Derek Woodrow Knihy

First published in 1999, this book is based on several years work in Hong Kong and Britain, both before and after the absorption of the Special Administrative Region of Hong Kong into the People's Republic of China in 1997. The initial chapters review the history of Chinese people in Britain; specific aspects of Chinese culture and personality; Chinese educational systems; and the recent history of migration from Hong Kong to Britain. The central part of the book compares three samples of adolescents (about 350 in each of the three cultures): Chinese adolescents in Hong Kong; Chinese adolescents in Britain, with sub-divisions of those who have grown up in Britain and those recently arrived; and Chinese adolescents in Hong Kong. All of the 1,050 respondents completed measures of self-concept, identity, educational aspirations and views about the family, society and the future. The final part of the book contains extended qualitative accounts from personal interview with a sub-sample of Chinese adolescents in Britain and concludes with proposals for educational and policy changes which can accommodate the aspirations of Chinese adolescents in the British educational system.

This seventh collection from one of South African poetry’s under-appreciated masters is possibly his best yet. Metatextual, meticulous and deeply steeped in sentiment, Liminal is an exquisite and at-times startling rumination on lives lived, loves loved and writings written. Skinner’s technical mastery of his style and craft, honed over the decades, only brightens the emotions that run through a mélange of travel poems, remembrances, experiments and treatises on the nature of being, literature and friendship.

New edition of the practical guide to using driftwood for making furniture and decorative objects.