China Books

I recently read the new Philip Short biography on Mao. A long and good book. However, I did not learn half as much about Mao from Short's book as I did from the New Emperors.

Salisbury writes a highly readable, brilliant book on Mao, the founding of the people's republic of China, the Great Leap Forward, and the Cultural Revolution.

The book does a great job showing the personal side of Mao, how he treated other people, and how he changed over time between 1949 and 1976.

The book also does a great job on the early career of Deng Xiaoping. However, feel the book falters on covering the demise of the Gang of Four and the early rule of Deng. As great as the book was up to this point, I feel he does not thoroughly cover how the gang of four was defeated and the early rule of Deng.

The book recovers in its coverage of Tianaman Square and in its conclusions about China.

This book is 3/4 brilliant and 1/4 ok.

Salisbury's book is so good, his reporting so valuable, that it will provide ample basic information to future historians as they attempt to sift through this period with some scholarly distance. Just prior to Tiananmen "incident" as it is called in China, he went and talked to the last surviving people who remember Mao and Deng, the two most powerful leaders of Communist China. It was a unique time, as China was open for just a moment during a reform period before shutting down again after Tiananmen and those people were about to disappear forever. Salisbury found them and recorded their memories.

The result is a masterpiece of reporting, bringing Mao and Deng to life and in detail like no other account that I have read - and I have read a lot of them! The book concentrates on government and power politics, leaving the details of policies to others, which strikes just the right balance.

Highly recommended.

What Mao and Deng did as China's "new emperors" are well known. For Mao, the Korean war, the Great Leap Forward, the Cultural Revolution, and the establishment of China as a nuclear power; for Deng, the Reform and Opening, and the Tiananmen Massacre.

Why did they do it? This is a question that is seldomly asked and when asked, never satisfactorily answered. Salisbury has attempted to answer such a qusetion with more depth than the simple-minded answer "because they want to stay in power". Salisbury carefully laid out for the readers how Mao and Deng's acts were shaped by their personal histories, by attitudes of other countries toward China, and by the burden of Chinese history and culture (unlike America, the Chinese leaders did not start from a clean slate, instead, they carried 5,000 years of history with them). In short, this book is about how history, culture, international hostility and personality has shaped modern China; how these factors brought out the "emperor instincts" in Mao and, to a lesser extent, Deng.

Indeed, what Mao did was almost right out of history books. The emperors' attempts to annhilate their enemies when they sensed danger, the emperors' attempts to better people's lives using means that were totally naive and against human nature, has happened numerous times in Chinese history. China has been too burdened with its history, and Mao was simply an emperor fulfilling his roles while the whole world was watching.

The book also touched upon an interesting (and sad) question: what blames should be placed on ordinary people? It was Mao who unleashed the darkest aspects of human nature during Cultural Revolution, but the darkest sides of some Chinese people were so dark that one has to wonder: why were these people worse than beasts? The Red Guards and the on-lookers who readily cheered as thousands and thousands of people were tortured and beaten (or drowned, pushed from high-rise buildings) to death has to make one wonder: why did they do it? why did they have no judgment of their own and could become the worst creatures on earth simply because of a few words from their leaders? I believe that, if China wants to prevents something like the Cultural Revolution from happening again, it will not be enough to openly admit Mao's role in these atrocities. Ordinary people will also have to do some soul-searching.

After reading this book, I felt extremely sad. I sensed that the disasters that happened to the Chinese people in the past decades could have been avoided. If only Mao had studied Western politics instead of focusing entirely on the deeds of Chinese emperors; if only Kim Ii-Sung wasn't such a fool as to start the Korean War; if only the Chinese people were exposed to Western culture earlier and possessed more qualities than blind patriotism and loyalty; if only more of Mao's subordinates were willing to be outspoken; if only Stalin was a bit less sinister toward China; if only America was a bit more open-minded and not refusing Mao's request for negotiations outright... The list is endless. History is full of missed chances, and ordinary people suffer. Although no reversal is possible, we may be able to learn from the past and avoid some disasters in the future. Because of this, I highly recommend this book.

I am a fan of Salisbury's works for a long time, and this book has not disappointed me. The writing is compelling, the materials well organized, and his unbiased reporting is as good as ever. This is one of the best books on the modern history of China.

This book set me off on a binge of Chinese history reading. I had to know more about Kang Sheng, for example, and "Claws of the Dragon" helped shed light on this "immortal". Then there were: Zhou Enlai's hagiography 'Eldest Son' at the hands of Han Suyin; The White Boned Demon, about Jiang Qing; Mao's doctor's self-glorifying account; Deng's biography. Nothing compares to this book for readability and sense of magnitude. You meet the twenty or so people who decided the fates of a billion Chinese. Modern democracy has nothing to compare. The personalities in recent Chinese history, the importance of them, are staggering. The Great Leap, the Cultural Revolution--these hellish mass movements affected hundreds of millions of people. You get to see the tiny coterie which ordered the lives of a significant portion of the Earth's inhabitants for fifty years. An amazing book.
I wish Harrison Salisbury were still around to write an update. TNE stops in 1991 as the economy is slowing and the hardliners are asserting themselves. Deng visited the "new cities" on the South China Sea in 1993-4, invigorating them and the "capitalism with Chinese characteristics" which they represented. What followed, of course, is our recent history of China thinking itself as a great power.

Let's face it, China is rapidly replacing Russia as the chief rival of the U.S. in world affairs. And anyone who wants to begin to understand modern China must start with this book. Harrison Salisbury is an excellent journalist and writer who chronicles the tragic history of China from the beginning of the communist regime through the early 1990s. He focusses on the two leaders, Mao and Deng, who guided China into the modern era, causing at least as much if not far more destruction to their country the good that came from modernity. The irony is that while Mao was an egomaniacal madman, Deng was at heart a decent man who rebounded from being jailed and humiliated by the Cultural Revolution only to ruin his more benevolent legacy at Tianamen Square in 1989. Salisbury's account is readable and insightful and is essential for anyone with an interest in the country.

I can't wait until the next book in the series! It is a page turner.

I have benn a long time fan of Yasmine Galenorn's books, both fiction and non-fiction. This instalment into the lives of Emerald and friends was fast and furious! Right out of chapter one she had me hooked on the fast plot and tight twists and turns of Em's wedding and Murry's freaky stalker! I love this series! The characters are well written and have developed over time. I hope this isn't the last in the series as a previous reviewer hinted at! Please write more! Well Done!

This was the most delicious final book in her series. I loved the way everything came together at the end, and the darker tone was perfect.

Read the entire series -- it's a definate winner!

I am pleased to write that this offering in the C 'n C series completely exceeded my expectations...and more importantly, made me anxious for more. Ms. Galenorn has allowed the main character, Emerald, to grow into a more realistic 21st century powerful pagan. The previous novels had left me just a bit annoyed with Emerald's somewhat self-centered personality. "One Hex of a Wedding", though, offered some credible glimpses of vulnerability and willingness to reexamine long-held opinions -- just like a real woman as she grows older and, hopefully, wiser. The cast of supporting characters is becoming more fascinating to me, and they seem to have more dimension now. Heck, I even cried at some of the truly poignant moments in the book!

If you've not read any of the previous books, this could definitely stand alone. But do yourself a favor and read the earlier four anyway. If you find yourself, like me, vaguely annoyed with Emerald O'Brien by book three, don't worry -- you'll grow to love her again in "One Hex of a Wedding", a wonderful treat of a novel.

Another great book in the Chintz & China Mystery Series. Emerald learns more about her ex-husband (and why their marriage ultimately ended) while trying to get through the wedding planner's worst nighmare that leads up to her wedding to Joe. Her maid of honor is cursed and stalked, her other bridesmaid is juggling a job and a new baby while her husband is headed off for an extended job on the road, and her daughter struggles with first love. That doesn't even include the family dynamics brought about by the wedding. Even Nanna makes an appearance. Emerald's reactions are real (why does this have to happen when I'm getting married) and fun (when a photographer tries to pair a swimsuit model with Joe for a calendar shoot). Can't wait for the next book!

The author has an agenda to bash America in this work, all the more incredible since one would think the nation of Japan, which has never officially apologized for the atrocities described in this bood, would more than suffice as a punching bag for him, the author. His determination to get that bashing in, in the second half of the work, distracted him from delivering the proper scope and balance in telling the story the author is probably capable of. Worth the price though (especially if you can get it at a discount).

This is why my mother won't visit China. Although she would like to learn more about Chinese culture, she discouraged my visiting China because she was afraid something would bite me or I would bring vermin back not because the Chinese are inherently dirty but because she accurately remembers the strength of vermin warfare inflicted upon China and is convinced that the poisoning of China's water system and soil makes Chinese products suspect even before the industrial accidents in recent news. It takes a widespread intense campaign to deal with this problem. I didn't read this book before visiting China but I believed that she was being practical in her advise and not political. This problem needs to be researched. One must satisfy the most critical person in order to solve the problem correctly.

I came from the city where the Japanse secret germ army operated during the second world war. What the author stated in the book is true. The truth can not be denied by the Japanese Government. Don`t judge anything as lie or truth, unless you find out with yoru own eyes.

I recently attended a lecture by Daniel Barenblatt in NYC. The subject was of course Barenblatt's new book A PLAGUE UPON HUMANITY. Whereas the use of human medical experimentation is now a well known aspect of the Nazi extermination program, the fact that
Japan innovated these same techniques, as well as implementing a lethal biological warfare unit, directed by Dr. Ishii Shiro & imposed upon the Chinese population in Manchuria & Occupied China, prior & parallel to the Nazi regime, is less known in the Western World.
Whereas some books on this topic have been published, Mr. Barenblatt, with integrity & the detachment necessary to cover the terrain, has written a contemporary & updated version of the material That he does so fills an important gap in our historical understanding but moreover, underlies the situation in which we now live.
The 25 photographs speak without words. The 10 chapters & for this reader, in particular the last chapter `What The Deal Brought' wherein the implication of this program for our current policy is clear become apparent.. In an era of lethal indifference , poisoned ambients, both intellectual & environmental, a voice such as Barenblatt's must be heeded.

The author Dan Barenblatt has his special background in chemistry and the most precious common human values to complete such a wonderful book. I can image how much efforts he put to overcome the difficullties since the auther does not read and write Chinese.
The most impressive from in this book is the auther try to understand the facts of the history and the cause of it. Unless we understand the cause of the historic tragedy, it will repeat again.
For example he spent a good amount of efforts to analyze what cause the head of Unit 731 - Dr. Shiro Ishii to commit such a huge crime on germ warfare from his family, social background and political environment at that time and how America knew about it, how the secret deal was made later. The auther wanted to present the whole true history base on the individual has right to know, without knowing the fact, the justice and human values are easily betrayed by interest or other purpose.
You will be touched by this most forgotten or unkown history presented in the book; but as a Chinese auther I was touched and amazed by his efforts and unbiased humaneness

Hollander puts the selective moral outrage and selective acceptance of evidence of the Left on parade as he follows these blinkered one's through the various Potemkin Villages of the Totalitarians, from the October revolution forward into most of the 20th century. Smug arrogance knows no political party or religious faith, no gender, race or sexual preference, it seems to be evenly spread among us. In this instance the highly developed capacity for self-deception of the Left is on trial and an amusing trial at that. Their tortured explanations of the intellectually unexplainable are a fictive of mankind's marvelous ability "to transform things to the liking of his desires".

Like all those who are "blowin' in the wind", these intellectual hard heads do not seek truth, but instead to validate their worldview. This book is a study of intellectuals, estrangement and its consequences.

Hollander hits an important nail on its head. Many members of the intellectual left have a horrible track record of either excusing or turning a blind eye to the brutality of socialist dictators. As such, many twentieth century leftists served as apologists for evil socialist dictators. Of course, these same people have no difficulty finding fault with the US and UK. No problem in the West is too small to warrant condemnation in their eyes.

The sad truth is that the vision of an egalitarian society has been romanticized and popularized. Even today there are some who defend and even promote the USSR. Hollander counters this nonsense with evidence. Unfortunately, there are still some ideologues to whom evidence means nothing. We need more scholars like Hollander.

Political Pilgrims is the amazing story of how Western intellectuals embraced Marxist tyrants at the very moment their colleagues were rotting in prison cells, and the common people everyone claimed to be concerned for, were starving. The book relates how cultural and religious leaders from the West, including familiar names, visited the Soviet Union, China, Cuba, and other communist countries, and told the most appalling lies to flatter their hosts and express their contempt for Western society. It is quite an education, as another reviewer put it. Marx's revolutionary myth dominated history for the better part of the 20th Century, and if we are serious about not repeating the errors of that period, this book should be a part of our education. The short story Buddha's Smile in Solzhenitsyn's masterpiece, The First Circle, brilliantly tells the same story, from the point of view of Soviet prisoners. Lewis Feuer's Marx and the Intellectuals compares Marx and Engels themselves with the kind of people Hollander is describing. I also recommend the writings of the Rumanian philosopher, pastor, and former prisoner, Richard Wurmbrand.

Hollander retells George Keenan's story of a Norwegian radical who, when asked what country he most admired, said, "Albania." Keenan noted that the student obviously knew nothing of Albania, but chose that country "simply because it seems to be a club with a particularly sharp nail at the end of it with which to beat one's own society."

The same reactionary psychology has, it seems to me, been transferred in our day to an uncritical and naive attraction towards what is (simplistically) called "eastern religion." One could write an even longer book about how Westerners project their fantasies on monist ideologies: people like Joseph Campbell and Karen Armstrong "explaining" human sacrifice, the Theosophical Society standing up for caste, Arthur C. Clarke (Did he know much more of Asian history than the Albanian radical knew of Albania?) describing Buddhism as "the only faith that never became stained with blood." Even Hollander allowed that, "While the suspension of disbelief has its place in human life, it belongs more to the religious (or asthetic) than the political realm." But his book should be read, in my opinion, as a warning against all forms of ideological naivite. A love of truth, and a determination to tell it no matter how out of fashion it may seem, is essential to integrity in all walks of life. Political Pilgrims vividly illustrates, in the political realm, the evil that can be done when honesty plays second fiddle to fashion.....

This is an awesome book which helps the reader understand why intellectuals always seem to be on the wrong side of history. They loved Communism even when it was obvious that Lenin & Stalin were exterminating hoards of people! They are defective in their thinking and they stick to it. The author has a quote at the beginning of the book. "A GREAT DEAL OF INTELLEGENCE CAN BE INVESTED IN IGNORANCE WHEN THE NEED FOR ILLUSION IS DEEP." (Saul Bellows) . This book walks you through the 'needs' that these intellectuals seem to have which continually seems to cause them to deny the stark realities around them & cling to their 'ideologies'. I am so glad I read this book as I just laugh now when I hear so much of what is on the news. I GET IT!

25 years ago, "Political Pilgrims" documented beyond any doubt the willing self-deception of intellectuals in love with the totalitarian regimes in Cuba, China, the Soviet Union and East Germany. The debate no longer rages over whether these countries were "freer" than their counterparts in the West. They aren't. What hasn't changed, however, is the continued willingness of intellectuals to find paradise anywhere but in the US.

Paul Hollander brings his trademark meticulousness to the study of Intellectuals who travel to what used to be referred to as Worker's Paradises. Using mountains of evidence, one cannot help but be persuaded that Western Intellectuals experience such a depth of alienation from their cultural birthplace, that they become morally blind to the abuses of its antagonists.

What's truly remarkable, is that none of this has changed. One merely needs to point to Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11 and it's grotesque representation of Hussein's Iraq as an innocently peaceful place of playful children and mothers. At no point in that execrable movie does he mention the mass graves or torture chambers.

Michael, post your wish list on Amazon and I'll send you this book. Promise.

my 21 month & 3.5-yr-old daughters love reading this book together & separately, each on her own level - highly recommended; each of the 7 sisters has a special skill, each is valued, each contributes to the good of their family (no parents in this story); my husband was concerned for the dragon, a plot line dropped somewhat abruptly, but the girls just love it!

I read this to my 4 1/2 year old. We started with The Story About Ping, and then looked for other books about China. Before reading The Seven Chinese Sisters, we read Mei Mei Loves the Morning, Dim Sum for Everyone and Good Morning, China.

Although The Seven Chinese Sisters doesn't give a lot of cultural information on China within the text, the pictures do. It's set in a picturesque valley with mountains in the background. A small village with traditional Chinese houses is near the river running through the valley. Across the bridge is a forest, and through the forest and up the mountain is where the dragon lives. Although the dragon takes the youngest sister, he isn't terribly fierce, so he shouldn't scare a young child who is having the story read to her (at the end of the story I mentioned to my daughter that the dragon is pretend, and that dragons are only in books and sometimes on TV, but they are just pretend...since we've talked about the concept of pretend/real in the past, she understood right away).

I like that when the sisters see that the dragon is starving, they say they will bring him noodle soup tomorrow (today they have to get Seventh Sister home because "she's all worn out, and she needs her diaper changed"). Unfortunately, the story never says that they did take the dragon any soup, so I turned the pages back to where they made the promise and explained to my daughter that the sisters brought him some soup the next day. I wish the author had included that in the story.

My 3-year-old and I enjoyed reading this book together. She had a great timelearning about each sister and how everyone has her individual talents. I enjoy the book about individuality and self-reliance.

We first came across this book at the library. My then 5 year old daughter always talked about it after we returned it, so we decided to buy it for her 6th birthday. She loves pretending to be made into soup for the dragon!It's a fun book with wonderful illustrations and a fun story.

The story of how seven sisters work together to brave the unknown danger and the known danger of a dragon is delightful. My two daughters love this story. My youngest wasn't interested in it as I started reading, but by the 3rd or 4th page, had put down her crayon and was watching and listening intently. The tale of sisters helping each other and that each has a different but equally valuable talent is a good lesson. Both my girls loved the colorful pictures. It has remained on the top of our read a loud pile for quite awhile...and even made it to school as a favored show and tell.

This is the account by Wu Ningkun and his wife Wu Ningkun and his wife Li Yikai, of their persecution in Communist China over several decades.

Wu Ningkun returned to China in 1951, from the United States, where he taught and studied at an American university, to serve China's new Communist regime.

He was repaid by persecution, denunciation and two long terms of imprisonment, starvation and torture in Red China's labour and "re-education" camps. Ningkun was sentenced to these horrors after he became critical of the lack of freedom of thought and speech in Communist China.

The book gives us a window into the horrors of the Mao tyranny, the Hundred Flowers Campaign and the demonic insanity of the Cultural Revolution.
Reading this account, we learn about the Orwellian brainwashing, that took place (and still does) in Communist China, known as "Thought reform" (This year hundreds of Tibetans have been sentenced to "re-education" in Chinese laoghais).
His wife with the young children, was dismissed from her job, and the family faced destitution, persecution and starvation.

The labels that were thrown about by hysterical Red mobs, such as "counterrevolutionaries", "imperialists and "capitalist running dogs" are still bandied about by the Red Chinese and by the hard left around the world today.
Indeed Ningkun was denounced for quoting Winston Churchill who was branded as an "arch-imperialist warmonger".
Indeed President George W Bush is in good company in being villified by the left for his brave stand against terror and Islamo-Nazism.

Those denounced during the Cultural Revolution were forced to wear armbands labelling them as "counterrevolutionaries". "rightists" etc, in a move reminiscent of Nazi Germany.
All the while China was being force fed on Mao's vile works on Mao's vile works- still sickeningly part of the staple diet of sections of the International Left today.
The total war on freedom and a nation's ancient traditions, and the Satanic monstrosity of Communism are starkly revealed in this book.

Wow! I was especially impressed with the clarity with which both the husband and the wife wrote. It is written intellectually, yet with readability. Wu and his wife endured sufferings for actions that they were falsely accused of, yet their love for one another and for their family heightened throughout the entire nightmare. Being sent to prison for 30 years for returning to your own country in order to make it a better place is something that few of us could withstand, yet Wu withstood and became a better person for it. This is one of the best books that I have ever read. It inspires the reader to take a closer look at priorities, and leaves the reader with a deep sense of loss for the authors on one hand, yet a deeper sense of gain in areas of life unseen.

Rarely does a book capture the ways that a family can find purpose and forgiveness in the face of cruelty from others. This detailed account of the imprisonment of the father and eventual banishment of the entire family to a rural village in China puts a face on the experiences of educated persons during Mao's rule. In the same tradition as Viktor Frankl's book, Man's Search for Meaning, the author's descriptions and reflections show the resilience and depth of the human spirit. This book is extremely informative about the Maoist regime and inspiring about the strength of persons to survive and thrive in the harshest of circumstances. One of the best books I've ever read.

Wu Ningkun's "A Single Tear" is an excellent look at a young Chinese man whose decision to return to China from America after the 1949 Mao Zedong revolution has lasting and potentially tragic implications for both him and his family. Like many Chinese who emigrated to other parts of the world after WWII, Wu believes that China will be able to enter a better, prosperous and independent phase with the new Mao regime. Although quickly disillusioned, Wu and his family remain, subject to imprisonment, deprivation, and humiliation, especially during the infamous "Cultural Revolution" of the 1960s. By the time of Mao's death in the 1970s, the Wu family has been moved -- separately and together -- from city to country and back again, persecuted for their religious beliefs (Christian), and distrustful of neighbors and friends with the constant denunciations that have become standard. This book will show you what I have heard firsthand in China: the destruction of the intellectuals and "old" by a new generation with no sense of the past. Very moving and inspirational.

This is a very well written memoir by a husband and wife, about their life in communist China in the 50's and 60's, in which they survived prison, hunger, separation, to name a few. In one part of the book, she tells about how she was assigned to a job post by the government, away from her baby. Since she wouldn't be able to breastfeed, she had to buy milk on the black market! There were no luxuries such as going to the grocery store to buy baby formula. And yet, she deals with it and copes! That's not the worst of what they had to go through! This couple sets the definition for strength of charactor. Very inspiring and enriching book.

This is not just a book but a comprehensive education for anyone concerned with the love-hate relationship between American and China. Too bad it came out at such a late date. To me, both and Korean and Vietnam wars might have been avoided had it come out in the late 1940s or early 1950s

simply using the United States, via Stilwell. The war with the Japanese was a convenience in aid of the real issue--waging war against the Communists.

This book's triumph begins with a brilliant idea: Barbara Tuchman's decision to combine a biography of Gen. "Vinegar Joe" Stilwell with a history of China's failed republican revolution. To an amazing degree, Stilwell showed up as history was happening in China after the collapse of Qing Dynasty in 1911. During the Second World War, he played a leading - and doomed - role in United States' relationship with the incompetent, corrupt regime of Chiang Kai-shek. As a result, Stilwell is a perfect vehicle through which to explore the United States' tragic relationship with China for most of the last century. Stilwell is fascinating - tough, smart, curious about the world around him, disdainful of pretense, entirely lacking in tact and patience. In some ways, he was the perfect man to try to coax Chiang into actually fighting the Japanese who were devouring China in the `30s and `40s: Stilwell spoke fluent Chinese, knew Chinese culture, admired Chinese people, had faith in the beleaguered Chinese soldier's ability to fight - and was a brilliant battlefield tactician. In other ways, he was precisely the wrong man for the job: He lacked the temperament to hide the contempt he felt for the Generalissimo and the corrupt sycophants around him. As a result, Stilwell was ineffective in his dealings with Chiang. Then again, perhaps no one could have persuaded Chiang, who emerges here as equal parts stupid and arrogant (with an equally sickening wife), to defend his country instead of his own narrow interests. Tuchman strikes a nice balance between sweeping themes and intriguing, even funny details. True, I sometimes got lost in the narrative. I couldn't always remember the characters, and I got confused on military strategy - so much so that I couldn't evaluate the wisdom of Stilwell's plan for an aggressive ground offensive to retake Burma from the Japanese and weigh it against a rival plan from the British. At least one of its themes - the way a muzzled media presented a wildly misleading impression of Chiang's regime to the U.S. public - struck this reader as particularly timely.

Who was Joseph Stilwell? What part did he play in the unfolding of Chinaýs troubled century? It has been said that "men make a lot of history, and history makes a lot of men." To what extent was Stilwell "made" by the history he lived through? And how might the recent history of China have been different if another were in his position? How did the relationship between Stilwell and Chiang Kai-Shek (Jiang Jieshi) affect their joint ability to save China from the Japanese? To what extent was the conflict between them made irrelevant by the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki? Chiang Kai-Shek always said that the Japanese were a disease of the skin, but the Communists were a disease of the heart. Was he correct to hold back from fighting the Japanese so that he could spare his reserves for the inevitable conflict with the Communists? Might he have been more effective on both fronts if he had been more aggressive against the Japanese? And how would present day China be different if the Gomingdang rather than the Communist Party had been running China for past 50 years? What implications does this story have for the "Taiwan question?"

Nothing stands out more in my study of 20th Century China, than the frustration of so many situations where there were simply no good choices. Of course, I am not Chinese, so I suppose I am able, because of that, to view the period with some measure of detachment. But I was born in Tokyo, and grew up in the north of Japan, so, while I am always viewed as a foreigner in Asia, I am, in fact, a child of Asia, and keenly interested in what factors contributed to the painful history China has lived since the revolution of 1911.

One of the most interesting comparisons in this book is between Joseph Stilwell, and Claire Chennault. Barbara Tuchman clearly favors Stilwell, to the point where I would say that if this book were your only source of information about Chennault, and who he was, you probably would not have a very high opinion of him. But even Tuchman must admit that Claire Chennault had much better rapport with Chiang Kai-Shek than Stilwell.

Let me try to phrase the matter in very basic terms: Joseph Stilwell was a brilliant general whoýs relational skills, and more importantly his relationship sense was seriously wanting. Throughout the book, I am struck, not by a deficiency of intelligence, or determination, or persistence, but by a lack of basic humanity. This deficiency hangs over Stilwell like a cloud, polluting his relationships with those with whom it was most important for him to get along.

For starters, he was one of the ungodliest officers in the history of the U.S. Army. To his daughter, he wrote about the "criminal instincts I picked up by being forced to go to Church and Sunday School, and seeing how little real good religion does anybody, I advise passing them all up and using common sense instead." This cynical godlessness expressed itself in many ways. Stilwell was generally contemptuous and disrespectful toward those with whom he disagreed (mostly Chiang Kai-Shek). This was a source of irritation to FDR, who felt that Chiang Kai-Shek was a head of state, and ought to be accorded the level of respect due one in that position. Stilwell did not see it that way. He constantly referred to Chiang in his diary as "Peanut," or "Hickory Head." Several times he referred to FDR himself as "Rubber Legs." The Japanese he called "buck-toothed bastards."

Both Churchill and MacArthur possessed a spiritual dimension that was completely foreign to Stilwell. Churchill used to say, "In war, resolution; in defeat, defiance; in victory, magnanimity; in peace, goodwill. Stilwell probably should be given credit for understanding the first point, and perhaps the second in some measure. But for the rest of it, he was clueless. No, I mean really, completely clueless. When MacArthur ruled Japan as a virtual dictator after World War II, he issued a request for 10,000 missionaries. He also contacted the Gideons and requested as many bibles as they could supply. Whatever one may say about MacArthurýs personal spiritual life, he did understand that the essential problem of post-war Japan was a spiritual crisis. Stilwell had no such insight. Following a tour of the gutted and burned out districts of Yokohama after World War II, he said, "We gloated over the destruction and came in feeling fine."

At one point, after he had been removed from China, he allowed himself to believe that he would be chosen over MacArthur for command of forces in the Pacific. By Godýs mercy, he was not chosen, and the Japanese people experienced the big-heartedness of MacArthur.

This book is old. It came out in 1971. In spite of that, this is a very useful book. Barbara Tuchman was a war correspondent who personally witnessed much of the Sino-Japanese war during the 30s. She is very thorough, detailed and organized. She also possesses a level of objectivity which is refreshing in this day and age when so much written history is editorial in nature.

I have been pretty hard on Stilwell. Perhaps I have been so turned off by his acerbic nature that I have tended not to appreciate his brilliance as an officer. Marshall, who was always Stilwellýs strongest supporter, said that Stilwell was "his own worst enemy." The point, here, I guess, is that many good qualities can be obscured by a little bit of folly. Nonetheless, this, as I said, is a very useful book. It isnýt all about Stilwell. It is about a very important point in Chinaýs history, and the way personality affected policy. Understanding the American experience in China is critical to comprehending how events developed toward the culmination of the conflict, in 1949.

"Stilwell and the American Experience in China" is a very interesting biography of one of America's great military leaders. It engages the reader on several levels.

Mrs. Tuchman weaves a study of an era in China's history around the biography of General Stilwell. The period spans approximately one hundred years, beginning with the Opium Wars of the mid 19th century. The history concludes with the Chinese Communists' assumption of power in 1949. Barbara Tuchman's research and analysis of the events and people who lived during this period provide a partial explanation for the success of the Communist revolution. She accomplishes this through her intriguing character studies of the main protagonists, Chiang Kai-shek, Mao Tse-tung, and President Franklin Roosevelt. The character studies suggest the motivation for their decisions.

Mrs. Tuchman also effectively exposes the vastly different management styles of the Allied military and political leaders. They include Churchill, Mountbatten, Roosevelt, Marshall, Eisenhower, Chiang Kai-shek, and Stilwell. She reveals how these men attempted to exert influence over each other in deciding the conduct of the war. She identifies which men prevailed in these negotiations. This book would serve as an excellent reference on management for either civilian or military leaders.

Mrs. Tuchman also provides interesting insights into the personalities of Major General Claire Chennault of the Flying Tigers and General George Marshall, who also authored the plan that restored Europe's economy after the war. She helps us understand the basis for their fame and determine whether they were worthy of the recognition they received.

Finally, this is a compelling biography of a man who played a significant role in World War II, but received little recognition during his lifetime. She details the reasons why General Stilwell is not as famous or held in the same regard as the other great military leaders of WWII. Even so, Mrs. Tuchman's analysis forces the reader to conclude that General Stilwell's devotion to this country and the people of China was unsurpassed.

I would like to see this book released again, so that more people can learn about General Stilwell and America's relationship with China during World War II.

There are no words adequate to convey the effect THE STONES CRY OUT had on me when I read it in 1986. It haunted me for years. I wanted everyone I knew to read it.

Just several years ago I met a woman whose entire family - her husband and all her children - died under the Khmer Rouge monsters.

Amazingly, after the stories Miss Szymusiak recounts: of the young girl who was killed for being too pretty, of those murdered for daring to exhibit signs of affection for one another, and of unspeakable tortures inflicted upon absolutely helpless and innocent people of all ages, the chapter which really drained my blood was the one detailing her witnessing the beginning of the purge. The author notes the young Communist cadres being themselves called in for interrogation and torture and disappearing one by one.

This is a chilling account of the darkest period in 20th Century history.

One of the earliest (1986) accounts from the survivors of the Pol Pot regime, "The Stones Cry Out" seems to have set the style and standard for another more recent child's-eye perspective on the same era, "When Broken Glass Floats". The minute details of everyday life, not abstract poltical assessments, form the basis for our childhood memories. The author's account carries an unvarnished realism which draws the reader into her film-like image of daily life under threat of starvation and execution. This is probably as close as a reader can come to the truth of events in Cambodia during 1975-79. Oral histories such as "The Stones Cry Out" are perhaps the best way for survivors of human rights abuses to indict the perpetrators. Sadly, tribunals driven by international politics are unlikely to have the same impact as the simple testimony of a victimized child. Highly recommended reading for all those with an interest in human rights, Cambodia, and Southeast Asian culture.

You need a strong stomach to read the grueling ordeal of a 12 year old girl in Cambodia under the Pol Pot regime.
The latter and his cronies turned a whole country into a concentration camp guided by the iron fist of a centrally planned economy which was based on rice production quotas.
Starvation and killing of whole families including babies were part of normal daily life. The author herself lost nearly all her family.
The slogan was 'be deaf and dump if you want to survive'.

Exceptionally, this book also relates the disturbing facts which happened in a Red Khmer camp in Thailand until one year after Pol Pot's defeat by the Vietnamese.

Molyda Szymusiak tells only the facts. She doesn't explain the overall picture of Pol Pot's regime, politically, socially, economically or internationally.
Therefore I highly recommend the eminent works of David Chandler as well as Philip Short's magisterial biography of Pol Pot (Saloth Sar).

This book shows painfully the disastrous consequences of a power grasp by ideological fanatics who created a one party state bureaucracy which wielded total uncontrolled power over the population.
This regime was a terrible shame for the left.

A very disturbing read.

My heart sank lower and lower with each successive chapter. This is certainly not a book one can read while couching comfortably on a sofa. If you are familiar with Cambodian history of the Khmer Rouge regime, this book is indeed a chilling read. But at the same time, one can't help feeling admiration for the author's fortitide in the face of unimaginable hardship and horror.

Actualy I would rate this 4 and 1/2 stars.

Having read "First they killed my father" by Loung Ung It would be difficult for me to review this book with out comparing it to Loung Ung's memoir.

Both are essentially the same story, a young upper middle class girl living in Phnom Phen in april of 1975 when thier life, family and happiness are torn from them by the khmer rouge.

Many of thier experinces are similar as you might expect (long hours in forced labor, family deaths, witnessing murder ect..) but each has a unique story of thier own.

The writing styles also vary greatly and this is where Loung's "First they killed my Father is the better" book. Molyda tells her story in a very straight foward manner. Her discriptions of murder, torture and rotting corpses are alomost clinical in tone as if she is afaid to visit or express her real feelings at the time (and who could realy blame her) we are giving only hints about her family and life before April 17th 1975 (to be fair this may be in part to spare distant family members still in Cambodia from retalation)

In Loung's book however we are treated to two light hearted chapters discribing her life in Phnom Pehn before April 17th 1975 this gives the reader a chance to feel they realy know her, her brother's, sisters and parents thier strengths and weakness'.

Loung's memoir is far more emotional in tone and feeling leaving the reader almost gasping for air at points.

For those overly squimish that makes "The Stones Cry Out" the better of the two books. It is also the better of the two books if your sole interest is the surrounding history of the killing fields.

But for those just wishing to read a great emotional book "first They killed My father" is the better choice but I would highly recomend both to all.

i liked the pictures in the book though there is not a whole lot of written material on Tibet. it is a perfect book for someone who is curious about Tibet with all its beatiful pictures and some history. this is a good book to ocassionally go through the pictures again. it is an excellent book to show to a friend who drops by your house or a gift to your children.

The following is a review of The Tibetans: Photographs by Art Perry that appeared in the December issue of Photo Metro magazine.

Perhaps the best book to date on Tibet. This work goes beyond the easy cliche images of dramatic landscapes and content-less smiling figures that populate so many other books. This is no parachute in, shoot pix, and fly out to publishers and galleries book. Perry spent five years on the project and represents both the beauty and the grit of day-to-day life. It shows. The book is quite well designed with intelligent text by Robert Thurman.

The following is a review of Art Perry The Tibetans: Photographs that appeared in The Toronto Globe and Mail, April 8, 2000.

(Headline:"Turning the spotlight on photography books," by Martin Levin.) For many years, B.C. writer and photographer Art Perry has documented threatened cultures, including the Nubians and the Mayans. Here he turns his attention, and his fine black-and-white photographic sensibility, on Tibetans, the world's most famous enigmatic people. Perry takes us to remote monasteries, up the Chang Tang Plateau and to the Tibetan exile communities in India and Nepal. The whole conveys a powerful sense of meaning - and loss.

The following article appeared in The Vancouver Sun, May 10, 2000

'Tibetan images snag major prize for local photographer' by Michael Scott, Sun Visual Art Critic

Vancouver photographer Art Perry has won a major international award for his large-format photographic book The Tibetans: Photographs. Perry, an instructor at Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design, becomes the second winner of the $30,000 Roloff Beny Photography Book Award at a ceremony in Toronto. (Magnum photographer Larry Towell received the first Beny Award for his book El Salvador.) The publisher of Perry's 1999 book, Viking Studio (an imprint of Penguin Books), will share in the award, receiving a $20,000 prize of its own. Perry spent five years collecting images of Buddhist societies in the Himalayas, working primarily in Tibet, but travelling also to Ladakh and Nepal. Last year, the Washington Post named his book one of the year's 10 best. A Vancouver Sun reviewer wrote: "Perry takes us from the slightly familiar markets and brothels of Lhasa clear through to the monasteries and mountaintops that have not been otherwise documented. The text is as clear-eyed as the pictures, but the message it contains is not entirely pretty. Though Buddhism practiced by the Tibetans will certainly endure, Tibetan Buddhist culture is very much under attack, perhaps by we western cultural imperialists, certainly by the country's Chinese occupiers. Read it, or just look at the pictures, and those Free Tibet bumper stickers will seem a lot more immediate." Here in Vancouver, Perry teaches a multi-disciplinary course at Emily Carr on the history of bohemianism - a course that covers film, punk rock and jazz as well as visual art. (I start by telling my students to stay up all night before coming to class," he jokes.) Perry also teaches a course in contemporary literature, a field that has sparked his interest in his own Irish roots. He says he will spend part of the Beny prize money on a sabbatical year in County Monaghan in northern Ireland. Perry plans to pursue both writing and photography during this time. "I have to say I am very, very honoured to be receiving this award," he says. "My father had some of Roloff Beny's big books and I grew up handling those incredible pages. There aren't people in those images, but they were lush and magnificent." Expatriate Canadian photographer Roloff Beny made an international name for himself in the 1970s and early 1980s chronicling a world of sensual beauty, with major large-format books on subjects such as pre-revolutionary Iran and Italy. He died in 1984.

The following is an article that appeared in the National Post, Toronto, May 11, 2000

(Headline: Photography book award, by Finbarr O'Reilly, National Post)

Vancouver-based photographer Art Perry has won the second Roloff Beny Photography Book Award for The Tibetans. The country's top photography book award, presented last night in Toronto, earns Perry a cash prize of $30,000. His American publisher, Viking Studio/Penguin Putnam, also gets $20,000, while two runners-up, Courtney Milne and Linda Rutenberg, get $5,000 each. Perry, who is a lecturer at the Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design, spent five years travelling throughout Tibet and the exiled Tibetan communities in India and Nepal, documenting with a camera the people he met along the way - monks, nomads, city dwellers. Through the Dalai Lama, Perry gained access to seldom-visited monasteries in remote regions where he captured a traditional way of life that is being threatened by the Chinese occupation of Tibet. In a current project, the Ottawa-born Perry has been documenting in both writing and photographs the fractured cultures of Northern and Southern Ireland. The project, which he began in 1998, is a lifelong dream of Perry, whose family is from Belfast. The award was created in memory of Roloff Beny, a world-renowned photographer who was born in Medicine Hat, Alta., and is intended to encourage excellence in photograph publishing.

This book is a charmer full of well-crafted and wise tales. I recommend it to anyone desiring nuggets of ancient insight about human nature.

This wonder book brings Chinese wisdom to the reader, who has no prior knowledge of Chinese history, through delightful, inspiring stories. The stories (there are more than a hundred in the book) may be well-known in China, but not in the West. Most of them I read for the first time and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I've learned a lot from this precious volume. I'm going to apply some in my life.

China has long presented the Western world with stories of folklore and proverbs; this contains stories relevant to business success, retelling Chinese tales to fit the business model. No prior knowledge of Chinese history and folklore is required in order to appreciate these fine tales of wisdom.

This is a unique book for those who seek wisdom from Chinese classics to apply in their career and life. A one-stop shopping for quintessential Chinese wisdom conveyed through more than a hundred of delightful stories by a remarkable author. For a lay person like me, no prior knowledge of Chinese history is required. I love the book's beautiful design and elegant calligraphy. Nichloas Kristof of New York Times sums it up better than I can when he says: "Treat this as a story book, and you will be entertained; treat this as a history book, and you will learn the richness of Asia's past; treat this as a book of wisdom, and you will be inspired."

If you have time to read only one book on Chinese wisdom, this is the one that will surely uplift you, enlighten you, inform you and entertain you. I love the book for its wide scope, its witty stories and inspiring messages, its elegant package and its practical application to many aspects of modern life. The author's insightful comments at the end of each story are very helpful for me to fully appreciate its embedded wisdom. I visited the author's web site michaeltang.com and would like to recommend it to all interested readers. The author's uncommon experience and accomplishment make the message of his book all the more valuable.