Searching for Billie: A Journalist's Quest to Understand His Mother's Past Leads Him to Discover a Vanished China

by Ian Gill

Ian Gill's first visit to Hong Kong takes an unexpected turn when he meets his Chinese mother Billie's friends, colleagues and fellow ex-prisoners of war, lifting the veil on a tumultuous past in Shanghai and Hong Kong. He moves to Asia and unravels her intriguing from controversial adoption by an English postmaster in Changsha to popular radio broadcaster in wartime Shanghai, from tragedy and a doomed romance in a Japanese internment camp to being decorated by Queen Elizabeth II for services to the United Nations. He discovers a great-grandmother in a determined English farm girl who ends up owning a well-known hotel on the China coast in the 1870s – and he finally meets his father for the first time on a Canadian island in 1985. The backdrop for this fascinating family story is China's turbulent century between the Anglo-Chinese wars and the advent of communism.

320 pages, Paperback

Published April 8, 2024

Reviews

[Tony Rozario · Rating 5 out of 5]

A rich family history. A good picture of life in China back in the early 1900's - the colonial situation, racism and classism. It was, and probably still is, all about who you know.
Billie's story is about one strong gal surviving all kinds of struggles and hardships including internment in a prison camp during the Japanese occupation of Hongkong during WW2.

[L · Rating 4 out of 5]

A marvellous book spanning across 19th to 21st century, with the author tracing his grandparents, mother. and people of that era in the UK, Shanghai, Hong Kong (Stanley), and the rest of the world. If you are interested in the history of Far East around and after WWII, you shouldn't miss this. But do reserve enough time as this read takes time.