THOMAS PODVIN’S FREELANCE WORK
Freelance writer - translator - Editor

Steven D. Levitt, dubbed “the Indiana Jones of economics” by The Wall Street Journal, is a so-called ‘rogue’ economist. In this 2005 bestseller Freakonomics (co-authored by writer/journalist Stephen J. Dubner), the University of Chicago Professor applies economic theory to a series of diverse, and apparently, non-economic, topics. His essays cover everything from cheating sumo wrestlers to the business of drug dealing; in addition, he presents his well-known theory: “The Impact of Legalized Abortion on Crime.” In this paper, Levitt seeks to demonstrate (through endless statistics) that the legalization of abortion in the US was followed 20 years later by a reduction in crime. Well researched and documented, Levitt’s work has led to a re-examination of the way economic theory can be applied to sundry social issues, and, along the way, stirred much controversy. The author expresses his desire to replace “moral posturing by an honest assessment of the data, because only numbers will scrub away layers of confusion and contradiction”. For the most part, largely due to the author’s jargon-free prose, he succeeds in peeling back at least several of these layers.
Penguin Books

(c) that's Shanghai Magazine
Chief editor: Steven Crane
July 2006 issue

In Cantonese, gweilo means “ghost man”, a somewhat derogatory piece of slang referring to Caucasian males. However, its use is so prevalent in Hong Kong, that even Westerners employ it to describe each other. This ambivalent approach to the issue of race and culture is central to author Martin Booth’s memoirs of his early childhood. Booth’s family arrived in Hong Kong in 1952 (his father was a civilian employee of the Royal Navy) and for the next three years, young Martin set about exploring every nook and cranny of the colony, then a sleepy outpost of the British Empire. In his book, he vividly recounts his daily adventures, from exploring the darkest reaches of the infamous Kowloon Walled City, to defending his father from an angry mob by surprising them with Cantonese obscenities. While at times Booth’s writing can be overly novelistic, his entertaining voice and lively tales bring to life a Hong Kong forever gone. That said, the book ends with a sad footnote. Booth wrote Gweilo after he was diagnosed with brain cancer, completing the work just before he passed away in February, 2004. For readers though, the author’s past will never be lost.
Bantam Books/Transworld

(c) that's Shanghai Magazine
Chief editor: Steven Crane
July 2006 issue