Wang Books

I had to use this book for a college course in East Asian Studies. I have to say this is not a very enjoyable book to read, especially for writing a research paper. The author tends to ramble, jumping from topic to topic within sentences, and uses inflated language, which is often unnecessary and makes you doze off in minutes.

For my paper, I ended up looking into other books which helped me greatly. Do not read the first review for this book - it's most likely a professor who uses this book in one of his courses. Believe me, "lost in translation" is just skimming the surface when speaking about this book. Hope that helps.

I think the idea's of Wang Hui's book and his arguments are rather fascinating, but the translation was bogged down with run on sentences. The beginning part is basically a summary, and for all intents and purposes could be thrown out, since Wang Hui's own words are there for all to see. The last section of the book was the best, since, to me it seemed more relevant than the rest. I read this book last summer, along with several other books concerning the same subject material, and I don't think Wang Hui is the best, but he is not the worst either, but most of the problems with this book are due to the translation. Next time, use shorter sentences please!

Most Western perspectives on China fall into two (equally wrong)camps: the celebrations of the emergence of a new economic superpower reminiscent of William Gibson on 1980s Japan or the typical right-wing paranoia of China as the new enemy. Western discourse on China's politicshas been narrowly defined by ingrained images of 1989, some dissident bloggers, and Falun Gong. Discourse on economy has equally been restricted, becoming mostly a numbers game for the foreign investor, with Chicken Littles such as Gordon Chang warning of collapse. Rarely do we consider the real interests of regular Chinese. It's anyone's guess as to what the aspirations were of the man standing in front of the tank in Tiananmen, but most assume he was fighting for "reform" against the monolithic power of the party-state. To Americans, that reform can only mean one thing. But rather than assume this man risked his life for the freedom to eat Big Macs, why not hear from one of the actual participants and find out what "reform" means in China?

Wang Hui teaches at Tsinghua Univ. and is editor of the monthly journal "Dushu". He has become the unofficial leader of an intellectual circle his critics labeled the "New Left" (perjorative in associating Wang with Maoism). In this collection of his landmark essays on contemporary China, Wang exposes the domination of neoliberal and Fukuyama end of history ideologies and assumptions upon China's internal discourse. According to Wang, post-Mao China has seen many problems, but these aren't exclusively the problems of a state hindering the forward march of market reforms. Rather, they are the product of these so-called reforms. The neoliberals in China are not working against, but working within the party structure, becoming a new exploitative class and capitalizing on privatization through avenues legal and illegal. Human rights abuses in China are not only the oppression of dissidents, but the regular people just trying to survive in the jungle of market fundamentalism. While some have taken notice to labor issues, few have done it justice. Social discontent seems unlikely to spark revolution anytime soon, but the plight of workers and peasants deserves more attention. Wang looks at these problems emerging as a result of Dengism. Wang Hui is one of those few who have examined this story forgotten in the new economic superpower-new enemy debates in America. Wang argues that this discontent is struggling to articulate some sort of agenda and it made such an attempt in 1989, with the results of the crackdown being a renewed determination by the Dengists not simply to permit, but force capitalism on China with the use of state violence. On this, China's neoliberals are silent.

Wang Hui offers a radical third view on China from the perspective of an insider. In writing, he indicts both a party that has failed to live up to its own ideals of social justice and equality and the so-called critics of the party who benefit from its domestic gunboat capitalism. Wang reminds us that the students, as well as other less visible social groups, didn't just sing the Beatles in '89 (with some in the world hoping they'd take the lyrics of "Revolution" to heart and embrace the post-revolution McWorld), they also sang the Internationale. Those interested in such interpretations of contemporary China may also enjoy Streetlife China by Michael Dutton.

Few Chinese political writings translate well into English. Despite the best efforts of the traslator and editor, I was disappointed with this volume. It was turgid reading at best. The only redeeming feature about this volume is its price, especially for a hardcover. But then one buys a book for the ideas not just because it's cheap.

Show, don't tell. That's what I learned in my undergraduate fiction writing class. And I'm sure that Melville learned it, too. Coxe and Chapman weren't as attentive, I'm afraid.

The play spells out the "clunky"--read: metaphysical--conflicts in the plot, and even dramatizes secret meeting between Billy and Vere. The main thrust of the story is that we don't get to see that! The only thing it moved was my bowels. I wonder why it hasn't been performed in 30 years...

For and excellent dramatic adaptation, see Britten's opera. It at least preserves the mystery and the psychology of Melville's masterpiece.

Rarely does the world of fiction translate to theatre as cleanly and powerfully as this. Poet Louis Coxe and Robert Chapman have done a masterful job of bringing Herman Melville's somewhat clunky morality tale to life in this play. A must read for anyone who enjoys Melville or good, moving theatre.

I read this book as a summer assignment for my English Honors class. I could not believe how terrible it was! I could not even follow it when I read it out loud. The only thing that got me through it was Cliffs Notes. Sure this book has a lot of good morals (that I only discovered through Cliffs Notes) but overall, it was wretched!

This book is well written and serves as a good primer for those interested in learning more about the history of China and the life and work of Zhou Enlai. That said, Han Suyin's work is at times whimsical in its description of the establishment of the Chinese Communist Party. One gets the idea that she was commissioned by the party to produce it: Not a word is written on Zhou Enlai's involvement in the swift and widespread brutality visited by Mao upon millions of his detractors and alleged detractors.

Han Suyin writes an amazingly detailed account of one of the greatest statesmen of the twentieth century. Her prose is fluent and engaging, and the questions which she raises throughout the biography help the reader to grasp a fuller picture of the secretive man whose powerful politics saved China from Western military aggression. For those who are unfamiliar with the history of modern China, Ms. Han patiently describes the events which surrounded and preceded Premier Zhou. She painstakingly describes the politics of those who affected him, and she demonstrates how Zhou led the founding of the world's most populous nation.

Outside of the American media's depictions of Chinese human rights violations and inflitration, few Americans are familiar with matters relating to China. Here is a factual inside account of modern China shown with both its strengths and foibles. Ms. Han writes from her personal interviews with Premier Zhou and his colleagues, and she presents a full picture of both his accomplishments and mistakes. She is careful not to err on the side of exaggeration, though it is apparent that she, like most Chinese in China, revere their nation's former Premier. Americans, especially those who wish to understand the history between China and the U.S., should find this book interesting.

This is one of the few books available in English about Zhou Enlai, one of the most fascinating and least understood political figures in modern Chinese history.

Unfortunately, author Han Suyin and editor Paul De Angelis fail to bring to life this enigmatic figure who was in many ways responsible for guiding a broken China out of the ashes of Civil War and steering her away from the ill-planned social and economic policies of Mao Zedong.

Han comes from the propaganda school of China writing. In the 60s and 70s she penned forgettable books on the successes of Chinese Communism and the predicted triumph that never happened.

Blame it on the political climate of the day, but unfortunately many of the writing skills and editorial standards learned at that time are still present in the biography of Zhou Enlai. Legitimate interviews and quotes are seldom cited or even identified, while liberal doses of hearsay and legend (especially from the Long March period) are treated as fact. The story of the young man who rose through the ranks of the CCP hierarchy to become the No. 2 man to Mao all too often reads like a rather lengthy party biography with a few doses of insider gossip thrown in for good measure.

More importantly, readers seldom get a chance to see the man behind the public image. The all-important early years are treated as a series of dates and accomplishments in the expatriate CCP cell in France, and his childhood is barely mentioned at all.

His story begs more personal details and impressions from the people who knew him, but Han sticks mainly to the official version of Zhou and the party line on the political struggles of the time. It's a pity, because Han interviewed on several occaisions Zhou's widow and could have used her memories to paint an interesting, behind-the-scenes picture of this powerful figure. For instance, in the Long March period Zhou emerges as a man skilled in the art of compromise - what made him this way? The author either failed to ask the right questions or chose not to include them in this biography.

Other problems include a stiff writing style, a poor story structure, a mediocre translation and editing effort, and an irritating and often incorrect mix of Romanization systems used to spell out Chinese names.

The editor and publisher deserve some of the blame for not developing the idea with the author. They also deserve criticism for accepting and printing a manuscript that clearly needed some major changes.

It didn't have to be this way. "Wild Swans" is proof that great biographical works can be produced by Chinese writers in English. Too bad the people behind Zhou Enlai's only readily available profile in English did not see "Wild Swans" as an inspiration.

Most of the experiments are simple logic design such as decoder, AND, OR gates, which are implemented using schematics. Only a few experiments are based on VHDL. Therefore, you could almost ignore the CPLD in the book title, this book is more like digital electronics simulation using schematics capture, such as PSpice or Electronics Workbench. The only usage of CPLD in this book, is for the student to download and run the program. Anyway, since the experiments are pretty simple and straight forward, I think computer simulation alone would be sufficient.

This book is target at student in their first digital electronics course. Don't be fooled by the term 'CPLD' in the book title.

I bought this book thinking that you could actually learn something from the labs. I was actually disappointed. First of all, it uses an old version of what it is now known as Webpack 5.2i from Xilinx, or foundations. the examples are very bleek and take the assumption you took the lecture before you can perfom this lab.

It is obvious this book is geard towards a technical school rather than an engineering school. There is not much you can learn from this book other than learning a lesson on how to be careful next time when buying books.

Disapointed buyer

Had I been aware that there was no pronunciation guide for the entries in the dictionary, I wouldn't have wasted the money. I bought it for Chinese in-laws who are over for a visit so that they could learn to speak some English phrases. It was totally useless for this purpose.

This is a review of the Mandarin Chinese-English Dictionary: Chinese-English by Fred Fangyu Wang. (There is also an English-Chinese volume of this dictionary, which I have not looked at yet.)

This is actually a very good dictionary, but only for a very narrow group of readers. If you are learning Chinese, and do not have any other dictionary, this is NOT the one you should start out with. However, if you already have a good basic Chinese-English dictionary, and you are still not satisfied with your fluency in modern Chinese, this will be a worthwhile addition to your collection.

This dictionary is organized phonetically according to Pinyin romanization (with tone marks), with a radical index in the back. (If you do not know what I'm talking about, then this dictionary is not for you, and you do not need to read on.) Perhaps its greatest weakness is that it is far from comprehensive. Really, no dictionary is, not even the Hanyu Da Cidian. But there are plenty of fairly common compound expressions that you will not find here. A further quirk is that the entries are arranged alphabetically by WORDS, rather than by SYLLABLES. For example, in a standard dictionary, JIUJING ("grain alcohol") would be right before JIULIANG ("ability to hold one's liquor"), because both begin with the syllable JIU ("alcohol"). But in this dictionary JIUJING and JIULIANG are separated by JIUJINSHAN ("San Francisco") and JIUJIU ("maternal uncle") and JIU/alcohol occurs two pages earlier, because the organization is strictly alphabetical by complete words.

However, there is one strength that makes this dictionary quite useful in its own way. Professor Wang provided sample sentences for most of the words (multiple sentences in some cases). And the sample sentences are written in both characters AND pinyin romanization with tones! So this dictionary is really a treasure-trove of sample sentences by a native speaker, arranged in dictionary format. There are other dictionaries that do this, but this is the most comprehensive set of sample sentences I have seen in a dictionary. (If you know of a better dictionary for this purpose, PLEASE let me know.)

On a personal note, I'm just kind of fond of this book. Like so many books that have been reprinted by Dover, this book is charmingly quirky, but we would have suffered a loss if it stayed out of print. The original work was published in 1967. It was obviously produced using an ordinary typewriter with the characters written in by hand (!). Don't worry: the calligraphy is painfully precise and clear. If you didn't know better, you might mistake it for a font. I'm old enough to remember when one couldn't do characters with a computer, so I appreciate how much work went into this volume. Finally, I feel an affectionate debt to people like Professor Wang, who taught the Chinese language back when only a handful of missionaries, linguists and government employees learned it. (Wang wrote a dictionary for the U.S. "War Department" in 1945 [p. v].)

So if you are a student of modern Chinese who is already equipped with one or more standard dictionaries, I recommend this book as an addition to your library.

The book is okay. It's a good intro with some good ASP examples for newbies. The sad part is that much of it relates to ArcGIS Server 9.1 and 9.2 is drastically different. It needs to be updated by the authors, to truly be helpful.

If you already have *any* experience in programming asp.net then you can disregard over half of this book. Three out of nine chapters deal only with asp.net code that you can pick up from any book and many websites.

Chapter 2: ASP.Net
Chapter 3: Programming in Visual Basic .NET
Chapter 5: Web Forms, Web Controls, and Web Templates

As for the ArcGIS Server parts of this book, the only topics they cover are using basic templates that ESRI provides in its Developer's help. One of their examples comes straight from ESRI documentation.

You can teach yourself a ton more just by exploring the forums on ESRI's website, the developer help, and playing with the sample web apps that come with the software.

Don't waste your money on this book. In fact, if you are an EDN subscriber (ESRI Developer's Network) then you will get an electronic copy of a book that is over 700 pages long that will cover everything in this book and tons more.

All the previous reviewer's comments are true, but nonetheless the book is a great value, especially given the drop in price. The DVDs are great for learning natural spoken Chinese, and if you have a dictionary you can just look up your own vocabulary from the transcript. A truly useful book for those looking to take their Chinese beyond the usual college level to understand native speech--a market for which few materials are available. I know several people who have used this book (I just started) and their Chinese is incredible.

Another way to do this is to listen to ChinesePod ([...])--though the price is steeper.

This textbook contains transcripts of five broadcasts of "Tell it Like it is" (Shihua shishuo), a Chinese talk show that was popular in the mid-1990s. The buyer gets two DVDs filled with the original broadcasts, as well as transcripts for five episodes. For an additional $30, a set of audio CDs accompanying this book can also be purchased.

I've used this book for a year now in my Chinese Flagship Program classes. This book is an awful value. For one thing, the price is prohibitively high, at $100 for a new copy, not including the audio CDs. Spending so much money on single textbook doesn't even get you the newest China-related material. In fact, my professor (visiting from Nanjing University) complained about the age of the broadcasts, most of which were originally aired around 1994. Furthermore, the fact that there are only five episodes makes this book nearly impossible to use in a university setting. We went one "stage" at a time, through two episodes a semester, and found ourselves bored out of our minds by the third week of each episode. A serious advanced-level Chinese student studying this book alone could probably finish the entire thing within two months.

What's more, this book is absolutely plagued by errors. Like most Chinese language textbooks, the first chapter is fine, which allows this book to get rave reviews from academics. After the first chapter, however, anything goes, evidenced by an unrelenting string of grammatical and spelling errors, in both Chinese and English. Yale University Press needs to get a new editor, plain and simple.

Space is wasted between each chapter with a "clean version" of the spoken texts. I'm not entirely sure how this is supposed to help the learner. Apparently, the editor went through and cleaned up a few inconsistencies and idiomatic features of the transcribed text. This is of no help whatsoever to the student, who, at such an advanced level, will find most of the transcripts easy to read and understand.

The glossary at the end is a waste of time, as the words are not divided into true "alphabetical" pinyin order. For example, between the word "ba diao" and "ba ji zui" come 9 words beginning with "bai", rendering the glossary all but unusable. Again, most students shouldn't have to bother with the glossary, as the new words here are simple and easy to learn.

In short, "Tell it Like it is!" ought not to be used by Advanced Chinese classes in America. It is filled with errors, its glossary is useless, its material is outdated, it's too easy for most advanced learners, and its cost makes economics textbooks look reasonable by comparison. Please, do not use this book for your classroom.

While the book will get you started, alot is asummed. Previous programming experience is helpful.

They say it takes an honorable person to admit an error. I'm not necessarily honorable, but I was wrong about some facts in my previous review, and I'd like to correct the situation now. 1) I found the Icons folder I couldn't find earlier. It doesn't install automatically, but if you put the installation CD back in and search, you'll find it. 2) I found the portion of VB6 I couldn't find earlier -- it was just hidden from view. So the product isn't problematic, just the user. I'm still reading the book and using the application, and I am actually, in a truly basic sense, programming. And now, because I have not yet finshed the book, and becuase I don't want to have to apologize again, I resolve to say nothing more.

This product is learner's manual for VB6 combined with a cd-rom allegedly containing a learner's version of the software. Good idea, problematic execution. After a few chapters into the book, I am less than impressed. The accompanying cd-rom of Visual Basic is a scaled down version that does not have all the bells and whistles that are talked about in the book itself. For example, an early exercise directs the reader to put certain icons in a program. According to the book, these icons come loaded with Visual Basic 6. Maybe, but they don't come loaded on the scaled-down, companion CD version. Additionally, the book identifies a particular basic portion of the VB 6 interface called the Immediate Window, characterized as a debugging tool. This tool also does not come with the scaled down version. I am considering returning the product, purchasing the book alone for approx. half the price, and then getting a copy of the software.

If you are serious about learning V.B. 6.0, this book is not for you. The software that comes with the book contains no online help and does NOT compile. Spend a few extra dollars and buy "Visual Basic 6.0 Deluxe Learning Edition". It has the complete online MSDN library for all the help you need, and you can compile your projects into actual executable files.

The title of this package is outright wrong. I've been programming for over ten years and when something says "COMPILER" I expect a compiler. The working model included in this package lets you build programs that run in the IDE but does not compile to EXE's. As for the book, no great shakes. It spends a great deal of time on the RAD but if you want to learn useful VB code, better look elsewhere.

Reads a bit rough, nothing to write home about. Very dated now, and reads sorta paranoid to boot.

It makes you feel so smart to read books that ask questions that you can answer. This happens most often when you pick up books like this one, over 30 years old, a volume that raises rather shrill warnings about increased militarism in Japan and its connections to business, politics, and the gangster world. With hindsight, you can smile very authoritatively and say, "Oh, well, he was way off the mark there !" Not so easy to do with such journalistic quickies that are still being turned out today, yet be sure that a lot of them will not turn out to be any more prophetic than Axelbank's BLACK STAR OVER JAPAN, written (in a hurry) in 1971. While Japanese expenditure on the Self-Defense Forces did rise precipitously back then, Japan has not developed nuclear weapons, it has not become a menacing power, it recognized and invested heavily in China, it definitely has not tried to invade Taiwan ( !) and it is only just now, under great pressure from Uncle Sam, deploying the first few Japanese soldiers overseas. Of course, the Soviet Union and communism have long ceased to be the threat they once were. China still figures to be Japan's chief rival---North Korea at the moment being the main threat if any. Nobody could fault Axelbank for not foreseeing the end of the Cold War. But, he seems to have combed Japan for facts and figures that would prove the rightist danger, overlooking Japan's deep conservatism and tendency towards conformity, consensus and precedent. He mentions but casts aside this extremely important aspect of Japanese culture, giving more weight to extremism and leadership of a generation that died out by the mid-80s. He spends several chapters telling about Japan's Communists, about radical students (remember the Zengakuren ?), about relations with Russia, China, and Taiwan, and in general blowing up the threat of rightist militarism far more than was necessary. The Japanese right wing was resurgent then, but breathless warnings turn out to have been overwrought. In short, this is a journalistic book dashed off in a hurry. It shows. Nobody needs to read this book in 2004 unless they are interested in what alarmists were thinking about Japan back in the early `70s.

As the other reviewer noted, this is a poor quality production, particularly in light of how many institutions make use of these materials.

Here are a list of my criticisms:
1) There are only two speakers throughout the series, thus students only get exposed to two voices. Additionally, those two voices play the parts of numerous different characters, sometimes doing double duty in one dialogue. Sometimes using a male voice for a female character.
2) The speed of the speakers is unnaturally slow. There is an attempt made to provide three speeds for the dialogues, but it seems as if those three speeds were achieved by simply slowing down or speeding up the original recording. The speakers also take unnaturally long pauses between phrases (though not long enough for listen and repeat type practice). The overall intonation of sentences doesn't sound very natural either.
3) There are only recordings of the dialogues and a list of vocabulary for each lesson. In the readings of the dialogues, there are no pauses that would allow students time to repeat after a sentence. There are no sentence build-up drills that break down long phrases or target difficult spots. To be useful as more than listening practice the student will have to rely on the pause button.
4) It is too expensive.
I sympathize with the producers in so much as it is pain-staking and often dull work to make good recordings for use in language study, but considering how many of these must be sold and how important the influence of these recordings is on those hoping to be future Mandarin speakers, such obstacles ought to have been overcome.

The audio quality is poor, some annoying background noise. Not sure why but it's clearly worse once I ripped them (digital and converting to 160kbps MP3s in iTunes). Now it's still clearly noticeable when playing from the CDs (using the computer).

It's not only the audio quality that's poor, it's also clearly a low budget for the prodcution using only one female and one male voice even though the dialogues often have two female or male actors. A couple chinese teacher could probably spend a day or two producing the entire series using just two microphones and computer with CD burner. Amazing that this is supposed to be the most widely used text book in US.