China Books

my 21 month & 3.5-yr-old daughters love reading this book together & separately, each on her own level - highly recommended; each of the 7 sisters has a special skill, each is valued, each contributes to the good of their family (no parents in this story); my husband was concerned for the dragon, a plot line dropped somewhat abruptly, but the girls just love it!

I read this to my 4 1/2 year old. We started with The Story About Ping, and then looked for other books about China. Before reading The Seven Chinese Sisters, we read Mei Mei Loves the Morning, Dim Sum for Everyone and Good Morning, China.

Although The Seven Chinese Sisters doesn't give a lot of cultural information on China within the text, the pictures do. It's set in a picturesque valley with mountains in the background. A small village with traditional Chinese houses is near the river running through the valley. Across the bridge is a forest, and through the forest and up the mountain is where the dragon lives. Although the dragon takes the youngest sister, he isn't terribly fierce, so he shouldn't scare a young child who is having the story read to her (at the end of the story I mentioned to my daughter that the dragon is pretend, and that dragons are only in books and sometimes on TV, but they are just pretend...since we've talked about the concept of pretend/real in the past, she understood right away).

I like that when the sisters see that the dragon is starving, they say they will bring him noodle soup tomorrow (today they have to get Seventh Sister home because "she's all worn out, and she needs her diaper changed"). Unfortunately, the story never says that they did take the dragon any soup, so I turned the pages back to where they made the promise and explained to my daughter that the sisters brought him some soup the next day. I wish the author had included that in the story.

My 3-year-old and I enjoyed reading this book together. She had a great timelearning about each sister and how everyone has her individual talents. I enjoy the book about individuality and self-reliance.

We first came across this book at the library. My then 5 year old daughter always talked about it after we returned it, so we decided to buy it for her 6th birthday. She loves pretending to be made into soup for the dragon!It's a fun book with wonderful illustrations and a fun story.

The story of how seven sisters work together to brave the unknown danger and the known danger of a dragon is delightful. My two daughters love this story. My youngest wasn't interested in it as I started reading, but by the 3rd or 4th page, had put down her crayon and was watching and listening intently. The tale of sisters helping each other and that each has a different but equally valuable talent is a good lesson. Both my girls loved the colorful pictures. It has remained on the top of our read a loud pile for quite awhile...and even made it to school as a favored show and tell.

This is the account by Wu Ningkun and his wife Wu Ningkun and his wife Li Yikai, of their persecution in Communist China over several decades.

Wu Ningkun returned to China in 1951, from the United States, where he taught and studied at an American university, to serve China's new Communist regime.

He was repaid by persecution, denunciation and two long terms of imprisonment, starvation and torture in Red China's labour and "re-education" camps. Ningkun was sentenced to these horrors after he became critical of the lack of freedom of thought and speech in Communist China.

The book gives us a window into the horrors of the Mao tyranny, the Hundred Flowers Campaign and the demonic insanity of the Cultural Revolution.
Reading this account, we learn about the Orwellian brainwashing, that took place (and still does) in Communist China, known as "Thought reform" (This year hundreds of Tibetans have been sentenced to "re-education" in Chinese laoghais).
His wife with the young children, was dismissed from her job, and the family faced destitution, persecution and starvation.

The labels that were thrown about by hysterical Red mobs, such as "counterrevolutionaries", "imperialists and "capitalist running dogs" are still bandied about by the Red Chinese and by the hard left around the world today.
Indeed Ningkun was denounced for quoting Winston Churchill who was branded as an "arch-imperialist warmonger".
Indeed President George W Bush is in good company in being villified by the left for his brave stand against terror and Islamo-Nazism.

Those denounced during the Cultural Revolution were forced to wear armbands labelling them as "counterrevolutionaries". "rightists" etc, in a move reminiscent of Nazi Germany.
All the while China was being force fed on Mao's vile works on Mao's vile works- still sickeningly part of the staple diet of sections of the International Left today.
The total war on freedom and a nation's ancient traditions, and the Satanic monstrosity of Communism are starkly revealed in this book.

Wow! I was especially impressed with the clarity with which both the husband and the wife wrote. It is written intellectually, yet with readability. Wu and his wife endured sufferings for actions that they were falsely accused of, yet their love for one another and for their family heightened throughout the entire nightmare. Being sent to prison for 30 years for returning to your own country in order to make it a better place is something that few of us could withstand, yet Wu withstood and became a better person for it. This is one of the best books that I have ever read. It inspires the reader to take a closer look at priorities, and leaves the reader with a deep sense of loss for the authors on one hand, yet a deeper sense of gain in areas of life unseen.

Rarely does a book capture the ways that a family can find purpose and forgiveness in the face of cruelty from others. This detailed account of the imprisonment of the father and eventual banishment of the entire family to a rural village in China puts a face on the experiences of educated persons during Mao's rule. In the same tradition as Viktor Frankl's book, Man's Search for Meaning, the author's descriptions and reflections show the resilience and depth of the human spirit. This book is extremely informative about the Maoist regime and inspiring about the strength of persons to survive and thrive in the harshest of circumstances. One of the best books I've ever read.

Wu Ningkun's "A Single Tear" is an excellent look at a young Chinese man whose decision to return to China from America after the 1949 Mao Zedong revolution has lasting and potentially tragic implications for both him and his family. Like many Chinese who emigrated to other parts of the world after WWII, Wu believes that China will be able to enter a better, prosperous and independent phase with the new Mao regime. Although quickly disillusioned, Wu and his family remain, subject to imprisonment, deprivation, and humiliation, especially during the infamous "Cultural Revolution" of the 1960s. By the time of Mao's death in the 1970s, the Wu family has been moved -- separately and together -- from city to country and back again, persecuted for their religious beliefs (Christian), and distrustful of neighbors and friends with the constant denunciations that have become standard. This book will show you what I have heard firsthand in China: the destruction of the intellectuals and "old" by a new generation with no sense of the past. Very moving and inspirational.

This is a very well written memoir by a husband and wife, about their life in communist China in the 50's and 60's, in which they survived prison, hunger, separation, to name a few. In one part of the book, she tells about how she was assigned to a job post by the government, away from her baby. Since she wouldn't be able to breastfeed, she had to buy milk on the black market! There were no luxuries such as going to the grocery store to buy baby formula. And yet, she deals with it and copes! That's not the worst of what they had to go through! This couple sets the definition for strength of charactor. Very inspiring and enriching book.

This is not just a book but a comprehensive education for anyone concerned with the love-hate relationship between American and China. Too bad it came out at such a late date. To me, both and Korean and Vietnam wars might have been avoided had it come out in the late 1940s or early 1950s

simply using the United States, via Stilwell. The war with the Japanese was a convenience in aid of the real issue--waging war against the Communists.

This book's triumph begins with a brilliant idea: Barbara Tuchman's decision to combine a biography of Gen. "Vinegar Joe" Stilwell with a history of China's failed republican revolution. To an amazing degree, Stilwell showed up as history was happening in China after the collapse of Qing Dynasty in 1911. During the Second World War, he played a leading - and doomed - role in United States' relationship with the incompetent, corrupt regime of Chiang Kai-shek. As a result, Stilwell is a perfect vehicle through which to explore the United States' tragic relationship with China for most of the last century. Stilwell is fascinating - tough, smart, curious about the world around him, disdainful of pretense, entirely lacking in tact and patience. In some ways, he was the perfect man to try to coax Chiang into actually fighting the Japanese who were devouring China in the `30s and `40s: Stilwell spoke fluent Chinese, knew Chinese culture, admired Chinese people, had faith in the beleaguered Chinese soldier's ability to fight - and was a brilliant battlefield tactician. In other ways, he was precisely the wrong man for the job: He lacked the temperament to hide the contempt he felt for the Generalissimo and the corrupt sycophants around him. As a result, Stilwell was ineffective in his dealings with Chiang. Then again, perhaps no one could have persuaded Chiang, who emerges here as equal parts stupid and arrogant (with an equally sickening wife), to defend his country instead of his own narrow interests. Tuchman strikes a nice balance between sweeping themes and intriguing, even funny details. True, I sometimes got lost in the narrative. I couldn't always remember the characters, and I got confused on military strategy - so much so that I couldn't evaluate the wisdom of Stilwell's plan for an aggressive ground offensive to retake Burma from the Japanese and weigh it against a rival plan from the British. At least one of its themes - the way a muzzled media presented a wildly misleading impression of Chiang's regime to the U.S. public - struck this reader as particularly timely.

Who was Joseph Stilwell? What part did he play in the unfolding of Chinaýs troubled century? It has been said that "men make a lot of history, and history makes a lot of men." To what extent was Stilwell "made" by the history he lived through? And how might the recent history of China have been different if another were in his position? How did the relationship between Stilwell and Chiang Kai-Shek (Jiang Jieshi) affect their joint ability to save China from the Japanese? To what extent was the conflict between them made irrelevant by the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki? Chiang Kai-Shek always said that the Japanese were a disease of the skin, but the Communists were a disease of the heart. Was he correct to hold back from fighting the Japanese so that he could spare his reserves for the inevitable conflict with the Communists? Might he have been more effective on both fronts if he had been more aggressive against the Japanese? And how would present day China be different if the Gomingdang rather than the Communist Party had been running China for past 50 years? What implications does this story have for the "Taiwan question?"

Nothing stands out more in my study of 20th Century China, than the frustration of so many situations where there were simply no good choices. Of course, I am not Chinese, so I suppose I am able, because of that, to view the period with some measure of detachment. But I was born in Tokyo, and grew up in the north of Japan, so, while I am always viewed as a foreigner in Asia, I am, in fact, a child of Asia, and keenly interested in what factors contributed to the painful history China has lived since the revolution of 1911.

One of the most interesting comparisons in this book is between Joseph Stilwell, and Claire Chennault. Barbara Tuchman clearly favors Stilwell, to the point where I would say that if this book were your only source of information about Chennault, and who he was, you probably would not have a very high opinion of him. But even Tuchman must admit that Claire Chennault had much better rapport with Chiang Kai-Shek than Stilwell.

Let me try to phrase the matter in very basic terms: Joseph Stilwell was a brilliant general whoýs relational skills, and more importantly his relationship sense was seriously wanting. Throughout the book, I am struck, not by a deficiency of intelligence, or determination, or persistence, but by a lack of basic humanity. This deficiency hangs over Stilwell like a cloud, polluting his relationships with those with whom it was most important for him to get along.

For starters, he was one of the ungodliest officers in the history of the U.S. Army. To his daughter, he wrote about the "criminal instincts I picked up by being forced to go to Church and Sunday School, and seeing how little real good religion does anybody, I advise passing them all up and using common sense instead." This cynical godlessness expressed itself in many ways. Stilwell was generally contemptuous and disrespectful toward those with whom he disagreed (mostly Chiang Kai-Shek). This was a source of irritation to FDR, who felt that Chiang Kai-Shek was a head of state, and ought to be accorded the level of respect due one in that position. Stilwell did not see it that way. He constantly referred to Chiang in his diary as "Peanut," or "Hickory Head." Several times he referred to FDR himself as "Rubber Legs." The Japanese he called "buck-toothed bastards."

Both Churchill and MacArthur possessed a spiritual dimension that was completely foreign to Stilwell. Churchill used to say, "In war, resolution; in defeat, defiance; in victory, magnanimity; in peace, goodwill. Stilwell probably should be given credit for understanding the first point, and perhaps the second in some measure. But for the rest of it, he was clueless. No, I mean really, completely clueless. When MacArthur ruled Japan as a virtual dictator after World War II, he issued a request for 10,000 missionaries. He also contacted the Gideons and requested as many bibles as they could supply. Whatever one may say about MacArthurýs personal spiritual life, he did understand that the essential problem of post-war Japan was a spiritual crisis. Stilwell had no such insight. Following a tour of the gutted and burned out districts of Yokohama after World War II, he said, "We gloated over the destruction and came in feeling fine."

At one point, after he had been removed from China, he allowed himself to believe that he would be chosen over MacArthur for command of forces in the Pacific. By Godýs mercy, he was not chosen, and the Japanese people experienced the big-heartedness of MacArthur.

This book is old. It came out in 1971. In spite of that, this is a very useful book. Barbara Tuchman was a war correspondent who personally witnessed much of the Sino-Japanese war during the 30s. She is very thorough, detailed and organized. She also possesses a level of objectivity which is refreshing in this day and age when so much written history is editorial in nature.

I have been pretty hard on Stilwell. Perhaps I have been so turned off by his acerbic nature that I have tended not to appreciate his brilliance as an officer. Marshall, who was always Stilwellýs strongest supporter, said that Stilwell was "his own worst enemy." The point, here, I guess, is that many good qualities can be obscured by a little bit of folly. Nonetheless, this, as I said, is a very useful book. It isnýt all about Stilwell. It is about a very important point in Chinaýs history, and the way personality affected policy. Understanding the American experience in China is critical to comprehending how events developed toward the culmination of the conflict, in 1949.

"Stilwell and the American Experience in China" is a very interesting biography of one of America's great military leaders. It engages the reader on several levels.

Mrs. Tuchman weaves a study of an era in China's history around the biography of General Stilwell. The period spans approximately one hundred years, beginning with the Opium Wars of the mid 19th century. The history concludes with the Chinese Communists' assumption of power in 1949. Barbara Tuchman's research and analysis of the events and people who lived during this period provide a partial explanation for the success of the Communist revolution. She accomplishes this through her intriguing character studies of the main protagonists, Chiang Kai-shek, Mao Tse-tung, and President Franklin Roosevelt. The character studies suggest the motivation for their decisions.

Mrs. Tuchman also effectively exposes the vastly different management styles of the Allied military and political leaders. They include Churchill, Mountbatten, Roosevelt, Marshall, Eisenhower, Chiang Kai-shek, and Stilwell. She reveals how these men attempted to exert influence over each other in deciding the conduct of the war. She identifies which men prevailed in these negotiations. This book would serve as an excellent reference on management for either civilian or military leaders.

Mrs. Tuchman also provides interesting insights into the personalities of Major General Claire Chennault of the Flying Tigers and General George Marshall, who also authored the plan that restored Europe's economy after the war. She helps us understand the basis for their fame and determine whether they were worthy of the recognition they received.

Finally, this is a compelling biography of a man who played a significant role in World War II, but received little recognition during his lifetime. She details the reasons why General Stilwell is not as famous or held in the same regard as the other great military leaders of WWII. Even so, Mrs. Tuchman's analysis forces the reader to conclude that General Stilwell's devotion to this country and the people of China was unsurpassed.

I would like to see this book released again, so that more people can learn about General Stilwell and America's relationship with China during World War II.

There are no words adequate to convey the effect THE STONES CRY OUT had on me when I read it in 1986. It haunted me for years. I wanted everyone I knew to read it.

Just several years ago I met a woman whose entire family - her husband and all her children - died under the Khmer Rouge monsters.

Amazingly, after the stories Miss Szymusiak recounts: of the young girl who was killed for being too pretty, of those murdered for daring to exhibit signs of affection for one another, and of unspeakable tortures inflicted upon absolutely helpless and innocent people of all ages, the chapter which really drained my blood was the one detailing her witnessing the beginning of the purge. The author notes the young Communist cadres being themselves called in for interrogation and torture and disappearing one by one.

This is a chilling account of the darkest period in 20th Century history.

One of the earliest (1986) accounts from the survivors of the Pol Pot regime, "The Stones Cry Out" seems to have set the style and standard for another more recent child's-eye perspective on the same era, "When Broken Glass Floats". The minute details of everyday life, not abstract poltical assessments, form the basis for our childhood memories. The author's account carries an unvarnished realism which draws the reader into her film-like image of daily life under threat of starvation and execution. This is probably as close as a reader can come to the truth of events in Cambodia during 1975-79. Oral histories such as "The Stones Cry Out" are perhaps the best way for survivors of human rights abuses to indict the perpetrators. Sadly, tribunals driven by international politics are unlikely to have the same impact as the simple testimony of a victimized child. Highly recommended reading for all those with an interest in human rights, Cambodia, and Southeast Asian culture.

You need a strong stomach to read the grueling ordeal of a 12 year old girl in Cambodia under the Pol Pot regime.
The latter and his cronies turned a whole country into a concentration camp guided by the iron fist of a centrally planned economy which was based on rice production quotas.
Starvation and killing of whole families including babies were part of normal daily life. The author herself lost nearly all her family.
The slogan was 'be deaf and dump if you want to survive'.

Exceptionally, this book also relates the disturbing facts which happened in a Red Khmer camp in Thailand until one year after Pol Pot's defeat by the Vietnamese.

Molyda Szymusiak tells only the facts. She doesn't explain the overall picture of Pol Pot's regime, politically, socially, economically or internationally.
Therefore I highly recommend the eminent works of David Chandler as well as Philip Short's magisterial biography of Pol Pot (Saloth Sar).

This book shows painfully the disastrous consequences of a power grasp by ideological fanatics who created a one party state bureaucracy which wielded total uncontrolled power over the population.
This regime was a terrible shame for the left.

A very disturbing read.

My heart sank lower and lower with each successive chapter. This is certainly not a book one can read while couching comfortably on a sofa. If you are familiar with Cambodian history of the Khmer Rouge regime, this book is indeed a chilling read. But at the same time, one can't help feeling admiration for the author's fortitide in the face of unimaginable hardship and horror.

Actualy I would rate this 4 and 1/2 stars.

Having read "First they killed my father" by Loung Ung It would be difficult for me to review this book with out comparing it to Loung Ung's memoir.

Both are essentially the same story, a young upper middle class girl living in Phnom Phen in april of 1975 when thier life, family and happiness are torn from them by the khmer rouge.

Many of thier experinces are similar as you might expect (long hours in forced labor, family deaths, witnessing murder ect..) but each has a unique story of thier own.

The writing styles also vary greatly and this is where Loung's "First they killed my Father is the better" book. Molyda tells her story in a very straight foward manner. Her discriptions of murder, torture and rotting corpses are alomost clinical in tone as if she is afaid to visit or express her real feelings at the time (and who could realy blame her) we are giving only hints about her family and life before April 17th 1975 (to be fair this may be in part to spare distant family members still in Cambodia from retalation)

In Loung's book however we are treated to two light hearted chapters discribing her life in Phnom Pehn before April 17th 1975 this gives the reader a chance to feel they realy know her, her brother's, sisters and parents thier strengths and weakness'.

Loung's memoir is far more emotional in tone and feeling leaving the reader almost gasping for air at points.

For those overly squimish that makes "The Stones Cry Out" the better of the two books. It is also the better of the two books if your sole interest is the surrounding history of the killing fields.

But for those just wishing to read a great emotional book "first They killed My father" is the better choice but I would highly recomend both to all.

i love the stories that is connected to tibetian culture and reading it to my baby girl its a great read

My daughter and I attend a Family Dharma class that teaches from a primary text for adults, but the class is geared towards little kids as far as time and content. However I really felt we needed some literature that was on her level (she is 6) and had images. Tibetan Tales was perfect. There are several stories that can be read individually and discussed. Some we had already heard and it was nice to go over them again with illustrations this time. This is an excellent book to begin teaching your child about Buddhism and can be read over and over with new meanings as your child gets older.

What a wonderful book! It delights all the senses. The paintings alone are fantastic. Naomi is a talented artist who is able to connect her readers more closely to the stories through her paintings. The stories are valuable for children of all ages... stories we all need to hear, know, and think about in our lives. I highly recommend this book for everyone. I keep it on my coffee table.

This book shares three tales from the Tibetan culture, written for children, but chock full of insights--both cultural and spiritual--for all ages. The illustrations are beautiful and expressive. The stories are well written. For all of the stories, there is Tibetan script alongside the English text. There is also a listing of Tibetan words and meanings that are used in the stories. It is definitely a gift that I will continue to others.

Featuring a brief foreword by His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Tibetan Tales For Little Buddhas is both an engaging children's picturebook and a fascinating introduction to another culture. The three tales, "Yeshi's Luck", "Jomo and the Dakini Queen", and "Chunda's Wisdom Quest" are presented in Tibetan and English. Warm color illustrations help display a picture of Tibetan daily life in this unique folklore treasury recommended for family, school, and community library collections. Tibetan Tales For Little Buddhas will prove to be as enjoyable for parents as it is for their little ones.

i liked the pictures in the book though there is not a whole lot of written material on Tibet. it is a perfect book for someone who is curious about Tibet with all its beatiful pictures and some history. this is a good book to ocassionally go through the pictures again. it is an excellent book to show to a friend who drops by your house or a gift to your children.

The following is a review of The Tibetans: Photographs by Art Perry that appeared in the December issue of Photo Metro magazine.

Perhaps the best book to date on Tibet. This work goes beyond the easy cliche images of dramatic landscapes and content-less smiling figures that populate so many other books. This is no parachute in, shoot pix, and fly out to publishers and galleries book. Perry spent five years on the project and represents both the beauty and the grit of day-to-day life. It shows. The book is quite well designed with intelligent text by Robert Thurman.

The following is a review of Art Perry The Tibetans: Photographs that appeared in The Toronto Globe and Mail, April 8, 2000.

(Headline:"Turning the spotlight on photography books," by Martin Levin.) For many years, B.C. writer and photographer Art Perry has documented threatened cultures, including the Nubians and the Mayans. Here he turns his attention, and his fine black-and-white photographic sensibility, on Tibetans, the world's most famous enigmatic people. Perry takes us to remote monasteries, up the Chang Tang Plateau and to the Tibetan exile communities in India and Nepal. The whole conveys a powerful sense of meaning - and loss.

The following article appeared in The Vancouver Sun, May 10, 2000

'Tibetan images snag major prize for local photographer' by Michael Scott, Sun Visual Art Critic

Vancouver photographer Art Perry has won a major international award for his large-format photographic book The Tibetans: Photographs. Perry, an instructor at Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design, becomes the second winner of the $30,000 Roloff Beny Photography Book Award at a ceremony in Toronto. (Magnum photographer Larry Towell received the first Beny Award for his book El Salvador.) The publisher of Perry's 1999 book, Viking Studio (an imprint of Penguin Books), will share in the award, receiving a $20,000 prize of its own. Perry spent five years collecting images of Buddhist societies in the Himalayas, working primarily in Tibet, but travelling also to Ladakh and Nepal. Last year, the Washington Post named his book one of the year's 10 best. A Vancouver Sun reviewer wrote: "Perry takes us from the slightly familiar markets and brothels of Lhasa clear through to the monasteries and mountaintops that have not been otherwise documented. The text is as clear-eyed as the pictures, but the message it contains is not entirely pretty. Though Buddhism practiced by the Tibetans will certainly endure, Tibetan Buddhist culture is very much under attack, perhaps by we western cultural imperialists, certainly by the country's Chinese occupiers. Read it, or just look at the pictures, and those Free Tibet bumper stickers will seem a lot more immediate." Here in Vancouver, Perry teaches a multi-disciplinary course at Emily Carr on the history of bohemianism - a course that covers film, punk rock and jazz as well as visual art. (I start by telling my students to stay up all night before coming to class," he jokes.) Perry also teaches a course in contemporary literature, a field that has sparked his interest in his own Irish roots. He says he will spend part of the Beny prize money on a sabbatical year in County Monaghan in northern Ireland. Perry plans to pursue both writing and photography during this time. "I have to say I am very, very honoured to be receiving this award," he says. "My father had some of Roloff Beny's big books and I grew up handling those incredible pages. There aren't people in those images, but they were lush and magnificent." Expatriate Canadian photographer Roloff Beny made an international name for himself in the 1970s and early 1980s chronicling a world of sensual beauty, with major large-format books on subjects such as pre-revolutionary Iran and Italy. He died in 1984.

The following is an article that appeared in the National Post, Toronto, May 11, 2000

(Headline: Photography book award, by Finbarr O'Reilly, National Post)

Vancouver-based photographer Art Perry has won the second Roloff Beny Photography Book Award for The Tibetans. The country's top photography book award, presented last night in Toronto, earns Perry a cash prize of $30,000. His American publisher, Viking Studio/Penguin Putnam, also gets $20,000, while two runners-up, Courtney Milne and Linda Rutenberg, get $5,000 each. Perry, who is a lecturer at the Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design, spent five years travelling throughout Tibet and the exiled Tibetan communities in India and Nepal, documenting with a camera the people he met along the way - monks, nomads, city dwellers. Through the Dalai Lama, Perry gained access to seldom-visited monasteries in remote regions where he captured a traditional way of life that is being threatened by the Chinese occupation of Tibet. In a current project, the Ottawa-born Perry has been documenting in both writing and photographs the fractured cultures of Northern and Southern Ireland. The project, which he began in 1998, is a lifelong dream of Perry, whose family is from Belfast. The award was created in memory of Roloff Beny, a world-renowned photographer who was born in Medicine Hat, Alta., and is intended to encourage excellence in photograph publishing.

This book is a charmer full of well-crafted and wise tales. I recommend it to anyone desiring nuggets of ancient insight about human nature.

This wonder book brings Chinese wisdom to the reader, who has no prior knowledge of Chinese history, through delightful, inspiring stories. The stories (there are more than a hundred in the book) may be well-known in China, but not in the West. Most of them I read for the first time and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I've learned a lot from this precious volume. I'm going to apply some in my life.

China has long presented the Western world with stories of folklore and proverbs; this contains stories relevant to business success, retelling Chinese tales to fit the business model. No prior knowledge of Chinese history and folklore is required in order to appreciate these fine tales of wisdom.

This is a unique book for those who seek wisdom from Chinese classics to apply in their career and life. A one-stop shopping for quintessential Chinese wisdom conveyed through more than a hundred of delightful stories by a remarkable author. For a lay person like me, no prior knowledge of Chinese history is required. I love the book's beautiful design and elegant calligraphy. Nichloas Kristof of New York Times sums it up better than I can when he says: "Treat this as a story book, and you will be entertained; treat this as a history book, and you will learn the richness of Asia's past; treat this as a book of wisdom, and you will be inspired."

If you have time to read only one book on Chinese wisdom, this is the one that will surely uplift you, enlighten you, inform you and entertain you. I love the book for its wide scope, its witty stories and inspiring messages, its elegant package and its practical application to many aspects of modern life. The author's insightful comments at the end of each story are very helpful for me to fully appreciate its embedded wisdom. I visited the author's web site michaeltang.com and would like to recommend it to all interested readers. The author's uncommon experience and accomplishment make the message of his book all the more valuable.

I put this up there with the Vietnam novels of Tim O'Brien. I was blown away by it. Too bad more people have not heard of it. Please read this book!

This is one of the best books written by a combat soldier in Vietnam. You travel with Ehrhart from his home in Perkasie, PA to boot camp and then to some of the most harrowing fighting of the Vietnam War. But this isn't just another great war story. There's a personal voyage of discovery--as there is in many war stories. But this one is into a deep and broad wondering, not just about the nature of war and the feelings roused by killing and seeing death, but into a broader horror about the truth of this war. Ehrhart slowly peels back the layers of his awakening, not so much to any truth, but to a series of questions about his own gullibility (perfectly understandable) and a nation's gullibility. The truth as it is revealed seems too simple to Ehrhart; the twisting of honorable intentions too obvious. But if he get's it, many of those he faces upon his return do not. What to do? Write about the simple yet profound truths he found in Vietnam, and keep writing about them since the follow-up books are very moving and affecting portraits of a man being honest about himself, and in the process divulging powerful insights about our nation. The personal in this case makes big points about who are all are as Americans. Can't recommend his writing highly enough.

In this story, Ehrhart beautifully tells of the I Corp Marine's experience in '67-68. The cost, both physically and spiritually,to the soldier has to my mind never seemed so true. Can the innocence and ignorance, if indeed they are different things, last in the face of the reality of war's warped and mishapen environment? What happens to the soldier when faced with his own ignorance and the evils of war, for which he is in many ways responsible? The tension between the two different Ehrharts in the book lies in the attempt to justify his actions in Viet Nam to himself, and if nothing else, to find some comfort even from outside himself. He is both proud and disgusted (I wish I had a stronger word here) by his "accomplishments" in Viet Nam. Where do we find ourselves when the conflict is over? The answer is perhaps nowhere, perhaps in the shower. (You must read the book to understand my last statement):)

Was required reading in a class I took about the Vietnam War. Reading this memoir rapidly went from a school assignment chore to pleasure. I read the next two books in the series the following summer. Ehrhart exposes his inner self on the page to the point where it can actually be somewhat difficult to read. He gave a lecture to our class at the end of the semester, and it was quite moving. Do check it out.

The Vietnam war, what was it like for a combat marine? Read this book and its sequel to find out. Mr. Ehrhart is a gifted storyteller. His story is unique. It's amazing how little it is referred to in bibliographies.

Hooper's book is no less than a work of a genious. What makes this work so great on the one hand is its scope as it covers chinese literature from its beginings up to the twentieth century, the various genres of literature and poetry that existed along the Chinese history and the fact that it provides excellent introductions to each and every subject it deals with (including historical introductions), and on the other hand, it's greatness lies in the fact that many of the works in it are lesser-known pieces by Hong Kong authors that Hooper discovered. The treatment of Lee Ding Fai is not as good as the rest of the book, but otherwise absolutely recommended.

This is an excellent resource for students/scholars of commonwealth and postcolonial literatures--I recommend it highly.

I liked this book, but I disagreed with the author's view on the functin of chiasmus in Timoth Mo's work. Other than that, first rate.

This is indeed a path-breaking book. Hooper has not only brought together in a most readable, even entertaining, manner a mass of widely different writings and sources; he has also provided us with a persuasive historical framework within which the further study of the hitherto neglected history of Hong Kong literature will be pursued. The book's steady attention to the diversity of Hong Kong literature is one of its striking achievements.

This pioneering volume explores Hong Kong culture and identity through the work of three writers--Timothy Mo, Ding Fai Lee, and Patrick Acheson--in the light of the region's literature as a whole. Sophisticated yet accessible, this book is a unique contribution to ongoing debates about identity and culture in Hong Kong. I found this an excellent introduction to Hong Kong writing from a studied, academic viewpoint, and I highly recommend it for anyone interested in postcolonial literature in the Asian context.

Walking the Gobi by Helen Thayer

This book is an enthralling account of the fulfilling of a lifelong dream to cross the Gobi desert.

This book relates the various stories of the adventure, however it was the introduction that compelled me to read the entire book. I had selected this book by accident not sure I wanted to read about the activities of a 63 year old woman and her 74 year old husband. After reading the introduction, I was hooked and needed to read on. I thought how incredible the rest of the book must be if their 1500 mile trek through Death Valley and 4000 mile trek across the Sahara were mentioned in a single paragraph under the title of "Preparations", and then knowing that their accident 9 months before their planned departure, which needed two paragraphs to barely mention their various torn ligaments and muscles, ruptures and bruises, didn't keep keep them from their attempt.

Helen Thayer helps us feel the pain, the thirst, and the emotional highs and lows of their journey not only to complete the trek, but even to just survive it. However I think she is at her best when she is describing the many encounters they have with the Mongolian people, from officials to nomads. My favorite passage is when she describes an interrogation when they are imprisoned as suspected smugglers. She becomes irritated after being threatened with being shot and this leads to her chastising the officials with being disrespectful to their elders and shaming them for their rudeness. This description filled me with wonder and admiration for the sheer spunk and determination of this amazing woman.

Read this book if you want to read about an incredible adventure. Be prepared if this book leads you to dream bigger dreams, and leads you also to question any misconceptions you have about the life you can choose to live in your senior years.

I want to invite Helen Thayer over to dinner. Mainly I want to hear her stories again, and more of them. As soon as I closed Walking the Gobi and set it down on my kitchen table, I felt at the same time winded and awed, but hungry for more.

If you're reading this review, I'm sure you've read the synopsis: two people over age 60 decide to walk across 1500 miles of one of the least-studied deserts in the world. And they do it in the summer.

When Helen Thayer sat down to write this real-life adventure story, she must have known that she had something good. After all, the idea itself is impressive; it tugs at the ear and challenges the imagination. But Thayer does much more in Walking the Gobi than recount a long trek in a string of stories or patronize the reader by giving only summary and analysis of the journey's meaning.

Thayer's descriptions are careful and organized, educated and intuitive. She gives us the gift of recreating each day so we can experience them with her. Each day is numbered and recorded with useful detail- pointing out the unique moments that set it apart from the rest and reinforcing the monotonous heat, wind, and regional dangers that made the journey long and at times overwhelming.

Helen Thayer accomplished a truly great feat when she crossed the Gobi, but what's even better is that she wrote a book about it.

Happy adventuring!

Modern day adventurers do exist. This is the first thing the reader will realize wehn reading "Walking the Gobi" by Helen Thayer. Ms. Thayer brings the reader with us as she traverses one of the most dangerous places on earth, the Gobi desert. It details a journey she and her husband made across the Gobi desert. From page one, I could not really put the book down. With her we meet Mongolian tribesman, smugglers along the Chinease border, rare Gobi bears, desert scorpions and the occasional Mongolian bureaucrat. Throughout, Ms. Thayer never lets the reader forget how truly amazing and beautiful this part of the world is. Any expedition like this would be a challenge for any healthy individual, but Ms. Thayer manages her journey with an injured leg throghout most of the book. Through sheer mental fortitude Ms. Thayer wills herself to complete her journey across one of the most hostile environments on earth, on step at a time. This is a must read for anyone who enjoys the spirit of adventure.

"You're going WHERE?"

"WHY?"

These are the questions Helen Thayer is asked by the people she meets in Mongolia's Gobi Desert.

The answer to the first question is--walking across the Gobi Desert from west to east at its widest spot. One thousand six hundred miles in 81 days, to be exact.

The answer to the second question is more difficult to answer:
Because it's never been done before.
Because Mongolia has at last been opened to travelers, after nearly 80 years of isolation under Soviet rule.
Because there is no better way to challenge yourself (at age 63) or your husband (at age 74).
Because the Gobi is one of the least hospitable places on earth.
Because its people, few as they are, are among the MOST hospitable on earth.

Already established as one of the greatest explorer-adventurers of our time, Helen Thayer, with her husband Bill, travel across the world's second-largest desert with only two intransigent camels as companions. No radio contact, no support team; just a single local pilot whom they must meet at pre-established coordinates every twenty days for resupply. Over 81 days of hiking, they must encounter border guards, smugglers, wolves, thirst, scorpions, giant spiders, and sandstorms. In return, they meet perhaps the kindest and most gentle people on earth, who are more than willing to share what little they have with strangers.

Alternately sad, incisive, moving, and exciting, Helen's narrative keeps you turning the pages until--too soon--the journey is over.

Now what do we do? Go there ourselves?--no, few of us could survive that. So we do the next-best thing and read her older books--and eagerly await her next one.

In 2001, at age 63, the author achieved her life's goal of crossing Mongolia's Gobi Desert, accompanied by her 74-year-old husband and two camels. They walked 1600 miles in 126-degree temperatures - and WALKING THE GOBI recounts their adventure, which was undertaken without the usual support team, sponsors or even radio contact. The people and cultures of the Gobi desert come to life in this fine adventure read, a pick for any general-interest library where adventure travel is prized.

Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch