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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 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.

李歐梵用「蒼涼」和「世故」來形容張愛玲。此書是李歐梵特別為香港的「張迷」而寫，以「蒼涼與世故」為題，英文可譯為是Desolation and Sophistication，前者是張愛玲自己的美學觀念，後者是作者對張愛玲的看法。我不喜歡壯烈，我是喜歡悲壯，更喜歡蒼涼。壯烈只有力，沒有美，似乎缺少人性。悲壯則如大紅大綠的配色，是一種強烈的對照。但它的刺激性還是大於啟發性。蒼涼之所以有更深長的回味，就因為它像葱綠配桃紅，是一種參差的對照。—— 張愛玲〈自己的文章〉

A text that has been poorly understood and unfairly denigrated over the yearsThe Liezi is a work attributed to the Daoist Lie Yukou, who, according to the traditional account, lived during the later part of the fifth and first part of the fourth centuries BCE. This places him between the first wave of philosophers of the pre-Han “Hundred Schools” (notably Lao Zi, Confucius, Mo Di, and Deng Xi) and the second wave, from mid-fourth to the end of the third centuries BCE. Thus, he may be said to have responded to the former and prefigured the latter.The Liezi we have today is the recension by the Xuanxue (Dark Learning, third to fifth centuries CE) scholar Zhang Zhan and is accompanied by Zhang’s commentary, which is a philosophical work in its own right and comparable to the commentaries of Wang Bi on the Laozi and Guo Xiang on the Zhuangzi. It is an engaging work, presenting profound philosophical ideas in a straightforward, down-to-earth, and sometimes humorous way, which makes it an ad

Why were so many Buddhist grottoes carved across China, and what do they tell us about the history of Chinese art?Grotto Art of China: A Sourcebook traces the origins of this unique art form from the Indian subcontinent to its monumental flowering across Asia and into China.This volume brings together contributions from leading international scholars, providing systematic studies of major grotto complexes—including Mogao, Yungang, Longmen, Gongxian, Xiangtangshan, and Tianlongshan—alongside crucial, lesser-known regional sites in Gansu, Shandong, Shaanxi, Sichuan, Tibet, and Xinjiang.Organized geographically, the book explores these sacred sites as mediums of devotion, political expression, and cultural exchange, covering topics such as imperial patronage, distinctive artistic styles, and the ways these resilient sites preserve vital information otherwise lost to history.An essential reference for students, scholars, and informed travelers, it offers deep insight into the spiritual and