PCEC member Harry Sigworth, a.k.a. ‘Sig’,
introduces master wordsmith Dean Barrett to fellow members & guests. Dean
introduced his book ‘Hangman’s Point’, a novel set in 19th century British
Hong Kong.
Hong Kong circa 1857 was an exciting and dangerous place.
This was the message to the Pattaya City Expats Club on Sunday, January 22.
Master of Ceremonies Richard Silverberg called on fellow member Harry “Sig”
Sigworth to introduce the Club’s guest speaker Dean Barrett.
Dean has lived in Asia, mostly Hong Kong or Thailand, for
over 25 years. He is the well known author of over a dozen books, mostly
mystery, with a Thailand or China theme.
MC Richard Silverberg updates
all on coming events for Pattaya and surrounds.
Dean previously spoke to the Club in September 2010. On
that occasion he spoke about getting books published, especially those with
a Thailand theme. Dean Barrett has published his most recent novel,
Permanent Damage, a sequel to Skytrain to Murder, and is
currently hard at work on his new novel, a sequel to Hangman’s Point.
As always, Dean proved to be a very interesting speaker whose great sense of
humor was much appreciated by the audience.
Dean said that for his current talk, he would be speaking
about China as he thought it an appropriate topic as it was the start of the
Chinese New Year. But first, he wanted everyone to know that most of his
books are now available on Kindle and Nook and a few other gadgets. He
confessed that he doesn’t use any of these gadgets, and initially was
concerned about what impact it would have on his printed books; but
discovered that there are apparently two different markets - print media and
electronic media.
Dean shares excerpts of
Hangman’s Point with PCEC members.
Dean then described Hong Kong in 1857, the period in
which his book Hangman’s Point takes place. He points out there was a
Hangman’s Point in Hong Kong where hangings took place in the former British
colony. Dean considers this to be one of the most exciting periods in Hong
Kong’s dramatic history. To place things in perspective, he read several
news articles of the time by the Times of London and other publications;
none were complimentary of Hong Kong or British involvement there.
To further explain the cultural differences between the
“foreign devils” and the Chinese, he explained some of the terms each used
for the other. He described 1857 Hong Kong as a dangerous place and, at the
time, Hong Kong only consisted of the original island that Captain Elliot
landed on in 1841 when the British were expelled from other areas of China
during the first Opium War. In 1857 there were about 1,000 foreigners and
25,000 Chinese living in Hong Kong. Most men did not go out without being
armed.
Dean said that traveling outside of Hong Kong was even
more dangerous. It was also the time of the Taiping Rebellion that resulted
in the death of more than 20 million Chinese. It was also a time when
Chinese pirates attacked a mail steamer and beheaded 11 foreigners and the
“Bread Poisoning” incident. Chinese conspirators in an attempt to poison the
expatriate population of Hong Kong, laced the bread prepared at the main
bakery with 10 pounds of arsenic; which proved too much as it made people
sick and they vomited the poison out.
Dean also gave a brief description of the Chinese slave
trade and the use of pigeon English. He described how pigeon English was
used including several examples and pointed out that the Chinese often used
pigeon English among themselves because different regions spoke different
languages such as Mandarin and Cantonese. Thus, they used pigeon English as
a common language.
At the conclusion of Dean’s talk, there were many
questions from the audience about the events he described as well as about
his own career as an author. For more information on his mystery books, you
can visit http://www. deanbarrettmystery.com/ and to get an idea of his
humor you should visit www. deanbarrettthailand.com/welcome_to.htm.
Richard Silverberg called on Roy Albiston to update
everyone on upcoming events and to conduct the Open Forum where questions
are asked and answered about Expat living in Thailand and Pattaya in
particular. The Pattaya City Expats Club meets every Sunday at the Amari
Orchid’s Tavern by the Sea Restaurant. Read more about the Club’s activities
on their website at www.patta yacityexpatsclub.com.
