Reading and Writing Chinese has been the leading text for foreign students and teachers of the Chinese writing system since it was first published in 1978. This completely revised edition draws on the lessons learnt from the use of the book in classrooms so as to provide a more convenient and up–to–date introduction to the Chinese writing system. Over 1,100 new combinations of characters have been added, increasing the total vocabulary significantly to about 4,500 items. There are also new notes on usage to give students insight into the contemporary state of the language. The student's ability to read Chinese and write Chinese are reinforced throughout. For each of the basic 1,062 characters, the pronunciation, definition and derivation are given, with examples of the use of most words and a chart showing how to write each character. Memorization tips and cautionary cross–reference to look–alike characters are also provided, as well as notes to help clarify those overlooked aspects of the Chinese writing system. Key features of this book:-The Student's 1,020 List.-The Official 2,000 List.-Over 2,000 characters and 2,500 combinations.-Definitions and explanations. Standard Hanyu Pinyin romanization.-Memorization hints and stroke–order diagrams.-Hong Kong/Taiwan and China/Singapore forms.-Traditional and modern radical systems.

    Born in 1937, he spent much of his youth in Big Sur, California, where his parents bought a cabin from Orson Welles and transformed it into the world-famous Nepenthe restaurant, a gathering place for artists and bohemians. After attending a boarding school run by the disciples of Krishnamurti, an Indian guru, he studied painting at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, then traveled to England, where he made his home. After an inspiring trip to Inverness, Scotland, Fassett began designing knitwear for Bill Gibb, and then the Missonis, Vogue magazine, and private clients like Lauren Bacall and Barbra Streisand, and, in the process, revolutionized the handknitting world with his explosive use of color. Further explorations led him to needlepoint, mosaics, rugmaking, tapestries, yarn and fabric design, costume and set design, and quilting. Now in his seventies, Fassett continues to produce new work and to travel worldwide to teach and lecture. In this intimate autobiography, Fassett shares rich, detailed stories about his lifelong creative journey as well as hundreds of glorious photos taken along the way. Praise for Kaffe Fassett: Dreaming in Color: “Kaffe Fassett is to color what Julia Child was to French cooking.” —Knitters Review “Lavishly illustrated with photographs from his life and work and dishing on everyone from Dustin Hoffman to Princess Margaret, Dreaming in Color describes a charmed life filled with creativity, big personalities, travels and not a little serendipity.” —Vogue Knitting “Shapes and patterns are everywhere; they lie waiting for the person who wants to see them. It's the bricolage aspect behind his work and, arguably, Fassett himself: arranging disparate things to create something dynamic and new.” —Vogue Knitting “This book would be a beautiful gift to receive or give. It is like finding the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.”—Examiner.com “A glance through his new autobiography shows that this is a man who, in design terms, hit the ground running and has never stopped.” —Selvedge magazine“Dreaming in Color, lavishly illustrated with 500 color pictures, is a feast for the eyes.” — Shelf Awareness “Reading this book is like peeling an orange on a gray winter’s day—every single one of your senses is sparked as you get sprayed with infectious creativity.” —Knitty.com “Kaffe Fassett is a luminary in the world of textiles and knitting, spreading the gospel of color in his books and travels.” —The Houston Chronicle “It is a beautiful book, no question. Beautifully designed, thoughtfully composed, well-written, Kaffe takes you on his creative journey. We all—quilters, knitters, needlepointers, and just plain art lovers—are indeed very fortunate that he would share all of this with the world.” —Getting Stitched on the Farm “Fassett is a kind of Harrison Ford of the knitting world….” —The Washington Post “Kaffe Fassett is a luminary in the world of textiles and knitting, spreading the gospel of color in his books and travels.”—The Houston Chronicle “This book is a gorgeous coffee table treasure but it so much more than the vibrant photos, it is a moving and interesting autobiography and I am so glad it has been published. What a treat to read, hold, soak in and enjoy.” —Susan B. Anderson “Brimming over with beautiful eye-candy and intimate details, this colorful book is sure to charm and inspire.” —Love of Knitting magazine “One of the book’s many virtues is how effectively Fassett conveys his enthusiasm about his work to the reader. ‘I’m st

    Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty examines the full breadth of the designer’s career, from the start of his fledgling label to the triumphs of his own world-renowned London house. It features his most iconic and radical designs, revealing how McQueen adapted and combined the fundamentals of Savile Row tailoring, the specialized techniques of haute couture, and technological innovation to achieve his distinctive aesthetic. It also focuses on the highly sophisticated narrative structures underpinning his collections and extravagant runway presentations, with their echoes of avant-garde installation and performance art.Published to coincide with an exhibition at The Metropolitan Museum of Art organized by The Costume Institute, this stunning book includes a preface by Andrew Bolton; an introduction by Susannah Frankel; an interview by Tim Blanks with Sarah Burton, creative director of the house of Alexander McQueen; illuminating quotes from the designer himself; provocative and captivating new photography by renowned photographer Sølve Sundsbø; and a lenticular cover by Gary James McQueen.Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty celebrates the astounding creativity and originality of a designer who relentlessly questioned and confronted the requisites of fashion.

     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.

    Lauren Stowell and Abby Cox, owners of the popular online store American Duchess, have teamed together to recreate four complete dresses from the 18th century. Whether readers are experienced seamstresses or are new to hand sewing, they won’t want to miss this comprehensive guide. The projects include The English Gown, The Sacque, The Italian Gown and The Round Gown. Each project is broken down into easy-to-follow steps and Lauren and Abby tackle every detail—fabric, patterns, stitch techniques, accessories, shortcuts and troubleshooting. Whether you choose a romantic 1790s muslin gown or a grand sacque gown of silk taffeta, you will feel like you just stepped out of your favorite novel or period of history. Lauren and Abby’s company, American Duchess, has been featured on Late Night with Seth Meyers, Reno Gazette Journal, the Today Show and Garmz.com. Their historically accurate shoes have been used in productions by the New York Metropolitan Opera, Ford’s Theater, Broadway’s Cinderella, The Jimmy Fallon Show and The Knick. Lauren and Abby have over 32k Facebook followers and over 34k followers on Instagram.

    The authors analyze the lives and workd of women in both the fine and decorative arts from the Middle Ages until the 1970s.

    After five days under consular protection, Smith was evacuated from a very different China to the country he first visited 23 years earlier.The visit marked a new twist in Australia’s 50-year diplomatic relationship with China which was now coming apart at the seams. But it also symbolised the authoritarianism creeping into every aspect of society under President Xi Jinping over the last three years.From Xinjiang’s re-education camps to the tear-gas filled streets of Hong Kong, Smith’s account of Xi Jinping’s China documents the country’s spectacular economic rise in the years leading up to the coronavirus outbreak.Through first-person accounts of life on the ground and interviews with friends as well as key players in Chinese society right up to the country’s richest man, The Last Correspondent explores what China’s rise to become the world’s newest superpower means for Australia and the rest of the world.

    He returned with stories of exotic people, tremendous riches, and the most powerful ruler in the world – Kublai Khan. The explorer told of inventions ranging from gunpowder to paper money. The intellectual ferment and cultural diversity he described helped move Europe out of the Dark Ages and into the Renaissance. In his lifetime, people scoffed at his stories. But as this book explains, he changed the world.

    With subjects that both reflect the zeitgeist and contribute to its creation, each exhibi­tion—from 2005’s Chanel, to 2011’s Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty and 2013’s Punk—creates a provocative and engaging narrative attracting hundreds of thousands of visitors. The show’s opening-night gala, produced in collaboration with Vogue magazine and attended by the likes of Beyoncé, George Clooney, and Hillary Clinton, is regularly referred to as the Party of the Year.Covering the Costume Institute’s history and highlighting exhibitions of the 21st century curated by Harold Koda and Andrew Bolton, this book offers insider access of the first order. Anchored by photo­graphs from the exhibitions themselves in tandem with the Vogue fashion shoots they inspired, it also includes images of exhibited objects and party photos from the galas. Drawn from the extensive Vogue archives, the featured stories showcase the photographs of icons such as Annie Leibovitz, Mario Testino, Steven Meisel, and Craig McDean; the vision of legendary Vogue editors like Grace Coddington and Tonne Goodman; and the knowledge and wit of writers such as Hamish Bowles and Jonathan Van Meter.

    But the "poison dragons" of misfortune shatter his orderly existence. First, when his village is threatened by a vicious civil war, his family stability is threatened by his second son, a brutal rebel officer. Meanwhile, Yun Cai struggles to free an old friend, P'ei Ti, from a hellish prison—no easy task when P'ei Ti is the rebels' most valuable hostage, and Yun Cai sees himself only as a frightened old man. Throughout his ordeals, Yun Cai draws from the glittering memories of his youth, when he journeyed to the capital to study poetry, joined the upper ranks of the civil service, and secured the friendship of P'ei Ti. Above all, he reflects Su Lin, a great love he won and lost, and for which he paid with his freedom and almost his life. Yun Cai is forced to reconsider all that he is and all that he has ever been in order to summon the wit and courage to confront the warlord General An-Shu and his beautiful but cruel consort, the Lady Ta-Chi.

    Each book comprises all new stories, each one set in a distinct neighborhood or location within the respective city. In Hong Kong Noir, fourteen of the city’s finest authors explore the dark heart of the Pearl of the Orient in haunting stories of depravity and despair.Brand-new stories by: Jason Y. Ng, Xu Xi, Marshall Moore, Brittani Sonnenberg, Tiffany Hawk, James Tam, Rhiannon Jenkins Tsang, Christina Liang, Feng Chi-shun, Charles Philipp Martin, Shannon Young, Shen Jian, Carmen Suen, and Ysabelle Cheung.From the introduction by Jason Y. Ng & Susan Blumberg-Kason:What will Hong Kong look like in five years, ten years, or thirty years—when the “one country, two systems” promise expires? It’s impossible to foresee. Hong Kong’s future may not be within our control, but some things are. We can continue to write about our beloved city and work our hardest to preserve it in words. When we asked our contributors to write their noir stories, we didn’t give them specific content guidelines other than to make sure their stories end on a dark note. What we received was a brilliant collection of ghost stories, murder mysteries, domestic dramas, cops-and-robbers tales, and historical thrillers that capture Hong Kong in all its dark glory. The result is every bit as eclectic, quirky, and delightful as the city they write about.

    The first several chapters detail city life, social classes, housing, cooking and personal grooming. The later chapters cover the broader subjects of life cycle (birth, marriage and death rituals), and the yearly cycle (festivals, religions observances). Detailed and well footnoted. Pub: 1979

    Westerners are flocking to China in increasing numbers to chase their dreams even as Chinese emigrants seek their own dreams abroad, and life as an outsider in China has many sides to it - weird, fascinating and appalling... Edited by Tom Carter, this anthology falls under the genre of travel writing, yet travel is just the beginning of the adventure here.MEDIA REVIEWS"Great vignettes from world class writers...a celebration of the outsider's experience in China, in all of its juiciness and fetid rancour." --Time Out Shanghai"Excellent. Concise and truthful." --South China Morning Post"Although other anthologies have featured outstanding journalism about China by Western writers, Carter's collection is the first to focus on the wide-ranging experiences of foreigners living in China." --China Daily"The authors, mostly experienced writers who have traveled widely in China, offer tales beyond those of the usual laowai experience." --Shanghai Daily"The majority of stories are individual gems and an enjoyably diverse range of issues are found in the book." --Time Out Hong Kong"The moral of this collection appears to be that though almost everything has changed, one basic thing - the allure of China to a certain kind of Westerner - remains curiously consistent." --Taipei Times"Funny, poignant, and wry...the outcome is a depth and variety about the expat experience and life in China that is almost unsurpassed." --Asian Review of Books"Fast-moving romps through a rapidly-changing changing society." --Caixin"An eminently dip-into-able, informative and enjoyable collection." --That's Shanghai"One might be tempted to classify it as a travel book of sorts; what is being traversed and recollected throughout is not the lay of the land, but rather, the contours of confusion, excitement and isolation that every China expat has, at one point, had to clamber across and conquer." --The Beijinger"A surprisingly refreshing, instead of rehashing, collection of essays, written by professionals, instead of amateurs...at times hilarious, at times beautiful, but always relatable..." --China.Org"(Editor) Tom Carter has pulled together an impressive cast of writers, established and amateur alike." --Beijing Cream"If there is an overarching message to take from the book, it is that holy !@#$ China changes quickly." --Shanghaiist"The vignettes lead the reader through a variety of emotions; some will tug at your heartstrings, others will leave you chuckling in understanding, and a few will really make you think." --Shanghai City Weekend"Presents a more realistic China." --Li Jihong for Shanghai Review of Books"As a Chinese writer with a certain cynicism, I did not expect to find anything truly surprising. But surprised I was, and my own stereotypical presumptions stand corrected." --Xujun Eberlein for Los Angeles Review of Books"The result is a highly readable, often humorous, and at times brilliant book that is unerringly direct: the authors gathered together here do not shy away from troublesome issues." --Asian Correspondent"The title dis-serves them...the range, humor and insights in this book place it among the best of its kind." --Asia Sentinel

    The United States is the only nation with the scale and power to try to set the terms of its interaction with China rather than just succumb. So starting now, Americans need to consider the economic, environmental, political, and social goals they care about defending as Chinese influence grows.” —from “China Makes, the World Takes”Since December 2006, The Atlantic Magazine's James Fallows has been writing some of the most discerning accounts of the economic and political transformation occurring in China. The ten essays collected here cover a wide-range of topics: from visionary tycoons and TV-battling entrepreneurs, to environmental pollution and how China subsidizes our economy. Fallows expertly and lucidly explains the economic, political, social, and cultural forces at work turning China into a world superpower at breakneck speed. This eye-opening and cautionary account is essential reading for all concerned not only with China's but America's future role in the world.

    The patterns for selected garments have been updated for the modern silhouette.