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Thank you so much for that fascinating discussion and the novel which I read and loved. I understand you lived in Hong Kong and travelled widely in China. This really comes through in the way you capture life in both places, the descriptions, the way the people speak, the use Cantonese and Mandarin words. It's so genuine it feels like it's written by a local Chinese. I just want to share one example. When you describe the restaurants in China, it is so real, it really brings back those smells I remember when visiting China as a young girl in the 80s. It's amazing! How did you manage to capture something like that so vividly?
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Great, true and moving story that awakens my experience back in the years while studying in Shanghai and later working in Shenzhen. Keep fetching for more bro, kudos!
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This book is a truly epic tale. It is many things: a love story in a difficult time when African students struggled to fit into life in China, discovering Chinese history and culture, and Chinese people learning about Africa. It is about the exciting things that were happening as China opened up in the 1980s, and how local business people started to emerge. It is about Africans making a life for themselves in Hong Kong. It's totally amazing how Ken captured the lives of his characters so convincingly you can actually see them. You can almost smell the foods in China, Hong Kong and Zimbabwe and see the burning farms in rural Zim! You experience the joys and pains of Lai Ying scared of loan sharks, Dan struggling to find his runaway wife, Jupiter's broken home. I can't recommend this book enough. Well done Ken. I will treasure this amazing story and I look forward to your next novel!!
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This is a fascinating story that tells the stories of black people's experiences in China. You can learn so much, not just about africans but also about China! Ken makes it sound so real you can almost see the people, hear them, empathise with their struggles and share in their joys. You must all purchase a copy of this book, especially if you are a serious reader.
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This is a truly wonderful and enjoyable book. I learned so much about Africans in Asia. I had no idea about this diaspora. Ken is a truly gifted writer. He has an eye for detail that makes the story come alive in every sense, whether it's the Chinese festival celebrations or war vets in Zimbabwe taking over white farms by force. You feel you're really there in reality, transported and made a part of these people's lives. Without a doubt one of the finest books I've read for years. Thank you so much, Ken. I can't say how many times this story brought tears to my eyes.
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What a book! What really strikes you is this author's ability to sneak up on you and tell you the story behind the story - you think you're reading about conflicts between African and Chinese students, then he hits you with a story about the terrible things the authorities do to wayward professors. You're reading about the woman in Hong Kong who beats up her domestic, then you realize the real story is about the sad little boy who'll be forever traumatized, and the dad who fails to protect his child even as he keeps repeating the Confucian mantra 'family is everything'. This author's grasp and knowledge of Chinese history and culture is truly amazing. He comes through as a mix of of traditional story teller who thrills and captivates, enlightens, but also has such a keen eye for detail, he's like a travel writer. He literally places you right in the action, in the lecture theater with the fatherly prof Sheng, the student bar listening to the enigmatic Wang describe the terrible life under Mao, the Chinese street festivals, African tobacco rolling hills and the horrific fires, the little girl who dreams of visiting relatives in Africa but is hidden away in Shanghai. When I finished this book, I put it down and literally cried. It was all too much, but in a positive way. I can't wait for Ken's next tour de force.
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I wasn't sure what to expect when a friend said here's a book about China by an African writer. Turns out Ken was a professor in Hong Kong when he began this book, and his knowledge of Chinese practices, history, culture is second to none. The research is meticulous - he weaves these important historical events and characters with so much ease you don't get bogged down with unnecessary clutter, but instead see their relevance and how they shape the characters. The pace is fast and riveting, there's never a dull moment. You get to experience the troubled love affair and really feel Dan's and Lai Ying's pain, the inability even to hold hands on the street, treating each other like strangers on the buses. It's hard to imagine that sort of thing happening today. But that was the late 1980s, before China opened up. I was raised in Hong Kong and thoroughly enjoyed being reminded of the buzz in that city, the cramped flats, busy streets where you had to watch your pockets, an unnerving mobile-phone culture, the great food, especially dim sum in little eateries in Mong Kok, trips on the jetfoil to Macau to gamble. This novel shows you what it's like to live as a foreigner, never mind where - the issues of alienation are always there, the struggles, the abuse, etc. In these modern times with wars and refugees and discrimination in Europe and the West, inter-racial relationships and the struggle to fit and be accepted, this novel is totally timely, and what a joy to read!
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A excellent and enjoyable novel. Difficult to put down once you start reading; you just want to continue reading!
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Priscah Gakunga (Edited version)
This is surely one of the best books to have been published in recent years. Ken takes you on an epic journey from Zimbabwe, a country filled with hope to China in the 1980s where people live in tough times unlike today, to exciting Hong Kong and back again years later to Zimbabwe which is now in flames. Along the way you encounter one unforgettable character after another, Professor Sheng who feeds his students education like rice! Wang who runs the bar and changes like a chameleon to suit his surroundings, a bit like Mugabe's Generals he ends up doing business with. The lovely Lai Ying Dan marries then she runs off and he goes on an adventure to find her. You literally can't put this book down. It's the kind of book you return to every now and then, and each time you'll find a new gem. Thanks so much, Ken, for a true masterpiece!
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I have never been to China. Perhaps, due to a lack of an opportunity and a fear of the unknown.
Thanks to the book “Black Ghosts”, A seed of curiosity has now been planted in me – I now want to visit China and experience it for myself too!
In his book, Ken authentically shares the lived experiences of three African gentlemen studying in China - (Dan) from Zimbabwe, Kabinga from Rwanda and Diallo from Guinea.
I recommend this book to anyone looking for their next read. Especially if going to study, work, live or do business in China.
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Peter Blunt UNSW (Canberra)
This book provides telling – and, I suspect, highly personalised - insights into eternal struggles: between master and slave, between races and cultures, between the haves and the have nots, and between political and economic ideologies. In doing so, it traverses a wide terrain and tells a captivating and compelling story, one that extends from the relics of the British Empire in Zimbabwe to modern China. It recounts persuasively the struggle between the older generation of the dispossessed and the vestiges of British colonialism in sub-Saharan Africa, which included the main character’s family, and the challenges faced by the new generation of indigenous peoples of former colonies and neo-imperialism. Like the memories from his youth of the African fish eagle struggling to lift its prey out of the water, the main character’s experiences show how the conditions of both the old and the new imperialism are laced with institutional racism and prejudice and how difficult it is for people to rise above them. Any reader who is not clearly and always identifiable with the dominant race or ruling class will find much to empathise with in this engagingly written book and - perhaps with more than a touch of sadness - much to enjoy.