Ancient China, Life, Myth And Art  •  Edward L. Shaughnessy HISTORY •  2005 •  PAPER  • 144 PAGES A brief survey of the artistic, social, cultural, scientific, mathematic, musical, and literary achievements of ancient China. Shaughnessy presents, through informed text, 80 photographs and 30 illustrations, Buddhist cave paintings, the Terracotta Army, examples of calligraphy and silks, and many more fine examples of the marvels of the ancient Chinese world. (CHN285, $23.00)
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)
The Arts of China  •  Michael Sullivan ART & ARCHITECTURE •  2008 •  PAPER  • 352 PAGES • COMING IN DECEMBER A comprehensive survey of Chinese visual arts -- and culture -- through the ages. It's a lively overview, thoroughly illustrated and accessible, covering bronzes, lacquer, ceramics, painting and architecture, from the Neolithic to the modern. With 380 illustrations, half in color. This is the fourth edition of Sullivan's popular textbook, equally appropriate for the serious traveler or general reader. (CHN16, $39.95)
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, $12.95)
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, $18.95)
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)
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)
Culture Smart! Hong Kong  •  Clare Vickers GUIDEBOOK •  2004 •  PAPER  • 168 PAGES A concise, well-illustrated and practical guide to local customs, etiquette and culture. (HKG24, $9.95)
Dragon Lady, The Life and Legend of the Last Empress of China  •  Sterling Seagrave BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR •  1993 •  PAPER  • 601 PAGES (CHN229, $18.95)
Edge of Empires, Chinese Elites and British Colonials in Hong Kong  •  John Carroll HISTORY •  2005 •   • 274 PAGES Carroll looks not just at the political history of British Hong Kong but also at the formation of clubs and associations, trade organizations, commerce and the role of the Chinese in this perceptive cultural study. (HKG25, $44.00)
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)
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)
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)
Fodor's Hong Kong, With Macau and the South China Cities  •  Fodor's Guides GUIDEBOOK •  2009 •  PAPER  • 416 PAGES • COMING IN MARCH A practical guide in the popular series, filled with valuable information on accommodation, shopping, sights, and dining. (HKG38, $19.95)
A Fortune-Teller Told Me, Earthbound Travels in the Far East  •  Tizanio Terzani TRAVEL NARRATIVE •  2002 •  PAPER  • 371 PAGES Grounded for a year, the peripatetic journalist (Italian-born, writing in German, and based in India) sets off by any other means to complete his rounds through Laos, Cambodia, Burma, Thailand, Mongolia, China, Japan and other far-flung destinations. The result is this warm, anecdotal account of the character of the region. It's got to be the book most recommended to us on contemporary Asia. (SEA35, $14.95)
Frommer's Hong Kong  •  Beth Reiber GUIDEBOOK •  2009 •  PAPER  • 352 PAGES • COMING IN FEBRUARY A detailed practical travel guide (with pull-out map), featuring excellent annotated listings of attractions, activities, restaurants, and accomodations. With maps, color photos and suggested excursions. (HKG39, $17.99)
Frommer's Hong Kong Day by Day  •  Alex Ortolani GUIDEBOOK •  2008 •  PAPER  • 172 PAGES A compact shirt pocket guide, ideal for a short visit, featuring remarkably good suggestions for everything from food to hotels, neighborhoods and shopping. With a separate foldout map of the city center. (CHN511, $12.99)
Frommer's Suzy Gershman's Born to Shop Hong Kong, Shanghai & Beijing, The Ultimate Guide for Travelers Who Love To Shop  •  Suzy Gershman GUIDEBOOK •  2005 •  PAPER  • 294 PAGES A guide to shopping for designer labels, contemporary art, lacquer, jade, porcelin and more. (CHN397, $15.99)
Giant Pandas in the Wild, Saving an Endangered Species  •  Lu Zhi NATURAL HISTORY •  2002 •  HARD COVER  • 128 PAGES In this important new book, Dr. Lu Zhi offers an indepth portrait of the giant panda and international conservation efforts to protect the panda and its habitat in China. A researcher since 1985 and former coordinator of WWF's panda program in China, Dr. Zhi chronicles the social lives and population dynamics of 20 individuals in a number of reserves, both in text and photographs. With a foreword by Claude Martin, Director General of WWF-International, and excellent color photos by George Schaller and Lu Zhi. (CHN173, $35.00)
God Lives in St. Petersburg, and Other Stories  •  Tom Bissell LITERATURE •  2006 •  PAPER  • 212 PAGES Bissell (Chasing the Sea) returns to his years in Central Asia as a Peace Corps volunteer in these sharp, witty fictionalized accounts. His six fast-paced tales are set in Kazakhstan, Afghanistan and the Aral Sea. (CAS117, $13.95)
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, $16.00)
In the Mood for Love  •  Kar Wai Wong 2001 •  DVD Set in 1962 Hong Kong, this humble romance tells the story of two neighbors who discover that their spouses are having an affair. Part of the Criterion Collection, in Chinese with subtitles. (HKG20, $39.95)
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)
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, $9.95)
Knopf Mapguide, Hong Kong  •  Knopf Guides GUIDEBOOK •  2005 •  PAPER  • 48 PAGES A practical and handy passport-sized guide to the city, featuring fold-out maps. (HKG30, $9.95)
The Last Emperor  •  Bernardo Bertolucci 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, $14.98)
Look What Came From China!  •  Miles Harvey CULTURAL PORTRAIT •  1999 •  PAPER  • 32 PAGES • YOUNG READERS (Age 4-8) A slim guide to China, its products, animals, food, tools, crafts and inventions, with color photographs and accompanying text. For children ages 4-8. (CHN155, $6.95)
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)
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, 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, $18.95)
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)
Mobil Hong Kong Macau City Guide  •  Mobil Travel Guides GUIDEBOOK •  2008 •  PAPER  • 176 PAGES • COMING IN NOVEMBER Celebrating 50 years, these practical international guides feature the same Mobil star rating system. (HKG40, $17.95)
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, $26.95)
National Geographic Traveler 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 Traveler Hong Kong  •  Phil Macdonald GUIDEBOOK •  2006 •  PAPER  • 272 PAGES A compact guide featuring National Geographic's usual attention to maps and color photography. (HKG37, $22.95)
Odyssey Guide Three Gorges of the Yangtze River  •  Raynor Shaw GUIDEBOOK •  2006 •  PAPER  • 224 PAGES • NEW Compact, illustrated and up-to-date, this detailed guide focuses on the 120-mile-long Three Gorges section of the Yangtzi, including Chongsing, Yichang and Wuhan. With 12 color maps and diagrams. (CHN368, $21.95)
Oracle Bones, A Journey Between China's Past and Present  •  Peter Hessler HISTORY •  2007 •  PAPER  • 512 PAGES • NEW 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. (CHN316, $15.95)
The Painted Veil  •  W. Somerset Maugham LITERATURE •  2004 •  PAPER  • 256 PAGES Somerset's moving novel of love and betrayal set in 1920s China. It tells the story of a beautiful English woman, her hasty marriage to an arrogant doctor, move to Hong Kong, her love affair and subsequent redemption in a remote Chinese village in the midst of a cholera epidemic. The film, released in 2006, stars Edward Norton and Naomi Watts. Greta Garbo and Herbert Marshall starred in the 1934 original. (HKG28, $13.95)
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, $21.95)
A Photographic Guide to the Birds of China  •  John MacKinnon  •  Nigel Hicks FIELD GUIDE •  2001 •  PAPER  • 144 PAGES A slim pocket guide to 252 of the most conspicuous birds of China, featuring color photographs, concise descriptions and range maps. 2nd edition. (CHN29, $15.95)
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)
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)
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, $18.95)
Song for the Blue Ocean, Encounters Along the World's Coasts and Beneath the Seas  •  Carl Safina NATURAL HISTORY •  1999 •  PAPER  • 458 PAGES A grand tour of our blue planet, divided geographically, this book is an excellent resource -- fascinating to read and full of hope. It combines a personal journey, hundreds of interviews with fisherman and scientists around the world, and a tour of important watery habitats. (OCE09, $18.00)
Southern China 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. (CHN27, $10.95)
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, $32.99)
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, $17.95)
To Live  •  Yimou Zhang 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)
Travelers' Tales China  •  James O'Reilly  •  Larry Habegger  •  Sean O'Reilly ANTHOLOGY •  2004 •  PAPER  • 356 PAGES This eclectic compendium reveals China's history and culture as told by its mostly modern travelers. Contributors include Peter Hessler, Mark Salzman, Gretel Ehrlich and Ji-Li Jiang, who provides the introduction. Organized thematically with sections on Essence of China, Some Things to Do and Going Your Own Way. (CHN217, $18.95)
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)
Video Night in Kathmandu, and Other Reports from the Not-So-Far East  •  Pico Iyer TRAVEL NARRATIVE •  1989 •  PAPER  • 376 PAGES A vivid collection of tales on a variety of Asian locales including Bali, Hong Kong, India, China and Bangkok. Iyer brings enormous wit and humor to these essays, which explore the culture of each place. (ASA02, $14.95)
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, $14.95)
Where Hong Kong 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. (HKG34, $9.95)
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, $27.95)
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)
World Religions: Eastern Traditions  •  Willard G. Oxtoby RELIGION •  2002 •  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, $64.95)
Yangzi River Map  •  Richard Perry Hayman 2003 •  MAP A full-color, comprehensive map of the Yangzi River from its source in the Himalayas down to Shanghai and the East China Sea. With color photographs and travel notes. Ten maps are featured in all, including orientation maps of all China, several detailed maps of the Three Gorges area plus the cities of Shanghai, Chongqing, and Wuhan. The 4,000-mile-long course of the river is broken into two main maps of the Upper and Lower Yangzi, each at a 1:1,000,000 scale. The double-sided map, which features hypsometric shaded relief derived from USGS data, unfolds to 27 x 39 inches. (CHN177, $14.95)