Victory in Shanghai tells the long-hidden story of a family from Korea that struggled for three decades to become Americans and ultimately fought their way to the United States through heroic actions with the U.S. Army during World War II. Among the first families from Korea to migrate to the United States in the early twentieth century, the Kim family was forced into exile in Shanghai in the mid-1920s after a new U.S. immigration law in 1924 excluded Asians. Two decades later, the family’s four sons—raised as Americans in the expatriate community of Shanghai—voluntarily stepped forward during World War II to defend the nation they considered theirs.
From both sides of the Pacific, the Kim brothers served in uniform with the U.S. Army and in the underground U.S. intelligence network in Shanghai. At the end of the war the eldest son led the liberation of seven thousand American and Allied civilians held in Japanese internment camps in Shanghai. His actions and the support of the leading generals of the U.S. Army in China led to three special acts of Congress that granted him U.S. citizenship and admitted the entire Kim family into the United States. Four Kim brothers became some of the earliest intelligence officers of the nascent U.S. intelligence community, and three of them ascended to leadership positions in the CIA and the Army Special Forces.
Victory in Shanghai tells two intertwined American origin stories: a Korean family’s struggle to become Americans during the World War II era and the contributions of Korean Americans to the creation of modern U.S. intelligence and special operations. Withheld from the public until recently due to the secrecy surrounding their actions during World War II and the Cold War, the history of the Kim family is one of the great stories of coming to America and defending and strengthening it in the process.
Daunt Books is delighted to announce an event with the renowned journalist Barbara Demick, who is joining us to discuss her brand new book Daughters of the Bamboo Grove.
Barbara Demick is beloved for her rigorous, immersive and evocative journalism, and this latest book once again demonstrates her prowess.
Daughters of the Bamboo Grove tells the story of Zeng Fangfang and Zeng Shuangjie, twin sisters born in China, one stolen by the authorities and sold to adoptive parents in America, who believed that the child had been abandoned. She had, in fact, been kidnapped by local officials and sent to an orphanage. The Zeng family’s efforts to reconnect many years later frame Demick’s remarkable investigation into how China’s “one child policy” corresponded with a huge demand for international adoptees in America.
This poignant story follows the twins, and their respective fates, whilst also describing Barbara’s role in helping to reunite them against huge odds. Painting a rich portrait of China’s history and culture, it asks questions about the impact and consequences of China’s one-child policy and the ethics of international adoption.
Writer and journalist Lindsey Hilsum joins Barbara for this conversation. Lindsey Hilsum is a multi-award-winning journalist who has been a foreign correspondent for the past four decades. She has been Channel 4’s international editor for the past 22 years and is the author of In Extremis: The Life of War Correspondent Marie Colvin, Sand Storm and I Brought the War with Me.
Barbara Demick won the Samuel Johnson Prize for Nothing to Envy, her seminal book on North Korea, which went on to be shortlisted for the Baillie Gifford Prize ‘Winner of Winners’ Award in 2023. She is also the author of Eat the Buddha which was longlisted for the Baillie Gifford Prize, and Besieged, her account of the war in Sarajevo.
Ticket price includes a glass of wine or a soft drink.
Monday 9th June 2025 Event starts at 7:00pm
Daunt Books Marylebone 83-84 Marylebone High Street, London W1U 4QW
A tapestry for the First Battalion Devonshire Regiment – Far East Land Forces : Malaya and Hong Kong 1950 Embroidery. These embroideries were popular at most army stations – I’ve most several before from soldiers stationed at the British Legation, Peking. Obviously a source of employment or a side hustle for local communities nearby. This is the first one I’ve seen for Malaya/Hong Kong. Given his age I guess “Arthur” could be either a National Serviceman or a regular.
I’ll be speaking at the Felixstowe Book Festival this June 28 (details and tickets here)…. I’m talking about China of course but there is a slightly later link between Wallis and the Suffolk coastal town….
Wallis Simpson, the future Duchess of Windsor and wife of King Edward VIII, stayed in Felixstowe, Suffolk, England, while awaiting her divorce from her second husband, Ernest Simpson, in 1936. She resided at Beach House, a five-bedroom property on the seafront, and later secretly hid at another location, Harvest House. The Felixstowe Times reported on her divorce case, although it did not mention her affair with the King at the time. I’m afraid she didn’t much appreciate the charms of Felixstowe and its seafront – perhaps not surprising given the pressure and media intrusion – but the town hasn’t forgotten her…
The Himalayas—a snowcapped mountain range that hides treacherous glacier crossings, raiders poised to attack unsuspecting travelers, and air so thin that even seasoned explorers die of oxygen deprivation. Yet among the dangers lies one of the most beautiful and fragile ecosystems in the world.
During the 1920s, dozens of expeditions scoured the Chinese and Tibetan wilderness in search of the panda bear, a beast that many believed did not exist. When the two eldest sons of President Theodore Roosevelt sought the bear in 1928, they had little hope of success. Together with a team of scientists and naturalists, they accomplished what a decade of explorers could not, ultimately introducing the panda to the West. In the process, they documented a vanishing world and set off a new era of conservation biology.
Along the way, the Roosevelt expedition faced an incredible series of hardships as they disappeared in a blizzard, were attacked by robbers, overcome by sickness and disease, and lost their food supply in the mountains. The explorers would emerge transformed, although not everyone would survive. Beast in the Clouds brings alive these extraordinary events in a potent nonfiction thriller featuring the indomitable Roosevelt family.
Reading Contemporary Chinese Migrant Fiction examines the spectrum of Chinese migrant writing about memory since the 1990s and what it tells us about history, memory and trauma in contemporary China.
Drawing on a range of interdisciplinary approaches the book casts new light on texts by writers from the Cultural Revolution generation, including Ken Liu, Yiyun Li and Geling Yan among others. Meng Xia demonstrates how these writers construct collective identity in the contexts of transnational experiences of migration and historical trauma. The book delves into the possibilities and problems of transposing memory across borders and engages with debates over the unspeakability and politicization of trauma across public and private lines.
Steven Schwakert’s new book is The Six (Simon and Schuster/The History Press) and below is my short Q&A with him on the story, the book, the documentary he was involved in slightly earlier, and its process to publication….
When RMS Titanic sank on a cold night in 1912, barely seven hundred people escaped with their lives. Among them were six Chinese men. Arriving in New York, these six were met with suspicion and slander. Fewer than twenty-four hours later, they were expelled from the country and vanished. When historian Steven Schwankert first stumbled across the fact that eight Chinese nationals were onboard, of whom all but two survived, he couldn’t believe that there could still be untold personal histories from the Titanic. Now, at last, their story can be told. The result of meticulous research, a dogged investigation, and interviews with family members, The Six is an epic journey across continents that reveals the full story of these six forgotten survivors. Who were Ah Lam, Chang Chip, Cheong Foo, Fang Lang (or Fong Wing Sun), Lee Bing, and Ling Hee? Professional mariners, their incredible journeys reveal an overlooked, but all-too-common, experience of inequality and discrimination. The Titanic continues to reveal a multitude of secrets, and the lives of these six men add a layer of humanity and nuance to one of the most storied shipwrecks in history.
PF: Tell us the basic story in 200 words?
SS: Titanic had about 1,500 passengers on board, not including officers and crew. Of those, eight were Chinese men, most likely from Guangdong, maybe Hong Kong. Of those eight, six survived the great ship’s sinking, five in lifeboats, one hanging on to debris in the water. It’s a small sample size, but a very high survival rate, especially for third-class male passengers who were likely the most foreign-looking on board. How did they survive? Who were they? Why were they on Titanic? What happened to them afterward, and why do we know so little about them? All of those questions bothered me, and the book is my attempt to answer them.
PF: Was this a book, or a doc, first – what’s been the creative trajectory?
SS: I only think in terms of books, but I have an old friend and creative partner in Arthur Jones, who is a gifted documentary filmmaker. We’ve worked on two projects now, first Poseidon, about a Royal Navy submarine sunk off the cost of Shandong province, and now The Six. Arthur does a wonderful job of putting my semi-obsessive quests on film. We research the topic together, then we each produce our own end products. We don’t always agree, and that’s fine.
PF: I know the doc was popular in China, the book should be too – why have Chinese viewers rallied to this tale?
SS: Both the documentary and a simplified edition of the book have been out in China since 2021. The story is very popular, but neither the documentary nor the book was a commercial hit.
The story of Titanic survives not because of a large hunk of steel at the bottom of the ocean. It’s because people want to put themselves into it. Would I have surrendered my seat in a lifeboat? Would I have stayed with my partner and gone down with the ship? Before “The Six,” the Chinese weren’t part of the story, except in the background of James Cameron’s film. Now they are as much part of it as anyone else. Cameron’s “Titanic” was an enormous hit in China in the late 1990s; now people in China can see themselves in it the same way others can.
PF: Telling stories of global historical importance and finding a Chinese angle that hasn’t been written about before is a sure-fire way to excite Chinese publishers – any other ideas in the same vein?
SS: There are an absolute ton. The Chinese roots of reggae has kind of been done, but in a very sort of Brooklyn, hipster way. The people that did the Lisbon Maru documentary followed in our footsteps, and its popularity and success show that the audience is into that kind of story. Jim Zimmernan’s “The Peking Express” has appealed to Chinese audiences and publishers. It’s not about a wealth or dearth of material, it’s about whether those stories can be researched and presented fully.
PF: With a story like this how do you balance the different demands of curious English language readers and those in China – are their interests in the characters different, perhaps more about their origins and how they came to be on the Titanic, whereas in the West perhaps it’s more what happened to them?
SS: I never worried about that. Of course, readers in different countries and cultures won’t have the same interests, but ultimately, they want to understand characters and be able to relate to them. A reader always compares themselves to a character, it’s our way of understanding. Presenting the character accurately, authentically, and fairly will satisfy just about any reader, no matter their culture or language.
PF: You’ve done submarines sunk off the China coast and now Titanic – what’s next?
SS: Next up is another China shipwreck book, the one that Arthur and I started working on when we veered off in a Titanic direction. There’s a Chinese archaeology mystery at which I might want to take a swing. There’s a Chinese-American story that keeps me up at night, one that will really upset a lot of people, and that just makes me want to do it more. I’m also committed to telling the story of New Jersey’s worst shipwreck, the Powhattan, which went down in 1854. So, lots.
While in Peking visiting the temples of the city and nearby Western Hills Wallis became fascinated by the plethora of Chinese gods and their statues. And clearly it was a fascination that lasted as when in Man Ray’s Paris studio in the mid-1930s for a portrait she immediately reached for a statue of a Chinese god as her chosen prop – inadvertently giving me a terrific book cover!
