How to Defend Australia


Hugh White - 2019
    Can Australia defend itself in the Asian century? How seriously ought we take the risk of war? Do we want to remain a middle power? What kind of strategy, and what Australian Defence Force, do we need? In this groundbreaking book, Hugh White considers these questions and more. With exceptional clarity and frankness, he makes the case for a reconceived defence of Australia. Along the way he offers intriguing insights into history, technology and the Australian way of war. Hugh White is the country’s most provocative, revelatory and yet realistic commentator on Australia’s strategic and defence orientation. In an age of power politics and armed rivalry in Asia, it is time for fresh thinking. In this controversial and persuasive contribution, White sets new terms for one of the most crucial conversations Australia needs to have.

Out of Mao's Shadow: The Struggle for the Soul of a New China


Philip P. Pan - 2008
    Pan offers an unprecedented inside look at the momentous battle underway for China's future. On one side is the entrenched party elite determined to preserve its authoritarian grip on power. On the other is a collection of lawyers, journalists, entrepreneurs, activists, hustlers, and dreamers striving to build a more tolerant, open, and democratic China. The outcome of this dramatic, hidden struggle will shape China's rise to superpower status-and determine how it affects the rest of the world.From factories in the rusting industrial northeast to a tabloid newsroom in the booming south, from a small-town courtroom to the plush offices of the nation's wealthiest tycoons, Pan speaks with men and women fighting and sacrificing for change. An elderly surgeon exposes the government's cover-up of the SARS epidemic. A filmmaker investigates the execution of a student in the Cultural Revolution. A blind man is jailed for leading a crusade against forced abortions carried out under the one-child policy.Out of Mao's Shadow offers a startling perspective on China and its remarkable transformation, challenging conventional wisdom about the political apathy of the Chinese people and the notion that prosperity leads automatically to freedom. Like David Remnick's Lenin's Tomb, this is the moving story of a nation in transition, of a people coming to terms with their past.

Journey Across Tibet: A Young Woman's Trek Across the Rooftop of the World


Sorrel Wilby - 1988
    When she befriends some Tibetan nomads, her trek quickly evolves from a daredevil adventure to a journey of self-discovery and personal revelation.

野火集


Lung Ying-tai - 1985
    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.

Mao: A Biography


Ross Terrill - 2000
    He ate idiosyncratically. He became increasingly sexually promiscuous as he aged. He would stay up much of the night, sleep during much of the day, and at times he would postpone sleep, remaining awake for thirty-six hours or more, until tension and exhaustion overcame him.Yet many people who met Mao came away deeply impressed by his intellectual reach, originality, style of power-within-simplicity, kindness toward low-level staff members, and the aura of respect that surrounded him at the top of Chinese politics. It would seem difficult to reconcile these two disparate views of Mao. But in a fundamental sense there was no brick wall between Mao the person and Mao the leader. This biography attempts to provide a comprehensive account of this powerful and polarizing historical figure.

Genghis Khan


R.P. Lister - 1969
    The book covers the young Khan's daring conquests up until his elevation as Ruler of the Steppes in 1206. There are also genealogical tables tracing the familial descent of Genghis Khan.

Age of Ambition: Chasing Fortune, Truth, and Faith in the New China


Evan Osnos - 2014
    What we don't see is how both powerful and ordinary people are remaking their lives as their country dramatically changes. As the Beijing correspondent for The New Yorker, Evan Osnos was on the ground in China for years, witness to profound political, economic, and cultural upheaval. In Age of Ambition, he describes the greatest collision taking place in that country: the clash between the rise of the individual and the Communist Party's struggle to retain control. He asks probing questions: Why does a government with more success lifting people from poverty than any civilization in history choose to put strict restraints on freedom of expression? Why do millions of young Chinese professionals-fluent in English and devoted to Western pop culture-consider themselves "angry youth," dedicated to resisting the West's influence? How are Chinese from all strata finding meaning after two decades of the relentless pursuit of wealth? Writing with great narrative verve and a keen sense of irony, Osnos follows the moving stories of everyday people and reveals life in the new China to be a battleground between aspiration and authoritarianism, in which only one can prevail.

The Legendary Twins


Gu Long - 1969
    The novel spans a total of 126 chapters and was written between 1966 and February 1969. The story is about a pair of twin brothers who were separated from each other at birth and raised under different circumstances. The twins first see each other as enemies but gradually become friends and eventually acknowledge each other as brothers.

Ching's Chinese Food in Minutes


Ching-He Huang - 2009
    The bestselling author is the master of fresh flavours and simple ingredients and her collection of all-time favourites and exciting new dishes are a delight to cook and share. Why order a take-away when you can deliver your own in minutes? With her bestselling cookbook, Chinese Food Made Easy, Ching quickly established herself as the new voice of Chinese cooking with her simple and delicious recipes. Ching's brand new cookbook is packed with quick and easy recipes that you can make in 30 minutes or less. Bursting with flavour, deliciously healthy and nearly always made with everyday supermarket ingredients, her new collection of authentic Chinese recipes is destined to become another kitchen classic. Ching's recipes are as varied as they are exciting and are a wonderful balance of all-time favourites, such as Sweet and Sour Pork, Chicken and Cashew Nut Stir-fry and Hot and Sour Soup, and exciting new authentic dishes such as Exploding River Prawns, Hunan-style Hot Pink Pepper Chicken and Chongqing Beef. For more special days when you have a little more time on your hands there is an Easy Entertaining section complete with menu suggestions and time-saving tips.

China's Vision of Victory


Jonathan D. T. Ward - 2019
    After seventy-five years of peace in the Pacific, a new challenger to American power has emerged, on a scale not seen in generations. Working from a deep sense of national destiny, the Chinese Communist Party is guiding a country of 1.4 billion people towards what it calls "the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation," and, with it, the end of an American-led world. Will this generation witness the final act for America as a superpower? Can American ingenuity, confidence, and will power outcompete the long-term strategic thinking and planning of China's Communist Party? These are the challenges that will shape the next decade and more. China's Vision of Victory brings the reader to a new understanding of China's planning, strategy, and ambitions. From seabed to space, from Africa to the Arctic, from subsurface warfare to the rise of China's global corporations, this book will illuminate for the reader the new great game of our lifetimes, and how our adversary sees it all.

The Way of Life According to Lao Tzu


Witter Bynner - 1980
    His gentle warning on the futility of egoistic struggle have made The Way of Life the basis for one of the world's great religions, Taoism, and on of the most important books that was ever written. "The 81 saying in this volume shine like gems cut clear and beautiful in every facet.. this translation will stand as the perfect rendering of a classic work." ~ John Haynes Holmes

Striking Distance: Bruce Lee and the Dawn of Martial Arts in America


Charles Russo - 2016
    Although the martial arts were widely unknown in America, Bruce encountered a robust fight culture in the Bay Area, populated with talented and trailblazing practitioners such as Lau Bun, Chinatown’s aging kung fu patriarch; Wally Jay, the innovative Hawaiian jujitsu master; and James Lee, the Oakland street fighter. Regarded by some as a brash loudmouth and by others as a dynamic visionary, Bruce spent his first few years back in America advocating for a modern approach to the martial arts, and showing little regard for the damaged egos left in his wake.                The year of 1964 would be an eventful one for Bruce, in which he would broadcast his dissenting worldview before the first great international martial arts gathering, and then defend it by facing down Wong Jack Man—Chinatown’s young kung fu ace—in a legendary behind-closed-doors showdown. These events were a catalyst to the dawn of martial arts in America and a prelude to an icon.                Based on over one hundred original interviews, Striking Distance chronicles Bruce Lee’s formative days amid the heated martial arts proving ground that thrived on San Francisco Bay in the early 1960s.

River Town: Two Years on the Yangtze


Peter Hessler - 2001
    Surrounded by the terraced hills of the Yangtze River valley, Fuling has long been a place of continuity, far from the bustling political centers of Beijing and Shanghai. But now Fuling is heading down a new path, and gradually, along with scores of other towns in this vast and ever-evolving country, it is becoming a place of change and vitality, tension and reform, disruption and growth. As the people of Fuling hold on to the China they know, they are also opening up and struggling to adapt to a world in which their fate is uncertain.Fuling's position at the crossroads came into remarkably sharp focus when Peter Hessler arrived as a Peace Corps volunteer in 1996, marking the first time in more than half a century that the city had an American resident. He found himself teaching English and American literature at the local college, discovering how Shakespeare and other classics look when seen through the eyes of students who have been raised in the Sichuan countryside and educated in Communist Party doctrine. His students, though, are the ones who taught him about the ways of Fuling — and about the complex process of understanding that takes place when one is immersed in a radically different society.As he learns the language and comes to know the people, Hessler begins to see that it is indeed a unique moment for Fuling. In its past is Communist China's troubled history — the struggles of land reform, the decades of misguided economic policies, and the unthinkable damage of the Cultural Revolution — and in the future is the Three Gorges Dam, which upon completion will partly flood thecity and force the resettlement of more than a million people. Making his way in the city and traveling by boat and train throughout Sichuan province and beyond, Hessler offers vivid descriptions of the people he meets, from priests to prostitutes and peasants to professors, and gives voice to their views. This is both an intimate personal story of his life in Fuling and a colorful, beautifully written account of the surrounding landscape and its history. Imaginative, poignant, funny, and utterly compelling, River Town is an unforgettable portrait of a city that, much like China itself, is seeking to understand both what it was and what it someday will be.

The Couple's Tao Te Ching: Ancient Advice for Modern Lovers


William Martin - 1999
    With The Parent's Tao Te Ching, William Martin beautifully re-interpreted Lao Tzu's Tao Te Ching -- one of the world's oldest and most widely read books of wisdom -- expressly for parents. Now, he distills and freshly re-interprets the essence of each of the Tao's 81 chapters to speak directly and clearly to couples. William Martin's indelible, spirited, and sage advice, rendered in free verse, captures the ancient spirit of Lao Tzu's original text, yet speaks directly to modern lovers--and to the full sweep of their experiences and emotions. A deeply felt alternative to advice books that urge readers to manipulate their partners rather than to love them, The Couple's Tao Te Ching is for everyone who has embarked upon a loving relationship, which, as William Martin says, "can be the most rewarding and enlightening adventure possible."

Created for Commitment


A. Wetherell Johnson - 1982
    Wetherell Johnson, from her overseas mission work to the founding and remarkable growth of Bible Study Fellowship.