Best of
China

2012

Autumn in the Heavenly Kingdom: China, the West, and the Epic Story of the Taiping Civil War


Stephen R. Platt - 2012
    Autumn in the Heavenly Kingdom brims with unforgettable characters and vivid re-creations of massive and often gruesome battles—a sweeping yet intimate portrait of the conflict that shaped the fate of modern China.   The story begins in the early 1850s, the waning years of the Qing dynasty, when word spread of a major revolution brewing in the provinces, led by a failed civil servant who claimed to be the son of God and brother of Jesus. The Taiping rebels drew their power from the poor and the disenfranchised, unleashing the ethnic rage of millions of Chinese against their Manchu rulers. This homegrown movement seemed all but unstoppable until Britain and the United States stepped in and threw their support behind the Manchus: after years of massive carnage, all opposition to Qing rule was effectively snuffed out for generations. Stephen R. Platt recounts these events in spellbinding detail, building his story on two fascinating characters with opposing visions for China’s future: the conservative Confucian scholar Zeng Guofan, an accidental general who emerged as the most influential military strategist in China’s modern history; and Hong Rengan, a brilliant Taiping leader whose grand vision of building a modern, industrial, and pro-Western Chinese state ended in tragic failure.   This is an essential and enthralling history of the rise and fall of the movement that, a century and a half ago, might have launched China on an entirely different path into the modern world.

China's Wings: War, Intrigue, Romance, and Adventure in the Middle Kingdom During the Golden Age of Flight


Gregory Crouch - 2012
    The incredible real-life saga of the flying band of brothers who opened the skies over China in the years leading up to World War II—and boldly safeguarded them during that conflict—China’s Wings is one of the most exhilarating untold chapters in the annals of flight.   At the center of the maelstrom is the book’s courtly, laconic protagonist, American aviation executive William Langhorne Bond. In search of adventure, he arrives in Nationalist China in 1931, charged with turning around the turbulent nation’s flagging airline business, the China National Aviation Corporation (CNAC). The mission will take him to the wild and lawless frontiers of commercial aviation: into cockpits with daredevil pilots flying—sometimes literally—on a wing and a prayer; into the dangerous maze of Chinese politics, where scheming warlords and volatile military officers jockey for advantage; and into the boardrooms, backrooms, and corridors of power inhabited by such outsized figures as Generalissimo and Madame Chiang Kai-shek; President Franklin Delano Roosevelt; foreign minister T. V. Soong; Generals Arnold, Stilwell, and Marshall; and legendary Pan American Airways founder Juan Trippe.   With the outbreak of full-scale war in 1941, Bond and CNAC are transformed from uneasy spectators to active participants in the struggle against Axis imperialism. Drawing on meticulous research, primary sources, and extensive personal interviews with participants, Gregory Crouch offers harrowing accounts of brutal bombing runs and heroic evacuations, as the fight to keep one airline flying becomes part of the larger struggle for China’s survival. He plunges us into a world of perilous night flights, emergency water landings, and the constant threat of predatory Japanese warplanes. When Japanese forces capture Burma and blockade China’s only overland supply route, Bond and his pilots must battle shortages of airplanes, personnel, and spare parts to airlift supplies over an untried five-hundred-mile-long aerial gauntlet high above the Himalayas—the infamous “Hump”—pioneering one of the most celebrated endeavors in aviation history.   A hero’s-eye view of history in the grand tradition of Lynne Olson’s Citizens of London, China’s Wings takes readers on a mesmerizing journey to a time and place that reshaped the modern world.

Bullets and Opium: Real-Life Stories of China After the Tiananmen Square Massacre


Liao Yiwu - 2012
    An indispensable historical document.” —Kirkus Reviews (starred review) From the award-winning poet, dissident, and “one of the most original and remarkable Chinese writers of our time” (Philip Gourevitch) comes a raw, evocative, and unforgettable look at the Tiananmen Square massacre through the eyes of those who were there. For over seven years, Liao Yiwu—a master of contemporary Chinese literature, imprisoned and persecuted as a counter-revolutionary until he fled the country in 2011—secretly interviewed survivors of the devastating 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre. Tortured, imprisoned, and forced into silence and the margins of Chinese society for thirty years, their harrowing stories are now finally revealed in this gripping and masterful work of investigative journalism.

Train to Nowhere


Kay Bratt - 2012
    Mao's revolution is sweeping across the country, leaving many competing to show their loyalty with actions that will leave scars for decades. Even more traumatic than the destruction of art, books, and historic architecture, families are torn apart as they struggle to find a way to survive the upheaval.Ling, a sheltered and devoted daughter, is forced to join the feared Red Guards, a strategy concocted by her mother to ensure her protection. But for this scheme to work, Ling must hold her secrets close and trust no one. Her journey has only just begun when she is faced with a moment of truth that will impact the future she has unwillingly chosen on the Train to Nowhere.

Restless Empire: China and the World Since 1750


Odd Arne Westad - 2012
    The largest and most populous country on earth and currently the world's second biggest economy, China has recently reclaimed its historic place at the center of global affairs after decades of internal chaos and disastrous foreign relations. But even as China tentatively reengages with the outside world, the contradictions of its development risks pushing it back into an era of insularity and instability—a regression that, as China's recent history shows, would have serious implications for all other nations.In Restless Empire, award-winning historian Odd Arne Westad traces China's complex foreign affairs over the past 250 years, identifying the forces that will determine the country's path in the decades to come. Since the height of the Qing Empire in the eighteenth century, China's interactions—and confrontations—with foreign powers have caused its worldview to fluctuate wildly between extremes of dominance and subjugation, emulation and defiance. From the invasion of Burma in the 1760s to the Boxer Rebellion in the early 20th century to the 2001 standoff over a downed U.S. spy plane, many of these encounters have left Chinese with a lingering sense of humiliation and resentment, and inflamed their notions of justice, hierarchy, and Chinese centrality in world affairs. Recently, China's rising influence on the world stage has shown what the country stands to gain from international cooperation and openness. But as Westad shows, the nation's success will ultimately hinge on its ability to engage with potential international partners while simultaneously safeguarding its own strength and stability.An in-depth study by one of our most respected authorities on international relations and contemporary East Asian history, Restless Empire is essential reading for anyone wishing to understand the recent past and probable future of this dynamic and complex nation.

The Wars for Asia, 1911-1949


S.C.M. Paine - 2012
    The long Chinese Civil War precipitated a long regional war between China and Japan that went global in 1941 when the Chinese found themselves fighting a civil war within a regional war within an overarching global war. The global war that consumed Western attentions resulted from Japan's peripheral strategy to cut foreign aid to China by attacking Pearl Harbor and Western interests throughout the Pacific on December 7-8, 1941. S. C. M. Paine emphasizes the fears and ambitions of Japan, China, and Russia, and the pivotal decisions that set them on a collision course in the 1920s and 1930s. The resulting wars - the Chinese Civil War (1911-1949), the Second Sino-Japanese War (1931-1945), and World War II (1939-1945) - together yielded a viscerally anti-Japanese and unified Communist China, the still-angry rising power of the early twenty-first century. While these events are history in the West, they live on in Japan and especially China.

CUHK Series:How Did The Sun Rise Over Yan'an? A History Of The Rectification Movement (Chinese Edition)


Gao Hua - 2012
    Mao Zedong used ideological transformation and the two ways of examining the cadres' personal histories and reaction purge created by himself in Yan'an Rectification, fully removed the impact and remain thinking of the May 4th freedom and democracy within the party, completely cleared converted CPC "Russification" temperament, rebuilt the upper structure of Mao Zedong as absolutely dominated, laid the overall foundation of the Party for Mao Zedong, during which a series of concepts, paradigms changed the life and the fate of hundreds of millions of Chinese people after 1949.

June Fourth Elegies


Xiaobo Liu - 2012
    He was a leading activist during the Tiananmen Square protests of June 4, 1989, and a prime supporter of Charter 08, the manifesto of fundamental human rights published in 2008. In 2009, Liu was imprisoned for “inciting subversion of state power,” and he is currently serving an eleven-year sentence. He was awarded the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize for “his prolonged non-violent struggle for fundamental human rights in China.” Liu dedicated his Peace Prize to “the lost souls from the Fourth of June.” June Fourth Elegies presents Liu’s poems written across twenty years in memory of fellow protestors at Tiananmen Square, as well as poems addressed to his wife, Liu Xia. In this bilingual volume, Liu’s poetry is for the first time published freely in both English translation and in the Chinese original.

Anyuan: Mining China's Revolutionary Tradition


Elizabeth J. Perry - 2012
    Skillful “cultural positioning” and “cultural patronage,” on the part of Mao Zedong, his comrades and successors, helped to construct a polity in which a once alien Communist system came to be accepted as familiarly “Chinese.” Perry traces this process through a case study of the Anyuan coal mine, a place where Mao and other early leaders of the Chinese Communist Party mobilized an influential labor movement at the beginning of their revolution, and whose history later became a touchstone of “political correctness” in the People’s Republic of China. Once known as “China’s Little Moscow,” Anyuan came over time to symbolize a distinctively Chinese revolutionary tradition. Yet the meanings of that tradition remain highly contested, as contemporary Chinese debate their revolutionary past in search of a new political future.

Eating Bitterness: Stories from the Front Lines of China's Great Urban Migration


Michelle Dammon Loyalka - 2012
    Award-winning journalist Michelle Dammon Loyalka follows the trials and triumphs of eight such migrants—including a vegetable vendor, an itinerant knife sharpener, a free-spirited recycler, and a cash-strapped mother—offering an inside look at the pain, self-sacrifice, and uncertainty underlying China’s dramatic national transformation. At the heart of the book lies each person’s ability to “eat bitterness”—a term that roughly means to endure hardships, overcome difficulties, and forge ahead. These stories illustrate why China continues to advance, even as the rest of the world remains embroiled in financial turmoil. At the same time, Eating Bitterness demonstrates how dealing with the issues facing this class of people constitutes China’s most pressing domestic challenge.

China's Search for Security


Andrew J. Nathan - 2012
    Understanding China's foreign policy means fully appreciating these geostrategic challenges, which persist even as the country gains increasing influence over its neighbors. Andrew J. Nathan and Andrew Scobell analyze China's security concerns on four fronts: at home, with its immediate neighbors, in surrounding regional systems, and in the world beyond Asia. By illuminating the issues driving Chinese policy, they offer a new perspective on the country's rise and a strategy for balancing Chinese and American interests in Asia.Though rooted in the present, Nathan and Scobell's study makes ample use of the past, reaching back into history to illuminate the people and institutions shaping Chinese strategy today. They also examine Chinese views of the United States; explain why China is so concerned about Japan; and uncover China's interests in such problematic countries as North Korea, Iran, and the Sudan. The authors probe recent troubles in Tibet and Xinjiang and explore their links to forces beyond China's borders. They consider the tactics deployed by mainland China and Taiwan, as Taiwan seeks to maintain autonomy in the face of Chinese advances toward unification. They evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of China's three main power resources--economic power, military power, and soft power.The authors conclude with recommendations for the United States as it seeks to manage China's rise. Chinese policymakers understand that their nation's prosperity, stability, and security depend on cooperation with the United States. If handled wisely, the authors believe, relations between the two countries can produce mutually beneficial outcomes for both Asia and the world.

Delicious Dim Sum: A Collection of Simple Chinese Dim Sum Recipes


Cooking Penguin - 2012
    Think you can only experience dim sum in authentic Chinese restaurants? Think again! Delicious Dim sum: A Collection of Simple Chinese Dim Sum Recipes will let you experience the best of this traditional Chinese dining experience right from your own kitchen! From delectable dumplings to mouth-watering spring rolls and everything in between, this book will be your guide on how you can make your own simple and delicious dim sum delicacies.

Chinese Characters: Profiles of Fast-Changing Lives in a Fast-Changing Land


Angilee Shah - 2012
    

Exploring China: A Culinary Adventure: 100 recipes from our journey


Ken Hom - 2012
    They tell the story of China, both old and new, through food. Each recipe in the book features a back story from Ken and Ching so you can learn the secret stories behind all your old favourite recipes and be inspired to find new ones. They cook with local families, en route to discover the influence of Buddhism on vegetarian food and whether the Chinese did actually invent tortellini in remote Kashgar before travelling to Sichuan Province, China's gastronomic capital. Ken is the old-hand who brought the wok to the West and Ching-He is the energetic newcomer. Together they uncover the secrets of Old China and the techniques of the new, fusing them together to create a unique and authoritative perspective on Chinese food that will surprise and inform.

Escape from Hong Kong: Admiral Chan Chak's Christmas Day Dash, 1941


Tim Luard - 2012
    They travelled on five small motor torpedo boats – all that remained of the Royal Navy in Hong Kong – across Mirs Bay, landing at a beach near Nan’ao. Then, guided by guerrillas and villagers, they walked for four days through enemy lines to Huizhou, before flying to Chongqingor travelling by land to Burma. The breakout laid the foundations of an escape trail jointly used by the British Army Aid Group and the East River Column for the rest of the war. Chan Chak, the celebrated ‘one-legged admiral’, became Mayor of Canton after the war and was knighted by the British for his services to the Allied cause. His comrade in the escape, David MacDougall, became head of the civil administration of Hong Kong in 1945. This gripping account of the escape draws on a wealth of primary sources in both English and Chinese and sheds new light on the role played by the Chinese in the defence of Hong Kong, on the diplomacy behind the escape, and on the guerillas who carried the Admiral in a sedan chair as they led his party over the rivers and mountains of enemy-occupied China. Escape from Hong Kong will appeal not just to military and other historians and those with a special interest in Hong Kong and China but also to anyone who appreciates a good old-fashioned adventure story. Tim Luard is a former Beijing correspondent for the BBC World Service. "Tim Luard tells this exciting and little known story with great skill. Some of us departed from Hong Kong much more comfortably! But we missed this extraordinary adventure." — Chris Patten, governor of Hong Kong, 1992–97 "Escape from Hong Kong is a crisp and comprehensive account of one of the epic untold tales of the Second World War - a unique Chinese-led British escape, under fire, from the Japanese invaders of Hong Kong." — Tony Banham, author of Not the Slightest Chance: The Defence of Hong Kong, 1941. "The great Christmas Day breakout of 1941, when British and Chinese officers teamed up virtually for the fi rst time to escape from Hong Kong as the Japanese Army engulfed it, is one of the most dramatic episodes in Hong Kong’s history. Up till now the story has been diffused in a mass of individual diaries, letters and memoirs. Tim Luard has drawn this material together (Chinese as well as British) to produce a unifi ed narrative that is as full and balanced as it is enthralling." — Philip Snow, author of The Fall of Hong Kong: Britain, China, and the Japanese Occupation

300 Tang Poems (Bilingual Edition)


Xu Yuanzhong - 2012
    The preface gives a history of the several translated collections of Tang poetry and the process of translating the poems from Chinese to English. Some of the poets featured are Yu Shinan, Kong Shaoan, Wang Ji, Han Shan, Shangguan Yi, Wang Bo, Yang Jiong, Luo Binwang and Wei Chengqing.

China Hand: An Autobiography


John Paton Davies Jr. - 2012
    His offense? The career diplomat had counseled the U.S. government during World War II that the Communist forces in China were poised to take over the country--which they did, in 1949. Davies joined the thousands of others who became the victims of a political maelstrom that engulfed the country and deprived the United States of the wisdom and guidance of an entire generation of East Asian diplomats and scholars.The son of American missionaries, Davies was born in China at the turn of the twentieth century. Educated in the United States, he joined the ranks of the newly formed Foreign Service in the 1930s and returned to China, where he would remain until nearly the end of World War II. During that time he became one of the first Americans to meet and talk with the young revolutionary known as Mao Zedong. He documented the personal excesses and political foibles of Chinese Nationalist leader Chiang Kai-shek. As a political aide to General Joseph "Vinegar Joe" Stilwell, the wartime commander of the Allied forces in East and South Asia, he traveled widely in the region, meeting with colonial India's Nehru and Gandhi to gauge whether their animosity to British rule would translate into support for Japan. Davies ended the war serving in Moscow with George F. Kennan, the architect of America's policy toward the Soviet Union. Kennan found in Davies a lifelong friend and colleague. Neither, however, was immune to the virulent anticommunism of the immediate postwar years.China Hand is the story of a man who captured with wry and judicious insight the times in which he lived, both as observer and as actor.

Home is a Roof Over a Pig: An American Family's Journey in China


Aminta Arrington - 2012
    Her army husband and three young children, including an adopted Chinese daughter, uproot themselves too. Aminta hopes to understand the country with its long civilization, ancient philosophy, and complex language. She is also determined that her daughter Grace, born in China, regain some of the culture she lost when the Arringtons brought her to America as a baby.In the university town of Tai'an, a small city where pigs' hooves are available at the local supermarket, donkeys share the road with cars, and the warm-hearted locals welcome this strange looking foreign family, the Arringtons settle in . . . but not at first. Aminta teaches at the university, not realizing she is countering the propaganda the students had memorized for years. Her creative, independent (and loud) American children chafe in their classrooms, the first rung in society's effort to ensure conformity. The family is bewildered by the seemingly endless cultural differences they face, but they find their way. With humor and unexpectedly moving moments, Aminta's story is appealingly reminiscent of Reading Lolita in Tehran. It will rivet anyone who is thinking of adopting a child, or anyone who is already familiar with the experience. An everywoman with courage and acute cultural perspective, Aminta recounts this transformative quest with a freshness that will delight anyone looking for an original, accessible point of view on the new China.

What Never Leaves


Daniel Tam-Claiborne - 2012
    In a collection of twenty-two short stories organized around the theme of culture shock, he intersperses the narrative with scenes from his journeys further afield, while constantly questioning his own identity as a Chinese American. What Never Leaves is a fascinating and often startling look into China's modern culture and the ceaseless search for understanding in a foreign land. With humor, poise, and curiosity, Tam-Claiborne weaves an intricate portrait of a young man struggling through what it means to travel and what makes us human.

Journey of the North Star


Douglas J. Penick - 2012
    The story is narrated by the fictional eunuch Ma Yun, who served in the emperor's court. Replete with military campaigns, religious ceremonies and the philosophical foundation that informs the Emperor's decisions through times good and bad, Journey of the North Star will appeal to readers interested in Eastern religions, history, philosophy and the political outlook that still influences China today.

The Water Dragon: A Chinese Legend


Jian Li - 2012
    He spent his days in the forest, collecting wood to trade for food. One day, the boy made a wondrous discovery: a magic stone that caused his money jar and rice crocks to overflow, both of which he shared with the poor villagers.But strange things began to happen. It no longer rained. The crops died. The rivers dried up. A terrible drought had struck and would not release its grip. The brave young boy, full of dreams of a white, water-spewing Dragon, took his magic stone on a journey—and discovered how to save his village.

The China Breakthrough. Whitlam in the Middle Kingdom, 1971


Billy Griffiths - 2012
    eminently readable’— Stephen FitzGerald (Australia’s first Ambassador to the People’s Republic of China)When Australian Opposition Leader Gough Whitlam left Sydney in June 1971, the People’s Republic of China was a forbidding unknown in Australia - the subject of heated debate, charged imagination and Cold War paranoia. When he returned from his tour of Asia, the debate had irrevocably changed. On the fortieth anniversary of Australia-China diplomatic relations, The China Breakthrough reflects on the political adventure story that propelled this relationship into being. It follows Whitlam’s daring visit to China in 1971, and explores the dramatic international events and acts of secret diplomacy that underlie this key episode of diplomatic history.The China Breakthrough unpacks the theatre of the Whitlam visit, its political intrigue, and its long-lasting cultural, political and diplomatic implications. Griffiths argues that this was a pivotal moment in Australia’s relations with Asia, a revealing test of the Australia-America alliance, and a remarkable case of foreign policy engineered from Opposition.About Billy GriffithsBilly Griffiths works at the University of Sydney as an historian of Australian and American foreign relations and as a tutor in the Department of Classics and Ancient History. His current research interests include the Whitlam era in foreign affairs, the role of the Opposition in Australian politics, and the archaeology of ancient Australia. He has lived in London, Copenhagen and Lyon, as well as Melbourne, Canberra and - his current home - Sydney. The China Breakthrough is his first book.

Winter Pasture: One Woman's Journey with China's Kazakh Herders


Li Juan - 2012
    Encouraged by her neighbors, Li decides to join a family of Kazakh herders as they take their 30 boisterous camels, 500 sheep and over 100 cattle and horses to pasture for the winter. The so-called "winter pasture" occurs in a remote region that stretches from the Ulungur River to the Heavenly Mountains. Li vividly captures both the extraordinary hardships and the ordinary preoccupations of the day-to-day of the men and women struggling to get by in this desolate landscape. Her companions include Cuma, the often drunk but mostly responsible father; his teenage daughter, Kama, who feels the burden of the world on her shoulders and dreams of going to college; his reticent wife, a paragon of decorum against all odds, who is simply known as "sister-in-law."In bringing this faraway world to English language readers here for the first time, Li creates an intimate bond with the rugged people, the remote places and the nomadic lifestyle.

The Girl Mechanic of Wanzhou


Marjorie Sayer - 2012
    Like her father, she's at home in the world of machines. She knows whether to grease or oil, how to true a wheel, and the heartbreak of over-tightening. She believes great times are ahead, as soon as her father builds China's first bicycle factory. That dream halts one terrible night.

With an Open Heart, Revised Edition


Lisa Murphy - 2012
    Join the Murphy family as they embark on a faith-filled journey to bring home their son, Daniel, then experience the most joyful—as well as the most difficult—time of their lives. Walk with Lisa and Jim as they come face-to-face with the unthinkable, and watch as amazing miracles unfold. Lisa Murphy’s moving, personal narrative of love, loss, and courage is inspirational and others hope for when things don’t go according to plan. This family’s remarkable, true story demonstrates how living with an open heart and trusting in God’s greater plan can result in unexpected blessings—with ripple effects beyond our imagination.

The End of Growth Update: Europe & America Stumble, China Hits the Wall


Richard Heinberg - 2012
    The new material reflects on the rapidly shifting global economic scenarios, bringing the book up to date as of June 2012.

The Party Line


Doug Young - 2012
    As a result, the Chinese are remarkably like-minded on awide range of issues both domestic and foreign.Takes readers beyond China's economic miracle to show how thenation's massive state-run media complex not only influences publicopinion but creates itExplores an array of issues, from Tibet and Taiwan to theenvironment and US trade relations, as seen through the lens of theXinhua News AgencyTells the story of the official Xinhua News Agency along withits history and reporting over the years, as the foundation fortelling the story

Genocide and the Geographical Imagination: Life and Death in Germany, China, and Cambodia


James A. Tyner - 2012
    James A. Tyner's powerful analysis of these horrifying cases provides insight into the larger questions of sovereignty and state policies that determine who will live and who will die. Specifically, he explores the government practices that result in genocide and how they are informed by the calculation and valuation of life-and death. A geographical perspective on genocide highlights that mass violence, in the minds of perpetrators, is viewed as an effective-and legitimate-strategy of state building. These three histories of mass violence demonstrate how specific states articulate and act upon particular geographical concepts that determine and devalue the moral worth of groups and individuals. Clearly and compellingly written, this book will bring fresh and valuable insights into state genocidal behavior.

The Rise of China vs. the Logic of Strategy


Edward N. Luttwak - 2012
    Applying the logic of strategy for which he is well known, Luttwak argues that the most populous nation on Earth and its second largest economy may be headed for a fall.For any country whose rising strength cannot go unnoticed, the universal logic of strategy allows only military or economic growth. But China is pursuing both goals simultaneously. Its military buildup and assertive foreign policy have already stirred up resistance among its neighbors, just three of whom India, Japan, and Vietnam together exceed China in population and wealth. Unless China's leaders check their own ambitions, a host of countries, which are already forming tacit military coalitions, will start to impose economic restrictions as well.Chinese leaders will find it difficult to choose between pursuing economic prosperity and increasing China's military strength. Such a change would be hard to explain to public opinion. Moreover, Chinese leaders would have to end their reliance on ancient strategic texts such as Sun Tzu's "Art of War". While these guides might have helped in diplomatic and military conflicts within China itself, their tactics such as deliberately provoking crises to force negotiations turned China s neighbors into foes. To avoid arousing the world's enmity further, Luttwak advises, Chinese leaders would be wise to pursue a more sustainable course of economic growth combined with increasing military and diplomatic restraint.

WATER : ASIA'S NEW BATTLEGROUND


Brahma Chellaney - 2012
    This is a vital book for anybody interested in diplomacy and conflict in the twenty-first century’ – Stanley A. Weiss, founding chairman, Business Executives for National Security, Washington DCThe battles of yesterday were fought over land; those of today are over energy. But the battles of tomorrow may be over water. Nowhere is that danger greater than in water-distressed Asia.Water stress is set to become Asia’s defining crisis of the twenty-first century, creating obstacles to continued rapid economic growth, stoking interstate tensions over shared resources, exacerbating long-time territorial disputes, and imposing further hardships on the poor. Asia is home to many of the world’s great rivers and lakes, but its huge population and exploding economic and agricultural demand for water make it the most water-scarce continent on a per capita basis. Many of Asia’s water sources cross national boundaries, and as less and less water is available, international tensions will rise. The potential for conflict is further underscored by China’s unrivalled global status as the source of transboundary river flows to the largest number of countries, as it declines to enter into water-sharing or cooperative treaties with these states, even as it taps the resources of international rivers.Water: Asia’s New Battleground is a pioneering study of Asia’s murky water politics and the relationships between freshwater, peace, and security. Brahma Chellaney paints a larger picture of water across Asia, highlights the security implications of resource-linked territorial disputes, and proposes real strategies to avoid conflict and more equitably share Asia’s water resources.

21st Century Chinese Cyberwarfare


William T. Hagestad - 2012
    The PRC believes that the early degradation, or destruction, of an enemy's command and control infrastructure will significantly improve its chances of ultimate victory. But the Chinese 21st century approach to cyberwarfare is both more sophisticated and comprehensive than that. This book examines the military background to today's doctrines, and explores how the teachings of Sun Tzu (The Art of War), the Thirty-Six Principles from the Warring States era and the hard-learnt lessons of Mao's Long March infuse and support the modern state's approach to engaging with enemies and rivals. Chinese cyberwarriors, operating from behind the Great Firewall of China, have substantial campaign experience, and this book reviews operations from Titan Rain - sustained multi-year cyberattacks against the US that started in 2003 - to the most recent, ShadyRAT. This book also reviews the contributions made to the overall Chinese cyberstrategy by civilian hackers and state-owned enterprises and looks at how Advanced Persistent Threats already undermine many of China's rival states and enterprises. China's rivals lack a coherent cyberstrategy of their own. They also do not understand the complex cultural, political and historical routes of the modern Chinese state and this is a significant weakness. This book helps everyone with an interest in cybersecurity to 'know their enemy'. William Hagestad II is an internationally-recognized expert on the Chinese People's Liberation Army & Government information warfare. He advises international intelligence organizations, military flag officers and multi-national commercial enterprises with regard to their internal IT security governance and external security policies. The linguistic, historical, cultural, economic and military aspects of Chinese cyberwarfare are his forte.

Chinese Medicine and Healing: An Illustrated History


T.j. Hinrichs - 2012
    Contributions from fifty-eight leading international scholars in such fields as Chinese archaeology, history, anthropology, religion, and medicine make this a collaborative work of uncommon intellectual synergy, and a vital new resource for anyone working in East Asian or world history, in medical history and anthropology, and in biomedicine and complementary healing arts.This illustrated history explores the emergence and development of a wide range of health interventions, including propitiation of disease-inflicting spirits, divination, vitality-cultivating meditative disciplines, herbal remedies, pulse diagnosis, and acupuncture. The authors investigate processes that contribute to historical change, such as competition between different types of practitioner--shamans, Daoist priests, Buddhist monks, scholar physicians, and even government officials. Accompanying vignettes and illustrations bring to life such diverse arenas of health care as childbirth in the Tang period, Yuan state-established medical schools, fertility control in the Qing, and the search for sexual potency in the People's Republic.The two final chapters illustrate Chinese healing modalities across the globe and address the challenges they have posed as alternatives to biomedical standards of training and licensure. The discussion includes such far-reaching examples as Chinese treatments for diphtheria in colonial Australia and malaria in Africa, the invention of ear acupuncture by the French and its worldwide dissemination, and the varying applications of acupuncture from Germany to Argentina and Iraq.

A Concubine for the Family: A Family Saga in China


Amy S. Kwei - 2012
     It also explores the circumstances surrounding the true-life event of my grandmother's gift of a concubine to my grandfather on his birthday to enhance the chance of an heir to the Family.

Reincarnation


Fred Lit Yu - 2012
    Warriors, battles, supernatural powers, prophecy, and destiny collide in a whirlwind of action, intrigue, and romance that links past and present. On the plains of the China/Mongolia border in legendary times, wolves and men fight for domination of the steppe. Suthachai, a young warrior, finds himself mysteriously poisoned. He will die a slow death unless an antidote is found, and all the clues as to who poisoned him point to the legend of Snow Wolf: once revered as a goddess, a great heroine, a master strategist, and savior of her people. Snow Wolf may provide the answers he needs to save his own life, but at what cost?Embarking on a desperate quest to discover the secret of Snow Wolf, Suthachai becomes embroiled with the Dragon Lodges, secret and mysterious, who rule the land as enemies of Snow Wolf and stand in the way of his quest. Little does Suthachai know that Snow Wolf has already devised a plan—using him—to rid the world of the Dragon Lodges forever: if he can survive.Fred Lit Yu lives in New York City. This is his first novel.

Old Beijing: Postcards from the Imperial City


Felicitas Titus - 2012
    Readers will enjoy the wide selection of images showing different aspects of the life of old Peking—from the arrival of a camel train at a city gate to hand-colored views of the Forbidden City and an array of vendors, street performers, officials, gentry, commoners, and foreign tourists. Several chapters present the city's distinctive Beijing architecture—its walls and gates, towers, fountains, temples, pagodas, memorial arches, and public or imperial buildings, including the Summer and Winter Palaces and the Ming Tombs. Other chapters of Chinese photography look at the Manchu rulers, street life, the Legation Quarter and Western presence, and the Great Wall. Included are some rare scenes depicting the aftermath of the Boxer Rebellion and 1911 revolution; Manchu fashion, colorful means of transportation, and the coming of the railroad. Of particular note are images of the Empress Dowager, the child emperor Puyi, and other personalities at the Manchu Court. The book also includes eight color postcards of paintings by the famous artist Carl Wuttke and rare cards showing etched drawings of the Old Summer Palace—now only a field of ruins. The author, who was born and lived in China before 1949, has written an informative introduction to each chapter as well as a general introduction to classical Beijing. A foreword by historian and Beijing expert Susan Naquin situates this collection at once as a precious record of old Peking and a revealing snapshot of Western views of China in the first golden age of tourism. Old Beijing: Postcards from the Imperial City offers a visual time capsule of both Beijing's history and traditional Chinese culture in a unique and revealing postcard format.

Confucius: The Embodiment of Faith in Humanity


Tu Weiming - 2012
    This article describes Confucius' rise as a spiritual and religious leader. Weiming identifies aspects of Confucius' life that help illustrate why he is so heavily credited with helping shape the human way of life. This article is part of a series, "Fathers of Faith," also available as a collection from The World & I Online.

The Accidental Capitalist: A People's Story of the New China


Behzad Yaghmaian - 2012
    Millions have left behind homes to find work and new opportunities in the emerging mega-cities.Through months of sustained interpersonal contact with migrant workers and factory owners, Behzad Yaghmaian paints a unique portrait of a country experiencing the turmoil of rapid development. His close listening has produced an intimate look at the hopes, hardships, triumphs and tragedies of those behind the Chinese 'economic dragon'.The Accidental Capitalist reveals the human reality behind China's rise to global-superpower status. Yaghmaian articulates the collective narrative of a people which will resonate with anyone living under capitalism and provide valuable material to students and scholars.

Critical Han Studies: The History, Representation, and Identity of China's Majority


Thomas S. Mullaney - 2012
    In this pathbreaking volume, a multidisciplinary group of scholars examine this ambiguous identity, one that shares features with, but cannot be subsumed under, existing notions of ethnicity, culture, race, nationality, and civilization.

Thought Reform and China's Dangerous Classes: Reeducation, Resistance, and the People


Aminda M Smith - 2012
    Aminda Smith takes readers inside early-PRC reformatories, where the new state endeavored to transform "vagrants" into members of the laboring masses. As places where "the people" were literally created, these centers became testing grounds for rapidly changing ideas and experiments about thought reform and the subjects they produced. Smith explores reformatories as institutions dedicated to molding new socialist citizens and as symbolic spaces in which internees, cadres, and the ordinary masses made sense of what it meant to be a member of the people in the People's Republic. Drawing on extensive, previously unavailable source material, she offers convincing answers to much-debated questions about the development and future of Chinese political culture.

The Everlasting Empire: The Political Culture of Ancient China and Its Imperial Legacy


Yuri Pines - 2012
    During its two millennia, the empire endured internal wars, foreign incursions, alien occupations, and devastating rebellions--yet fundamental institutional, sociopolitical, and cultural features of the empire remained intact. The Everlasting Empire traces the roots of the Chinese empire's exceptional longevity and unparalleled political durability, and shows how lessons from the imperial past are relevant for China today.Yuri Pines demonstrates that the empire survived and adjusted to a variety of domestic and external challenges through a peculiar combination of rigid ideological premises and their flexible implementation. The empire's major political actors and neighbors shared its fundamental ideological principles, such as unity under a single monarch--hence, even the empire's strongest domestic and foreign foes adopted the system of imperial rule. Yet details of this rule were constantly negotiated and adjusted. Pines shows how deep tensions between political actors including the emperor, the literati, local elites, and rebellious commoners actually enabled the empire's basic institutional framework to remain critically vital and adaptable to ever-changing sociopolitical circumstances. As contemporary China moves toward a new period of prosperity and power in the twenty-first century, Pines argues that the legacy of the empire may become an increasingly important force in shaping the nation's future trajectory.

Record of the Listener: Selections of Chinese Supernatural Stories


Hong Mai - 2012
    

Guilty of Indigence: The Urban Poor in China, 1900-1953


Janet Y. Chen - 2012
    Investigating the lives of the urban poor in China during this critical era, Guilty of Indigence examines the solutions implemented by a nation attempting to deal with society's most fundamental problem. Interweaving analysis of shifting social viewpoints, the evolution of poor relief institutions, and the lived experiences of the urban poor, Janet Chen explores the development of Chinese attitudes toward urban poverty and of policies intended for its alleviation.Chen concentrates on Beijing and Shanghai, two of China's most important cities, and she considers how various interventions carried a lasting influence. The advent of the workhouse, the denigration of the nonworking poor as social parasites, efforts to police homelessness and vagrancy--all had significant impact on the lives of people struggling to survive. Chen provides a crucially needed historical lens for understanding how beliefs about poverty intersected with shattering historical events, producing new welfare policies and institutions for the benefit of some, but to the detriment of others.Drawing on vast archival material, Guilty of Indigence deepens the historical perspective on poverty in China and reveals critical lessons about a still-pervasive social issue.

The Lost Generation: The Rustification of Chinese Youth (1968-1980)


Michel Bonnin - 2012
    Bonnin provides a comprehensive account of the critical movement during which seventeen million young -educated- city dwellers were supposed to transform themselves into peasants, potentially for life. Bonnin closely examines the Chinese leadership's motivations and the methods that it used over time to implement its objectives, as well as the day-to-day lives of those young people in the countryside, their difficulties, their doubts, their resistance, and, ultimately, their revolt. The author draws on a rich and diverse array of sources, concluding with a comprehensive assessment of the movement that shaped an entire generation, including a majority of today's cultural, economic, and political elite.

Chinese Proverbs: The Wisdom of Cheng-Yu


Amber Books - 2012
    They usually consist of four characters, though there is one chengyu in this collection with five characters. Chengyu add a depth and richness of expression to modern Chinese, which quite often is difficult to fully translate. English, too, has its own proverbs and idioms. These serve much the same function but they do not have the same standard format as chengyu and they are not as commonly used.Almost all of the chengyu included in this collection refer back to stories found in some of the earliest Chinese literature. Many of these sources stem from either famous Chinese philosophers, such as Confucius and Zhuangzi, or historical records, particularly of the period known as the Warring States (476-221 BCE), when China was almost constantly caught up in civil war. Gaining familiarity of chengyu does not just improve one's spoken Chinese, but it also gives an insight into the richness and variety of Chinese history and tradition.

Mao, Stalin and the Korean War: Trilateral Communist Relations in the 1950s


Zhihua Shen - 2012
    It features a critical introduction to Shen's work and the text is based on original archival research not found in earlier books in English.This book will be of much interest to students of Communist China, Stalinist Russia, the Korean War, Cold War Studies and International History in general.

Disappearing Shanghai: Photographs and Poems of an Intimate Way of Life


Howard W. French - 2012
    Qiu, whose best-known books are largely set in this old city, where his protagonist Inspector Chen walks around in investigations, is suited like few others to provide a lyrical accompanying text whose purpose is to celebrate the life, beauty and texture of this world before it has vanished altogether.No photographer has pursued this subject with more dedication and persistence than Mr. French, whose photographs of Shanghai have been exhibited on four continents. Taken together, the work of these two contributors offers compelling esthetics and lasting historical value for lovers of Shanghai, past, present and future.

Lao She in London


Anne Witchard - 2012
    His life and work have been the subject of volumes of critique, analysis and study. However, the four years the young aspiring writer spent in London between 1924 and 1929 have largely been overlooked. Dr Anne Witchard, a specialist in the modernist milieu of London between the wars, reveals Lao She's encounter with British high modernism and literature from Dickens to Conrad to Joyce. Lao She arrived from his native Peking to the whirl of London’s West End scene—Bloomsburyites, Vorticists, avant-gardists of every stripe, Ezra Pound and the cabaret at the Cave of The Golden Calf. Immersed in the West End 1920s world of risqué flappers, the tabloid sensation of England’s ‘most infamous Chinaman Brilliant Chang’ and Anna May Wong’s scandalous film Piccadilly, simultaneously Lao She spent time in the notorious and much sensationalised East End Chinatown of Limehouse. Out of his experiences came his great novel of London Chinese life and tribulations—Mr Ma and Son Two Chinese in London (Er Ma, 1929). However, as Witchard reveals, Lao She’s London years affected his writing and ultimately the course of Chinese modernism in far more profound ways.

The Offshore Renminbi: The Rise of the Chinese Currency and Its Global Future


Robert Minikin - 2012
    The Offshore Renminbi examines this impending currency revolution, outlining why the emergence of China as a major economic power will likely soon be matched by a transformation of the renminbi's role in the global financial system. It explains how new markets for offshore renminbi are developing outside mainland China since the country is not yet ready to fully open up its economy to international capital flows, and the regulations that govern them.The potential growth for the renminbi market is vast, thanks to China's role in the global trading community. The early stages of the internationalization effort were small-scale, but momentum has greatly increased over the past 18 months, making this book more relevant than ever. These developments offer new opportunities (and challenges) for corporate treasurers and investors, as China's profound economic success and growing prominence in global trade may transform offshore renminbi into a new global reserve currency and a legitimate competitor to the U.S. dollar.Explores how the internationalization of the renminbi is likely to yield a new global currency to rival the U.S. dollar Examines offshore renminbi and the host of new financial markets they have created, from a spot FX market to Dim Sum bonds in Hong Kong Covers broad themes of interest to general readers and policymakers, as well as more detailed issues of practical and direct importance to corporate treasurers and investors The Chinese government has ambitious plans to make the renminbi a global currency. The Offshore Renminbi explains the complexities of this strategy and the dramatic implications for the global FX markets.

Shanghai Gone: Domicide and Defiance in a Chinese Megacity


Qin Shao - 2012
    But that transformation has come at a grave human cost. This compelling book is the first to apply the concept of domicide--the eradication of a home against the will of its dwellers--to the sweeping destruction of neighborhoods, families, and life patterns to make way for the new Shanghai. Here we find the holdouts and protesters, men and women who have stubbornly resisted domicide and demanded justice. Qin Shao follows, among others, a reticent kindergarten teacher turned diehard petitioner; a descendant of gangsters and squatters who has become an amateur lawyer for evictees; and a Chinese Muslim who has struggled to recover his ancestral home in Xintiandi, an infamous site of gentrification dominated by a well-connected Hong Kong real estate tycoon. Highlighting the wrenching changes spawned by China's reform era, Shao vividly portrays the relentless pursuit of growth and profit by the combined forces of corrupt power and money, the personal wreckage it has left behind, and the enduring human spirit it has unleashed.To see the author's blog post on Asia Society, please click here.--William Alford, Harvard University "E-International Relations"

The Logic and Limits of Political Reform in China


Joseph Fewsmith - 2012
    Although there was initial progress, these reforms have largely stalled and, in many cases, gone backward. If there were sufficient incentives to inaugurate reform, why wasn't there enough momentum to continue and deepen them? This book approaches this question by looking at a number of promising reforms, understanding the incentives of officials at different levels, and the way the Chinese Communist Party operates at the local level. The short answer is that the sort of reforms necessary to make local officials more responsible to the citizens they govern cut too deeply into the organizational structure of the party.

Four Insights for Finding Fulfillment: [A Practical Guide to the Buddha's Diamond Sutra]


Hsing Yun - 2012
    Contains English translation of Kumarajiva's Chinese translation of Diamond Sutra--publisher's e-mail.

Picturing the True Form: Daoist Visual Culture in Traditional China


Shih-Shan Susan Huang - 2012
    In this richly illustrated book, Shih-shan Susan Huang provides a comprehensive mapping of Daoist images in various media, including Dunhuang manuscripts, funerary artifacts, and paintings, as well as other charts, illustrations, and talismans preserved in the fifteenth-century Daoist Canon. True form ("zhenxing"), the key concept behind Daoist visuality, is not static, but entails an active journey of seeing underlying and secret phenomena.This book s structure mirrors the two-part Daoist journey from inner to outer. Part I focuses on inner images associated with meditation and visualization practices for self-cultivation and longevity. Part II investigates the visual and material dimensions of Daoist ritual. Interwoven through these discussions is the idea that the inner and outer mirror each other and the boundary demarcating the two is fluid. Huang also reveals three central modes of Daoist symbolism aniconic, immaterial, and ephemeral and shows how Daoist image-making goes beyond the traditional dichotomy of text and image to incorporate writings in image design. It is these particular features that distinguish Daoist visual culture from its Buddhist counterpart."

Being, Humanity, and Understanding: Studies in Ancient and Modern Societies


G.E.R. Lloyd - 2012
    E. R. Lloyd explores the variety of ideas and assumptions that humans have entertained concerning three main topics: being, or what there is; humanity--what makes a human being a human; and understanding, both of the world and of one another. Amazingly diverse views have been held on theseissues by different individuals and collectivities in both ancient and modern times. Lloyd juxtaposes the evidence available from ethnography and from the study of ancient societies, both to describe that diversity and to investigate the problems it poses. Many of the ideas in question are deeplypuzzling, even paradoxical, to the point where they have often been described as irrational or frankly unintelligible. Many implicate fundamental moral issues and value judgements, where again we may seem to be faced with an impossible task in attempting to arrive at a fair-minded evaluation. Howfar does it seem that we are all the prisoners of the conceptual systems of the collectivities to which we happen to belong? To what extent and in what circumstances is it possible to challenge the basic concepts of such systems? Being, Humanity, and Understanding examines these questionscross-culturally and seeks to draw out the implications for the revisability of some of our habitual assumptions concerning such topics as ontology, morality, nature, relativism, incommensurability, the philosophy of language, and the pragmatics of communication.

China 2030: Building a Modern, Harmonious, and Creative Society


Development Research Center of the State Council (China) - 2012
    These are some of the key findings of China 2030, a joint research report by a team from the World Bank and the Development Research Center of China's State Council. This report lays out the case for a new development strategy for China to rebalance the role of government and market, private sector and society to reach the goal of becoming a-high income country by 2030. China 2030 recommends steps to deal with the risks facing China over the next 20 years, including the risk of a hard landing in the short term, as well as challenges posed by an ageing and shrinking workforce, rising inequality, environmental stresses, and external imbalances. The report presents six strategic directions for China's future: - Completing the transition to a market economy; - Accelerating the pace of open innovation; - Going "green" to transform environmental stresses into green growth as a driver for development; - Expanding opportunities and services such as health, education and access to jobs for all people; - Modernizing and strengthening its domestic fiscal system; and - Seeking mutually beneficial relations with the world by connecting China's structural reforms to the changing international economy.

Places of Encounter, Volume 1: Time, Place, and Connectivity in World History, Volume One: To 1600


Aran MacKinnon - 2012
    Original, contributed essays by leading academics in the field explore places from Hadar to Xi'an, Salvador to New York, and numerous other locations that have produced historical shockwaves and significant global impact throughout history. With a chronologically organized table of contents, each chapter dissects a particular moment in history, with personal commentary from each contributor, a narrative of the location's historical significance at the time, and a section on significant global connections. Primary sources and discussion questions at the end of each chapter allow students a view into the lives of individuals of the time. Students will experience the narrative of historic individuals as well as modern scholars looking back over documentation to offer their own views of the past, providing students with the perfect opportunity to see how scholars form their own views about history.This text can be purchased as two volumes, providing a breadth of information for survey courses in world history.

Scottish Mandarin: The Life and Times of Sir Reginald Johnston


Shiona Airlie - 2012
    Born and educated in Edinburgh, he began his career in the colony of Hong Kong and eventually became Commissioner of the remote British leased territory of Weihai in northern China. He travelled widely and, during a break from colonial service, served as tutor and advisor to Puyi, the deposed emperor. As the only foreigner allowed to work in the Forbidden City, he wrote the classic account of the last days of the Qing Dynasty—Twilight in the Forbidden City. Granted unique access to Johnston's extensive personal papers, once thought to be lost, Shiona Airlie tells the life of a complex and sensitive character whose career made a deep impression on 20th-century China.

Chinese Poetry of Tang and Song Dynasties: A New Translation


C.K. Ho - 2012
    Featuring 153 poems, this new translation follows the original poems' rhyme schemes without sacrificing their essence. This book also contains footnotes to explain names, customs, traditions, or legends so as to help readers better understand and appreciate the poems.

A Continuous Revolution: Making Sense of Cultural Revolution Culture


Barbara Mittler - 2012
    Considering Cultural Revolution propaganda art from the point of view of its longue duree, Mittler suggests that it built on a tradition of earlier art works, which allowed for its sedimentation in cultural memory.

Descent


C.H. Zhu - 2012
    Why does he choose to be alone? What is he trying to hide? A visit from a former girlfriend and a rendezvous with a stranger bring back the haunting question: Why is he always running away from love? Back in Shanghai for a family funeral, Dr. Wu once again has to confront the disparity between who he is and who he is expected to be. Can he reconcile his conflicting identities? Will his family accept who he is? What price will mother and son have to pay to protect their family? This novel explores a young man’s struggle with his sexual identity under the immense pressure of a traditional Asian society that stresses family lineage and honor and extols individual conformity and sacrifice. Through the protagonist’s narration of his childhood memories, the book offers a glimpse of growing up in an old neighborhood that no longer exists in modern Shanghai. Dr. Wu’s reflection on his parents’ peculiar marriage also sheds light on how political turmoil in China’s recent history has taken a toll on ordinary people’s lives. Take this intriguing journey with Dr. Wu. While his story is often uniquely Chinese, his struggle is common to people of all ages, genders, and cultures: how can we be true to ourselves? When can we all be free to be who we are?

My Chinese Dream - From Red Guard to CEO


Ping Liu - 2012
    Far from riding the pro-China propaganda train, My Chinese Dream is instead a startlingly frank, warts-and-all, rags to riches fairy tale that reveals the excruciating years of mass social reform in China in the 1960s and 1970s, while at the same time perfectly capturing the early entrepreneurial spark of the "opening up" period of the 1980s and 1990s, when many hard working, forward thinking Chinese businesspeople rewrote the rule book for achieving success within the rigidly-defined social structure. This incredible true story is a must-read for anyone interested not only in China, but in entrepreneurship, personal development, and overcoming adversity. Liu Ping was born in Liaoning Province, China, in 1955. When she was 15, she was sent to work in a phosphate mine. After graduating from college she became a teacher as well as an interpreter for China's Ministry of Chemical Industry. When she was in her 30s, she joined one of China's largest travel and tourism companies and was heavily involved in professional and cultural exchanges with many foreign companies. Her interpersonal skills would eventually launch her on a solo career as one of China's most successful female entrepreneurs. Today she is CEO of a private company the China Star Group, one of China's most successful DMC (Destination Management Company ) and PCO ( Professional Conference Organizer ) companies with offices in Beijing, Shanghai, and Hong Kong.

A Cold War Turning Point: Nixon and China, 1969-1972


Chris Tudda - 2012
    Between the years 1969 and 1972, Nixon’s national security team actively fostered the U.S. rapprochement with China. Tudda argues that Nixon, in bold opposition to the stance of his predecessors, recognized the mutual benefits of repairing the Sino-U.S. relationship and was determined to establish a partnership with China. Nixon believed that America’s relative economic decline, its overextension abroad, and its desire to create a more realistic international framework aligned with China’s fear of Soviet military advancement and its eagerness to join the international marketplace. In a contested but calculated move, Nixon gradually eased trade and travel restrictions to China. Mao responded in kind, albeit slowly, by releasing prisoners, inviting the U.S. ping-pong team to Beijing, and secretly hosting Secretary of State Henry Kissinger prior to Nixon’s momentous visit. Set in the larger framework of international relations at the peak of the Vietnam War, A Cold War Turning Point is the first book to use the Nixon tapes and Kissinger telephone conversations to illustrate the complexity of early Sino-U.S. relations. Tudda’s thorough and illuminating research provides a multi-archival examination of this critical moment in twentieth-century international relations.

Darkness outside the Night


Duncan Jepson - 2012
    He is a little childlike but unforgettable. He will become a well-known cartoon figure. The difficulties he meets and the things he ponders, will inspire us on how to deal with life.” Mo Yan, Nobel Prize WinnerWhat is it to be young in modern China? It is an important question. Many predict that one day the country will rival and possibly eclipse the US and it will be their China by then. The truth for most young Chinese is that the future seems very unpredictable. There is the pressure from the grueling competition to secure employment and frustration from enduring an often ridiculous education system. Han Han captures the absurdity of the reality so cleverly in his writing, now finally turning up on Western bookshelves, but there has been little expression of this life in illustration. Over a period of four years, Xie Peng created a series of intense and beautiful vignettes in reaction to his life in Shanghai. His work focused on the various journeys of a small simple character, significant only by the scarf wrapped around his neck. I was shown these in early 2011 with the opportunity to work with Xie Peng to shape a story for a graphic novel and I was immediately keen collaborate with him. For my part I had spent several years making a documentary film on Chinese youth and come to understand the anxiety and insecurity expressed in Xie Peng’s illustrations.Darkness outside the Night is not a story about Chinese politics, it is simply about the struggle to build a life and work in a chaotic, surreal and cruelly unequal society of one and a half billion.Duncan Jepson

American Heathens: Religion, Race, and Reconstruction in California


Joshua Paddison - 2012
    Racial groups that were perceived as godless and uncivilized were excluded from suffrage, and evangelism among Indians and the Chinese was seen as a politically incendiary act. Joshua Paddison sheds light on Reconstruction’s impact on Indians and Asian Americans by illustrating how marginalized groups fought for a political voice, refuting racist assumptions with their lives, words, and faith. Reconstruction, he argues, was not merely a remaking of the South, but rather a multiracial and multiregional process of reimagining the nation.

Sui-Tang China and Its Turko-Mongol Neighbors: Culture, Power, and Connections, 580-800


Jonathan Karam Skaff - 2012
    Investigating interstate competition and cooperation between the successive Sui and Tang dynasties and Turkic states of Mongolia from 580 to 800, Jonathan Skaff upends thenotion that inhabitants of China and Mongolia were irreconcilably different and hostile to each other. Rulers on both sides deployed strikingly similar diplomacy, warfare, ideologies of rulership, and patrimonial political networking to seek hegemony over each other and the peoples living in thepastoral borderlands between them. The book particularly disputes the supposed uniqueness of imperial China's tributary diplomacy by demonstrating that similar customary norms of interstate relations existed in a wide sphere in Eurasia as far west as Byzantium, India, and Iran. These previouslyunrecognized cultural connections, therefore, were arguably as much the work of Turko-Mongol pastoral nomads traversing the Eurasian steppe as the more commonly recognized Silk Road monks and merchants. This interdisciplinary and multi-perspective study will appeal to readers of comparative andworld history, especially those interested in medieval warfare, diplomacy, and cultural studies.

My Kitchen Table: 100 Easy Chinese Suppers


Ken Hom - 2012
    From stews and curries to easy stir fries and healthy steamed and braised dishes, there are also some great light bites and easy entertaining recipes. Ken Hom is the nation's favourite Chinese chef and these recipes will turn you from the take away to the wok.

The Bo Xilai Scandal: Power, Death, and Politics in China


Jamil Anderlini - 2012
    But the story's high political drama also has profound implications for Asia's biggest economy, and hence for the whole world. Apart from exploding any illusion that authoritarian China has managed to institutionalise a smooth succession mechanism, the scandal exposed vicious infighting and corruption that threaten to corrode the Communist party's legitimacy in the eyes of its people.The Bo Xilai Scandal: Power, Death, and Politics in China greatly expands and brings up to date an extraordinary narrative first published in the FT Weekend magazine this summer.

Tales of Old Peking: Inside the Walls of China's Tumultuous Capital


Derek Sandhaus - 2012
    This book re-creates a sense of old Peking through a pastiche of historical snippets—stories, quotations, cartoons, postcards and drawings—and shares intriguing tidbits about the Imperial Court. Placing Peking in the context of the Boxer Rebellion, when two very different yet equally headstrong cultures clashed, this is a valuable source for those interested in Chinese history.

Ancient Central China: Centers and Peripheries Along the Yangzi River


Rowan K. Flad - 2012
    It focuses on the Late Neolithic (late third millennium BC) through the end of the Bronze Age (late first millennium BC) and considers regional and interregional cultural relationships in light of anthropological models of landscape. Rowan K. Flad and Pochan Chen show that centers and peripheries of political, economic, and ritual activities were not coincident, and that politically peripheral regions such as the Three Gorges were crucial hubs in interregional economic networks, particularly related to prehistoric salt production. The book provides detailed discussions of recent archaeological discoveries and data from the Chengdu Plain, Three Gorges, and Hubei to illustrate how these various components of regional landscape were configured across Central China.

Lijiang Stories: Shamans, Taxi Drivers, and Runaway Brides in Reform-Era China


Emily Chao - 2012
    Drawing on stories about taxi drivers, reluctant brides, dogmeat, and shamanism, Emily Chao illustrates how biopolitics and the essentialization of difference shape the ways in which Naxi residents represent and interpret their social world.The vignettes presented here are lively examples of the cultural reverberations that have occurred throughout contemporary China in the wake of its emergence as a global giant. With particular attention to the politics of gender, ethnicity, and historical representation, Chao reveals how citizens strategically imagine, produce, and critique a new moral economy in which the market and neoliberal logic are preeminent.

Media Commercialization and Authoritarian Rule in China


Daniela Stockmann - 2012
    In Media Commercialization and Authoritarian Rule in China, Daniela Stockmann argues that the consequences of media marketization depend on the institutional design of the state. In one-party regimes such as China, market-based media promote regime stability rather than destabilizing authoritarianism or bringing about democracy. By analyzing the Chinese media, Stockmann ties trends of market liberalism in China to other authoritarian regimes in the Middle East, North Africa, sub-Saharan Africa, and the post-Soviet region. Drawing on in-depth interviews with Chinese journalists and propaganda officials as well as more than 2,000 newspaper articles, experiments, and public opinion data sets, this book links censorship among journalists with patterns of media consumption and media's effects on public opinion.

Chinese Architecture and Metaphor: Song Culture in the Yingzao Fashi Building Manual


Jiren Feng - 2012
    Unlike previous scholarship, which has reviewed this imperially commissioned architectural manual largely as a technical work, this volume considers the Yingzao fashi's unique literary value and explores the rich cultural implications in and behind its technical content.Utilizing a philological approach, the author pays particular attention to the traditional and contemporary architectural terminology presented in the Yingzao fashi. In examining the semantic meaning of the architectural terms used in the manual, he uncovers a systematic architectural metaphor wherein bracketing elements are likened to flowers, flowering branches, and foliage: Thus pillars with bracketing above are compared to blossoming trees. More importantly, this intriguing imagery was shared by different social groups, in particular craftsmen and literati, and craftsmen themselves employed literary knowledge in naming architectural elements. Relating these phenomena to the unprecedented flourishing of literature, the literati's greater admiration of technical knowledge, and the higher intellectual capacity of craftsmen during the Song, Architecture and Metaphor demonstrates how the learned and "unlearned" cultures entangled in the construction of architectural knowledge in premodern China. It convincingly shows that technical language served as a faithful carrier of contemporary popular culture and aesthetic concepts.Chinese Architecture and Metaphor demonstrates a high level of engagement with a broad spectrum of sophisticated Chinese sources. It will become a classic work for all students and scholars of East Asian architecture.

Chusan: The Opium Wars, and the Forgotten Story of Britain's First Chinese Island


Liam D'Arcy-Brown - 2012
    For years, this now little-known island off the coast of Zhejiang province had been home to thousands of men, women and children of all classes and backgrounds, of all races and religions, from across the British Empire and beyond. Before the Union Jack ever flew over Hong Kong, it had been raised on Chusan. From a wealth of primary archives, Liam D'Arcy-Brown pieces together the forgotten story of how the British wrested Chusan from the Qing dynasty, only to hand it back for the sake of Queen Victoria's honour and Britain's national prestige. At a time when the Chinese Communist Party is inspiring a new brand of patriotism by revisiting the shame inflicted during the Opium Wars, here is a book that puts Britain's incursions into nineteenth-century China in a fascinating and revealing new light.

Readings in Chinese Culture: The Sky Is Bright with Stars and Other Essays


Weijia Huang, Qun Ao - 2012
    The first in the five-volume Cheng & Tsui Readings in Chinese Culture series, this collection of ten original essays is ideal for intermediate students in their second semester of first-year Chinese, or at the “Intermediate Low” level, as designated by ACTFL proficiency guidelines.

Chinese Indonesians Reassessed: History, Religion and Belonging


Siew-Min Sai - 2012
    Given that Chinese Indonesians are not seen as indigenous to the country and are consistently defined against Indonesian nationalism, most studies on the community concentrate on examining their ambivalent position as Indonesia's perennial internal outsider. Chinese Indonesians Reassessed argues for the need to dislodge this narrow nationalistic approach and adopt fresh perspectives which acknowledge the full complexity of ethnic relations within the country. The focus of the book extends beyond Java to explore the historical development of Chinese Indonesian communities in more peripheral areas of Indonesia, such as Medan, the Riau Islands and West Kalimantan. It reveals the diverse religious practices of Chinese Indonesians, which are by no means confined to Chinese religions, and celebration of Chinese ethnic events. Presenting a rich array of historical and contemporary case studies, the book goes beyond national stereotypes to demonstrate how Chinese Indonesians interact with different spaces and environments to establish new Chinese Indonesian identities which are complex and multi-faceted. The book engages with a larger global literature concerned with diasporic Chinese identities and practices and offers sophisticated and empirically grounded insights on the commodification of ethnic cultures and religions.

China Orders the World: Normative Soft Power and Foreign Policy


William A. Callahan - 2012
    Presenting and analyzing the works of key Chinese philosophers and prominent international relations theorists, the contributors—prestigious scholars from China, the United States, the United Kingdom, and France—examine how an idealized version of China’s imperial past now inspires a new generation of Chinese scholars and policymakers and their plans for China’s future.Although a growing number of books treat China’s rise and world view, China Orders the World brings together Chinese and Western scholars in a uniquely detailed and nuanced exploration of how traditional Chinese culture is being remolded into a "Chinese-style" world order for the twenty-first century.

History of the Opium Problem: The Assault on the East, CA. 1600 - 1950


Hans Derks - 2012
    Starting in the 16th century, slavery and opium became the two means with which the bodies and souls of men and women in the tropics were exploited in western imperialism and colonialism. The first waned with the abolition movement in the 19th century, but opium production and trade continued to spread, with the associated serious social and political effects. Around 1670 the Dutch introduced opium as a cash crop for mass production and distribution in India and Indonesia. China became the main target in the 19th century, and only succeeded in getting rid of the opium problem around 1950. Then it had already been transformed from an Eastern into a Western problem."

Chinese Literature: AN ANTHOLOGY FROM THE EARLIEST TIMES TO THE PRESENT DAY


William McNaughton - 2012
    He has based this presentationon work by Chinese critics and scholars that, until recently, has not been available outside China.In addition to classical writings, the poems and stories by twentieth-century writers, most of which have been newly translated into English, give new insights into modern Chinese society and individuals, and make this the most complete one-volume anthology ever published.

Intoxicating Manchuria: Alcohol, Opium, and Culture in China's Northeast


Norman Smith - 2012
    Examines how alcohol, opium, and addiction were portrayed in the culture of China's Northeast during the first half of the twentieth century.

Development Cooperation and Emerging Powers: New Partners or Old Patterns?


Sachin Chaturvedi - 2012
    In exploring the motivation and execution of these countries' development policies, the volume analyzes how South-South cooperation has evolved, and where it differs from traditional development cooperation. This vital new collection brings together first-hand experience from a range of national experts from these countries, to provide a forward-looking analysis of global frameworks and the evolution of a possible convergence of traditional and emerging development actors.

Knowledge, Desire and Power in Global Politics


Chengxin Pan - 2012
    

China Diaries & Other Tales From the Road


John H. Rydzewski - 2012
    There, he found the Chinese Groundhog's Day, a coffee shop barista named "Shaky," girls named "Kinky," Asian scarecrows, Santa's honest-to-goodness workshop that supplies the world with all its Christmas gifts, Elvis on the Silk Road, and himself in a Chinese television series. In "China Diaries & Other Tales from the Road," Rydzewski recounts his China days and his experiences traveling through the Philippines, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Fiji, Ireland, Singapore, and Switzerland. He provides quirky, yet insightful, perspectives as he attempts to understand the people, places and cultures he encounters, only to find that his most difficult adjustment was returning home.

Daoism in the Twentieth Century: Between Eternity and Modernity


David A. Palmer - 2012
    Essays investigate ritual specialists, body cultivation and meditation traditions, monasticism, new religious movements, state-sponsored institutionalization, and transnational networks.

Pluralist Universalism: An Asian Americanist Critique of U.S. and Chinese Multiculturalisms


Wen Jin - 2012
    and Chinese Multiculturalisms by Wen Jin is an extended comparison of U.S. and Chinese multiculturalisms during the post–Cold War era. Her book situates itself at the intersection of Asian American literary critique and the growing field of comparative multiculturalism. Through readings of fictional narratives that address the issue of racial and ethnic difference in both national contexts simultaneously, the author models a “double critique” framework for U.S.–Chinese comparative literary studies.            The book approaches U.S. liberal multiculturalism and China’s ethnic policy as two competing multiculturalisms, one grounded primarily in a history of racial desegregation and the other in the legacies of a socialist revolution. Since the end of the Cold War, the two multiculturalisms have increasingly been brought into contact through translation and other forms of mediation. Pluralist Universalism demonstrates that a number of fictional narratives, including those commonly classified as Chinese, American, and Chinese American, have illuminated incongruities and connections between the ethno-racial politics of the two nations.            The “double critique” framework builds upon critical perspectives developed in Asian American studies and adjacent fields. The book brings to life an innovative vision of Asian American literary critique, even as it offers a unique intervention in ideas of ethnicity and race prevailing in both China and the United States in the post–Cold War era.

Mao's China and the Sino-Soviet Split: Ideological Dilemma


Mingjiang Li - 2012
    Why did the Sino-Soviet alliance, hailed by its creators as "unbreakable," "eternal," and as representing "brotherly solidarity," break up? Why did their relations eventually evolve into open hostility and military confrontation? With the publication of several works on the subject in the past decade, we are now in a better position to understand and explain the origins of the Sino-Soviet split. But at the same time new questions and puzzles have also emerged. The scholarly debate on this issue is still fierce. This book, the result of extensive research on declassified documents at the Chinese Foreign Ministry, and on numerous other new Chinese materials, sheds new light on the problem and makes a significant contribution to the debate. More than simply an empirical case study, by theorising the concept of the ideological dilemma, Mingjiang Li s book attempts to address the relationship between ideology and foreign policy and discusses such pressing questions as why it is that an ideology can sometimes effectively dictate foreign policy, whilst at other times exercises almost no significant influence at all.This book will be of essential reading to anyone interested in Chinese-Soviet history, Cold War history, International Relations and the theory of ideology.

Frontier Encounters: Knowledge and Practice at the Russian, Chinese and Mongolian Border


Franck Billé - 2012
    Despite their proximity, their interactions with each other - and with their third neighbour Mongolia - are rarely discussed. Although the three countries share a boundary, their traditions, languages and worldviews are remarkably different. Frontier Encounters presents a wide range of views on how the borders between these unique countries are enacted, produced, and crossed. It sheds light on global uncertainties: China's search for energy resources and the employment of its huge population, Russia's fear of Chinese migration, and the precarious independence of Mongolia as its neighbours negotiate to extract its plentiful resources. Bringing together anthropologists, sociologists and economists, this timely collection of essays offers new perspectives on an area that is currently of enormous economic, strategic and geo-political relevance.

Eurasia's Ascent in Energy and Geopolitics: Rivalry or Partnership for China, Russia, and Central Asia?


Robert E. Bedeski - 2012
    This volume brings together scholars to address the current status of Sino-Russian relations in the political, military, energy and trade sectors.In this comprehensive new volume, authors offer a detailed account on the both the historical context and current status of relations between Russia and China and the geo-political realignments in Eurasia. This analysis of the evolving relationship addresses global strategy, energy politics, national security, human security, and Central Asian links. Individual chapters examine key issues such as China's economic ascendancy, military relations, the geostrategic position of Mongolia, Japan's views and historical background. With authors representing a broad range of current active experts and researchers working in Europe, the US, Central Asia, China and Japan, this book offers a long-term and in-depth analysis of the relations and potential developments in both bilateral and international relations.This work will be of great interest to scholars of international relations, Asian security, and the Eurasian region.

China's Security State: Philosophy, Evolution, and Politics


Xuezhi Guo - 2012
    Xuezhi Guo investigates patterns of leadership politics from the vantage point of security and intelligence organization and operation by providing new evidence and offering alternative interpretations of major events throughout Chinese Communist Party history. This analysis promotes a better understanding of the CCP's mechanisms for control over both Party members and the general population. This study specifies some of the broader implications for theory and research that can help clarify the nature of Chinese politics and potential future developments in the country's security and intelligence services.

Doubled Shadows


Ouyang Jianghe - 2012
    

Trade Secret Theft, Industrial Espionage, and the China Threat


Carl A. Roper - 2012
    Trade Secret Theft, Industrial Espionage, and the China Threat provides an overview of economic espionage as practiced by a range of nations from around the world-focusing on the mass scale in which information is being taken for China's growth and development.Supplying a current look at espionage, the book details the specific types of information China has targeted for its collection efforts in the past. It explains what China does to prepare for its massive collection efforts and describes what has been learned about China's efforts during various Congressional hearings, with expert advice and details from both the FBI and other government agencies.This book is the product of hundreds of hours of research, with material, both primary and secondary, reviewed, studied, and gleaned from numerous sources, including White House documentation and various government agencies. Within the text, you will learn the rationale and techniques used to obtain information in the past. You will see a bit of history over centuries where espionage has played a role in the economy of various countries and view some cases that have come to light when individuals were caught.The book supplies an understanding of how the economy of a nation can prosper or suffer, depending on whether that nation is protecting its intellectual property, or whether it is stealing such property for its own use. The text concludes by outlining specific measures that corporations and their employees can practice to protect their information and assets, both at home and abroad.

Pacific Crossing: California Gold, Chinese Migration, and the Making of Hong Kong


Elizabeth Sinn - 2012
    Drawn initially by the gold rush, they took with them skills and goods and a view of the world which, though still Chinese, was transformed by their long journeys back and forth. They in turn transformed Hong Kong, their main point of embarkation, from a struggling infant colony into a prosperous international port and the cultural center of a far-ranging Chinese diaspora. Making use of extensive research in archives around the world, Pacific Crossing charts the rise of Chinese Gold Mountain firms engaged in all kinds of transpacific trade, especially the lucrative export of prepared opium and other luxury goods. Challenging the traditional view that the migration was primarily a “coolie trade,” Elizabeth Sinn uncovers leadership and agency among the many Chinese who made the crossing. In presenting Hong Kong as an “in-between place” of repeated journeys and continuous movement, Sinn also offers a fresh view of the British colony and a new paradigm for migration studies.

A Story of Ruins: Presence and Absence in Chinese Art and Visual Culture


Wu Hung - 2012
    Leading scholar of Chinese art Wu Hung shows how the story of ruins in China is different from but connected to ruin culture in the West. He investigates indigenous Chinese concepts of ruins and their visual manifestations, as well as the complex historical interactions between China and the West since the eighteenth century.Analyzing a broad variety of traditional and contemporary visual materials, including painting, architecture, photography, prints, and cinema, Wu also embraces a wide variety of subjects--from indigenous methods of recording damage and decay in ancient China, to realistic images of architectural ruins in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, to the strong interest in urban ruins in contemporary China, as shown in the many artworks that depict demolished houses and decaying industrial sites. The result is an original interpretation of the development of Chinese art, as well as a unique contribution to global art history.

A Dance with the Dragon: The Vanished World of Peking's Foreign Colony


Julia Boyd - 2012
    Always a magnet for larger than life individuals, Peking attracted characters as diverse as Wallis Simpson, Pearl Buck, J.D. Rockfeller, Jr., Bertrand Russell, Pierre Loti, Rabrindranath Tagore, Sven Hedin, Peter Fleming, and Cecil Lewis. The last great capital to remain untouched by the modern world, Peking both entranced and horrified its foreign residents - the majority of whom lived cocooned inside the legation quarter, their own walled enclave, living an extraordinary high-octane party lifestyle, suffused with martinis, jazz piano, and cigarettes, at the height of the Jazz Age. Ignoring the poverty outside their gates, they danced, played, and squabbled among themselves, oblivious to the great political events unfolding around them and the storm clouds looming on the horizon that were to shape modern China. Others, more sensitive to Peking's cultural riches, discovered their paradise too late when it already stood on the brink of destruction.Although few in number, Peking's expatriates were uniquely placed to chart the political upheavals - from Boxer Rebellion in 1900 to the Communist victory of 1949 - that shaped modern China. Through extensive use of unpublished diaries and letters, Julia Boyd reveals the foreigner's perceptions and reactions - their take on everyday life and the unforgettable events that occurred around them. This is a dazzling portrait of an eclectic foreign community and of China itself - a magnificent confection, never before told, by one of literary London's great storytellers.

After Empire: The Conceptual Transformation of the Chinese State, 1885-1924


Peter Zarrow - 2012
    These forty years saw the collapse of Confucian political orthodoxy and the struggle among competing definitions of modern citizenship and the state. What made it possible to suddenly imagine a world without the emperor?After Empire traces the formation of the modern Chinese idea of the state through the radical reform programs of the late Qing (1885–1911), the Revolution of 1911, and the first years of the Republic through the final expulsion of the last emperor of the Qing from the Forbidden City in 1924. It contributes to longstanding debates on modern Chinese nationalism by highlighting the evolving ideas of major political thinkers and the views reflected in the general political culture. Zarrow uses a wide range of sources to show how "statism" became a hegemonic discourse that continues to shape China today. Essential to this process were the notions of citizenship and sovereignty, which were consciously adopted and modified from Western discourses on legal theory and international state practices on the basis of Chinese needs and understandings. This text provides fresh interpretations and keen insights into China's pivotal transition from dynasty to republic.

Making Zen Your Own: Giving Life to Twelve Key Golden Age Ancestors


Janet Jiryu Abels - 2012
    She presents their biographies, describes their teachings, and shows how their lives and teachings can inspire those who practice Zen today. The book is a presentation of ancient Zen insight vividly relevant for the twenty-first century, addressing both the needs of both new and longtime Zen practitioners. Its singular distinction is in bringing Zen history, ancestral teachings, and present-day application of those teachings into one work. Although the book is based on scholarly sources and historical records, Abels stresses the humanity of these Zen ancestors, showing that they were not formed from a generic mold but were individuals with quirks, senses of humor, heartfelt enlightenment experiences, varied ways of living, and unique ways of expressing Zen. She tells their stories in a lively, accessible manner, shedding light on their paradoxical teachings with clarity and simplicity. She also shows that they all faced the same challenges that Zen practitioners face today. Interwoven among the stories and teachings are Abels' own insights into the dharma of Zen, as well as practical applications and encouragements that readers can bring to their individual practice of the Way. These insights are based on her more than ten years as a Zen teacher. She is the founder and co-resident teacher of Still Mind Zendo in New York City.

A Chinese Life


Li Kunwu - 2012
    This distinctively drawn work chronicles the rise and reign of Chairman Mao Zedong, and his sweeping, often cataclysmic vision for the most populated country on the planet.Though the storyline is epic, the storytelling is intimate, reflecting the real life of the book’s artist. Li Kunwu spent more than 30 years as a state artist for the Communist Party. He saw firsthand what was happening to his family, his neighbors, and his homeland during this extraordinary time. Working with Philippe Ôtié, the artist has created a memoir of self and state, a rich, very human account of a major historical moment with contemporary consequences. Mao said, “The masses are the real heroes,” but A Chinese Life shows those masses as real people.Praise for A Chinese Life:“This is an absorbing book—all 700 pages of it—reminiscent at times of Zhang Yimou’s epic Chinese history film To Live, and reminiscent at others of George Orwell’s 1984, recast as non-fiction.” —The Onion’s A.V. Club

The Rise and Fall of the House of Bo


John Garnaut - 2012
    Now, as the Party's 18th National Congress oversees the biggest leadership transition in decades, and installs the Bo family's long-time rival Xi Jinping as president, China's rulers are finding it increasingly difficult to keep their poisonous internal divisions behind closed doors.Bo Xilai's breathtaking fall from grace is an extraordinary tale of excess, murder, defection, political purges and ideological clashes going back to Mao himself, as the princeling sons of the revolutionary heroes ascend to control of the Party. China watcher John Garnaut examines how Bo's stellar rise through the ranks troubled his more reformist peers, as he revived anti-'capitalist roader' sentiment, even while his family and associates enjoyed the more open economy's opportunities. Amid fears his imminent elevation to the powerful Standing Committee was leading China towards another destructive Cultural Revolution, have his opponents seized their chance now to destroy Bo and what he stands for? The trigger was his wife Gu Kailai's apparently paranoid murder of an English family friend, which exposed the corruption and brutality of Bo's outwardly successful administration of the massive city of Chongqing. It also led to the one of the highest-level attempted defections in Communist China's history when Bo's right-hand man, police chief Wang Lijun, tried to escape the ruins of his sponsor's reputation.Garnaut explains how this incredible glimpse into the very personal power struggles within the CCP exposes the myth of the unified one-party state. With China approaching super-power status, today's leadership shuffle may set the tone for international relations for decades. Here, Garnaut reveals a particularly Chinese spin on the old adage that the personal is political.

The Fragile Bridge: Conflict Management in Chinese Business


Andrew Hupert - 2012
    The Chinese want your technology, intellectual property and product designs. You want their markets, resources and labor. Knowing which 1,500 year-old philosopher uttered what esoteric phrase won’t help you safeguard your assets or keep your JV operating, but learning from the lessons of dozens of successful Westerners who have survived the China challenge just might. Andrew Hupert’s even-handed analysis uncovers the sources of conflict in Western-Sino negotiation and anticipates the trajectory that business disputes travel. "The Fragile Bridge" offers readers practical, insightful advice for avoiding, containing and managing China business conflicts of all shapes and sizes. Case studies and examples illustrate each observation. The book ends with a list of highly practical best practices that are appropriate for newcomers and “Old China Hands” alike.

Lessons from China: A Westerner's Cultural Education


Beau Sides - 2012
    Struggling to free herself of her ultra-independent behavior, she intentionally places herself in a situation that forces her to depend on others for help. Jan gets much more than she bargained for as she experiences a culture that is worlds apart from her beloved southern town of Jasper, Mississippi, USA. Jan quickly learns that as a visitor and an employee, you don’t mess with the Chinese government or the university! The challenges of living and working abroad change her forever as she gives and receives lessons inside and outside of the classroom on life, social practices, international employment, and the deep bond of friendship. Lessons from China is a heartwarming exploration of China that innocently, and often humorously, takes into account the many differences and similarities to US culture through the eyes of a young American and first-time traveler.

Story 12: The Painted Skin


Pu Songling - 2012
    Giles. Broomhandle Books has edited the stories to provide modern punctuation and styling so as to make them more accessible to a reader in this e-book format. In addition, Chinese personal and place names have been rendered into modern pinyin.

Craft of Gardens: The Classic Chinese Text on Garden Design


Ji Cheng - 2012
    This is the first complete English translation of Ji Cheng's seminal work.This Chinese gardening book is based on J Cheng's notes and experiences from his career as a garden designer, which he discusses at some length in his introduction. Since architecture is an integral part of the Chinese garden, much of the book is taken up with the design of different types of buildings and the integration of architecture with nature in the garden. Ji Cheng explains the religious and aesthetic principles underlying garden design and the appropriate emotional response to various effects. he then offers a down-to-earth series of instructions about the requirements of different types of sites, building layouts, architectural features, paving, the construction of artificial mountains, selection of rocks, and the use of natural scenery.This delightful book provides not only insights into Chinese gardening but also a unique perspective on Chinese culture and society in the late Ming dynasty. Full notes by the translator explain obscure points and introduce relevant aspects of Chinese culture, while an introduction by Maggie Keswick sets the book firmly in its historical context. Illustrations include not only Ji Cheng's original diagrams but also historical paintings and contemporary photographs of a number of outstanding gardens in the part of East China where Ji Cheng lived and worked.