It has been called the Hong Kong Novel, and was first published in 1962 as a serial in a Hong Kong evening paper. As the unnamed Narrator, a writer at odds with a philistine world, sinks to his drunken nadir, his plight can be seen to represent that of a whole intelligentsia, a whole culture, degraded by the brutal forces of history: the Second Sino-Japanese War and the rampant capitalism of post-war Hong Kong.The often surrealistic description of the Narrator's inexorable descent through the seedy bars and night-clubs of Hong Kong, of his numerous encounters with dance-girls and his ever more desperate bouts of drinking, is counterpointed by a series of wide-ranging literary essays, analysing the Chinese classical tradition, the popular culture of China and the West, and the modernist movement in Western and Chinese literature.The ambiance of Hong Kong in the early 1960s is graphically evoked in this powerful and poignant novel, which takes the reader to the very heart of Hong Kong. Hong Kong director Freddie Wong made a fine film version of the novel in 2004.

    Previous novels by Williams include 'The Palace of Heavenly Pleasure' and 'The Emperor's Bones'.

    Re-publication of the essays by the author whose criticism of Taiwan¡'s political culture became the seed of an essay wild fire for motivating the people of Taiwan.

    Patrick Hanan praises the volume as -the highest achievement in the contemporary Chinese story.- Henry Miller considers Pai Hsien-yung -a master of portraiture.- Stories from this collection have already been translated into French, German, Italian, Dutch, Hebrew, Japanese and Korean.

    In the Book and Sword, Louis Cha revives the legend about the great eighteenth-century Manchu Emperor Qianlong which claims that he was in fact not a Manchu but a Han Chinese as a result of a "baby swap." The novel is panoramic in scope and includes the fantastical elements for which Cha is well-known: secret societies, kungfu masters, a lost desert city guarded by wolf packs, and the mysterious Fragrant Princess.

    The five sequential stories in the book are well constructed in terms of theme and character development and, as such, can be read as a novel.The stories differ greatly from many other books on life in China, whether they are about the olden times or the present day, in that they do not dwell on politics, nor do they try to make any statements regarding set beliefs of any kind. The stories are simple and direct. Through the eyes and innocent mind of the child, we are let into her world and her feeling and cannot but be moved.The author is well known for her perception and humor, and both these qualities inform her stories. The sense of loss and bewilderment which arouses the child's awareness of the uncertainties of human relationships, even of life itself, and which finally catapults the child away from childhood joys into the sorrows of the adult world is handled with great sensitivity and lyricism.

    When the emissaries from the Galactic Federation arrive on Earth, humanity is astonished to learn of the populated universe outside Earth’s atmosphere. A peaceful federation of a thousand alien races, united in peace and harmony, is just waiting for the human race to abandon its warlike impulses and join the Federation. A brave new destiny awaits the human race... But there are odd points about the Federation, little pieces of evidence that suggest a far darker motive for visiting Earth. As an unlikely band of heroes struggles to form a resistance against the alien threat, Earth’s fate hangs in the balance – and defeat may mean the end of everything.

    With each new body come the same clues: a jump rope, a cigarette, and a slip of paper that says, “Come and get me.”In the same city, Luo Wen wanders into a park just as a young woman stabs a local thug to death in a desperate act of self-defense. A former criminal investigator who lost his own family in an unsolved case, Luo Wen is familiar with the slippery nature of justice. So he makes the split-second decision to help the terrified woman cover up her crime, leaving behind no trace of evidence.Luo Wen’s friend Yan Liang, a criminologist and professor known for solving each case like a mathematical equation, is called in to help the police on the recent homicides. As he digs deeper, he discovers more questions than answers—and variables that simply don’t add up.While Yan Liang follows his suspicion and Luo Wen covers his tracks, a battle of wits plays out—with the winner’s version of justice as the ultimate prize.

    You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery.

    To determine these patterns, they needed to hear many different examples of authentic speech by various speakers of different ages and in different regions. They eventually discovered that one of the easiest ways to convince older local residents to give them lengthy examples of their natural speech was to ask the residents to tell their favorite stories to the brothers. As the Grimms Brothers recorded the style of speech of the speaker for their research (which eventually led to the formulation of Grimm's Law), they also recorded the various stories that they were told, and eventually published them in 1817.

    A man sits on a bench in front of his old school remembering the place where one particular day changed his life and those of many others dramatically years earlier.

    This otherwise daunting task is made easier by the use of techniques based on the psychology of leaning and memory. key principles include the use of visual imagery, the visualization of short "stories," and the systematic building up of more complicated characters from basic building blocks.Although Learning Chinese Characters is primarily a book for serious learners of Mandarin Chinese, it can be used by anyone with an interest in Chinese characters, without any prior knowledge of Chinese. It can be used alongside (or after, or even before) a course in the Chinese language. All characters are simplified (as in mainland China) but traditional characters are also given, when available.Key features:-Specially designed pictures and stories are used in a structured way to make the learning process more enjoyable and effective, reducing the need for rote learning to the absolute minimum.-The emphasis throughout is on learning and remembering the meanings and pronunciations of the characters. Tips are also included on learning techniques and how to avoid common problems.-Characters are introduced in a logical sequence, which also gives priority to learning the most common characters first.-Modern simplified characters are used, with pronunciations given in pinyin. Key information is given for each character, including radical, stroke—count, traditional form, compounds, and guidance on writing the character.This is a practical guide with a clear, concise and appealing layout, and it is well—indexed with easy look—up methods. The 800 Chinese characters and 1,033 compounds specified for the original HSK Level A proficiency test are covered.

    The works in the series are suitable for ages eight and up. The books are simple, retellings of the great literary classics which remain faithful to the original text.

    Unlike most historical narratives from China, which are pegged to political events, Change is a representative of “people’s history,” a bottom-up rather than top-down view of a country in flux. By moving back and forth in time and focusing on small events and everyday people, Mo Yan breathes life into history by describing the effects of larger-than-life events on the average citizen.“Through a mixture of fantasy and reality, historical and social perspectives, Mo Yan has created a world reminiscent in its complexity of those in the writings of William Faulkner and Gabriel García Márquez, at the same time finding a departure point in old Chinese literature and in oral tradition.”— Nobel Committee for Literature “If China has a Kafka, it may be Mo Yan. Like Kafka, Yan has the ability to examine his society through a variety of lenses, creating fanciful, Metamorphosis-like transformations or evoking the numbing bureaucracy and casual cruelty of modern governments.” —Publishers Weekly, on Shifu: You'll Do Anything for a Laugh