A...B...Sea

In New Asian Disorder: Rivalries Embroiling the Pacific Century, Lowell Dittmer and his team explore the recent political disorder in East Asia resulting from growing Sino-American polarization. The rise of China in recent years is widely regarded as a momentous shift in the global balance of power. China is now extending sovereignty into the East China Sea and the South China Sea, constructing a new set of global financial institutions and replacing “universal values” with technologically enhanced nationalism. The country’s “Belt and Road Initiative” is also tainted by the vast ambition to realize the “China Dream” within the foreseeable future. In response to China’s challenge, the United States has abandoned its “constructive engagement” policy towards the rising power and engaged in a trade war. Sino-American relations have been at a historical trough since the normalization of their relationship in the late 1970s. This book sheds new light on the current political disorder in the

In Outlaws of the Sea, Robert J. Antony provides a comprehensive account of the history of maritime piracy in coastal south China from the 1630s to the 1940s. He neither romanticizes nor maligns pirates, but rather analyzes them in the context of their times and the broader world in which they lived. The author demonstrates that Chinese piracy was a pervasive force shaping maritime society as it ebbed and flowed between sporadic, small-scale ventures and professional, large-scale enterprises in the modern era. This book offers important new insights into the underside of modern China’s history and the interactions between pirates, foreign traders, local communities, and the state.

Imagined Geographies is a pioneering work in the study of history and geography of the pre-1800 world. In this book, Gunn argues that different regions astride the maritime silk roads were not only interconnected but can also be construed as “imagined geographies.” Taking a grand civilizational perspective, five such geographic imaginaries are examined across respective chapters, namely Indian, Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, and European including an imagined Great South Land. Drawing upon an array of marine and other archaeological examples, the author offers compelling evidence of the intertwining of political, cultural, and economic regions across the sea silk roads from ancient times until the seventeenth century. Through a thorough analysis of these five geographic imaginaries, the author sets aside purely national history and looks at the maritime realm from a broader spatial perspective. He challenges the Eurocentric concept of center and periphery and establishes a revisionist view

Sino-French Trade at Canton, 1698–1842 presents a rare and lively view of the French experience at Canton, and calls for a reappraisal of France’s role in that trade. France was one of the two most important Western powers in the eighteenth century, and was home to one of the three major European East India companies. Yet the nation is woefully underrepresented in Canton trade scholarship. Susan E. Schopp rescues the French from the sidelines, showing that they exerted a presence that, though closely watched by their rivals, is today largely unrecognized. Their contributions were diverse, ranging from finding new sea routes to inspiring the renovation of hong façades. Consequently, to ignore the French, or to dismiss them as simply “also-rans,” results in a skewed perception of the Canton system. Schopp also demonstrates that while the most distinctive aspect of the French model of company trade was the dominant role of the state—indeed, the French East India Company has been memorabl

The young son of the head of the Chinese traders’ association, the men licensed to deal with foreign merchants in the port of Guangzhou, is suddenly burdened with responsibility for his powerful family upon his father’s sudden death. A latter-day Baoyu, b

"On an autumn morning in 1793, Lord Macartney waited to be ushered into the imperial summer retreat to take part in the celebration of the Qianlong Emperor's 82nd birthday. It was a long day; the celebration drama, Ascendant Peace in the Four Seas, lasted five hours. There were many scenes of fish, turtles and other sea creatures, and Macartney guessed it must have had something to do with the marriage between the ocean and land. He could not have been more wrong…" For the Qing court, entertaining foreign visitors was only one of the numerous ritual and political purposes dramas served. Delving into a rich collection of first-hand materials, the author meticulously excavates and combs historical data including court records, eunuchs' memoirs, pictorial archives of opera costumes, and period news. She investigates the development of imperial drama and its influence on the Peking Opera, as well as the function and system of imperial organizations responsible for drama. Also discussed

Having made documentary films screened at the most prestigious film festivals in the West, Chinese documentary filmmaker Wang Bing presents a unique case of independent filmmaking. In The Cinema of Wang Bing, Bruno Lessard examines the documentarian’s most important films, focusing on the two obsessions at the heart of his oeuvre—the legacy of Maoist China in the present and the transformation of labor since China’s entry into the market economy—and how the crucial figures of survivor and worker are represented on screen. Bruno Lessard argues that Wang Bing is a minjian (grassroots) intellectual whose films document the impact of Mao’s Great Leap Forward on Chinese collective memory and register the repercussions of China’s turn to neoliberalism on workers in the post-Reform era. Bringing together Chinese documentary studies and China studies, the author shows how Wang Bing’s practice reflects the minjian ethos when documenting the survivors of the Great Famine and those who have not b

In 2018, authorities in Hong Kong seized a shipment from smugglers that contained 88 dead pangolins. Where did these animals come from, and why were they killed? Where were they going? Who was responsible? In classic true crime fashion, the book examines evidence, suspects, and legal perspectives related to this specific case and, through it, the plight of pangolins globally. The chapters detail the lives and natural history of pangolins across Africa and Asia while exploring clues that may reveal who is responsible for the endangerment of the species. The book also explores speculation surrounding the possible role of pangolins in the emergence of COVID-19 and, more broadly, the relationship between wildlife trade and zoonotic disease. The resulting tale is one of conservation researchers, public health experts, and global organizations across Asia, Africa, North America, and Europe fighting to create a world in which pangolins can thrive again.

More than Civil Engineering: A History of Hong Kong Development (2004-2024) records the history of land formation and infrastructure development in Hong Kong. The Civil Engineering and Development Department is one of the key government institutions responsible for this development. Established in 2004, the Department was formed through the merger of the Territory Development Department and the Civil Engineering Department.

In Gentle Voices, Bold Strides, Professor Fanny Cheung shares her inspiring journey as a psychologist, academic leader, and champion of gender equality. Growing up in a traditional Hong Kong family, she recognized early injustices against women and dedicated her life to change. Pioneering gender studies in Asia and leading the Equal Opportunities Commission, she fought discrimination, domestic violence, and gender bias in policy and research. Her leadership reshaped academia and public policy through consensus-building and quiet determination, leaving a legacy of empowerment. By blending personal narratives with social history, this memoir serves as a testament to the power of advocacy and the quiet strength of those who strive to make a difference. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Gentle Voices, Bold Strides: A Memoir chronicles the life of an extraordinary woman growing up with traditional Ch

Originally published in 1898, this book is a record of British army officer Francis Younghusband's adventures from Manchuria and Beijing to Xinjiang, and then through the Karakoram Mountains to British India.

Mindfulness and meditation, practices that are rooted in Buddhism, have become mainstream treatments in counseling and psychotherapy that provide evidence of successful outcomes among secular clients. However, for clients from non-Western backgrounds, dissociating mindfulness practice from the core Buddhist teachings can dilute the transformative power of these practices, causing cultural confusion and lowering the effectiveness of treatment. This book is the first to present Early Buddhist Teachings as a theoretical orientation for the millions of individuals affiliated with Buddhism to create a culturally congruent counseling model. Using original sources in Pāli, it explores key Buddhist concepts such as dependent co-arising, non-self, impermanence, and many others. The authors then compare them with Western psychological concepts, furthering ongoing dialogue between Buddhism and psychotherapy and fostering powerful integrations. This volume also demonstrates how to use the Buddhi

The Glasgow Climate Pact signed on the 26th Conference of the Parties of United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in 2021, saws representatives' determination for carbon neutrality by 2050. Meanwhile, "Net Zero by 2050: a Roadmap for the Global Energy Sector" proposed by International Energy Agency has suggested hydrogen as a decarbonization technology in various fields. As a clean, stable power with diverse sources, hydrogen provides a promising solution for energy, industry, and transportation, making hydrogen economy a prominent international topic, prompted developed countries actively investing in hydrogen technologies, setting out development pathways, offering policies and subsidies for short, mid and long-term goals. With net-zero by 2050 commitment, Taiwan introduced its goals in 2021, followed by "Taiwan's Pathway to Net-Zero Emissions in 2050" proposed by the National Development Council in 2022, unveiling a cross-ministerial aggregate strategy. Among its twelve

In A New Documentary History of Hong Kong, 1945–1997, Florence Mok, Fung Chi Keung Charles, and other contributors analyse newly released archival records from the National Archives in London, the Government Records Service in Hong Kong, and other sources across the world. This documentary collection provides an updated and improved understanding of basic aspects of the city such as governance, economy, society, and culture. It also aims at investigating topics that are under-exploited in previous sourcebooks, such as race and diasporas, gender and familial relations, medicine and healthcare, and environment and natural disasters. Overall, this book offers an innovative and comprehensive long-term perspective of Hong Kong’s colonial history.

This is probably the first book dedicated to the life and times of the doctors who have shaped the medical development of Hong Kong. It is a fascinating story of how the pioneers transformed a city with primitive medical services into what it is today—a city with advanced medical facilities as in any major Western city. —Dr. Mak Wai-ping Chairman (Executive Committee) and Board of Directors Hong Kong Museum of Medical Science Society The development of Western medicine in Hong Kong to its current sophisticated state over more than 150 years is a fascinating story. And this book tells the above history from a special perspective—the personalities responsible for this remarkable achievement. These individuals, spanning over a period of over 150 years, comprised doctors in government public medical and health services who advocated new initiatives and laid the infrastructure; those who established health policies, and moved the health system forward; the medical educators who trained t

During the nineteenth century, the transpacific world underwent profound transformation, due to the transition from sail to steam navigation that was accompanied by a concomitant reconfiguration of power. This book explores the ways in which diverse Mexican, British, Chinese, and Japanese interests participated, particularly during Porfirio Díaz’s presidency at the peak of Mexico’s participation in the steam network: from its 1860s outset through a time of many revolutionary changes ending with the World War, the Mexican Revolution, the opening of the Panama Canal, and the introduction of a new maritime technology based on vessels run by oil. These transoceanic exchanges, generated within these new geographies of power, contributed not only to the formation of a transpacific region but also to refashioning the Mexican national imaginary. With transnationalism, global and migration studies as its main framework, this study draws upon a dazzling array of primary sources to center Mexic

Hong Kong and Macau have both been Special Administrative Regions of China since 1999. To this day, however, the two SARs and mainland China have yet to form a cohesive agreement for extradition. Yanhong Yin proposes a theoretical model—the China Arrest Warrant—that fulfils three essential criteria: compliance with the framework of “One Country, Two Systems,” allowance for differences within the three divergent legal systems, and sufficient human rights protection. This model takes direct inspiration from the European Arrest Warrant, which is undergirded by the principle of mutual recognition—the idea that while states may make different decisions on a wide range of matters, results will be accepted as equivalent to decisions made by one’s own state. The success of the European Union’s adoption of mutual recognition across political, economic, and legal situations is instrumental in providing a blueprint for judicial cooperation among mainland China, Hong Kong SAR, and Macau SAR. Th

Benny Chia’s memoir of life on the fringe is a vivacious slice of Hong Kong’s life and cultural development at a time of minimal institutional support. His colourful and anecdotal story will interest culture practitioners as well as the general reader curious about the Fringe Club and its role as a seedbed for local artists and as a venue for international ones, both functions championed by Benny at the helm of this small but important institution housed in a distinctive former ice house in Central.

Surrealism in China initially gained a foothold in Shanghai’s former French concession during the early 1930s, disseminated by returning Chinese students who had directly encountered the movement in Paris and Tokyo. Shanghai surrealism adopted a dialectical form, resonating with the modus operandi of the Parisian movement as well as China’s traditional belief system of Daoism. Reconciling the thought of Freud and Marx, Surrealism subsumed the multiple contradictions that divided Republican Shanghai, East and West, colonial and cosmopolitan, ancient and modern, navigating the porous boundaries that separate dream and reality. Shanghai surrealists were not rigid followers of their Parisian counterparts. Indeed, they commingled Surrealist techniques with elements of traditional Chinese iconography. Rather than revolving around a centralized group with a leader, Shanghai Surrealism was a much more diffuse entity, disseminated across copious different periodicals, avant-garde groups, and th

Wisdom means learning to live with ambivalence and to embrace uncertainty Helga Nowotny’s memoir provides a detailed account of her life, highlighting the challenges and triumphs of a woman who defied convention in the male-dominated field of science. From her early days in science and technology studies, where she faced bureaucratic hurdles, to her influential role in shaping the European Research Council, Nowotny offers a candid look at her career. She shares personal stories of navigating the complexities of academia and policy, revealing the uncertainties and contingencies that shaped her life and work. This memoir resonates with anyone who has pursued a path less traveled, and offers a glimpse into the resilience and ambition required to succeed in challenging environments. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Future Needs Wisdom is not really a memoir, nor is it an intellectual history, nor is it e

囊括亞裔美國演員的一世紀璀璨身影 首部以亞裔為主的電影百科全書 8大主題分類　逐一盤點亞裔影人經典形象 收錄100餘張劇照　亞裔畫家手繪精美電影海報 亞裔美國人如何躍上大銀幕，成就我們今日所見的光景？ 這本集錦涵蓋了130多部電影，時間跨度超過100年——從1915年西席地密爾（Cecil B. DeMille）的《矇騙》（The Cheat），到李安（Ang Lee）的《囍宴》（The Wedding Banquet）、王穎（Wayne Wang）的《喜福會》（The Joy Luck Club），再到2022年丹尼爾雙人組（Daniel Kwan、Daniel Scheinert）橫掃奧斯卡的《媽的多重宇宙》（Everything Everywhere All at Once）。透過亞裔插畫家精美的作品，還有好萊塢各地編劇、演員、製片人和導演的個人軼事，這部開創性的書籍探討了這些標誌性的電影如何塑造了美國對亞洲人的觀感，以及亞裔美國人如何看待自己。 書中收錄了多名好萊塢知名面孔的評論和對話，如劉思慕（Simu Liu）、金大賢（Daniel Dae Kim）、楊燕子（Janet Yang）、錢信伊（Ronny Chieng）、伍思薇（Alice Wu）和鄭肯（Ken Jeong），了解啟發當今的明星們進入電影製作領域的電影經典，以及他們如何將所汲取的養分傳承給下一代的創作者。 柯克斯書評（Kirkus Review） 「本書一旦打開，就很難闔上。裡頭有豐富的劇照和插圖作品，揭示了美國亞裔電影的歷史，其中不乏對重要人物的採訪。這是一部有趣，且內容豐富的作品。無論你選擇用何種方式閱讀，它都會將一段隱藏的歷史帶入日常生活。」

In Man in a Hurry: Murray MacLehose and Colonial Autonomy in Hong Kong, Ray Yep explores the latest available archival materials and re-examines MacLehose’s pivotal governorship in Hong Kong (1971–1982). MacLehose arrived in the challenging 1970s, when there were expectations for social reforms, uneasiness in the relationship between Hong Kong and London, and the 1997 factor looming large. The governor successfully carried out various social reforms and he also handled various major issues, including the anti-corruption campaign, the Vietnamese refugee crisis, and the granting of land lease of the New Territories beyond 1997. Yep unveils the tension and bargaining between the British government and explains how interest of the colony could be asserted, defended, and negotiated. This book is an important study of Hong Kong’s ‘golden years’ when the city’s economy took off. It is a significant contribution to our understanding of how local autonomy was defined.

This book is a collection of watercolours and sketches by Henrietta Alcock and her husband, the British Consul, Rutherford Alcock, along with the stories behind them. The more than 100 images in this book feature picturesque natural landscapes, traditional Chinese architecture, and scenes of consular life. They bring Henrietta Alcock out of the shadows, providing a unique picture of her as an amateur artist, the wife of a consul and, most importantly, a woman in empire. I is suitable for readers interested in a female artistic perspective on life in the early years of treaty port China.

This combination of translated Chinese documents, newspaper excerpts, and essays from other authors is a travelogue, memoir, and political commentary from 1899 by Mrs Archibald Little, a well-known British novelist and social campaigner.

Originally published in 1905, this book is a sensational account of American artist Katharine A. Carl’s time with the Empress Dowager Cixi and the Chinese Court while painting her portrait for an exposition in St. Louis.

Part memoir and part geographical and historical account, this book from 1914 is a window into China through the eyes of Mary Gaunt, an Australian author best known for travel books and fiction writing.

Originally published in 1918, this fictional account of life as a medical missionary in China is based on American Gulielma Fell Alsop’s personal experiences as a missionary and physician in Shanghai.

Population ageing is a challenge to societies worldwide in terms of healthcare, social support, community infrastructure, and more. With one of the longest life expectancies in the world, Hong Kong will soon see a dramatic increase in the number of older residents together with a decrease in the old age dependency ratio. This book provides a timely examination of the current status and services available for Hong Kong’s ageing population in four key areas: general healthcare needs, such as health promotion and lifestyle modifications; specific healthcare needs, including care of chronic conditions and hip fractures; psychosocial needs for older people with intellectual disabilities and impairments, as well as the needs of their caregivers; and environmental and technological needs in relation to universal design, information and communication technology, and telehealth. Drawing from a wide range of experience in local professional settings combined with international best practices, t

換個角度看正位與逆位 玩家升級大師必備的塔羅實占之書 試問，如果抽牌問賺錢和存錢，哪一個狀態比較好？ A.抽到聖杯二 B.抽到權杖四 C.抽到力量 你會分別怎麼解釋這三張牌呢？ 天空為限教你用更廣闊的視野來詮釋手中的牌卡，提高命中率！ 上冊：完整對焦78張牌的元素和優弱勢，看懂牌面下的潛規則，揭開深藏的意義 下冊：8大牌陣應用＋42個實占解牌案例，透視名師的解牌邏輯和切入角度 附《藏在塔羅裡的占卜符碼》練習題解答 如何一眼看到最底層的牌義？ 逆位牌到底怎麼解？ 看書都懂，實際占卜卻失去準度？ 本書著重分析每張牌的細部象徵，了解牌義中的根源特質，讓讀者明確的推判出事件具體的發展，面對客人的靈魂拷問，不再受限於制式的牌義或是用碎片般的關鍵字來解牌，可以順利連結牌卡訊息與事件，提升準度與信心！ 共同推薦（依首字筆順排序） 子玄老師—塔羅教典 于玥－占星療癒心理師 小球（莊鵑瑛）－歌手、自由創作者 孟小靖－塔羅事典館主 薛超－卡巴拉預測研究學者 鐘穎－愛智者書窩版主 本書特色 ．換個角度看逆位：逆位牌不一定為凶，也不一定代表相反的意義。以元素生剋靈活解讀牌意，推導出合理又精準的解釋。 ．正位牌義與元素的關係：每張牌遇到什麼樣的元素，會出現什麼樣的優缺（弱）點，用每張牌的元素去對應問題。（歡迎詳見內文試閱舉例） ．8種牌陣解牌實占：以實際案例說明實占技巧與解牌方法，每一個線索都有嚴謹的解釋。 牌陣一 時間之流 牌陣二 聖三角 牌陣三 二擇一 牌陣四 大十字 牌陣五 七行星人格 牌陣六 十二宮 牌陣七 關係牌陣 牌陣八 十二宮牌陣之前世今生

Prof. William S-Y. Wang, an eminent linguist, has made significant contributions to the field regarding lexical diffusion, experimental phonetic studies, language simulation and modeling, and aging and language. To celebrate his 90th birthday, colleagues and friends worldwide have contributed over 30 articles to a two-volume Festschrift. The English volume includes topics such as Chinese language evolution, the relationship between language and music, and the brain processes involved in language production. This Festschrift is written by and for experienced language researchers and is also suitable for students of Chinese linguistics and those interested in Chinese culture, history, and neurology.

How do public markets, as ordinary as they seem, carry the weight of a city’s history? How do such everyday buildings reflect a city’s changing political, social, and economic needs, through their yearslong transformations in forms, functions, and management? Integrating architecture and history, this book invites readers to go through the growth and governance of colonial Hong Kong by tracing the past and present of public markets as a study of extensive firsthand historical materials. As the readers witness the changes in Hong Kong markets from hawker pitches to classical market halls to clean modernist municipal complexes, the book offers a new perspective of understanding the familiar everyday markets with historical contexts possibly unfamiliar to most, studying markets as a microcosm of the city and a capsule of its history. This book is a robust and in-depth study of the market building history of Hong Kong since the 1840s and contributes to a holistic understanding of everyday

A Contemporary History of the Chinese Zheng traces the twentieth- and twenty-first-century development of an important Chinese musical instrument in greater China.The zheng was transformed over the course of the twentieth century, becoming a solo instrument with virtuosic capacity. In the past, the zheng had appeared in small instrumental ensembles and supplied improvised accompaniments to song. Zheng music became a means of nation-building and was eventually promoted as a marker of Chinese identity in Hong Kong. Ann L. Silverberg uses evidence from the greater China area to show how the narrative history of the zheng created on the mainland did not represent zheng music as it had been in the past. Silverberg ultimately argues that the zheng’s older repertory was poorly represented by efforts to collect and promote zheng music in the twentieth century. This book contends that the restored “traditional Chinese music” created and promulgated from the 1920s forward—and solo zheng music in

In Daily Giving Service: A History of the Diocesan Girls’ School, Hong Kong, Moira M. W. Chan-Yeung and her fellow contributors present a comprehensive history of one of Hong Kong’s oldest girls’ schools. As an alumna of the school, Chan-Yeung traces the history of her alma mater from its establishment in 1860, to its development over the last 160 years until the recent decade. Having experienced stability and turbulences in Hong Kong in the twentieth century, the school has become one of the most prominent girls’ schools in the city. In several chapters written by other alumnae, various aspects of school life of different eras are reconstructed and remembered. The author and other contributors focused on the postwar era in which Hong Kong grew from a small city to a global metropolitan. The expansion of the Diocesan Girls’ School largely followed this trend. The history of the school has also long been connected with the socio-economic development of Hong Kong society, sharing its ha

In Kunqu: A Classical Opera of Twenty-First-Century China, Joseph S. C. Lam offers a holistic and interdisciplinary view on kunqu, a 600-year-old genre of Chinese opera that is being fashionably performed inside and outside of China. He explains how and why the genre charms and signifies Chinese culture, history, and personhood. As the first comprehensive and scholarly book on kunqu written in English, the book not only discusses the genre in cultural and historical terms but also analyzes its shows as performative, cultural, social, and political communications. It approaches the genre from several perspectives, ranging from those of performers and producers to those of casual audience, dedicated connoisseurs, and scholarly critics. Lam also employs a judicious blend of Chinese and international theories and methods. Through this comprehensive study of kunqu, Lam has established the significance of the genre not only in the sphere of Chinese music, but also among the cultural heritage

Malaysian Cinema in the New Millennium offers a new approach to the study of multiculturalism in cinema by analysing how a new wave of filmmakers champion cultural diversity using cosmopolitan themes. Adrian Lee offers a new inquiry of Malaysian cinema that examines how the ‘Malaysian Digital Indies’ (MDI) have in recent years repositioned Malaysian cinema within the global arena. The book shines a new light on how politics and socioeconomics have influenced new forms and genres of the post-2000s generation of filmmakers, and provides a clear picture of the interactions between commercial cinema and politics and socioeconomics in the first two decades of the new millennium. It also assesses how the MDI movement was successful in creating a transnational cinema by displacing and deterritorialising itself from the context of the national, and illustrates how MDI functions as a site for questioning and proposing a new national identity in the era of advanced global capitalism and new Isla

In The Chinese Idea of a University: Phoenix Reborn, Rui Yang conceptualizes the cultural foundations of modern university development in Chinese societies. Instead of focusing on the uniqueness of the societies, this book aims to prove that one educational purpose could be fulfilled via many paths, and that most of the characteristics the university could be found in other institutions of higher learning. Citing the practices of four selected Chinese societies, Yang opposes the existence of an impassable chasm between Chinese and Western ideas of a university and argues that it is possible to combine Chinese and Western ideas of a university. Also, this book is one of the first in English to theorize the Chinese idea of a university. It links the historical events to the present, in a context of an enormous impact of Western academic models and institutions, from the beginning of modern universities in Chinese societies to the contemporary period.

Based on a close reading of Japanese director Yasujiro Ozu’s extant films, this book provides insights into the ways the director created narrative structures and used symbolism to construct meaning in his films. Against critics’ insistence that Ozu was indifferent to plot and unlikely to use symbols, Geist demonstrates otherwise, revealing the director’s subtle iconographic paradigms. Her incisive understanding of the historical and cultural context in which the films were conceived amplifies her analysis of the films’ structure and meaning. Ozu: A Closer Look guides the reader through Ozu’s early, silent films and his sound films made during Japan’s wars in Asia and the subsequent American Occupation, then takes up specific themes relevant to his later, better-known films. These themes include religion, gender, and the influence of traditional Japanese painting. Geist also examines the impact that Ozu’s films had on specific directors in Europe, America, and Japan. Intended for f

In On Saving Face, Michael Keevak traces the Western reception of the Chinese concept of “face” during the past two hundred years, arguing that it has always been linked to nineteenth-century colonialism. “Lose face” and “save face” have become so normalized in modern European languages that most users do not even realize that they are of Chinese origin. “Face” is an extremely complex and varied notion in all East Asian cultures. It involves proper behavior and the avoidance of conflict, encompassing every aspect of one’s place in society as well as one’s relationships with other people. One can “give face,” “get face,” “fight for face,” “tear up face,” and a host of other expressions. But when it began to become known to the Western trading community in China beginning in the middle of the nineteenth century, it was distorted and reduced to two phrases only, “lose face” and “save face,” both of which were used to suggest distinctly Western ideas of humiliation, embarrassment, honor, a

The Many Faces of Ruan Dacheng: Poet, Playwright, Politician in Seventeenth-Century China is the first monograph in English on a controversial Ming dynasty literary figure. It examines and reassesses the life and work of Ruan Dacheng (1587–1646), a poet, dramatist, and politician in the late Ming period. Ruan Dacheng was in his own time a highly regarded poet, but is best known as a dramatist, and his poetry is now largely unknown. He is most notorious as a ‘treacherous official’ of the Ming–Qing transition, and as a result his literary work—his plays as well as his poetry—has been neglected and undervalued. Hardie argues that Ruan’s literary work is of much greater significance in the history of Chinese literature than has generally been recognised since his own time. Ruan, rather than being a transgressive figure, is actually a very typical late Ming literatus, and as such his attitudes towards identity and authenticity can add to our understanding of these issues in late Ming intell

More Than 1001 Days and Nights of Hong Kong Internment is the wartime journal of Sir Chaloner Grenville Alabaster, former attorney-general of Hong Kong and one of the three highest-ranking British officials during the Japanese occupation. He was imprisoned by the Japanese at the Stanley Internment Camp from 1941 to 1945. During his internment, he managed to keep a diary of his life in the camp in small notebooks and hid them until his release in 1945. He then wrote his wartime journal on the basis of these notes. The journal records his day-to-day experiences of the fall of Hong Kong, his time at Stanley, and his eventual release. Some of the most fascinating extracts cover the three months immediately after the fall of Hong Kong and when Alabaster and his colleagues were imprisoned in Prince’s Building in Central and before they were sent to the camp, a period little covered in previous publications. Hence, the book is an important primary source for understanding the daily operation