Asia Books

This book is an invaluable resource for scholars and amateurs alike. The introductory essay orients the reader, and the photographs tell their own story.

The "reviewer" below this is clearly insane and/or has an ax to grind. As any of their Yale students could tell you, Spence and Chin are both world-class scholars whose passion is narrating the stories of modern China accessibly, entertainingly, and provocatively.

This is a fascinating story of the history of China of the last hundred years intelligently interwoven with 264 rare and entertaining photos that add a unique sense of reality to the history. The authors' in-depth understanding of key historical events in China during the last century, combined with the many well chosen photos interspersed throughout the text (some of a fairly grim nature), make this a much more readable and realistic history book versus the typical history book that usually contains just a few photos crammed together into a center section. This is an oversized 264 page book printed on high quality glossy heavy paper.

It's a surprisingly thorough and sophisticated overview of China in the 20th century for a book that at first glance looks primarily like a picture book. The text is outstanding in itself and the pictures quite original. I recommend it to those with a rudimentary knowledge of Chinese history.

Overall, I found this book to be very informative and fun to read. Being a UCSD student and taking many classes pertaining to Asia, I read many works by Spence. By far, I have enjoyed reading every one of his works. This particular book in my opinion is the best of Spence's works-- though he cooperated with another author. Spence's works is a testament to his ability to present fact in a dynamic way. In this case, Spence uses photographs to augment his work.

And concerning the individual from Grand Rapids, Missouri (2nd Review). This individual is thoroughly ignorant and racist to say that the Chinese people "lost the sense of dignity, creativity, and are still today refusing to advance their own country by isolating from the rest of the world." China has continually engaged in the free market arena since it opened up commercially in the 1980s. According to most experts, China has the fastest growing economy in the world. On another note, this individual fails to note that there is a level of corruption in every country. Yes, we Americans have seen our fair share of corrupt cops and politicians! Overall, this individual's remark does no justice for the merit of Spence's work, and is an unjustified insult to the Chinese community.

This book is totally awesome! I feel like I have a highly skilled Chinese art instructor right at the table with me. Ms Cameron learned from one of the best and now I am learning from one of the best. Like I said, totally awesome book!

This is a wonderful instructional book for anyone looking to begin the traditional art of Chinese painting. The author is a westerner who lived in China when she was young and was taught the techniques of painting by masters. Using her book is the next best thing to having an instructor by your side. Each technique is carefully explained and clearly illustrated in a way that makes learning fun and easy. Using this book should give you the skills and confidence desired on your way to learning the art of Chinese painting.

This book is excellent for beginers in chinese art and art in general. Taking you step by step from the beginning by illustrating the basic rules for strokes, techniques and compositions necessary for a well deveopled authentic piece of chinese art. Ms.Cameron shows you what to do and what not to do in a conversational manner that builds confidence. In a short period of practice i was very pleased with my progress. If i can do it any one can. Buy this book.

This book is excellent for beginers in chinese art and art in general. taking you from the beginning by illustrating the basic rules for strokes, techniques and compositions necessary for a well deveopled authentic piece of chinese art. Ms.Cameron shows you what to do and what not to do in a conversational manner that builds confidence. In a short period of practice i was very pleased with my progress. If i can do it any one can. Buy this book.

Helps push aside the distractions provided by doddering old Chinese officialdom and trade wars waged by the G7, so the reader can grasp the fighting capacity of Chinese workers and peasants. Makes the case that big business and landowning forces were genuinely rousted by popular determination. So, all the faceless, nameless Chinese people who did this are the ones who qualitatively raised the stakes for the imperial war-mongers in their plans for World War III -- now they have to try to get back China, too! Useful and concrete on the bureaucratic stranglehold that the Chinese Communist Party maintained over the workers' movement from the very beginning. But the popular determination to repulse the invasion of Korea, and obtain land and freedom forced even Mao's hand. Also contains an article on challenges in developing China's backward economy that is very apropos today, given China's entry into the World Trade Organization and all the bunk that is being written about that.

This short work is an excellent introduction to huge developments in world history: the course of the anti-capitalist revolution that swept China after World War II and the controversial questions of leadership posed by the Maoist forces that headed the Chinese Communist Party at the time.

"The Chinese Revolution and Its Development" reprints a series of resolutions and articles adopted by revolutionary socialists in the United States during the 1950s and 1960s, analyzing and assessing the events in China at the time. The specific facts of the struggle for power in China in the late 1940s as part of the anti-colonial revolutions that swept much of the Third World after World War II; The U.S. war in Korea and the response of the Chinese worker and peasants; the twists and turns of the Maoist leadership once in power-- its all covered here. Of particular value are the detailed discussions of what it takes to overthrow capitalist rule and open the way to the possibility of developing a new, socialist society.

I'd strongly recommend following up this work with two longer titles on China published by Pathfinder Press: "Leon Trotsky on China" and "The Chinese Communist Party in Power" by veteran Chinese revolutionary P'eng Shu-tse.

China is under attack from both Imperial political parties ( Democrats/Republicans ) , union bureaucrats, and the "anti-globalization"/Dalai Lama combination. Why ?

China shook the world in 1949.The Chinese revolution tore one fourth of humanity out of the orbit of the British and Yanqui imperial domains.The workers took the factories, the peasants took the land, and China stood up in the worldýrising from its knees. But this revolution was betrayed from the beginning by its leadership.The documents in this collection, written during the events by leading militants of a revolutionary workers party here in the U.S., explain this mighty revolution and its deformation ýby the opposite of communism : Stalin-ism, represented both by Mao Tse-tung and the ancestors of the present ruling clique.Chinese workers are already beginning to resist the encroachments of Imperial capital, organized by the capitalist wannabes at the head if the Chinese "Communist" Party. As capitalism spirals into its New Depression, the Chinese workers will resist in their hundreds of millions ý billions ! ý and shake the world again, together with the workers and farmers of the world, including here in the U.S.

As hundreds of thousands of workers in Northeast China strike and demonstrate against the corruption and oppression of China's bureaucracy, the contradictory nature of the Chinese revolution appears before the world. On the one hand, a great advance against European, Japanese, and American colonialism, and China's own exploiters. On the other hand, dominated by middle class Stalinists opposed to the real victory of workers in society. This set of documents chiefly by leaders of the US Socialist Workers Party documents the social transformation in China and its contradictions. As Chinese workers, students, and farmers move forward to confront the bureaucracy, this analysis written by revolutionists who look to their struggle will become a useful tool for struggle.

My boys and I do not tire of this book. The beautiful illustrations match the delightful story of an unlikely relationship that benefits both parties, and benefits the reader! We love it.

Chopsticks is a little white mouse who lives in a floating restaurant in Hong Kong. At the door of the restaurant are two enormous pillars that are carved in the shape of magnificent dragons. And when, on a New Year's night, one of the dragons talks to little Chopsticks, it is the start of the greatest adventure of little Chopsticks' life!

Every night, I read several books to my little four-year-old. Well, this is one of our favorites! Chopsticks himself is so cute, and we really liked the foreign settings. The illustration work is very good, and goes excellently with the text.

Yep, this is a great book, one that I love to read, and she loves to see. We both highly recommend Chopsticks to you and your little reader!

Brought to life by a gorgeous selection of colours, textures and settings, this simple story of friendship and dreams transports us to another world.

A tiny mouse befriends a wooden dragon in this simple story that takes place on the Chinese New Year in Hong Kong Harbor. Anything is possible, and thanks to Berkeley's atmospheric description, it's easy for a child to suspend disbelief.

He paints whole scenes in a few lines of prose, so we're right down there with little Chopsticks, the mouse, as he scurries late at night in search of crumbs on the floor of a floating restaurant. It's an impressive place, with hundreds of windows and two enormous carved dragons guarding its mammoth entrance.

We might even tremble in empathy too when, one New Year's night, one of the dragons clears his throat and asks Chopsticks to draw near. Turns out he wants to confide his secret longing to Chopstick, and a friendship is born.

Berkeley's Hong Kong Harbor is a misty dreamscape, where an old carver in his sampam holds the secret to granting the dragon's wish. The dragon's a friendly sort, with big, cheerful eyes and a lopsided grin, and, like Chopstick, you instantly want to help him out.

His acrylics glow with filtered sunlight and streaks of gold radiate from gleaming surfaces. We're keenly aware of Chopstick's diminutive size amidst the bustle of the world's busiest harbor, but we never lose sight of the little fella' as he sets out to help his new buddy.

This is a perfect one for teaching about friendship, about good deeds, and about bringing your own sense of adventure to all you do.

This study is by a Barnard College professor that I heard lecture at the China Institute in New York City. The traditional Chinese cultural custom of deforming women's feet to make them smaller, resulting in pain, deformity, and disability, is no longer practiced. But it is a complex and controversial subject involving, among other things, sex, social status, and feminism. For me the value of this book is the author's focus on the perspectives of women who experienced, continued, and even promoted the practice, highlighting their views on it's costs and benefits. It's a useful counterpoint and a rich resource.

Dorothy Ko locates the core of interpretation for footbinding lost in so much that has been written on the topic for the last 150 years. Ko has written extensively on the topic, feeling that such a complex phenomenon cannot be adequately explained by a book or two. Not content with prevailing feminist writings which privilege "oppressive patriarchy" as the only worthwhile conclusion, Ko frequently attracts critics who often suggest she glorifies footbinding and undoes strides towards gender equality. It's even been implied she undermines advancements made since the May Fourth events which empowered Chinese women almost 90 years ago.
Though some readers feel she euphemizes the "crippled feet" by resorting to cultural poetics which justify oppression, she actually advances a much more sophisticated strategy employed by the Han women of late imperial China. Rather than rage conspicuously against patriarchy the path lies in re-appropriating the meaning of footbinding to a custom that subverts the gender inequity; in short, diminishment of the oppression from within its complicity.
With Cinderella's Sisters Ko addresses the rhetorics called chanzu, tianzu, and fengzu (bound feet, natural feet, and letting out feet, repectively). A conflation of male desires, and a redefined view women had about their own bodies are both at odds with each other yet bound together in a custom whose meaning differs not just across gender and class, but across time and place. Ko produces very original and badly needed insights through new readings of Gu Hongming (1857-1928) and Wang Jingqi (1672-1726) contrasted with (some say) biased western scholars such as R. H. van Gulik (1910-1967) and Howard S. Levy (1920- ).
By translating women-authored works from anthologies of the Ming and Qing dynasties, Ko delights readers of this latest work who benefit by having the feminine perspective so often missing. When this recovered discourse converges with the new deeper readings of male texts, both anecdotal and scholarly, the subjectivity of a whole society comes together, resulting in unprecedented integrity. Indeed, Dorothy Ko's greatest "fault" is appending the subtitle A Revisionist History of Footbinding to Cinderella's Sisters. This book is not revisionist - this book is vision, belonging on every bookshelf of every library.

It's a wonderful book for chinese women's history, let you learn about the history of footbinding in feminism perspective.

Like a typical Westerner, when I first encountered the story of bound feet Chinese women, I was horrified. How could someone actually do something like that? But my initial disgust grew into interest, and I found I wanted to learn more than simply see the results of the practice of binding feet. The world is full of misinformation of this custom.

After reading Beverly Jackson's Splendid Slippers (a beautiful and informative book), I decided to find a more academic text on footbinding, and selected Dorothy Ko's Cinderella's Sisters. This book has provided me with a thorough overview of the historical context of footbinding. It explores the difference in gender perceptions of bound feet, the different definitions of bound feet, and more. Ko's style is very readable, and I appreciated her using Chinese terms (tiangzu, chanzu, fangzu) and their rich interpretations to illustrate her points and describe the historical context.

If the name John Blofeld means anything to you, you've probably been consulting the I Ching. Blofeld wrote a popular translation to the Chinese oracle at a time when the only other version available in English was Richard Wilhelm's groundbreaking but somewhat turgid text.

"City of Lingering Splendor" is an autobiographical travelogue, one of the best ever written. Dedicated to ' the hermits, scholars, youths and courtesans who inspired these pages ' it's a love letter to Peking and the breathtaking greatness of an ancient civilisation at its twilight, about to be extinguished.

While remote jungles still offer anthropologists the chance to chew the fat with stone age peoples, the romantics among us are simply out of luck. Until someone invents a working time machine, Ancient Egypt is gone forever along with Homer's Greece and Imperial Rome.

But in 1934 it was still possible to travel back in time. Back to Old China, to a culture that had remained virtually untouched for thousands of years---and chew Peking Duck with Taoist sages. . .

Wonderful reading.

This is the most sensitive, respectful and intelligent book I have read on traditional Chinese culture. The writing is terrific, on a par with Peter Fleming's, though more from the heart.

It records the author's love affair with the city before WW2 (and includes a return to Beijing after it). While meeting many of its remaining Daoist, Confucianist, Bhuddist and literary leaders and exploring its temples, nightlife and food, we get a last sympathetic, philosophical, tragic glimpse of the splendour decaying under the Republic. Before it vanished under the Maoists.

If you thought there was little more to pre-War China than footbinding, Dowager Empresses, opium and Shanghain greed and degeneracy, this book will even the score a little.

I had no idea when I picked up this book that I had such a pleasant experience in store for me. Beginning in 1934, a young man in his twenties spends "three exquisitely happy years" in a China at the edge of the abyss. Japan had already invaded Manchuria and made no secrets of its intentions of further conquest. The shaky Chinese Republic was ruled out of Nanking; and Peking was still full of memories of the old Dowager Empress, the last of her line.

The streets of Peking were full of Confucian scholars, aging palace eunuchs, adepts of Taoism and Buddhism, starving White Russian refugees, 14-year-old opium addicts, and gentle courtesans and flute girls. Blofeld threw himself headfirst into this world which was on the point of being snuffed out forever. Most memorable are the White Russian hermaphrodite Shura and the Rasputin-like Father Vassily; the decorous Buddhist scholar Dr Chang; Yang Taoshih, the Taoist sage, and his friend known only as the Peach Garden Hermit; the lovely courtesan Jade Flute; and the mysterious Pao, who elopes with a young girl intended for a Japanese colonel.

After Blofeld leaves for a trip to England, the Japanese finally invade. There are two bittersweet chapters at the end where Blofeld revisits the scenes of his youth after 1945. His fragile Peking of the 1930s is now poised between a growingly thuggish Kuomintang secret police and the great unknown of Mao Tse-tung's Eighth Route Army.

Blofeld's Dr Chang says it all: "Decay is inherent in all things, as Shakyamuni Buddha bade us always remember. Death swallows all that has been born; rebirth or re-creation follow in their turn, as spring follows winter. Things rise and wane in unceasing flux."

CITY OF LINGERING SPLENDOUR is recommended to all sentient beings who were ever young once and are now faced with a confused welter of possibilities, none of which seem particularly appetizing.

I have been reading John Blofeld since the 80's. His writing is honest and straight forward. What is special about this work is the time frame. It is a first hand account and we are not brought down by the dreary chronology or dry scholastic jibberish of Western history academics. His introduction warns of his awareness of the flaws of the culture, but he wishes to show the strengths and beauty of a dying civilization. Truly unique, inspiring and thought provoking

Ideal for people who live outside North Korea and wish to learn about North Korea, people who live in North Korea and are confused or for Geoge W. Bush.

Very factual. A good complement to the general news on the subject.

I started reading this book a few days before the July 4th misstle launches. I was glad to get more information on North Korea which was a total mystery to me. Now I understand much more. The book reviews Korean history and how Confucianism has just as much influence in North Korea as communism does. Absolute devotion to the Great Leader is rewarded and the slightest deviation from that is punished by execution. How North Korea will play the nuclear card out is yet to be seen, but I don't think I want them to have nuclear weapons. They will use it for terrorism.

This is a concise and well written modern chronicle of North Korea. There are very few resources available on this "mysterious" country. I found the book to be engrossing, concise and most informative.

This is an outstanding book for understanding why the US military has such problems with confronting insurgency. Counterinsurgency is never easy, but the US has proved monumentally incompetent across generations of command. The book's thesis is that bad counterinsurgency doctrine made a successful intervention in Vietnam impossible, and that the conflict was lost as soon as it began.

The most crucial misconception is that there is no such thing as an organic, self developed insurgency. Insurgency was seen as the policy of a foreign nation seeking to intervene within a country, likely as a prelude to invasion. Insurgencies were dependent on foreign support for supplies, bases and command. Combatting an insurgency required severing the link between the foreign support and the insurgents.

Related to this was a belief that light military pressure, or even just the presence of US forces could compel the withdrawl of insurgent support, because such a presence would signify US resolve to oppose an invasion or intervention.

The application of this logic led to a dynamic where the US pressured North Vietnam in retaliation for VC attacks. North Vietnam interpreted that pressure not as a response to it's own policies but as a direct attack upon it's existence. Consequently it increased rather then decreased supplies and support for the VC, ultimately sending not just supplies but regular troops. In essence the US created exactly the scenario it's policies were intended to prevent.

That this is happening again in Iraq and Iran suggests too few people in command read this book.

I had the great privilege of taking many of Dr. Cable's classes while I was at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington. Dr. Cable is a true gift to the historical field. His courses were difficult, but his amazing story-telling ability shines both in class and in both of his books (conflict of myths and unholy grail). While reading his books, I can actually still hear his delivery and cadence. As we go further into a time when local squabbles and terrorists will engage the attention of our foreign policy, his writings and experiences are all the more appropriate.

Dr. Larry Cable's experience and intellectual appraisal for the counterinsurgency role of the U.S. armed forces in Southeast Asia are placed into perspective. While not completely supporting all U.S. activities regarding the reduction of irregular forces, Cable examines the reality on the ground that was the wake-up call for American military leaders in Vietnam. An extremely effective and important book that should be read as much for the intellectual value as the historical value.

This book analyzes how the US came to adopt the policy of using conventional tactics to fight the insurgency in Vietnam. It provides a great analysis of the American way of conducting war and gives examples of attempts to fight the war in other means. Author has/had first hand knowledge of what was going on behind the scenes in the 60's. This book is required reading at many military schools which realize our past failures and are trying to teach current military personnel how to avoid similar mistakes in the future.

Interesting. I bought this book to read and learn about Confucius. This book is short and gives you a good idea about Confucius but if you are very interested in the subject get a more detailed book. This one is very short.

This book, while non-fiction, read like a story, keeping it interesting yet providing fact, thought, questions, myth busters, and acknowledgment where facts are unclear or uncertain. Best of all, an entertainment with great messages for living a good quality, vituous life.

I enjoyed this one as an adult, and looking forward to sharing it with the children & teens in my life, as well as other adults.

"More than 2,500 years have passed since Confucius walked the dusty country roads of China, chatting with his disciples, yet his voice still rings clear and true down through the centuries. Those who knew him never forgot him. Those who came after handed down his sayings from one generation to the next, right up to our own time..." So begins Russell Freedman's brilliant and engaging biography of Confucius, a minor government official who desperately wanted to be a political force in ancient China. "Though he offered many bold ideas for reform, his advice was ignored by the rulers of the day. For this reason, he spent much of his time teaching and discussing his ideas with his students." His simple, yet profound thoughts about government, education, and religion were shared with his followers through conversations and dialogues, and finally written down, many years after his death, in a book that has come to be known as the Analects. "This slim volume is the one source where we can most clearly hear the unique voice of the real, living Confucius." Mr Freedman's well researched story is written in an easy to read, conversational style and filled with history, mystery, intriguing biographical details, quotes from the Analect, and fascinating fun facts. Frederic Clement's elegant and evocative Chinese-style illustrations look ancient and authentic, and are rich in emotion, color, and detail. Together word and art bring the great philospher and his times to life on the page. With an enlightening Author's Note, and informative sources and suggestions for further reading included at the end, Confucius: The Golden Rule is an entertaining and inspiring introductory biography that is sure to whet the appetite of kids 10 and older, and send them out looking for more. "And so, after twenty-five centuries, the pros and cons of what Confucius said or didn't say are still being debated. The reason isn't hard to find. He trusted people to think for themselves. He was always ready to offer suggestions, but he insisted that each of us must find answers for ourselves. And he admitted that he himself did not know the truth, only a way to look for it..."

Confucius was a minor government official who desperately wanted to change the government of China. But because of his radical ideas, he was never given the opportunity. He became a scholar who taught his pupils to think. Many years after his death, his ideas were written down and have survived for thousands of years. Tidbits of Confucius's wisdom have even made their way into American fortune cookies. Because little is known of the fifth century B.C. scholar, Freedman makes an effort to establish what information is believed to be fact and what is more likely legend.

The book's beautiful antiquated illustrations complement the text. They are as mysterious as the life of Confucius. I especially like the little details in this book: the quotes from the Analects on the endpapers, the author's note detailing his observations of the celebration in China held for Confucius each year, and the annotated bibliography.

A very good overview of Central Asian folklore and life. Could be used as a textook for courses on the region and for students, businessmen, aid workers, tourists and others who are interested in or will visit the region. Gets behind life in Central Asia and is therefore good in conjunction with a typical guidebook.

Unfortunately, Central Asia remains an unknown part of our planet. I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to learn more of this vibrant and intriguing area of the world, especially those interested in the life and cultures of the Great Silk Road. It is a clear and useful reference to the politics, economics, history and fascinating customs of the Central Asian peoples. I wish you a happy journey reading this work which will provide an opportunity for you to feel the ancient spirit and modern life of Central Asia.

Culture and Customs of the Central Asian Republics (Culture and Customs of Asia)
If you have seen little of Central Asia, this book will deepen and expand your sense of having been there. If you know Central Asia as a scholar or as a wanderer (or both), this book will illuminate your experiences. If you haven't been to Central Asia and want to know about it, this book will tell you. In any event, you will enjoy reading Rafis Abazov's book.

So you want to learn more about the Central Asian Republics? This book can provide you with answers. The book does not boringly describe the customs and cultures of the republics. It shows how throughout the history the cultural and religious influences from Greece, Middle East, China and Russia have shaped the modern cultures of the Central Asian Republics. It explains why the cultures of the regions are so diverse; it also discusses their unique and common features. Every topic covered in the book, such as visual and performing arts, archeology, media, cinema, music, etc., is discussed from the ancient times to modern days. Moreover, the book comes with beautiful photographs, selected bibliography and index; and each chapter begins with an epigraph! I think this book could be the right choice to read for anyone who wants an objective account of the regional cultures and customs.