Greg Sheridan has loved Southeast Asia for a long time. But he had no idea of what he was letting himself in for when he decided to journey to the hidden depths of some of his favourite cities with his Malaysian-born wife Jessie and their three sons.
From palaces to poverty, from high tech to high tradition, from mosque to market place, Greg Sheridan takes us on a kaleidoscopic journey through six dramatic and compelling cities - Kuala Lumpur, Jakarta, Hanoi, Saigon, Singapore and Hong Kong.
In Jakarta he finds himself in a disconcerting conversation with a Borneo face mask. He attends the only communist life drawing class in Hanoi and spends an evening under the stars with a Cantonese movie star in Hong Kong's Disco Bay. He also shares intimate conversations with the region's big men - Dr Mahathir of Malaysia, Singapore's Lee Kuan Yew, Abdurrahman Wahid in Jakarta - finds himself the guest of a friendly, if extreme, Islamic fundamentalist and spends one chilling morning with the leader of a terrorist group in Jakarta. From radical feminists to young politicians on the make, Greg Sheridan shows us an Asia that is disturbing, charming, intriguing and always surprising.
Told with wit, passion and humour Cities of the Hot Zone is a story about both the mysterious consolations of family and an enduring love of these incomparable cities.
By:
Greg Sheridan
Imprint: Allen & Unwin
Country of Publication: Australia
Dimensions:
Height: 230mm,
Width: 152mm,
Spine: 18mm
Weight: 442g
ISBN: 9781741142242
ISBN 10: 1741142245
Pages: 272
Publication Date: 01 November 2003
Recommended Age: From
Audience:
General/trade
,
ELT Advanced
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active
Prologue ix Kuala Lumpur: The Enigma of Arrival, or Someone Lost My Horse 1 In Search of KL: The Days of Walking Dangerously 12 Desperately Seeking Islamic Fundamentalists 33 White Christmas in a Hot Climate 43 Cecil Trelawney and the Deadly Durian 47 Fellow Travelling with the Fundamentalists 55 I Am Woman, Hear Me Roar: The Sisters Don' t Agree 68 Terror Targets in the Golden Triangle 79 Desperately Seeking Moderate Muslims 88 The Manic Moderate: An Appointment with the Doctor 95 Sadness, Children and Jihad 108 Lunch, Breakfast and Dinner 113 Long Blacks, Idola and Friends 118 Singapore: Feeli' Funky in the Lion City 128 Hano' s Ho, Miss Saigon and three Vietnams 163 Getting Canto Kicks at the Hong Kong Flicks 209 Jakarta is Not a Bit Insane 230 The Heart Divided: KL and Sydney 257 Thanks 260
Greg Sheridan is the foreign editor of The Australian and the author of Asian Values, Western Dreams (Sydney: Allen + Unwin,1999) and Tigers (Sydney: Allen + Unwin,1997). He co-edited Living With Dragons (Sydney: Allen + Unwin,1995).
