We regret to announce that we are suspending direct sales from our website to the EU because of excessive costs related to import duties post-Brexit. If and when the UK and EU governments sort this out we will resume those sales. We thank all our EU-based customers for their support, and sincerely hope this issue […]
These are uncertain times for everyone, and independent publishers are no different. At the moment we are running a normal service, but both print times and delivery times may be affected. The three of us at Camphor Press already work remotely, so we haven’t had to change much. Some of our book launches will be […]
It’s five years to the day since we launched Camphor Press. As a thank you for being with us along the way, we’ve put together five e-book bundles for just five US dollars each (). They are only available for one week, so grab them quickly, because they’re gone forever on 17 February. And if […]
One of the most intriguing world figures of the seventeenth century, the warlord and Ming loyalist Zheng Chenggong (commonly known as Koxinga) changed the course of East Asian history; without him, Taiwan might well have remained a Dutch colony into the 1940s. Koxinga statue in the Koxinga Shrine, Tainan (photo courtesy of Bernard Gagnon) The […]
It’s our third birthday today, and we’d like to thank all of you for supporting Camphor Press since we launched – we couldn’t have done it without you. As a special treat to celebrate, we’re releasing five classic books connected to East Asia, and they’re only $1.99 each. We’re confident that these are the best […]
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Feb
Feb
When I was in college in the late eighties and early nineties, most American students who wanted to study Mandarin overseas either went to Beijing or Taiwan. I chose Hong Kong. It sounds as crazy as it was. Practicing Mandarin there was so difficult because shop owners and restaurant staff and just about everyone else […]
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Ordering English books in Asia can be expensive – Amazon charges $9.98 to deliver a single paperback to Taiwan, with a delivery time of 18–32 working days. If you want faster delivery, they can get it to you in 5–10 working days for $19.98, likely more than the cost of your book in the first place. […]
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American Susan Blumberg-Kason is the author of Good Chinese Wife, which recounts her years in a Chinese family as a wife, daughter-in-law, and mother. Susan also contributed the excellent introduction to the Camphor Press edition of Instructions for Chinese Women and Girls. She blogs at susanbkason.com. In the mid-1960s, my mom spent a year in […]
Veteran Lonely Planet writer Robert Kelly has launched a fantastic podcast called Travel Tape. These podcast episodes are thoroughly researched and beautifully produced; as good as any audio content put out by the BBC or NPR. Robert’s first two releases are on Kenya (Walking with the Maasai) and China (The Borderlands: The Korean Corner of […]
Our latest release, A Pail of Oysters, is a glimpse into the heart of the foundational events of modern Taiwanese history – the 228 massacre and the White Terror that followed. Vern Sneider’s novel was praised on its release in 1953 but then banned by the Taiwanese government for decades. Dr Jonathan Benda, who has studied […]