China Books

Wang Ping's autobiographical first novel paints a searing, oppressive portrait of life in China, yet the narrator's indomitable will energizes the story, making the tone more driving than bleak.

Ni Bing's story opens with a graphic, but entirely unerotic depiction of the loss of her virginity to her married lover and mentor, Yan. Bing is a recent graduate of and new teacher at the Hangzhou Teacher's School, and Yan is helping her prepare for college entrance exams. With this longed-for goal in sight, she risks everything for their dangerous and unfulfilling relationship.

Haunted by a mystery about her birth which surfaces in bloody nightmares, Bing has felt alienated all her life. Flashbacks portray a lonely childhood during the Cultural Revolution, a virtual slave to a harsh but beautiful mother who was once "criticized" herself.

At 15 she escaped her family to plant rice in a rural reeducation village. The Party used her to denounce an inoffensive landowner's son, and Bing, shamed, worked even harder, rising long before sun-up to read.

The gripping beauty of the novel lies in Wang's depictions of physical labor and the Kafkaesque whirlpool of political danger. So vivid are Wang's images that the reader can feel the yoke of the coal cart on Bing's shoulders, the fear aroused by her paternal grandmother's mysterious rage, the cold dread of the interrogation, the slippery texture of rice gruel and fatty pork.

Walking in the rice fields: "My feet sank deep into the ooze of the mud and the droppings of cows, pigs, chickens. The fermented manure felt warm and comforting to my wounds." Her first hamburger: "I took a bite and almost threw up from the bloody grease oozing out of the ground beef."

Less successful is her relationship with Yan, an unappetizing and hysterically possessive man. Although Bing speaks of love, the reader feels only repugnance. She has used Yan as others have used her but she never seems to recognize this, even after she has surpassed him.

Wang, who has lived in New York since 1985 and is the author of a short story collection, "American Visa," has produced a gritty novel of survival, touched with the drama of family dynamics.

Wang Ping's novel was hard to put down. This novel describes a young girl from China and her difficult and at times life threatening life in China.The main charcter Ni Bing describes what she is willing to do in order to have an education and a life different from her family in China. She eventually is able to journey to America. After reading "Foreign Devil" I wanted to read another novel about Ni Bing.I still want to read more in order to see what happens to Ni Bing once in America. Wang Ping enables one to feel the life this young woman led.

In 1946 the British had once more triumphed against the Germans and the Japanese. Collis here dissects the highlights that led to the "Opium wars", actually skirmishes between Britain and China, where Imperial Britain gained ground over the Celestial Kingdom that had for so long treated them as Barbarians from which they gained some pecuniary advantage.

The Chinese remained conservative in their treatment of the British since the 18th century and had not grasped that by the mid 19th century Britain was a power to be reckoned with. By then, British had taken Opium trading with China to huge heights but her merchants were still greedy for yet more market space and getting shy of selling a common drug to China to enable them to make a profit.

This book is proud and British in flavour, comparing China to some extent with Japan that maintained a similar hubris as the Chinese. It is I think pretty objective and really well written, very gripping and revealing in its details.

The author has structured the work rather like a fantastic story in several acts. There are good maps and enough illustrations. It whets your appetite for more .... and I found this after reading Chris Patten's East and West and Tai Pan. This book was probably a source for Clavell's Tai Pan, Jardine being one of the original Tai Pan's of Hong Kong.

The Opium Wars directly lead to the birth of Hong Kong and was a sign of things going wrong for Imperial China. The British and French shamelessly muscled in on their advantage subsequent to the events of the 1840s. The Chinese always maintained their cool and were incapable of fighting back and as a land power, had to give way to the naval blandishments of the then western powers.

A really wonderful book if you're English, detailing aristocratic China and the elements of British Political hegemony and how they handled the unravelling of a staus quoe in China from which the crown had profiteered without candidly admitting it was from opium.

The author does not defent opium trading but is clear it was not a good thing. It was a game in which as is clear, Chinese officialdom was involved on a large scale.

A fascinating glimpse of the Chinese who normally seem to reveal so little of themselves, their values or their cultures to some of us barbarians.

Foreign Mud -- the phrase means "opium" in Chinese -- is a history of the commercial and diplomatic events that lead to the Anglo/Chinese Opium War of 1839-1842, when England attacked China to open up the latter to British trade. Author Collis tells the story with dry humor and copious quotes from contemporary Chinese and British documents, which document the cynicism and incomprehension reigning on both sides of the conflict. According to the back cover, historian A.J. P. Taylor called Foreign Mud: "A wholly admirable book, admirable as a work of history and admirable as a literary entertainment." For once the blurbs are right.

During his lifetime, His Eminence Kalu Rinpoche was widely regarded as a realized master by great teachers in all lineages of Tibetan Buddhism. He spent nearly fifteen years in solitary meditation in the mountains of Tibet, and achieved great realization. In this book, presenting teachings he gave at Kagyu Droden Kunchab in San Francisco, Rinpoche demonstrates his famed gentleness, humor, breadth of understanding and acceptance, and ability to vividly bring the dharma alive to Western students.

The text discusses practices central to the Vajrayana path in the Kagyu lineage of Tibetan Buddhism. Kagyu tradition stresses experience and contemplation as the mode of integrating the teachings, and the practices discussed here reflect that emphasis. Rinpoche gives clear, detailed instructions about each of the practices, but never fails to remind the reader that an authentic teacher and guide is essential to integrating them and assisting our development.

The ordinary preliminary practices are meditations on the Four Thoughts that Turn the Mind to Dharma--precious human existence, death and impermanence, karma, and samsara (the suffering of aimlessly cycling through existence). Rinpoche lucidly explains how these meditations help provide the discipline necessary for consistent practice and give rise to the hunger for the transformation that the "extraordinary" practices make possible.

"Extraordinary" here means just that--beyond the ordinary, or basic, practice of meditating on the Four Thoughts. In the Kagyu lineage, these practices are refuge and prostrations, Dorje Sempa (Vajrasattva) purification, mandala offering, and guru yoga. Each of these practices plays a vital role in helping to release our habitual clinging to self-created visions of identity that obstruct an understanding of true reality.

The sections on the vows and commitments explain the foundations for understanding the moral underpinnings of daily practice--how we prepare and tend to the ground on which to build a dharmic home. Rinpoche also discusses modes of meditation and introduces Mahamudra, a highly advanced topic.

The book is a useful tool for anyone interested in an introductory overview of the Vajrayana, and is essential as an introduction to those choosing to undertake the journey on this beautiful and liberating path.

Many books about Buddhism are written from the academic point of view. For practitioners (particularly of the Kagyu lineage) who want wonderful advice about specific practice issues, this is one of the best books available. The translation is excellent; clear and illuminating, the translator has also captured some of the author's intelligence and sense of humor. As someone who practices Shamata (Zhinay) and Ngondro, I have found this an indispensible resource.

As a Chinese studying in US, I collect old Chinese silvers for years. Before buying this one, I have several reference books from China and Taiwan. This is the best one in terms of the quality of writing. The collection shown by the photos is also very comprehensive, although I expect the photos to be larger. Overall, a great book for silverware collecors and those who love Chinese folk culture.
By the way, does any one know how to contact the author?

I used this book to train myself in judging the quality and authenticity of Chinese silver last year in markets throughout China (especially in Beijing). The book really teaches you what you need to know to understand the symbolism contained in the objects you encounter and it is really a book rooted in Anthropology. The examples in the book range from typical examples of things up to museum pieces . The photography is first rate and far better than that in Chinese books on the subject. The time and effort which went into writing this book as well as the collecting of these objects is clearly a labor of love . If you want to understand Chinese Silver this book has no equal . And even if you don't collect silver this book may be the best available analysis of typical Chinese Symbolism regardless of its focus on silver .

FRENCH FAIENCE covers many of the major factories in France and gives brief histories, descriptions of wares, photos, and a guide to the maker's marks. If you're collecting any of these potteries - Quimper, Malicorne, Desvres, etc., you should have this book in your reference library.

This is a very well rounded book on french faience. It covers several faience companies and has an index with identification marks. I would definately recommend this book to any french faience collector.

being a 43 year old, and not yet born durring this period of history, I found that the life of this gentleman was exremely interesting to say the least. The personal letters home where by themselves worth reading this fine book. How fortunate for us all that he survived, and through his account of his experience, we can learn of a time that young men and women of his generation, stepped up and saved this country, and the world, from tryany.

Chittenden's book is historical, inspirational and highly compelling. Few books are able to accurately portray life of the China Marine turned Japanese Prisoner of War. His book reminded me of the gratitude that is owed to all those men who sacrificed so much for our nation.

It makes you speachless

This is the best book ever written by Kalpana Misra! Buy it while it's in stock and before it sells out!

In 1954, two members of the Ecole Francaise d'Extreme Orient published a commendable scholarly work titled: Connaissance du Viet-Nam. Pierre Huard and Maurice Durand meticulously, but not laboriously, capsulized Vietnamese geography, history, education, agriculture, family relations, literature, and music, amid many other topics. Their essential thesis was that this economically impoverished nation has a bountiful cultural heritage.

Almost half a century elapsed before a work of comparable revelation emerged in English. The late and noted lexicographer Nguyen Dinh Hoa's cultural memoir proves the Huard and Durand thesis. The memoir focuses on Vietnamese customs and mores as the author experienced them growing up in Hanoi: Lining up for water at the community well; collection of night soil, a friend's accuracy with the slingshot, sleeping under a mosquito net, introduction to the martial arts at ten, burial of the placenta and umbilical cord, silversmithing techniques, and marketing of the urine of a pre-pubescent boy as a tonic. This personalized approach humanizes and vivifies what otherwise might have been dry text.

Hoa either had total recall or was the most fastidious keeper of a journal since Samuel Pepys. He lists the names and characteristics of his grade school teachers, and describes the menu offered to him on his arrival in New York in 1948. Woe to anyone who met Hoa since Hoa was five years old, and couldn't remember Hoa's name, for he surely would have remembered yours. Particularly for someone who spoke no English until his early twenties, he manifested a remarkable grasp of English idiom and nuance. In all the memoir's two hundred pages, only four slightly infelicitous expressions emerge. None interferes with meaning, and they are all too petty to elaborate on here.

This fabled memoir is an argument for nature over nurture. Hoa came from an illustrious family in which, for several generations, all the males have been named Nguyen Dinh this or that. In fact, in the memoir, the reader sometimes gets lost in the forest of Nguyen Dinh's.

The memoir is wisely non-linear. It does not pass directly from birth through adolescence to maturity, but skips entertainingly back and forth in time. For example, we learn about Mit, Hoa's wife, through her encounter with a stereotypically uncomprehending official of the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service, long before he tells us of their early betrothal.

Hoa's memoir is a revelation of the richness and humanity of Vietnamese culture, and a a welcome antidote for those whose image of Vietnam is shaped by Oliver Stone and Stanley Kubrick.

As a linguist, and also someone steeped in the history of Vietnam, no doubt Dr. Nguyen Dinh-Hoa has thought deeply about the symbolic significance of "Ha-Noi," named for Vietnam's northern capital. As the cradle of Vietnamese civilization, it literally means "the city inside the Red River," hence the title of the book. The word "Noi" in Vietnamese denotes "inside" and suggests either insulation or introspection. The word "Ha" on the other hand, means "river" and suggests flow, confluence, and change. In fact, Dutch, Portuguese, and British merchants in the 16th century had referred to the bustling city by the Red River as "Ke Cho" or "The Market Place." Thus, in the very title of Dr. Nguyen's work, "From the City inside the Red River," there exists already a tension between tradition and change--the tension that defines the essence of Vietnamese culture.

In his book, Dr. Nguyen covers at length the history and geography of Hanoi, or "The Old Capital" of Vietnam from the 11th century to the 19th century. At the same time, he weaves his personal history into the larger tapestry of his native city. The street where he was born and lived until early adulthood is at once imbued with rich historical context and future portent. It is called to this day "Pho Hang Bac" meaning "Silver Street." The French called this street "Rue des Changeurs" ("Moneychangers' Street.") It is one of the oldest streets in Hanoi and used to serve as the financial center of ancient Vietnam. Like Hanoi, Silver Street embraces both the Old World, and the change brought by commerce with the New World.

In Dr. Nguyen's memoir, historical changes occurred side by side with personal changes. Dr. Nguyen mentioned the Confucian tradition of "rectifying names," i.e., the formal ritual of changing a person's given birth name to mark the karmic change that transforms his or her personal essence. Dr. Nguyen translates this symbolic tradition into a loose American colloquialism, i.e., "how not to call a spade a spade." Dr. Nguyen's first name, Hoa, was given to him by his father, which means "The Peace-Loving One." In 1948, Dr. Nguyen received a scholarship to study at Union College, in Schenectady, New York. He was sponsored by Delta Upsilon Fraternity through a Union College Program called H.E.L.P. (Higher Education for Lasting Peace.) Delta Upsilon brothers immediately rechristened him "Wing-Ding," possibly a phonetic equivalent of his family name, "Nguyen Dinh." Ironically, the word "Wing-Ding" in American slang means an outburst, or a wild and raucous party, a meaning, and name that represents the direct opposite of Hoa, "the peace-loving one." As a fateful name, however, it captures perfectly the dual nature of Dr. Nguyen--an open, adventurous stranger in a strange land. In the dawn of post-war America, his new name "Wing-Ding" conjured up an aura of singsong childishness--perhaps unintended condescension-- if not racism, from his good-intentioned American brothers. But I cannot help but think that the name Wing-Ding was a liberating "rectification" for Dr. Nguyen. It allowed him to immerse into the piquant mores of mid-century America without losing his uniqueness. Wing-Ding thrived on whole milk and Coca-Cola. Wing-Ding played canasta in the afternoon with American housewives. Wing-Ding hitch-hiked across America.

As time went by, Dr. Nguyen "aka" Wing-Ding became a traveller across cultures, whose personal life adhered closely with the progress of his academic work in linguistics. Names of places and people in his life began to acquire double, finely shaded meanings. His first-born daughter is named Patricia My Huong, which means American Rose, and also Beautiful Rose of the Fatherland.

While Dr. Nguyen's cultural memoir represents a celebration of multi-ethnic confluences, at times his memoir highlights certain aspects of Vietnamese culture that are impossible to translate into an American context. Dr. Nguyen recounts his experience teaching English to a group of Vietnamese students in the 1950s, using a textbook containing words such as "tulips," "central heating," and "the tube"--words that imparted no concrete dimension to citizens of a tropical, then largely agrarian Vietnam. Conversely, Dr. Nguyen could not find any English word that captured the eccentric sensuality of certain Vietnamese fruits or dishes, such as mang cau, du du, banh chung, che dau xanh (custard apple, papaya, rice cake, mung bean pudding).

Tropical fruits and flowers as symbols and landscape signifiers exist throughout the book, creating a sense of Proustian nostalgia, a remembrance of things past that exists dominantly in the hearts and minds of overseas Vietnamese. Ultimately, Dr. Nguyen's cultural memoir represents a dual testament to mutability and survival. His memoir celebrates the endurance of the Vietnamese language through foreign domination, war and peace--enduring in its power to subvert the external into the internal, enduring in its ability to synthesize the cacophonous into the melodious whole. Toward the end of his book, Dr. Nguyen succinctly captures the wisdom of Nguyen Trai, a famous fourteenth century poet:

Let your children and grandchildren not worry about the meagerness of your assets, your poems and books as a treasure trove shall last ten generations !

The Frugal Gourmet cooks the 3 Ancient Cuisines was my favourite cooking series. This book is the perfect companion to the series.

This is an excellent cook book and this is the handy PB edition! It's full of great recipes and stories by a very talented cook and writer. This one focuses on 3 major influences in the culinary world. Jeff Smith entertained us for years on his PBS program 'The Frugal Gourmet'. Not only did he teach us many savory dishes, he also educated us. Not satisfied with just cooking delicious meals for his viewers, he would give detailed history lessons about the origins of the dish and made it all a lot of fun!

This may be Mr. Smiths best cook book and it is a worthy edition to everyone's cook book library. I own and have read many, if not all of his cook books, not only for the man's knowledge of cooking, but his incredible wit! This guy was funny and I would have loved to have hung out and throw a few beers down with him.

Unfortunately, this man had some very seriously bad press released about his personal life and well..... I am not one to spread rumors.....he seemed like a great guy and sadly he died before he was able to clear his name.

R.I.P. Frugs!

Only a sha-kuwa who doesn't know his Chinese food here in Asia doesn't know who Pei Mei is. She is a quick-wokin' jive-talkin' hot mama in the Chinese culinary world. She is the Julia Child of dumplings and roast duck. She has spanned 3 generations teaching the Chinese here in Southeast Asia (with her syndicated cooking show) the ways of the cooking mastah! Well, sad to say, the only available book here is a single edition... you should offer all of her books where she covers all teh Chinese regions from Xiamen to Szechuan to Canton...

Consider this a must-have reference for Chinese cooking. Not only did my mother buy it at her mother-in-law's recommendation thirty years ago, but now both my sister and I have our own copies. You'd think we'd know how to cook this stuff just by hanging around the kitchen - well, that's easier said than done. This is a perfect first book for both Chinese and non-Chinese chefs (or those just trying to make dinner, like me.) Bon Appetit!