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The term Silk Road has been well-known for many years, but in fact this ancient trade route was not a singular path from East to West. Rather, it was a network of multiple ways that peoples, goods, and cultures spread across the Asian continent and beyond. This book focuses on the Steppe Silk Road, starting with the Hulunbuir Grasslands in today’s Steppe, which stretches through several countries from the Danube to the Ural River.The result of the author’s extensive travels through China, Mongolia, Russia, Kazakhstan, and more, this travelogue presents modern-day experiences together with ancient history. It explores how civilizations of the steppe grasslands evolved over time from a Chinese perspective, along with personal anecdotes and scenic highlights from various trips over the past 47 years. The book provides a window into less-visited regions suitable for intrepid explorers and armchair travelers alike.

The first half of the 20th century was a time of great change in China. After the 1911 Revolution, leaders like Sun Yat-sen and Chiang Kai-shek tried to modernize the government, education, defense, and more. With the onset of the Second Sino-Japanese War and later occupation of Hong Kong, the focus of both the Kuomintang and the Chinese Communist Party shifted to resistance efforts in order to survive. And who did they turn to for help?To his children, Lee Sik-pang (李錫彭) was just an artist and antiques dealer in Hong Kong until the family immigrated to the United States in the late 1950s. So why did several of his watercolor paintings depict possible Allied bombing targets? And how did he know so many famous people, including Sun Fo (Sun Yat-sen’s son), Admiral Henry Hsu of the Republic of China Navy, and the British High Commissioner-General for Southeast Asia Malcolm MacDonald?By answering these questions and many more, this book argues that Lee Sik-pang was not only an accomplished

The translation elucidates the complex metaphors, mythological and historical figures, and nomenclature of the Daoist tradition in thoughtfully rendered English.The Daoist Liturgy of the Most High for Daily Recitation (Taishang xuanmen gongke jing 太上玄門功課經) is performed in Daoist temples every morning and evening. The ritual aims at a perfected state for self-cultivation and serves as a religious prayer for universal salvation from sufferings and calamities in the world. The liturgical performance includes the recitation of texts from a broad spectrum of Daoist traditions, including scriptures, chants, divine proclamations, litany of repentance, incantations, and hymns, which offers major insights into the living Daoist beliefs and ritual traditions in contemporary Chinese communities.This complete, meticulous English translation, based primarily on an extant Chinese edition from 1906, is presented in a bilingual format with the original Chinese text, accompanied by annotations, and a w

The Sublime Object of Orientalism proposes that globalised Asian physical cultural practices such as taiji, qigong, yoga, and meditation can be understood by examining the intimate connection between Western orientalism and the Romantic aesthetic notion of the sublime. The book recasts ‘orientalist physical culture’ as practices animated by the sublime and argues that this relationship is stronger than has hitherto been recognised by commentators.Bowman combines new readings of philosophers and cultural critics such as Slavoj Žižek and Jane Iwamura with analyses of film, media, and Asian physical practices and their entrepreneurial forms to shed light on the quest to articulate a philosophy of orientalist physical culture. He also explores ways to make sense of orientalist physical culture in the contemporary world and evaluate the often-problematic ideologies that circulate around these cultural practices without either uncritically accepting their value or rejecting them outright. Th

Tracing the global echoes of China sounds, mapping a new auditory history of migration, diaspora, and modernity.Tracing the global journeys of Chinese sounds from the nineteenth century to the present, this volume charts a vast sonic territory: from Cantonese opera arias in San Francisco to the “Far East sound” that shaped Jamaican reggae, and from the melodies of pigeon whistles over Germany to the revolutionary anthems of Cold War Italy… How have these sounds—traveling via migration, media, and diplomacy—been heard, adapted, or even rejected in disparate cultural landscapes?Through seventeen case studies spanning Asia, the Americas, and Europe, the book uncovers the myriad ways sounds interpreted as “Chinese” are transformed, contested, and imbued with new meanings as they reverberate across geopolitical and cultural borders. This collection provides a novel auditory history of China’s global entanglements, offering a comparative lens to understand the dynamic role of sound in transn

Zhao Hai Tien’s creative explorations are characterized by the diversity of media in her work—from airbrush on glass and acrylic on canvas to calligraphic experiments, large-scale public murals and oil paintings. Her practice blends technical precision with expressive freedom and spiritual influences. Over more than three decades of Buddhist and Taoist study—and twenty-four years under the guidance of a respected qigong master—Hai Tien’s work has shifted from contemplative, figurative compositions to liberated, spiritually resonant expressions that capture the flow of energy and inner awareness in vibrant, form-defying strokes.Her first solo show, Recent Works of Hai Tien, opened at the Alliance Française in Hong Kong (1972), launching a sustained presence in the local art scene, and leading to solo exhibitions in Hong Kong, Shanghai, and Berlin. Her work was also presented in prestigious group exhibitions across Asia, including the First Hong Kong Biennale (1971). Her most notable pub

In the early twentieth century, oil painting as a non-indigenous medium began to be taught in Chinese art academies. Since that time, it has become an important and increasingly popular portal, inviting artists to explore cross-cultural dynamics and experiment with individual creative expression.This selection of twentieth-century Chinese oil paintings from the UMAG collection sheds light on the art historical and cultural significance of the medium. Highlighting the versatile aspects of Chinese oil paintings across a diverse spectrum of themes, styles, techniques, time periods, and regional and local characteristics, this publication presents the depth and virtuosity of Chinese oil paintings, extending from intimate interior views to panoramic coastal landscapes. The collective and individual memories within urban scenes activate dialogues of painting practices across time, space, and cross-cultural and cross-media encounters.The selected works display and represent the various artist