China Books

Brilliant in every way, David Kidd's carefully weaved tale of the end of Old China, as seen through the eyes of an upper class family, is profoundly personal and endearing. As it wavers between fact and fiction its underlining message becomes abundantly clear: the Old China is gone and never to be forgotten, even as those who lived it fall into the abyss of time. A moving,humorous, delightful, and sorrowful read. Simply brilliant.

This book haunts..it stays with you as a most intimate portrait of those special and tender people caught in the transition between the old China and the Revolution in 1948. No account has ever brought more tears and love for those real people who saw and felt their world change almost beyond their understanding.

Beautifully, lyrically rendered in the author's inimitable voice, full of haunting descriptions of a world that is gone forever yet never to be forgotten. David Kidd was truly one of a kind, unique in every way.

Memoirs of the surviving privileged classes who lost everything in twentieth-century revolutions can often seem terribly materialistic and self-pitying: when displaced aristocrats wail and wail for their lost tiaras or smashed porcelain, without a jot of sympathy for why they were asked to leave in the first place, you can begin perversely to develop sympathy for the cadres who called these people class parasites and threw them out. David Kidd's memoir of marrying into an ancient and wealthy Chinese family in 1948 shows every sign of such a work, but it's far better than it starts out to be (given his adoration for lives of privilege and his almost willfuil refusal to see the point of view of why anyone would support the Communists in 1949 in the first place). The superb descriptions of the Yu family's rotting but beautiful manor are done with great humor and artistry as well as with melancholy, and the very memorable portrait of the phlegmatic and wry Yus themselves seems to bring additional perspective and depth to the material. What emerges in the end is (despite the book's brevity) a very artful and moving snapshot of a world in transition

Western policy-makers and consumers alike are largely unaware of the enormous economic and geopolitical consequences of China's rapidly expanding energy imports. Until the mid-1990s China was a net exporter of hydrocarbons, but by 2010 it is projected to be one of the largest importers of petroleum. The world's most populous nation will enter the ranks of those countries, mainly advanced industrial societies, that are dependent on overseas oil supplies, particularly from the Middle East. What is China doing to secure low-cost, stable supplies of oil for its future energy needs? Will it continue to forge bilateral energy supply agreements or will it enter into international arrangements that guarantee access to oil and fuel stockpiles in times of political crisis and market uncertainty?

In Petro-Dragon's Rise, researcher Xiaojie Xu explains the perceptions,strategies and plans of Chinese government agencies and the three enormous, semi-privatized Chinese oil and gas enterprises. With the insights of a comparative scholar of economics and geopolitics, and from the unique experience of a corporate researcher -- he advised PetroChina on its overseas capitalization plan -- Xu comprehensively explores the rapidly evolving legal, regulatory and policy framework of energy policy and energy security policy formation in China, with an emphasis on the "go
abroad" strategy that has sent Chinese oil engineers to Sudan, Kazakhstan,Venezuela and even Canada in recent years. Petro-Dragon's Rise is essential reading for those trying to understand Chinese perspectives on how China will meet its growing demand for energy.

Steven W. Lewis, Ph.D.
Senior Researcher in Asian Politics and Economics, Baker Institute for Public Policy
Rice University, USA

Another Review by Steven W. Lewis
Western policy-makers and consumers alike are largely unaware of the enormous economic and geopolitical consequences of China's rapidly expanding energy imports. Until the mid-1990s China was a net exporter of hydrocarbons, but by 2010 it is projected to be one of the largest importers of petroleum. The world's most populous nation will enter the ranks of those countries, mainly advanced industrial societies, that are dependent on overseas oil supplies, particularly from the Middle East. What is China doing to secure low-cost, stable supplies of oil for its future energy needs? Will it continue to forge bilateral energy supply agreements or will it enter into international arrangements that guarantee access to oil and fuel stockpiles in times of political crisis and market uncertainty?

In Petro-Dragon's Rise, researcher Xiaojie Xu explains the perceptions,strategies and plans of Chinese government agencies and the three enormous, semi-privatized Chinese oil and gas enterprises. With the insights of a comparative scholar of economics and geopolitics, and from the unique experience of a corporate researcher -- he advised PetroChina on its overseas capitalization plan -- Xu comprehensively explores the rapidly evolving legal, regulatory and policy framework of energy policy and energy security policy formation in China, with an emphasis on the "go
abroad" strategy that has sent Chinese oil engineers to Sudan, Kazakhstan,Venezuela and even Canada in recent years. Petro-Dragon's Rise is essential reading for those trying to understand Chinese perspectives on how China will meet its growing demand for energy.

Steven W. Lewis, Ph.D.
Senior Researcher in Asian Politics and Economics, Baker Institute for Public Policy
Rice University, USA

Western policy-makers and consumers alike are largely unaware of the enormous economic and geopolitical consequences of China's rapidly expanding energy imports. Until the mid-1990s China was a net exporter of hydrocarbons, but by 2010 it is projected to be one of the largest importers of petroleum. The world's most populous nation will enter the ranks of those countries, mainly advanced industrial societies, that are dependent on overseas oil supplies, particularly from the Middle East. What is China doing to secure low-cost, stable supplies of oil for its future energy needs? Will it continue to forge bilateral energy supply agreements or will it enter into international arrangements that guarantee access to oil and fuel stockpiles in times of political crisis and market uncertainty?

In Petro-Dragon's Rise, researcher Xiaojie Xu explains the perceptions,strategies and plans of Chinese government agencies and the three enormous, semi-privatized Chinese oil and gas enterprises. With the insights of a comparative scholar of economics and geopolitics, and from the unique experience of a corporate researcher -- he advised PetroChina on its overseas capitalization plan -- Xu comprehensively explores the rapidly evolving legal, regulatory and policy framework of energy policy and energy security policy formation in China, with an emphasis on the "go
abroad" strategy that has sent Chinese oil engineers to Sudan, Kazakhstan,Venezuela and even Canada in recent years. Petro-Dragon's Rise is essential reading for those trying to understand Chinese perspectives on how China will meet its growing demand for energy.

Reviewed by Dr. Steven W. Lewis, Senior Researcher in Asian Politics and Economics, Baker Institute for Public Policy, Rice University, USA.

The impact of a steadily growing Chinese economy on the global oil and gas markets has been a subject for continuous debate by think-tank specialists and academics alike for the past decade. Xiaojie Xu¡¯s Petro-Dragon¡¯s Rise is the first book-length contribution by a Chinese oil industry analyst to offer a comprehensive assessment in the English language.

Xu has been analyzing global oil and gas market trends for the China National Petroleum Corporation since 1983. This work experience has meant his extensive exposure to international energy organizations, multinational energy corporations, and think-tank as well as academic research centers worldwide. His views therefore represent those by one of the most internationally oriented Chinese energy industry analysts.

The book is organized into nine chapters. The first chapter offers an assessment of the mega-trends, at the turn of the century, in global energy supply and demand, together with strategic positioning by the United States and other major powers, international oil companies and host governments. Xu¡¯s emphasis is on improving the channels of transportation to oil importing countries in Asia.

In the second chapter, Xu presents his summary and review of Chinese assessments of China in the global energy market, while updating the readers on major policy changes since 1998 to address the ¡°explicit imbalance¡± (p. 47) in the Chinese oil industry today. According to Xu, a key strategy adopted is to give priority to gas. This is the focus of Chapter Three. From this chapter we learn Chinese energy policymaker¡¯s pragmatism in tapping into both domestic and offshore gas supplies. Structural reforms of the Chinese oil industry make up the focus of Chapter Four. It should be noted, however, reforming the bureaucratic structures is much easier than dealing with the market complexities associated with the overall change in the Chinese economy.

Xu then takes us through a contour of his assessment of Central Asia (Chapter Five), the Middle East (Chapter Six), and Russian (Chapter Seven) as sources of oil and gas import for China. While space does not allow the reviewer to go over each in detail, Xu¡¯s presentation, in contrast with studies on the same subjects by Western writers, presents a picture of mixed opportunities and constraints each of these areas holds for China.

Chapters Eight and Nine elaborate on ongoing mechanisms and future prospects of China¡¯s cooperation with countries in Northeast Asia and the major powers, respectively. In these chapters, Xu outlines how China is utilizing every opportunity possible to diversify its dependence on offshore oil and gas. In these chapters we learn that although China¡¯s Northeast Asian neighbors are likewise dependent on oil and gas supplies from other regions of the world, China sees it conducive to pursue overall economic ties as an effective means for reducing the possible shocks to China¡¯s energy needs.

The book does not have a conclusion chapter. On the other hand, this is perhaps reflective of the state of affairs in China¡¯s domestic and international energy markets. There can be no easy way to offer a sweeping summary.

Overall, Petro-Dragon¡¯s Rise serves as a meaningful overview of China¡¯s energy ties with the rest of the world. The book is well documented and thoroughly analyzed. Interested readers, both in the industry and academia, can gain an informative look inside the world of thinking about China¡¯s energy industry and its global ties. The book should be required reading for courses dealing with China as a player in the global energy markets.

When the plague came to Kahului on Maui in 1900, the little port village was burned down without fuss, and the sickness was ended.
It was very different in Honolulu on the more populous (though still small) island of Oahu, where the disease arrived somewhat earlier. In "Plague and Fire," University of Oregon historian James Mohr has done a masterly job of sorting out a complicated situation.
The world was -- again -- in the grip of a pandemic in the late 1890s, and the disease hit Hawaii just in the middle of two extraordinary changes, one political, one scientific.
Hawaii had been annexed by the United States, although its Territorial government was not yet organized and the Republic government was still running things.
And scientific doctors were finally about to understand plague. The bacillus had been discovered five years earlier, though the vector, rat fleas, was not proven until around 1905.
People reacted to the outbreak of plague, as they always had, with fear, compassion and opportunism.
Three physicians, Nathaniel Emerson, Francis Day and Clifford Wood, were in a position to react as no one ever had before in the centuries of the Black Death. They were the effective members of the Honolulu Board of Health, and as adherents of the new bacteriological approach to epidemic disease, they felt confident they could eradicate the disease, not merely ameliorate its effects.
It was a brave opinion, as equally modern doctors were failing to do that in places like Hong Kong. Emerson, Day and Wood, however, were given dictatorial powers, and Hawaii's scientifically-minded president, Sanford Dole, insulated them, as much as possible, from political pressures.
For half a year, the doctors ran Honolulu, spending most of the money in the treasury, restricting civil liberties and destroying property.
Though Mohr does not say so, it probably was Honolulu's cosmopolitan conflicts that made success possible.
In Bombay or Hong Kong, scientific medicos were opposed by unified, antiscientific cultures.
In Honolulu, the up-to-date haole (white) doctors were supported by the Japanese doctors, also Western-trained. Emerson, Day and Wood were opposed by most Chinese doctors and by the older, unscientific generation of American and European physicians.
The plague started in Chinatown, a slum housing around 5,000 people, not all Chinese.
Public health measures had to take account of cultural differences. Chinese objected to cremating plague victims as a public health measure, Japanese did not, for example.
The residents of Chinatown had a well-founded suspicion of the motives of the white elites. There were plenty in each community who saw the plague as a commercial opportunity.
The burning of most of Chinatown was not the board's policy, which was to burn individual buildings where plague occurred.
As Mohr says, they might eventually have burned Chinatown lot by lot, but it was a fluke of weather that burned most of it in one day.
Though partly mistaken in its medical theory, the approach had the virtue of working. Deaths were limited to a few score.
Mohr has mined a large store of contemporary documents and, just as informative, the oral tradition of Chinatown that has been diligently recorded by a handful of local historians.
"Plague and Fire" reveals, in its intricacies, a great deal about what Hawaii was like as it entered its modern era; and something about how we came to behave as we do today.

On a single day in 1900, over 5,000 Honolulu residents--nearly all of them living in the Chinatown section--lost their homes and belongings in a fire that swept through the district and destroyed a number of landmarks (including the venerated Kaumakapili Church). Although health officials set the fire, they had meant to contain it to a small set of hovels that had been home to a recent victim of a plague epidemic. The winds shifted and the church steeple caught fire, acting as a torch and sprinkling embers throughout the entire neighborhood. Miraculously, not a single person died in the fire.

Following the debacle, the newly homeless residents were placed in quarantine camps for several weeks, until fears of plague had abated. For decades after, the Chinatown Fire entered Honolulu lore, and some residents never shed the belief that the conflagration had been deliberately set. And not without reason: many local leaders and white-run newspaper editorial boards had been urging that the entire neighborhood be leveled and burned to stem the fearful spread of plague. (In addition, despite native resistance, the white community was working to make the recently annexed Hawaii a territory of the United States.) Although James Mohr's valuable, readable, and well-researched book examines the racial, class, and imperial politics that fueled the debate over what to do about the plague epidemic, he ultimately exonerates the motives of the health authorities for setting the fire.

But he has a larger purpose than showing that the fire was merely a well-intended public policy gone awry. He describes how officials responded to the medical emergency of the plague and, more specifically, he details the unprecedented powers granted to a trio of doctors appointed to respond to the crisis. The doctors were given complete authority over police and governance functions, as well as the treasury, until four weeks after the last confirmed case of plague. From this narrative emerge three heroes: Nathaniel Emerson, Francis Day, and Clifford Wood, all graduates of American medical schools who had emigrated to Hawaii, who had served extensively as public health officers, who had little previous political experience, and who ruined their own health and nearly destroyed their careers by accepting the assignment.

Because of the efforts of this trio, Honolulu's Plague of 1900 was far less severe than it might have been otherwise. Mohr does not claim that their methods were perfect or that their motives were uninfluenced by prejudice; instead he concludes that, given their limited medical knowledge (particularly concerning how plague infection was communicated), their policies were remarkably humanitarian and effective. Furthermore, they stubbornly resisted the "racist desires of the Citizens' Sanitary Commission, of many white businessmen, and of the traditional physicians in their own medical community," and, under extraordinary strain, implemented measures that were, for their time, sensitive both to the needs of the poor who lived in the affected neighborhood and, later, to the well-being of the homeless who were placed in the quarantine camps. While stopping short of suggesting that emergency powers during health catastrophes might be surrendered to medical authorities, Mohr certainly makes the case that selfless, politically neutral professionals might be capable of responsible and responsive governance during times of crisis, particularly when such powers are granted with clearly defined limits.

The Boston Globe gave it a rave review (Nov. 18, 2004) and it's well deserved. Recommended reading for anyone interested in U.S. history, medicine, public health, or legal history. Travelling to Hawaii? Take this along and see a very different side of paradise!

Consider the role of race in these policies. Certainly the Dole administration for which the Board physicians worked was an overtly racist regime, and certainly the fact that Honolulu's poorest slum was overwhelmingly inhabited by Asians and Hawaiians was related to the racist policies of that and preceding governments (Mohr 201).

The nascent take over of the Hawaiian Islands was followed by one of the worst catastrophes in its history - the burning of Chinatown. How and why did it happen? The ink was not yet dry on the illegal takeover when, as James Mohr tells it like no one else can - the story of that dreaded bubonic plague and its heated culmination in the destruction of Honolulu's Chinatown.

Mohr narrated the story through the POV of the community involved in the disaster, from a cadre of the white elite - Nathaniel Emerson, Francis Day, and Clifford Wood as well as Duncan Carmichael and Walter Hoffman to Chinese doctors, Japanese businessmen, and Hawaiian reporters. At the core of the disaster are the three American physicians: Emerson, Day, and Wood who comprised the "Honolulu Board of Health" who wielded martial law powers when the Dole government gave them absolute control over the military and the treasury. The trio began with quarantining of Chinatown, where - although not fully understanding the nature of the plague- argued that it was the filth ridden Chinatown that harbored this pathogen and was killing one or two people a day and needed to be contained. Pressure was put to bear that all houses affected by the plague would be destroyed in the only way possible to eliminate the problem completely - fire.

Controlled burns were planned in conjunction with the local fire brigade. However, not fully aware of the behavior of the wind, a small controlled burn turned into an uncontrollable inferno that decimated everything in its path. The carnage was estimated at about 38 acres of primarily wood structures. An estimated 5000 residents of mixes Asian and Hawaiian descent lost their homes, possessions and were trooped in a state of distress to detention centers under armed guard for several weeks. Needless to say, despite the property holdings being held by haoles on the mainland, there will always loom a sense of suspicion that this was a planned destruction of a group of people who were seen as less than human. Arguably, next to the Massie Affair, the Chinatown fire is the most disruptive event in Hawaiian history. No doubt this an attempt at a theatrical telling of the events but know that people are at the heart of this story. Yes, it could also be seen as a critique of unchecked public health policy, kudos to the struggling people in the face of such a challenge.

Miguel Llora

I never had an interest to go to China. It just seemed like some distant fantasy. But when I was required to pick a book from my high school book report, I picked Postcards From China. I must admit that I partly picked it because it was written by my Aunt, but it was no mistake. This book journies through the lives of a family trying to survive in a country where the language is foreign and the culture is out of the box. As I finished the book I realized how badly I want to go to China. I want to experience being in a different culture, and being with different people. More than that, I want to go to China show the love of Jesus to the people who are suffering there. The pain of the people that is expressed through this book opened my eyes to see how lost this world is. This is an amazing book, and it is worth your time to read it. I am a sophomore who is not a big fan of reading, but I am telling you, it is amazing.

The Postcards came from Xiamen, China's incomparable "garden city". I received Sandy's Postcards one by one, as they were written, and I was one of the people who urged her to publish them in book form so that others could also enjoy Megan, Larry, Sandy, and Xiamen. Sandy's writing is just like her voice---she is a great communicator. I was worried that her editor might tamper with her writing, thereby obscuring her inimitable style, but thankfully, this did not happen. The editor had the good sense to leave her excellent writing intact.
The story is a charming and compelling one, but is Xiamen and its people really like Sandy has described, or is this fiction masquerading as non-fiction? Well, I was so enchanted with what I was hearing about Xiamen that I went and visited the Slavins twice, for a total of ten weeks. The Xiamen you will read about is truly the Xiamen I experienced first hand.
Do something nice for yourself---read this book!

The most impressive part of the story was when the Slavins moved to China so their adopted daughter can reconnect with her country of birth. Their open hearts and eyes made the book a joy to read. I liked its down-to-earth view of life in China that any American can understand. Even though China is westernizing at a dizzying pace, their daily adjustments to life in China reminded me of the many conveniences we take for granted in the U.S. Their spirit of adventure was inspiring. A fun read!

Sandra Slavin relates their family's China experience with an astute eye. She paints pictures with charm, wit and a insight and portrays a culture that eventually impacted their lives in unforeseen ways.

This book was first written in English I think, by the foreign journalist who interviewed Pasqualini (they spoke in French I guess, Pasqualini's mother tong; but Pasqualini spoke English also). Then it was possibly translated in French only afterwards ? Anyway, the book is available for reading in French for free right in Beijing, in the nice library of the nice new French cultural centre, opened in 2005, freely opened to everybody, including Chinese citizens, in the South-West corner of the Workers' stadium (well, you have to pay a subscription, except if you read the book in staying in the library, where there are good armchairs; and of course you have to read French). Maybe there is also a copy in English available in the excellent and famous private library & bar called The Bookworm, in Beijing, not far from the French Cultural Centre ? Otherwise, except under this French diplomatic shield, I guess that the book is forbidden in all the libraries in China, in the language departments of universities for example ? and has never been translated in Chinese as well ?
In fact the author is named only by his French name in the book in French, Jean Pasqualini (from his Corsican father's name). I guess that if he had had a Caucasian face, and not a Chinese mother, he would have never spent all these years in a Chinese prison and would have been just expelled or at least been better treated. The irony was that, even if he spoke perfect Mandarin when he went to prison, he couldn't read Chinese. At least a benefit of his prison years was that he learned how to read Chinese. What is fascinating in this book is to discover the meticulous and permanent ideological work on all these prisoners, and on Pasqualini in particular. I was expecting mainly stories of harsh life, beatings, physical torture, etc. but no, the key issue for Pasqualini was to play the permanent ideological game, or some kind of mental torture in fact, where you really have to accept to be brainwashed, at least act as if you were, otherwise you can't survive. Or course there were immense sufferings, but the irony is that they seem mainly coming from planned hunger in the prison, but that due to famine in China, prisoners seemed, even if half starving, almost better off than most peasants who happen to be described in the book (precisely in the book some high ranking guy at one stage visits the prison and complains about this situation, saying that prisoners are treated too well during the famine). When you read this book you understand much better what may have been the life during the culture revolution later on. For example, with what Pasqualini calls "l'épreuve" (ordeal ?), when tens or hundreds of people shout at you, again and again during days, during hours, when you have to publicly confess your (most of the time imaginary) horrible ideological crimes. Everybody interested in China should have read this book (as well as Harry Wu's book). A must read.

By the way the author's Chinese name BAO Ruo-Wang doesn't appear on the cover of the French edition of this book, only Jean PASQUALINI. One can easily understand the better marketing effect of a Chinese name for selling a book about the "Laogai" (name used for the past and present Chinese gulag). I don't know why they didn't use as well his Chinese name for the French edition in 1974 ?
The not-so-weird thing (in Maoist Paris in the 60's) is that it was an American journalist who, in Paris, was interested in Pasqualini's story in the first place, when Pasqualini was brought back by the French authorities from China in 1964 (at the reopening of French-Chinese diplomatic relations). He had been imprisoned since 1957 in Beijing on charge of having been a spy (what he was more or less for the US or UK military, at least before 1949). The US journalist who in fact wrote the book in interviewing Jean Pasqualini in Paris is Rudolph Chelminski (source Penguin's authors biographies: Rudolph Chelminski has written articles for dozens of national magazines, ranging from People and Time to The Atlantic Monthly, and his prior books include The French at Table. He holds a degree from Harvard and has studied at the Institut d'Etudes Politiques. Raised in Connecticut, he began living in Europe more than thirty years ago, when Life magazine dispatched him to Paris.)
Pasqualini himself says in the introduction that he was not good at writing. Of course a large part of, if not all, the merit of the story goes to Pasqualini.
Apparently the book is 'out of print' in English ? But according to amazon.fr, the book, even if published in 1974 in France is still available in French at its famous French publisher's, Gallimard. It is called "Prisonnier de Mao; Sept ans dans un camp de travail en Chine" by Jean Pasqualini and Rudolph Chelminski. The book was probably ostracized in the 60's and 70's by the French Maoist and pro-China intelligentsia, very influent in Paris (including well-known journalists, thinkers, politicians, praising Maoism and the great Culture Revolution), that's why the book is probably still available in Gallimard's warehouse... (not joking..., the famous French speaking Belgian sinologist and great writer, Pierre Rickmans, aka Simon Leys, who wrote against the Culture Revolution at the time, in the early 70's, had to leave Paris for Canberra to find peace if not save his life !)
Jean Pasqualini became a quiet Chinese teacher and translator, in France, after 1964. He died in 1997 at 71. "In 1992 he, along with Harry Wu and Jeff Fiedler, became a founding director of the Laogai Research Foundation. Illness incapacitated Mr. Pasqualini in many of the years since, but he did write a number of essays for Laogai Report, including "Beijing's Old Trick" for the February 1995 edition." [...]
Well, do read the book if you can find it. Amongst many other merits, the story is well told and well written; it's really like a good novel, and you won't leave the book until you finish it 2-3 hours later.

I've been doing China-related stuff for more than three decades. This book, which I've read three times, remains one of my favorites. No other book captures the ghastly and bizarre nature of Chinese Communism better. It's a breezy read and also touches not just on issues related to China but to all of mankind as well. Colleges and high schools should use it.

It's a crying shame that this book is not currently in print. It offers a fascinating inside look at the Chinese penal system during the trying times of the Great Leap Forward and Sino-Soviet split. Bao Ruo-Wang never loses his ironic detachment and eye for detail. Despite the grim subject matter, "Prisoner of Mao" is actually a very funny book. There's a laugh on every page!

Highly readable account of the author's seven years in the Chinese gulag ("reform through labor") beginning in 1957. Period included the "three years of suffering," when the disastrous results of the Great Leap Forward and poor harvests starved 30 million or more. Labor camp prisoners were used for experiments with anti-famine foods such as paper pulp and marsh plankton food substitutes. Bao Ruo-wang was half Corsican and he was freed in 1964 following French diplomatic recognition of China.

The drama of RETURN TO THE MIDDLE KINGDOM unfolds like an adventure film, such as INDIANA JONES, filled with exciting actions, one leading to another and each becoming more gripping than the previous one. I just follow the narrator and feel compelled to explore farther and deeper into the strange, mysterious, intriguing Middle Kingdom.

This book provides an in-depth account of how events in the past 100 years have shaped the modern China and the involvement of one family during this period. A must read for anyone who is interested in China and likes good story telling!!

Opening the book, I see a map marked with the three routes which the three revolutionaries of the Chen family take, from places inside the Great Wall to the Gobi Desert. The next page is the Cast of Characters which hints at what I'll see if I follow along the three routes. The first character is the Republican Senator from Idaho, William E. Borah, who helped Eugene Chen (the second revolutionary) expose President Wilson's secret pact with Japan, double-crossing China. Right under his name is Mikhail Borodin, a Communist International agent who was sent by Lenin and who helped Eugene implement the "Russia-oriented" policy. What sharp and dramatic contrast! I can't help being lured into the story.

The book has great characters as well as a great story line. It opens with the appearance of Ah Chen, the first revolutionary of the Chen family. He was born nearly 180 years ago in a totally alien land. I saw such a creature in old, yellowing photos, who looks to me like a different species from another planet. But after reading a page or so, the boy Ah Chen springs to life. He is just like the little boy next door, mischievous, playful and friendly. As he grows up, he has a dream of pursuing success and happiness just my friends and I have.

I am like The Rice Sprout Song.Eileen chang is the greatest writer of China.

Another one of Eileen Chang's translations of her Chinese works, this is an excellent novel about China's farmers and the struggles they encounter as a result of Maoism in China. This is my second favorite novel of hers, behind Naked Earth. Unlike the latter, The Rice-Sprout Song is much easier to find, and now includes an excellent introduction by David Wang.

The Old Master who collected Chinese wisdom in Tao Te Ching some 2,500 years ago wrote pithily:
"The sage never has a mind of his own;
He considers the minds of the common people to be his mind."

Today, he would not change a word for the sage: the sheng-jen in Beijing. True, modern China, a colossus of 1.2 billion people, is fronted by Shanghai and other booming, skyscrapered, fiber-opticked, globally connected metropolises. But beyond the urban fronts, reality is 900 million peasants--75% of the total population--living a rural, feudal life with Marxist trappings. What gives the Beijing mandarin insomnia is not rhetorical exchanges with America like we saw earlier in 2001. No, it's much more the primal fear bad weather and bad crops might visit hunger upon the 900 million--if the peasants go hungry, the government goes down and chaos surely follows. Chaos, for the Chinese mind, being anathema (off the Tao, hindering wu-wei).

The Rice-Sprout Song by Eileen Chang (1920-95), first published in 1955, deftly evokes rural Chinese life in the early days of the Maoist Revolution. Though well known to Chinese readers everywhere, Chang's work has only recently been in print again for English readers. In 1998, three years after her death, the University of California reissued this novel and a companion work, The Rouge of the North.

Chang, a giant in Chinese literature, wrote and lived a self-proclaimed aesthetic of desolation, especially after immigrating to the United States in the mid-Fifties. A Garbo-esque recluse, Chang was found dead in a barren Hollywood, California, studio apartment. Her will asked that her body be "cremated instantly, the ashes scattered in any desolate spot, over a fairly wide area, if on land." If Chang, as she said, was haunted by thoughts of desolation, then The Rice-Sprout Song shows a corollary to her artistic hunger: Her writing transcends any simple, obvious political interpretation of her material. Neither pro-Mao nor anti-Mao, but a literary meditation on peasant lives caught up in the ironies of political will and human need when hunger stalks the countryside.

The Rice-Sprout Song gets underway with a common family event: a wedding. Gold Flower of T'an Village will marry Plenty Own Chou of neighboring Chou Village. This might not be a joyous occasion for Chang begins to summon the isolation and loneliness of village life: "Sunlight lay across the street like an old yellow dog, barring the way. The sun had grown old here." Yes, even that universal restorer of the spirit--the sun--can be menacing. That all is not right when the festive wedding occasion arrives is shown by note of the "inferior food" that of necessity is served. Big Uncle complains that he cannot see the rice in his bowl of watery gruel. This jho mush--anything but solid rice--becomes one thematic particular for hunger that haunts this novel.

If Chang were less an artist, the reader's easy-to-hate nemesis would be Comrade Wong, the kan pu of T'an Village, the local representative of the Party. For it is Comrade Wong's unenviable task to carry out a political action showing support for the People's Liberation Army in their fight on the Korean front: a gift the peasants cannot afford: half a pig and forty catties of rice cakes from each family. But before this leads to the tragic end to The Rice-Sprout Song, we follow, in flashback, Wong as he finds the love of his life, Shah Ming. He loses her in the vagaries of fighting for the PLA. When at last he sees her again, she waves from a window in the facade of a collapsed building on the battlefield. Inside the building, Wong sees only rubble and overhead, at the window, nothing. He knows his hallucination proved Shah Ming was saying good-bye from beyond. For Comrade Wong, fate gave him nothing but the Party.

We also see dramatic irony when Comrade Ku, the city intellectual, comes to live in T'an Village, to learn the ways of the peasants. His goal of a movie script about village life suffers from writer's block; he habitually sneaks off to another town to buy food to eat on the sly. And when Big Aunt, who spouts Communist rhetoric that is appallingly upbeat, breaks down in a fit of anger. She says they are all empty-bellied and she doesn't care if she is reported. And when Moon Scent, the wife of Gold Root, returns from working three years as a maid in Shanghai. A force to be reckoned with, Moon Scent, in an act of righteous anger, gives this tragedy its capstone.

Essential reading that shares the texture, the heritage, and the yearnings of nearly a billion of our fellow earthlings, search out this reissue of The Rice-Sprout Song. As one t'ai chi ch'uan teacher said, "Perfect doesn't exist. Near-perfect does." The Rice-Sprout Song is a "near-perfect" evocation of the common people in the timeless Middle Kingdom.

Rice Sprout Song is possibly the best work of literature I have ever read. It was first recommended to me as descriptive of the collectivization era shortly after the 1949 Revolution in China, a classic tale between the state and the individual. It is a spellbinding, troubling work, and is almost impossible to believe that it was Eileen Chang's first work in English. The language she uses is sparse, beautiful and conveys greatest impact after the last page is read, and the cover closed. It is more than an interesting story about conflict between the state and the individual. It is an unsettling story of physical starvation and the death of hope and love.

I used the sixth (2006) edition of the ROUGH GUIDE TO HONG KONG & MACAU during a recent two-week stay in Hong Kong. Reading it before my trip, I found it to portray Hong Kong as a fascinating and immense place to visit, where one can spend weeks covering all manner of out of the way places. This was a great contrast to the Berlitz guide to Hong Kong I also took along, which make the region seem like a two-day stop where the only interesting thing is shopping.

There's a chapter each on Hong Kong Island, Kowloon, the New Territories, and the outlying islands. The description of each town or wilderness inside these divisions takes the form of a walking tour. The authors guide the reader through the streets well, and like all Rough Guides the maps here are clear and accurate. I unfortunately didn't visit Macau, so I cannot comment on that portion of the guide.

I didn't use the accommodation listings, as like many travelers I prefer to stay with local from hospitality associations for closer contact with the local culture. As the Rough Guide does not cover this option, I have removed one star from my rating. However, there does indeed seem to be an adequate amount of both budget and luxury accommodation, with the stops in between of course. The needs of shoestring travelers are not given short shrift here, as in the offerings of all too many guidebook publishers. I did use the recommendations for restaurants, which do a great job of steering travelers to hole-in-the-wall eateries with little English signage which might not look fancy, but which show you the real Hong Kong in a way flashier places don't.

At the end of the book one finds a history of the region, as well as some general information on Hong Kong culture. The history soberly discusses the uncertainty of Hong Kong's true autonomy after the handover, while other guidebooks I read gave only a rosy view. In these appendices there's also a list of films and books, fiction and non-fiction, about Hong Kong, letting the reader learn more about the place before he visits.

If you're an independent travelver going to Hong Kong, I'd certainly recommend ROUGH GUIDE TO HONG KONG & MACAU. I find it better than the Lonely Planet guide due to the range of its listings and the quality of its maps, and light years ahead of the paltry listings and assumption that the reader is a millionaire which one finds in many other guidebook lines.

This book gives ou a nice overview of the region, and incredible specific tips for visiting HK and Macau.

Great walking tours are included in this Rough Guide to Hong Kong and Macau-the directions are explicit and easy to follow and the places to which we ventured exceeded expectations. There were GREAT shopping tips for a shopping mecca and we scored on several fronts! This is a great way to introduce yourself to Hong Kong and Macau before you get there and a great way to bring what you read into reality. A must-buy for travel to Asia.

I recommend this guide, it was quite useful.

The descriptions of various areas were quite accurate, and the maps were mostly very good. The one of Macau seemed to have some minor errors, but that place is very confusing to walk around, so it could have been me. Anyway, you want the maps in this book or something pretty good, because the free tourist map is basically worthless.

I really like Rough Guides, because their reviews are very honest and balanced, and they are excellent about cross-referencing recommended locations, restaurants, hotels, etc and maps in each book. This guide is up to the same high standards, so it was very easy to use.

I would recommend that the walking tours guide (available for free at the airport, etc) is a good supplement to this guide. I used it extensively.

this is a great book to have it is very easy to read and learn the samoan language.

I have personally used this book many times at work to find the meaning of Samoan words. It is written very well, with all of the diacritical marks - including the ÿokina (glottal stop) and kahako (macron), to allow for correct pronounciation. The book is beautifully bound in a neat hard cover, with burgundy red as the main colour, and with a yellow flower motif running down the side, and a yellow title line, "Samoan Dictionary". Go check it out! Itÿs worth the price. Soifua! -Kaliko Trapp, Hilo, Hawaiÿi

This is the best Samoan dictionary I've used! Besides its qualities already mentioned, it also has sample sentences for each word. It gives all definitions for the words, and definitions are precise. Don't settle for anything less!

25 years ago, I arrived at my school site as a Peace Corps volunteer in Samoa. I soon figured out that the key to having a good experience was to learn Samoan. This dictionary was a dear friend in that process. While I was immersed in Samoan every day, I used this dictionary and whatever written matter I could find for a couple of hours every day to supplement the spoken Samoan I was learning. My Samoan eventually got to be pretty good for a Palagi, and this dictionary was a great help. Faafetai tele lava ia G. B. Milner.

Shanghi Quartet found me in the footsteps of Min Zhan Lu. I found the book riveting - couldn't lay it down. I wanted to lift
the characters out of the book and spend some time with them over tea. This book is destined as a best seller.

This is simply a beautiful book. I read it on a long flight to Australia and kept turning to my travel companion to say, "I love this book. You have to read this book."

When I got to my conference, I gave the book to the first person I met who was also writing about the people of the Chinese Cultural Revolution. I wanted to share it with everyone.

So, now I'm on-line to get a new copy. I don't want to be without it.

Shanghai Quartet is a wonderful book that gives a honest portrayl of life in China over the last century. Unlike other books of its kind, it gives voice to three generations of Chinese women and their struggles through the various political regimes.

This memoir also gives voice to a generation of Chinese immigrants who immigrated to the US in the early 80's. This generations has thus far been very silent and this book provides an accurate account of their experience.

In addition, Shanghai Quartet tells of a Catholic and aristocratic family in Shanghai that we rarely see in other books. I highly recommend this complex book -- it was a true joy to read!

I meant to save this book for an upcoming long air flight, but after the first two pages, I couldn't put it down. Min-Zhan Lu's compelling stories of her life and that of her grandmother, nanny, and mother are much like her scholarship in composition studies: rigorous, sensitive, thought-provoking. She depicts herself and the other women in her family as devoted to crossings, travel, immigration, and shows what strengths and challenges arise out of such lives. As she tells and revises and retells these stories, she looks for hints and strategies for doing better to recognize those strengths and handle those challenges. Her quest to compose possible lives, for herself and her daughter, rendered in exquisite prose, inspires us to see our lives as writing projects, always open to rethinking and revision.

It's like reading Proust's Rememberance of Times Past, but not so long. Each detail is mined for its resonances, memories, connections, meaning in the past and in the future. What's the meaning of her parents' clasped hands? What does it mean to drink green tea? Why do people we barely knew sometimes come to mean so much to us? So much meaning in the small details of everyday life.

It's a great book for a book group to read - if you're like me, you will be dying to talk about it with friends as soon as you finish it. It's the best thing I've read this year, and I read a lot.