Reviews (3)

Lao's review
Although this catalog does not all of the best pieces from the exhibit (most notably absent are the yurts and archery equipment), it does have a good selection of maps ans supporting text for the items that are included.Broken down by time period rather than by object (which for the Nomads of Eurasia and Son of Heaven catalogs proved to be a more useful format) it is nonetheless valuable for its coverage of pieces that have not shown up in any other museum exhibit.

Incredibly insightful!
Thank you for such a wonderfully insightful, beautiful book!It has enhanced my knowledge tremendously of the time period, and is a wonderful addition to my library.I found it to be intelligently written, engaging to the reader, written with a great deal of passion and knowledge.I would recommend this book to anyone who has a love of the arts.Hopefully, the show this was based on might tour again in the future as I would love the opportunity to view these extraordinary pieces described in the book first hand.Thank you again.

Stunning exhibition of little-known Asian art
Opens up an array of artworks known to few in the West (or the East, forthat matter), since North-Asian tribal cultures have long been ratherstigmatized. Lovingly photographed, with quite breathtaking colorreproduction. Informative text. A truly exciting introduction to the artsand archaeological finds of the Asian steppes and "frontier"areas. ... Read more

Book Description

This book is a compelling account of a Chinese woman's journey from dysfunction to wholeness in the company of extraordinary dogs. Every chapter contains gripping, often witty, anecdotes about a different dog as she moves from Asia to America via Europe, each dog progressively moving her forward in the evolution of her soul. Her leash transmutes from tether into lifeline when she discovers and then shares with others, the great gift of the healing power of dogs. The book by King, who has been rescuing abused or abandoned dogs since her own pet was killed five years ago in the American South, blends tragedy and joy in her personal life with the theme of mutualism between humans and animals. Receiving help, she gives help. Every dog launches analyses of various cultures making us reflect on a number of human-animal issues such as the linkage of human violence and animal abuse, racist realities in all cultures, culture shocks in a Chinese family twice uprooted, and problems of marginality. ... Read more

Reviews (8)

An Incredible Journey
An extraordinary story for everyone to read. A wonderful insight into the minds of people and dogs. The true tales of a young woman as she struggles with her heritage, growing up, racial issues and familial acceptance wonderfully combined with touching stories of her true love for dogs. You must read this book!

An eloquent expression of sentiment
The author gives a powerful voice to the often stifled voice of Asians living in strange circumstances. A must read for students of race, class, and gender. Very readable.

ANOTHER CHICKEN SOUP FOR THE PET LOVER'S SOUL
I am interested in animal welfare and Asian culture, so for me a book combining the two is like finding a gem. The way out of an inner struggle is unique as it is admirable. It's wonderful to know that other cultures different from mine, love animals as I do -- maybe even more.

Sensitive and poignant testament of love for dogs
I could not put this book down. The stories about different climes, different dogs, make you want to read on and on at least to finish a chapter, and then to start another after that. They tug at your heartstrings: the little girl whose own grandmother wanted her dumped in a baby "tower" for the vultures, just because she was a girl too many; the other grandmother, the gentle one, the Buddhist who never had a pet in China but finally got one whom she loved too much. Then the remarkable mutt in Paris, who was intensely funny as the French are not. Hey, if one can be reborn again, I'd like to be a dog in Paris. Then, a sad tale of killing a pet by someone who could not accept what is different. This book teaches love for the different and "lowly"..

The book is beyond wonderful and I am in awe!!
The book is a fascinating, colorful, unique collage of all the components that make up the writer's life - then and now. Weaving across and throughout her life is the "karmic" presence and significance of her beloved dogs. I never had a pet in my life, although my sister and her daughters have two huggable, affectionate labradors living with us in our New York apartment, the fact that I love dogs vicariously, even more, through the book, demonstrates how effectively Ms. King has written about this often-overlooked subject matter. If that is not powerful writing, I do not know what is....Her voice is authentic, uncommon and incredibly exquisite...Now that I myself am very much immersed in China, I can appreciate more fully the enigma and "stigma" of being Chinese...The book is beyond wonderful and I am in awe." ... Read more

Book Description

In 1901, the young Winnifred Eaton arrived in New York City with literary ambitions, journalistic experience, and the manuscript for A Japanese Nightingale, the novel that would sell many thousands of copies and make her famous. Hers is a real Horatio Alger story, with fascinating added dimensions of race and gender.

While commercially successful women writers were uncommon a century ago, Winnifred Eaton (1875-1954) cultivated a particular persona to set herself apart even within this rare breed. Born to a British father and a Chinese mother, Winnifred decided to capitalize on her exotic appearance while protecting herself from Americans' scorn of Chinese: she "became" Japanese, assuming the pen name Onoto Watanna. While her eldest sister, Edith Maude Eaton (now acknowledged as the mother of Asian American fiction), was writing stories of downtrodden Chinese immigrants under the name Sui Sin Far, Winnifred's Japanese romance novels and stories became all the rage, thrusting her into the glittering world of New York literati.

Diana Birchall chronicles the sometimes desperate, sometimes canny, always bold life of her "bad grandmother," about whom she knew almost nothing until her own adulthood. Here are the details of an amazing professional career as a journalist, a bestselling novelist, and a Hollywood scriptwriting protégée of Carl Laemmle at Universal Studios.

Here, too, is the personal saga of a woman who bore "a book and a baby a year" during her troubled first marriage--and who, at the age of fifty-six, wooed back her estranged second husband when her Hollywood career hit the skids during the Great Depression. Having achieved early fame as a Japanese romance writer, Winnifred later jettisoned the kimono and wrote books (including one entitled Cattle) set on the plains of Alberta, where her husband owned a ranch.

A chameleon? A desperate poseur? A shrewd businesswoman? She was all that, and much more, as Diana Birchall demonstrates. Navigating the shifting boundary between life and art, Birchall probes Winnifred's conflicting stories, personal tempests, and remarkable accomplishments, presenting a woman whose career was "sensational" in every sense. ... Read more

Reviews (6)

This Shared Joy
I didn't mean to like Winnifred Eaton. After all, she was a bit of a fanfaronade and very much of a poseur, not at all the sort I wanted in my circle of intimates.

But Diana Birchall's sparkling biography changed my mind. Writing with unblinking honesty, Birchall describes the many lives that her chameleon grandmother lived, from journalist and novelist to story editor and screenwriter. Of most interest to me were the stories of her career as wife in two unconventional marriages and mother to four children. Birchall's graceful use of language is enhanced by her wit and intelligently ironic style. She concludes this delightful biography with the acknowledgment that sharing what she has learned about her grandmother has been a privilege and a joy. Surely it is no less a privilege and a joy for the reader.

A tour de force of self-invention
Birchall's fascinating and beautifully written account of her grandmother's life is an important work for scholars in women's studies, Asian-American or American studies, Canlit, and the movie industry, and for the general reader seeking a compelling biography.

Other reviewers have mentioned Eaton/Watanna's background. I will stress instead the absorbing interest of Winnifred's successive reinventions of herself in societies that had no ready place for her. Like a brilliant slackrope walker with an increasingly awkward load, Winnifred managed to shift her balance not only to survive, but pulled off one tour de force after another. Her performances as a Japanese-American novelist, as a screenwriter and as a rancher doyenne would win applause from Daniel Defoe.

Eaton/Watanna has become a focal interest of American scholars in recent years. As her granddaughter, Birchall had informaitonal advantages in writing on her. Her graceful, well-considered book shows how glad we should be for Birchall's advantages.

A jolly, laughing lady
"A jolly, laughing lady" are the first words of the bigraphy; the last ones are: "To be able to share what I have learned with others has been a privilege and a joy. Has not this journey been an enviable inheritance in itself?"

Inbetween these words Birchall indeed shares with the reader the life of Winnifred, in personal and intimate detail. Birchall also seduces the reader into not just reading, but thinking about the culture and times Winnifred faced in her own inimitable style, from her life in Canada as young girl down to the years of Hollywood.

Normally I am none too fond of biographies but this one enchanted me, by the content and by the style of Birchall's writing. Full of zest, lifely images and easy to read on and on. As non native reader I appreciated this very much; it was a joy and a privilege to share. Would that all biographies were such a good read!

A jolly, laughing lady,
"A jolly, laughing lady," those are the opening words of the biography.
The closing words are:
"To be able to share what I have learned with others is a privilege and a joy. Has not this journey been an enviable inheritance in itself?"

In between those personal words, I got the chance to intimately share the life of Winnifred Eaton. Birchall opens the family vaults, secrets and intimacies; shares her deductions and her thoughts about Winnifred with me as reader; and writes in a zesty, tangy language that kept seducing me to read on and on.
The things I learned about the early filmindustry in Hollywood and the look behind the screens, are as fascinating as all the facts about the working conditions for women in the first half of the century in the USA

This biography by Birchall leads me to wonder and think about Winnifred as a human being and also about the culture and times that Winnifred went through in her life and tackled straight on, in her own inimitable style.
What more can a biography do?

Normally I am none too fond of biographies as genre. This one had me enthralled, qua content and style of writing.

Interesting history
In my library I have dozens of books inherited from my parents and my grandparents. We have been readers for several generations, and I grew up with many of these books. One of these books was a novel called "The Heart of Hyacinth" by an author mysteriously named Onoto Watanna. The author was unknown to me, but I thought the book was one of the most beautiful of all the books I'd inherited, with lovely Japanese-style illustrations and drawings.

But now I've had a chance to learn about the woman who lurked behind that exotic nom de plume. I learn she was not Japanese at all, but half Chinese and half English. Yet her true story seems to be as fully exotic as any of the character's lives from her books.

Diana Birchall has done a wonderful job of bringing her fascinating grandmother to life. The book give a wonderful look at a most unusual woman, and what life was like for young women at the turn of the last century. At least what life was like when the young women were as self-confident and gutsy as the young Winnifred Eaton. ... Read more

Book Description

An anarchist by temperament, the beautiful and talented Ding Ling attempted to find her way in the world alone. She had a few female friends and a few significant male others, but she rebelled against her family. Most importantly, she rebelled against the Chinese Communist Party to which she desperately hoped to belong. The first part of a comprehensive biography of the major 20th century Chinese author, Ding Ling, this work draws not only on her memoirs, but on numerous secondary sources, many of which have become available only in the last two decades. ... Read more

Book Description

This unique collection of translations of Chinese stories explores the manifestations of "self" and the impact of place upon Chinese identity, found both on the mainland and in other Chinese communities such as Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Singapore. Though sharing a common cultural heritage, these four communities have different social, political, and economic realities; realities which are reflected in the stories' themes of self, identity, gender, and location. The stories not only demonstrate the diverse creativity of contemporary Chinese authors, they also express the aspirations and fears felt by many who live in places and circumstances where the mass media are controlled by the state and opportunities for open discussion are few and far between.

Translated into English for the first time, the stories in A Place of One's Own demonstrate the exciting experimentation unfolding in the genre of the modern Chinese short story. Individually, the stories stand as important contributions to contemporary Chinese literature in translation; collectively as a comprehensive rendering of the transformation of Chinese society today. ... Read more

Reviews (3)

The stories were touching
I thought the book was great because I learned a lot about the struggles that the older generation went through. It opened my eyes to a history that I never knew before. The stories were well written and I enjoyed the photos and historical essay. I highly recommend this book.

what a magnificent, moving publication!
A must-read, must-have for anyone interested in effective presentation oforal histories. Awesome for library research and as a personal coffee tablebook. I couldn't put it down.

Superb example of how oral history can make fine reading
Very moving, intimate personal portraits of the lives of 71 Chinese Americans who talk about the very harsh era before World War II, when discrimination and poverty were prevalent. A few of the photo portraits and stories are memorable, quite touching. Immensely readable throughout. ... Read more

Book Description

Maugham spent the winter months of 1919-20 travelling 1500 miles up the Yangtze River. Always more interested in people than places, he gave full rein to a sensitive and philosophical nature. On a Chinese Screen is the refined accumulation of the countless scraps of paper on which he had taken notes. Within the narrow confines of their colonial milieu, missionaries, consuls, army officers and company managers are all gently ridiculed as they persist obliviously with the life they know.

Reviews (1)

Notes of an Englishman in China
William Somerset Maugham was 45 years old when he went on a trip to China in the winter of 1919. Always an astute observer, he jotted down notes, elaborated them, and finally had them published as a book in London. Fortunately, this small volume is now available again as a Vintage Classics paperback in the UK (and in the reviewer's favorite Shanghai bookstore). "On a Chinese Screen" is an appropriate title for the book because it depicts mostly English people against the backdrop of China at the beginning of the century. In 58 short sketches, the longest of which fits on just nine printed pages, Maugham portrays English missionaries, officials, army officers, adventurers and company managers. Maugham gently mocks their narrow-mindedness and indifference towards the country in which they spend a major part of their lives. "On the whole," he remarks, "it made little difference to them in what capital they found themselves, for they did precisely the same things in Constantinople, Berne, Stockholm, and Peking . . . China bored them all, they did not want to speak of that; they only knew just so much about it as was necessary to their business." Their attitude towards the Chinese was one of "mistrust and dislike tempered by optimism," and they did not bother to learn the language.

Whereas Maugham is agreeably malicious in his portraits of the English and their wives, he can get outright scathing and sarcastic when he describes the hypocrisy of protestant missionaries. The Catholics have a better standing with him, which explains why Graham Greene calls Maugham a writer of great dedication. Maugham has a healthy disregard of professedly religious people whose deeds do not live up to their words, no matter whether they are English missionaries who behave as if they were in the civil service or whether they are Chinese farmers who perform the rites "like an old peasant woman in France does her day's housekeeping." Maugham's depiction of the Chinese countryside leaves no lasting impression, yet sometimes he creates images of sheer beauty: "the yellow water in the setting sun was lovely with pale, soft tints, it was as smooth as glass." The focus of his observations are people. Maugham senses the human beings who peek out from behind the roles they play in the scheme of the British Empire. Though he appears to be detached from the hardships of the Chinese, one can feel the effort it takes him to stay aloof when he observes the coolies, the "human beasts of burden", and remarks that their "effort oppresses you. You are filled with a useless compassion." Maugham's most heart-wrenching piece is a story with the innocent title "The Sights of the Town" in which he tells of a so-called baby tower used by the peasants to drop unwanted babies to their deaths. Spanish nuns in the nearby town try to save at least some of the unwanted newborns by paying twenty cents for every one because, as they say, the peasants "have often a long walk to come here and unless we give them something they won't take the trouble."

Maugham, as skeptic and acerbic as he can be, also has a great sense of humor, freshness of observation and unconventionality of comparison. Summing up his impression of an opium den, he writes it reminded him "somewhat of the little intimate beerhouses in Berlin where the tired working man could go in the evening and spend an peaceful hour." Well, I would not compare opium so non-chalantly to beer but his tongue-in-cheek British snobbery is definitely enjoyable. As is his mockingly spiteful aside towards Americans whom he regards to be such extremely practical people "that Harvard is instituting a chair to instruct grandmothers how to suck eggs." My favorite funny piece in the book is Maugham's explanation why democracy gets flushed down by the Western sense of cleanliness. In his words, "it is a tragic thought that the first man who pulled the plug of a water-closet with that negligent gesture rang the knell of democracy." Just check it out. Even if he were not kidding, it would be a side-splitting theory.

Some of the things Maugham observed eighty years ago still apply. For example, "one of the peculiarities of China is that your position excuses your idiosyncrasies." And you can still see people getting their heads shaved on the sidewalk by old barbers. However, I can not report that "others have their ears cleaned, and some, a revolting spectacle, the inside of their eyelids scraped." In general, the life of the Chinese was as impenetrable to Maugham as were the Chinese houses with their monotonous expanse of wall broken only by solid closed doors. Only in the portraits of an old Chinese philosopher (who impotently dreams of the old and better China) and a young drama professor (who lacks any broader vision of China) we get a glimpse of the inner lives of the Chinese.

The back cover of the Vintage Classics paperback edition shows a photo of the middle-aged Maugham. Turning his head to the observer, he has a look of weary curiosity in his eyes and a tiny smile in the corners of his mouth - as if he wanted to say, "that is how it is. What do you think?" ... Read more

Book Description

Beyond the Narrow Gate is the brave and moving story of four Chinese girls--Dolores, Suzanne, Margaret, and Mary--from their ultimate passage through the "narrow gate" in Communist China to America and their decades-long friendship. Leslie Chang, an American-born journalist and the daughter of Mary, lifts the veils of secrecy, shame, and loss that have for so long hung over the "bamboo generation." What Chang discovers is that the passage from one culture to another came at a great price, both to the women who had undergone it and to the children who were born into its legacy. Beyond the Narrow Gate weaves sagas of friendship and love, sacrifice and success, marriage and loss, as it illuminates one of America's least-documented immigrant experiences. At the same time, this is a deeply personal book: a daughter's discovery of her own history in her mother's past.

"An excellent history lesson . . . about surviving, even thriving, in the face of upheaval and almost unimaginable loss." --The New York Times Book Review

"With intelligence, pathos, and wit, Chang manages to infuse her historical and cultural exposition with the enchantment of the best sort of storytelling." --Rosemary Mahoney, author of The Early Arrival of Dreams: A Year in China and A Likely Story: One Summer with Lillian Hellman ... Read more

Reviews (18)

Very good story, I can relate to these women
I can relate to this story. The places that she mentioned were familiar to me, I had the same experience and background. I read the book over and over because I was afraid to miss the details.

I can understand the differences between east and west coast Chinese women. Their roles are very different and the family/communities are very different.

Certain parts in the beginning were confusing, and it may be difficult for Americans to understand how Chinese people feel about education and the responsiblity to themselves, as well as their families. There were many examples of pride, and family culture that I could relate to.

I am waiting for her to write another story about her generation and their contributions to US and their own Chinese background - their "Chinese-ness"

An interesting journey of four women
This book was a good read. As a third generation chinese-american born in the US, I have found books like Leslie's very rewarding. It is informative to learn about the lives of chinese people who came to the US with dreams of making it after leaving their homeland. The story is a little tough to follow at times as the lives of four different women are vividly described in different chapters. However, I think after the first couple of chapters, each of the characters are described well enough that it is manageable to follow. I was thoroughly engaged in reading how each woman all lived their own lives, but yet were drawn back together at a later time when they met for a reunion. The story is much less about how they struggled to come to the US (although it was for these women) but more about their personal lives. I often wonder about how chinese and chinese-american people cope with living in America when this land is not their first-native place. This is the real meat of the book. It gives a glimpse of the world through their eyes. I find it amazing how much the author has gone into detail and found all of this information. Its too bad these four women never had a chance to come together more while in the US. For me, this book provides a link between the generation of chinese who came from China to my generation that were born and raised here. I hope that other american-born chinese will also find this link as well.

Mediocre
This is not a terrible book. But it's not a good one either--especially in a field that has so many extraordinarily well-written memoirs (like "Wild Swans").
"Beyond the Narrow Gate"'s lack of originality and style are its biggest problems. The author is telling a story that has been told many times before. Although Chang's women immigrants are better-off financially than the immigrants most memoirs are about, that fact actually makes "Narrow Gate" LESS interesting, because the women's hardships are less stark, more psychological than physical, and thus extremely difficult for Change to adequately convey.
Chang's writing style is unexceptional. Her words do not draw the reader in, and there is a lack of complementarity between the story Chang is trying to tell and the words she uses to tell it with. Her language could be much richer, her descriptions more textured (adjectival phrases are our friends!). Worse, this story, of which the personal impact for the author is constantly reiterated, is not told in an intimate manner or with any sense of humor whatsoever. The telling is extremely straightforward, with too few embellishments and too little intimacy, which is off-putting, to say the least.
There are also some smaller, but similarly irritating problems. First, this book touts itself as a record of four Chinese women's journey to America. In fact, that story is recounted as a background for excessive odes to Chang's mother that are not related to the story. There are frequent and redundant discussions of Chang's mother's exuberance in life, complete with unnecessary anecdotes that are neither contributory nor all that interesting.
Also, especially in the first half of the book, Chang goes into long tangents about poets, such as the rather obscure Wallace Stevens, or earlier American authors. She tries to weave their experiences into the story of the Chinese immigrants' experiences--to what end, I have no clue. The device merely irritated me.
Chang jumps between spaces, time, and characters in a wholly disconcerting manner. It's never made clear why certain characters, like Suzanne and Delores, feature heavily in some chapters and not others, since the book is not written in a consistent chronology. Chang also throws in a lot about herself as she was doing the research for the book--half of one chapter is devoted to a visit to an old priest in New York, who doesn't even remember Chang's mother. For a book that's supposed to be about the elder Chang's immigration experience, there is an excess of anecdotes about the author's research-related experiences.
Last, Chang's insistence on writing out the character's exact words, no matter how broken their English, is annoying. Most children of immigrants, while acknowledging that their parents' English is nonstandard, have grown up hearing that version of English and therefore it sounds natural to them, and not broken. Therefore, Chang could still be true to her subjects by recording their speech as standard English, because that's how their children actually understand them. The broken English is very hard to read and takes away from the seriousness both of Chang's subject and often of the conversations that are being recorded.
Overall, like I said, this isn't a TERRIBLE book. If it dealt with a topic that had fewer volumes already written on it--say, for example, the Thai or Hmong immigrant experience--I would actually give this book another star. But the Chinese immigrant experience is one that has already been recorded in some of the best tomes of this century, and so I don't think readers should waste their time with as mediocre a book as "Beyond the Narrow Gate."

thoughtful and well-written
Ever since the Joy Luck Club came out, it seems like "Asian heritage" books have been everywhere. I can't get into many of them - not entirely sure why - but this book is one of the exceptions.

This story rings very true for me. My mother went to the Taipei high school where the four main characters meet, and this is what first drew me to the book. It was like finding out about her life though I'd never been able to ask the right questions (a process described early in the narrative, too). And I can see parts of my growing up reflected in most of the second-generation characters.

But I like this book mainly for its wisdom, for the perspective Chang has gained through the process of writing these stories and how she shares that with the reader. It reminds me about the freedom we have here, to define our dreams however we want and do all we can to pursue them. (We're not forced to study biochemistry just because we're good students, and our culture helps give us the courage to change careers if we're not satisfied.) It's also interesting to see how the parents' experiences affect their children's lives in this area. Wei goes to New York to be a dancer, and Peter tries to pursue public policy instead of medical school. There's a line about a father who was so American that he encouraged his child "to go to Oberlin instead of Harvard" - perfectly characterized, I thought.

I thought this book was nicely written, other than the occasional awkward foreshadowing. The stories do jump around, but this is inevitable, and they are described clearly enough that they really aren't too hard to follow.

This is a relatively quick read, and definitely worth it - it paints an accurate picture of both generations' lives in the U.S. and throws in a nice China/Taiwan history lesson as well. It's definitely among my favorite "Chinese" books now, along with Mona in the Promised Land (Gish Jen) and Legacies (Bette Bao Lord).

An interesting perspective
A daughter researches the life of her mother through the eyes of her mothers friends. ... Read more

Reviews (13)

Double Luck
I feel fortunate for having read this book. Lu Chi Fa describes his life as an orphan in Communist China. Through his life he has one dream of reaching America. The pain, abuse and anguish he had to suffer are heartbreaking. The people he met who were both good and bad experiences for him are all people he learned from. Full of historical data and a sense of hope I wish more people would hear this amazing story.

Why 5 stars?:
Lu Chi Fa and Becky White have told the true story of a Chinese orphan growing up during the Communist takeover. The history and sense of hope are inspiring and educational. Moreover, the text is written well and keeps the reader interested in turning the pages.

Double Luck: Memoirs of a Chinese Orphan
Every day we hear about the countless children of the world who have no parents, no homes and who suffer the pain of constant hunger. Lu Chi Fa and Becky White have brought one of those children vividly to life in Double Luck: Memoirs of a Chinese Orphan.

The orphan boy, Chi Fa, is anything BUT a tragic character. His optimism, his love of life and the joy he derives from simple things, such as tasting a peach for the first time, light up every page. He shows maturity and courage far beyond his years as he faces many life-threatening situations. Along with the story of a remarkably courageous boy, we are given descriptions of a beautiful country and an insight into the customs of the Chinese people.

I read the book aloud to my 8 and 10-year-old granddaughters in just two days because they kept insisting on "just one more chapter". All of us enjoyed a truly exciting book with memorable characters. It would be almost impossible to read Double Luck, Memoirs of a Chinese Orphan without being personally uplifted.

Wonderful!
During our lifetime, we read many books'most of them are soon forgotten. But Double Luck is a book I will never forget. It will be with me for as long as I live. No one can read this books and ever be the same. The story of Lu Chi Fa will break your heart, make you weep, and serve as a poignant reminder of how fortune we are to live in America. I recommend this book for all children and adults alike.

A MUST read for students/teachers to their students
I just finished reading this book. I could not put it down. As a former teacher, I would have definitely read this to my class with a discussion to follow each reading. Hopefully, the children would get the message of perserverance, hope, hardship and injustice which was overcome to accomplish a dream. My only disappointment was that I want to know more about Chi Fa's life when he arrived in America. What kinds of things he did to succeed, how his past impacted his foundation of success and something more of his family life as it is today. Sadly, the book only covered his pre-America days. I am hoping for another book by this author.

PARENTS' CHOICE GOLD AWARD WINNER
I am the author of Double Luck: Memoirs of a Chinese Orphan. I want readers to know that the book has been awarded a gold award by the Parents' Choice Foundation. To read about the nonprofit organization dedicated to selecting excellent books for children, go to www.parents-choice.org ... Read more

Book Description

This volume presents a selection of paintings, poetry, essays, and ephemeral writings by the Chinese American modernist Yun Gee (1906–1963), together with essays about the artist.

Yun Gee arrived in San Francisco from Guangdong Province at the age of fifteen and within a few years established himself as one of the city’s most daring avant-garde painters. But all of his astonishing efforts with the brush and palette ran up against an intense anti-Chinese sentiment. He seemed never to escape the high social price of being Chinese—not in San Francisco, Paris, or New York, where he ended his days. This collection of writings and images represents the eclectic interests and disappointed hopes of a man who was by turns a political revolutionary, cultural radical, social visionary, teacher, inventor, painter, and poet.

As a unique collection of materials documenting the expressions of an Asian American artist of the first half of the 20th century, this book illuminates not only the life and work of the multifaceted Yun Gee, but also the experiences of Chinese immigrants who came of age in America during the Exclusion Era. Anthony Lee’s essays and the materials he has gathered here reveal the utopianism, anger, and anxiety that were the traces of an entire generation’s racialized existence. ... Read more

Book Description

Since the publication of The Woman Warrior more than a quarter century ago, author Maxine Hong Kingston has enjoyed a phenomenal rise in popularity and literary importance, earning a place in the American canon as the living author most frequently taught at U.S. universities. The numerous studies of this touchstone work, however, fail to take into account the stories in China Men, which were largely written together with those in The Woman Warrior but later published separately. Although Hong Kingston's decision to separate the male and female narratives enabled readers to see the strength of the resulting feminist point of view in The Woman Warrior, this division also made it easier to overlook the literary and cultural significance of the material that was taken out and moved to China Men. Indeed in the face of the growing and disproportionate attention to the mother-daughter relationship in The Woman Warrior, Hong Kingston steadily maintained that to understand the book fully it was necessary to read its male companion text.

Maureen Sabine's ambitious study of The Woman Warrior and China Men aims to bring these divided texts back together with a close reading that looks for the textual traces of the father in The Woman Warrior and shows how the daughter narrator tracks down his history in China Men. She considers theories of intertextuality that open up the possibility of a dynamic interplay between the two books and suggests that the Hong family women and men may be struggling for dialogue with each other even when they appear textually silent or apart. ... Read more

Reviews (4)

A great adventure
They Called Us White Chinese is an autobiography of the late Robert N. Tharp, missionary to China in the early 1900's. I read the book cover to cover. It is extraordinarily well written, detailed, and full of interesting stories. It covers his boyhood which details Chinese construction techniques, social/cultural aspects of village life, provincial wars and his life and adventures in general. His capture during WWII and take over of the Communists follows. The trials of him and his wife in escaping the country are almost incredible. Mr. Tharp had a long career in linguistics in the U.S. working for military and intelligence services, which he describes in the latter third of the book. The book is anything but overedited and Mr. Tharp may carefully describe a particular adventure in vivid detail so that it becomes a short story in itself. I also appreciate the almost complete lack of "self-analysis" or abstract social commentary etc... This book is also a great aid to understanding Chinese history and culture. Highly recommended.

A MASTERPIECE!
As a former student of Robert Tharp, I was interested in his new book, "They Called Us White Chinese". The title seems a little bit funny until I learned that due to the fact that he and his wife, Eva, were interned by the Japanese during WWII they lost all their identity papers, and when they came to the US, immigration officials stamped on their visa that they were, "White Chinese". Thus brings to an end their saga that comprises of almost 900 pages of the most beautiful coffee-table book I have ever seen. This book should cost three times as much. Contemporary Chinese history has never been explained as well as through the eyes of a "Westerner" born and raised in China. A Must Buy!

An Amazing Story
I should note that in 1994 when I first bought this book I was amazed and delighted to find myself mentioned in it (on page 751.) I was one of Bob Tharp's USAF Chinese students, recruited out of basic training in the summer of 1955. Years later, after finishing my Air Force tour (in Korea, using everything I'd been taught at Yale's Institute of Far Eastern Languages by Bob Tharp and his colleagues)and finishing college and law school, I found myself back at Yale, assisting Bob in the same USAF program while I took a correspondence course for the Michigan bar exam.

I wish that I had known just a portion of the information that's in this great work of a book about Bob's early life when I first met him - I would have held him in even higher regard, if that's possible.

This book paints an amazing picture of a tumultuous time in Chinese (and American) history, and the latter portions show clearly the contributions that Bob and Eva Tharp and their colleagues made to US security. He trained hundreds of air intelligence specialists, and many of them, like myself, found our lives forever changed and enhanced by our exposure to Chinese language and culture.

Review:
This book takes you through a journey of a man's life in his service to God. From the first page, you're introduced to Robert Tharp, son of a missionary in China. Slowly, you're taken through a concise narrative of the daily routine in Manchuria, detailing events as broad as the various warlords who entered the city to as detailed as how the local mastrigate ate plumbs.

The pictures in the book add to the book by showing what people did. Rarely are there books with such quantity of pictures.

There are wonderful anecdotes of everyday life and experiences Bob had. He has an entire section devoted to chinese humor, which are incredibally difficult to translate, but he does it with style.

Anyone with interest in what life in China was like, this book is a must read. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Charming, if somewhat puzzling, little book
In this book, Maxine Hong Kingston proclaims to want to live the life of the poet. Working on her "longbook"--her thousand-plus page novel about Vietnam war veterans (her first novel since 1989's "Tripmaster Monkey")--has consumed so much of her life, creatively and otherwise, that she longs to live a poets life. The poets life, as she conceives it, is a life full of peace, surrounded by the most beautiful, beatific, awe-inspiring things. Instead of the arduousness of plots and stories, the brevity and aesthetic succinctness of poetry seems like a much more cozy alternative. Her enthusiasm for the poet's life is always near being tongue-in-cheek. A fellow poet reminds her that poets must revise, like novelists. Also, there's the sense that in arguing for poetry, she is arguing against it by claiming it to be like an aesthetic hit of crack--it's wonderful to experience in short and powerful bursts, then it goes away. So, perhaps, she ends up arguing for the novel ... it's hard to tell. Nevertheless, as she documents her poetry experiments, some nice lines and scenes emerge (particularly the last section of the book, "Spring Harvest," where she experiments with "four word poems"!). She also claims to close "To Be the Poet" with a poem (on Fa Mook Lan--another variation of the Fa Mu Lan myth, a la the "White Tigers" story in "The Woman Warrior") that will end her longbook. Kingston's poetry is hardly "strong" in the Harold Bloom sense but it is pleasant enough. But it leaves us longing even moreso for the "longbook." ... Read more

Book Description

To the Edge of the Sky is the harrowing account of a remarkable woman's life in communist China—a tale of human courage in the face of shocking inhumanity and hardship. Anhua Gao, her name means Tranquil Flower, was born in 1949, the year that Mao Tse Tung declared the foundation of the People's Republic of China. It was a turning point in Chinese history, the first time in more than a century that peace had come to China. After many horrific battles between the Japanese and the Chinese, and after many years of civil war betweenMao's Communists and Chiang Kai-shek's Kuomintang, a new China was born. To The Edge of the Sky is, like Jung Chang's Wild Swans, an inspiring and heartrending story of life under communist rule and, at the same time, a compelling and detailed history of China's political upheaval through the twentieth century.

Gao's early childhood is idyllic—both of her parents are highly respected workers in the Communist army and the family lives in comfort, with many privileges—but by the time Anhua is eleven both are dead—her father of bone cancer, her mother from heart failure—and their reputation proves a fragile shield from the horrors of communist China. With an assured and deliberate voice, and from the perspective of her new and hard won safety of a new life in Britain (her mother once pointed out the island country to her on a Chinese world map, located on the far left "on the edge of the sky"), Gao interweaves a picture of calamitous Mao-ist policies with her own story of shocking family betrayal, cruel imprisonment, and bureaucratic absurdity.

Despite the appalling depths of Gao's suffering and deprivation, To the Edge of the Sky remains remarkably free of bitterness or rancor. But Gao's outrage at the social injustices of the State and her compassion for those who fell victim to it is a sober reminder of the value of freedom and all that comes with it. Most of all, this is the story of a woman who, against unbelievable odds, survived to find a happiness she had not dared hope for. To the Edge of the Sky is a powerful and evocative autobiography to read and recommend. ... Read more

Reviews (4)

My Review
This is an amazing story of human courage,love and devotion in the face of inhumanity. I picked up the book and couldn't stop reading until it was finished. The story of China and her life is being told through the eyes of a child right to her adult life. I also leart alot about Chinese history and the people reponsible for it and mistakes that sometimes only human can make. In short AnHua has captured the mood and feelings of the Chinese people through a totally human perspective. Great Book.

Compelling Story!
This book was extremely compelling. I could not put it down! It told an amazing story of what it was like to live in China during the Communist regime and to experience such turmoil. It is a wonderful story of survival. It was a very interesting way to learn a little Chinese history. I salute the author for her command of the English language to be able to write such a compelling memoir.

Where is Hollywood when you need them!
This is an amazing storey of one person's courage and determination to survive in a world where everything is upside down. The book is perfect for people who enjoy a powerful emotional experience, and also for those with an interest in the turmoil of the recent history of China. I'm a 32 year old male student of Asian studies, and I have to admit that this storey and the way it is told turned me into a little boy, falling for its author and sometimes on the verge of tears. A great read for all!

A story about a real China
As a Chinese national, the suffering exposed in the story of Anhua Gao is particularly felt to my bones, but the courage demonstrated to fight for life is equally admirable. Apallingly true and spellbound, To the Edge of the Sky is a good read for China recent history and I would recommend to everyone who wants to know a real China from 1950s to 1990s. ... Read more

Book Description

This book opens up three new topics in modern Chinese literary history: the intimate lives of modern China's most famous literarycouple, Lu Xun and Xu Guangping; real and imagined love-letters inmodern Chinese literature; and the contents, functions, and values ofprivacy held by one couple in twentieth-century China as shown by acomparison between the edited and unedited versions of their letters. ... Read more