China Books

I read this book on my way to Shanghai on business, and it was a fascinating book. It's written by a retired naval officer, and it is a first hand narrative about what went on in China along the Yangtze River in the early part of teh Chinese century from a US Naval Officer's point of view. He talks about the river boats that carried trade up and down to the coast, the naval ships of different countries that provided security along the river, and the historical events that overtook the country between WWI and WWII.

During this period the Manchu dynasty was overthrown, various warlords rose up in the power vacuum, and ultimately a civil war developed between the Kuomintang (Nationalists) and the Communists. Adding to the mix was the outbreak of WWII, and the Japanese occupation. The book takes us up to Pearl Harbor, and carries its narrative well through many different events that were going on at the same time without confusing you (a difficult task given the complexity of the times).

The author covers the political and historical events well, and also covers such day to day things, such as how the river boats navigated the rapids with the help of the coolie labor pulling them upstream by ropes. He goes into Chinese culture, relationships between Europeans, Americans, Japanese, and Chinese people. He also explains the trading concessions, and even goes over the layout of Shanghai. An amazing amount of subject matter that was somehow put down in a way I could follow it all. If you are going to do business in China, this is a good book for background on how the country was first opening up to the West. You can see the problems they had, and it helps give you a perspective on how they look at the West today.

I found the book interesting in two areas - as a business man doing work in China, I enjoyed the easy to read historical account, and the first hand narrative of Shanghai (I made it a point to visit the places he talked about). Also, as a retired military officer, I found his discussion of military affairs in an environment we called "Military Operations Other Than War (MOOTW)" fascinating. That, and his account of life as a naval officer, and how the military personnel in China lived on a day to day basis.

Like any good book, it is excellent in many ways, and I can't recommend it enough.

This book, by the late Rear Admiral Kemp Tolley, is a very interesting and at times humorous account of the life of U.S. Navy gunboat sailors on China's Yangtze River from the time of the American Civil War through the mid-20th Century. During that period, China went through a tremendous amount of upheaval that included revolution, civil wars, major wars with Japan, and smaller wars with western countries. In the midst of China's upheaval, small American gunboats and those of other foreign nations tried to protect the lives and commercial interests of their citizens living in China.

Kemp Tolley, who passed away in 2000 at age 92, was himself a young Naval Officer in the 1930s when he was assigned to the Yangtze River Patrol. From that vantage point his tales of U.S. Navy life on the Yangtze--both on duty and off duty--in the 1930s make for some interesting anecdotes, whether they deal with U.S. sailors battling the river and Chinese bandits, romancing White Russian and Chinese women, or brawling with British and Italian gunboat crews in the bars of Yangtze River towns.

"Yangtze Patrol" is a great true adventure story and captures some of the same spirit as the novel, "The Sand Pebbles," which dealt with one U.S. gunboat crew during the Chinese Nationalist Revolution in the mid-1920s. However, any American reader of "Yangtze Patrol" needs to keep in mind how most Chinese viewed the Patrol. That view is well summed up in "The Sand Pebbles" where an American missionary asks Jake Holman, a gunboat sailor, how he'd feel if, instead of American gunboats on the Yangtze, there were Chinese gunboats sailing up and down the Mississippi River.

A fogotten chapter of Naval history is brought to life in this fabulous volume. Kemp Tolley, once a sailor in the Yangtze river patrol, outlines the Navy's service in China from its humblest beginnings prior to the cival war through the loss of the last gunboat in 1941. For those of us interested in Navy history, This book brings a lively and action packed legacy from our "China Sailors"

Subtle, beautiful, honest glimpse of the most massive public energy project ever undertaken. Linda Butler captures the life and death of the people, commnunities, and cities that were sacrificed for this energy project.

If America is "addicted to oil" then China is addicted to electricity. In the past 3 years China has approved and is building more new coal fired power plants than the entire United States fleet. You would think that this massive hydroelectric project at Three Gorges Dam would appease China's hunger for new energy, but the reality is it's just a drop in the bucket.

This book does a wonderful job reflecting on what we loose when society progresses.

As a person with a long-standing involvement in both photography and the professional evaluation of major energy projects in many countries (including hydro) I really appreciated the true value of this wonderful book.

To begin with, many not involved in this kind of work may not appreciate how politically sensitive it is. It took a great deal of courage and savvy for Ms. Butler to create the relationships and the entrees needed to make and exit the country with all those wonderful photographs and interview materials. This is no small feat in its own right. It speaks highly of her and also says alot about the growing openness of China.

Turning to the content, the quality of the photographs - in purely photographic terms - is superb. Lest we forget the power of black and white and the time-tested virtues of powerful composition, lighting and choice of subject matter, this is the place to recall them. Most of these pictures are not merely records - they are good photographs.

The captions and the text are very well done. This book is not a one-sided tirade against dam development. Rather, it is a sensitive, obviously well-informed and balanced perspective on the costs and benefits of these undertakings - both at an individual and more aggregate societal level. It is very clear from this book that there are winners and losers, progress and losses, and the actual long-term net result remains to play-out. This is reality.

There are important lessons of experience to be learned from this text. Let us not forget the scale of this enterprise. China committed something like six billions dollars to resettlement alone for over one million affected people. That a certain percentage of this money got misdirected through corruption and poor implementation is not surprising, and to the Chinese themselves - not acceptable - people are going to jail for their misdeeds. Ms. Butler faces these issues head-on and in a balanced manner. It becomes clear from reading this text that no matter how well-designed a project may be, the quality of the implementation arrangements and the structures in place for assuring their proper functioning are truly critical.

Finally, returning to the book as a production in its own right, the quality of the layout and printing are superb. Very highly recommended.

This amazing book by Linda Butler is a beautiful and heartbreaking look at the Three Gorges Dam project in China and the changing landscape because of it. The images are incredible and the text is haunting. The photographs are wonderfully reproduced and she has a great eye for capturing the subtle silence and the small nuances of the people and the landscape. Her vivid images document a changing China in a very intimate way. This text is a true photographic and historical treat!

Usually I buy an anthology just for one or two stories by my favourite authors. I picked this one up for the Nalo Hopkinson story, 'Shift,' which turned out to be about Ariel & Caliban from The Tempest, but I was pleasantly surprised to find several other stories I liked. Neil Gaiman's story is good, of course, and is a tribute to Ray Bradbury, about a gathering of the seasons. Michael Swanwick has two stories in this Year's Best, and both turn out to be really short; 'Five British Dinosaurs' and 'Cecil Rhodes in Hell' are both funny, but in different ways. 'The Pagodas of Ciboure' I had read in some other anthology a long time ago, and liked. What city dweller knew slugs could be so fearsome? I was a little disappointed in the Ellen Klages story, since I was hoping for a lot from it, but Naomi Kritzer's 'Comrade Grandmother' made up for it. It's a terrific story about Baba Yaga's participation in World War II. And of course there's an Ursula K Le Guin story too. All in all, a great anthology.

Once again, it's time for the annual Year's Best Fantasy volume, edited by David G. Hartwell. This year's version, volume 3, has even more goodness than last year's version did. Twenty-nine stories in all, ranging from short 3-page stories to 40 page ones, by some of the biggest names in the field. This is the perfect sampler to see what's going on in the Fantasy world, to see who the up-and-comers are, and get a taste of what they're offering. On the strength of some of the stories in this volume, I'm definitely going to check out a couple that I've never tried before.

I'd say that this volume is better than last year's edition, just because there weren't any stories that I didn't like. There were some that were weaker than others, of course, but no real clunkers in the bunch. It has fantasy for every taste, from urban fantasy to other worlds, if you've got a taste for the stuff, this book will satiate it. I will, of course, include a list of the stories at the end of the review so you can check them out and see if there are any authors that you particularly like.

I love the short fiction format, especially when it's done well. There are some standout entries in this year's edition, capped off with a short little piece by Michael Swanwick called "Five British Dinosaurs." This one is extremely short, but a lot is carried in a small package. It's about the discovery of dinosaur bones in Great Britain in the 19th century, along with the discovery that there are some living specimens hanging around in the British aristocracy. This story is hilarious and I found myself laughing throughout it's brief span. The thought of a walking dinosaur speaking in proper British English, disputing the reconstruction of the bones of his ancestors, is priceless. Swanwick gives the dinosaurs a lot of personality, along with a lot of arrogance. "Things were definitely better run in the Mesozoic?But mammals knew their place then." Swanwick has the honour of being the only person with two stories included, but they are both very short and so I figure Hartwell decided that he could afford the space.

Another standout is Steve Popkes and his story, " A Fable of Saviour & Reptile." This is a re-telling of the Jesus story, from the point of view of a talking turtle that befriends Jesus when he's young. The turtle is suitably haughty, given his long life span and his infinite patience (given the fact that it takes him a long time to get anywhere). It's an interesting take on the whole Messiah story, but if you can get past the irreligious tone of the story, it is very heartwarming. Hartwell warns in his prologue to it "Do note the word 'fable' in the title." While it gives an alternate view of Jesus and his life (including filling in the missing thirty or so years that the Bible doesn't include), it is very respectful the idea behind the story. The turtle is characterized wonderfully, and Jesus is too if you can get past the fact that he does drink when he's younger (getting a little drunk with the turtle) and he has a wife and son. It's a story about the power of myth and how humans can attach meaning to anything if it will help them get through life and possibly throw off the yoke of oppression. There are some very touching moments and conversations between the two of them, especially when the turtle comforts Jesus in his cell right before he's crucified. This is probably the best story in the book, and I am definitely going to track down some more by this guy.

Other particularly good stories are Kage Baker's "Her Father's Eyes" (a tale of a young girl and the boy she meets and befriends on a plane), Neil Gaiman's "October in the Chair" (a typical Gaiman tale about stories and the people who tell them, this time a group of god-like beings), and "A Prayer for Captain LaHire" by Patrice E. Sarath (a story of three knights who followed Joan of Arc until she burned, and the horror that they discover a fourth disciple has unleashed). Finally, there is P.D. Cacek's "A Book, by its Cover." This is a wonderful little tale about a Jewish boy in the aftermath of Kristallnacht in Berlin, and the bookshop owner who he believes is doing evil things afterward. It's has a wonderful message about books and the effects that they can have on a person.

If there are any weaknesses in the book, they are purely my personal feeling. I'm not a big fan of Tanith Lee, though I know that she is very popular. Thus, her story "Persian Eyes" didn't do a whole lot for me. In it, a Roman noble family is destroyed by the work of a slave girl and her magic eyes. It was more interesting to me than her entry in last year's book, but not by much. Also, "The Pagodas of Ciboure" just dragged on a little too long for my tastes. In it, a sick boy is healed by some French fairy creatures called "pagodas," though he has to save them from an onslaught of slugs first. It's cute, and it's well-told, but it's just too long.

That being said, I did enjoy even those stories. This is just a top-notch collection of short fantasy. Hartwell has done it again, pulling together a varied group of stories that can't help but satisfy. If you're a fantasy fan and like the short fiction genre, this is definitely the book for you. Hartwell has another winner, and I can't wait for next year's edition.

David Roy

Most of the anthologies I've read in the genre of Fantasy/Scifi and horror are mixed bags of personal likes and dislikes of the editors...some of which are a bit too gory, too 'realistic' or just have what I'd like to call 'fantasy around the edges'. This series is really 'the best'...not the usual commercially bland mixes (see, Bob Silverberg's Legends), but a good mix of quirky, new authors as well as some well known names (Gene Wolfe, Tanith Lee) with a nice blend of both light hearted and serious fantastic tales. Standouts would be: Gene Wolfe's From the Cradle, Naomi Kritzer's Comrade Grandmother, and Michael Swanwick's Five British Dinosaurs.

There are no real faults with this book. The Introduction is interesting. An essential book for those seriously interested in the Daoist Perspective.

In my opinion, this document is of equal standing with the Chuang-Tzu and the Lieh-Tzu in importance, and as a compilation of thought, in a way more important as these documents as an overview of Taoist thought.

Having read a more obscure translation earler, I found this translation to be delightfully accessible and clear. There are excellent notes, summaries, explanations, and histories to compliment the document. I wish they had been present in the earlier translation I had dug up.

After reading the Tao Te Ching, read this before moving on to the Chuang-Tzu, Lieh-Tzu, or any other Taoist document. It's worth it - and in the spirit of Lao-Tzu, not too long or wordy.

Besides the Yuan Dao's enormous historical and philosophical value, the introduction to the Yuan Dao is the most important introduction to taoist thought that has been written in many years. It clearly defines the essential differences between the way Taoist and Western philosophies think.

This is one of the best of Shambhala's "Dragon" series and perhaps the most intriguing book on Zen I've ever read. It left tooth-marks on my fingers as I unconsciously bit my hand in my excitement.

Every Zen-fan knows the story about Hui-neng, the illiterate lay-brother enlightened on hearing one phrase from the "Diamond Sutra." When it came time for the Fifth Ancestral Teacher of Zen to appoint a successor, he invited all his monks to submit a poem expressing their grasp of Zen. A scholarly monk named Shen-hsiu wrote a clever one, but Hui-neng capped it with a poem he got somebody to write out for him, proving that He was the rightful successor, the True Sixth Ancestral Teacher...

Or... Was He? This book translates three texts found in caves at Tun-huang, the Chinese Dead Sea Scrolls. All we have known about Zen has come from the Southern School, tracing succession back to Hui-neng. But here we have relics of the Northern School, destroyed by anti-Buddhist purges in the 9th century, and in their view, the Real Sixth Ancestral Teacher was - shivery, expectation-arousing music - Shen-hsiu!!

Now that you've recovered... The "Treatise on Sudden Enlightenment" is a fascinating foundational early Zen practice text. But "Bodhidharma's Treatise on Contemplating Mind" (surely to Heaven inauthentic) is disappointing, an allegorical interpretation of Buddhist worship practices. The real treasure here is "Records of the Lanka", which chronicles the work of the successive teachers of the Northern lineage.

As literature it is lowly, anecdotes and quotations lumped together; but the contents are as clear and sharp as diamonds. One bombshell is to discover that the method of "contemplating sayings" (later called koan study) was well-known. "The Lanka" mentions an Indian teacher, Gunabhadra, teaching in China Before Bodhidharma (!!), who used this method over two centuries before Hui-neng: "He also said: "In a room there is a jar. Is the jar also outside the room or not? Is there water in the jar? Is the jar in water? Are there jars in all the waters of the world? What Is this water?""

This is far more than a curiosity: it has the roughness, freshness and force of primitive art. I recommend it to anyone even slightly interested in Zen.

A marvelous book. If you're interested in Dharma at all, you should definitely have it.

Zen Dawn brings the same spiritual excitement to Buddhism as reading the New Testament does to Christians, but better. These texts have only just come to light in the 20th Century. They give the feel of communicating directly with those who practiced and formulated the ancient Zen wisdom in China in the 8th Century. Scholars will love them, but the down-to-earth practicality of their content will appeal to the ordinary Zen student. For example, one learns that 'paramita' means "reaching the other shore." I always wondered what it meant. However, Bodhidarma also goes on to explain the symbolism of it which in essence means that when one's "worldly dust" has been cleaned up, it enables us to escape from affliction, or, in other words, "reach the other shore." This is something everyone is striving for, each in their own way. The six paramitas or six perfections describe how to go about cleaning up our worldly dust. This way works for everyone!

In places this book can fall deeply into esotericism. This will appeal to those who also like physics. For example, Hongren may be touching upon the physics theory that all time is happening at once when he speaks of birth and birthlessness, quoting Nagarjuna: "Phenomena are neither born of themselves, nor born of others nor born of self and others together, nor are they born without a casual basis. Thus we know: there is no birth."

If you love Zen, you will love this book.

Zen's Chinese Heritage - The masters and their teachings, by Andrew Ferguson, is a long awaited reference for those wishing to appreciate the origins of the Zen tradition. As a long time practioner of Zen, the many illustrious and noteworthy ancestors of my tradition, have often been nothing more than a confusing collection of names, difficult to pronounce and even more difficult to appreciate as once real and living men and women. Andrew Ferguson's painstaking efforts at bringing to life these practioners of old, and providing us with history and anecdotes from their allusive lives, has enlivened my practice and given new meaning to the many wonderful and amazing persons I encounter in my koan study. This book is a wonderful guide and reference, especially with its accompanying lineage chart, for anyone who is either a practioner of this wonderful tradition or is solely interested in furthering their appreciation for the history of Zen.

I took months to read this book and only ever reached the stage of being an open-mouthed, lightning-struck bystander. Such a treasure is not often found in one life. I congratulate the authors on feeding us such juicy and tangy fruit.

I read this book back when I was living in a monastery. I found it to be extraordinary, the other monk that I was living with at the time was also amazed that such a book had been written and he was the one that order one for the monks and one for the nuns.

The book goes through the very beginnings of Chan (Chinese word for Zen) up through the "Golden Age" and beyond. I found very intriguing particularly to see that at one point in the Chan history that there was this point when so many enlightened masters had arose at once. Probably something we may never see again. You will find all Five Schools in here plus other schools that were not so prominent but had an impact as well.

Definitely a book worthy of your dollar.

This is probably one of the cook books I use most often. The recipes are easy and very good. Highly recommended.

This is a very attractively presented book on noodle recipes from a variety of regions. That's a big plus. I was originally looking for an Asian cookbook with noodle recipes, only to find that most included recipes for deep fried dishes that I tend to avoid, with only a few noodle recipes. Then I found this, and it offers variations on dishes from Thailand, China, Japan, India, Italy, and other regions.

Note that word "variations." Mitchell has simplified these recipes, and in some cases, has done some bold cross-breeding (adding balsamic vinegar to an Asian noodle dish, for instance). This will cause the "authenticity-minded" to cringe. Let them cringe, I say... these recipes are not only delicious, but almost embarassingly simple to prepare. That's a VERY BIG plus for many of us, who would rather make supper quickly, and have more time to play with the kids, write in our journals, or read "Harry Potter." Most of these recipes involve only whisking a few ingredients in a bowl, steaming the noodles, and then mixing in the sauce. The result? Very tasty, very attractive, and very diverse noodle entrees to please the palette. True to the title, they can all be made in 15 minutes or less. You don't need a whole lot of exotic ingredients either -- most of the more esoteric ones can be easily found in a large grocery store or in an Asian specialty food store.

I highly recommend this book to single people who want tasty meals but don't want to commit a whole lot of time to cooking for one, and on the other side of the spectrum -- busy parents who don't mind a mild snub to traditionalism if it means faster meals that are nevertheless scrumptious. Happy noodle cooking!

I first heard about this calendar on one of my many yahoo groups, someone had posted that this calendar had wonderful photos and I couldn't agree more! This calendar features 1 province each month and has a small black outline of China and shows where the province is in China. There is 1 large photo and then each day has it's own small photo. The photos where captured by Dennis Cox and each month has a write up of that province by Lisa See who does a wonderful job. The provinces featured are: Zhejiang, Anhui, Hebei & Shangdong,Guangxi, Shanghai, Yunnan, Sichuan, Jiangsu, Inner Mongolia, Beijing, Shaanxi & Shanxi and Xinjiang.

It is my hope that in the following years the calendar has each of the provinces in China. If you use a felt tip marker for marking things on the calendar you should be able to cut out the photos and use them for your child's lifebook or to make an ABC China book. There are many beautiful photos it maybe hard to choose which photos to use.

These photos will leave you in awe. I have done many trips to China and Dennis Cox captures the feeling with a superb sense and awareness of the Chinese culture.

This brilliant text provides a "fly-on-the-wall" view of what it must be like to work in a TCM clinic overseas. From the History through diagnosis and treatment options it presents an accurate and concise account of patient care and the Shen of healing. This is a professional text, written in clear clinical shorthand and a must for your library.

Buy this book, if for no other reason that the treatment protocol for "Flu Like Symptoms" (#5). You will use that methodology to help people from now on.

The Churchill Livingstone edition is bound more stoutly than most Chinese texts, but will require loving preservation - because it WILL be used - if it is to last you a lifetime!

This text really exposes you to a variety of difficult cases from China. It shows you the true power of acupuncture as a form a medicine with its ability to heal patients that are often in critical condition. Not only does it give you the point selections that were used to treat the patients, it also gives you the reasoning behind the selection and sometimes the needling techniques that were used. I highly recommend it because for me, it filled in a lot of missing pieces of the clinical puzzle, especially in the area of why certain points are chosen and how they should be needled in order to get the desired effect.

Greg O'Leary has assembled as fine a collection of essays on the current direction of labour markets and industrial relations in China as has been written. The scholarship is cutting edge. O'Leary himself contributes a masterly introduction.

Greg O'Leary has assembled an excellent array of contributions for those interested in contemporary Chinese economy and labor relations. The book combines first-rate academic research and analysis, and covers a broad range of issues with a consistently high quality. The editor provides insightful commentaries in his own chapters, which rank among the best scholarship on China that this reviewer has read.