Vaudine brings decades of experience in Asia to her work in academia, book publication and journalism. Alongside degrees in Politics and Philosophy, in Southeast Asia Area Studies (SOAS), and a PhD in Asian History from Leiden, Vaudine has lived and worked as a journalist in Hong Kong, the Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand and Singapore, covering domestic politics, cultures and economies as well as regional issues. Regular reporting trips to Myanmar, Laos, Cambodia, Brunei, Malaysia, Vietnam and China have enabled her to investigate everything from civil wars and insurgencies to the activities of ASEAN and the expanding presence of China in Southeast Asian cities and seas.

Vaudine started on local newspapers in Hong Kong in the 1980s, covered ‘People Power’ and the fall of President Ferdinand Marcos in the Philippines (1986) and was the Indonesia correspondent for the Far Eastern Economic Review before joining the BBC World Service in 1987. Her first book, The Quest of Noel Croucher, Hong Kong’s Quiet Philanthropist, was published by the University of Hong Kong Press in 1998. She was drawn back into journalism by the fall of Indonesia’s President Suharto, covering East Timor’s pathway to independence, the Asian Tsunami and more, later returning to the BBC in Hong Kong and Thailand; she has also taught journalism practice and current affairs at the University of Hong Kong. In 2011 she left daily news to concentrate on historical research and writing in Hong Kong. She has researched, written and produced history books on Hong Kong institutions, including The Hong Kong Club, Chinese International School, Arnholds and its founding family the Greens, and Hong Kong’s Sindhi dynasty, the Harilelas. Out of this work evolved an exploration of Hong Kong’s many diverse peoples which resulted in the successful trade book, Fortune’s Bazaar – The Making of Hong Kong.

Vaudine wishes people outside Southeast Asia paid more attention to this dynamic, important and fascinating region. It requires a vision of Asia which goes beyond China and India to discover the places and peoples in between, and illuminates how centuries of largely maritime trade and a geopolitical need to balance competing outside forces continue to this day. To this end, she’s working on her next book, about the Port Cities of Southeast Asia comprising what she calls Asia’s Levant.

RESEARCH INTERESTS:

Hong Kong history and current changes

Southeast Asian history and current affairs

Migration histories

Trading diasporas

Family histories across borders

Journalism

Freedoms of speech and the press

https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Fortunes-Bazaar/Vaudine-England/9781982184513

https://www.hachette.co.uk/titles/vaudine-england/fortunes-bazaar/9781472157164/