Here he is cared for by Matsu, a reticent housekeeper and a master gardener. Over the course of a remarkable year, Stephen learns Matsu's secret and gains not only physical strength, but also profound spiritual insight. Matsu is a samurai of the soul, a man devoted to doing good and finding beauty in a cruel and arbitrary world, and Stephen is a noble student, learning to appreciate Matsu's generous and nurturing way of life and to love Matsu's soul-mate, gentle Sachi, a woman afflicted with leprosy.

    Her mother's death split the family part and her alcoholic father was unable to cope. She was sexually abused and escaped an orphanage for destitution on the streets of Dublin. Years later, overworked and dealing with a violent husband, Christina realised she needed a dream. Drawing on her own experiences, she reached out to the swarms of children on the streets of Ho Chi Minh City. Within two years 'Mama Tina' had set up a Medical and Social Centre and achieved world-wide renown. Christina's is one of the bravest, most astonishing stories ever told.

    Siam Mapped challenges much that has been written on Thai history because it demonstrates convincingly that the physical and political definition of Thailand on which other works are based is anachronistic.

    In FUNNY BOY we follow the life of the family through Arjie's eyes, as he comes to terms both with his own homosexuality and with the racism of the society in which he lives. In the north of Sri Lanka there is a war going on between the army and the Tamil Tigers, and gradually it begins to encroach on the family's comfortable life. Sporadic acts of violence flare into full scale riots and lead, ultimately, to tragedy. Written in clear, simple prose, Syam Selvadurai's first novel is masterly in its mingling of the personal and political.

    Sagwa lived in the House of the Foolish Magistrate, a greedy man who made up rules that helped only himself. One day, Sagwa fell into an inkwell and accidentally changed one of the Foolish Magistrate's rules. Little did Sagwa know she would alter the fate—and the appearance—of Chinese cats forever!

    Against extraordinary odds she opened the Christina Noble Children's Foundation, a haven of food, beds, medical aid and schooling where the street children of Saigon can find safety and new beginnings under the protection of "Mama Tina".In this vivid and moving book, Christina's compelling story continues with the amazing tale of what she and her Foundation have achieved. She takes us from the streets of Saigon to the Children's Prisons of Mongolia. A staunch campaigner for children's rights, for her there are no frontiers, only a world filled with children reaching out.

    Millions have come and experienced the wonderful healing and rejuvinating effect of the equal love that she showers on all.

    On April 27, 1960, Harry Wu, a senior at Beijing's Geology Institute, was arrested by Chinese authorities and, without ever being formally charged or tried, spent the next nineteen years in hellish prison labor camps. Exiled to the bitter desolation of this extensive gulag, he was transformed from a member of China's privileged intellectual elite into a pariah, a faceless cipher denied even the most basic human rights. He was subjected to grinding labor, systematic starvation, and torture, yet he refused to give up his passionate hold on life. From the tough peasants and petty criminals imprisoned with him, like chicken thief Big Mouth Xing, he learned the harsh lessons of survival. Driven by incessant hunger, he became expert at scavenging for edible weeds in the barren camp fields and capturing snakes and frogs in the irrigation ditches. Reduced at one point to a walking skeleton, he took part in elaborate "food imagining" sessions with his squad mates in the barracks at night. In the crucible of the nightmarish Qinghe prison farm, he watched as, night after night, prisoners succumbed to disease and starvation to be buried in unmarked graves outside the camp walls. Throughout this stunning chronicle are moving stories of the prisoners who became Wu's trusted friends. The gentle, lute-playing Ao, unblinking in his insistence on the dignity of humanity, serves as a beacon in the moral abyss of the camps. Handsome and virile Lu, tormented by unfulfilled longing for a woman's touch, is driven to insanity and finallysuicide. Buffeted by the worst horrors of the Chinese communist tragedy, these poignant figures provide a rare, detailed portrait of the depths of human despair. Released from prison in 1979, Harry Wu was eventually allowed to leave China for the United States. But his story doe

    The First Emperor of China despatched the navigator Hsu Fu eastward in the year 218 BC to find the land which grew the drugs to give long life. He never returned. But if he or other Asian navigators did reach America by crossing the Pacific centuries before Columbus's voyage, it would help explain the remarkable similarities between the high cultures of pre-Columbian America and the ancient civilizations of Asia.

    Features poems, essays, plays, and works of fiction written in both Filipino and English.

    Offering a uniquely new perspective on the psyches of Germany and Japan after World War II, an expert on those two countries' politics and history explores how each country dealt with its past and their legacies of guilt in light of the atrocities which were committed during the war.

    An insightful and thought-provoking analysis of daily life in China, China Wakes is an exemplary work of reportage. 16 pages of photos.

    The British colony of Hong Kong thinks it is immune from the chaos engulfing the rest of the world. Amid so much suffering, the talented pianist Sarah Channing, fresh from war-ravaged England, is disgusted by the shallow concerns of her father’s social set. Rod Durman, an Australian doctor trapped in a toxic marriage, wants only to advance his career and help his patients, whoever they may be. Alex Tennant is a notorious playboy, happy to fritter away his youth in the pursuit of pleasure ... until he meets the passionate and principled Sarah Channing. All three lives become irreversibly intertwined. But when the Japanese army takes Hong Kong by surprise all personal happiness must be put aside in order to survive. Elizabeth Darrell’s richly evocative tale of love and the realities of war sweeps from the fall of Hong Kong to the London Blitz and the D-Day landings. What kind of love can survive the chaos and anguish of war? Praise for Elizabeth Darrell: ‘A wonderful story, compellingly told...the authenticity - both emotional and historical - really shines through’ - Sarah Harrison Elizabeth Darrell is the penname of Emma Drummond, born in 1931. Her father was a member of the British Army stationed in Hong Kong, where Drummond spent the early years of her life. As well as writing books, she worked in the Women’s Royal Army Corps. Endeavour Press is the UK's leading independent publisher of digital books.

    Various messages on the inward communion of the Holy Spirit, the outpouring of the Holy Spirit and the fruit of the discpline of the Holy Spirit.

    Bring me the Firebird, or I swear by my sword, your head will no longer sit upon your shoulders!A retelling of a popular Russian folktaleDemi's retelling captures the charm and drama of this favorite Russian folktale, while her lavish, gilded illustrations vividly evoke the grand setting and daring adventures.

    Arlo Nimmo tells of a young man coming of age while living among a remote cluster of islands in the southern Philippines with a people unlike any he had known. Nimmo combines an anthropologist's eye for the significant detail with a storyteller's gift for bringing his characters to life. His book is a vivid narrative of a people and their culture on the brink of momentous change. The Songs of Salanda is Nimmo's deeply personal exploration of his early anthropological field experiences in the Sulu archipelago. During two years in the mid-1960s, he researched the culture of the Bajau, a small group of nomadic boat-dwellers who plied the waters off the southernmost Philippine islands in small single-family houseboats. Nimmo's stories are based on the people, places, and events he encountered. By the 1970s the Bajau way of life had largely disappeared, an indirect casualty of the Marcos regime's war against the Muslims of Sulu. Nimmo's testimony about his experience of the archipelago is thus an ethnographic treasure. Nimmo reveals the complex and sometimes dissonant diversity that characterizes Philippine island dwellers. In each story, someone new comes sharply to life and a fresh perspective is opened for the reader. A misanthropic Chinese fish buyer, a brother and sister who sell sexual favors to save the family business, an imprisoned young man believed to be possessed by demons, an American GI who senses his impending death in the battlefields of Vietnam, and a Muslim pirate rebelling against the Christian Philippine government are among the characters capturing a time and place which are now lost forever.

    His adventure is a joyous testament to the resiliency and implicit goodness of the human spirit.

    She uses the lives and writings of the distinguished poets and critics Azad and Hali to show the disastrous consequences—culturally and politically—of British rule. The British had science, urban planning—and Wordsworth. Azad and Hali had a discredited culture and a metaphysical, sexually ambiguous poetry that differed radically from English lyric forms.Pritchett's beautiful reconstruction of the classical Urdu poetic vision allows us to understand one of the world's richest literary traditions and also highlights the damaging potential of colonialism.

    As a teacher, he placed special emphasis on koan practice, inventing many new koans himself, including the famous “What is the sound of one hand clapping?” As an artist, Hakuin used calligraphy and painting to create “visual Dharma”—teachings that powerfully express the nature of enlightenment. The text translated here offers an excellent introduction to the work of this extraordinary teacher. Hakuin sets forth his vision of authentic Zen teaching and practice, condemning his contemporaries, whom he held responsible for the decline of Zen, and exhorting his students to dedicate themselves to “breaking through the Zen barrier.” Included are reproductions of several of Hakuin’s finest calligraphies and paintings.

    Do’s literary career started in 1984, when he released Age of Division while teaching Korean language and literature to high-school students. His second poetry collection, You the Hollyhock, sold over a million copies and was made into a film, and he became one of Korea’s most influential poets during the 1980s, popular among critics and readers alike. Through poetry, Do found beauty in the poverty of his youth and in the sadness and pain from losing his wife to illness. He portrays flowers, trees, creeks, wind, mountains, and other shifts in nature through a unique poetic sensibility. Have accepted poetry as his “fate and companion,” he conveys simple truths and wisdom, such as how life matures and finds beauty amid pain and suffering. This collection was rendered into English by Brother Anthony, President of the Royal Asiatic Society Korea Branch and translator who has introduced international readers to several Korean works, and Jinna Park.

    Long overshadowed by the more visible - and charismatic - Mao Dzedong, he and his life and extraordinary accomplishments remain little recognized outside China, where he is still revered as the beloved father of the modern nation. In Eldest Son, Han Suyin brings this towering figure to life in a profoundly human and intimate portrait - the first full-scale biography of the late premier to be published in English. Between 1956 and 1974, Dr. Han conducted a series of eleven unprecedented interviews with Zhou, each of them lasting for several hours. Drawing upon these encounters, and on further meetings with his widow, his family and colleagues, as well as her unusual access to the Communist Party archives, Dr. Han presents a nuanced portrait of this deeply committed Chinese nationalist and Communist. Here is the full sweep of Zhou's remarkable life: his early schooling in Japan and Europe, his complex and loyal relationship to Mao, his historic meetings with other world leaders such as Khrushchev, Nehru, and Nixon which opened China to the global community. And Dr. Han gives us the private man as well as the public figure: his loving and formative marriage to Deng Yingchao, the murder of his adopted daughter at the hands of the Red Guards, and ultimately his painful battle with cancer. Like no other, Zhou's life is the history of modern China. Through the lens of his experience we see unfolding the dramatic, sometimes violent, decades of change: the founding of the Chinese Communist Party, the galvanizing Long March, the social convulsions of the Great Leap Forward, the violent excesses of the Cultural Revolution, andthe diplomatic rapprochement with the West in the 1970s. Dr. Han weaves these decisive events with the impressions and memories of hundreds of ordinary citizens from every sector of Chinese society to create a rich historical tapestry. Compellingly written, unique in its perspect

    The first translation ever to appear in English that includes one of the major Chinese philosophical commentaries, the Columbia I Ching presents the classic book of changes for the world today.Richard Lynn's introduction to this new translation explains the organization of The Classic of Changes through the history of its various parts, and describes how the text was and still is used as a manual of divination with both the stalk and coin methods. For the fortune-telling novice, he provides a chart of trigrams and hexagrams; an index of terms, names, and concepts; and a glossary and bibliography.Lynn presents for the first time in English the fascinating commentary on the I Ching written by Wang Bi (226-249), who was the main interpreter of the work for some seven hundred years. Wang Bi interpreted the I Ching as a book of moral and political wisdom, arguing that the text should not be read literally, but rather as an expression of abstract ideas. Lynn places Wang Bi's commentary in historical context.

    Learn how to make beautiful braid patterns on a marudai.

    Fifty years later, Burma is one of the poorest nations in the world, with a military dictatorship in Rangoon and 50,000 armed rebels from a myriad of ethnic insurgency groups. In this well-documented and detailed account, journalist Bertil Lintner explains the connection between Burma's booming drug production and its insurgency and counter-insurgency, providing an answer to the question of why Burma has been unable to shake off 35 years of military rule and build a modern, democratic society. This revised and updated edition includes a list of a cronyms, a chronology of events, a who's who of important figures in Burma's insurgency, an annotated list of rebel armies, and biographical sketches of the Thirty Comrades.

    Including works of varied genres from fiction and poetry to folk stories and elegies, travelogues and jokes to criticism and theory, this wide-ranging collection brings together more than two thousand years of great works in one portable volume.

    Readers will be caught up in the action and enchantment of the son's heroic quest of a magic tapestry as it unfolds page by page in dazzling gold ink. Full color.

    On the life of Sara Shuguftah, 20th century Urdu poet from Pakistan; includes her letters to the author and some other friends.

    Learn the ancient mysteries of self-generation and rejuvenation, and develop internal harmony and emotional balance in order to create a positive lifestyle. Enjoy Dr. Ni’s discussion of physical arts practice for children, and at what age they should begin; learn to maximize your energy (chi) as a tool for enjoying a vibrant life; choose the exercise that is right for you. Come to an understanding of the meaning of chi, and learn the history of chi practice in China. A thoroughly fascinating book for the beginner, and a wonderful tool for understanding the background of chi development, for the accomplished practitioner.

    Admired by H.G Wells and Bertrand Russell, he launched early assaults on Mt. Everest, held the world record for the 300-yard dash, was the first European since Marco Polo to travel from Peking to Central Asia, discovered the source of the Indus, and, as a spy, his presumed death nearly sparked an Indo-Russian war. The quest to discover this man led Patrick French from the Himalayas to Kashmir and into Tibet in search of clues.

    In "Mandate of Heaven" Orville Schell, one of America's foremost China specialists, interprets these conflicting developments and brilliantly documents the new power structures, economic initiatives, and cultural changes that have transformed China since the Tiananmen Square demonstrations of 1989. Schell takes readers on a series of journeys inside this latter-day People's Republic and introduces us to a broad spectrum of people, from students and workers to entrepreneurs, pop stars, and party officials, who, although they acted out the drama of the Square, are now playing the prominent roles in China's high-speed economic rush into the future.As China's role on the world stage grows, it becomes increasingly important that the West acquaint itself with the people who will be leading it into the twenty-first century. "Mandate of Heaven" is the authoritative and definitive account of this generation as it moves into a capitalist economic future while still clinging to the structures of its communist past.

    In order to address issues as diverse as the promotion of human rights or the resolution of sexism in ways that avoid inadvertent lapses into cultural chauvinism, alternative cultural perspectives that begin from differing conceptions of self and self-realization must be articulated and respected. This book explores the articulation of personal character within the disparate cultural experiences of Japan, China, and South Asia.

    This history, from 1949 to the present, has been extensively studied by scholars using the methods of history and political science. Dialectic of the Chinese Revolution makes an innovative departure from these studies through a series of reflections on the history of communist China as a history of consciousness.It focuses on important aspects of the Chinese experience - such as memory and amnesia, energy and meaning, and the center and periphery mentality - that are amenable more to a philosophical and psychological approach than to an empirical one.The author goes beyond the concept of utopianism that is customarily applied to the Chinese communist experience by viewing this epoch in terms of the movement from utopianism to nihilism to hedonism. He traces the path of Chinese communism from the early belief that denial and hard work combined with Marxism and Maoism would create a utopia of material and spiritual abundance to the disappointment of this belief and the ensuing search for individual pleasure and prosperity.In this progression, which the author describes as the unfolding of the hedonistic potential of utopianism, Marxism became China's road to capitalism and consumerism.The book consists of essays that approach the trajectory of utopianism-nihilism-hedonism from six different viewpoints: the impact of Marxism on China's relationship to itself and to the West, the manipulation of language and cultural memory, the effects of founding morality on a revolutionary teleology, the tension between the ascetic and the hedonistic aspects of utopianism, the paralysis of the will resulting from continual mobilizations and failures, and the relationship of past, present, and future as mirrored in constantly shifting beliefs.

    Find at http://www.nytimes.com/books/98/09/20...

    In popular songs called imayo, they expressed their concerns about religion, love, aging, and even current affairs.In 1179 Emperor Go-Shirakawa compiled Ryojin hisho, a twenty-volume collection of this song genre that juxtaposes the sacred with the profane, the high with the low, the male with the female, the old with the new. Kim makes these songs the core of her book, in translations that faithfully reflect the sounds and images of the originals and bring them to life within their own literary and cultural context.

    She & her brother were sent to be brought up in Beijing under the direct auspices of Premier Zhou Enlai as he wards. This is a personal story of a life lived in the highest court of China during the Great Leap Forward.

    

    When Azerbaijan declared its independence, the Armenian enclave of Nagorno-Karabagh followed suit. Before long, pogrom and war were the order of the day, resulting in thousands of Armenian and Azeri casualties.This book examines the history of Mountainous Karabagh, the ancient Artsakh of the Armenians, and assesses the mass of archaeological material and documentary evidence supporting the conflicting Azeri and Armenian claims. The authors follow the populations of the area from antiquity through periods of Mongol, Turkmen and Persian occupation, on to Turkey's and Russia's entry onto the scene, the period of Bolshevik rule, perestroika and, finally, the war with Azerbaikjan. This book highlights the Armenian culture of the enclave, traces Karabagh's demographic evolution and situates the current hostilities in terms of the interests of neighbouring Russia, Iran and Turkey. The picture that emerges of a clash of nationalistic passions and of Russian economic, military and diplomatic calculation is a signpost for future conflicts on both sides of the Caucasus.The assertion of Armenian and Azeri identity and culture remain at the heart of this tragedy. This book helps us to understand why the Armenians feel so strongly that Artsakh is theirs and is worth dying for.

    She then presents a systematic survey of the development and evolution of Burma's major crafts, such as bronze and ironwork, wooden architecture, wood-carving, gold, silver, and jewelry, ceramics, lacquer, textiles and costume, books, paper, baskets, mats, and umbrellas.

    This book asserts that the rich and diverse personal, educational, and political experiences of Zhou's formative years established clear patterns for his future and political orientations. In addition to substantiating the facts of Zhou Enlai's early years for the first time, the author sets Zhou's experience in the historical context of the Chinese youth of his generation, notably such events as Marxism, the Bolshevik Revolution, World War I, and the May Fourth Movement.

    Yet, just as he is about to cut down the tree, a strange and seemingly ageless girl, Sara Nishikujo, appears to stop him. What's more, the girl seems to have the ability to communicate with plants - and she tells Tatsuya the tree's version of his sister's accident. This marks a watershed in Tatsuya's life, as everything begins to change.

    Best read with its companion volume, Ang Silid na Mahiwaga.

    and 250 A.D. Important nomadic tribal cultures such as the Kushans emerged during this period. Contacts between the Mediterranean and the Indus Valley were reinforced by the campaigns of Alexander the Great and, under his successors, the progressive syncretism between Zoroastrianism, Greek religion and Buddhism gave rise to a new civilization instituted by the Parthians, known for its artistic creations. Under Kushan rule, Central Asia became the crossroads of a prosperous trade between the Mediterranean and China along the Silk Route.

    Bhutan's textiles, especially the intricate brocades and complex supplementary-warp patterns, are unmatched anywhere in the world. This art, with a steadily growing and devoted following in the West and Japan, has become Bhutan's most powerful emblem abroad. This volume, first published in 1994 (now reprinted in 2008) in conjunction with a special exhibition organized by the Peabody Essex Museum of Salem, Massachusetts, covers all aspects of Bhutan's textiles and weaving heritage, from the central role of women - more than 80 percent of Bhutanese women contribute to their household's income by weaving - to fibers, dyes, and looms, to the functioning of beautiful cloth as an item of trade and an indicator of historical change and social identity. This copiously illustrated book reveals the richness, originality, and striking beauty of Bhutanese textiles. Examples come from the Peabody Essex Museum, which holds the largest such collection of any North American museum, and public and private collections in Bhutan, the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom. The illustrations are supplemented by field photographs and rare archival images.

    

    The epic, untold story of the men behind Japan's greatest business dynasty, and their rise from obscurity to extreme wealth and power, The Brothers recounts the public and private lives of the Tsutsumi family, who are to Japan what the Rockefellers or the Gettys are to the West.