China Books

This collection of poems piques the reader's senses and maintains interest throughout. The narrative with compelling characterizations keeps the reader moving along and even identifying with the mysterious Chinese aunt and her family in the United States. It is one of those rare books of poetry which you want to read to the very end without putting it down, and yet to enjoy stopping and mulling over individual poems. The encounters between Buddhist, Christian, and Confucian elements lend universal significance. This is the best poetry on today's literary scene.

This book is the winner of the May Swenson Poetry Award for 2000. While not a narrative poem, the story of the author's aunt that married a "Chinaman" and left her family only to return when she was dying, is as close as one can get. The poems tell of the author's need for connections and a sense of family and humanity that are inspiring and eternal. The bridge over all that divides us is, after all, built on hope and caring and sharing. A Marvelous collection.

"If at first you don't succeed , try, try again" is an old adage we frequently laugh at, but in Will's case, it lead to success. Will, a long-distance runner from Britain, wanted to be the first person to run the length of the Great Wall of China. It took him several years, but he finally accomplished this, but not without encountering serious illness, traveling through areas closed to foreigners and winding up in jail (which he subsequently broke out of) and eventual deportation from China. This is a good read about a heartwarming experiernce, espescially about hardships some people must go through to reach their dreams. The hardbound copy, which I don't think is available in the United States, contains some photos (Chinese authorities confiscated most of his film); the paperback book does not. Will has a strong interest in the Great Wall, and since he moved to Beijing permanently, spends many weekends camping out on the Wall. This has lead to another book on the Great Wall, this one on camping out on it. That book should be out in the fall of 1998. I first met Will in the fall of 1994 when I moved to Beijing to work as a copy editor for China Daily; Will already was working there. But even if Will weren't a friend, I would still recommend this book for anyone with a spirit of adventure or who just wants to share in this marvelous, inspirational adventure.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. He has a great writing style and his accomplishment was remarkable. His courage and persistance is amazing.

As an aside, I met William in China and spent a few days walking with him on the "wild wall". It is just as amazing as he details in his book. He is a very nice chap and is now quite an authority on the Great Wall of China. I hope he continues to write!

There have been several prominent books and journal articles on Japan's postwar economic success (my personal favorite is The Misunderstood Miracle: Industrial Development and Political Change in Japan (Cornell Studies in Political Economy)). However, understanding the true nature of this flourishing is a somewhat different matter. While Friedman addresses the ECONOMIC aspects, Fosberg ably addresses the political and diplomatic aspects.

Prior to the War, Japan had been a major industrial power, and while a stupendous amount of plant and materiel had been physically destroyed by Allied bombing, it was clear that Japan possessed the trained personnel and deepened industrial institutions to recover. What was not clear, however, was if the US political establishment had the will or vision to help out.

Political establishments are heterogenous things, with complicated networks of competing and colluding interests; and while this is something so obvious it ought to be vapid, it's a point usually overlooked by ideologically zealous historians. For those interested in a serious, well-documented treatment of how the network of myriad US interests coalesced towards a strategy of helping Japan develop, and then integrate into the US economic sphere, this is a good beginning.

Students of economics will possibly be perturbed because Forsberg does not strictly adhere to neoliberal economic orthodoxy. This book tends towards neutrality on controversial issues in development economics, and rather, deals with what actors expected to happen as a result of the policies they pursued. So, for example, for much of the period covered the US Congress wavered between accommodating Japanese home markets protection (for the purpose of defeating Communism in the region) and demanding that the Japanese authorities open their market to US goods. An orthodox economist might object that protecting domestic markets was a stupid "payout" for either Japanese or US constituencies generally, but the point is that in 1950 very few political actors anywhere thought such things.

In general, the account tends to be fairly favorable to the US polity in terms of "generosity" (in this case, willingness to sacrifice short-term regional preferences for long-term success in the project of Japanese development), and emphasizes the success of Japanese industry interests in protecting specific markets. At the same time, the difficulty of getting the US polity to support Japanese economic recovery is not ignored. The terms of the bilateral agreements with Japan were sometimes one-sided, allowing the USA bases without commitments to actually defend Japan. Partly this was an ugly byproduct of the fact that Japan had become a US client by virtue of defeat in a war; but it also reflected internal divsions in the Japanese polity over the relationship with the USA.

In any respects, the book is an outstanding companion to the above-mentioned Friedman book on the economics of Japan's development. While Friedman emphasizes the overlooked entreprenuerial aspect, Forsberg explains the institutional and diplomatic aspect that actually prevailed. Readers of varing ideological or economic dogmas may draw their own conclusions based on what actually followed.

in my world history class i was doing a project on the japanese economic miracle after world war ii. this was the main source of information i used. i thought that this book was full of information involving the japanese and their sturggle to gain economic success. this book also taught me a lot about how the americans felt about the japanese. although in war they were enemies, after the war, since the US occupied Japan, due to their help, the japanese were able to get the success they wanted. if you are working on a project or just want to know about the japanese economic miracle, then i strongly suggest this book.

I haven't read this book, but I just wanted to mention that "Sources of Chinese Tradition" compiled by deBary and Bloom has a chapter of about twenty pages by Keightley discussing the oracle bone inscriptions. It might serve as an introduction for those with only a slight interest--especially as "The Ancestral Landscape" becomes harder to buy--and is usually available for pretty cheap. (I have the second edition, so double check to make sure the first edition has this chapter too!)

Thanks

Keightley, one of the top Western scholars in this field, has produced a must-read with this exploration of everything the oracle bone divination contents can tell us about the lives and environment of the Shang world, including agriculture, time and the calendar, the Shang territory, capital and its environs, foreign relations, and religious life. On each topic, Keightley presents phrases found in the oracle bone inscriptions, directly translated graph for graph into modern Chinese characters, then presents his translation into English, and a discussion. His style is lucid, his scholarship keen. There are eight figures with rubbings of actual oracle bones in the rear, but other than this, all the contents of the divinations are presented only in modern, traditional graphs, which is a bit disappointing for those like me who would very much like to see the oracle bone versions of the graphs for each phrase. Nevertheless, highly recommended.

This is an outstanding work for anyone interested in the Warring States period at any level. Beginners will find the translation straight-forward, readable, even engaging from time to time. For those a little more advanced, the Preface and Introduction will prove to be extremely helpful (as the library reviews indicate). For advanced students, the translators have included the literary Chinese based on the critical edition--in traditional characters, in an easily readable script. One can only wish that we could have scholarly works like this (i.e., accessible even by beginners) for other Warring States texts, particularly the Zhang Guo Ce, XunZi, MoZi, etc.

Lu is of the most intelligent guys I've ever known. It's a surprise that I found this book. If I had more money, I would buy more this kind of book.

Lu Bu Wei rocks

I found some new information in this book... In situation when the topic like this (arms trade) is not so popular and very hard to find an information about arms transfers at the beginning of this century, this book looks very useful and informative... While there are some mistakes anyway book looks very fine and mistakes not so important... I'd like to recommend for those peoples who interested in military and politic history...

Very interesting and useful for researchers and historians... I found some new information in this book... In situation when the topic like this (arms trade) is not so popular and very hard to find an information about arms transfers at the beginning of this century, this book looks very useful and informative... While there are some mistakes anyway book looks very fine and mistakes not so important... I'd like to recommend for those peoples who interested in military and politic history...

I love this book and I have several books on Chinese brush painting. (I'd not part with any of them.) What I like is that she gives you a sense of porportion and she teaches you how to not just draw the figures but how to add to the subject and balance the picture. Chinese painting is about simplicity and doing it has taught me how to do more with my other works. This is a bit pedantic for intermediate artists but everyone can learn from it.

I painted some of the pictures as she directed, and I wasn't exactly skilled as she and yet the results were so charming people like them enough to hang them on the wall. She teaches technique, and its wonderful. :>

THIS BOOK IS FOR LEARNING HOW TO PAIN

The author gives the basics as well as very good illustrations and describes techniques clearly.

Dr. Victor H. Mair's 2007 scholarly book, "The Art of War: Sun Zi's Military Methods" (published by Columbia University Press), provides not only an accurate translation of The Art of War but also the most recent research into its origin.

With a knack for Sinitic etymology, Sinitic lexicography, and the origins and evolution of Chinese script, Victor Mair pushed for Chinese language reforms in exceptional efforts such as how Chinese dictionaries should be best arranged. Dr. Mair's expertise allows him to break new ground in his Art of War translation and book which contains bold and original data, analyses, and theories. Like a scientist, he methodically asserts evidences to challenge our current knowledge and leaves us with renewed scholarship and appreciation for The Art of War. You won't regret owning this refreshing, authoritative, and well-researched edition.

Victor Mair is a professor of Chinese language and literature at the University of Pennsylvania. He graduated from Dartmouth College (where he was captain of the Dartmouth basketball team and tasked to guard Bill Bradley from Princeton), served in the Peace Corps in Nepal, and holds a master's degree from University of London and a Ph.D. from Harvard University. He has taught at Kyoto University in Japan and at Sichuan University in China.

After much debate and discussion, we at Sonshi are ranking Victor Mair's "The Art of War: Sun Zi's Military Methods" the #1 Art of War edition; how rare a book that courageously stands up to centuries of established thought, proceeds to knock it down with sound logic and proof, and succeeds in convincing even the Old Guard to change their views.

Victor Mair is amazing! I own an older version of Sun Zi, and I have to say hands down that this is much more readable and insightful a piece of work. Mair is an excellent writer in his own right, and his expert scholarship is clear from the authoritative introduction, some 55 pages long but easy to read. I have devoured this book. It is hard to put down and it doesn't bog down. His translation is superior to the older Shambala edition. I enjoyed the discussion on putting the treatise into a historical and military context. Even the forward by another author, comparing Sun Zi with Clausewitz, is excellent, thought-provoking work. I think this moves Sun Zi scholarship forward but in a way that is also perfectly readable to the layman. Mair gives the more serious scholar ways to get more into the weeds in the notes section and in references to more academic papers he has done on the subject, which is fine by me.

I highly recommend this to anyone interested the Sun Zi, tactics, and Chinese philosophy.

Art Myth and Ritual sets out an elegant yet convincing theory regarding the nature of the early Chinese state and the technological, ideological and social foundations on which it rested. By combining archaeology, classical studies and anthropology, Prof. Chang (who is regarded as the international dean of Chinese archaeology by scholars on both sides of the Taiwan strait as well as in Europe and North America) provides his readers with a dynamic view of ancient Chinese statecraft and the religious ideas that made it possible.

This book remains the single most concise statement of Chang's theoretical contribution to the archaeology of the Chinese Bronze Age. It is also simply written, well-illustrated and an excellent beginning point for the serious student of Chinese archaeology.

With Chang's magnum opus: "The Archaeology of Ancient China" sadly out of print (at time of writing), readers must make do with this volume to get a sense of his scope of vision, analytical depth and anthropological insight.

As one of K.C.s final generation of students, I must admit to a certain bias. However, it is my professional and personal opinion that this book is still one of the best works on Chinese archaeology in any language.

This is the most succinct statement of the late K.C. Chang's views of early Chinese civilization. Many of his opinions are controversial--for example, his view of shamanism in ancient China and his interpretation of the characteristic decorations on bronze vessels--but they are creative, original, and have influenced an entire generation of historians. Once you read his brief and incisive discussion of the resources necessary to produce a bronze vessel, from mining the ore to casting the piece, your appreciation of these artifacts will never be the same again. This kind of book is rare and admirable: concise, well written, and brimming with provocative ideas.