Best of
China
2009
大江大海:一九四九
Lung Ying-tai - 2009
These are the untold stories of 1949, the year China was decidedly cut in two.
The Snakehead: An Epic Tale of the Chinatown Underworld and the American Dream
Patrick Radden Keefe - 2009
Like other immigrant groups before them, they showed up with little money but with an intense work ethic and an unshakeable belief in the promise of the United States. Many of them lived in a world outside the law, working in a shadow economy overseen by the ruthless gangs that ruled the narrow streets of New York’s Chinatown.The figure who came to dominate this Chinese underworld was a middle-aged grandmother known as Sister Ping. Her path to the American dream began with an unusual business run out of a tiny noodle store on Hester Street. From her perch above the shop, Sister Ping ran a full-service underground bank for illegal Chinese immigrants. But her real business-a business that earned an estimated $40 million-was smuggling people. As a “snakehead,” she built a complex—and often vicious—global conglomerate, relying heavily on familial ties, and employing one of Chinatown's most violent gangs to protect her power and profits. Like an underworld CEO, Sister Ping created an intricate smuggling network that stretched from Fujian Province to Hong Kong to Burma to Thailand to Kenya to Guatemala to Mexico. Her ingenuity and drive were awe-inspiring both to the Chinatown community—where she was revered as a homegrown Don Corleone—and to the law enforcement officials who could never quite catch her. Indeed, Sister Ping’s empire only came to light in 1993 when the Golden Venture, a ship loaded with 300 undocumented immigrants, ran aground off a Queens beach. It took New York’s fabled “Jade Squad” and the FBI nearly ten years to untangle the criminal network and home in on its unusual mastermind.THE SNAKEHEAD is a panoramic tale of international intrigue and a dramatic portrait of the underground economy in which America’s twelve million illegal immigrants live. Based on hundreds of interviews, Patrick Radden Keefe’s sweeping narrative tells the story not only of Sister Ping, but of the gangland gunslingers who worked for her, the immigration and law enforcement officials who pursued her, and the generation of penniless immigrants who risked death and braved a 17,000 mile odyssey so that they could realize their own version of the American dream. The Snakehead offers an intimate tour of life on the mean streets of Chinatown, a vivid blueprint of organized crime in an age of globalization and a masterful exploration of the ways in which illegal immigration affects us all.www.doubleday.com
Poorly Made in China: An Insider's Account of the Tactics Behind China's Production Game
Paul Midler - 2009
Midler is not only a knowledgeable guide to the invisible underbelly of the global economy, he is a sympathetic and astute observer of China, its challenges, and its people. A great read." --Pietra Rivoli, author of The Travels of a T-Shirt in the Global Economy"Paul Midler takes us for a ride through the fastest-growing economy in the world, revealing what can--and sometimes does--go wrong when U.S. companies shift production to China. Working in the heart of China's export hub, in the country's southern region, he has the advantage of a front-row seat to the no-holds-barred games played between manufacturers and importers. He introduces us to a cast of real-life characters and tells his story with a mix of affection and skepticism for what is taking place in China today. Midler delivers a revealing and often funny tale of life and commerce in a country whose exports touch nearly everyone on the planet." --Sara Bongiorni, author of A Year Without 'Made in China'
The Generalissimo: Chiang Kai-Shek and the Struggle for Modern China
Jay Taylor - 2009
Drawing heavily on Chinese sources including Chiang's diaries, this book tells the story of this 'man of war' who led the most ancient and populous country in the world for a quarter century of endless and bloody revolutions, civil conflict, and wars of resistance against Japanese aggression.
How China Became Capitalist
Ronald H. Coase - 2009
The authors revitalize the debate around the development of the Chinese system through the use of primary sources. They persuasively argue that the reforms implemented by the Chinese leaders did not represent a concerted attempt to create a capitalist economy, but that the ideas from the West eventually culminated in a fundamental change to their socialist model, forming an accidental path to capitalism. Coase and Wang argue that the pragmatic approach of "seeking truth from fact" is in fact much more in line with Chinese culture. How China Became Capitalist challenges the received wisdom about the future of the Chinese economy, arguing that while China has enormous potential for growth, this could be hampered by the leaders' propensity for control, both in terms of economics and their monopoly of ideas and power.
The Huainanzi
An Liu - 2009
Outlining "all that a modern monarch needs to know," the text emphasizes rigorous self-cultivation and mental discipline, brilliantly synthesizing for readers past and present the full spectrum of early Chinese thought."The Huainanzi" locates the key to successful rule in a balance of broad knowledge, diligent application, and the penetrating wisdom of a sage. It is a unique and creative synthesis of Daoist classics, such as the "Laozi" and the "Zhuangzi"; works associated with the Confucian tradition, such as the "Changes," the "Odes," and the "Documents"; and a wide range of other foundational philosophical and literary texts from the "Mozi" to the "Hanfeizi."The product of twelve years of scholarship, this remarkable translation preserves "The Huainanzi"'s special rhetorical features, such as parallel prose and verse, and showcases a compositional technique that conveys the work's powerful philosophical appeal. This path-breaking volume will have a transformative impact on the field of early Chinese intellectual history and will be of great interest to scholars and students alike.
Rise of the Red Engineers: The Cultural Revolution and the Origins of China's New Class
Joel Andreas - 2009
In a fascinating account, author Joel Andreas chronicles how two mutually hostile groups—the poorly educated peasant revolutionaries who seized power in 1949 and China's old educated elite—coalesced to form a new dominant class. After dispossessing the country's propertied classes, Mao and the Communist Party took radical measures to eliminate class distinctions based on education, aggravating antagonisms between the new political and old cultural elites. Ultimately, however, Mao's attacks on both groups during the Cultural Revolution spurred inter-elite unity, paving the way—after his death—for the consolidation of a new class that combined their political and cultural resources. This story is told through a case study of Tsinghua University, which—as China's premier school of technology—was at the epicenter of these conflicts and became the party's preferred training ground for technocrats, including many of China's current leaders.
Butterfly Tears
Zoë S. Roy - 2009
The stories are set in different parts of China, Canada, and to a lesser extent in the United States and examine Chinese women's cross-cultural experiences in North America as well as women's issues and political discrimination in China. The stories, or parts of stories, set in China give the reader interesting glimpses into events such as the cultural revolution and Mao's death.The immigrant experience, the predominant theme, encompasses a number of aspects ranging from issues such as language and food to education. Feminism and changing male/female relationships form another important theme that also runs through many of the stories.
Bloody Harvest: The Killing of Falun Gong for Their Organs
David Matas - 2009
The Chinese Communist Party, alarmed at the growth of the movement and fearing for its own ideological supremacy banned the movement in 1999. Falun Gong practitioners were arrested in the hundreds of thousands and asked to recant. If they did not, they were tortured. If they still did not recant, they disappeared. Allegations surfaced in 2006 that the disappeared were being killed for their organs which were sold for large sums mostly to foreign transplant tourists. It is generally accepted that China kills prisoners for organs. The debate is over whether the prisoners who are killed are only criminals sentenced to death or Falun Gong practitioners as well. The authors produced a report concluding that the allegations were true. "Bloody Harvest" sets out the investigations and conclusions of the authors.
Three Hundred Tang Poems
Peter Harris - 2009
Many of China’s most famous poets—Du Fu, Li Bai, Bai Juyi, and Wang Wei—are represented by timeless poems about love, war, the delights of drinking and dancing, and the beauties of nature. There are poems about travel, about grief, about the frustrations of bureaucracy, and about the pleasures and sadness of old age.Full of wisdom and humanity that reach across the barriers of language, space, and time, these poems take us to the heart of Chinese poetry, and into the very heart and soul of a nation.
China: A History
Harold M. Tanner - 2009
Woven into the narrative are the striking stories of heroes and villains, of women and men, of tragedy and comedy, of high culture and coarse humor, of extremes of wealth and poverty, of feast and famine, and of exquisite art and terrible suffering.Characteristic of Harold Tanner's presentation is the development and carefully balanced recounting of important themes--such as the ethnic diversity of the early empires, interaction with other civilizations, and the challenge of transforming a multi-ethnic empire into a modern nation-state--that other histories of China omit entirely or discuss only minimally.Includes a chronology, suggested further readings, illustrations, maps, and an index.
The Great Urban Transformation: Politics of Land and Property in China
You-tien Hsing - 2009
The Great Urban Transformation investigates what is happening in cities, the urban edges, and the rural fringe in order to explain these relations. In the inner city of major metropolitan centers, municipal governments battle high-ranking state agencies to secure land rents from redevelopment projects, while residents mobilize to assert property and residential rights. At the urban edge, as metropolitan governments seek to extend control over their rural hinterland through massive-scale development projects, villagers strategize to profit from the encroaching property market. At the rural fringe, township leaders become brokers of power and property between the state bureaucracy and villages, while large numbers of peasants are dispossessed, dispersed, and deterritorialized, and their mobilizational capacity is consequently undermined.The Great Urban Transformation explores these issues, and provides an integrated analysis of the city and the countryside, elite politics and grassroots activism, legal-economic and socio-political issues of property rights, and the role of the state and the market in the property market.
Teaching In a Distant Classroom: Crossing Borders for Global Transformation
Michael H. Romanowski - 2009
International teaching experiences can be tremendously rewarding. But often teachers are not fully prepared for the challenges of crosscultural life, and many are jolted and disillusioned by the realities of the overseas classroom. Veteran educators Mike Romanowski and Teri McCarthy provide an essential guide for Christians teaching in overseas contexts. They explain how good teaching requires preparation, self-understanding and cultural skills, as well as a solid philosophy of education and grasp of worldview. Providing both the theoretical framework as well as practical tools, the authors offer concrete advice and real-life examples for classroom instruction, daily life and much more. Get a more global picture of the kind of transformation your educational work can accomplish. Whether you are a recent college grad or a seasoned veteran educator, this book is an essential companion for your teaching journey.
Ali's Dream Castle
Xu Han - 2009
Ali is a red fox in white shorts. Stories about Ali, his parents and adventures. Amazing illustrations by the author, are on practically every page. Bilingual in Chinese and English. For Children and adults alike!Chinese name: 阿狸,English name: Ali. He was born on 16, July. He is an innocent, clinging, staid, sometimes absent-minded but cute red fox. He is sometimes too unpractical but always believes in fairy tales. He believes in the truest warmth from the bottom of one’s heart, he considers forever not too far away…Ali’s favorite food is Chicken Rolls and his favorite fruit is grapefruit.The ones he likes and loves most are Atao and his father Hans. His best friends are Da Xiong, Yin zi and Mi Ka.[3] The basic tone of the story of Ali is warmth, therefore it’s popular among all age groups.Ali wears white trousers/underpants. Hans, the creator, said that small pants/underpants are also clothing.[4]
Echoes of Chongqing: Women in Wartime China
Danke Li - 2009
By presenting women's remembrances of the war, this study examines the interplay between oral history and traditional historical narrative, public discourse, and private memories. The women interviewed came from differing social, economic, and educational backgrounds and experienced the war in a variety of ways, some of them active in the communist resistance and others trying to support families or pursue educations in the face of wartime upheaval. Their stories demonstrate that the War of Resistance had two faces: one presented by official propaganda and characterized by an upbeat unified front against Japan, the other a record of invisible private stories and a sobering national experience of death and suffering. The accounts of how women coped, worked, and lived during the war years in the Chongqing region recast historical understanding of the roles played by ordinary people in wartime and give women a public voice and face that, until now, have been missing from scholarship on the war.
Making Transcendents: Ascetics and Social Memory in Early Medieval China
Robert Ford Campany - 2009
in China there were individuals who sought to become transcendents (xian)--deathless, godlike beings endowed with supernormal powers. This quest for transcendence became a major form of religious expression and helped lay the foundation on which the first Daoist religion was built. Both xian and those who aspired to this exalted status in the centuries leading up to 350 C.E. have traditionally been portrayed as secretive and hermit-like figures. This groundbreaking study offers a very different view of xian-seekers in late classical and early medieval China. It suggests that transcendence did not involve a withdrawal from society but rather should be seen as a religious role situated among other social roles and conceived in contrast to them. Robert Campany argues that the much-discussed secrecy surrounding ascetic disciplines was actually one important way in which practitioners presented themselves to others. He contends, moreover, that many adepts were not socially isolated at all but were much sought after for their power to heal the sick, divine the future, and narrate their exotic experiences.The book moves from a description of the roles of xian and xian-seekers to an account of how individuals filled these roles, whether by their own agency or by others'--or, often, by both. Campany summarizes the repertoire of features that constituted xian roles and presents a detailed example of what analyses of those cultural repertoires look like. He charts the functions of a basic dialectic in the self-presentations of adepts and examines their narratives and relations with others, including family members and officials. Finally, he looks at hagiographies as attempts to persuade readers as to the identities and reputations of past individuals. His interpretation of these stories allows us to see how reputations were shaped and even co-opted--sometimes quite surprisingly--into the ranks of xian.Making Transcendents provides a nuanced discussion that draws on a sophisticated grasp of diverse theoretical sources while being thoroughly grounded in traditional Chinese hagiographical, historiographical, and scriptural texts. The picture it presents of the quest for transcendence as a social phenomenon in early medieval China is original and provocative, as is the paradigm it offers for understanding the roles of holy persons in other societies.
Collins Easy Learning Mandarin Chinese Dictionary.
Gaelle Amiot-Cadey - 2009
The easiest way to learn Chinese.Over 2 million copies of the Easy Learning range sold.Easy to useFind all the words and phrases you need, with Chinese characters and their pinyin transcription.Easy to readClear and practical Chinese in Action supplement, plus a guide to writing Chinese characters.Easy to accessFree extra study materials online.
Zen Baggage
Bill Porter - 2009
Zen Baggage is an account of that journey. He weaves together historical background, interviews with Zen masters, and translations of the earliest known records of Zen, along with personal vignettes. Porter's account captures the transformations taking place at religious centers in China but also the abiding legacy they have somehow managed to preserve. Porter brings wisdom and humor to every situation, whether visiting ancient caves containing the most complete collection of Buddhist texts ever uncovered, enduring a six-hour Buddhist ceremony, searching in vain for the ghost in his room, waking up the monk in charge of martial arts at Shaolin Temple, or meeting the abbess of China's first Zen nunnery. Porter's previously published Road to Heaven: Encounters with Chinese Hermits has become recommended reading at Zen centers and universities throughout America and even in China (in its Chinese translation), and Zen Baggage is sure to follow suit.
Hong Kong’s Watershed: The 1967 Riots
Gary Ka-wai Cheung - 2009
The interviews with the participants, including Jack Cater, Liang Shangyuan, George Walden, Tsang Tak-sing, Tsang Yok-sing, and Hong Kong government officials, left irreplaceable records of oral history on the political upheaval. The book analyses the causes and repercussions of the 1967 riots which are widely seen as a watershed of postwar history of Hong Kong. It depicts the prelude to the 1967 riots, including the Star Ferry riots in 1966, the leftist-instigated riots in Macau in 1966, and the major events leading to the disturbances, including the labour dispute at a plastic flower factory, the border conflict in Sha Tau Kok, bomb attacks and arson attacks on the office of British charge d’affaires in Beijing.
Military Culture in Imperial China
Nicola Di CosmoDon J. Wyatt - 2009
There was nothing inherently pacifist about the Chinese governments' views of war, and pragmatic approaches--even aggressive and expansionist projects--often prevailed.Though it has changed in form, a military elite has existed in China from the beginning of its history, and military service included a large proportion of the population at any given time. Popular literature praised the martial ethos of fighting men. Civil officials attended constantly to military matters on the administrative and financial ends. The seven military classics produced in antiquity continued to be read even into the modern period.These original essays explore the ways in which intellectual, civilian, and literary elements helped shape the nature of military institutions, theory, and the culture of war. This important contribution bridges two literatures, military and cultural, that seldom appear together in the study of China, and deepens our understanding of war and society in Chinese history.
Xiao Wu, Platform, Unknown Pleasures: Jia Zhangke's Hometown Trilogy
Michael Berry - 2009
Highlighting Jia’s use of underground shooting techniques, brilliant cinematic language and engagement with other literary and cinematic works, Berry explores the central themes in Jia’s oeuvre: destruction and change, stagnation and movement, the individual versus society, political culture versus popular culture, and, of course, the ceaseless search for home.
Dignity and Discipline: Reviving Full Ordination for Buddhist Nuns
Thea Mohr - 2009
And indeed, the earliest Buddhist scriptures celebrate the teachings and inspiring influence of these path-blazing female renunciants. Nonetheless, through much of the Buddhist world, the order of nuns has disappeared or was never transmitted at all.Dignity & Discipline represents a watershed moment in Buddhist history, as the Dalai Lama together with scholars and monastics from around the world, present powerful cases, grounded in both scripture and a profound appeal to human dignity, that the order of Buddhist nuns can and should be fully restored.
Two Suns in the Heavens: The Sino-Soviet Struggle for Supremacy, 1962-1967
Sergey Radchenko - 2009
Through a careful and comprehensive investigation of policymaking in both Moscow and Beijing, Radchenko creates a new framework for understanding the role of power struggle, ideology, personalities, and culture in Sino-Soviet relations.Part of the Cold War International History Project Series from Woodrow Wilson Center Press
Finding God in Ancient China: How the Ancient Chinese Worshiped the God of the Bible
Chan Kei Thong - 2009
According to Thong, after the division of nations at the Tower of Babel one of the groups journeyed across the Asian continent and settled in what is today the region of China. It was this group of people who established the first Chinese culture known as the Long Shan. And from this culture the first ruling dynasty, the Xia Dynasty, would emerge. Thong claims that the writings, beliefs, actions, and language conventions that were employed by the Xia Dynasty all point to a belief in the one true God; the same God who confused the languages at Babel and is today the God of the Christian faith. "Finding God in Ancient China is a remarkable achievement, a profound examination of China's cultural origins and history as a reflection of a continuous Chinese cultural sense of a connection with the divine. This book is already having a profound impact in China in a Chinese version. Everyone interested in Christianity in China should read it."
There's Nothing I Can Do When I Think of You Late at Night
Cao Naiqian - 2009
In a series of vivid, interlocking vignettes, several narrators speak of adultery, bestiality, incest, and vice, revealing the consequences of desire in a world of necessity.The Wen Clan Caves are based on an isolated village where the author, Cao Naiqian, lived during the Cultural Revolution. The land is hard and unforgiving and the people suffer in poverty and ignorance. Through the individual perspectives of the Wen Clan denizens, a complete portrait of village life takes shape. Dark yet lyrical, Cao's snapshots range from pastoral stories of childhood innocence to shocking accounts of brutality and terror. His work echoes William Faulkner's Go Down, Moses and Sherwood Anderson's Winesburg, Ohio, yet the author's depictions of elemental passions and regional mores make the book entirely his own.Celebrated for its economy of expression, flashes of humor, and an emphasis on understatement rarely found in Chinese fiction, There's Nothing I Can Do When I Think of You Late at Night is an excellent introduction to the power and craft of Cao Naiqian. His vivid personalities and unflinching realism herald the haunting work of an original literary force.
Zhang, Huan
Yilmaz Dziewior - 2009
His earliest performances, including 12 Square Meters, 65 Kilograms, and To Raise the Water-Level in a Fishpond, subjected his body to grueling tests of endurance while addressing the relationship between physical endurance and spiritual tranquility.Zhang 's move to New York in 1998 contributed to establish himself as a widely recognized figure in the international contemporary art world, staging performances in several cities around the globe, including Sydney, Rome, Shanghai and Hamburg where he reflected on his experiences in the cities he visited and his ethnic identity in a foreign land.In 2006 Zhang established a studio in Shanghai, where he began to seek a greater connection to Chinese heritage and history. This marked a new direction in his work, as he turned from performance to sculpture, painting, and installation. Through creating large-scale sculpture in diverse media, such as ash from local Buddhist temples, and with found objects, such as doors from the Chinese countryside homes, Zhang Huan continues to explore new ways to render his interest in the body and its language.A significant aspect of Zhang's new work revolves around his interest in Buddhism. Although Buddhist themes figured indirectly into his early work, they took on a more prominent role after a visit to Tibet in 2005. There, Zhang began to collect fragments of Buddhist sculptures, which he then used as models for massive copper figures. Upon his return to Shanghai, Zhang Huan began to collect ash from local Buddhist temples for use in sculptures and paintings. The use of burnt incense, the product of religious offerings, strengthens the link between his art and Buddhist practices
The Perfumed Palace: Islam's Journey from Mecca to Peking
M.A. Aldrich - 2009
By 996 CE, Muslims had established a presence in Beijing (which we call “Peking” because of its classical resonance), and so began a process of blending so far-reaching that today, casual observers of northern China, whether Chinese, Muslim or Western, might be completely unaware of their existence. Loosely themed around the Five Pillars of Islam, The Perfumed Palace explores the life and culture of the Muslims of China’s capital city who, over the centuries, have developed such a harmonious synthesis of two great civilizations. Accompanying the text are more than 100 color photographs taken by photographer Lukas Nikol on visits to the Muslim Quarter in Peking and to the Muslim villages that dot the countryside in its outlying counties. The photographs encompass everything from daily life, festivals, markets, schools, mosque architecture and numerous other leitmotifs of the capital’s Muslims. Several 1930s black-and-white photographs from the Harvard-Yenching Library add a further historical dimension to this visual depiction of Muslim Peking. The book is completed by specially commissioned reproductions of sini calligraphic scrolls, a form of Arabic calligraphy that incorporates Chinese-style brush strokes in a vertical format, like traditional Chinese writing. These breath-taking combinations of Arabic and Chinese calligraphy are an art form unknown outside China.
alibaba: The Inside Story Behind Jack MA and the Creation of the World's Biggest Online Marketplace
Liu Shiying - 2009
Ma's rise to prominence presents a riveting story: Despite growing up in China during the Cultural Revolution—in a period of total state control of the economy—he developed the keen entrepreneurial instincts that propelled him to billionaire status and enabled him to build a company outside the usual government channels. These instincts and habits incorporated martial arts training and allowed him to recognize, early on, that the Internet could leverage his company to rapid growth and also transform the way business is done around the world. Alibaba.com, where businesses can buy and sell everything from air beds to zippers, started with a modest initial investment of $60,000 and has grown exponentially since its founding in 1999 to become the world's biggest business-to-business Web site. In 2007 it became the second largest IPO in history (after Google), and Fast Company has named it one of the world's most innovative companies. As a result, smart investors and technology insiders will be keeping a close eye on Alibaba for years to come. Whether you're seeking to understand China's meteoric rise, or just searching for the next Google, Yahoo!, or Amazon, Alibaba is crucial reading.
Hou Gong: Zhen Huan Zhuan I
Lianzi Liu - 2009
The novel is set in the 8th century Tang dynasty. A beautiful girl of 15 was chosen as one of a few thousand of the emperor's concubines. Thrown in with these women in the huge Forbidden City, she learned the tragedies of the lives of concubines. The TV series based on the novel is in production. Vol. 1. This series is available through volume 5-7. In Traditional Chinese.
The Sage Learning of Liu Zhi: Islamic Thought in Confucian Terms
Sachiko Murata - 2009
1670-1724) was one of the most important scholars of Islam in traditional China. His Tianfang xingli (Nature and Principle in Islam), the Chinese-language text translated here, focuses on the roots or principles of Islam. It was heavily influenced by several classic texts in the Sufi tradition. Liu's approach, however, is distinguished from that of other Muslim scholars in that he addressed the basic articles of Islamic thought with Neo-Confucian terminology and categories. Besides its innate metaphysical and philosophical value, the text is invaluable for understanding how the masters of Chinese Islam straddled religious and civilizational frontiers and created harmony between two different intellectual worlds.The introductory chapters explore both the Chinese and the Islamic intellectual traditions behind Liu's work and locate the arguments of Tianfang xingli within those systems of thought. The copious annotations to the translation explain Liu's text and draw attention to parallels in Chinese-, Arabic-, and Persian-language works as well as differences.
Symbols, Art and Language from the Land of the Dragon: The cultural history of 100 Chinese characters
Ni Yibin - 2009
Chinese characters have developed over thousands of years, captivating as much with their artistic expressiveness as with their intriguing layers of meaning. In this book the text is accompanied with calligraphy and full-colour reproductions of Chinese brush paintings, calligraphic scrolls cermaics and textiles, whilst each entry explores the meaning behind the character and its significance in Chinese culture, from words such as dragon, mountain and heaven, to abstract concepts such as love, beauty and trust. Drawing on the latest scholarship, this silk-bound edition is both engaging and informative - language as an art form; art as language.
Freeing Tibet: 50 Years of Struggle, Resilience, and Hope
John B. Roberts II - 2009
Fleeing his native country to govern in exile from India, the Dalai Lama would go on to become one of the great leaders of our time. Then, in March 2008, the diplomat, icon, and winner of the 1989 Nobel Peace Prize was blamed for inciting violence in Tibet's traditional capital of Lhasa. As 2009 marks the 50th anniversary of the Dalai Lama's rule in exile, the situation in Tibet has become more volatile than ever. Now, China must decide if it will give Tibet the right to govern itself and what the consequences will be for its economy and its place on the world stage. Freeing Tibet is the incredible, heroic story of Tibet's arduous struggle to keep freedom alive.From the national uprising in 1959, which cost more than 85,000 Tibetans their lives, to the rise of the Tibetan freedom fighters; the aftereffects of Nixon's historic visit to China, and preparations for the Dalai Lama's successor, this seminal history offers an insider's view of the 50-year struggle for autonomy. As a former Reagan White House political strategist, author John B. Roberts has had unprecedented access to the Dalai Lama's inner circle. Based on interviews with CIA and political insiders, this epic story gives readers a new understanding of a conflict that continues to fascinate the world. Timely, impeccably researched, and hopeful, this is the book that will change the way we understand Tibet.
The Chinese Aesthetic Tradition
Li Zehou - 2009
1930) has been an influential thinker in China since the 1950s. Before moving to the U.S. in the wake of the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989, Li published works on Kant and traditional and contemporary Chinese philosophy. The present volume, a translation of his Huaxia meixue (1989), is considered among Li's most significant works. Apart from its value as an introduction to the philosophy of one of contemporary China's foremost intellectuals, The Chinese Aesthetic Tradition fills an important gap in the literature of Chinese aesthetics in English. It presents Li's synthesis of the entire trajectory of Chinese aesthetic thought, from ancient times to the early modern period, incorporating pre-Confucian and Confucian ideas, Daoism, Chan Buddhism, and the influence of Western philosophy during the late-imperial period. As one of China's major contemporary philosophers and preeminent authority on Kant, Li is uniquely positioned to observe this trajectory and make it intelligible to today's readers. The Chinese Aesthetic Tradition touches on all areas of artistic activity, including poetry, painting, calligraphy, architecture, and the "art of living." Right government, the ideal human being, and the path to spiritual transcendence all come under the provenance of aesthetic thought. According to Li this was the case from early Confucian explanations of poetry as that which gives expression to intent, through Zhuangzi's artistic depictions of the ideal personality who discerns the natural way of things and lives according to it, to Chan Buddhist-inspired notions that nature and words can come together to yield insight and enlightenment. In this enduring and stimulating work, Li demonstrates conclusively the fundamental role of aesthetics in the development of the cultural and psychological structures in Chinese culture that define "humanity."
Quest for Harmony: The Moso Traditions of Sexual Union and Family Life.
Chuan-kang Shih - 2009
Among the Moso, a majority of the adult population practice a visiting system called tisese instead of marriage as the normal sexual and reproductive institution. Until recently, tisese was noncontractual, nonobligatory, and nonexclusive. Partners lived and worked in separate households. The only prerequisite for a tisese relationship was a mutual agreement between the man and the woman to allow sexual access to each other. In a comprehensive account, Quest for Harmony explores this unique practice specifically, and offers thorough documentation, fine-grained analysis, and an engaging discussion of the people, history, and structure of Moso society. Drawing on the author's extensive fieldwork, conducted from 1987 to 2006, this is the first ethnography of the Moso written in English.
No Labour, No Battle: The Labour Corps In The First World War
John Starling - 2009
This book presents a record of the role played by Military Labour in the First World War.
China
Ming Tan - 2009
These remarkable images show us the country’s most famous landmarks—like the Forbidden City, the Great Wall, and the terra-cotta army of the First Qin Emperor—as we have never seen them before, and provide us with a spectacular introduction to less familiar but just as fascinating attractions, like the great tulous, or earthen houses, of Fujian Province; the terraced fields of Yuanyang County; and the multicolored travertine lakes of Huanglong Valley. Extended captions at the back of the book provide a concise introduction to the history and significance of each of the forty-four locales depicted, twenty-eight of which have been designated as World Heritage sites.This beautiful volume is not only a celebration of the natural and cultural wonders that have made China the most popular tourist destination in Asia and one of the four most popular in the world overall; it is also a collector’s item in its own right. With its oversize panoramic format, twelve gatefolds, and handsome slipcase, China is a testament to the bookbinder’s craft.
Beijing: Portrait of a City
Alexandra Pearson - 2009
Beijing: Portrait of a City is the shared work of some of Beijing’s finest storytellers, authors and academics: James Kynge, Zhu Wen, Adam Williams, Roy Kesey, Ma Jian, Alfreda Murck, Tim Clissold, Catherine Sampson, Peter Hessler, Karen Smith, Paul Frenc
Laogai: The Machinery of Repression in China
Nicole Kempton - 2009
With essays from leading Chinese scholar Andrew Nathan and leading dissident Harry Wu, this book discusses the wide range of challenges China faces: to freedom of expression and religious choice, as well as controversial issues like torture, the death penalty, organ trafficking, forced sterilization, and more.This carefully researched and crafted book is filled with tales of heroism, heartbreak, and triumph, as dozens of former prisoners of the Laogai share their individual stories and reveal the pain and dirt that underlies China’s shiny modern surface.Moving and disturbing, Laogai gives lie to the notion that China is headed to democratization, and urges that on the occasion of its sixtieth anniversary, we look at the People’s Republic with a chilling knowledge that despite its advances, the apparatus of control and oppression in the last great Communist party remain unchanged.The text includes a comprehensive history of human rights, timeline, reading list, and resource information.
China Goes to Sea: Maritime Transformation in Comparative Historical Perspective
Lyle J. Goldstein - 2009
But China's turn toward the sea is now very much a reality, as evident in its stunning rise in global shipbuilding markets, its vast and expanding merchant marine, the wide offshore reach of its energy and minerals exploration companies, its growing fishing fleet, and indeed its increasingly modern navy. Yet, for all these achievements, there is still profound skepticism regarding China's potential as a genuine maritime power. Beijing must still import the most vital subcomponents for its shipyards, maritime governance remains severely bureaucratically challenged, and the navy evinces, at least as of yet, little enthusiasm for significant blue water power projection capabilities. This volume provides a truly comprehensive assessment of prospects for China's maritime development by situating these important geostrategic phenomena within a larger world historical context. China is hardly the only land power in history to attempt transformation by fostering sea power. Many continental powers have elected or been impelled to transform themselves into significant maritime powers in order to safeguard their strategic position or advance their interests. We examine cases of attempted transformation from the Persian Empire to the Soviet Union, and determine the reasons for their success or failure. Too many works on China view the nation in isolation. Of course, China's history and culture are to some extent exceptional, but building intellectual fences actually hinders the effort to understand China's current development trajectory. Without underestimating the enduring pull of China's past as it relates to threats to the country's internal stability and its landward borders, this comparative study provides reason to believe that China has turned the corner on a genuine maritime transformation. If that proves indeed to be the case, it would be a remarkable if not singular event in the history of the last two millennia.
True Crimes in Eighteenth-Century China: Twenty Case Histories
Robert E. Hegel - 2009
These true stories of crimes of passion, family conflict, neighborhood feuds, gang violence, and sedition are a treasure trove of information about social relations and legal procedure.Each narrative describes circumstances leading up to a crime and its discovery, the appearance of the crime scene and the body, the apparent cause of death, speculation about motives and premeditation, and whether self-defense was involved. Detailed testimony is included from the accused and from witnesses, family members, and neighbors, as well as summaries and opinions from local magistrates, their coroners, and other officials higher up the chain of judicial review. Officials explain which law in the Qing dynasty legal code was violated, which corresponding punishment was appropriate, and whether the sentence was eligible for reduction.These records began as reports from magistrates on homicide cases within their jurisdiction that were required by law to be tried first at the county level, then reviewed by judicial officials at the prefectural, provincial, and national levels, with each administrator adding his own observations to the file. Each case was decided finally in Beijing, in the name of the emperor if not by the monarch himself, before sentences could be carried out and the records permanently filed. All of the cases translated here are from the Qing imperial copies, most of which are now housed in the First Historical Archives, Beijing.
Where East Eats West: The Street-Smarts Guide to Business in China
Sam Goodman - 2009
It was designed to be the ultimate airplane book and entertains the China hand as much as it educates the China rookie through humorous, firsthand narratives that make the reader feel as if Goodman is sitting beside them, having a conversation. "From sandwiches to nuclear power plants, Goodman's in-the-trenches China experiences cover an unusually broad range and the advice he offers you comes unvarnished, unleavened, and unadulterated, just like he lived it. Anyone contemplating an adventure in the world of China business will learn an awful lot from him." Ted Plafker, 20 year China veteran & author of Doing Business in China
Sagehood: The Contemporary Significance of Neo-Confucian Philosophy
Stephen C. Angle - 2009
and came to dominate the Chinese intellectual scene for centuries thereafter. What would happen if we took Neo-Confucianism and its central ideal of sagehood seriously as contemporary philosophy? Sagehood represents supreme human virtue: a flawless, empathetic responsiveness to every situation in which one finds oneself. How could this be possible? How might one work toward such a state? According to Neo-Confucians, we should all strive to become sages, whether or not we ultimately achieve it. Taking neo-Confucianism seriously means to explore the ways that its theories of psychology, ethics, education, and politics engage with the views of contemporary philosophers. Angle's book is therefore both an exposition of Neo-Confucian philosophy and a sustained dialogue with many leading Western thinkers--and especially with those philosophers leading the current renewal of interest in virtue ethics. The book's significance is two-fold: it argues for a new stage in the development of contemporary Confucian philosophy, and it demonstrates the value to Western philosophers of engaging with the Neo-Confucian tradition."Rarely is a work in comparative philosophy itself an original philosophical contribution. But that is the case in this instance in which Angle brings Neo-Confucian philosophy into fruitful conversation with contemporary Western, virtue-ethics based analytic philosophers.The result is a presentation of Neo-Confucianism that advances it beyond any previous Neo-Confucian: Angle is the best in the line so far, at least among those writing or written about in English." - Robert Cummings Neville, The Review of Metaphysics"This book does an outstanding job of engaging a wide range of sources not only from different areas of philosophy (such as virtue ethics and Chinese philosophy) but also from the disciplines of religious studies and Asian studies. Indeed, one thing that makes this book worth reading is the way it puts new and interesting sources into conversation with one another in order to shed new light on the topics at hand. While this work is certainly recommended for specialists in comparative ethics and Chinese philosophy, it is also a resource for philosophers interested in learning how non-Western philosophy might potentially contribute to work in ethics today." - Eric Cline, Mind"Throughout the book, Angle makes good use of recent empirical studies. His book is very accessible for readers with a wide variety of backgrounds. Philosophers with no background in Chinese thought will find challenging and interesting discussions of many issues relevant to their own work. Furthermore, I think this book is also quite appropriate to assign to strong undergraduate students. I recommend it highly." - Bryan W. van Norden, Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews
Sound Kapital
Matthew Niederhauser - 2009
This seemingly unbridgeable gap tears at the country’s social fabric while provoking younger generations to greater artistic heights. The unique sound emerging from Beijing’s underground delves deeply into this void, aggressively questioning the moral and social basis of China’s fragile modernity even as it subsists upon it. A formidable new wave of Chinese musicians is taking the city by storm. Revolving around four venues spread across Beijing, a burgeoning group of performers are working outside government-controlled media channels, and in the process, capturing the attention of the international music community. They now constitute a fresh, independent voice in a country renowned for creative conformity and saccharine Cantonese pop. In
Sound Kapital
, photographer Matthew Niederhauser captures the energy of the personalities and performers at D-22, Yugong Yishan, 2 Kolegas, and MAO Livehouse. These revolutionary Beijing nightclubs remain at the core of the city’s creative explosion by hosting an eclectic mix of punk, experimental, rock, and folk performances. Included with the book are concert posters and illustrations that encapsulate the underground scene in Beijing, as well as a CD sampler of the new music being produced. There is no doubt that these musicians will continue to break ground within Beijing’s nascent artistic landscape, helping to push the boundaries of an already expanding realm of independent thought and musical expression in China.
Making Religion, Making the State: The Politics of Religion in Modern China
Yoshiko Ashiwa - 2009
The volume goes beyond extant portrayals of the opposition of state and religion to emphasize their mutual constitution. It examines how the modern category of "religion" is enacted and implemented in specific locales and contexts by a variety of actors from the late nineteenth century until the present. With chapters written by experts on Buddhism, Protestantism, Catholicism, Daoism, Islam, and more, this volume will appeal across the social sciences and humanities to those interested in politics, religion, and modernity in China.
Tales & Traditions: Readings In Chinese Literature Series (Volume 3)
Yun Xiao - 2009
Tales and Traditions was specially created to help learners of Chinese achieve that goal, by collecting adaptations and selections from the most well-known works in the Chinese literary and folk canon in a series of convenient supplementary readers.This third volume for low-advanced learners contains classical poems, background on culturally significant places in China, love stories, tales of warriors and heroes, and more Chinese legends and myths.
Down a Narrow Road: Identity and Masculinity in a Uyghur Community in Xinjiang China
Jay Dautcher - 2009
This ethnography presents a thick description of life in the Uyghur suburbs of Yining, a city near the border with Kazakhstan, and situates that account in a broader examination of Uyghur culture. Its four sections explore topics ranging from family life to market trading, from informal socializing to forms of religious devotion. Uniting these topics are an emphasis on the role folklore and personal narrative play in helping individuals situate themselves in and create communities and social groups, and a focus on how men's concerns to advance themselves in an agonistic world of status competition shape social life in Uyghur communities.The narrative is framed around the terms identity, community, and masculinity. As the author shows, Yining's Uyghurs express a set of individual and collective identities organized around place, gender, family relations, friendships, occupation, and religious practice. In virtually every aspect of their daily lives, individuals and families are drawn into dense and overlapping networks of social relationships, united by a shared engagement with the place of men's status competition within daily life in the community.
Collaborative Colonial Power: The Making of the Hong Kong Chinese
Law Wing Sang - 2009
Drawing on both English and Chinese sources, he argues that, from the early colonial era, colonial power has been extensively shared between colonizers and the Chinese who chose to work with them. This exploration of the form of colonial power includes critical discussions of various cultural and institutional aspects, looking into such issues as education, language use, political ideologies and other cultural and political concerns. These considerations permit the author to shed new light from a historical perspective on the complex and hotly debated question of Hong Kong identity. But it is not written just out of an interest in things of the past. Rather, the arguments of this book shed new light on some current issues of major relevance to post-colonial Hong Kong. In making critical use of post-colonial approaches, this book not only makes an original and important contribution to Hong Kong studies, but also makes evident that Hong Kong is an important case for all interested in examining the colonial experience in East Asia. This book is of interest to all with an interest in Hong Kong’s history and current issues, but also more widely to those who study the phenomenon of colonialism in the Asian region.
Internal Alchemy: Self, Society, and the Quest for Immortality
Livia Kohn - 2009
Its practitioners transform body energies into subtle levels of spirit and pure cosmic being, hoping to find illumination by returning to the fundamental order of the cosmos and in the process reconcile physiological training with intellectual speculation.Bringing together the best work of leading scholars in the field, this book provides a thorough and easily accessible introduction to this important tradition. The volume begins with a general survey of the cultivation methods that form the backbone of internal alchemy and an analysis of its understanding of the human body and the terminology it employs. Next, it presents the historical development of the tradition with its major schools and a detailed discussion of key concepts, such as mind, inner nature, and destiny.Following this, presentations focus on specific practices, such as the emergence of the spirit through the top of the head, the activation of internal visions in Thunder Rites, the sexual comingling of energies in duo-cultivation, and the body visions and transformative techniques employed specifically by women. Next come two contributions on the contemporary application of internal alchemy in China and its transmission and understanding in the West. The work concludes with comparative studies on Kundalini Yoga and Hermeticism.
Hou Gong: Zhen Huan Zhuan II
Lianzi Liu - 2009
The novel is set in the 8th century Tang dynasty. A beautiful girl of 15 was chosen as one of a few thousand of the emperor's concubines. Thrown in with these women in the huge Forbidden City, she learned the tragedies of the lives of concubines. The TV series based on the novel is in production. Vol. 2. This series is available through volume 7. In Traditional Chinese.
Eating Rice from Bamboo Roots: The Social History of a Community of Handicraft Papermakers in Rural Sichuan, 1920-2000
Jacob Eyferth - 2009
The process of transforming bamboo into paper involves production-related and social skills, as well as the everyday skills that allowed these papermakers to survive in an era of tumultuous change. The Chinese revolution--understood as a series of interconnected political, social, and technological transformations--was, Jacob Eyferth argues, as much about the redistribution of skill, knowledge, and technical control as it was about the redistribution of land and political power.The larger context for this study is the "rural-urban divide" the institutional, social, and economic cleavages that separate rural people from urbanites. This book traces the changes in the distribution of knowledge that led to a massive transfer of technical control from villages to cities, from primary producers to managerial elites, and from women to men. It asks how a vision of rural people as unskilled has affected their place in the body politic and contributed to their disenfranchisement. By viewing skill as a contested resource, subject to distribution struggles, it addresses the issue of how revolution, state-making, and marketization have changed rural China.
Tales from 5000 Years of Chinese History Volume I
Lin Handa - 2009
Entertaining and informative, this ambitious narrative will enlighten all those who wish to know more about the chronicles of the Middle Kingdom.
Through The Jade Gate To Rome: A Study Of The Silk Routes During The Later Han Dynasty 1st To 2nd Centuries CE
John E. Hill - 2009
This book is the product of 30 years of research on a key Chinese document based on a report to the Chinese Emperor in 125 CE, with a few later additions. It contains the earliest geographical, historical, political and cultural information in Chinese on the Roman Empire, India, Parthia, and many other kingdoms; their products, and the routes to them. A draft version of the book was posted on the University of Washington's 'Silk Road Seattle' website in 2000 with a plea for readers to send any criticisms or comments. The author has since been contacted by hundreds of scholars worldwide and their generous contributions have helped make this book an authoritative and useful historical source. This translation, the first in English, of the 'Chapter on the Western Regions' from the Hou Hanshu, is faced with the original Chinese, and is amply annotated for those wanting further information. There are also 20 appendices and two convenient maps at the end showing the main centres and routes.
The Search for Reconciliation: Sino-Japanese and German-Polish Relations Since World War II
Yinan He - 2009
Conversely, memory divergence resulting from national mythmaking harms long-term prospects for reconciliation. After WWII, Sino-Japanese and West German-Polish relations were both antagonized by the Cold War structure, and pernicious myths prevailed in national collective memory. In the 1970s, China and Japan brushed aside historical legacy for immediate diplomatic normalization. But the progress of reconciliation was soon impeded from the 1980s by elite mythmaking practices that stressed historical animosities. In contrast, from the 1970s West Germany and Poland began to de-mythify war history and narrowed their memory gap through restitution measures and textbook cooperation, paving the way for significant progress toward reconciliation after the Cold War.
Negotiating Asymmetry: China's Place in Asia
Anthony Reid - 2009
For its part, China has a long memory of unequal or "tributary" relations and a relatively brief and turbulent experience of working within the current useful fiction of "sovereign equality" in international relations. The emerging pattern will have to take account of the great discrepancy in economic and military power between the future China and her neighbours, and of how such asymmetry can be managed peacefully. Negotiating Asymmetry explores how the real or imagined norms governing past relations may shape China's future position in the region by considering how relationships have changed over the past two centuries. The volume argues that neither the "Chinese world order" of tribute relations nor the Westphalia model of sovereign equality ever operated effectively in Asia, but suggests that the past does offer strong indicators about the shape of a new order in Asia.
The Red Barbarians: The Life and Times of Mao Tse-Tung
Roy MacGregor-Hastie - 2009
Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment for protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature in affordable, high quality, modern editions that are true to the original work.
Telling Chinese History: A Selection of Essays
Frederic E. Wakeman Jr. - 2009
Wakeman, Jr. Appearing for the first time in one volume, the essays offer richly textured narratives of critical historical events as well as sweeping analyses of China's place in world history. They take us from the late Ming dynasty to the People's Republic—delving into complex issues of Confucianism and intellectual history, the nitty-gritty details of Jiangyin localism, wartime Shanghai, and more. Always there is engagement with the larger concerns of history and the social sciences: the public sphere, rebellion and revolution, the world crisis of the seventeenth century, and the influence of imperialism.
Negotiating Urban Space: Urbanization and Late Ming Nanjing
Si-Yen Fei - 2009
Yet its impact is heatedly debated, although scholars agree that it triggered neither Weberian urban autonomy nor Habermasian civil society. This book argues that this conceptual impasse derives from the fact that the seemingly continuous urban expansion was in fact punctuated by a wide variety of “dynastic urbanisms.” Historians should, the author contends, view urbanization not as an automatic by-product of commercial forces but as a process shaped by institutional frameworks and cultural trends in each dynasty.This characteristic is particularly evident in the Ming. As the empire grew increasingly urbanized, the gap between the early Ming valorization of the rural and late Ming reality infringed upon the livelihood and identity of urban residents. This contradiction went almost unremarked in court forums and discussions among elites, leaving its resolution to local initiatives and negotiations. Using Nanjing—a metropolis along the Yangzi River and onetime capital of the Ming—as a central case, the author demonstrates that, prompted by this unique form of urban–rural contradiction, the actions and creations of urban residents transformed the city on multiple levels: as an urban community, as a metropolitan region, as an imagined space, and, finally, as a discursive subject.
Rethinking Ghosts In World Religions (Numen Book Series)
Mu-Chou Poo - 2009
It proposes a multi-cultural apprach to construct a wider and complicated picture of the phenomenon of ghosts and spirits in human societies.
The Monkey and the Inkpot: Natural History and Its Transformations in Early Modern China
Carla Nappi - 2009
The Monkey and the Inkpot introduces natural history in sixteenth-century China through the iconic Bencao gangmu (Systematic materia medica) of Li Shizhen (1518-1593).The encyclopedic Bencao gangmu is widely lauded as a classic embodiment of pre-modern Chinese medical thought. In the first book-length study in English of Li's text, Carla Nappi reveals a "cabinet of curiosities" of gems, beasts, and oddities whose author was devoted to using natural history to guide the application of natural and artificial objects as medical drugs. Nappi examines the making of facts and weighing of evidence in a massive collection where tales of wildmen and dragons were recorded alongside recipes for ginseng and peonies.Nappi challenges the idea of a monolithic tradition of Chinese herbal medicine by showing the importance of debate and disagreement in early modern scholarly and medical culture. The Monkey and the Inkpot also illuminates the modern fate of a book that continues to shape alternative healing practices, global pharmaceutical markets, and Chinese culture.
Cheng Ho And Islam In Southeast Asia
Tan Ta Sen - 2009
In placing Cheng Ho's voyages in this context, the author offers a fresh perspective on a momentous set of events in Chinese maritime history. Professor Wang Gungwu, National University of Singapore. Tan Ta Sen's book on Cheng Ho and Islam in Southeast Asia is not the first one on the subject, but it is the first book that puts Cheng Ho's voyages in the larger context of "culture contact" in China and beyond. He has garnered numerous sources, from published documents to architectural sites and buildings, to support his arguments. He has done much more than previous scholars writing on this subject. - Professor Leo Suryadinata, Chinese Heritage Centre (Singapore). This long-awaited book is welcomed by the academic community ... Tan Ta Sen has used historical facts to strengthen the argument on the existence of the "Third Wave," i.e. "the Chinese Wave," in the spread of Islam in the Southeast Asian region. Until now, we only know two major waves, i.e. the India-Gujarat Wave and the Middle East Wave through the development of trade relations. - Professor A. Dahana, University of Indonesia (Jakarta).
Emperor Qianlong: Son of Heaven, Man of the World
Mark C. Elliott - 2009
During the 64 years of Qianlong's rule, China's population more than doubled, its territory increased by one-third, its cities flourished, and it... Full description
Making History: Wu Hung on Contemporary Art
Angie Baecker - 2009
Written in clear and readable prose, this volume contains detailed analyses of the cultural origins, precedents, influences and aspirations of the most exciting contemporary artists practicing today.
In China, My Name Is
Valerie Blanco - 2009
While tradition still plays a major role all over China, foreign influences linked to the nation’s economic boom have ushered in a great deal of change. What then can be found in the rising trend of Chinese nationals adopting English names? In China, My Name Is... asks more than 200 Chinese people – young and old, from the cities and the provinces – their reasons for taking on English names. A young woman calls herself "Apple" because when she drinks alcohol she turns red; because of his love of the movie, "Rainman’s" decision was an easy one. Clark, Merry, Shout Dogg, Ranger – their unique stories provide a perspective on China’s development from the Chinese point of view through simple but compelling photographs.
The Sichuan Frontier and Tibet: Imperial Strategy in the Early Qing
Yingcong Dai - 2009
This study of the imperial government's handling of the southwestern frontier illuminates issues of considerable importance in Chinese history and foreign relations: Sichuan's rise as a key strategic area in relation to the complicated struggle between the Zunghar Mongols and China over Tibet, Sichuan's neighbor to the west, and consequent developments in governance and taxation of the area.Through analysis of government documents, gazetteers, and private accounts, Yingcong Dai explores the intersections of political and social history, arguing that imperial strategy toward the southwestern frontier was pivotal in changing Sichuan's socioeconomic landscape. Government policies resulted in light taxation, immigration into Sichuan, and a military market for local products, thus altering Sichuan but ironically contributing toward the eventual demise of the Qing.Dai's detailed, objective analysis of China's historical relationship with Tibet will be useful for readers seeking to understand debates concerning Tibet's sovereignty, Tibetan theocratic government, and the political dimension of the system of incarnate Tibetan lamas (of which the Dalai Lama is one).
Taming Poison Dragons
Tim Murgatroyd - 2009
But the "poison dragons" of misfortune shatter his orderly existence. First, when his village is threatened by a vicious civil war, his family stability is threatened by his second son, a brutal rebel officer. Meanwhile, Yun Cai struggles to free an old friend, P'ei Ti, from a hellish prison—no easy task when P'ei Ti is the rebels' most valuable hostage, and Yun Cai sees himself only as a frightened old man. Throughout his ordeals, Yun Cai draws from the glittering memories of his youth, when he journeyed to the capital to study poetry, joined the upper ranks of the civil service, and secured the friendship of P'ei Ti. Above all, he reflects Su Lin, a great love he won and lost, and for which he paid with his freedom and almost his life. Yun Cai is forced to reconsider all that he is and all that he has ever been in order to summon the wit and courage to confront the warlord General An-Shu and his beautiful but cruel consort, the Lady Ta-Chi.
Quiet Teacher
Arthur Rosenfeld - 2009
When a multi-car accident occurs, he finds himself with a scalpel in hand once more. He is brought face-to-face with secrets of his childhood, and lessons from lives already lived.
Religion in China - Universism: A Key to the Study of Taoism and Confucianism
Jan Jakob Maria De Groot - 2009
We are republishing these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and artwork.
The Naked Gaze: Reflections on Chinese Modernity
Carlos Rojas - 2009
Its focus, however, is not so much on imagery per se but rather on how vision itself has been conceived, imagined, and deployed in a variety of discursive contexts. Of particular interest is how these discourses of vision have been used to articulate issues of gender and desire, and specifically processes of gendered subject formation. Through detailed readings of narrative works by eight authors of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries ranging from the canonical to the popular to the esoteric the study identifies three distinct constellations of visual concerns corresponding to the late imperial, mid-twentieth century, and contemporary periods, respectively. At the same time, however, it argues that those historical periodizations themselves do not reflect a smooth, unidirectional temporal movement; rather, they are the result of a complex process of retrospection and anticipatory projection. The goal of this volume is to use a focus on tropes of visuality and gender to reflect on shifting understandings of the significance of Chineseness, modernity, and Chinese modernity.
Honorable Survivor: Mao's China, McCarthy's America, and the Persecution of John S. Service
Lynne Joiner - 2009
Service's extraordinary story into the fabric of a watershed moment in our history when World War II was ending, the Cold War was dawning, and the McCarthy era witch-hunters were stirring. The book reveals how people, policy, and politics mix to create the circumstances of our lives--and the experiences of one man who came to be at the center of a series of extraordinary events involving the fate of nations. A true story of intrigue, adventure, persecution, and redemption- and the love of a loyal American wife and a Chinese lover, this biography chronicles the experiences of John S. Service. Emmy award-winning journalist Lynne Joiner tells the tale of Service, an idealistic U.S. Foreign Service officer in wartime China who had the misfortune of often being right although U.S. policymakers refused to heed his prescient reporting. He predicted Mao Tse-tung's successful revolution long before anyone else even knew the Chinese Communists were a potent force, and, subsequently, he became Sen. Joseph McCarthy's first victim. The author describes how Service was fired for doubtful loyalty--but won his job back in the U.S. Supreme Court, only to have his career neutralized by the FBI, anti-Communist politicians, the China lobby, and Chiang Kai-shek's secret police. Born and raised in China by YMCA missionaries, Service became America's key liaison with the Communist Chinese when Gen. Joseph Stilwell wanted their help against the Japanese. Later, he became a target of revenge for Nationalist Chinese, a convenient scapegoat for American politicians eager to advance their careers, and a person of interest to J. Edgar Hoover for more than a quarter century. Joiner was given special access to Service's private papers and photographs with Mao and Chou En-lai, among others, and gained access to FBI, CIA, and State Department security records as well as confidential transcripts of congressional hearings and federal loyalty review boards. Although newly released Soviet and U.S. documents demonstrate that some of his wartime associates were in fact identified as Communist spies or fellow travelers, Joiner shows that Service was an honorable survivor who was innocent of McCarthy's charges.
Southeast Asia in the Fifteenth Century: The China Factor
Geoff Wade - 2009
The arrival of European ships, ideas and economies in the early sixteenth century has long been seen as the origin of the early modern era in Southeast Asia, but the present collection challenges this view, suggesting that intense and lasting political and economic changes were already well underway by 1500. The argument rests on developments such as the introduction of firearms, more intensive rice agriculture, Thai and Viet ceramic exports, Korean and Ryukyu contacts with Southeast Asia, the demise of Champa, the climax of Viet and northern Tai statecraft, the birth of the Melayu-Muslim kingship in Melaka and the creation of a new Muslim Javanese civilization on Java's north coast. Coincident with these changes, Ming China's engagement with Southeast Asia grew as a result of overland expansion into the Tai and Viet polities, state-sponsored maritime voyages, and private Chinese trade and migration to the region. Southeast Asia in the Fifteenth Century: The China Factor draws together the great changes that occurred in Southeast Asia during the fifteenth century, and considers the extent to which Ming China's engagement with the region helped usher in the early modern period of Southeast Asian history.