Latest news with #GreatProletarianCulturalRevolution
The Advertiser
18-06-2025
- Business
- The Advertiser
Is the inventor of Bitcoin just some guy who lives on the Queensland coast?
What's new: A small-town doctor discovers he can see how many days his patients have left to live in Michael Thompson's novel All The Perfect Days while Stephen King reintroduces readers to private detective Holly Gibney in Never Flinch. Benjamin Wallace. Atlantic Books Australia. $45.00. Satoshi Nakamoto is the person credited with inventing Bitcoin, the world's first cryptocurrency. But is he really a person? Does he even exist? If he does, he's a billionaire many times over, but, curiously, his $75 billion Bitcoin fortune has remained untouched. So is Nakamoto actually Elon Musk, or is he just a guy who lives on the Queensland coast? Benjamin Wallace has been writing about crypto since covering it for Wired in 2011, and he sees Nakamoto's identity as one of the last big mysteries. He follows a trail of breadcrumbs from the US to Norway and Australia. Find it at QBD Books and Amazon. Linda Jaivin. Black Inc. $26.99. Mao Zedong's Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution in China in the late 1960s was a time when, it seemed to observers, almost the entire country went mad. Mao detonated the societal explosion that ripped the country and its heritage apart with the words Australian China expert Linda Jaivin has used as the title of this concise and very readable little book. Youthful red guards took violent aim at "the four olds", mass murders of class enemies were committed and even the centuries-old Forbidden City came close to destruction. Then came "mango worship", a bizarre, widespread veneration of ... a fruit. Find it at QBD Books or Amazon. Patrick McGee. Simon & Schuster. $36.99. That little glass and plastic brain we all have in our pockets, otherwise known as the iPhone, has changed the world. Apple's visionary founder, the late Steve Jobs, conceptualised it, but to build it, Apple had to rethink how to produce exceptional quality at huge scale. That path led to China, where Apple invested a staggering amount of money building excellence in manufacturing (and helping, the author argues, to create modern China in the process). A central theme of this book is the existential problem the world's biggest company faces from putting so many of its eggs in China's basket. Find it at Apple Books, QBD Books and Amazon. Harrison Christian. Ultimo Press. $36.99. A young Charles Darwin was set to become a clergyman when, in 1831, the chance to join a Christian mission to South America, aboard a ship called the HMS Beagle, fell into his lap. As Harrison Christian says, the voyage resulted in "one of the most unchristian theories imaginable" and Darwin's revolutionary book On the Origin of Species. Christian looks at the voyage and its aftermath from the perspectives of the budding scientist Darwin and the ship's fervently religious captain, Robert FitzRoy, who would later publicly denigrate his former companion and say that he was sorry he had taken Darwin aboard. Find it at Amazon, Big W, or Kobo. Taylor Jenkins Reid. Hutchinson Heinemann. $34.99. There are few contemporary fiction writers who write about falling in love better than Taylor Jenkins Reid. When NASA opened applications for the first female scientists in its space shuttle program Joan Goodwin knew she had to be one of them. What she hadn't planned on was how it would make her question everything she knew about herself - and the universe. She finds passion and a love she never imagined. Then, in December 1984, one mission changes everything. Atmosphere will hit you in the heart from every direction - and with a gravity that will stay with you long after you return to Earth. Find it at Amazon and Big W. Stephen King. Hodder & Stoughton. $34.99. Private detective Holly Gibney has been a recurring character in seven Stephen King novels since he introduced her in 2014's Mr Mercedes. She got her own crime to solve in 2023's Holly and now, in Never Flinch, we find her working for a women's rights activist to track the controversial campaigner's increasingly unhinged and bold stalker. When Holly's police detective friend Izzy Jaynes asks for her help identifying an anonymous letter writer threatening to kill "13 innocents and 1 guilty" as "an act of atonement for the needless death of an innocent man", the two disturbing and dangerous mysteries collide. Find it at Big W or Amazon. Michael Thompson. Pantera Press. $34.99. The film rights to Michael Thompson's first book, 2023 heartwarmer How to Be Remembered, were sold before it was published. The new novel by the Sydney-based former journalist and Ray Hadley radio show executive producer - who now co-hosts popular business news podcast Fear & Greed - promises more life-affirming drama as a small-town family doctor discovers he can see exactly how many days his patients have left to live. He uses this knowledge to try to help his patients, family and friends live full lives. But, of course, his "gift" doesn't quite work the way he hopes and he discovers some things he just doesn't want to know. Find it at QBD Books and Amazon. Holden Sheppard. Pantera Press. $34.99. Holden Sheppard's debut novel for young adults, Invisible Boys, about teens wrestling with their sexuality in fiercely macho Geraldton, is now a hit drama on Stan. That book drew on the author's experiences growing up gay in regional Western Australia and he does it again for his first book for adults, which expands beyond coming-of-age angst. Jack Brolo is a digger driver at remote WA worksites. He's desperately trying to cover his tracks as a gay man, with booze and reckless behaviour. Returning home to Geraldton for a wedding, he must face his conservative family and news he conceived a son with his teenage girlfriend. Find it at Amazon and QBD Books. You can also find these and other great books at Apple Books and on Kobo. What's new: A small-town doctor discovers he can see how many days his patients have left to live in Michael Thompson's novel All The Perfect Days while Stephen King reintroduces readers to private detective Holly Gibney in Never Flinch. Benjamin Wallace. Atlantic Books Australia. $45.00. Satoshi Nakamoto is the person credited with inventing Bitcoin, the world's first cryptocurrency. But is he really a person? Does he even exist? If he does, he's a billionaire many times over, but, curiously, his $75 billion Bitcoin fortune has remained untouched. So is Nakamoto actually Elon Musk, or is he just a guy who lives on the Queensland coast? Benjamin Wallace has been writing about crypto since covering it for Wired in 2011, and he sees Nakamoto's identity as one of the last big mysteries. He follows a trail of breadcrumbs from the US to Norway and Australia. Find it at QBD Books and Amazon. Linda Jaivin. Black Inc. $26.99. Mao Zedong's Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution in China in the late 1960s was a time when, it seemed to observers, almost the entire country went mad. Mao detonated the societal explosion that ripped the country and its heritage apart with the words Australian China expert Linda Jaivin has used as the title of this concise and very readable little book. Youthful red guards took violent aim at "the four olds", mass murders of class enemies were committed and even the centuries-old Forbidden City came close to destruction. Then came "mango worship", a bizarre, widespread veneration of ... a fruit. Find it at QBD Books or Amazon. Patrick McGee. Simon & Schuster. $36.99. That little glass and plastic brain we all have in our pockets, otherwise known as the iPhone, has changed the world. Apple's visionary founder, the late Steve Jobs, conceptualised it, but to build it, Apple had to rethink how to produce exceptional quality at huge scale. That path led to China, where Apple invested a staggering amount of money building excellence in manufacturing (and helping, the author argues, to create modern China in the process). A central theme of this book is the existential problem the world's biggest company faces from putting so many of its eggs in China's basket. Find it at Apple Books, QBD Books and Amazon. Harrison Christian. Ultimo Press. $36.99. A young Charles Darwin was set to become a clergyman when, in 1831, the chance to join a Christian mission to South America, aboard a ship called the HMS Beagle, fell into his lap. As Harrison Christian says, the voyage resulted in "one of the most unchristian theories imaginable" and Darwin's revolutionary book On the Origin of Species. Christian looks at the voyage and its aftermath from the perspectives of the budding scientist Darwin and the ship's fervently religious captain, Robert FitzRoy, who would later publicly denigrate his former companion and say that he was sorry he had taken Darwin aboard. Find it at Amazon, Big W, or Kobo. Taylor Jenkins Reid. Hutchinson Heinemann. $34.99. There are few contemporary fiction writers who write about falling in love better than Taylor Jenkins Reid. When NASA opened applications for the first female scientists in its space shuttle program Joan Goodwin knew she had to be one of them. What she hadn't planned on was how it would make her question everything she knew about herself - and the universe. She finds passion and a love she never imagined. Then, in December 1984, one mission changes everything. Atmosphere will hit you in the heart from every direction - and with a gravity that will stay with you long after you return to Earth. Find it at Amazon and Big W. Stephen King. Hodder & Stoughton. $34.99. Private detective Holly Gibney has been a recurring character in seven Stephen King novels since he introduced her in 2014's Mr Mercedes. She got her own crime to solve in 2023's Holly and now, in Never Flinch, we find her working for a women's rights activist to track the controversial campaigner's increasingly unhinged and bold stalker. When Holly's police detective friend Izzy Jaynes asks for her help identifying an anonymous letter writer threatening to kill "13 innocents and 1 guilty" as "an act of atonement for the needless death of an innocent man", the two disturbing and dangerous mysteries collide. Find it at Big W or Amazon. Michael Thompson. Pantera Press. $34.99. The film rights to Michael Thompson's first book, 2023 heartwarmer How to Be Remembered, were sold before it was published. The new novel by the Sydney-based former journalist and Ray Hadley radio show executive producer - who now co-hosts popular business news podcast Fear & Greed - promises more life-affirming drama as a small-town family doctor discovers he can see exactly how many days his patients have left to live. He uses this knowledge to try to help his patients, family and friends live full lives. But, of course, his "gift" doesn't quite work the way he hopes and he discovers some things he just doesn't want to know. Find it at QBD Books and Amazon. Holden Sheppard. Pantera Press. $34.99. Holden Sheppard's debut novel for young adults, Invisible Boys, about teens wrestling with their sexuality in fiercely macho Geraldton, is now a hit drama on Stan. That book drew on the author's experiences growing up gay in regional Western Australia and he does it again for his first book for adults, which expands beyond coming-of-age angst. Jack Brolo is a digger driver at remote WA worksites. He's desperately trying to cover his tracks as a gay man, with booze and reckless behaviour. Returning home to Geraldton for a wedding, he must face his conservative family and news he conceived a son with his teenage girlfriend. Find it at Amazon and QBD Books. You can also find these and other great books at Apple Books and on Kobo. What's new: A small-town doctor discovers he can see how many days his patients have left to live in Michael Thompson's novel All The Perfect Days while Stephen King reintroduces readers to private detective Holly Gibney in Never Flinch. Benjamin Wallace. Atlantic Books Australia. $45.00. Satoshi Nakamoto is the person credited with inventing Bitcoin, the world's first cryptocurrency. But is he really a person? Does he even exist? If he does, he's a billionaire many times over, but, curiously, his $75 billion Bitcoin fortune has remained untouched. So is Nakamoto actually Elon Musk, or is he just a guy who lives on the Queensland coast? Benjamin Wallace has been writing about crypto since covering it for Wired in 2011, and he sees Nakamoto's identity as one of the last big mysteries. He follows a trail of breadcrumbs from the US to Norway and Australia. Find it at QBD Books and Amazon. Linda Jaivin. Black Inc. $26.99. Mao Zedong's Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution in China in the late 1960s was a time when, it seemed to observers, almost the entire country went mad. Mao detonated the societal explosion that ripped the country and its heritage apart with the words Australian China expert Linda Jaivin has used as the title of this concise and very readable little book. Youthful red guards took violent aim at "the four olds", mass murders of class enemies were committed and even the centuries-old Forbidden City came close to destruction. Then came "mango worship", a bizarre, widespread veneration of ... a fruit. Find it at QBD Books or Amazon. Patrick McGee. Simon & Schuster. $36.99. That little glass and plastic brain we all have in our pockets, otherwise known as the iPhone, has changed the world. Apple's visionary founder, the late Steve Jobs, conceptualised it, but to build it, Apple had to rethink how to produce exceptional quality at huge scale. That path led to China, where Apple invested a staggering amount of money building excellence in manufacturing (and helping, the author argues, to create modern China in the process). A central theme of this book is the existential problem the world's biggest company faces from putting so many of its eggs in China's basket. Find it at Apple Books, QBD Books and Amazon. Harrison Christian. Ultimo Press. $36.99. A young Charles Darwin was set to become a clergyman when, in 1831, the chance to join a Christian mission to South America, aboard a ship called the HMS Beagle, fell into his lap. As Harrison Christian says, the voyage resulted in "one of the most unchristian theories imaginable" and Darwin's revolutionary book On the Origin of Species. Christian looks at the voyage and its aftermath from the perspectives of the budding scientist Darwin and the ship's fervently religious captain, Robert FitzRoy, who would later publicly denigrate his former companion and say that he was sorry he had taken Darwin aboard. Find it at Amazon, Big W, or Kobo. Taylor Jenkins Reid. Hutchinson Heinemann. $34.99. There are few contemporary fiction writers who write about falling in love better than Taylor Jenkins Reid. When NASA opened applications for the first female scientists in its space shuttle program Joan Goodwin knew she had to be one of them. What she hadn't planned on was how it would make her question everything she knew about herself - and the universe. She finds passion and a love she never imagined. Then, in December 1984, one mission changes everything. Atmosphere will hit you in the heart from every direction - and with a gravity that will stay with you long after you return to Earth. Find it at Amazon and Big W. Stephen King. Hodder & Stoughton. $34.99. Private detective Holly Gibney has been a recurring character in seven Stephen King novels since he introduced her in 2014's Mr Mercedes. She got her own crime to solve in 2023's Holly and now, in Never Flinch, we find her working for a women's rights activist to track the controversial campaigner's increasingly unhinged and bold stalker. When Holly's police detective friend Izzy Jaynes asks for her help identifying an anonymous letter writer threatening to kill "13 innocents and 1 guilty" as "an act of atonement for the needless death of an innocent man", the two disturbing and dangerous mysteries collide. Find it at Big W or Amazon. Michael Thompson. Pantera Press. $34.99. The film rights to Michael Thompson's first book, 2023 heartwarmer How to Be Remembered, were sold before it was published. The new novel by the Sydney-based former journalist and Ray Hadley radio show executive producer - who now co-hosts popular business news podcast Fear & Greed - promises more life-affirming drama as a small-town family doctor discovers he can see exactly how many days his patients have left to live. He uses this knowledge to try to help his patients, family and friends live full lives. But, of course, his "gift" doesn't quite work the way he hopes and he discovers some things he just doesn't want to know. Find it at QBD Books and Amazon. Holden Sheppard. Pantera Press. $34.99. Holden Sheppard's debut novel for young adults, Invisible Boys, about teens wrestling with their sexuality in fiercely macho Geraldton, is now a hit drama on Stan. That book drew on the author's experiences growing up gay in regional Western Australia and he does it again for his first book for adults, which expands beyond coming-of-age angst. Jack Brolo is a digger driver at remote WA worksites. He's desperately trying to cover his tracks as a gay man, with booze and reckless behaviour. Returning home to Geraldton for a wedding, he must face his conservative family and news he conceived a son with his teenage girlfriend. Find it at Amazon and QBD Books. You can also find these and other great books at Apple Books and on Kobo. What's new: A small-town doctor discovers he can see how many days his patients have left to live in Michael Thompson's novel All The Perfect Days while Stephen King reintroduces readers to private detective Holly Gibney in Never Flinch. Benjamin Wallace. Atlantic Books Australia. $45.00. Satoshi Nakamoto is the person credited with inventing Bitcoin, the world's first cryptocurrency. But is he really a person? Does he even exist? If he does, he's a billionaire many times over, but, curiously, his $75 billion Bitcoin fortune has remained untouched. So is Nakamoto actually Elon Musk, or is he just a guy who lives on the Queensland coast? Benjamin Wallace has been writing about crypto since covering it for Wired in 2011, and he sees Nakamoto's identity as one of the last big mysteries. He follows a trail of breadcrumbs from the US to Norway and Australia. Find it at QBD Books and Amazon. Linda Jaivin. Black Inc. $26.99. Mao Zedong's Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution in China in the late 1960s was a time when, it seemed to observers, almost the entire country went mad. Mao detonated the societal explosion that ripped the country and its heritage apart with the words Australian China expert Linda Jaivin has used as the title of this concise and very readable little book. Youthful red guards took violent aim at "the four olds", mass murders of class enemies were committed and even the centuries-old Forbidden City came close to destruction. Then came "mango worship", a bizarre, widespread veneration of ... a fruit. Find it at QBD Books or Amazon. Patrick McGee. Simon & Schuster. $36.99. That little glass and plastic brain we all have in our pockets, otherwise known as the iPhone, has changed the world. Apple's visionary founder, the late Steve Jobs, conceptualised it, but to build it, Apple had to rethink how to produce exceptional quality at huge scale. That path led to China, where Apple invested a staggering amount of money building excellence in manufacturing (and helping, the author argues, to create modern China in the process). A central theme of this book is the existential problem the world's biggest company faces from putting so many of its eggs in China's basket. Find it at Apple Books, QBD Books and Amazon. Harrison Christian. Ultimo Press. $36.99. A young Charles Darwin was set to become a clergyman when, in 1831, the chance to join a Christian mission to South America, aboard a ship called the HMS Beagle, fell into his lap. As Harrison Christian says, the voyage resulted in "one of the most unchristian theories imaginable" and Darwin's revolutionary book On the Origin of Species. Christian looks at the voyage and its aftermath from the perspectives of the budding scientist Darwin and the ship's fervently religious captain, Robert FitzRoy, who would later publicly denigrate his former companion and say that he was sorry he had taken Darwin aboard. Find it at Amazon, Big W, or Kobo. Taylor Jenkins Reid. Hutchinson Heinemann. $34.99. There are few contemporary fiction writers who write about falling in love better than Taylor Jenkins Reid. When NASA opened applications for the first female scientists in its space shuttle program Joan Goodwin knew she had to be one of them. What she hadn't planned on was how it would make her question everything she knew about herself - and the universe. She finds passion and a love she never imagined. Then, in December 1984, one mission changes everything. Atmosphere will hit you in the heart from every direction - and with a gravity that will stay with you long after you return to Earth. Find it at Amazon and Big W. Stephen King. Hodder & Stoughton. $34.99. Private detective Holly Gibney has been a recurring character in seven Stephen King novels since he introduced her in 2014's Mr Mercedes. She got her own crime to solve in 2023's Holly and now, in Never Flinch, we find her working for a women's rights activist to track the controversial campaigner's increasingly unhinged and bold stalker. When Holly's police detective friend Izzy Jaynes asks for her help identifying an anonymous letter writer threatening to kill "13 innocents and 1 guilty" as "an act of atonement for the needless death of an innocent man", the two disturbing and dangerous mysteries collide. Find it at Big W or Amazon. Michael Thompson. Pantera Press. $34.99. The film rights to Michael Thompson's first book, 2023 heartwarmer How to Be Remembered, were sold before it was published. The new novel by the Sydney-based former journalist and Ray Hadley radio show executive producer - who now co-hosts popular business news podcast Fear & Greed - promises more life-affirming drama as a small-town family doctor discovers he can see exactly how many days his patients have left to live. He uses this knowledge to try to help his patients, family and friends live full lives. But, of course, his "gift" doesn't quite work the way he hopes and he discovers some things he just doesn't want to know. Find it at QBD Books and Amazon. Holden Sheppard. Pantera Press. $34.99. Holden Sheppard's debut novel for young adults, Invisible Boys, about teens wrestling with their sexuality in fiercely macho Geraldton, is now a hit drama on Stan. That book drew on the author's experiences growing up gay in regional Western Australia and he does it again for his first book for adults, which expands beyond coming-of-age angst. Jack Brolo is a digger driver at remote WA worksites. He's desperately trying to cover his tracks as a gay man, with booze and reckless behaviour. Returning home to Geraldton for a wedding, he must face his conservative family and news he conceived a son with his teenage girlfriend. Find it at Amazon and QBD Books. You can also find these and other great books at Apple Books and on Kobo.
South China Morning Post
23-02-2025
- Entertainment
- South China Morning Post
Excerpt from new book explores the development of Hong Kong art through the prism of Jaffa Lam's career
Published: 11:00am, 23 Feb 2025 Jaffa Lam Laam's story of her childhood as a new immigrant in Hong Kong, and how she came to be represented by a major international gallery, has dramatic turning points. Underpinned by an unwavering self-belief, her tale elucidates Hong Kong's perforated relationship with mainland China, the dynamics behind its own art history, the impact of the international art market and, most of all, that there is no linear Hong Kong narrative. Lam was born in 1973 in Fujian province , southern China, while Mao Zedong's Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution was still raging. She was given the Chinese first name Laam, which means mountain mist, but she never had the luxury of living with her head in the clouds. Lam's mother brought her and her sister to Hong Kong in 1985, initially to reunite with their father, who had moved earlier to the British colony. But the years of separation had taken a toll on the marriage, so Lam, her elder sister and her mother ended up living on their own, and were soon plunged into poverty. Jaffa Lam poses with one of her installation works at her studio. Photo: Eugene Chan Hong Kong in 1985 was just coming to terms with the fact that Britain was planning to hand it over to Communist China in 1997 , after ruling it since 1842. But the economy was remarkably resilient, bolstered by Beijing's promise that Hong Kong could keep its capitalist ways, retain its civic freedoms and enjoy a high degree of autonomy. As immigrants from China, Lam's family had to adapt to a completely different way of life, a different way of writing Chinese (traditional rather than simplified), a different way of speaking ( Cantonese rather than Mandarin) and, in a city where they could only afford to rent a tiny rooftop shack, a different class system altogether. Art was not so much an escape as a means to help out the household budget. 'I had taken art lessons in China so I was quite a good art student compared with my local classmates,' says Lam. 'I kept winning school prizes – textbook vouchers, usually, which were really helpful. That's how I came to think of art as a means of making a living.' Somersault Cloud (2022), left, incorporates materials recycled from Lam's past works. Starry Day (2015/2022), right, was originally stretched on a canvas in previous exhibitions. Photo: courtesy of Axel Vervoordt Gallery Lam's exemplary skills in drawing and calligraphy won her admission to Hong Kong's only fine-art tertiary programme then, at the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK), where she intended to focus on Chinese calligraphy under the school's many eminent ink masters. 'I thought of myself as an inheritor of China's literati tradition,' she recalls. 'I had no idea about Western art history or contemporary art.' Painter Lui Shou-kwan. Photo: Handout
