Jonathan has presented three seasons of Route Awakening (National Geographic), an award-winning TV series about icons of Chinese culture. From 2013-2019, he was a visiting professor at Xi'an Jiaotong University, China. Several of his books have been translated into Chinese, including his history of the Silk Road, and his biographies of Empress Wu, Wellington Koo and the First Emperor. You can read about some of his China exploits at his website.

Cantonese labourers formed a large proportion of the 19th century Chinese diaspora, working as navvies, miners and prospectors. We see their influence enduring in Chinatowns from London to Melbourne, and in terms such as “chopsuey” and snake-oil. But “Cantonese” has become a slippery term in modern Chinese, applied to a whole province,riding roughshod over local distinctions such as the Hakka and Teochew peoples, but also ignoring historical connections that extend far outside the borders of modern Guangdong, particularly through its most famous enclaves, Hong Kong and Macau.

After the reforms of Deng Xiaoping in the 1980s, Hong Kong exerted a huge and largely forgotten influence on food in

the rest of China, as businessmen and entrepreneurs scattered across the country to introduce new foods, cooking techniques and even slang, changing everything from the way Chinese people asked for the bill, to the terms used to address waiters.

Jonathan addresses the role of Hong Kong as a lifeboat for preserving Chinese culture, anda gateway for many foreigners’ first impressions of Chinese cuisine. He examines the echoes of the Tang dynasty in the local language, the role of Hong Kong restaurants in the Republican revolution, and the “Chinese” restaurant staples that are actually Hong Kong creations.