Wang Books

Paper joss are woodblock printed images of Chinese deities, immortals, and spirits. These prints are pasted in Chinese homes for good luck, protection, good fortune, long life, etc. Wang Shucun's book describes 200 of these prints.

A brief note on the author, Wang Shucun. Wang is considered a leading authority on Chinese folk art. He was born in Yangliuqing, one of the major print production centers in China. During WWII and the Cultural Revolution, Wang hid over 10000 examples of folk art from destruction by the Japanese and then the Communists. In the last two decades Wang has begun to display his collection to the public. This book is one of the few works in English by Wang.

Paper Joss includes an introduction to the history of Chinese folk prints: the origins of folk prins, classifications of the prints, printing techniques, and a brief summary of past studies. Each print is reproduced in full color on glossy paper. Every print lists its place of production, size, and includes a description of the print itself and the sybolism of the print. One does not need to be a China expert to understand or appreciate the beauty of Chinese religious folk art.

The reader will be amazed at the artistic skill required for woodblock printing and at the variety of deities in Chinese popular religion. Some of the more interesting prints are the God of Hailstones (#8), Goddess of Silkworms (#20), God of Water Sellers (#46), God of Literature (#64), One of the Ten Kings Ruling Hell (#122), Tiger Suppressing the Five Poisonous Creatures (#150), or the Magic Figures Eliminating Calamities (#180).

Wang's book is an excellent addition to anyone's library. The only fault I can find with the work is that there are no Chinese characters in the book and none of the prints are dated. However, these are only minor faults and do not detract from the overall value of the book. The prints are beautifully reproduced and the descriptions are well written. It is an appropriate addition to an academic library or to one's personal collection. The popularity of this one work is attested to by its translation into English, French, and Japanese!

Excellent book for the followers of Jungian psychology. I found it a wonderful companion to the Jungian Tarot Deck. Wang's style of writing is easy to follow and understand
May have some problems with Waite deck readers though, there is a different slant on philosophies.

In the aftermath of Marxism and pragmatism the western world and its citizens have lost the anchor for their moral lives. Belieiving in the goodness of progress, not only can we no longer answer the question, "progressing to what," but it does not even occur as a question to be asked. Instead all progress is deemed beneficial. Nonetheless, we are still plagued by doubts that there must be limits to what we can and should do; plagued by the inclination that all progress must be directed toward some good. Grant argues that in order to recement our moral beings and give direction to the technological progress that we hold dear, we must return to an older, ancient vision of human beings. A vision of humans as creatures whose rightful end lies not merely in untrammelled freedom, but also in recognition of our limitations.

For me this is still the essential C. K. Williams collection, because it shows the evolution of his style from rather "standard" versification through the long line he has only lately begun to abandon. The books is worth the price if only for one poem: "In The Heart of the Beast," a furious elegy on the massacres and Kent and Jackson State Universities in May 1970. I don't think Williams wrote anything like it before or after, but it's a staggering piece of political invective.

Wang (Yale) and Hu (Chinese Academy of Science) present a comprehensive account of the standard factor attributed to present-day regional economic inequality in China. Their effort is unusual in that it examines a broader set of factors than typically found in most economic texts (e.g. political factors), which gives the work somewhat of an institutionalist flavor.

This is a book written by one of the lecturers of the only TWO schools of political warfare in the world (One in China, the other one is in Taiwan).

It may seem difficult and pointless to understand, but as there is a saying "amatures look at the end results, professionals look at how things are done" One need to read this book very carefully, if you can understand the contents of this book, the knowledge and method in the book will open your minds and you can resolve or incite conflict at will. For educational study only, not to be used in day to day life.

I used this as a first textbook in college, and it's really excellent. Chinese language students with a background in Chinese are hard-pressed to find a suitable text when beginning their studies: such students have a nontrivial familiarity with the language and could even be completely fluent when it comes to speaking, but they're often lacking in reading and writing ability to a degree that makes them unqualified for intermediate and advanced courses. This is one of those rare texts that accommodates students of that background.

The chapters involve interesting aspects of Chinese culture and are fun to read. The passages are concise and introduce a fine selection of new vocabulary. This is overall a fantastic text.

This book was first written in English I think, by the foreign journalist who interviewed Pasqualini (they spoke in French I guess, Pasqualini's mother tong; but Pasqualini spoke English also). Then it was possibly translated in French only afterwards ? Anyway, the book is available for reading in French for free right in Beijing, in the nice library of the nice new French cultural centre, opened in 2005, freely opened to everybody, including Chinese citizens, in the South-West corner of the Workers' stadium (well, you have to pay a subscription, except if you read the book in staying in the library, where there are good armchairs; and of course you have to read French). Maybe there is also a copy in English available in the excellent and famous private library & bar called The Bookworm, in Beijing, not far from the French Cultural Centre ? Otherwise, except under this French diplomatic shield, I guess that the book is forbidden in all the libraries in China, in the language departments of universities for example ? and has never been translated in Chinese as well ?
In fact the author is named only by his French name in the book in French, Jean Pasqualini (from his Corsican father's name). I guess that if he had had a Caucasian face, and not a Chinese mother, he would have never spent all these years in a Chinese prison and would have been just expelled or at least been better treated. The irony was that, even if he spoke perfect Mandarin when he went to prison, he couldn't read Chinese. At least a benefit of his prison years was that he learned how to read Chinese. What is fascinating in this book is to discover the meticulous and permanent ideological work on all these prisoners, and on Pasqualini in particular. I was expecting mainly stories of harsh life, beatings, physical torture, etc. but no, the key issue for Pasqualini was to play the permanent ideological game, or some kind of mental torture in fact, where you really have to accept to be brainwashed, at least act as if you were, otherwise you can't survive. Or course there were immense sufferings, but the irony is that they seem mainly coming from planned hunger in the prison, but that due to famine in China, prisoners seemed, even if half starving, almost better off than most peasants who happen to be described in the book (precisely in the book some high ranking guy at one stage visits the prison and complains about this situation, saying that prisoners are treated too well during the famine). When you read this book you understand much better what may have been the life during the culture revolution later on. For example, with what Pasqualini calls "l'épreuve" (ordeal ?), when tens or hundreds of people shout at you, again and again during days, during hours, when you have to publicly confess your (most of the time imaginary) horrible ideological crimes. Everybody interested in China should have read this book (as well as Harry Wu's book). A must read.

By the way the author's Chinese name BAO Ruo-Wang doesn't appear on the cover of the French edition of this book, only Jean PASQUALINI. One can easily understand the better marketing effect of a Chinese name for selling a book about the "Laogai" (name used for the past and present Chinese gulag). I don't know why they didn't use as well his Chinese name for the French edition in 1974 ?
The not-so-weird thing (in Maoist Paris in the 60's) is that it was an American journalist who, in Paris, was interested in Pasqualini's story in the first place, when Pasqualini was brought back by the French authorities from China in 1964 (at the reopening of French-Chinese diplomatic relations). He had been imprisoned since 1957 in Beijing on charge of having been a spy (what he was more or less for the US or UK military, at least before 1949). The US journalist who in fact wrote the book in interviewing Jean Pasqualini in Paris is Rudolph Chelminski (source Penguin's authors biographies: Rudolph Chelminski has written articles for dozens of national magazines, ranging from People and Time to The Atlantic Monthly, and his prior books include The French at Table. He holds a degree from Harvard and has studied at the Institut d'Etudes Politiques. Raised in Connecticut, he began living in Europe more than thirty years ago, when Life magazine dispatched him to Paris.)
Pasqualini himself says in the introduction that he was not good at writing. Of course a large part of, if not all, the merit of the story goes to Pasqualini.
Apparently the book is 'out of print' in English ? But according to amazon.fr, the book, even if published in 1974 in France is still available in French at its famous French publisher's, Gallimard. It is called "Prisonnier de Mao; Sept ans dans un camp de travail en Chine" by Jean Pasqualini and Rudolph Chelminski. The book was probably ostracized in the 60's and 70's by the French Maoist and pro-China intelligentsia, very influent in Paris (including well-known journalists, thinkers, politicians, praising Maoism and the great Culture Revolution), that's why the book is probably still available in Gallimard's warehouse... (not joking..., the famous French speaking Belgian sinologist and great writer, Pierre Rickmans, aka Simon Leys, who wrote against the Culture Revolution at the time, in the early 70's, had to leave Paris for Canberra to find peace if not save his life !)
Jean Pasqualini became a quiet Chinese teacher and translator, in France, after 1964. He died in 1997 at 71. "In 1992 he, along with Harry Wu and Jeff Fiedler, became a founding director of the Laogai Research Foundation. Illness incapacitated Mr. Pasqualini in many of the years since, but he did write a number of essays for Laogai Report, including "Beijing's Old Trick" for the February 1995 edition." [...]
Well, do read the book if you can find it. Amongst many other merits, the story is well told and well written; it's really like a good novel, and you won't leave the book until you finish it 2-3 hours later.

Ignore the blood-and-guts title, this is a fascinating history of disease eradication. Chapters on Pacific Island Kuru, smallpox, hepatitis, and the scientists involved. Tone is neither talking-down to us uninitiated nor scientific jargon. Great for a med student, a child with an inquiring mind, to take on a trip.

This book is about a girl called Alys who travels from a town called a small town in Sussex(the town, Little Merdon, does not exist, but most{or all} other places mentioned in this book are real) to Scotland in search of her father and her brother, Robin, who are believed to be dead after the Battle of Bannockburn.She travels with her brother's friend Hugh, and during the journey experiencinces lots of delays and suprises.Ransom for a Knight gives you the feeling of what it was like to live during the reign of Edward II.It also adds useful bits history combined with suspense.

This book is for readers ages 9 to 199 who want a good book.I foung this book at my elementary school library in 5th grade.Unfourtuanetly,(please excuse my spelling) it was published in the 1950's and I can see it is now out of print.I am going to middle school next year, so I won't be able to get hold of this book, unless I can persuade one of my three siblings to check it out for me!

By the way, does anyone know if Barbara Leonie Picard is still alive? For other good books, check out the Redwall series or the Harry Potter series.