Book details

Book description

The White Door is a fictionalised account of growing up Chinese in New Zealand by a scholar, diplomat and martial artist.
“Stephen Chan's novel is a magical masterpiece that fascinates and moves the reader in equal measure. Drawing on his own cosmopolitan, hybrid and intriguing background, he manages to fuse fantasy with fact, resulting in a realist fictional memoir that speaks eloquently to the reader and grapples with multi-culturalism, estrangement and identity in today's globalised world.”
- Zeinab Badawi    
“Set against a backdrop of war, exclusion, refugee life and the protests of the 60s. Stephen Chan's luminous novel is an invitation to explore the loving and lovely irrationalities of survival and dreams.” - Helena Kennedy
“Images from Hollywood comic books to Dante's Hell take us across a political landscape that embraces the ancient civilization of China and New Zealand. This book will help us navigate the tribulations of our generation.”
- Tim Shadbolt Stephen Chan was a key figure in the New Zealand literary renaissance and the student demonstrations of the late 1960s and early 70s. He helped pioneer modern electoral observation at the elections that gave birth to Zimbabwe, helped in the
reconstruction of post-Amin Uganda and in government institution-building in post-Dergue Eritrea and Ethiopia. He has been active in Africa-China trade talks as an adviser to African delegations, in the South Sudanese and Libyan struggles, and in the continuing diplomacy over Zimbabwe. He has published 28 academic books and five volumes of poetry, and is Dean at the School of Oriental & African Studies in the University of London. He has studied martial arts extensively in Japan. As a result of too many adventures, too much thought and too many beatings, neither his brain nor his body function reasonably any more.