More Books

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1421, The Year China Discovered America • Gavin Menzies HISTORY • 2004 • PAPER • 336 PAGES Former submarine commander Menzies' provocative argument that the largest fleet of ships the world had ever seen, navigated by the Chinese, discovered America 70 years before Columbus. Discredited by most scholars, it is nonetheless interesting reading. (CHN216, $15.95)
About Face: A History of America's Curious Relationship With China • James Mann HISTORY • 2000 • PAPER • 464 PAGES Written by a journalist who lived in China in the late 1980s, this book follows and analyzes the course of Chinese-American associations through the 20th century. While political ideologies split these two nations, they are inevitably linked in the world of international trade and power struggles. (CHN111, $17.95)
After Tamerlane, The Global History of Empire Since 1405 • John Darwin HISTORY • 2008 • HARD COVER • 592 PAGES Darwin traces the rise and fall of large-scale empires in the centuries after the death of the emperor Tamerlane in 1405, in an account that challenges conventional beliefs about the rise of the western world and contends that European ascendancy may be a transitory event. (WLD134, $34.95)
All Men Are Brothers • Pea Buck LITERATURE • 2006 • PAPER • 720 PAGES A band of men become robbers when they are forced to flee the decadent Sung Dynasty. (CHN650, $39.95)
All the Tea in China • Kyril Bonfiglioli MYSTERY • 2008 • HARD COVER • 276 PAGES Another in the series of deliciously entertaining novels starring fictional art dealer Charlie Mortdecai. (CHN480, $23.95)
The Analects of Confucius • D. C. Lao • Confucius RELIGION • 1979 • PAPER • 160 PAGES A popular and acclaimed modern translation of the writing of Confucius, an essential introduction to the man and his thoughts. Includes explanatory notes. (CHN123, $12.00)
Anthology of Chinese Literature, Volume I: From the Earliest Times to the Fourteenth Century • Cyril Birch • Donald Keene ANTHOLOGY • 1989 • PAPER A banquet of love stories, operatic plays, drinking poems and other traditional Chinese writing up to the Ming Dynasty. Volume II (CHN14) continues to modern times. (CHN388, $15.95)
Anthology of Chinese Literature, Volume II: From the 14th Century to the Present Day • Cyril Birch ANTHOLOGY • 1988 • PAPER • 476 PAGES An excellent collection of representative verse, song, stories, essays and excerpts from classic novels, a sampling of Chinese writing over the last 700 years with an introduction by the editor. It includes Ghosts and other Marvels, Red Chamber Dream and writing by masters little known in the West. This volume follows Birch's well received anthology of writings from ancient China, a banquet of love stories, operatic plays, drinking poems and other traditional Chinese writing. (CHN14, $16.50)
Around the Bloc: My Life in Moscow, Beijing, and Havana • Stephanie Elizondo Griest BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR • 2004 • PAPER • 416 PAGES The offbeat memoirs of a native Texan who spent four years as a volunteer in Moscow, a propaganda officer in Beijing, and a belly dancer in Havana. You may have come across Griest's distinctive voice in a collection of Travelers' Tales, where she is a regular contributor. She's young, a witty observer with a way with words, and utterly passionate about travel. This is her first book, as much memoir as travel account, spanning four years and three continents. (RUS242, $14.95)
Art and China's Revolution • Melissa Chiu • Zheng Shengtian ART & ARCHITECTURE • 2008 • HARD COVER • 260 PAGES This richly illustrated companion book to an exhibition at the Asia Society brings together large-scale oil paintings, ink paintings, sculptures, drawings, artist sketchbooks, woodblock prints, posters, and objects from everyday life, many never before shown in the United States, in the first in-depth exhibition of the powerful and complicated impact of Mao Zedong's revolutionary ideals on artists and art production in China. (CHN540, $65.00)
Fodor's Exploring China • Christopher Knowles GUIDEBOOK • 2007 • PAPER • 288 PAGES This excellent guidebook, featuring maps and color photos, brings old and new China to life, with sections on places to visit, a useful language guide and practical information. (CHN25, $22.00)
The Asia Book • China Williams CULTURAL PORTRAIT • 2007 • HARD COVER • 231 PAGES Covering every country in Asia and the Middle East, this swoon-worthy collection offers pages of bright full color photographs, shedding light on the peoples and cultures of each nation. Also includes fact-filled profiles and a historical background for each country. (ASA64, $40.00)
Austere Luminosity of Chinese Classical Furniture • Sarah Handler ART & ARCHITECTURE • 2001 • HARD COVER • 417 PAGES A stunningly illustrated survey of hardwood furniture in China from its earliest origins in the Shang dynasty (c. 1500 to c. 1050 B.C.) to the present. Sarah Handler is an art historian who specializes in Chinese furniture, architecture and related arts. With 118 color illustrations and 204 black-and-white photographs. (CHN319, $75.00)
Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress • Xun Zhou 2005 • DVD In this film by by Xun Zhou (based on the novel), two teenage boys are sent off to the countryside in Mao's Cultural Revolution in 1971. Run time of 111 minutes. (CHN327, $26.98)
Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress • Sijie Dai • Ina Rilke LITERATURE • 2002 • PAPER • 208 PAGES A charming, unexpectedly witty, tale of two teenage boys in China sent off to the countryside during Mao's Cultural Revolution. This slim novel celebrates the power of stories and literature and the imagination. (CHN159, $13.95)
Becoming Madame Mao • Anchee Min LITERATURE • 2001 • PAPER • 330 PAGES In this fine example of historical fiction, Min (Red Azalea) sketches with powerful strokes the arc of the life the woman who would become Madame Mao. She paints Jiang Ching in all her horrible, compelling and vindictive glory. The novel is not only a portrait of a damaged woman but of China throughout much of the 20th Century. (CHN304, $13.95)
Before the Deluge, The Vanishing World of the Yangtze's Three Gorges • Deirdre Chetham CULTURAL PORTRAIT • 2004 • PAPER • 306 PAGES A vivid portrait of the Three Gorges region of the Upper Yangtze River by the Director of the Asia Center at Harvard -- and veteran lecturer on study trips to China. Chetham offers a personal, detailed glimpse into the daily life along the river, its spectacular natural beauty and checkered history. She also considers the recent efforts to tame the river, culminating with the massive Three Gorges dam. Highly recommended. (CHN132, $25.00)
Beijing Coma • Ma Jian LITERATURE • 2009 • PAPER • 624 PAGES In this remarkable novel former Tiananmen Square protester Dai Wei awakens after a decade of unconsciousness, learning that his mother had sold one of his kidneys to finance his care, and that the China he knew has undergone radical change. (CHN502, $18.00)
Beijing Guidemap • MapEasy 2006 • MAP Printed on sturdy, tear and water resistant Polyart paper, this handy colorful double-sided map shows The Forbidden City, Tiannamen Square, the Summer Palace, Greater and out-of-town Beijing (each with an inset) along with a walking map of Central Beijing at a scale of 1:15,000. With temples, gardens, hotels, retstaurants, metro stops and other key attractions. Two Sides. 18x27 inches. (CHN530, $6.95)
Beijing Map • Borch Maps 2007 • MAP This laminated, folded map of the city center of Beijing, at a scale of 1:24,000 notes 2008 Olympic venues, attractions, a map of the metro and ddetailed inset maps of key attractions. With an index and Chinese characters for key place names, very useful for getting around by taxi. Two Sides. 20 X 35 inches. (CHN199, $8.95)
Berlitz Mandarin Chinese Phrase Book & CD • Berlitz Multimedia LANGUAGE & PHRASEBOOKS • 2007 • AUDIO CD • 224 PAGES A 224-page phrase book and audio CD, this handy language primer focuses on food, people, fun and the basic phrases for getting around in another language. Compatible with iPod and MPS devices, this bestselling series is geared for travelers. (CHN455, $14.95)
Between Mecca and Beijing, Modernization and Consumption Among Urban Chinese Muslims • Maris Boyd Gillette CULTURAL PORTRAIT • 2002 • PAPER • 296 PAGES Published by Stanford University, this scholarly paper looks at how the Hui people of Xi'an -- ethnic Muslims -- have negotiated the right to religious freedom in the PRC. It focuses especially on their eating habits. (CHN180, $24.95)
Beyond the Great Wall • Jeffrey Alford • Naomi Duguid FOOD • 2008 • HARD COVER • 376 PAGES The globe-trotting duo weaves their own tales of travel with contemporary politics, commentary, carefully documented recipes and stunning photographs for this sumptuous overview of the food and culture of Inner Mongolia, Tibet, Yunnan and other far-off regions of ethnically diverse China. (CHN475, $40.00)
Beyond the Stone Arches, An American Missionary Doctor in China, 1892-1932 • Edward Bliss, Jr. BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR • 2001 • HARD COVER • 256 PAGES A memoir of the author's physician father and his work in China at the turn of the 20th century by the broadcast journalist Edward Bliss. (CHN95, $24.95)
Big Dragon, The Future of China • Daniel Burstein • Arne de Keijzer HISTORY • 1999 • PAPER • 416 PAGES An overview of China's culture, economy, and emergence as a superpower. The authors focus on future prospects and the increasingly important foreign relations with the U.S. Burstein, an investment banker, focuses on opportunities for engagement and trade. (CHN208, $26.95)
Birds of Europe, Russia, China and Japan: Volume Two, nonpasserines (Divers to Woodpeckers) • Norman Arlott FIELD GUIDE • 2009 • PAPER • 240 PAGES The companion volume to Arlott's illlustrated checklist of the Birds of Europe, Russia, China and Japan (EUR276, $29.95), covering the nonpasserines (divers to woodpeckers). (EUR318, $29.95)
Blue and White: Chinese Porcelain Around the World • John Carswell ART & ARCHITECTURE • 2000 • HARD COVER • 224 PAGES This beautifully illustrated and scholarly survey shows the development and history of Chinese Blue and White porcelain, developed for trade during the height of the Medieval Mongol Empire and, thus, transported throughout Asia to the Mediterranean world. Carswell brings to the book an artist's eye and his knowledge of 13th to 16th-century trade routes. In looking at the exchange between China and the rest of the world over this period, he traces the impact of Islamic and other influences on Chinese potters and European fascination with chinoiserie. With 130 color reproductions from museums and private collections, including the British Museum (which originally published the book). Carswell was curator of the Oriental Institute Museum and director of the Museum of Fine Arts at the University of Chicago. (CAS95, $65.00)
Bones of the Master, A Journey to Secret Mongolia • George Crane TRAVEL NARRATIVE • 2001 • PAPER • 304 PAGES An odd, captivating biography of a 75-year-old Zen monk who escaped Inner Mongolia in the wake of China's Great Leap Forward in 1959, and the tale of his unlikely journey back to China with next-door-neighbor, friend and poet George Crane. It's a powerful story and not a bad introduction to Chinese history and Ch'an Buddhism. (CHN96, $17.00)
Born Red, A Chronicle of the Cultural Revolution • Yuan Gao BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR • 1987 • PAPER • 380 PAGES The memoir of a young man, the son of a government official in northern China, who joins the Cultural Revolution against the wishes of his family. (CHN255, $29.95)
Bridge of Birds • Barry Hughart LITERATURE • 1990 • PAPER • 288 PAGES A novel of whimsy and fantasy set in ancient China, following the fantastic and humorous quest for the Great Root of Power, the only cure for a town overrun by illness. (CHN117, $7.99)
British Naturalists in Qing China • Fa-Ti Fan NATURAL HISTORY • 2004 • HARD COVER • 268 PAGES A comprehensive study of how 18th and 19th-century British naturalists and the Chinese explored, studied and represented China's natural world in the social and cultural environment of Qing China. (CHN609, $68.50)
Brothers • Yu Hua LITERATURE • 2010 • PAPER • 656 PAGES Set against the backdrop of a modern-day China caught in the midst of a growing capitalism, Baldy Li, a teenage ne'er-do-well, and Song Gang, his bookish stepbrother, vow to preserve their close relationship despite their personal differences. (CHN546, $16.95)
Brothers, A Novel • Da Chen LITERATURE • 2006 • HARD COVER The tale of two estranged brothers, one illegitimate who grew up trapped in a hellish orphanage, and the other the acknowledged son of a powerful general. The two grow up to take opposite sides in China's Cultural Revolution in this first novel. (CHN383, $25.00)
Buddha • Karen Armstrong RELIGION • 2004 • PAPER • 240 PAGES A concise, thought-provoking biography of the Buddha in the Penguin Lives series, written by one of the foremost experts on world religions. A member of the Association of Muslim Social Services in Jerusalem, Karen Armstrong is a former Roman Catholic nun who teaches Judaism. Her many books include: A History of God; Islam, a Short History; and Jerusalem: One City Three Faiths. She has also written a biography of Mohammed. (REL09, $14.00)
Buddhism in China: A Historical Survey • Kenneth Ch'en RELIGION • 1972 • PAPER • 560 PAGES A well organized, scholarly history of the development of Mahayana Buddhism in China, originally published in 1964. It's a popular college text, covering 2,000 years of Buddhism from its birth in India to the modern period. Ch'en pays particular attention to Buddhism in the T'ang Dynasty. With a glossary, list of Chinese names, and bibliography. (CHN151, $57.50)
Buddhism in Chinese History • Arthur F Wright RELIGION • 1983 • PAPER • 144 PAGES This standard short survey by a leading scholar of premodern China is a popular required text for university courses on Chinese history and religion. Originally published in 1959 and conversational in tone, the book is based on six lectures on the transformation of Chinese culture by Buddhism. With a small section of black-and-white photogaphs. (CHN131, $24.95)
Buddhism: Origins, Beliefs, Practices, Holy Texts, Sacred Places • Malcolm David Eckel RELIGION • 2002 • HARD COVER • 112 PAGES A concise introduction to the theology and social practice of Buddhism. Eckel, a professor of East Asian religion at Boston University, uses short primary sources to help readers understand Buddhism in its own words. (CHN248, $17.95)
Buddhist Art and Architecture • Robert Fisher ART & ARCHITECTURE • 1993 • PAPER • 216 PAGES A wide-ranging, illustrated survey of Buddhist art, architecture and iconography in the excellent World of Art series. It includes examples from throughout Asia. (ASA30, $19.95)
The Cambridge Illustrated History of China • Patricia Buckley Ebrey HISTORY • 2010 • PAPER • 352 PAGES A concise, handsomely illustrated survey of Chinese history. Organized chronologically, this book marches confidently through 8,000 years of Chinese civilization, balancing social issues with politics and culture. With maps and an excellent selection of accompanying photographs, many in color. (CHN79, $46.99)
A Case of Two Cities • Qiu Xiaolong MYSTERY • 2007 • PAPER • 320 PAGES In the fourth installment of the Inspector Chen series, Chen investigates the murder of the head Fujian special case squad. The trail leads him to the U.S., where he pursues a wealthy capitalist immigrant. (CHN396, $14.99)
The Caves of Dunhuang • Fan Jinshi ART & ARCHITECTURE • 2010 • HARD COVER • 256 PAGES The cave temples of Mogao are near Dunhuang at the extreme western end of the Silk Road in China. Founded by Buddhist monks in the fourth century, the caves were inhabited as an isolated monastery for over 1,000 years. The murals with which the caves were decorated create one of the finest examples of Buddhist art in China, reflecting the changing styles of Chinese art for more than a millennium. As well as murals of the highest quality, the caves were the repository of many other treasures including works on silk and paper as well as tens of thousands of Buddhist manuscripts. The site itself, on the fringes of the Gobi desert, is one of great beauty and historical resonance. This book examines 50 of the finest caves in detail. Richly illustrated and beautifully designed, it gives an unparalleled introduction to the site, the quality of the murals and the other contents, and outlines one of the most fascinating stories in Asian history. (CHN534, $70.00)
Celebrated Cases of Judge Dee (Dee Goong An) • Robert Van Gulik MYSTERY • 1976 • PAPER • 237 PAGES Van Gulilk's translation of 18th-century Chinese detective stories: The Case of the Double Murder at Dawn, The Case of the Strange Corpse, and The Case of the Poisoned Bride. This is the book that launched the Dutch diplomat and scholar's Judge Dee detective series, drawn from Chinese traditions. (CHN300, $8.95)
Celestial Realm, the Yellow Mountains of China • Wang Wusheng NATURAL HISTORY • 2005 • HARD COVER • 239 PAGES An informative photographic portrait of Mt. Huangshan, the mist-shrouded grantite peaks of the Yellow Mountains in southern Anhui Province, celebrated by Chinese landscape painters. (CHN371, $55.00)
Central China Map • Nelles 2007 • MAP An excellent shaded relief map in the regional series by Nelles, at a scale of 1:1,500,000. It's an attractive map at a much-better-than-usual scale which covers from Shanghai west across the country, including Xian, Three Gorges and other popular destinations. Two Sides. 20x40 inches. (CHN65, $13.95)
The Chan's Great Continent: China in Western Winds • Jonathan Spence HISTORY • 1999 • PAPER • 279 PAGES Beginning with the narrative of Marco Polo, Spence uses the accounts of historical European figures to survey the West's views of China and the transformations of these perceptions over time. (CHN276, $16.95)
The Changing Face of China, From Mao to Market • John Gittings HISTORY • 2007 • PAPER • 372 PAGES A lively history of China from 1949 to the present by a journalist and China expert. Gittings was East Asia corespondent for The Guardian from 1983-2003. (CHN307, $19.95)
Chasing the Monk's Shadow • Mishi Saran TRAVEL NARRATIVE • 2005 • HARD COVER • 456 PAGES Traveling in the footsteps of 7th-century Buddhist monk Xuanzang, Mishi Saran explores the historical, cultural and religious legacies of the Silk Road in China, Central Asia and India. (CHN372, $26.95)
China • Ming Tan • Guo Guang CULTURAL PORTRAIT • 2009 • HARD COVER • 244 PAGES The 238 breathtaking color photographs in this oversized (18" x 12") volume show the splendors and diversity of of China's geography and monuments. With its oversize panoramic format, 12 breathtaking foldout pages and handsome slipcase, the book also includes one of 10 signed and numbered digital photographic prints, each limited to an edition of 300. Extended captions at the back of the book provide a concise introduction to the history and significance of each of the 44 locales (including 28 World Heritage Sites), including not only the Forbidden City, the Great Wall, and the Terra Cotta army of the First Qin Empero, but also lesser-known attractions like the great tulous, or earthen houses, of Fujian Province; the terraced fields of Yuanyang County; and the multicolored travertine lakes of Huanglong Valley. (CHN595, $185.00)
China AdventureMap • National Geographic 2011 • MAP This double-sided map, printed on tough synthetic paper, shows sites of interest throughout China at a scale of 1:4,375,000. One Side. 39 X 52Z inches. (CHN360, $11.95)
China and the Forbidden City • Tom Priestley HISTORY • 2005 • DVD A documentary in the award winning Jarvis collection, this 60-minute film explores the history, art and architecture of the imperial city. Lucy Javis has made a string of investigative documentaries and specials for NBC over a 50-year-long career. (CHN419, $19.95)
China Candid, The People on the People's Republic • Sang Ye HISTORY • 2005 • PAPER • 338 PAGES Journalist Sang Ye (China Lives) brings together interviews with 26 citizens from all over the country for this people's history of modern China. (CHN347, $26.95)
China Map • International Travel Maps 2006 • MAP A fine, double-sided map of China, at a useful scale of 1:3,800,000, featuring colorful shaded relief, indexed with an inset map of central Beijing. Fifth edition. It also shows parts of Korea, Mongolia, Tibet, Nepal, Bhutan and Burma. Two Sides. 39x27 inches. (CHN06, $11.95)
China Men • Maxine Hong Kingston LITERATURE • 1989 • PAPER • 308 PAGES A novel of three generations of Chinese men adjusting to life in America, drawn from experience and traditional Chinese stories. (CHN118, $15.95)
China North Map • Nelles MAP A detailed travel map of North China at a 1:1,750,000 scale. It covers Xinjing to Beijing, with city maps of Tianjin and Beijing and inset maps of the areas around Beijing and Xi'an. Two Sides. 20x40 inches. (CHN40, $13.95)
China Pop: How Soap Operas, Tabloids and Bestsellers are Transforming a Culture • Jianying Zha HISTORY • 1996 • PAPER • 210 PAGES A history of contemporary China as seen through its pop culture. Zha, who now lives in the U.S., is an entertaining and insightful guide on how television, pulp novels and other recent innovations are impacting traditional Chinese culture and society. (CHN277, $15.95)
The China Reader, The Reform Era • Orville Schell • David Shambaugh HISTORY • 1999 • PAPER • 553 PAGES This sourcebook on contemporary China includes first-hand material by Mao Zedong, Deng Xiaoping, along with insightful essays by several scholars on the culture and politics of China over the last 25 years. Dean of the graduate school of journalism at Berkeley and a China scholar, Schell is also the author of Mandate of Heaven and Virtual Tibet. Co-editor and contributor David Shambaugh, professor at George Washington University, is a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. (CHN224, $17.95)
China Revealed • Ba Pao ART & ARCHITECTURE • 2007 • HARD COVER A portfolio of images by the Hong Kong-based photographer. (CHN422, $60.00)
China Revealed • Discovery Channel CULTURAL PORTRAIT • 2006 • DVD Coupling insightful storytelling with spectacular and groundbreaking photographic techniques this Discovery Atlas presentation brings to life contemporary culture and wonders of China. (CHN604, $14.98)
China Shakes the World • James Kynge HISTORY • 2007 • PAPER • 270 PAGES A journalist in Asia for two decades and fluent in Mandarin, Kynge brings experience and perspective to this very readable, enlightening report on the transformation of contemporary China. (CHN353, $14.95)
China since Tiananmen, From Deng Xiaoping to Hu Jintao • Joseph Fewsmith HISTORY • 2008 • PAPER • 344 PAGES A revised second edition of Fewsmith's political history of modern China since 1989. (CHN507, $27.99)
China South Map • Nelles 2005 • MAP A detailed travel map of Southern China, from Taiwan to Hong Kong and the Yunnan Province, at a 1:1,500,000 scale. With city maps of Hon Kong, Macau and Guilin. Two Sides. 20x40 inches. (CHN27, $13.95)
China Survival Guide, How to Avoid Travel Troubles and Mortifying Mishaps • Larry Herzberg GUIDEBOOK • 2011 • PAPER • 160 PAGES Professors of Chinese language and culture, Larry and Qin Herzberg include frank information on transportation, lodging, walking, haggling, medical and bathroom emergencies, etiquette, crowds -- and learning the twin arts of patience and persistence -- in this savvy, entertaining guide to getting along. (CHN428, $9.95)
China the Balance Sheet, What the World Needs to Know about the Emerging Superpower • Bates Gill • C. Fred Bergsten HISTORY • 2007 • PAPER • 256 PAGES A fact-filled, academic report on Chinese colossus by teams at the Centre for Strategic International Studies and the Institute for International Economics, both think tanks on international economic policy in Washington D.C. (CHN354, $13.95)
China to 1850, A Short History • Charles O. Hucker HISTORY • 1977 • PAPER • 162 PAGES A scholarly history of China from the beginning to the Opium Wars. (CHN341, $16.95)
China Wakes, The Struggle for the Soul of a Rising Power • Nicholas Kristoff • Sheryl WuDunn CULTURAL PORTRAIT • 1995 • PAPER • 501 PAGES This book is an engrossing, disturbing portrait of contemporary China and its cultural dissidents. The authors journeyed from Tibet to Tiananmen, reporting in depth on a nation struggling to hold onto tradition while modernizing its economy. (CHN33, $16.95)
China Wall Map • 1997 • MAP A wall map of China from the cartographers at National Geographic, at a scale of 1:7,800,000. Price includes priority shipping in a sturdy cardboard tube. One Side. 24x30 inches. (CHN197, $14.99)
China's First Emperor and His Terracotta Warriors • Frances Wood BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR • 2008 • HARD COVER • 209 PAGES Scattered throughout with woodcuts, engravings and drawings, recipes and poems, Wood's astute biography is a both a rich introduction to life in the period and to emperor Qin Shihuangdi (258-210BC), founder of imperial China. As concise as it is evocative, extensive notes are appended for anyone wishing to delve deeper. (CHN492, $24.95)
China's New Cultural Scene, A Handbook of Changes • Marie Claire Huot HISTORY • 2000 • PAPER • 258 PAGES A discussion of China's culture in relation to traditional society and the traumatic events of the last fifty years. Huot discusses music from rock to rap, television, theater, and literature. She pays special attention to cinema. Includes an index of artists and works, and a glossary of Chinese words. (CHN330, $23.95)
China, A Celebration in Art & Literature • Jason Steuber HISTORY • 2007 • HARD COVER • 240 PAGES In 240 pages and more than one hundred full-color images, this volume traces China through its tales and stories, plays and poetry, paintings and objects -- from ancient divinations incised on bovine scapula to modern "people's literature" spawned from revolution; from Song dynasty silk scrolls depicting sublime mountain valleys to government-commissioned propaganda posters. Art and lliterature are juxtaposed in eight thematic chapters: Birth & Life, Nature & Environment, Love & Family, Mind & Memory, Food & Drink, War & Politics, Religion & Spirituality, Death & Afterlife. Among the literary selections are the famous Book of Songs, the epic Dream of Red Towers, the complex dramatic masterpiece Romance of the Western Chamber, and pieces from Confucius, Laozi, Du Fu, and Su Shi. More than a hundred works of art from the ancient to the contemporary accompany the text, by artists including Li Cheng, Liang Kai, Qiu Ying, and Xu Bing. (CHN517, $60.00)
China, A New History • John Fairbank • Merle Goldman HISTORY • 2005 • PAPER • 546 PAGES An awesomely detailed 2,000-year history of China, revised, with a new chapter by Merle Goldman. Second edition. After setting out his historical biases in a lengthy introduction, Fairbank takes us chapter-by-chapter from Paleolithic China up to Tiananmen Square in 430 pages. His approach is expansive, taking into account the huge diversity of terrain and peoples within what we now call modern China. Fairbank ponders at length the great advances in China circa 1000-1500 -- and of China's failure to fall in line with the industrial revolution that catapulted the West into prominence. This is an opinionated, absorbing standard history. (CHN11, $26.50)
China, Inc. How the Rise of the Next Superpower Changes America and the World • Ted C. Fishman HISTORY • 2006 • PAPER • 352 PAGES A bestselling economic history of China over the last 30 years and lively guide to understanding China's spectacular economic growth and future prospects. Fishman draws on statistics, case studies, and interviews to document the rapid transformation from economic backwater to industrial behemoth. With notes and bibliography. (CHN305, $17.00)
China, Inc. How the Rise of the Next Superpower Changes America and the World (Audio Version) • Ted C. Fishman HISTORY • 2005 • AUDIO CD An audio version of a bestselling economic history of China over the last 30 years and lively guide to understanding China's spectacular economic growth and future prospects. Fishman draws on statistics, case studies, and interviews to document the rapid transformation from economic backwater to industrial behemoth. Read by Alan Sklar. (CHN377, $39.99)
China, Its History and Culture • W. Scott Morton HISTORY • 2004 • PAPER • 368 PAGES A concise survey of Chinese history, people and culture from the Neolithic to present times. Morton, who wrote a similar book on the history of Japan, weaves together politics, culture and history, and includes selections from literature and arts, anecdotes and illustrations. Aimed at the college student, the book is also appropriate for the traveler. (CHN22, $19.95)
China, Museums • Miriam Clifford GUIDEBOOK • 2009 • PAPER • 384 PAGES A comprehensive, illustrated guide to China's museums, with 218 listings -- from contemporary art galleries and Beijing's must-see museums to lesser-known attractions including eunuch cemeteries and a site where 600 horses were buried alive at the whim of an ancient king. (CHN593, $29.95)
China, The Panda Adventure • Robert M. Young NATURAL HISTORY • 2005 • DVD A dramatization of the true-life travels and travails of Ruth Harkness and her 1936 journey. The film, originally presented in IMAX theatres, is a visually stunning introduction to the giant panda, its history, conservation and habitats. Starring Maria Bello as the fiercely independent New York socialite Harkness. DVD (CHN302, $9.98)
The Chinese • Jasper Becker CULTURAL PORTRAIT • 2002 • PAPER • 304 PAGES An insightful, up-to-date account of the contradictions, diversity and potential in contemporary Chinese society and economy, by a veteran journalist and astute observer. (CHN97, $24.99)
Chinese (Mandarin), Start Speaking Today! • Educational Services Corporation LANGUAGE & PHRASEBOOKS • 1993 • AUDIO CD A 90-minute crash course in Mandarin featured in two compact discs and a phrasebook packaged in a vinyl sleeve. Geared for travelers, the course follows the foreign service method -- which focuses on dialogues and useful sentences instead of individual words. In each case, an English phrase is spoken once, and repeated in Mandarin twice. Topics include introductions, transportation, business and health. (CHN92, $24.95)
The Chinese Alchemist • Lyn Hamilton MYSTERY • 2008 • PAPER • 272 PAGES In the search for an 8th century Tang Dynasty silver box, antiques dealer Lara McClintoch stumbles into a dangerous realm of murder and intrigue. (CHN384, $7.99)
Chinese Architecture: A Pictorial History • Liang Ssu-ch'eng ART & ARCHITECTURE • 2005 • PAPER • 232 PAGES A pictorial introduction to temples, timber-frames, pagodas, bridges, terraces and gateways of China, from pre-Buddhist times to the 20th century. With 152 halftones and 94 diagrams. (CHN394, $26.95)
Chinese Art • Mary Tregear ART & ARCHITECTURE • 1997 • PAPER • 216 PAGES A quick, but surprisingly thorough survey of Chinese art, including calligraphy and painting, sculpture and ceramics, as well as garden design, architecture, and various crafts. Part of the "World of Art" series, it is illustrated throughout. (CHN153, $19.95)
The Chinese Bell Murders • Robert Van Gulik MYSTERY • 2004 • PAPER • 288 PAGES These historical mysteries, featuring a Tang-era Chinese magistrate, are taken from the tradition of Chinese suspense novels. Apart from the pleasure of the elaborate plots, the books are rich in details of court and daily life in ancient China. This is the first installment in Van Gulik's satisyingly complex series. (CHN286, $13.99)
Chinese Families in the Post-Mao Era • Deborah Davis • Stevan Harrell HISTORY • 1993 • PAPER • 400 PAGES A collection of scholarly essays on contemporary Chinese family structures, both rural and urban, intellectual and working class, contributed by eleven experts. (CHN203, $37.95)
Chinese Feasts & Festivals, A Cookbook • S.C. Moey FOOD • 2006 • HARD COVER • 144 PAGES Recipes, illustrations and accompanying text about Chinese culture, traditions and celebrations. (CHN367, $31.95)
The Chinese Garden: History, Art and Architecture • Maggie Keswick NATURAL HISTORY • 2003 • HARD COVER • 240 PAGES An oversized illustrated survey of Chinese gardens, updated and expanded in this third edition by Alison Hardie. First published 25 years ago, the book is a classic survey of the symbolism, meaning and beauty of Chinese gardens. With 120 color photographs, 82 black-and-white photographs and 23 illustrations. (CHN198, $39.95)
The Chinese Gold Murders • Robert Van Gulik MYSTERY • 2004 • PAPER These historical mysteries, featuring a Tang-era Chinese magistrate, are taken from the tradition of Chinese detective novels. Apart from the pleasure of the elaborate plots, the books are rich in details of court and daily life in ancient China. In this installment, a series of murders greet Judge Dee newly appointed as magistrate of Penglai, a port city on the northeast coast of Shantung Province. (CHN289, $13.99)
The Chinese Have a Word for It, The Complete Guide to Chinese Thought and Culture • Boye Lafayette De Mente CULTURAL PORTRAIT • 2000 • PAPER • 506 PAGES De Mente introduces readers to the history and culture of China through a study of the country's language. Over 300 words and phrases from ai (love) to zuxian (revering your ancestors) are analyzed for their cultural significance. More than a linguistic study, this book is also a practical companion for any traveler to China hoping to avoid cultural faux pas. (CHN185, $17.95)
The Chinese Kitchen • Eileen Yin-Fei Lo FOOD • 1999 • HARD COVER • 452 PAGES An authoritative and delightful book about food and cultural practices in a very food-oriented culture. "Have you eaten yet?" the Chinese traditionally ask each other when they meet by chance in the street, and here Eileen Yin-Fei Lo has written a cookbook which doubles as an introduction to China itself. It's a compendium not only of recipes (of which there are hundreds, all authentic, all clearly explained), but also of lessons in Chinese history, folkloric tales, and reminiscences of the author's childhood in Guangdong province, where she learned to cook at her grandmother's side. With chapters on Chinese tea and how to stock a Chinese pantry, plus a recipe for the 28-ingredient feast dish known as "Buddha Jump over the Wall", this is a book -- in English! -- that any Chinese cook would want. (CHN134, $39.95)
The Chinese Lake Murders • Robert Van Gulik MYSTERY • 2005 • PAPER • 216 PAGES These historical mysteries, featuring a Tang-era Chinese magistrate, are taken from the tradition of Chinese suspense novels. Apart from the pleasure of the elaborate plots, the books are rich in details of court and daily life in ancient China. In this book, third in Van Gulik's classic series, set in 666, Judge Dee tackes three difficult cases as the newly appointed magistrate of Han-yuan. (CHN288, $13.99)
Chinese Lessons, Five Classmates and the Story of the New China • John Pomfret BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR • 2007 • PAPER • 336 PAGES Beijing bureau chief for The Washington Post from 1998-2003 and with decades of experience in China, Pomfret has reported on extraordinary events from Tianamen Square to SARS. In this book, Pomfret chronicles the lives of five of his classmates from Nanjing University, where he was an exchange student in 1981. It's a dramatic account of tumultuous change in contemporary China. (CHN382, $16.99)
Chinese Lullabies • Beijing Angelic Choir MUSIC • 1999 • AUDIO CD A soothing collection of lullabies from all over China, performed by the Beijing Angelic Choir. (CHN420, $13.98)
The Chinese Maze Murders • Robert Van Gulik MYSTERY • 1997 • PAPER • 384 PAGES Judge Dee solves three interwoven mysteries (all involving the governor's garden maze) in this installment: The Case of the Murder in the Sealed Room, The Case of the Hidden Testament, and The Case of the Girl with the Severed Head. (CHN295, $11.00)
The Chinese Nail Murders • Robert Van Gulik MYSTERY • 2005 • PAPER These historical mysteries, featuring a Tang-era Chinese magistrate, follow the tradition of ancient Chinese suspense novels. Apart from the pleasure of the elaborate plots, the books are rich in details of court and daily life in ancient China. In this book set on the northern frontier of Pei-chow, Judge Dee must solve the murders of an honored merchant, a kindly boxing master, and a paper merchant's wife, whose corpse has no head. The nail murder is based on a 13th-century tale. This is the fourth installment of Robert Van Gulik's classic Chinese mystery series. (CHN292, $13.99)
Chinese Poetry, An Anthology of Major Modes and Genres • Wai-Lim Yip LITERATURE • 1997 • PAPER • 360 PAGES Wai-Lim Yip combs the literature for the finest and more unusual examples of poems from Chinese traditions. (CHN174, $26.95)
Chinese Rugs: A Buyer's Guide • Lee Allane GUIDEBOOK • 1994 • PAPER • 144 PAGES A guide to the history, techniques and variety of carpets produced throughout China, including typical motifs and materials. It features a practical guide to price and quality for the prospective buyer. (CHN30, $15.95)
Chinese Wildlife • Martin Walters FIELD GUIDE • 2008 • PAPER • 208 PAGES Finally, a guide to the wildlife of China! A compact introduction to birds, mammals, reptiles, insects, and plants found from the Tibetan plateau to the deserts, tropical forests and mountains. Featuring a very good selection of 200 large color photographs. (CHN440, $26.99)
Chinese Writers on Writing • Ar Sze ANTHOLOGY • 2010 • PAPER • 320 PAGES With more than half the works appearing in English for the first time, Chinese Writers on Writing features authors such as Mo Yan, Lu Xun, and Gao Xingjian, recipient of the 2000 Nobel Prize for Literature. Edited by award-winning poet Arthur Sze, this is the first collection that brings together material by writers reflecting on their work, their processes, and the challenges of writing under China's political system. This is the fifth volume in the highly acclaimed Writer's World Series. (CHN613, $24.95)
Chinese, A Language Map • Kristine K. Kershul LANGUAGE & PHRASEBOOKS • 2001 • PLASTIC CARD This durable, foldout card, featuring 1,000 words and phrases, works as a quick reference for travelers. (CHN284, $7.95)
Chronicle of a Blood Merchant • Yu Hua LITERATURE • 2004 • PAPER • 272 PAGES Struggling to support his family on his meager salary amid the cruelty and hardships of Mao's China, Xu Sanguan is haunted by his love for Yile, his wife's bastard son, over his own children, until a series of devastating events forces Xu to risk his own life to save Yile. (CHN545, $13.95)
The Columbia Anthology of Modern Chinese Literature • Jo Lau • Howard Goldblatt ANTHOLOGY • 2007 • PAPER • 737 PAGES The first comprehensive anthology of modern Chinese literature, this tome, with many newly commissioned translations, introduces important authors and literary trends of modern China. (CHN524, $37.50)
Coming to Terms With the Nation, Ethnic Classification in Modern China • Thomas Mullaney HISTORY • 2010 • HARD COVER • 246 PAGES In this groundbreaking history, Mullaney explains the 1954 Ethnic Classification project that decided which minority communities in China would and would not be recognized by the state. He uses recently declassified sources as well as oral accounts and places the project in a global context to illuminate connections between ethnic categorization and identity formation in Communist China. (CHN635, $60.00)
Communism, A History • Richard Pipes HISTORY • 2003 • PAPER • 192 PAGES This short, fiercely critical history of communism provides a compelling overview, from the ideas of Karl Marx to the end of the 20th century. A volume in the excellent Modern Library chronicles series. (GEN367, $15.00)
Complete Chinese Mandarin • Living Language LANGUAGE & PHRASEBOOKS • 2008 • AUDIO CD A bestseller since 1946 (they used to come on vinyl), this Living Language program includes 40 step-by-step lessons on 4 CDs, a course book, pocket traveler's grammar reference and dictionary. Perfect for listening in the car, the CDS are also MP3 ready. (CHN599, $29.95)
A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary for Lovers • Xiaolu Guo LITERATURE • 2007 • HARD COVER Written in a series of short chapters, with each one becoming the definition of a word, a literary novel about a young Chinese woman caught in the cultural confusion of England pokes fun at both England and China and explores the endless possibilities for misunderstanding between East and West, and between men and women. (CHN513, $23.95)
Confucius, A Life of Thought and Politics • Annping Chin BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR • 2008 • PAPER • 256 PAGES Yale historian Chin's authoritative, engaging portrait of Confucius, his teachings and legacy. (CHN436, $14.95)
Cries in the Drizzle • Yu Hua LITERATURE • 2007 • PAPER • 288 PAGES This powerful novel from one of China's great modern writers depicts rural family life in Maoist China, and the trials and troubles of a middle child. (CHN447, $13.95)
Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon • Chow Yun Fat 2004 • DVD In this martial arts fantasy, epic battles and sweeping romance unfold in Imperial China. Featuring Chow Yun-fat, Michelle Yeoh and Zhang Ziyi. Run time of 120 minutes. (CHN329, $14.94)
Culture Shock! China • Iris Wong Po-Yee • Kevin Sinclair GUIDEBOOK • 2011 • PAPER • 240 PAGES Written for the businessman, resident or traveler, this guide is a lively introduction to modern Chinese culture and manners. Its focus is on customs and business etiquette. (CHN204, $15.95)
Culture, Power and the State, Rural North China, 1900-1942 • Prasenjit Duara HISTORY • 1988 • PAPER • 340 PAGES A scholarly politcal and cultural history of North China from the last days of the Qing Dynasty to the Second World War. (CHN423, $27.95)
A Cup of Light • Nicole Mones MYSTERY • 2003 • PAPER Flying to Beijing to appraise some rare imperial porcelain, art historian Lia Frank must ensure that the collection is authentic as she finds herself being drawn into the perilous underworld of art forgeries, smuggling and unexpected passion, in a tale of romance and suspense set in modern China. (CHN404, $15.00)
Daily Life in China, On the Eve of the Mongol Invasion, 1250-1276. • Jacques Gernet CULTURAL PORTRAIT • 1962 • PAPER • 254 PAGES A classic account of life in Hangchow/Hangzhou, its occupations, pleasures, clothes, food, art and society. Originally published in French as La vie quotidienne en Chine, � la veille de l'invasion mongole, 1250-1276. (CHN581, $21.95)
A Daughter of Han: The Autobiography of a Chinese Working Woman • Lao Toai-Taoi Ning BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR • 1990 • PAPER • 254 PAGES Ning recalls that "from the time I was conceived, the fortunes of my family went down." Born in 1867 and never formally educated, Ning met with one hardship after another as she struggled to support her children without much help from her opium-addicted husband. An inspiring account of a lively and driven woman. Originally published in 1945, Ning's tale was told to the American writer Ida Pruitt, born in China. (CHN274, $22.95)
Daughter of the River, An Autobiography • Hong Ying BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR • 2000 • PAPER • 288 PAGES Originally titled "Daughter of Hunger," this ia a thoroughly engaging, inspirational autobiography of a young woman writer coming of age during the Great Famine of China. Hong Ying provides a vivid account of growing up on the banks of the Yangtze River amongst severe impoverishment, political oppression and intense familial strain. This is an honest story of a woman's struggle for civil liberation in a land whose river symbolizes, for her, the spirit and unity of her people. Translated from Chinese by Howard Goldblatt. (CHN240, $14.00)
The Death of Woman Wang • Jonathan Spence LITERATURE • 1978 • PAPER • 169 PAGES The turbulent saga about a runaway wife who is murdered by her husband, set in 17th century China and written by one of the foremost western scholars on China. (CHN58, $14.00)
A Dictionary of Maqiao • Han Shaogong • Julia Lovell LITERATURE • 2005 • PAPER • 416 PAGES This tragicomic novel about an urban youth "displaced" to a small village in rural China during the Cultural Revolution is a fictionalized portrait of the author's own experience as a young man. Named one of the top 100 works of 20th-century Chinese fiction by Asia Weekly and the winner of the Shanghai Literary Prize. Xiaobing Tang (University of Chicago) wrote about this epic, formally inventive work (it takes the form of a dictionary): "One of the truly meaningful narratives from contemporary Chinese literature, A Dictionary of Maqiao weaves together a vast tapestry of legends, anecdotes, haunting memories, proverbial wisdoms, and provocative insights. Each entry is a beautifully composed short essay or story, and provides an intriguing strand of an ever broadening vista. With this masterful novel, Han Shaogong illustrates ever more eloquently how historical traumas and actions are embedded in, and absorbed by, the persistent tradition of a living language. Thanks to Lovell's highly readable translation, students of Chinese culture, history, literature, anthropology, and indeed lexicography now have a new access to the village of Maqiao and its inhabitants. The general reader, too, will find his or her imagination of modern China magnificently extended and enriched." (CHN568, $15.00)
Did Marco Polo Go to China? • Frances Wood EXPLORATION • 1998 • PAPER • 208 PAGES A critical look at the manuscripts and evidence regarding this most famous of journeys, Wood's book raises fascinating questions as to the authenticity of the travel journals written while Marco Polo was in prison in Genoa. (CAS28, $38.00)
Dim Sum, A Pocket Guide • Kit Shan Li FOOD • 2004 • PAPER • 80 PAGES Yum! Yum! This handy little book, including a primer on ingredients, etiquette and ordering, illustrates 48 dishes. With a photo, notes, Chinese and English names for each plate. (CHN413, $8.95)
Dragon Bones • Lisa See MYSTERY • 2004 • PAPER When the body of an American archaeologist turns up in the Yangtze, Liu Hulan, an agent for the Chinese government, and her American husband, David Stark, investigate and find that the murder may be tied to a missing priceless artifact. (CHN405, $14.95)
Dragon Lady, The Life and Legend of the Last Empress of China • Sterling Seagrave BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR • 1993 • PAPER • 601 PAGES Reappraises the Dowager Empress Tzu Hsi and portrays a strong, complex woman struggling to keep her country from unraveling. (CHN229, $19.95)
Dragon Rising, An Inside Look at China Today • Jasper Becker CULTURAL PORTRAIT • 2007 • PAPER • 264 PAGES Asia scholar Jasper Becker examines the pertinent questions and issues facing modern China and its relationship to the global economy. Profusely illustrated with striking color photography. (CHN365, $18.95)
Dragon Seed • Pearl S. Buck LITERATURE • 1992 • PAPER • 384 PAGES A Chinese farm family tries to carry on in the face of war with Japan in this novel by Nobel Prize-winning author Buck. (CHN651, $14.95)
Dream of the Red Chamber • Chi-Chen Wang • Tsao Hsueh-Chin LITERATURE • 1958 • PAPER • 329 PAGES An ill-fated affair between two doomed lovers is the basis for China's most loved novel. Written in the 18th-century, the stunning and engaging story is a wonderful introduction to China at that time. The beauty of the tale is captured by Wang's careful yet abridged translation -- in Chinese, the work is three times the size. As much a part of Chinese collective consciousness as Romeo and Juliet is for Western readers, the story is the basis for a popular television series and theme park in China. (CHN192, $15.95)
East Wind, West Wind • Pearl S. Buck LITERATURE • 1993 • PAPER • 288 PAGES An Oriental girl who has been raised in a traditional manner by her noble family marries a Chinese doctor who has been educated in America and who represents the ways of the West. (CHN652, $14.95)
Emperor of China, Self-Portrait of K'Ang-His • Jonathan Spence CULTURAL PORTRAIT • 1988 • PAPER • 256 PAGES Spence re-creates the life of K'ang-hsi, emperor of the Manchu dynasty from 1661-1772, from documents that survived his reign. (CHN358, $15.95)
The Emperor's Pearl • Robert Van Gulik MYSTERY • 2008 • PAPER • 186 PAGES In this installment the time is 699 A.D. The place is Poo-yang, a large flourishing district in Kaingsu Province, where Judge Dee must investigate two deaths -- the heart failure of a rower in the annual boat race and a murder committed in a deserted and possibly haunted country estate. Folklore surrounding the River Goddess, the lost Emperor's pearl, and the cultivation of herbs plays a role in the mystery, as does the beautiful, mute, mad wife of a wealthy merchant. (CHN296, $12.00)
Empire of the Sun • J. G. Ballard LITERATURE • 2005 • PAPER • 279 PAGES Ballard's widely acclaimed novel of an English boy in Shanghai during the Japanese occupation, drawn from his own experiences. It's a powerful tale of the upheaval and trauma of war. The book was also made into a film. Originally published in 1984. (CHN265, $14.00)
Empress Orchid • Anchee Min LITERATURE • 2005 • PAPER • 346 PAGES A novel of the glorious, decadent last days of 19th-Century Imperial China. Min (Red Azalea, Becoming Madame Mao) combines her tale of a young girl from the provinces who marries an emperor -- and then improbably becomes the Last Empress -- with a lovingly re-created portrait of life in the Forbidden City. Pearl Buck told a much more romanticized tale of the same remarkable woman in Imperial Woman. (CHN267, $14.00)
English • Wang Gang LITERATURE • 2010 • PAPER • 320 PAGES During the darkest days of the Cultural Revolution, a twelve-year-old boy in China's remote northwest region discovers a different world when a young English teacher from Shanghai enters his life and shows him the transporting power of language. (CHN549, $15.00)
Eurasian Crossroads, A History of Xinjiang • James A. Millward HISTORY • 2007 • HARD COVER • 440 PAGES Drawing on primary sources in several Asian and European languages, James Millward presents a thorough study of Xinjiang's history and people from antiquity to the present and takes a balanced look at the position of Turkic Muslims within the PRC today. While offering fresh material and perspectives for specialists, this engaging survey of Xinjiang's rich environmental, cultural and ethno-political heritage is also written for travelers, students and anyone eager to learn about this vital connector between East and West. (CHN469, $45.00)
Eyewitness Guide Beijing and Shanghai • Eyewitness Guides GUIDEBOOK • 2011 • PAPER • 240 PAGES This superb guide features color photography, dozens of excellent maps and a neighborhood-by-neighborhood synopsis of the top attractions in two of China's most fascinating cities. Handsome, convenient and up-to-date, this is the guide to carry. (CHN385, $23.00)
Eyewitness Top 10 Beijing • Eyewitness Guides GUIDEBOOK • 2011 • PAPER • 128 PAGES A compact, illustrated guide in the popular series, featuring favorite attractions in Beijing. (CHN427, $14.00)
Farewell My Concubine • Kaige Chen 1993 • DVD The moving story of a fifty-year friendship between two men who meet as children in the Peking Opera. Their friendship continues against the backdrop of China's tumultuous political history, as their roles as king and concubine become widely recognized throughout the region, and as a beautiful woman almost comes between them. (CHN226, $14.99)
Farewell Shanghai • Angel Wagenstein LITERATURE • 2008 • PAPER • 400 PAGES Wagenstein's novel chronicles the flight of four refugees from Nazi Germany to Shanghai, where they are immersed into both the glamour and devestating poverty of the city. (CHN516, $13.95)
Feather in the Storm, A Childhood Lost in Chaos • Emily Wu BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR • 2006 • HARD COVER • 352 PAGES Wu's unsentimental account of coming of age during the devastation, chaos and horror of Mao's Cultural Revolution, told through the voice of a child. Now living in California, Wu survived and flourished against overwhelming odds. (CHN381, $26.00)
Feathered Serpent • John Howard-Gibbon • Xu Xiaobin • Joanne Wang LITERATURE • 2010 • PAPER • 384 PAGES This epic story follows its central character from her birth in 1890 through her old age during the later stages of the Qing Dynasty to the 1990s; through the perspectives of the women of her family readings gain insight into the generation gaps created by political and social change. Political satirist Xu Xiaobin demonstrates a vast and intimate knowledge of the history, religion and culture of modern China. (CHN612, $15.00)
A Field Guide to the Birds of China • John MacKinnon • Karen Phillipps FIELD GUIDE • 2000 • PAPER • 586 PAGES A comprehensive field guide to the birds of China, featuring 128 color plates illustrating 1,300 species of birds, with introductory chapters on the history of ornithology in China, biogeography and conservation. Range maps are organized on adjacent pages to the illustrations. The book also includes a list of endemic, threatened and endangered species. Principal author John MacKinnon has also written "Wild China", "A Photoguide to the Birds of China" and "A Field Guide to the Birds of Borneo, Sumatra, Java, and Bali." (CHN85, $124.00)
The First Emperor of China • Liu Hao Xue CULTURAL PORTRAIT • 2002 • DVD This historical drama, originally appearing in IMAX theatres, features documentary footage of Qin's life-sized terracotta army, constructed almost 2,200 years ago in Xi'an for his celebrated tomb. Narrated by Christopher Plummer. 40 minutes. (CHN303, $14.99)
Five T'ang Poets • David Young LITERATURE • 1990 • PAPER A collection of T-ang poetry, chosen, edited and translated by David Young, by Li Shang-yin, Wang Wei, Li Po, Tu Fu and Li Ho. (CHN157, $15.95)
Flashman and the Dragon • George MacDonald Fraser LITERATURE • 1995 • PAPER • 320 PAGES The eighth entry in Fraser's popular series of 19th-century adventures starring Harry Flashman, the womanizing rogue and international troublemaker. This book, set in 1860s China, is rich in historical detail -- and comedy. Fraser helpfully includes maps of Shanghai and the Yangtse, Peking, Canton and Macau, all of which feature prominently in the text. Our reluctant hero is hoodwinked into joining the Teiping Rebellion, participates in the Seige of Nanking and ends up as a plaything of the Dowager Empress at the Summer Palace. (CHN116, $15.00)
Flower Hunters • John Gribbin BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR • 2009 • PAPER • 320 PAGES A fascinating account of 11 remarkable men and women, who scoured the world for extraordinary plants and left a lasting impact on science. Among the eccentric personalities are John Ray, "the Newton of botany," Richard Spruce and his daring adventures in South America, Joseph Banks, botanist on Cook's first around-the-world voyage, and Joseph Hooker, whose Himalayan exploits led to his discovery of rhododendron and magnolia. (NAT141, $19.95)
Fodor's Beijing • Emmanuelle Morgen • Deborah Kaufman GUIDEBOOK • 2011 • PAPER • 272 PAGES A practical, frequently revised guide to Beijing and Shanghai featuring hundreds of annotated listings of where to eat, stay and shop. (CHN253, $19.99)
Fodor's China • Marg Kelly GUIDEBOOK • 2011 • PAPER • 784 PAGES This practical guide, from the popular series, is saturated with valuable information on accommodation, shopping, sights, and dining in China. (CHN460, $26.99)
Fodor's Hong Kong's 25 Best • Fodor's GUIDEBOOK • 2009 • PAPER • 128 PAGES A shirt-pocket guide to Hong Kong, this slim book includes an excellent map of the center of the city and essential information on its highlights, including restaurant recommendations and sightseeing -- all in a slipcover. (HKG09, $11.99)
Fodor's See It China • Cathy Hatley 2009 • PAPER • 448 PAGES A practical guide in the popular series, saturated with tons of color photos and valuable information on accommodation, shopping, sights, and dining. (CHN487, $24.99)
Fodor's Shanghai's 25 Best • Fodor's GUIDEBOOK • 2010 • PAPER • 96 PAGES A shirt-pocket guide to Shanghai, this slim book includes an excellent map of the city and essential information on its highlights, including restaurant recommendations and sightseeing. (CHN60, $11.99)
For All the Tea in China, How England Stole the World's Favorite Drink and Changed History • Sarah Rose FOOD • 2011 • PAPER • 256 PAGES Sarah Rose recounts the life of mid-19th-century botanist Robert Fortune and his mission to travel to China's remote Wu Yi Shan hills to steal closely guarded secrets of tea horticulture in this riveting cultual history. (GBR926, $15.00)
Forbidden City, The Great Within • Caroline Courtauld • May Holdsworth • Hu Chui • Jonathan Spence HISTORY • 2008 • PAPER • 152 PAGES This richly illustrated blend of history, anecdote, biographical sketches and stunning images evokes 500 years of imperial China through the story of its palace, the Forbidden City. I (CHN450, $24.95)
Four Sisters of Hofei • Annping Chin HISTORY • 2004 • PAPER • 384 PAGES Yale historian Chin draws on family papers, diaries and interviews for this history of the Chang family from the turmoil of the Taiping Rebellion in the 1860s through the whole twentieth century of political and intellectual upheaval as seen through the family's eyes. (CHN435, $15.00)
Fried Eggs With Chopsticks • Polly Evans TRAVEL NARRATIVE • 2006 • PAPER • 320 PAGES An English jounalist based in Hong Kong, Evans sets our to expore in this entertaining, lighthearted account of adventures in China. One in a series of books on her encounters around the world, including It's Not About the Tapas and Kiwis Might Fly. (CHN362, $14.00)
From Emperor to Citizen • Aisin-Gioro Pu Yi BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR • 2001 • PAPER • 536 PAGES The autobiography of Aisin-Gioro Pu Yi, the twelfth emperor of the Qing Dynasty and the last to rule China. His reign came to an end in 1912 with the Xinhai Revolution, only to be reinstated by the Japanese as emperor of the Manchukuo puppet state. After the communist revolution, he spent 10 years in a "reeducation camp." (CHN398, $27.50)
From the Chinese Kitchen: A Step by Step Culinary Adventure • Jamilah Mohd Hassan • Yeo Puay Khoon • Illydea Seulaseri Ishak FOOD • 2005 • HARD COVER Part of the Feast of Flavors series, this book is a handy introduction to Chinese cuisine. (CHN414, $16.95)
Frommer's Beijing • Frommer's GUIDEBOOK • 2010 • PAPER A practical guide in the popular series, strong on where to eat, sleep and shop. (CHN346, $18.99)
Frommer's Beijing • Jen Lin-liu GUIDEBOOK • 2010 • PAPER • 248 PAGES A comprehensive, practical guide to the region with excellent recommendations for hotels, restaurants and excursions. With two-color maps throughout. (CHN588, $18.99)
Frommer's China • Peter Neville-Hadley GUIDEBOOK • 2010 • PAPER • 884 PAGES A comprehensive, practical guide in the popular series, focusing on attractions, restaurants and accommodations. An excellent planning tool, it also features useful language and menu guides. (CHN207, $25.99)
Frommer's China • Peter Neville-Hadley GUIDEBOOK • 2010 • PAPER • 884 PAGES A comprehensive, practical guide in the popular series, focusing on attractions, restaurants and accommodations. An excellent planning tool, it also features useful language and menu guides. (CHN207, $25.99)
Frommer's Shanghai • J.D. Brown GUIDEBOOK • 2010 • PAPER • 328 PAGES A practical guide in the popular series, strong on where to eat, sleep and shop. (CHN220, $19.99)
Frommer's Shanghai • Sharon Owyang GUIDEBOOK • 2008 • PAPER A comprehensive, practical guide to the region with excellent recommendations for hotels, restaurants and excursions. With two-color maps throughout. (CHN589, $18.99)
Frommer's Suzy Gershman's Born to Shop Hong Kong, Shanghai & Beijing, The Ultimate Guide for Travelers Who Love To Shop • Suzy Gershman GUIDEBOOK • 2010 • PAPER • 328 PAGES A guide to shopping for designer labels, contemporary art, lacquer, jade, porcelin and more. (CHN397, $17.99)
Frontiers of Heaven, A Journey to the End of China • Stanley Stewart TRAVEL NARRATIVE • 2006 • PAPER • 232 PAGES A British journalist with wanderlust and a way with the pen, Stewart recounts his rough journey halfway across Asia from Shanghai to Xinjiang along the Great Wall. He mixes descriptions of his travels and encounters with history, geography and wit. Winner of the 1996 Thomas Cook Travel Book Award. (CHN237, $14.95)
Fruitful Sites, Garden Culture in Ming Dynasty China • Craig Clunas HISTORY • 1996 • PAPER • 240 PAGES This book will appeal to serious students of garden history and landscape art. Written by an art historian who teaches at the University of Sussex, it's a study of Ming-era (1450-1650) gardens in the Jiangnan Valley of the Yangtze, especially in wealthy Suzhou and to a lesser extent in Hangzhou. With 48 illustrations. (CHN175, $26.95)
Gardens in China • Peter Valder NATURAL HISTORY • 2002 • HARD COVER • 400 PAGES A gorgeous book featuring over 500 color photographs of Chinese gardens in 11 provinces. The Australian horticulturalist Peter Valder first traveled to China in 1980, his imagination fired by 19th-century plant hunters' accounts of adventure. He discusses gardening in Yunnan, Sichuan, Shaanxi, Henan, Shandong, Hebei, Liaoning, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Guangdong and Guangxi provinces, as well as on Hainan island. (CHN176, $59.95)
The Gate of Heavenly Peace, The Chinese and Their Revolution 1895-1980 • Jonathan Spence HISTORY • 1982 • PAPER • 516 PAGES Jonathan Spence, a prolific scholar of Chinese history at Yale, delivers a portrait of Chinese revolution, combining straightforward political history with an intriguing selection of materials by poets, artists and intellectuals. With notes, bibliography and index. (CHN195, $18.00)
The Genius of China: 3,000 Years of Science, Discovery, and Invention • Robert Temple • Joseph Needham HISTORY • 2007 • PAPER • 288 PAGES An abridged popular edition of Needham's original, monumental Science & Civilization in China, organized by invention and illustrated throughout with color photographs, diagrams and drawings. (CHN82, $29.95)
The Ginger Tree • Oswald Wynd LITERATURE • 2002 • PAPER • 336 PAGES The best-known work of the Japanese-born Scot Oswald Wynd (1918 -1998), in which a na�ve 20-year-old Scots girl at the turn of the century sails to China to marry a military attache in Peking � only to get mixed up with a handsome young Japanese aristocrat and horrify the British community. The novel, which was the basis for a popular Masterpiece Theatre miniseries, follows Mary MacKenzie's adventures with love and life in early 20th Century China and Japan. Originally published in 1977. (JPN125, $12.99)
The Girl Who Played Go • Shan Sa • Adriana Hunter LITERATURE • 2004 • PAPER • 320 PAGES An accomplished novel set in a Manchurian city in the war-torn 1930s, where a spirited 16-year-old Chinese girl and a young Japanese soldier find peace in a game of Go. Winner of the 2004 Kiriyama Prize, the novel captures the turmoil of the changing fortunes and war in the region. Sa Shan, who was born in Beijing, has lived in France since 1990. This is her first novel to be translated into English. (CHN214, $15.95)
God's Chinese Son: The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom of Hong Xiuquan • Jonathan Spence HISTORY • 1997 • PAPER • 430 PAGES (CHN178, $18.95)
The Golden Days • Cao Xueqin • David Hawkes LITERATURE • 1974 • PAPER • 544 PAGES Volume One of The Dream of the Red Chamber, an epic family tale first published in 1793, (still one of China's favorite novels) beautifully translated, edited and with an introduction by David Hawkes. The Golden Days is the first book in a five-volume masterpiece which follows the fate of the Jia family and the magical stone of the title. It's an absorbing romantic tale, often called the greatest of Chinese novels, as interesting for its commentary on culture, aethestics, religion and world view as for the story. (CHN223, $17.00)
The Good Earth • Pearl Buck LITERATURE • 1994 • PAPER • 379 PAGES The second of Buck's more than 70 books, The Good Earth has shaped American attitudes toward China and its people for many years. A modern classic presented in this edition with critical notes and a long introduction, it won her the Pulitzer Prize upon its publication in 1931. Drawing heavily on her personal experience as a young newlywed in rural China, it is the plainly told story of a poor farmer and his stalwart wife. The book captures the daily life of China's poorest people, very different from the usual exotica that most writers of her day were producing on the "inscrutable Chinese." (CHN15, $15.00)
Good Luck Life, The Essential Guide To Chinese American Celebrations And Culture • Rosemary Gong GUIDEBOOK • 2005 • PAPER • 288 PAGES A collection of notes and guide to Chinese culture, festivals and traditions, covering food, drink, weddings, and funerals. (CHN333, $15.99)
The Good Women of China, Hidden Voices • Xinran Xue CULTURAL PORTRAIT • 2003 • PAPER • 256 PAGES An oral history of women and their experiences in modern China, drawn from hundreds of anonymous voices heard on a popular radio call-in show. (CHN256, $15.00)
Governing China, From Revolution Through Reform • Kenneth Lieberthal HISTORY • 1997 • PAPER • 461 PAGES A scholarly political history of China in the 20th century, detailed and informative. (CHN112, $28.50)
The Great Call of China • Cynthea Liu LITERATURE • 2009 • PAPER • 224 PAGES • YOUNG ADULTS Cece, an adopted Chinese-American high school student, studies abroad in Xi'an to explore her roots and seek her birth parents in this installement in the SASS (Students Across the Seven Seas) series. (CHN565, $7.99)
The Great Gardens of China, History, Concepts, Techniques • Fang Xiaofeng ART & ARCHITECTURE • 2010 • HARD COVER • 260 PAGES This volume pairs text explaining the history and principles of Chinese garden design with 300 color photographs of gardens throughout the country. (CHN626, $60.00)
The Great Railway Bazaar • Paul Theroux TRAVEL NARRATIVE • 2006 • PAPER • 384 PAGES Theroux's vintage 1970s journeys across Asia by train display all his talent for portraiture, ego and the dismissive aside. It's great fun. He takes every two-bit train he can find from London across Europe, Turkey and the Middle East, India, Japan and China, returning home via the Trans-Siberian Express. (ASA40, $14.95)
The Great Walk of China, Travels on Foot from Shanghai to Tibet • Graham Earnshaw GUIDEBOOK • 2010 • PAPER • 344 PAGES A Chinese speaking journalist who has lived in Shanghai since the 1970s, Earnshaw sets out from his home to explore the rural Chinese hinterlands. (CHN629, $16.95)
The Great Wall • Elizabeth Mann HISTORY • 2006 • PAPER • 48 PAGES • MIDDLE READERS (Age 9-12) A concise history of the Great Wall told in story format in Wonders of the World series for ages 9-12. With colorful illustrations by Alan Witschonke. (CHN332, $9.95)
The Great Wall of China 221 BC-1644 AD • Stephen Turnbull HISTORY • 2007 • PAPER • 96 PAGES Turnbull charts the history, purpose and technical challenges of this most famous fortification in absorbing detail in this handy, illustrated guide. With full color reconstructions by Steve Noon, black-and-white drawings and color photographs. One of a series sponsored by the Fortress Study Group. (CHN390, $18.95)
The Great Wall of China from History to Myth • Arthur Waldron HISTORY • 2002 • PAPER • 314 PAGES In this classic scholarly history, Waldron debunks the myth of the wall as an ancient -- and impregnable -- barrier. Waldron focuses on the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), when much of the defensive structure was conceived and built. He looks too at the reality of Ming-Mongol relations.With maps and black-and-white photographs. (CHN130, $36.99)
The Great Wall Revisited, From the Jade Gate to Old Dragon's Head • William Lindesay ART & ARCHITECTURE • 2008 • HARD COVER • 292 PAGES This lavish, authoritative album juxtaposes William Lindesay's modern color photographs with archival images and drawings, showing changes over time "inflicted by man and nature." (CHN532, $39.95)
The Great Wall, China Against the World, 1000 BC - 2000 AD • Julia Lovell HISTORY • 2007 • PAPER • 412 PAGES The who, why and wherefore of the Great Wall, this marvelous history demolishes myths (no, the wall is not a continuous structure of great antiquity, much of it was built in the 1600s) with fresh insight and wit. A professor at Cambridge and translator, Lovell uses the Chinese tendency for wall-building and xenophobia as a metaphor and vehicle to understand Chinese history and character. (CHN308, $15.00)
The Great Wall, The Extraordinary Story of China's Wonder of the World • John Man TRAVEL NARRATIVE • 2009 • PAPER • 336 PAGES Off he went, across China and Mongolia, in search of the wall of history and legend, not continuous, built over millennia, in many places a faint hill or rammed earth, not necessarily a wall at all. Man turns his quest into a marvelous travelogue, does of history leavened with irony and wit. (CHN533, $16.95)
A Guide to Chinese Literature • Wilt Idema • Lloyd L. Haft LITERATURE • 1997 • PAPER • 458 PAGES A scholarly survey of Chinese literary traditions over the last 3,000 years, organized into five major time periods. Intended for classroom use. (CHN313, $26.00)
A Guide to the Mammals of China • Andrew T. Smith GUIDEBOOK • 2008 • HARD COVER • 576 PAGES The definitive, comprehensive, up-to-date guide to China's 556 species of mammals, 10% of the world's total. With 83 color plates and 572 maps. (CHN484, $60.00)
Hangchow, My Home, Growing Up in Heaven Below • Eugenia Barnett Schultheis BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR • 2000 • PAPER • 262 PAGES Schultheis writes with affection and simplicity of coming of age in early 20th century Hangchow/Hangzhou ("Heaven Below"). (CHN582, $17.95)
The Haunted Monastery • Robert Van Gulik MYSTERY • 2009 • PAPER • 198 PAGES Judge Dee and his entourage, seeking refuge from a mountain storm, become trapped in a Taoist monastery, where the Abbott Jade mysteriously dies after delivering an ecstatic sermon. The monks call it a supernatural experience, but the judge calls it murder. Recalling the allegedly accidental deaths of three young women in the same monastery, Judge Dee seeks clues in the eyes of a cat to solve cases of impersonation and murder. A painting by one of the victims reveals the truth about the killings, propelling the judge on a quest for justice and revenge. (CHN297, $12.00)
Hero • Zhang Yimou 2005 • DVD Jet Li stars in this visually stunning martial arts masterpiece by the director of Raise the Red Lantern. Set in ancient feudal China, this simple tale is rendered in breathtaking color. (CHN328, $19.99)
The High Road to China • Kate Teltscher HISTORY • 2007 • HARD COVER • 336 PAGES A history of the first British mission to Tibet and the Panchen Lama's state visit to China in the 18th century. Teltscher makes extensive use of a fascintating journal kept by one young British envoy. (CHN386, $26.00)
A History of Chinese Civilization • Jacques Gernet HISTORY • 1996 • PAPER • 780 PAGES An informed and scholarly cultural history of China from ancient times, updated for this second edition. Translated from the French by Translated by J. R. Foster and Charles Hartman. (CHN211, $45.99)
Hong Kong Map • Nelles MAP A detailed, colorful folded map of Hong Kong, scale 1:22,500. Two Sides. 20x40 inches. (HKG15, $13.95)
The Horse That Leaps Through Clouds, A Tale of Espionage, the Silk Road, and the Rise of Modern China • Eric Enno Tamm TRAVEL NARRATIVE • 2011 • HARD COVER • 512 PAGES On July 6, 1906, Baron Gustaf Mannerheim boarded the midnight train from St. Petersburg, charged by Czar Nicholas II to secretly collect intelligence on the Qing Dynasty's sweeping reforms that were radically transforming China. The last czarist agent in the so-called Great Game, Mannerheim chronicled almost every facet of China's modernization, from education reform and foreign investment to Tibet's struggle for independence. One hundred years later, on July 6, 2006, writer Eric Enno Tamm boards that same train, intent on following in Mannerheim's footsteps. Initially banned from China, Tamm devises a cover and retraces Mannerheim's route across the Silk Road, discovering both eerie similarities and seismic differences between the Middle Kingdoms of today and a century ago. Along the way, Tamm offers piercing insights into China's past that raise troubling questions about its future. Can the Communist Party truly open China to the outside world yet keep Western ideas such as democracy and freedom at bay, just as Qing officials mistakenly believed? What can reform during the late Qing Dynasty teach us about the spectacular transformation of China today? (CHN664, $30.00)
A House Divided • Pearl S. Buck LITERATURE • 1994 • PAPER • 348 PAGES The third novel in Buck's Good Earth Trilogy. (CHN653, $14.95)
Hungry Ghosts, Mao's Secret Famine • Jasper Becker HISTORY • 1998 • PAPER • 352 PAGES After digging through academic studies and incorporating survivor accounts, Jaspar Becker has produced the definitive work on the devastating famine that overtook China in the 1950s and 1960s. Brought about by the Mao's attempt to redistribute food, this mass starvation caused the death of tens of millions. (CHN99, $21.99)
I Love Dollars • Zhu Wen LITERATURE • 2008 • PAPER • 256 PAGES This collection of short stories offers a whimsical look at everyday life in modern-day China and at China's identity crisis in a post-Mao world. (CHN470, $14.00)
Imperial Capitals of China • Arthur Cotterell LITERATURE • 2008 • HARD COVER Cotterell shows us the rich array of characters, political and ideological tensions and technological genius which defined the imperial cities of China. (CHN479, $27.95)
Imperial Woman • Pearl S. Buck LITERATURE • 1991 • PAPER • 384 PAGES Nobel Prize winner Buck recreates the life of Cixi, the last Empress of China. (CHN663, $14.95)
The Importance of Living • Lin Yutang RELIGION • 1998 • PAPER • 462 PAGES Lin Yutang uses ancient Chinese texts to illustrate his path to a satisfying life, which he believes can be found through relaxation, friendship and the simple enjoyment of everyday existence. It's an optimistic book, full of short proverbs, anecdotes and witty asides on the enjoyment of travel, nature, culture and other aspects of human existence. Originally published in 1937. (CHN121, $16.99)
In the Naga's Wake, The First Man to Navigate the Mekong, from Tibet to the South China Sea • Mick O'Shea HISTORY • 2007 • PAPER Upon first seeing its unforgiving rapids, 20-year-old traveler Mick O'Shea began dreaming of a solo expedition down the Mekong River, from its source in Tibet to the South China Sea. (SEA57, $16.95)
In the Red: On Contemporary Chinese Culture • Geremie R. Barme CULTURAL PORTRAIT • 2000 • PAPER • 512 PAGES Focusing on the years since the 1989 Tiananmen protest, Barme examines the dialectic between official culture produced by the Chinese government and the popular "unofficial" culture and counterculture of the urban population. (CHN88, $32.50)
The Inner Chapters • Chuang Tzu • A. C. Graham LITERATURE • 2001 • PAPER • 304 PAGES The oldest pieces of Taoist writing, by one of its greatest philosophers, Chuang Tzu. From the fourth-century B. C. (CHN244, $18.00)
Inside China • Jonathan Spence CULTURAL PORTRAIT • 2007 • HARD COVER • 272 PAGES The diverse landscapes and peoples of China as seen through the lenses of photographers past (Henri Cartier-Bresson, Li Zhensheng, Marc Riboud) and present (Mark Leong, Edward Burtynsky, Sebastio Salgado). Jonathan Spence, Minxin Pei and other modern experts offer essays on the history and future of the country. (CHN444, $50.00)
Inside Chinese Business, A Guide for Managers Worldwide • Ming-Jer Chen REFERENCE • 2003 • PAPER • 256 PAGES A comprehensive overview of Chinese culture for the Western businessman. Offers cultural explanations and practical guidance on subjects which inform and define Chinese business practices, such as family, social rules and roles, networking and decision-making. (CHN671, $25.00)
Insight City Guide Shanghai • Insight Guides GUIDEBOOK • 2011 • PAPER • 328 PAGES This well-illustrated guide in the popular series features essays on culture and history, excellent local maps and good information on attractions. (CHN219, $19.99)
Insight Guide China • Manfred Morganstern GUIDEBOOK • 2011 • PAPER • 411 PAGES In its hallmark style, this Insight Guide combines short essays on the history, politics and culture of China with hundreds of color photographs. It's a short whirlwind introduction to the country. The book begins with a brief history of the Middle Kingdom, then ventures out into the countryside and through the halls of the Forbidden City. The second half presents each region of China with pages on each of the major sites, then concludes with some practical travel information and listings. (CHN05, $24.99)
Insight Guide Southern China & Hong Kong • Insight Guides GUIDEBOOK • 2008 • PAPER • 400 PAGES This lavishly illustrated Insight guide includes excellent color maps and thoughtful short essays on history, culture and attractions. (CHN482, $23.95)
Insight Pocket Guide Beijing • Insight Guides GUIDEBOOK • 2005 • PAPER • 92 PAGES This convenient, slim volume features color photographs, many maps (including a handy fold-out map of the city), good short descriptions of major points of interest, and other practical information. (CHN26, $13.95)
Inspired by China, Contemporary Furnituremakers Explore Chinese Traditions • Nancy Berliner ART & ARCHITECTURE • 2007 • HARD COVER • 160 PAGES Focuses on a group of leading studio furniture artists whose response to the forms, materials, techniques, and meaning of China's rich furniture traditions reveals the creative power of an exchange in art and culture. (CHN544, $60.00)
Into the Teeth of the Tiger • Donald S. Lopez Jr. HISTORY • 1997 • PAPER • 272 PAGES The lively, illustrated memoirs of a World War II pilot in Asia. (ASA39, $17.95)
Iron and Silk • Mark Salzman TRAVEL NARRATIVE • 1990 • PAPER • 211 PAGES Salzman gets himself to Changsha in the mid-1980s on the pretext of teaching English to Chinese doctors. His real mission, however, is to become a kung fu master. In this wonderfully readable travelogue he conveys a sense of contemporary life, its realities and frustrations -- and of his growing understanding of an alien culture. A major subplot is his ongoing relationship with Pan, the mentor to this awkward and overly enthusiastic American martial arts student. (CHN52, $15.00)
Judge Dee at Work, Eight Chinese Detective Stories • Robert Van Gulik MYSTERY • 1999 • PAPER • 174 PAGES A collection of eight cases from the long career of the Chinese magistrate, originally published in 1967. (CHN299, $12.00)
K: The Art of Love • Hong Ying BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR • 2002 • PAPER • 262 PAGES A story of the true-life love affair between Virginia Woolf's nephew Julian Bell and famed Chinese woman writer Ling Shuhua. Ying uses truth of fiction and truth of fact to portray this tragic tale of love and desire in 1930s Beijing. In 2003, Ling Shuhua's daughter brought suit against Ying for "defaming the dead" and, sadly, K has been banned in China. This is the first time in China that anyone has had to pay compensation for crimes committed in a book. (CHN260, $14.95)
Kinfolk • Pearl S. Buck LITERATURE • 1996 • PAPER • 416 PAGES A novel by Nobel Prize-winning author Buck exploring the tension between progress and tradition in China. (CHN654, $15.95)
The Kitchen God's Wife • Amy Tan LITERATURE • 2006 • PAPER • 415 PAGES Winnie Louie, an aging Chinese woman convinced that she will die soon, decides to unburden herself by divulging her secrets to her Americanized daughter. (CHN357, $16.00)
Knopf Mapguide Shanghai • Knopf Guides GUIDEBOOK • 2005 • PAPER • 48 PAGES Full-color foldout maps make this guidebook a handy and practical way to find information on where to go and what to do in the city. (CHN283, $10.95)
Kowloon Tong, A Novel of Hong Kong • Paul Theroux LITERATURE • 1998 • PAPER • 248 PAGES Betty Mullard, representing the old guard in Hong Kong, receives an offer from Mr. Hung on his family business. With its strong sense of place and contemporary setting in Hong Kong at a time of transition, this fast-paced novel is an illuminating and imaginative look at the city. (HKG12, $15.95)
The Lacquer Screen • Robert Van Gulik MYSTERY • 1993 • PAPER • 183 PAGES In this installment, Judge Dee investigates a series of suspicious events surrounding a magistrate's eerily prophetic tapestry. (CHN298, $15.00)
Last Chance to See • Douglas Adams • Mark Carwardine NATURAL HISTORY • 1992 • PAPER • 222 PAGES Sponsored by BBC radio, Douglas Adams and Mark Cowardine traveled to Zaire, New Zealand, China, Mauritius and other far-flung places in search of endangered animals. (CON04, $16.00)
The Last Chinese Chef • Nicole Mones LITERATURE • 2008 • PAPER A bestseller, this romantic, fast-paced tale weaves an engrossing plot of an American in China with insight into the philosophy, meaning and preparation of classical Chinese dishes -- like mouth-watering pork ribs in lotus leaf, eight-treasure dongpo pork and other delights. Mones, a Bay-area resident who writes regularly about Chinese food and is the author of Lost in Translation and a Cup of Light, ran a textile business in China for 18 years. (CHN498, $13.95)
The Last Emperor • Bernardo Bertolucci HISTORY • 1987 • DVD Bernardo Bertolucci's rendering of the true story of Aisin-Gioro Pu Yi, the last emperor of China's Ching Dynasty. Told in flashback, the film begins at Pu Yi's involuntary initiation as emperor in 1908 at age three, and continues through his entire reign in the Forbidden City until his death in 1967. Pu Yi witnesses the dynamic changes of the modernizing empire, experiences the temptations of ultimate power, and is seduced by the Western lifestyle of his Scottish tutor (Peter O'Toole). The film won nine Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director. (CHN225, $29.95)
The Last Empress • Anchee Min LITERATURE • 2007 • HARD COVER The sequel to Min's best-selling Empress Orchid, The Last Empress chronicles the second half of the life of Tzu Hsi during her tumultuous leadership of late 19th century China, a period plagued by foreign conflicts and domestic unrest. (CHN403, $25.00)
Lee Krasner • John J. Ewel • Robert Hobbs • B. H. Friedman ART & ARCHITECTURE • 1999 • HARD COVER • 224 PAGES Mr. Hobbs examines Jackson Pollock's wife, the renowned Abstract Expressionist Lee Krasner. She helped popularize the New York School in the postwar era. The book was created in order to accompany and support an exhibition of her work touring the nation. Hobbs looks at Krasner as more than just Pollock's wife. With 48 color and 67 black-and-white images of her art. (NYS36, $49.50)
Lee Krasner • John J. Ewel • Robert Hobbs • B. H. Friedman ART & ARCHITECTURE • 1999 • HARD COVER • 224 PAGES Mr. Hobbs examines Jackson Pollock's wife, the renowned Abstract Expressionist Lee Krasner. She helped popularize the New York School in the postwar era. The book was created in order to accompany and support an exhibition of her work touring the nation. Hobbs looks at Krasner as more than just Pollock's wife. With 48 color and 67 black-and-white images of her art. (NYS36, $49.50)
Legacies, A Chinese Mosaic • Betty Bao Lord HISTORY • 1991 • PAPER • 242 PAGES A memoir of contemporary China, especially interesting for its critical perspective on Chinese society and culture during the "China Spring" of 1989. Bao incorporates interviews and testimonies of friends and colleagues in her narrative. Dedicated "For The Chinese People," the novelist author born in China (who also wrote Spring Moon) is unstinting in her criticism of Chinese policies and practices. Wife of a former American ambassador to China, the author now lives in the United States. (CHN84, $19.00)
Letters to Henrietta • Lisa Chubbuck • Isabella Bird BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR • 2003 • PAPER • 356 PAGES This eye-opening collection of letters back home, nicely selected by Lisa Chubbuck with an intrridction and notes, reveals the tenacity, self-promotion and verve of the Victorian maiden aunt of modern travel writers. An unlikely candidate for adventure, Bird's ill health propelled her to the Colorado Rockies, Hawaii, China, and Japan -- and into the confidence of Queen Victoria, the King of Hawaii, and William Gladstone. She also carried on with a one-eyed trapper and fended off many other more suitable suitors. That's quite a transformation for a middle-aged spinster from the Isle of Mull. Travel does a person good. With 32 illustrations, maps, notes, and bibliography. In two parts: The first world tour, 1872-3 (the sea Australia, Hawaii, Colorado); The second world tour, 1878-9 (Japan and the way thither, China, Malay Peninsula). (WLD39, $24.95)
Life and Death in Shanghai • Nien Cheng HISTORY • 2010 • PAPER • 560 PAGES Ultimately an inspiring tale of strength of character and determination, this powerful book is a plainly told account of the horrors that took place during the Cultural Revolution in Shanghai. The author was a political prisoner for six years. (CHN42, $17.95)
Liquid Jade, The Story of Tea from Wast to West • Beatrice Hohenegger HISTORY • 2006 • HARD COVER • 256 PAGES Hohenegger takes in the history, as well as the spiritual, cultural and economic importance of tea in this captivating tale of politics and intrigue. (ASA54, $25.95)
Living With China • Ezra F. Vogel CULTURAL PORTRAIT • 1997 • PAPER • 336 PAGES A scholarly examination of the major policy issues facing US engagement with China. (CHN160, $18.00)
Lonely Planet Beijing • Damian Harper GUIDEBOOK • 2009 • PAPER • 272 PAGES In its hallmark style, this practical guide to Beijing by Lonely Planet features maps, an overview of culture, history and nature, and a good deal of nuts-and-bolts information on excursions, accommodations and sightseeing. There's even a section on the locally spoken dialect of Mandarin. With color photographs and excellent travel information. (CHN47, $19.99)
Lonely Planet Beijing Encounter • Eilis Quinn GUIDEBOOK • 2010 • PAPER With a section of not-to-missed highlights and a calendar of annual events, this lively pocket guide organized by neighborhood includes suggested side trips, along what to see and where to shop, eat, drink and play. With a double-sided pullout map. (CHN522, $12.99)
Lonely Planet Cantonese Phrasebook • Kam Y. Lau LANGUAGE & PHRASEBOOKS • 2008 • PAPER • 260 PAGES A handy, palm-sized guide to pronunciation, basic grammar and essential vocabulary for the traveler in Hong Kong or Southern China. (HKG19, $8.99)
Lonely Planet China • Lonely Planet GUIDEBOOK • 2011 • PAPER • 1048 PAGES An impressively comprehensive guide to travel in China, packed with detailed information on excursions, hotels and restaurants. With 2,200 maps and a section of color photographs. (CHN39, $31.99)
Lonely Planet China Phrasebook • Michael Cannings LANGUAGE & PHRASEBOOKS • 2009 • PAPER • 400 PAGES Thjs convenient, palm-sized phrasebook and min-dictionary geared for travelers to China includes not just Madarin and Cantonese but also dozens of other languages spoken thtoughout the country. (CHN579, $10.99)
Lonely Planet Discover China • Lonely Planet GUIDEBOOK • 2011 • PAPER • 448 PAGES Focusing on must-see and memorable places and experiences, this all color guide by the discerning editors at Lonely Planet, featuring hundreds of color photographs and maps, includes suggested tours and itineraries along with not-to-be-missed places to stay, eat, shop and see. (CHN674, $27.99)
Lonely Planet Hong Kong & Macau City Guide • Nicko Goncharoff • Damian Harper GUIDEBOOK • 2009 • PAPER • 380 PAGES A practical, comprehensive guide to Hong Kong, with maps, a Chinese language section and plenty of information on excursions, accommodations and sightseeing. Written for independent travelers. (HKG14, $21.99)
Lonely Planet Mandarin Audio Pack • Lonely Planet Publications LANGUAGE & PHRASEBOOKS • 2009 • HARD COVER • 256 PAGES This handy take-along phrasebook includes a CD with essential vocabulay for travelers. (CHN578, $12.99)
Lonely Planet Shanghai • Bradley Mayhew GUIDEBOOK • 2010 • PAPER • 276 PAGES A practical guide to Shanghai featuring maps and detailed information on excursions, accommodations and sightseeing. With a few color photographs and excellent travel information. (CHN91, $21.99)
Lonely Planet Shanghai Encounter • Damian Harper GUIDEBOOK • 2010 • PAPER With a section of not-to-missed highlights and a calendar of annual events, this lively pocket guide organized by neighborhood includes suggested side trips, along what to see and where to shop, eat, drink and play. With a double-sided pullout map. (CHN523, $12.99)
Lonely Planet Taiwan • Andrew Bender GUIDEBOOK • 2011 • PAPER • 392 PAGES A travel guide to Taipei and Taiwan noteworthy for its attention to practical detail on food, accommodations and excursions. (CHN67, $26.99)
The Long March, The True History of Communist China's Founding Myth • Sun Shuyun HISTORY • 2008 • PAPER Shuyan retraces the epic 1934 journey, re-evaluating communist China's founding stories in light of interviews with witnesses and aging survivors. She lets the veterans themselves tell the dramatic tale of endurance. (CHN490, $16.00)
Looking for Chengdu, A Woman's Adventure in China • Hill Gates TRAVEL NARRATIVE • 1999 • PAPER • 272 PAGES Anthropologist Hill Gates sets off on a series of excursions through the inland province of Sichuan in search of a deeper understanding of the Chinese people. A feminist, Gates is especially curious to learn how the economic boom has effected the women of Sichuan, which was the birthplace of Chinese economic reforms in the 1970s. Along the countryside she meets scholars, sailors, patrons of a Tibetan dance-hall and women running family firms. It's a travelogue rich in anecdotes and perceptive observations of contemporary China. (CHN74, $26.95)
The Lost Camels of Tartary • John Hare EXPLORATION • 2000 • PAPER • 239 PAGES A vivid account of three expeditions on the heels of the migrating Bactrian camel through the deserts of Xinjiang and Mongolia. An engaging writer and adventurer with a sense of humor, the author includes vivid portraits of the people he encounters along the way (including George Schaller who accompanied him on the first expedition). Among the many discoveries of the quest, Hare found Lou Lan, an abandoned city of the Silk Road described by Sven Hedin in 1900. He also helped convince the Chinese government to set aside part of this remote region as a reserve for the camel. (CAS67, $14.99)
Lost in Translation • Nicole Mones LITERATURE • 1999 • PAPER Alice Mannegan, an American translator in Beijing, joins professor Lin Shiyang on an archaeological expedition that becomes a breathtaking erotic journey across some of the most far-flung regions of China and into her past. (CHN499, $15.00)
Lost on Planet China • J. Maarten Troost TRAVEL NARRATIVE • 2009 • PAPER • 304 PAGES Lost on Planet China finds Troost dodging deadly drivers in Shanghai; eating Yak in Tibet; deciphering restaurant menus (offering local favorites such as Cattle Penis with Garlic); visiting with Chairman Mao (still dead, very orange); and hiking (with 80,000 other people) up Tai Shan, China's most revered mountain. But in addition to his trademark gonzo adventures, the book also delivers a telling look at a vast and complex country on the brink of transformation. (CHN496, $14.95)
Love in a Fallen City • Eileen Chang • Karen S. Kingsbury LITERATURE • 2006 • PAPER • 338 PAGES Eileen Chang wrote these four novellas and two stories in Japanese-occupied Shanghai in the 1940s. Canonized in China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong, Chang has been little known in the U.S. (where she spent the last half of her life, after fleeing the People's Republic), but this collection should go far to change that. Her work is a revelation, poised tellingly between Confucian tradition and Western modernity, like their author herself. (CHN387, $14.95)
A Loyal Character Dancer • Qiu Xiaolong MYSTERY • 2003 • PAPER • 351 PAGES Another compelling, subversive Detective Chen mystery, steeped in the geography and atmosphere of Shanghai. Assigned to help the wife of an important witness to reach the United States safely, U.S. marshal Catharine Rohn learns that the woman has vanished, while inspector Chen reluctantly assumes the task of saving face. The second in the series. (CHN412, $14.00)
Making China Policy, Lessons from the Bush and Clinton Administrations • Ramo Myers HISTORY • 2001 • PAPER • 288 PAGES An evaluation of U.S. foreign policy toward China and Taiwan during the twelve years of the Bush and Clinton administrations. Ramon Myers is senior fellow and curator-scholar of the East Asia Collection at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. (CHN336, $39.95)
The Man Who Loved China • Simon Winchester BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR • 2008 • HARD COVER • 336 PAGES Winchester's absorbing portrait of the mid-twentieth-century scientist and adventurer traces Joseph Needham's British government mission to China, his love affair with visiting student Lu Gwei-Djen -- and his pivotal influence on the Western world's understanding of China's culture and history. Needham was the originator, author and editor of the ongoing, multi-volume Science and Civilization in China, published by Cambridge University Press. (CHN512, $27.95)
Man's Fate • Andre Malraux LITERATURE • 1990 • PAPER • 356 PAGES A suspenseful, psychologically complex novel set during the early days of the Chinese revolution and inspired by actual events. First published in 1934. (CHN188, $16.00)
Mandarin, Start the Conversation • 30 Words LANGUAGE & PHRASEBOOKS • 2009 • PLASTIC CARD An easy-to-access pocket-sized card with 800 words and phrases organized by category. (CHN628, $9.95)
Mantles of Merit: Chin Textiles from Myanmar, India and Bangladesh • David Fraser • Barbara Fraser ART & ARCHITECTURE • 2005 • HARD COVER An abundantly illustrated study of the textiles of the Chin peoples of southern and eastern Asia. With more than 600 color illustrations. (ASA46, $60.00)
Mao's China and After, A History of the People's Republic • Maurice Meisner HISTORY • 1999 • PAPER • 587 PAGES A popular text, now in its third edition. Meisner, a professor of history at the University of Wisconsin, is a fair-minded, insightful -- and lucid -- guide to the tumultuous history of China since the Chinese Communists came to power in 1949. (CHN165, $36.95)
Mao's Last Dancer • Li Cunxin BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR • 2005 • PAPER • 451 PAGES Madame Mao's cultural delegates chose for 11-year-old Li to leave his family and his impoverished village in China to join the Beijing Dance Academy. After dancing in Texas as part of a cultural exchange and falling in love with America -- and an American dancer -- Li defected to the U.S. at age 18 in a showdown at the Chinese consulate and became a principal dancer with the Houston ballet. (CHN623, $17.00)
Mao's Last Revolution • Roderick MacFarquhar • Michael Schoenhals HISTORY • 2006 • HARD COVER • 752 PAGES Mao's 1966 Cultural Revolution, the politics, policies and devastating impact on the Chinese people. (CHN378, $35.00)
Mao, The Unknown Story • Jung Chang • John Halliday BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR • 2006 • PAPER • 814 PAGES In this no-holds-barred biography, the author of Wild Swans and her historian husband reveal Mao as a brutal, power-hungry monster with close ties to Joseph Stalin. Ten years in the making, their extensive research demolishes the myths of Mao a great leader and man of the people. (CHN301, $20.00)
Mao: A Biography • Ross Terrill BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR • 1999 • PAPER • 571 PAGES A no-holds-barred biography of the Chinese leader and his times -- well written, scholarly and authoritative. Terrill, a sinophile, combines journalism, history and anecdote to create a lively portrait of the man and his country. Originally published in 1980 and revised for this edition, the book has sold more than a million copies in China. Terrill is also the author of Madame Mao: The White-Boned Demon." (CHN51, $33.95)
Marco Polo and the Discovery of the World • John Larner EXPLORATION • 2001 • PAPER • 288 PAGES A scholarly, insightful study of Marco Polo's famous travel account -- and its impact on European ideas and politics, particularly its influence on cartographers and explorers. The author looks too at the circumstances of Marco Polo's life and travels, arguing that Marco Polo really did visit China -- and that he must have had a highly talented co-author in Rustichello da Pisa. (EXP22, $21.00)
The Memory Palace of Matteo Ricci • Jonathan Spence HISTORY • 1994 • PAPER • 368 PAGES A brilliant piece of historical scholarship by the Yale historian and Sinologist Jonathan Spence. The book is like a "portrait of the age," revealing fascinating connections between Eastern and Western history and thought via a life of Italian Jesuit Matteo Ricci (1552-1616), one of the early Catholic missionaries to China and a theorist on the art of memory. (CHN262, $16.00)
Miao Textiles from China • Gina Corrigan ART & ARCHITECTURE • 2001 • PAPER • 88 PAGES A short, illustrated introduction to the textiles of the Miao peoples of the Guizhou Province in southwestern China, drawn from the collection at the British Museum. Gina Corrigan, a writer and expert on the Miao, provides social context and analysis of techniques for more than 20 pieces. Part of the "Fabric Folios" series. (CHN322, $24.95)
A Million Truths, A Decade in China • Linda Jakobson CULTURAL PORTRAIT • 2000 • PAPER A Finnish reporter's portrait of China in the 1990s, an observant and sensitive account of peasants, professionals, officials and scholars adjusting to life in an emerging economic powerhouse. (CHN373, $17.95)
Ming Furniture in the Light of Chinese Architecture • Sarah Handler ART & ARCHITECTURE • 2005 • HARD COVER • 233 PAGES A beautifully illustrated and authoritative overview of Ming furniture and its architectural setting by art historian Sarah Handler, who specializes in Chinese furniture, architecture and related arts. With 50 black-and-white architectural drawings and 60 full-color photos of Ming furniture from private and museum collections around the world. (CHN318, $50.00)
Modern China, A Very Short Introduction • Rana Mitter HISTORY • 2008 • PAPER This very short introduction offers an indispensible starting point for anyone who needs to quickly know the themes and controversies that have shaped modern China. (CHN504, $11.95)
Modern China, The Fall and Rise of a Great Power, 1850 to the Present • Johnathan Fenby HISTORY • 2008 • HARD COVER • 816 PAGES Jonathan Fenby tells the turbulent story of modern China with insight, personality, and a journalist's eye for historical panorama in this sweeping history. (CHN542, $34.95)
Modern Marvels, The Great Wall of China • The History Channel HISTORY • 2005 • DVD This documentary from the History Channel explores the story of China's Great Wall, one of the most impressive building feats of ancient history. (CHN418, $24.95)
The Monkey & the Monk • Cheng'en Wu LITERATURE • 2006 • PAPER • 497 PAGES The abridged version of Anthony Yu's masterful translation of The Journey to the West. (CHN402, $20.00)
The Monkey and the Tiger, Two Chinese Detective Stories • Robert Hans Van Gulik MYSTERY • 2005 • PAPER • 152 PAGES These historical mysteries, featuring a Tang-era Chinese magistrate, are taken from the tradition of Chinese detective novels. Apart from the pleasure of the elaborate plots, the books are rich in details of court and daily life in ancient China. This is an omnibus edition of two novellas: "The Morning of the Monkey" and "The Night of the Tiger." (CHN290, $12.00)
Monkey, A Journey to the West • David Kherdian LITERATURE • 2005 • PAPER • 224 PAGES The 16th-century Chinese epic of adventure and pilgrimage on the Silk Road, brilliantly retold by David Kheridan. It's the wild tale of a rogue-trickster and his travels to India via Central Asia in the company of a Buddhist pilgrim -- and a classic allegory on the nature of spirituality. Famously popular in China, the story is the also the source for many very odd movies and television programs. (ASA32, $16.95)
The Mother • Pearl S. Buck LITERATURE • 1993 • PAPER • 304 PAGES A portrait of a poor woman living in a remote village in China, struggling to find balance as ancient tradition collides with Communist ideals. (CHN656, $12.95)
Mountain of Fame, Portraits in Chinese History • John Wills HISTORY • 1996 • PAPER • 424 PAGES An intriguing, novel approach to Chinese history. Instead of marching through the dynasties, Wells illuminates themes and continuities within Chinese tradition through 20 representative personalities. His book is a series of biographies, wonderfully told, of statesman, poets and philosophers through the ages. He tells of great events through the lives of individual Chinese. It's an excellent, immediately accessible approach to history. (CHN10, $29.95)
Mr. China's Son, A Villager's Life • He Liyi BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR • 2002 • PAPER • 336 PAGES A simple villager from Yunnan remembers over half a century of Chinese history -- including the Japanese invasion, the Communist revolution, and his own years spent in "reeducation-through-labor farms." Written with warmth, humor and an admirable lack of bitterness, this autobiography is a poignant glimpse into the rural Chinese peasant experience. (CHN399, $40.00)
Mr. China, A Memoir • Tim Clissold BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR • 2006 • PAPER • 262 PAGES Clissold, eyewitness to the Chinese economic boom in the 1990s, writes with humor and insight in this entertaining account of his encounters with the Chinese and the Chinese way of doing business. His is a tale of high adventure and a portrait of contemporary China, full of anecdote and incident. The title, meant as ironic, refers to the dream (Marco Polo, Edgar Snow, Kissinger, corporate America) of becoming the ultimate insider (and making a billion). (CHN306, $14.99)
Mrs. Pollifax and the Hong Kong Buddha • Dorothy Gilman MYSTERY • 1988 • PAPER Grandma Pollifax, the CIA agent, is at it again, hot on the trail of jewel thieves, drug dealers and murderers in the city of Hong Kong. Part of the popular series, this mystery is great fun. (HKG17, $6.99)
Mrs. Pollifax on the China Station • Dorothy Gilman MYSTERY • 1990 • PAPER • 216 PAGES In the sixth in the series, cheerful Emily Pollifax, posing as a tourist in China, meets sinister challenges and all but loses her life safeguarding a treasure for the CIA. (CHN535, $7.99)
Murder in Canton • Robert Hans Van Gulik MYSTERY • 2004 • PAPER • 216 PAGES These historical mysteries, featuring a Tang-era Chinese magistrate, follow the tradition of ancient Chinese detective novels. Apart from the pleasure of the elaborate plots, the books are rich in details of court and daily life in ancient China. Murder in Canton takes place in the year 680, as lord chief justice Judge Dee travels undercover to Canton to investigate the disappearance of a court censor. (CHN291, $15.00)
My Life As Emperor • Howard Goldblatt • Su Tong LITERATURE • 2006 • PAPER • 304 PAGES This novel, by the author of Raise the Red Lantern, borrows from imperial Chinese history in depicting the rise and fall of a brutal young emperor. (CHN417, $13.95)
Nanjing Requiem, A Novel • Ha Jin LITERATURE • 2011 • HARD COVER • 320 PAGES Award winning novelist Ha Jin's latest novel, set in 1937 Nanjing, concerns Minnie Vautrin -- an American missionary and dean of the Jinling Woman's College -- who decides to stay even in the face of the imminent Japanese invasion, as she is convinced her American citizenship will protect her and the welfare of her employees. In Minnie's struggles to protect her friends and the refugees that come to her for help, Ha Jin re-creates the terror, menace, and violence of life in occupied Nanjing with harrowing precision in this resonant and intimate historical fiction. (CHN681, $26.95)
National Geographic Atlas of China • National Geographic Society REFERENCE • 2009 • PAPER • 128 PAGES A portrait of China as seen in 300 maps, including traditional cartography, ten detailed city plans, sattellite imagery and scores of thematic maps and charts, covering population growth, energy usage, language, religion and other factors shaping the face and future of the nation. (CHN445, $21.95)
National Geographic Beijing • Paul Mooney REFERENCE • 2008 • PAPER • 272 PAGES This guide to Beijing, published in National Geographic's attractive visual style, features hundreds of photographs, full color maps, and good information on history, art, culture and travel. (CHN486, $22.95)
National Geographic China • Damian Harper GUIDEBOOK • 2007 • PAPER • 400 PAGES A generously illustrated guide to China with the usual National Geographic attention to maps and photographs, covering the big cities and the Yangtze, as well as southern, western and northeastern China in unusual depth. Harper writes with authority in a lively, opinionated style; no surprise, since he is also the co-author of three guides on the region for Lonely Planet. With a 50-page appendix of practical travel information. (CHN163, $27.95)
National Geographic Shanghai • Andrew Forbes GUIDEBOOK • 2007 • PAPER • 272 PAGES A traveler's guide to the history, nature, culture, and attractions of Shanghai, thoroughly illustrated in dependable National Geographic style. (CHN443, $22.95)
National Geographic Taiwan • Phil Macdonald GUIDEBOOK • 2011 • PAPER • 272 PAGES A traveler's guide to the history, nature, culture, and attractions of Taiwan, thoroughly illustrated in dependable National Geographic style. (CHN446, $22.95)
Nature: Pandas: Pandas of the Sleeping Dragon, The Panda Baby • Nature NATURAL HISTORY • 2003 • DVD A double-feature from the award-winning Nature series: Pandas of the Sleeping Dragon narrated by George Page and filmed in the bamboo forests of Wolong; and The Panda Baby, the story of the first panda cub born and reared in captivity. (CHN263, $19.99)
Necklace and Calabash • Robert Van Gulik MYSTERY • 2004 • PAPER • 152 PAGES In this novel, Van Gulik's penultimate tale, set in a river town in his home district of Poo-yang, Judge Dee's vacation is interrupted by murder. (CHN293, $15.00)
The New Chinese Empire • Ross Terrill HISTORY • 2004 • PAPER • 384 PAGES Terrill assesses China's past and politics to help Americans understand their economic status and where the country is headed. (CHN400, $19.95)
News from Tartary • Peter Fleming TRAVEL NARRATIVE • 1999 • PAPER • 384 PAGES A rousing, ironic account of Fleming's 3500-mile trek in the 1930s from Peking to the province of Sinkiang and onwards to India. (CAS46, $18.95)
Noble House • James Clavell LITERATURE • 2009 • PAPER • 1376 PAGES Another Clavell novel set in Asia, this one finds Russian, Chinese and English businessmen and intelligence agents caught up in a struggle to control the largest trading house in 1960s Hong Kong. Though the action only covers about one week, the book is an enormous one, filled with Clavell trademarks: adventure, romance and historical detail. (HKG16, $18.00)
The North China Lover • Marguerite Duras LITERATURE • 2008 • PAPER • 231 PAGES Duras returns to her childhood experiences in Indochina in this novel, one of her last. (ASA66, $14.95)
Northeastern China Map • Nelles MAP A double-sided map of the northeastern section of China (including portions of the Russian Far East) at a 1:1.5 scale. Two Sides. 20x40 inches. (CHN172, $13.95)
Oasis Identities, Uyghur Nationalism Along China's Silk Road • Justin Jon Rudelson HISTORY • 1997 • PAPER • 224 PAGES Rudelson draws on extensive fieldwork in the oasis of Turpan in this scholarly study of the movement for a pan-Uyghur identity in Xinjiang. Rudelson, executive director of the Institute for Global Chinese Affairs at the University of Maryland and an anthropologist, is also the author of the Lonely Planet Central Asia Phrasebook as well as the Hebrew Phrasebook and Mandarin Phrasebook. (CAS92, $29.50)
Odyssey Guide Beijing & Shanghai • Bill Mooney GUIDEBOOK • 2012 • PAPER • 600 PAGES • COMING IN MARCH A comprehensive, illustrated guide to the two cities, jammed with photographs, maps and great information on culture and history. (CHN228, $27.95)
Odyssey Guide China • Charis Chan • Peter Neville GUIDEBOOK • 2008 • PAPER • 440 PAGES A handsomely illustrated compact guide with suggested activities in both China's major cities and some remote provinces. With chapters on the pronunciation of Chinese names, Chinese opera, calligraphy, and art. With 15 maps, hundreds of photographs -- and featuring all 31 World Heritage Sites in China. (CHN87, $19.95)
Odyssey Guide Guizhou Province • Gina Corrigan GUIDEBOOK • 2002 • PAPER An in-depth guide to the history, culture and peoples of Guizhou province, featuring color photographs, excellent maps and a very good overview of the ethnic minorities of the region. Corrigan, who has published widely on the Miao and the textiles of Southwest China, covers the textile arts and costume, jewelry, music and festivals in detail. (CHN321, $23.95)
Odyssey Guide Xi'an, Shaanxi & the Terracotta Army • Kevin Bishop GUIDEBOOK • 2009 • PAPER • 336 PAGES A convenient, illustrated guide to Xi'an, the ancient capital of China. With color photographs, insightful essays on culture and history, and a series of wonderfully chosen literary excerpts. It includes site plans and places of interest, along with practical travel information and maps. (CHN34, $24.95)
On China • Henry Kissinger HISTORY • 2011 • HARD COVER • 586 PAGES On China reveals how China's past relationships with other nations informs us about its 21st-century trajectory, drawing on historical records as well as the Nobel Peace Prize-winning author's discussions with Chinese leaders to explain the country's intricate policy-making process and its emerging role as a global superpower. (CHN683, $36.00)
Once on a Moonless Night • Dai Sijie LITERATURE • 2010 • PAPER • 288 PAGES The bestselling author of Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress weaves the tale of an ancient silk scroll containing a lost Buddhist sutra with the stories of an imprisoned French linguist, a Western student in Peking and a Chinese grocer who are devoted to discovering it. (CHN624, $14.95)
One Man's Bible • Gao Xingjian LITERATURE • 2003 • PAPER • 464 PAGES This fictionalized account of Xingjian's life during the rule of Mao Zedong and the Cultural Revolution describes how the political climate of Beijing rendered his home one of perpetual fear for its citizens and discusses his decision to live in exile. (CHN359, $13.95)
The Open Empire, A History of China to 1600 • Valerie Hansen HISTORY • 2000 • PAPER • 458 PAGES A scholarly account of traditional Chinese civilizations for a university audience. Hansen depicts the empire as heterogeneous, vibrant, and open to the outside world. It eschews the more conventional histories, which orient themselves around the dynasties. (CHN138, $55.40)
Oracle Bones • Peter Hessler HISTORY • 2007 • PAPER • 512 PAGES Peter Hessler (River Town) captures the confounding pace of change in these tales of travel and conversation in contemporary China. The Beijing correspondent for the New Yorker with a depth of knowledge and love of the place, Hessler draws on his familiarity with the country, linguistic ability and his many friends for this penetrating report from the field. Hessler also writes for National Geographic. (CHN316, $15.99)
Original Tao: Inward Training and the Foundations of Taoist Mysticism • Harold D. Roth RELIGION • 2004 • PAPER • 275 PAGES Harold D. Roth reinterprets the origins of Taoism through a fourth-century B.C. text. Poetic and philosophical, Inward Training teaches about our relationship to nature and the cosmos through breath meditation. Roth is professor of East Asian Studies at Brown. (CHN245, $26.50)
The Origins of the Cultural Revolution, Volume 1: The Contradictions among the People 1956-1957 • Roderick MacFarquhar HISTORY • 1974 • PAPER • 439 PAGES The first volume in a trilogy of works tracing Mao's Great Leap Forward from 1956 to 1966. This book looks at the first two years, when the stage was set for the radical changes that would follow. (CHN115, $33.50)
Pandas • Heather Angel NATURAL HISTORY • 1998 • PAPER • 72 PAGES A series of photographs of pandas, taken in their natural habitat. Most of the book is concerned with the Giant Pandas of Wolong, but a short section on the red panda is also included. Information on natural history is included, but the book's real strength is its gorgeous color images. (CHN137, $17.95)
Passions of the Cut Sleeve, The Male Homosexual Tradition in China • Bret Hinsch LITERATURE • 1992 • PAPER • 256 PAGES A well written, scholarly survey of the traditions of same-sex male love across 3,000 years of Chinese literature -- much livlier than the title would indicate. Hinsch draws from dynastic histories, erotic novels, popular Buddhist tracts, love poetry, legal cases, and joke books in this fascinating overview. (CHN167, $26.95)
Pavilion of Women • Pearl S. Buck LITERATURE • 2001 • PAPER • 304 PAGES Nobel Prize-winning author Buck weaves the story of Madame Wu, a woman who makes the surprising decision to retire from married life and select a concubine for her husband. (CHN658, $14.95)
Peacock Cries, At the Three Gorges • Hong Ying LITERATURE • 2004 • PAPER A political drama set against the backdrop of the Three Gorges Dam project in China. (CHN350, $14.95)
Pearl of China • Anchee Min LITERATURE • 2010 • HARD COVER • 288 PAGES Bestselling author Min, a native of Shanghai who moved to the US in 1984, presents an evocative historical fiction about the friendship between two girls living in the Jiangsu province on the banks of the Yangtze river during the Qing Dynasty, which will be the last dynasty of Imperial China. Based on the life of internationally reknowned author Pearl S. Buck, the novel recounts the Xinhai Revolution, the institution of the Republic, and the Civil War between the Nationalists and Communists from the perspective of the people who witnessed them. This slim volume makes great airplane reading for travellers to China wanting a little historical context. (CHN611, $24.00)
Peking Story • David Kidd BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR • 2003 • PAPER • 208 PAGES A wry tribute to a lost way of life and time in Beijing. Kidd writes with humor and sweet nostalgia of the privileged and eccentric Lu family into which he marries in grand style, a last vestige of a crumbling way of life in Peking. Originally published in 1988, Kidd describes his return to China many decades after the revolution in the last third of the book. With an introduction by John Lanchester, whose most recent novel is Fragrant Harbor. (CHN264, $15.95)
Peony • Pearl S. Buck LITERATURE • 2004 • PAPER • 352 PAGES Based on a true story, this novel follows Peony, a Chinese girl sold into a rich family as a bondmaid who falls in love with the family's only son. (CHN659, $14.95)
Peony in Love • Lisa See LITERATURE • 2007 • PAPER • 320 PAGES The sheltered daughter of a wealthy family betrothed to a stranger, Peony rebels against conventional expectations after seeing a hugely popular opera forbidden to women. See's haunting fifth novel is based on real events and women's diaries from 17th-century China. (CHN410, $15.00)
The Phantom of the Temple, A Judge Dee Mystery • Robert Hans Van Gulik MYSTERY • 2007 • PAPER • 214 PAGES In The Phantom of the Temple, three separate puzzles -- the disappearance of a wealthy merchant's daughter, twenty missing bars of gold, and a decapitated corpse -- are pieced together by the clever judge to solve three murders and one complex, gruesome plot. (CHN439, $13.00)
Pimsleur Quick & Simple Chinese (Cantonese) • Pimsleur Language Method LANGUAGE & PHRASEBOOKS • 2005 • AUDIO CD Four audio CDs with eight 30-minute lessons in basic Cantonese, covering elementary vocabulary and phrases used in travel and everyday situations. The Pimsleur method emphasizes the use of listening skills without reading materials (so there isn't a book to follow along). It's advertised as "Totally audio: hear it, learn it, speak it." (CHN279, $19.95)
Pimsleur Quick & Simple Chinese (Mandarin) • Pimsleur Language Method LANGUAGE & PHRASEBOOKS • 2005 • AUDIO CD Four audio CDs with eight 30-minute lessons in basic Mandarin, covering elementary vocabulary and phrases used in travel and everyday situations. The Pimsleur method emphasizes the use of listening skills without reading materials (so there isn't a book to follow along). It's advertised as "Totally audio: hear it, learn it, speak it." (CHN280, $19.95)
Pocket China Atlas, Maps and Facts at Your Fingertips • Stephanie Hemelryk Donald REFERENCE • 2008 • PAPER • 64 PAGES With 25 full-color topical maps, clear graphics and an informative, readable text, this volume charts the profound changes within China and traces their implications for the world at large. (CHN485, $15.95)
Poems of the Late T'ang • A. C. Graham LITERATURE • 2008 • PAPER • 184 PAGES Graham's slim anthology of late T'ang dynasty poetry exhibits the experimental style and emotional intensity which characterized the era. (CHN497, $14.95)
Poets and Murder • Robert Van Gulik MYSTERY • 2005 • PAPER • 184 PAGES In this satisyingly complex tale set in the imperial academy, Judge Dee puzzles over a double-murder of a young student and a dancer. Orginally published in 1968, this is the last of Van Gulik's many books based on the life of a ancient Chinese magistrate. (CHN294, $12.00)
Popular China, Unoffical Culture in a Globalizing Society • Paul G. Pickowicz • Richard P. Madsen • Perry Link CULTURAL PORTRAIT • 2002 • PAPER • 336 PAGES A reader on manifestations of popular culture in contemporary China, including chapters by both Chinese and western contributors. A typical essay is entitled "The Rich, the Laid-off, and the Criminal in Tabloid Tales: Read All about It!" Other topics addressed include obsession with basketball, music, sexuality, and domestic violence. (CHN259, $34.95)
Precious Records, Women in China's Long Eighteenth Century • Susan Mann HISTORY • 1997 • PAPER • 368 PAGES Respected scholar Mann seeks to give voice to the underrepresented women of Qing China. (CHN139, $27.95)
The Private Life of Chairman Mao, The Memoirs of Mao's Personal Physician • Dr. Li Zhisui BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR • 1996 • PAPER • 682 PAGES 22 years in the life of Mao Tse Tung (and communist China), as seen through the eyes of his doctor. Dr. Li Zhisui offers insight into his own life, Mao's life and the state of China from the 1950's to the 1970's in this historical memoir. (CHN100, $22.95)
The Promise • Pearl S. Buck LITERATURE • 1997 • PAPER • 256 PAGES A novel set in China and Burma during World War II, focused around a group of Chinese soldiers sent to rescue a British-American platoon. (CHN660, $11.95)
The Promise of the Revolution • Daniel B. Wright CULTURAL PORTRAIT • 2003 • PAPER • 216 PAGES Subtitled "Stories of Fulfillment and Struggle in China's Hinterland," this book depicts the hardships and few economic triumphs of the people of Guizhou, a severely impoverished region of China. (CHN258, $29.95)
Raise The Red Lantern • Yimou Zhang CULTURAL PORTRAIT • 2007 • DVD Starring the young Gong Li, this stunning photographed portrait of China at the beginning of the 20th century follows the fate of a 19-year-old woman, forced to leave college and become the fourth wife of a powerful, feudal nobleman. Chinese master Zhang Yimou directed the opening cenemonies at the Beijin Olympics. 125 minutes. (CHN575, $19.98)
The Rape of Nanking, The Forgotten Holocaust of World War II • Iris Chang HISTORY • 1998 • PAPER • 290 PAGES Chang's account of the 1937 massacre of an estimated 250,000 Chinese civilians by the Japanese is related with honesty and interspersed with shocking statistics. Going beyond the horror of the Japanese invasion, Chang also investigates the reactions of other countries during the Second World War to this "forgotten Holocaust," addressing also the continued Japanese denial that the events in Nanking ever took place. (CHN272, $16.00)
Red Azalea • Anchee Min BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR • 2006 • PAPER • 336 PAGES Born in 1957, novelist Min (Empress Orchid, Becoming Madame Mao) recounts coming-of-age in the final years under Mao's in this compelling memoir. Her time spent performing physical labor on Red Fire Farm is conveyed in a direct manner, illustrating the brutality of the time and the resilience of Min and others under oppression. (CHN273, $15.00)
Red China Blues, My Long March from Mao to Now • Jan Wong BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR • 1997 • PAPER • 368 PAGES A Beijing correspondent from 1988-1994, Jan Wong first traveled to China in 1972 at the height of the cultural revolution, a wide-eyed 19-year-old rebel from Canada in love with the ideas of Mao. The first half of this eye-opening, laugh-out-loud memoir tells of her experiences in the "hermetically sealed bubble of Maoism" as one of two westerners to attend Beijing University. The second half of the book is a first-hand account of the recent era of reform in China. Told with finely honed irony, it gives us what the "New York Times" review called "front row seats at Mao's Theater of the Absurd." (CHN37, $15.95)
Red Dust, A Path Through China • Ma Jian • Flora Drew TRAVEL NARRATIVE • 2002 • PAPER • 324 PAGES An astounding, thoughtful memoir of an urban poet, painter and writer on the road to Tibet in the mid-1980s. At low ebb personally, and censured by his propaganda work unit, 30-year-old Ma Jian abandons his disintegrating life in Beijing for a remarkable three-year trek south and west to Guizhou province, Burma and Tibet. This first-rate account offers a vibrant portrait of Deng's People's Republic of China, and an extremely useful testimonial to the plight of Chinese artists therein. With kudos by Barbara Crossette, Jonathan Spence and others, this first book by Jian, who now lives in London, is drawing a lot of attention. (CHN150, $16.00)
Red Mandarin Dress • Qiu Xiaolong MYSTERY • 2009 • PAPER • 310 PAGES Qiu's fifth Inspector Chen mystery pits the unflappable detective against a serial killer who clothes his victims in red mandarin dresses and leaves the bodies in public places. As always, the turbulence and corruption of 1990s Shanghai provides an evocative backdrop. (CHN458, $13.95)
The Red Pavilion • Robert Van Gulik MYSTERY • 2005 • PAPER • 185 PAGES These historical mysteries, featuring a Tang-era Chinese magistrate, are taken from the tradition of Chinese suspense novels. Apart from the pleasure of the elaborate plots, the books are rich in details of court and daily life in ancient China. In this book, Judge Dee meets up with Autumn Moon, the most powerful courtesan on Paradise Island. (CHN287, $12.00)
Red Star Over China • Edgar R. Snow HISTORY • 1973 • PAPER • 543 PAGES A classic history of communism in China by the groundbreaking journalist who reported from Asia for most of his career, originally published in 1938. Snow, who was the first western reporter to meet Mao, delivers a personal account of the early days of communism and its leaders. (CHN201, $16.50)
Religions of China in Practice • Donald S. Lopez Jr. RELIGION • 1996 • PAPER • 472 PAGES An anthology of original teachings, writing and commentary on the three religions of China: Confucianism, Daoism and Buddhism, with a focus on how they overlap and interact with each other. It's an excellent survey for the traveler with an interest in religious practice and history. (CHN127, $42.00)
Religions of China, The World as a Living System • David L. Overmyer RELIGION • 1998 • PAPER • 125 PAGES This brief primer, geared for a general audience, covers the religions of China from early beliefs to Buddhism, Taoism and Confucianism. (CHN154, $11.50)
Remaking Beijing: Tiananmen Square and the Creation of a Political Space • Wu Hung HISTORY • 2005 • PAPER • 272 PAGES Focusing on Tiananmen Square, Hung chronicles its evolution from an ancient Imperial site to a political public space, and its shift from an official socialist beacon to a place for protestors and demonstrators. (CHN415, $35.00)
The Remote Country of Women • Bai Hua LITERATURE • 1994 • PAPER • 376 PAGES Bai Hua alternates the tale of a young Mosuo girl in China's mountainous southwest with the story of a political prisoner in this captivating book. It's a major novel by a prominent contemporary writer in the University of Hawaii's Fiction from Modern China series. The contract between the lyrical, romanticized portrait of minority group and a victim of the Cultural Revolution striking. (CHN310, $24.00)
Rescuing History from the Nation, Questioning Narratives of Modern China • Prasenjit Duara HISTORY • 1996 • PAPER • 286 PAGES Through a series of historical case studies, Duara deftly challenges the linear model of nationalist, postcolonial history. He argues that history must be viewed with a consideration of the agenda of those who constructed it. (CHN424, $27.50)
The Retreat of the Elephants, An Environmental History of China • Mark Elvin NATURAL HISTORY • 2006 • PAPER • 564 PAGES A comprehensive history of environmental change and its impact upon Chinese culture and politics. Mark Elvin has written prolifically on China, and in this book he focuses on the damage done to China's environment through war, modernization and technological developments, including a farming method which drove the elephant out of its natural habitat. Elvin draws on diverse literature to trace changes over the course of 3,000 years. (CHN221, $24.00)
Return to Dragon Mountain • Jonathan D. Spence LITERATURE • 2008 • PAPER • 352 PAGES Spence offers a compelling literary-biographic study of Zhang Dai, one of the finest historians and essayists of China's Ming dynasty, chronicling his life from his birth in 1597 to the Manchu invasion of 1644, when Dai's family lost their fortunes. (CHN430, $16.00)
Return to the Middle Kingdom, One Family, Three Revolutions, and the Birth of Modern China • Yuan-tsun Chen BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR • 2007 • HARD COVER • 432 PAGES In the spirit of Wild Swans, Yuan-Tsung Chen has crafted a political history of modern China through the story of three generations of revolutionaries. (CHN449, $27.99)
Rickshaw Boy • She Lao LITERATURE • 2010 • PAPER • 300 PAGES A beautiful new translation of beloved Lao She's masterpiece of social realism. Xiangzi, an honest country boy, dreams of owning a rickshaw like the one he pulls in Beijing, but his plans are thwarted time and time again in this darkly comic look at a life on the margins of society in 20th-century China. (CHN631, $14.99)
Riding the Iron Rooster • Paul Theroux TRAVEL NARRATIVE • 2006 • PAPER • 528 PAGES An account of utterly exhausting, exasperating travels mostly by rail throughout China for an entire year. Not surprisingly, this is one of Mr. Theroux's testier books. He does, however, travel to every corner of the huge country, including memorable passages on Mongolia, Xinjiang, Manchuria and Tibet (where he ended his journey). Theroux combines offhand observation, telling detail, interviews and snatches of history. Once you get past the lack of heat and hygiene, seedy hotels and Theroux's grumbling, this book is a finely detailed portrait of the diversity of Chinese landscapes and people. (CHN133, $15.95)
The Rise of Modern China • Immanuel C.Y. Hsu HISTORY • 1997 • PAPER • 976 PAGES A comprehensive, scholarly history of China from the 17th century through the present. Hsu examines economic and social institutions, internal and international affairs, and political and intellectual movements. (CHN62, $69.95)
The River Dragon Has Come!: The Three Gorges Dam and the Fate of China's Yangtze River and Its People • Dai Qing • Philip Williams • John G. Thibodeau • Ming Yi CULTURAL PORTRAIT • 1998 • PAPER • 240 PAGES This collection of articles on the environmental and social consequences of the project, which includes both western and Chinese contributors, played an important role in focusing the debate over the dam. A publication of Probe International, a conservation group based in Toronto. (CHN61, $29.95)
River Town, Two Years on the Yangtze • Peter Hessler BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR • 2006 • PAPER • 432 PAGES Hessler's compelling, personal account of life as a Peace Corps volunteer in Fuling, where foreigners are a curiosity, explores the culture, traditions and ideas of an isolated world. Fuling is located on the Yangtze in Sichuan, which was partially submerged with t (CHN125, $14.99)
Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Volume I • Lo Kuan-Chung • C.H. Brewitt-Taylor LITERATURE • 2003 • PAPER • 992 PAGES First published in the 14th-century, this epic saga is a compilation of fact and fiction based on ancient storytelling traditions. It's a fantastic tale of heroes and villains, monsters and wizards, fighting for the control of China during the last days of the Han Dynasty (150 AD). Much of the action centers on the middle and upper Yangtze -- and some familiarity with the rival kingdoms of Wei, Shu and Wu will much enhance your appreciation of a voyage along its banks. You know you are in for an epic saga when the 1,250-page story kicks off with this sentence: "Empires wax and wane; states cleave asunder and coalesce." Volume II is also available (CHN213). (CHN212, $28.00)
Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Volume II • Lo Kuan-Chung • C.H. Brewitt-Taylor LITERATURE • 2003 • PAPER • 992 PAGES The second book in the epic tale of the collapse of the Han Empire in 220 A.D. Volume I is also available (CHN212). First published in the 14th-century, this saga is a compilation of fact and fiction based on ancient storytelling traditions. It's a fantastic tale of heroes and villains, monsters and wizards, fighting for the control of China during the last days of the Han Dynast). Much of the action centers on the middle and upper Yangtze -- and some familiarity with the rival kingdoms of Wei, Shu and Wu will much enhance your appreciation of a voyage along its banks. (CHN213, $35.95)
Rough Guide China • Simon Lewis • David Leffman GUIDEBOOK • 2008 • PAPER • 1284 PAGES A no-nonsense, opinionated travel guide in the British series aimed at independent-minded travelers. In addition to detailed travel infomration, the handbook includes maps, a 60-page cultural and historical overview and a great bibliography. (CHN78, $27.99)
Rough Guide Mandarin Chinese Phrasebook • Rough Guide LANGUAGE & PHRASEBOOKS • 2011 • PAPER • 256 PAGES Whether you want to reserve a hotel room, hire a bicycle or pay the restaurant bill a The Rough Guide Mandarin Chinese Phrasebook will help you all the way. The A-Z English to Mandarin and A-Z Mandarin to English translations will have you speaking the language even before you step off the plane. Practice your pronunciation with 16-pages of additional scenario material; available as downloadable audio files, the scenarios have been recorded by native Mandarin speakers and are compatible to either your computer or iPod. This thoroughly-revised third edition includes a detailed grammar section and a helpful menu and drinks list reader to ensure you always choose the right dish. With this phrasebook in your pocket you are sure to have a great trip! (CHN149, $8.99)
Rough Guide Shanghai • Simon Lewis GUIDEBOOK • 2008 • PAPER • 224 PAGES A compact, practical guide to the city, jammed with maps, site plans, suggested sightseeing and recommended restaurants and hotels. (CHN488, $27.50)
The Sand Pebbles • Richard McKenna LITERATURE • 2000 • PAPER • 624 PAGES Life aboard U.S. Navy gunboat on the Yangtze River in the early 20th century is the focus of this reprint of a now-classic novel; it follows mate Jake Holman, stationed on said gunboat. Steve McQueen starred as Holman in the terrific 1966 movie. (CHN147, $24.95)
The Search for Modern China • Jonathan Spence HISTORY • 1999 • PAPER • 992 PAGES A sweeping history of China including events until 1999, geared for the general reader. With maps, charts and black-and-white photographs. (CHN98, $59.65)
The Selected Poems of T'ao Ch'ien • David Hinton LITERATURE • 1993 • PAPER • 92 PAGES A portrait of the mountain and landscapes of peasant China and the pleasures of rural life by the great poet, ably rendered into contemporary English by David Hinton. A revered figure, T'ao Ch'ien (365-427 A.D.) writes with immediacy of his direct experience, which makes his poems seem remarkably modern. (CHN315, $11.00)
Selected Stories of Lu Hsun • Hsun Lu • William Lyell LITERATURE • 1975 • PAPER • 255 PAGES A collection of 18 stories by an important modern Chinese writer (1881-1936), including "A Madman's Diary." (CHN122, $15.95)
Serve the People, A Stir-fried Journey Through China • Jen Lin-liu FOOD • 2009 • PAPER • 352 PAGES Lin-Liu gives a memorable and mouthwatering cook's tour of today's China, making her way from cooking student to noodle-stall and dumpling-house apprentice to intern at a chic Shanghai restaurant. (CHN483, $21.95)
The Seventy Wonders of the Ancient World • Chris Scarre ARCHAEOLOGY • 1999 • HARD COVER • 304 PAGES A comprehensive, illustrated overview of the great monuments of the ancient world, much expanded from the original seven wonders to include other significant structures. With a dual focus on the monuments themselves and how they were built, the book includes among others: Petra, the Giza plateau, the Parthenon, Abu Simbel, Nazca, Easter Island, and the Great Wall. With maps, "fact files," diagrams, and photographs. (GEN92, $40.00)
The Sextants of Beijing, Global Currents in Chinese History • Joanna Waley-Cohen HISTORY • 2000 • PAPER • 322 PAGES This accessible history of China from the days of the Silk Road to the present describes a civilization more open and engaged with the rest of the world than often believed. Whether in trade, religious belief, ideology or technology, China has long taken part in exchange with other cultures. (CHN356, $17.95)
Shadow Magic • Ann Hu 2001 • DVD In Beijing in 1902, a young Chinese photographer's friendship with a newly arrived Englishman complicates his relationship with his family. Despite their cultural conflicts, the two are united by their exciting work with photography's newest technology: motion pictures. Run time of 115 minutes. (CHN325, $29.95)
Shadow of the Bear, Travels in Their Vanishing Country • Brian Payton NATURAL HISTORY • 2006 • HARD COVER • 256 PAGES Payton recounts the journeys he made on four continents to view all eight remaining species of bears. (NAT100, $25.95)
Shanghai Map • Periplus Maps MAP A map of Shanghai, at a scale of 1:15,000. Main streets shown in both English and Chinese (good for directing taxis!). Two Sides. 20x28 inches. (CHN90, $8.95)
Shanghai Modern, The Flowering of a New Urban Culture in China, 1930-1945 • Leo Ou-Fan Lee HISTORY • 1999 • PAPER • 416 PAGES A scholarly look at Chinese urban culture in pre-war Shanghai. Analyzing the literature, cinema, art and architecture of the period, Lee creates an insightful portrait of Chinese modernity. (CHN64, $34.00)
Shanghai, The Rise and Fall of the Decadent City 1842-1949 • Stella Dong HISTORY • 2001 • PAPER • 318 PAGES An entertaining, well researched history of the personalities, backroom shenanigans, drug-dealing, prostitution of what was once "the most pleasure-mad, rapacious, corrupt, strife-ridden, licentious, squalid and decadent city in the world." (CHN128, $15.99)
Shenzhen, A Travelogue from China • Guy Delisle LITERATURE • 2006 • HARD COVER DeLisle captures the Alice-in-Wonderland quality of capitalist-communist China with wit and jazzy shaded-pencil snapshots in this graphic novel/travelogue of his time in South China. A French-Canadian cartoonist, DeLisle has worked for a French animation company in Nanjing, South China and North Korea (recounted in his Pyongyang: A Journey in North Korea). (CHN379, $19.95)
The Shorter Science and Civilisation in China, Volume 1 • Joseph Needham • Colin A. Ronan HISTORY • 1978 • PAPER • 337 PAGES The first entry in a multi-volume history of science and engineering in China, covering up through the medieval period. This is an abridged version of the original text, but it still provides a detailed overview. (CHN120, $75.00)
Shower • Zhang Yang CULTURAL PORTRAIT • 2000 • DVD In this film by Zhang, a succesful Shenzhen businessman reluctantly returns to his childhood home in Beijing when he hears his father has died. When he discovers that his father is in fact alive, he is forced to reexamine his relationships with his father and brother and the decisions that have kept him away from home for so long. (CHN326, $29.95)
The Silk Road Journey with Xuanzang • Sally Wriggins TRAVEL NARRATIVE • 2003 • PAPER • 352 PAGES A nicely illustrated account of an extraordinary, 16-year trek from Xi'an to India by way of Central Asia in search of the origins of Buddhism by Xuan-Zang, the famous 7th-century Chinese monk. Modern travelers will find the descriptions of Buddhist sites and shrines of much interest, including the original accounts of Dunhuang, Samarkand the now-obliterated Buddhas of Bamiyan in Afghanistan. With maps and photographs. (ASA31, $25.00)
The Silk Roads, A Route and Planning Guide • Paul Wilson GUIDEBOOK • 2011 • PAPER • 447 PAGES A compact, practical guide to the network of ancient trade routes extending from Turkey and the Mideast across Central Asia to China. With 50 maps and town plans. Excerpts from the book and others in the British series are online at www.trailblazer-guides.com. The book is a revised and expanded version of Silk Route by Rail. (CAS21, $24.95)
Six Records of a Floating Life • Shen Fu • Leonard Pratt • Chiang Su-Hui BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR • 1983 • PAPER • 176 PAGES First published in 1809, Shen Fu's famous recounting of his life during the Ching dynasty in China gives a candid look at the social customs and cultural traditions of that era. It is also a tender love story. (CHN275, $14.00)
Sky Burial, An Epic Love Story of Tibet • Xinran LITERATURE • 2006 • PAPER • 206 PAGES Xinran turns the tale of a young Chinese woman's lifelong search for her husband in Tibet, based on an 1994 interview, into a powerful, gut-wrenching tale, evoking the customs, traditions and challenges of contemporary Tibet. Shu Wen's story intersects with some of the darker moments in Chinese history, including the years under Mao's rule and the invasion of Tibet by the People's Liberation Army. (CHN282, $14.95)
The Small Woman • Alan Burgess BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR • 1996 • HARD COVER • 221 PAGES A biography of Gladys Aylward, a missionary responsible for leading more than 500 children over the mountains of northern China to safety during the Japanese occupation of World War II. (CHN77, $35.95)
Snow Flower and the Secret Fan • Lisa See LITERATURE • 2011 • PAPER • 304 PAGES Set in 19th-century Hunan, Lisa See's bestselling novel follows the friendship and fate of two Chinese women, separated by age and class, over 80 years. (CHN393, $15.00)
Song and Silence, Ethnic Revival on China's Southwest Borders • Sara L. M. Davis CULTURAL PORTRAIT • 2005 • PAPER • 160 PAGES A well-researched and lucidly written examination of the complex interplay between Han Chinese and Beijing and the increasingly vulnerable minority communities in the Himalayan foothills of Southern Yunnan. Sara L. M. Davis, an ethnographer with Human Rights Watch, and reveals how Tai Lue (Dai) are keeping their Buddhist cultural alive and maintaining cross-border contacts in Thailand, Burma, and Laos. (CHN311, $28.00)
The Soong Dynasty • Sterling Seagrave HISTORY • 1986 • PAPER • 560 PAGES The epic story of the Soong family, one the most powerful and influential in 20th-century China. This well researched book often reads more like fiction than history, as it peels back layers of political and familial intrigue. (CHN114, $18.99)
Soul Mountain • Gao Xingjian LITERATURE • 2001 • PAPER • 510 PAGES This meditative novel by the Nobel-Prize winning Chinese dissident is Xingian's most personal work, set during the horrors of the Cultural Revolution. (CHN345, $15.99)
South of the Clouds, Exploring the Hidden Realms of China • Seth Faison BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR • 2004 • HARD COVER • 288 PAGES Faison covers people, events, discoveries and experiences from his first visit to China as a student in 1984 to the Tiananmen Square massacre and his time as NY Times bureau chief in Shanghai in this candid, personable and informative memoir. He sets his own tale of discovery and development as a reporter and person against the backdrop of China. One can only imagine that the hidden realms of the title include Faison's forays in gay and transgendered China. Nominated for the Kiriyama Prize (CHN241, $25.95)
South of the Clouds, Tales from Yunnan • Lucien Miller ANTHOLOGY • 1997 • PAPER • 342 PAGES Featuring memorable tales from throughout the Yunnan Province, this book showcases 54 wonderfully insightful and entertaining stories. The collection also includes an overview of the places and people of Yunnan. It is an excellent introduction to the province. (CHN45, $32.95)
Spring Moon, A Novel of China • Bette Bao Lord LITERATURE • 1994 • PAPER • 592 PAGES A big, multi-generational saga of late 19th and 20th century China. The turmoil of the era is seen through the eyes of Spring Moon, the pampered yet headstrong daughter of an aristocratic family. (CHN187, $7.99)
The State of China Atlas • Robert Benewick • Stephanie Donald REFERENCE • 2009 • PAPER • 128 PAGES A survey of social, political and economic indicators, boldy presented in colorful maps. It's a visual synopsis of change in China. (CHN68, $19.95)
Streetlife China • Michael Dutton ANTHOLOGY • 1999 • PAPER • 320 PAGES A scholarly collection of essays about the realities of living in modern-day China. The book covers a wide range of social, cultural and political subjects, and its focus lies in the changing concept of human rights and how it differs in the Eastern and Western societies. By examining such minute phenomena as the advent of tattoos in Chinese popular culture and broader issues like the effects of Mao Zedong on modern life, the book presents a comprehensive picture of the contemporary society told from a multitude of perspectives. (CHN222, $36.00)
Sustainable Energy in China, The Closing Window of Opportunity • Noureddine Berrah HISTORY • 2007 • PAPER • 273 PAGES The 2007 World Bank report on China's energy policy. (CHN454, $45.00)
T'Ang China, The Rise of the East in World History • Samuel Adrian M. Adshead HISTORY • 2004 • PAPER • 256 PAGES A history of the T'ang period, one of China's acknowledged golden ages. (CHN432, $39.00)
Taiwan and Taipei Map • ITMB 2000 • MAP A full color travelers map with the city of Taipei on one side and all of Taiwan on the other at a scale of 1:386,000. One Side. 39x27 inches. (TWN03, $12.95)
Taiwan, A New History • Murray A. Rubinstein HISTORY • 2006 • PAPER • 576 PAGES Rubenstein and academic colleagues from North America, Europe, and Asia cover the geographic setting, politics, society and culture of Taiwan, and especially its relationship to China, in a series of related essays in this scholarly history. (TWN01, $45.95)
The Talented Women of the Zhang Family • Susan Mann HISTORY • 2007 • PAPER • 322 PAGES Drawing on the journals and poetry of three generations of literary women in the Zhang family, historian Mann provides a new perspective on life in 19th-century China. (CHN461, $26.95)
Tales of a Chinese Grandmother • Malthe Hasselriis • Frances Carpenter LITERATURE • 1991 • PAPER • 261 PAGES Stories within stories, this engaging book is not quite a novel, nor quite a collection of folktales. Written in 1937 by a westerner who had traveled throughout China, the book details daily life in the Ling household "many years ago, before new ways came to the Flowery Kingdom of China". Presiding over the household is Grandmother Ling, who tells her grandchildren the 27 folktales which form the bulk of this book. Forgive the author's somewhat antiquated ethnographic tendencies, and you'll find this a charming, attic treasure of a read. (CHN156, $8.95)
Tao Te Ching • D. C. Lao • RELIGION • 1985 • PAPER • 131 PAGES Fourth-century B. C. classic by the Taoist poet Lao Tzu. Tao Te Ching has been translated more than any other work, and D. C. Lao's stark, lyrical poetry renders both the complexity and simplicity of the original thought. (CHN243, $10.00)
Terra Cotta Warriors, Guardians of China's First Emperor • Jane Portal ART & ARCHITECTURE • 2008 • HARD COVER • 96 PAGES The companion to the most extensive traveling exhibition on the terra cotta army in recent years, this book provides stunning photographs of Emperor Qin's tomb, sometimes called the 8th wonder of the world. It gives a sense of the scope and grandeur of this monument. (CHN519, $14.95)
The Terracotta Army of the First Emperor of China • William Lindesay HISTORY • 2008 • PAPER • 32 PAGES Lindesay augments colorful illustrations and photographs with detailed captions in this concise visual overview of the extraordinary tomb of Qin Shi Huangdi, First Emperor of China. (CHN126, $12.95)
A Thousand Years of Good Prayers, Stories • Yiyun Li LITERATURE • 2006 • PAPER • 219 PAGES In this elegant debut collection of stories set in both China and America by Chinese-American author Li, mythology, politics, history and culture intermingle in surprising yet inevitable ways. Features the story "Immortality," about a man who finds his calling because of his resemblance to the dictator, winner the Paris Review's Plimpton Prize for new writers. (CHN668, $15.00)
The Three Faces of Chinese Power: Might, Money, and Minds • David M. Lampton CULTURAL PORTRAIT • 2008 • PAPER • 384 PAGES Clear, comprehensive, and well-balanced, this assessment takes the measure of what is arguably the most important geopolitical development in today's world: the growth of China's power. (CHN541, $26.95)
Three Kingdoms, A Historical Novel • Lo Kuan Chung • Moss Roberts ANTHOLOGY • 1990 • PAPER • 500 PAGES First published in the 14th-century, this epic saga is a compilation of fact and fiction based on ancient storytelling traditions. It's a fantastic tale of heroes and villains, monsters and wizards, fighting for the control of China during the last days of the Han Dynasty (150 AD). Much of the action centers on the middle and upper Yangtze -- and some familiarity with the rival kingdoms of Wei, Shu and Wu will much enhance your appreciation of a voyage along its banks. This abridged edition is translated and edited by Moss Roberts, who also translated the full three-volume edition. (CHN57, $28.95)
Three Thousand Years of Chinese Painting • Richard Barnhart • Yang Xin ART & ARCHITECTURE • 2002 • PAPER • 400 PAGES An oversize, nicely illustrated survey of Chinese art traditions with contributions by leading specialists and 300 well chosen color illustrations. Wu Hung, a professor at the University of Chicago, contributed the chapter on the earliest period, including a good overview of the caves at Dunhuang. (CHN152, $55.00)
Three Ways of Thought in Ancient China • Arthur Waley RELIGION • 1982 • PAPER • 216 PAGES An elegantly written, classic introduction to traditional Chinese philosophy. Waley, who provides lyrical translations, discusses three great threads in this slim book: Daoism, Realism and the writings of Meniscus (closely related to Confucianism). Originally published in 1953, Waley's entertaining anecdotes, evident humor and aphorisms, enliven the text. The first section is entitled In the Realm of Nothing Whatever. (CHN164, $18.95)
Thunder from the East, Portrait of a Rising Asia • Nicholas Kristoff • Sheryl WuDunn CULTURAL PORTRAIT • 2000 • PAPER • 377 PAGES From the pens of a husband-and-wife team of Pulitzer Prize-winning correspondents for the "New York Times," comes a study of the changing face of Asia's economy and culture. It's an ambituous book, organized thematically with alternating chapters by Kristoff and WuDunn. The book combines interviews, newspaper-style profiles, statistics and anecdote. (ASA24, $15.95)
Thunder Out of China • Theodore H. White • Annalee Jacoby • Harrison Salisbury HISTORY • 1980 • PAPER • 331 PAGES A classic account of the revolutionary developments in China in the years surrounding World War II, highly readbale and illuminating. Originally published in 1946. (CHN113, $16.50)
Time Out Shanghai • Time Out GUIDEBOOK • 2008 • PAPER • 310 PAGES An up-to-date guide on what to do and where to go by the people who publish Time Out Magazine. (CHN309, $19.95)
To Live • Yimou Zhang CULTURAL PORTRAIT • 1994 • DVD A moving film which follows one family from the 1940s through the 1960s in China. The two protagonists, a husband and wife, constantly struggling with poverty, become dedicated Communists during the reign of Mao Zedong and witness the devastating effects of the Cultural Revolution. The director Zhang Yimou was forced by the Chinese government to write a formal apology and banned from making another film for two years following the release of this honest and politically important work. (CHN227, $19.98)
To Live • Yu Hua LITERATURE • 2003 • PAPER • 256 PAGES Yu Hua's moving novel tells the story of an impoverished couple who become dedicated Communists during the reign of Mao Zedong and witness the devastating effects of the Cultural Revolution. The book has been adapted into an acclaimed motion picture by director Zhang Yimou. (CHN408, $15.00)
To the Edge of the Sky • Anhua Gao BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR • 2003 • HARD COVER • 398 PAGES This jolting memoir will make you wonder about the pasts of the people we meet in China: the bathroom attendants, clerks, or teachers -- where did they spend the 1960s and 70s? What have they survived? Anhua Gao offers her own story as a clue to millions of other, unrecorded lives. She tells of her life in Nanjing, beginning with her privileged but too few early years as the daughter of two "revolutionary martyrs", continuing through disillusionment, imprisonment and worse, up to her emigration to England in middle age. Some of the book's events are familiar from histories and other memoirs (like Wild Swans), but they don't affect one any less for that. (CHN190, $27.95)
To the Storm, The Odyssey of a Revolutionary Chinese Woman • Yue Daiyun • Carolyn Wakeman BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR • 1987 • PAPER • 300 PAGES The heartrending tale of a professor of literature at Beijing University, accused of being a right-wing supporter in 1957 and relocated to a rural peasant commune in order to "correct" her political views. (CHN254, $26.95)
A Traveller's History of China • Stephen G. Haw HISTORY • 2008 • PAPER • 310 PAGES An admirably brief, lively history of China (including a chronology, list of dynasties, historical gazeteer and index), remarkably clear and necessarily condensed. It's an engaging overview covering the full range of China's history through the 1990s. (CHN43, $14.95)
Travels in the East • Donald Richie • Stephen Mansfield TRAVEL NARRATIVE • 2007 • PAPER • 180 PAGES The unmatchable, exuberant Richie (who winningly writes "New countries are like new clothes") muses on Egypt, India, Bhutan, Mongolia, China, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, Borneo, Thailand, Yap, Korea, and Japan in this kaleidoscope of travel essays. (ASA63, $14.95)
Travels with Myself and Another, A Memoir • Martha Gellhorn TRAVEL NARRATIVE • 2001 • PAPER • 304 PAGES The "Another" of this title (also known as the unwilling companion), was Gellhorn's husband at the time, Ernest Hemingway. Her witty account of worldwide travels is a classic of unexpected encounters and sharp description. She's a marvelous, incisive writer who covered every important conflict from from the Spanish Civil War to Vietnam and Nicaragua. The book includes an uncomfortable journey to visit with Chiang Kai-Shek, a remarkbale look at dysfunctional Moscow, and escapades with Hemingway in East Africa. Originally published in 1979. Gellhorn died in 1998 at the age of eighty-nine. (TVL25, $15.95)
Twenty Fragments of a Ravenous Youth • Xiaolu Guo LITERATURE • 2009 • PAPER • 176 PAGES The tale of tough, sprightly heroine Fenfang Wang's comiing of age in contemporary Beijing. (CHN514, $14.00)
Typhoon • Charles Cumming LITERATURE • 2011 • PAPER • 397 PAGES Cummings (recruited himself into the British secret service) conjures a whole world in this spy thriller set in contemporary Shanghai, Hong Kong and Beijing. (CHN607, $14.99)
Under Fishbone Clouds • Sam Meekings LITERATURE • 2010 • HARD COVER • 410 PAGES Narrated by the Kitchen God (Zao Jun) of Chinese mythology, this captivating historical novel tells a love story that takes place before, during and after China's Cultural Revolution. Meekings, a talented young English writer, based the main characters of the book on his Chinese wife's real grandparents. (CHN684, $24.99)
Understanding China, Center Stage of the Fourth Power • Yanan Ju CULTURAL PORTRAIT • 1996 • PAPER • 181 PAGES A volume in the Suny Series in International Management. (CHN337, $29.95)
Visiting China's Past, a Guide to Sites and Resources • Robert L. Thorp GUIDEBOOK • 2006 • PAPER • 240 PAGES In 24 short essays, Professor Robert Thorp takes the reader on a guided tour of some of the most important archaeological discoveries in China of the last century. These sites start with the "cave home" of Peking Man near Beijing and conclude with the tomb of the Wanli emperor (d. 1620) in the Ming valley north of the capital. While some of these sites were always known, if not excavated, many of these finds opened new chapters in Chinese history, art, and culture. Almost all are listed on the national register maintained by the State Administration of Cultural Heritage, and five are also inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage list. Physical setting, plan and structure, contents, and dating of each entry are laid out in clear prose with helpful maps, plans, and line art. Related discoveries and sites, including those in other areas, are introduced as well, and recommended readings take interested readers into each topic in greater depth. (CHN421, $24.95)
Waiting • Ha Jin LITERATURE • 2000 • PAPER • 308 PAGES A spare, haunting story of of an ineffectual military doctor who tries for 18 years to divorce his peasant wife so he can marry a more sophisticated nurse at his military hospital. Along the way, the story is greatly evocative of quotidian life in China during the Cultural Revolution and after. Though the main characters are not all that likeable, and the story is somewhat tragic, Ha Jin succeeds utterly in communicating the travails of finding love in China during these years. Winner of the National Book Award. (CHN80, $15.00)
Wallpaper Beijing • Wallpaper Magazine Editors GUIDEBOOK • 2007 • PAPER • 120 PAGES A stylish, thin (it fits in your back pocket) city guide compiled by the design magazine Wallpaper's local reporters. Well-organized, with chapter tabs, many photographs and of-the-moment recommendations. (CHN602, $8.95)
Wallpaper City Guide Shanghai • Wallpaper Magazine GUIDEBOOK • 2012 • PAPER A stylish, thin (it fits in your back pocket) city guide compiled by the design magazine Wallpaper's local reporters. Well-organized, with chapter tabs, many photographs and of-the-moment recommendations. (CHN361, $9.95)
Wang in Love and Bondage • Wang Xiaobo LITERATURE • 2008 • PAPER • 155 PAGES The first English translation of Wang Xiaobo (1952-97), one of 20th-century China's most important writer, these three novellas show the wry humor and irreverence of the novelist and commentator. (CHN569, $19.95)
When China Rules the World • Martin Jacques HISTORY • 2010 • PAPER • 576 PAGES Jacques's readable, up-to-date analysis offers provocative answers to some of the most pressing questions about China's growing place on the world stage. (CHN608, $29.95)
When Red is Black • Qiu Xiaolong MYSTERY • 2005 • PAPER • 320 PAGES The third installment in the Inspector Chen series, this is the best-known of Qiu's compelling, subversive tales, steeped in the atmosphere and culture Shanghai. (CHN411, $15.00)
Where Shanghai Cityguide • Where Magazine GUIDEBOOK • 2008 • HARD COVER • 64 PAGES A sturdy pocket guide to city neighborhoods, hotels, shops, restaurants, entertainment venues, cultural events and other top sights, helpfully keyed to overview maps and featuring a detailed downtown PopOut map. (CHN442, $9.95)
Wild China • BBC Video NATURAL HISTORY • 2008 • DVD The stunning six-part documentary series, co-produced by the BBC and China Central Television, ranges from the rice paddies and rare primates of South China to spactacular Yunnan, the Tibetan plateau, Uygur desert, Qinling Mountain home of the giant panda and the rivers, estuaries and coral reefs of China's diverse coast. With splendour, scale and romance, Journey across China from the glittering peaks of the Himalayas to the barren steppe, the sub-Arctic to the tropical islands, through deserts both searingly hot and mind-numbingly cold and see, in pioneering images, a dazzling array of mysterious, beautiful, wild and rare creatures. This 2-disc DVD set is a six-part BBC documentary, as shown on the BBC in May 2008. (CHN529, $29.98)
Wild China, The Hidden Wonders of the World's Most Enigmatic Land • Phil Chapman NATURAL HISTORY • 2008 • PAPER • 224 PAGES The companion book to the documentary series produced by BBC, this lavishly illustrated book celebrates the enormous range of habitats and wildlife of China in hundreds of color photographs. (CHN515, $29.95)
Wild Grass, Three Portraits of Change in Modern China • Ian Johnson CULTURAL PORTRAIT • 2005 • PAPER • 336 PAGES Through the stories of a self-educated peasant lawyer, a group of Beijing residents fighting to save their soon to be bulldozed homes, and a member of the Fulan Gong protests, Pulitzer Prize winner Ian Johnson tells what ordinary citizens are doing with the little personal freedom returned to them by the party. (CHN215, $14.95)
Wild West China, The Taming of Xinjiang • Christian Tyler CULTURAL PORTRAIT • 2004 • HARD COVER • 336 PAGES A portrait of the changing face of the Xinjiang region in northwest China. (CHN231, $28.95)
The Willow Pattern • Robert Hans Van Gulik LITERATURE • 2009 • PAPER • 192 PAGES In "The Willow Pattern," the illustrious judge uses his trademark expertise to unravel the mysteries of the nobleman, a shattered vase, and a dead bondmaid. Along the way he encounters a woman who fights with loaded sleeves, a nearly drowned courtesan, and an elaborate trap set for a murderer. (CHN554, $12.00)
The Wisdom of the Buddha • Jean Boisselier RELIGION • 1994 • PAPER • 191 PAGES A pocket-size primer of Buddhism, this book is an illustrated history of the sixth-century Indian prince and his quest for enlightenment. With 207 illustrations, 160 in full color. (IDA55, $12.95)
Wolf Totem • Jiang Rong LITERATURE • 2009 • PAPER • 544 PAGES Defiant, unyielding, feared, hunted and revered, the great Mongolian wolf is the heart and center of Jiang Rong's epic tale of a young man from Beijing and his encounters in this strange, ancient world on the Mongolian steppe. Winner of the first Man Asia Prize and hugely popular in China, it's a stirring epic, allegory and elegy for a vanished way of life with the emotional punch of Arseniev's Dersu the Trapper (SIB24, $16.00). Sent to Olonbulag in the 1969 during the cultural revolution, Rong spent ten year's living among the nomads of north-central Inner Mongolia. (CHN471, $15.00)
A Woman Soldier's Own Story • Xie Bingying • Barry Brissman • Lily Chia BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR • 2001 • HARD COVER • 336 PAGES The first English translation of Xie Bingying's autobiography, published in two installments in China in 1936 and 1946. Xie (1906-2000) chronicles her rebellious youth in pre-Communist China, especially her time as a soldier in the 1920s (fighting the feudal warlords) and 1930s (fighting the Japanese). A feminist, nationalist and polemicist, Xie was -- to put it mildly -- no shrinking violet. Her intensely political memoir reveals the desperate mood in China during the decades leading up to the revolution. Xie's daughter and son-in-law translated. (CHN158, $36.00)
A Woman's Asia • Marybeth Bond ANTHOLOGY • 2005 • PAPER • 310 PAGES These thirty-five personal, often hilarious accounts of women's adventures from China to Sri Lanka to Turkey to Bhutan, not only illuminating the everyday, oft-overlooked cultural practices of Asia, but also giving a glimpse into the thoughts and feelings of the female traveller. Featuring selections from Jan Morris, Pamela Logan and Alison Wright. (ASA49, $17.95)
The World of Khubilai Khan, Chinese Art in the Yuan Dynasty • Jam Watt ART & ARCHITECTURE • 2010 • HARD COVER • 384 PAGES An illustrated study of the art and culture that flourished in China beginning in 1215 with the Mongol invasion and lasting through the Yuan dynasty. (CHN636, $65.00)
World Religions: Eastern Traditions • Willard G. Oxtoby RELIGION • 2010 • PAPER • 515 PAGES A clear and insightful introduction to Eastern religions by a team of scholars. It's a handsomely produced concise overview of Hindu, Jain, Sikh, Buddhist, and East Asian traditions, as rewarding for the general reader as the student. This second edition features additional suggested reading, photographs, glossary and thought-provoking review questions. (ASA07, $79.95)
Wuhu Diary, On Taking My Adopted Daughter Back to Her Hometown in China • Emily Prager TRAVEL NARRATIVE • 2002 • PAPER • 272 PAGES An account of a two-month trip to China in 2001 by an American mother and her adopted Chinese daughter. (CHN210, $13.00)
Xanadu, Marco Polo and Europe's Discovery of the East • John Man EXPLORATION • 2010 • PAPER • 352 PAGES As in his books Genghis Khan and Attila, Man interweaves his own travels with history and biography, this time while tracing Marco Polo's footsteps to Xanadu in search of the true stories behind the legends of Polo's great journey. (EXP84, $15.95)
Yangtze • Philip Wilkinson NATURAL HISTORY • 2005 • HARD COVER • 168 PAGES Weaving together essays on nature, conservation and history, and illustrated with 120 color photographs and maps, Yantgtze is an illuminating portrait of one of the world's great rivers. (CHN320, $40.00)
Yangtze Remembered, The River Beneath the Lake • Linda Butler • Simon Winchester TRAVEL NARRATIVE • 2004 • HARD COVER • 192 PAGES Prize-winning art photographer Linda Butler offers a chronicle of people, places and change along the Yangtze. She visited eight times between 2000 and 2003 to chronicle the effects of the flooding of the great river's Three Gorges region in luminous black-and-white images. With an introduction by Simon Winchester and informative accompanying captions and text. The photographs in the book are also a traveling museum exhibition. For more information see lindabutlerphoto.com. (CHN218, $70.00)
A Year Without "Made in China": One Family's True Life Adventure in the Global Economy • Sara Bongiorni BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR • 2007 • HARD COVER • 256 PAGES Bongiorni chronicles with humor and insight her family's year-long boycott of Chinese products, an experiment that requires remarkable creativity and exposes the realities of China's entrenched status in the global economy. (CHN491, $24.95)
The Zen Teachings of Master Lin-Chi • Lin Chi • Burton Watson LITERATURE • 1999 • PAPER • 140 PAGES An important philosopher of Ch'an Buddhism and a forefather of Zen Buddhism, Lin-Chi's recorded sayings from the ninth century are translated here in English for the first time. The sayings are formed into sections that create a philosophical dialogue between teacher and student. (CHN246, $27.00)
Zheng He, Tracing the Epic Voyages of China's Greatest Explorer • Michael Yamashita BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR • 2006 • HARD COVER Ancient Chinese prints and color photographs trace Ming explorer Zheng He's seven journeys that took him to the Indian Ocean, the Middle East, as far as Kenya. Zheng He is reputed to have reached the Americas 70 years before Columbus. (CHN395, $39.95)

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