Jessica Bellas' Maotai, Mooncakes & Monks: Misadventures in Hong Kong & China, will be officially released on May 4th and for sale (HK$154 / US$19.95) on the Tamco Publishing website at www.tamcopublishing.com. Whether telling about her dog's adventures or drinking the local communist party members under the table, Jessica's adventures make for interesting reading and it will be a delight if she includes many of her photographs tht we've reviewed over the past years. While living in Raleigh, she worked for the Department of Environment and Natural Resources and served as a well qualified elected protector of Soil and Water in Wake County. CitySeen: Experience with the local press helped US writer find her voice Annemarie Evans Updated on Apr 21, 2009 American academic Jessica Bellas had been in Hong Kong just 29 days when her mongrel dog ("She's a mutt called Jade") slipped down a retaining wall on a rainy day in Mid-Levels. She was too far down for an increasingly panicked Bellas to retrieve her. So she rang the police. Who brought the fire brigade. Within minutes three Chinese-language papers and their reporters had turned up. "I couldn't believe it. This would never happen where I come from in Pittsburgh, or anywhere in America. This much media attention for a dog?" said a surprised Bellas. She uttered her thoughts to a policeman, and it went out on his radio pinned to his chest. So within minutes Cable Television were also there to witness and film the big rescue. "It became quite a media circus." Bellas, whose work over the past three years has taken her all over China, began writing weekly e-mails to friends and relatives on her experiences of life in Hong Kong and on the mainland. Her misadventures gradually became a collection of 40 vignettes that show her own growing understanding of where she is living, and her love of the city. "I'd like to think that I'm a good observer with a sense of humour," says Bellas, and that the value of the book is that the observations have stayed fresh from when she wrote them from her first week onwards. "I was learning on the job, and it's culturally sensitive." Be the first to reserve a copy - phone 661-6565 or drop in Saturdays 9-6 or Monday evenings 6-9. After next week's board meeting, the library wll be open to the public Thursday evenings 6-9. May 7, 2009, will be our first Thursday open to the public 6-9 p.m.
