary and extraordinary people of Kowloon.

Hong Kong pathologist Feng Chi-shun was once part-owner of a dive bar in Kowloon City: a rough part of town which was home to the Sun Yee On triad gang. During that time, he heard a lot of stories. How about the street sleeper who was a secret millionaire, or the man who chose to end it all in Chungking Mansions? How about Elvis of the Orient, the ancient movie star who fooled hundreds of people for his final performance, or the student who stumbled into the 1967 riots and entered the world of girlie bars? The 15 stories in Hong Kong Noir offer a glimpse of what happens in the shadows.