China Books

This remarkable, very readable book is written as a conversation between two women born in Beijing at the same time as the People's Republic of China. As the women explore the similarities and differences in their experiences--from housing arrangements, to elementary school, to their roles in the early months of the Cultural Revolution, to the years spent working in rural China--the reader learns about the wide range of what it means to have grown up in the PRC. The result is a reflective, thought-full, and nuanced look at this tumultuous period in China's recent history.

Weili's book is remarkable. I was struck by her honesty, studiousness of recording details, and courage of facing the past events, no matter how ugly they were, and searching for the truths and true feelings. One of the most memorable moments of the book was the story about Weili's mother, walking 20 miles, close to the distance of a Marathon, to give birth in the cold winter by herself in 1945. As a female soldier in the People's Liberation Army, Weili's mother had to go outside of the WWII Japanese controlled territory to avoid capture. She was crippled for many years after this experience. Weili's mother's personal story was an example of the war time suffering the Chinese people went through. Weili described this story to give background on her family and the Great Culture Revolution. Ironically, many people who suffered a great deal to establish the new government in 1949 were tormented, imprisoned, or killed during the Great Culture Revolution.

Why should one read Weili's oral history book on the Great Culture Revolution in China? Here are the reasons I would suggest:

1) To understand what happened in history.

Weili and Ma Xiao Dong's personal encounters were a part of the Chinese history, and a part of the human history. The author described the years of her youth spent in China when the daily reality seemed so unbelievable and crazy. A totalitarian region was created to isolate the 1 billion Chinese people from the rest of the world. It could be called the biggest scale social experiment. In the name of revolution, beating someone to death, looting, and public humiliation were common practice in those days. Once targeted as a counter-revolutionist for whatever reasons, one lost individual rights and faced physical attacks by the mobs.


Yet, those 10 traumatic years were not a total loss. The authors wanted to show you that living an innocent and simple life was somewhat possible at times for young people. The young people were initially enthusiastic to fight for the revolution and get reeducated by going to the country side. They were with people their age, away from home to serve as laborers on the farms for 5, 10, or even sometimes 20 years. They sang, performed, and made friends. Later, the reality of famine, poverty, and personal encounters in the country side left them confused and disillusioned. They matured beyond their years due to the sent-down experience.


2) To learn from this period of Chinese history. How did the Culture Revolution happen?

It happened mostly because Mao's communism "religion" dominated all. Weili's stories took us to a different time when everyone was labeled and categorized into 9 different "red" and "black" types. The man-made caste system marginalized the intellectuals and business people. So beware of religious fanatics or other ideology fanatics who would not tolerate others with different viewpoints, and do not let one voice dominate a country or a group. Masses can be brainwashed into a lot of ugly things such as killing neighbors who are identified as enemies. Racial violence and ethnic cleansings are examples of those belief systems in other parts of the world.

Second, life itself was not valued in the teaching of the time. Young kids were taught that life should be easily given up for a greater cause such as the revolution. There were plenty of books and films on the heroes who sacrificed lives for the new government. In addition, killing or beating an "enemy" was encouraged. Not respecting life was also one of the reasons that the Culture Revolution caused so much damage.

The third reason that the Culture Revolution occurred was due to the desire to negate history or anything old while jamming down a new belief system. The poetic side of Mao wanted to cleanse the past and create a new society. As Mao grew increasingly impatient with the speed of the progress, he resorted to extreme measures of "cleansing," - the Great Culture Revolution. The Red Guards (young people who pledged allegiance to the revolution) and the masses fought, killed, or tormented anything or anybody who were deemed counter-revolutionary. The violence was justified and praised. The Red Guards thought that they were doing the right thing for a cause. Later Red Guards fought each other because one group thought it was more revolutionary than another.

3) To appreciate women's perspectives on growing up during the culture revolution. The new government was supposed to have liberated women. They were equal to men in a lot of ways. Considering that women still had feet bound 50-60 years earlier, this was a remarkable accomplishment. Weili's mother was a combat pilot during the revolution. Weili's mother said that women must stand tall, which seemed to be something Hilary Clinton would have said.

However, the authors described what they experienced and learned as women, Chinese women specifically, in a male-dominated society. Weili's mother held leadership positions outside of the house, yet at home she cooked, cleaned, respected her husband's authority, and was a model wife. Women were expected to play these two different roles in a modern society. Moreover, the media and culture at the time encouraged young women to dress like soldiers with uniforms and heavy belts. Femininity was denied and considered "bourgeois." The young women at times did not want to be mothers because culturally motherhood devalued a woman and raising kids appeared to be hard, tedious, and not as meaningful as other work. If life is not valued, of course the tasks of raising kids are not respected.

The dialog format throughout the book was powerful and very easy to read. The author had a very crisp and clear writing style on some of the most difficult subjects. All in all, a terrific reading experience for me.

I believe a book is best useful when it makes me question myself or change my attitude. Ye and Ma's book is definitely one of such books. They help me see the Cultural Revolution in a new light.
Born after the Cultural Revolution, I do not have the opportunity to live this turbulent time myself. Identified as poor-peasants (pin-nong, though not peasant at all) and being non-intellectuals, both my father's and mother's families were not targeted or severely affected in the Cultural Revolution. Or if they were, they did a good job shielding me from that memory. My high school history book only gave a cursory glance at the Cultural Revolution, about which my history teacher did not take the liberty to say more. The notion that "this is a taboo" had been planted in my immature mind without myself knowing exactly where it came from. Therefore, I never thought about inquiring about it before I went to college.
Since then I came to understand how and why it was a mistake, a huge mistake that was almost irreparable. However, what has done cannot be undone. What we can do is to mind the present and create a better future to make up for the losses. I brought into the general morale of "looking-forward" (xiangqiankan, this is more telling in its homophone in Chinese which means "looking toward money") and felt reassured about it.
However, now being a graduate student in the United States, I was exposed to more western intellectual works. Their obsession with the Cultural Revolution made me unable to continue my "ostrich strategy." As one of the generation "growing up under the red flag," I read such starkly downbeat criticism of the Cultural Revolution as capitalism's unrelenting ideological attack on the Chinese Party: Cultural Revolution, as China's stigma, is the best topic they can engage in order to castigate China. Nationalist sentiment also made me reluctant to directly confront this traumatic national memory. Particularly, I had a hard time reading the "victim literature" produced by people who suffered during that time and later went to the West--the "land of free speech"--to let out their sorrow and hatred. I knew I was unfair to them--they have been so profoundly affected by that past that time cannot separate them from its horror or undo its effects. I also knew my resentment testified to the success of Chinese government's "thought control." However, no matter where my sources of rejecting the negative portrayal of the Cultural Revolution came from and no matter to what extent I could question myself, the more stark and inhuman the Cultural Revolution is depicted, the less I would trust the accounts.
Yet, Growing up in the People's Republic finally enabled me to comfortably and bravely face up to this burden of history. On the one hand, Ye honestly related the death of her school principal, the story that has haunted her for years, and Ma daringly confesses her participation in violence, which is made more compelling as she juxtaposes it with the violence her mother was afflicted with. The immense difficulty they have in "opening up deep wounds" reveals the highest moral integrity. On the other hand, their telling of the sweet childhood adds an intimate dimension to this supposedly brutal age. Ye's apathy to join the revolution in contrast to Ma's enthusiasm in embracing the "winds and waves" convinces me that they did not grow up "drinking wolf milk," as they are represented in some literature. The complexity of this era can only be understood by lending a humanistic understanding to the seemingly unimaginable individual behavior. By transforming the unbelievable into the understandable, what this book gives me touches at a level deeper than history.

I am the author of the book Growing Up in the People's Republic: Conversations between Two Daughters of China's Revolution. (Palgrave Macmillan, 2005). I am very grateful to the press for bringing it out to the reader, yet I have to say I feel dismayed by the cover design. The actual cover is not the same as the one shown on Amonzon.com. The most conspicuous feature on the current cover is a rather mean-spirited looking Chinese soldier. Judging by the modern communication equipments he's is wearing, the soldier is a military policeman. Incidentally, the military police only began to appear in China in the 1980s. What does a soldier of the police force have to do with a book about the growing-up experiences of two women in the 1950s and 1960s?

Yet I understand right away the symbolic meaning of the soldier. What he represents is a dark, repressive "police state." It is exactly this highly simplistic and unrelievedly negative image of the PRC (People's Republic of China) that I question in the book. What my book presents is a multi-faceted picture of the "Mao era." Through the conversations between me and Ma Xiaodong (my conversational partner in the book), we try to sort out, from personal, generational, and gendered perspectives, the entangled history and mixed legacy of a complex age. What distinguishes my book from most of the existing personal memoirs on the Mao era is precisely this more nuanced and more reflective approach. Such a distinction is recognized by Prof. Paul Cohen in his Forward to the book as well as the description of the book on the back jacket.

Unfortunately, the current jacket design contradicts what the book is about. It misrepresents the book and undermines its central message. It is an irony that a book intending to reveal the many "shades of grey" of a complex world is packed in "black-and-white" color. As the author, I believe I should let my readers know what I think about the matter. It is also worth noting here that I was not consulted with about this design beforehand. In this specific case, there was a lack of communication between the press and the author.

Thank you very much for reading the book. I'd appreciate it deeply if I could hear your feedback.

Although 13 years old, much of the info in this book is still relevant. Despite the youthfulness of Los Angeles, there are restaurants and markets that have managed to survive for decades. These places are invariably great and almost institutions in their community. Hence, many of the listings in Burum's book still survive in this megapolis. You'll have fun tracking down that obscure German sausage maker who has had his shop for some 30 years...as well as the occassional let down upon discovering that the old Japanese immigrant, who made fresh tofu daily at the back of his grocery store, decided to call it quits a few years ago.

This book is not only a guide to the ethnic markets in LA, but also serves as an introduction to the cuisine of LA's ethnic groups. Interspersed within the listings, you'll find glimpses into the history of LA's immigrant communities, and what they really eat that you don't get at the mainstream ethnic restaurants. If you're the type that prefers to eat where you're the only one not of the ethnic group the restaurant caters to, get this book. It lets you in on not just the basics of a people's cuisine, but makes you feel comfortable with the unfamiliar (and much more authentic] dishes.

The book is organized into the following chapters, which fairly represents the demographics of Los Angeles:
China; Japan; Korea; Thailand; Vietnam; Southeast Asian [Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Phillipines]; India; Mexico; Central/South America and Caribbean; Europe; Greece, the Middle East and Africa.

Overall, an indispensable introduction to LA's greatest asset: It's diversity of people and cuisine.

This is a fantastic compendium of ethnic food in LA. It gives you everything you'd ever want to know: best bakeries, best markets, best restaurants. It divides categories by geography (important in LA) & by ethnic cuisines.

While the 1992 printing will make some info out of date (restaurants for example), this book is one of a kind & the best in its genre.

This is the greatest book on the best ethnic restaurants in LA. Hopefully, the author will put out a new edition. I have it. It's about 10 years old, and I'm not going to sell it. It's better than any new guide out there. Even if you don't go to these places, it's an interesting read.

When this book first came out about 10 yrs. ago or more it was a revelation. In one collection it guided you through EVERY major ethnic community in the greater L.A. region and told you which were the best restaurants, bakeries, markets, etc. I don't know of any other book that comes to close to being this comprehensive & incisive.

If you ever spend any time in L.A. & you are interested in ethnic food, you must have this book.

Although this headvase book is not as comprehensive as some of its peers, the collection is vast, displaying a wide variety of headvases, particularly some rare finds which you would not see elsewhere. Excellent companion to the Barron collection !

Great book..Swift and smooth transaction and packed well.

I own this book and with having over 500 headvases it sure is handy! Strictly a pictorial book and a handy check-off list to see which head vases you're missing and need to acquire. With price guide in back you are able to judge what the piece is worth or what you are willing to pay. :) Enjoy!

There is no other way to find out about head vases except to refer to Kathleen Cole's book. This outstanding book is a MUST for collectors, (buyers and sellers) of head vases. It clearly presents information and pictures about unique and collectible head vases. As a buyer of head vases, I would not be without my Kathleen Cole book. Highly recommended source of valuable information!

I've owned this book for years. The receipes and particularly the descriptions of cooking techniques have proven invaluable. I consider myself a reasonably accomplished home cook but, until purchasing this wonderful resource I never quite "got it" as far putting really good Chinese cooking on the table. Helen explains both the how and the why allowing one to re-create the tastes, aromas and textures of Chinese home cooking. The format of the book is clear and easy to follow. The heavy emphasis on FRESH produce is wonderful. Most receipes are easily adapted to those that wish to reduce or even eliminate meat in the diet. I enjoyed the stories from her youth in her mother's kitchen, in the family restaurant, shopping in Chinatown. I love chicken and highly recommend the delicious and incredibly simple "Chinese White Chicken" (if you can boil water, you can make this great dish). Helen includes many easy and tasty dipping sauces that enhance almost any meal, yum!!!!

I've used this cookbook for years; I have soy sauce stains on a number of its pages! Ms. Chen takes the mystery out of preparing wonderful Chinese food. I have not tried a recipe that we did not like. Try it, you'll like it!

Her straight forward instructions are easy to follow. Most ingredients are easily attainable. I am able to get dinner on the table in about 30-40 minutes. My husband says her dishes reminds him of his mother's home cooking. I think that speaks for itself.

As an always - on - move graduate student raised in an Italian - American family, I must confess that I was always a bit mystified by the the techniques used in the Chinese food I loved so much, but was always unable to achieve in the kitchen. Since I don't have a lot of time at this point in my life because of my studies, Helen Chen's book gives me simple to perform instructions for her quick and absoluetly delicious and nutritious recipes. Thank you Ms. Chen! I highly recommend this book. It is wonderful.

No words can possibly describe how wonderful and profound this work is. Please don't miss out.

In Hermit Of Go Cliffs: Timeless Instructions From A Tibetan Mystic, Cyrus Stearns draws upon his impressive Tibetan scholarship to translate from the writings of Tibetan masters for the benefit of an English-speaking readership. This particular and remarkable compendium features "The Collected Songs of the Adept Godrakpa Who is Peerless in the Three Realms". The text is enhanced for students of Buddhism with illustrations, an informative introduction, notes on the translation, a bibliography, and an index. Hermit Of Go Cliffs is an invaluable, worthwhile, and much appreciation contribution to the expanding library of Buddhist thought and philosophy now available to western readers.

Godrakpa Sonam Gyaltsen was a great Tibetan Buddhist master of the 12th century whose songs were a great influence on the early yogic traditions. In Hermit Of Go Cliffs: Timeless Instructions From A Tibetan Mystic, Cyrus Stearns provides an admirable translation of these tantric songs for the benefit of an English reading public. Hermit Of Go Cliffs is a very welcome and highly appreciated contribution to the growing library of Buddhist literature available to both the student and the non-specialist general reader seeking an appreciation of Tibetan Buddhism.

The Tibetan Culture is fading fast. It is vary wonderful that books like this exist to help spread thsi unique history. The religeous lineage of these people is so strong, nad yet due to chinese oppression is being lsot forever. I suggest this book to anyone involved in asian or religeous studies.

I bought this book for its China centered content, and I was not let down, but what I liked best about this work is that Professor Cohen weaves in a fourth component; a discourse on what historians actually do. Just as he divides the Boxer Movement into the above noted three parts he does so as well with the historical craft itself, in the process explaining his development as a historian and seriously examining in what ways history itself can have value greater than myth and commonly held beliefs. Cohen approaches history in a modest, human, and clear thinking way which makes this highly academic work also highly enjoyable to read. I enthusiastically recommend this wonderful book to anybody that is interested in Chinese society, Chinese history, or the art of making history.

I enjoyed this book immensely. The book is split into three parts, each covering the same events from different perspective.

The first part is covered just like most any other historical book. Mostly facts and dates, and reasons as to why certain things turned out the way they did.

The second part of the book, by far the most interesting to me, was the history of the events as seen through the eyes of those who lived through it: the missionaries, the rebels, and the townsfolk. Mostly derived from writings of people that were living in China at the time, it shows their feelings and thier thoughts.

The third part involves the use of the boxers in the agendas of political and social parties in subsequent years. It is very possibly one of the best history books that I have read.

Not only does it cover this particular historical event, it also is a study of historians and their craft. It looks into how historians decide what is to be recorded and what is not and shows you how this affects the way people in the future perceive the event.

Cohen's book analyzes a particularly notorious (for Chinese and Western commentators) historical event--the Boxer Rebellion in North China (1899-1900) from an extremely fresh perspective. It is hardly poststructuralist to assert that people live history one day at a time, rather than according to some grand plan, and that is how Cohen treats the Boxer Rebellion. Most Western scholars merely see the Boxers as a manifestation of an irrational, bloodthirsty xenophobiba, while Chinese scholars seem to fall into two categories: (1) those like the early twentieth century modernizers who saw the Boxers as an embarrassment to the cause of national unity and freedom, and (2) those like Communist Chinese historians who see the Boxers as a precursor of their own victorious struggle in 1949. Cohen masterfully demythologizes the Boxers and puts them into the context of (gasp!) their own lives. Working from a combination of secondary and primary sources, Cohen reconstructs the domestic situation in China during the late nineteenth century and argues that domestic issues (particularly famine and floods) more than anything else prompted the Boxer uprising. This thesis, of course, turns on its head the idea that the Boxers were an instrument of the evil Dowager Empress Cixi in order to prevent Westerners from disturbing China's ancient and corrupt culture. Cohen is especially interesting in examining the mechanics and experience of mythmaking, applied in this case to the Boxers but which could be applied to just about any event or experience that has emotional or subjective importance for a group of people. This book is extremely useful for anyone, history students or otherwise, who are interested in Chinese history, or perhaps more fundamentally, how we reconstruct the past in order for it to make sense.

"History in Three Keys" is an excellent history of the Boxer Rebellion in northern China in the late nineteenth century. Even more than that, however, it is a look at the historian's craft, how history is experienced and related, and how history is used in the present. The book is divided into three parts, which discuss the Boxer Rebellion as Event, Experience and Myth. The first consists of standard historical writing, a brief survey of the Boxer movement. It relates important names, dates, ideas and events in a narrative history constructed by the author.

The second section, The Boxers as Experience, is more interesting. Cohen attempts to analyze the experiences of the Boxers, to form a picture of the past. He looks at various themes, discussing how they shaped the Boxer movement and the attitudes and beliefs of those involved. Making extensive use of primary documents, he tries to determine their thoughts and feelings regarding foreigners, magic, gender and death. Of course, Cohen realizes that he cannot fully recount or recreate the experience of the Boxer rebellion, and spends many pages discussing ways historians and writers can approach history to try to understand and explain it.

These themes become more fully developed in the book's final section, The Boxers as Myth. Here Cohen explores the various ways the Boxers have been used as myths in twentieth century China, serving "the political, ideological, rhetorical and/or emotional needs" of the moment. While foreigners and the New Culture movement mythologized the Boxers as symbols of Chinese superstition and backwardness, anti-Imperialists cheered their anti-foreignism and nationalism, and cultural revolutionaries idolized their rebelliousness and the mythical role of women in the rebellion.

Cohen explores the difference between historians, who attempt to understand and explain the past, and mythologizers, who try to use history to advance an agenda in the present. He discusses the process of myth-making, in which contexts and inconvenient facts are ignored and a one-dimensional 'history' in created through distortion and oversimplification. Still, Cohen has some respect for mythologizing the past, and notes that experience itself is "processed" in terms of culture and myth. "Mythic constructions are ubiquitous in the world of experience and form an inseparable part of it."

I was assigned part of this book in a history course on nineteenth century globalization, but ended up reading the whole thing - and I'm glad I did. In addition to giving an excellent history of the Boxer Rebellion, "History in Three Keys" contains valuable insights into more recent Chinese history and development. Even more valuable are the discussions about the nature of history, myth, historical writing and the historian's craft. It is well written, clear and engaging, with extensive notes, index and bibliography. I enjoyed it immensely and recommend it to all interested in Chinese history or historical writing in general.

This is an excellent book! I thouroughly enjoyed reading it. In fact I had great difficulty putting it down! I had never read much about this time in China's history and I found it fascinating. Frightening and a little distrubing, but fascinating none the less. I honestly didn't know exactly what they did when they bound feet, so I found the reality a bit horrifying. I also didn't know that bodies floating down the river was not an out of the ordinary event. And I somehow missed that bit of history that the Boxers were slaughtering Westerners and the Chinese who befriended them. But the way she handled all the horror and despair was just amazing because I was able to read all of that, cry through some parts, and yet put the book down and feel encouraged. I can't wait for the next two books to come out so I can hear the rest of the story!

I enjoyed this book tremendously. It is truly a woman's journey. This book transcends culture and gender, to give you a honest look at China, in the 1900's during the Boxer Rebellion. The detailed descriptions of the hardships and triumphs that missionaries went through, to bring the word of Christ to China, are inspiring. Hungry River entertains and educates. Its a great read. Melissa Rees

What a delightful time I had reading Hungry River!! The writing style of combining Abbie's thoughts with her grandparent's lives as Chinese missionaries made for a unique and interesting read. I usually read right before going to sleep and I found myself going to bed earlier every night so I could read Hungry River and see what Abbie was finding in her 'China Boxes'.

This novel gave me a thought-provoking look into the lives of Chinese missionaries. Their selfless serving and endless caring to and for the Chinese people was an inspiration to me. I am hungry for more and impatiently waiting for the next book. Enjoy!

The curtain of the 21st century parted to reveal a new Shanghai, the center of business for China, and arguably the center of business for Asia. A friend of mine just returned from Shanghai and said that he counted over 60 high lift cranes adding tall buildings to the city's already lofty skyline. Businesses which have not already done so, are scrambling to open offices and factories in this new darling of Asia.

But is it a new darling, or more accurately a mature city, coming forth to show her makeover. We know from history and from novels, such as "Taipan" and "Noble House", that Shanghai did her coming out previously in the 19th century, and that the 20th century was a period of decay from her glory days.  
We may have read of the growth of Shanghai in the 19th century, of the competing interests of the British, French, Portuguese, Chinese war lords, and many others. Less well understood is the role of the missionaries who came not only to Shanghai and other large cities, but who ventured far beyond the areas of business interest to minister to the needs of the thousands and millions of Chinese people who represented the lowest class of humanity.
  
Traveling any distance in those days was best done on a river by san-ban, those distinctive Chinese craft which served as truck, bus, and home at the same time. They had sails for when there was wind, they had oars for still water, and they had long ropes to allow a team of a dozen or more coolies to pull the boats upriver.
  
In her novel, "Hungry River; A Yangtze Novel", Millie writes of people and of a river for which she has some first-hand knowledge. Millie's character Nils, inspired by her grandfather, Philip Nilsson, is a young Swedish seaman who was nearly killed in Shanghai while on a port visit in 1892. Nursed to health by a young Salvation Army missionary named Lizzie, he became convinced that he was saved for a reason and elected to marry the young lady who had helped him. They stayed in China to advance a ministry to people along the Yangtze River.

The author, Millie N.S., was born in China, the daughter of second generation missionaries to China. Her family left China under great duress in 1950 with the collapse of Chiang Kai Shek's Nationalist Government on China's mainland. The family fled part way down the Yangtze River, the river which she describes with such passion and intimacy in her book.  Much of the source material for this book comes from hundreds of letters, pictures and other documents left to her by her parents. She has aunts and uncles who were also missionaries in China, and she has tapped their archives to fill in other pieces of the picture.
  
Millie is particularly moved by the plight of women in China. If the Chinese masses represented the lowest forms of society, Chinese women were an order of magnitude lower in stature. This book captures the killing of baby girls, the foot binding, and the overall hopelessness which was the fate of women in China.

"Hungry River" is a book which describes the great faith of those who ventured into clearly hostile areas in response to their commitment to God. Perhaps one's faith is not truly tested until one goes way out on the limb, until the last strand of security is severed. It is in that circumstance that one is wholly dependant on a belief that one is in the center of God's purpose and under His protection. Millie describes these instances with great intensity and in detail.

She also puts a face on otherwise nameless masses. She focuses on individuals and in several of her characters makes us a part of their transformation from nobody into sons and daughters of Christ, and how they begin to grasp that they are loved and that their life is to have purpose.

I too am the son of missionaries to China, and we escaped the Chinese Communists by traveling down the Yangtze River in 1950. Even though I was four years old, I still have memories of the men pushing on long oars at the front and back of our san-ban. I remember sitting on the roof of the motor launch as we traveled turbulent water between the high cliffs of the Three Gorges. For me, this book resurrects details of a river and the people along it. It awakens memories of great loss, great sacrifice and great happiness.
   
D. Webster

If you're looking for a book that discusses the I Ching as a philosophy or metaphysics or meditation tool, this book isn't what you're looking for. However, if you want an I Ching that can give insight and solutions into your life, this book is nothing short of spooky. I made a quick and cheap set of index cards as he describes (if I flipped coins around here, my cats'd make sure I spent all day looking for coins) and for the first month that I owned this book I did a reading every morning.

Unlike Tarot, where sometimes you and a deck have to take some time getting to know each other (tarot people know what I mean), this worked right off the page from day one. He offers wonderful blurbs on each of the trigrams, and I was so impressed at how spot on they were at predicting what I needed to look out for that day (my general question) that I started analyzing the book for 'cheats'. You know, generic stuff that could fit anybody "you have a friend named Joe? John?" "You feel as if no one understands you?" That sort of ultrageneric stuff that the Rube desperately clings onto. Nope. Not here. The trigrams are widely different in meaning, with very little overlap.

If you want a practical I Ching tool, and something that you will turn to day after day with confidence, THIS is the book to get.

I wanted to buy a book on I-Ching that was easy to read and understand even though I've been learning for 2 years now.This book is ideal.The author writes in simple terms that will appeal to everyone not just beginners.No technical explanations.It covers advice on relationships,work matters and more.I found this book to be unusual compared to other I-Ching books because of its simple explanations and it is written in simple English.For the price alone this book is great value.For what this book has to offer its even better value.Its a great book to start with even if you purchase another beginners book with it.

Great value book suitable for anyone interested in I-Ching.

First of all, you should read the excellent review posted by Janet Boyer. I've got not much to add to this.

I consider this book (and Mark's Bright Idea Deck) as my private mentor/coach. It does not tell me what to do, but confronts me with a set of questions and options to consider. Over time I have learned the importance of asking the right question; sometimes an answer is not even needed, the question alone makes the problem disappear.

Why 4 stars and not 5? Well, we all got spoiled by Mark's use of examples on how to use for instance his bright idea deck.

Well, in this I Ching book, no "50 ways to use the I Ching", no "What would the trigrams do", no different "spreads".
I'm sure I have enough information to construct these on my own, but I would love some practical examples, some "spreads" using more than one or two hexagrams etc.

Anyway, I recommend this book to everyone!

"Enough tire-kicking! It's time to get under the hood of the Book of Changes and get a peek at its thirty-five hundred year-old Wisdom Engine: a ingenious problem-solving computer built back when the Silicon Valley was just the Silicon Gully." - From the book

The I Ching (pronounced eee ching or yee jing) is a profound Chinese oracle that speaks to the complex and changing nature of life. Centered on the Tao-the Truth or master pattern of the universe-the I Ching blends the Yin (feminine principle) and the yang (male principle) to address virtually every type of situation.

Originally consulted using yarrow sticks, this ancient oracle comprises 64 hexagrams consisting of six lines. Each hexagram is like a "chapter" of the Book of Changes (another name for the I Ching). Solid lines are yang and broken lines are yin; both are considered stable. Then there are changing lines that are yang turning yin or yin about to become yang. Although diviners generated these hexagrams with yarrow sticks in the past, modern methods have incorporated coins or even special I Ching cards.

In his new book I Ching for Beginners, Mark McElroy makes this often-ponderous oracle accessible to a new generation. He admits that this book is not a translation nor is it a traditional or scholarly exposition. Nevertheless, I Ching for Beginners provides everything you need to quickly consult-and apply-the wisdom found in the Book of Changes.

Even if you're not into divination, Mark makes the case that the I Ching provides opportunity for reflection, enhances our perception, encourages awareness of impact, and moderates our responses. Often leading individuals by the hand to the "middle way", the I Ching dispenses wise advice for those seeking insight.

Mark explains the nature of trigrams and hexagrams and shows readers how to prepare for a reading and easily generate a hexagram. In fact, he's come up with an ingenious way of generating lines using a handmade deck of sixteen "consultation cards" that are quick and easy to make. Of course, you can also generate hexagrams using three coins (which is what I do). If all the lines are stable, then you just consult the corresponding chapter in the book. (There's an easy-to-read Hexagram Chart in the Appendix). If the hexagram contains changing lines, then you need to create a Primary Hexagram and a Secondary Hexagram-reflecting how a situation is currently and how it's likely to evolve. Then, consult the chapters correlating with the Primary and Secondary Hexagrams.

Each chapter offers a sage observation about the Hexagram and what it encourages and cautions against, as well as keywords, thought questions, and a commentary. Comments on both love and relationships and work and projects are also provided, in addition to comments about the changing lines (stable or Primary Hexagrams only).

I've consulted the I Ching for Beginners three different times, and each of the readings have been incredibly spot on. One night, I was at my wits end as me and my 7 year old were butting heads. I tossed the coins and (surprise!) the situation was a changing one, so it reflected changing lines. The Primary Hexagram was (get this) 38 Resolving Tensions! It spoke of antagonism, conflict, and rebellion-as well as blending fire and water to make powerful steam (as opposed to extinguishing one another.) The Secondary Hexagram comforted me-what the situation was evolving into-because it was 54 Managing Relationships. It showed me the best way to deal with my son and provided me much clarity and comfort.

I consulted Mark's book two other times and found the results to be not only profoundly accurate and insightful, but also amazingly comforting and empowering. I just did a reading a short while ago about the next few days and I what I needed to focus on, and I got exactly the answer I needed-and one that was doable!

Out of curiosity, I compared Mark's "thought for thought" interpretations inspired by the ancient oracle to The Complete I Ching: The Definitive Translation by the Taoist Master Alfred Huang. I was surprised that I Ching for Beginners reflected the gist of the Hexagrams found in this scholarly book. Sure, a book like The Complete I Ching may give some added nuance and information, but for someone wanting a modern, accessible version of the I Ching, Mark's book does the trick.

If you want to learn about the I Ching-especially if you're looking for an easy-to-use oracle with depth and breadth-I Ching for Beginners is an excellent book to get you started. Written in his characteristic witty, engaging style, Mark takes a potentially cumbersome subject and makes it understandable-and more importantly, *doable*--for a new generation of seekers.

I'm a Taiwanese myself. Even though the content of this book is not new to me, it still provides a fantastic read for me personally and I can imagine it'd be more fantastic for someone wishing to know more about Taiwan. Because Taiwan is so isolated in the international arena, books such as this one is highly recommended for the average person. The only aspect I did not like about this book is the first part of this book's title: "Is Taiwan Chinese?". I'd just like to inform readers that all the population in Asian countries (east, north and south east) all originated from China. So basically everyone is Chinese, so it doesn't just apply to Taiwan. It is like saying: Is Australia British? Nevertheless, a rather informative book for all.

"The "one China" policy officially supported by the People's Republic of China, the United States, and other countries asserts that there is only one China and Taiwan is a part of it." The Description of this book is Misleading.

United States acknowledged China's claim but do not agree with "Taiwan is a part of China". United states position is the resolution shall be peaceful.

At last, a book that covers an aspect of Taiwanese history and culture not often discussed until recent years: the Taiwanese people are a hybrid people. Many have some Plains Aborigine blood (traced on the maternal side). But, with cultural stigma, many Plains Aborigines and part Plains Aborigines forfeited their identity and were absorbed by "Han" identity. I've been waiting for a book in English to discuss this area and am glad Melissa Brown published this book.

If - like me - you are interested in the title's answer, Ms.Brown's is the book! Quoting some of her words: " Many events are completely unknown to us, many events are known only through extremely biased perspectives, and many events are so contradictorily reported that is difficult to reconstruct even a chronological sequence of what occurred". And - believe me! - Ms. Brown interviewed people - in Taiwan ( living there) and interviewed people - in China !!! We are talking about an Stanford University Professor. Congratulations and thanks to Amazon .

This volume of articles and tidbits about the great Jackie Chan is definitely worth a read if not great. There are many fine insights into the man and the legend Jackie Chan, and indeed a lot of interesting photographs, which makes it so much the more enjoyable.

The format of the book, however, does not really agree with me. I don't like the article form, it seems cheap and mean. In my opinion it would have been better to write a uniform, coherent text based on the interviews and articles instead. The information is still there, it just seems a bit disorganized (which it really is not, it just seems that way).

It is still highly recommendable for all the information in there. Sure to please any fan.

This book is awesome! John Little's interview with Jackie Chan is worth the price alone. The photographs are the best, particularly the one of Jackie climbing a flag pole that looks like it has to be 50 feet off the ground! I learned so much about Jackie Chan, his martial arts training, his fitness methods and his personal philosophy. Having read all the other books on Jackie, I can easily say that this is - by far - the best! A must for everyone who loves his stunts or have been awed by his physical talent in martial art.

I loved this book. Anyone into the arts will love this book to. Its great and i personally like Jackie Chan.

This book is a fabulous read. I couldn't put it down until I finished it. It is not a narrative, but rather a compiled series of interviews between the author(s) and Jackie Chan that have taken place over the past ten years or so. The chapters are split up into sections on his childhood, martial arts training, philosophy, health and fitness, career and film making, stunt coordinating etc. Each chapter has an introduction and then goes straight into an indepth interview with Jackie Chan himself! There is a small overview at the beginning of the book on his life (a mini "My Life in Action"!) and at the end a filmography and a chapter containing what the author considers are Jackie's ten best stunts in a short paragraph format. There is a treasure trove of pictures from Jackie's films (all black and white unfortunately), many not before seen. I consider this book belongs on the shelf with Jackie's autobiography as it is contains personal insights and comments from "The Man" himself. My respect for Jackie Chan, already high after reading "My Life in Action", has risen even higher. The man is phenomenal and makes the so-called "Hollywood Stars" shine rather pale in comparison. If the many who dismiss Jackie as "just an action actor" could only read this book, how their eyes would be opened! Highly recommended - a must read!