Intimate

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.

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.

“For this brief moment, the two sisters could be ‘together in heart and affection’, and through such letters bridge the distance of empire.” We often learn about the commerce, diplomacy, and military campaigns of the British empire without reference to the intimate side of life in these times—the development of self, the position of women, and the importance of family. In this book, the story of empire, so often told from a man’s perspective, is given a unique vantage point through Eliza Hillier’s letters to her younger sister, Martha. Written largely from Hong Kong, Shanghai, England, and Siam, the letters allow us to become a member of her family and follow the daily tribulations associated with the life of a young British woman in the port cities of Asia. We are thus able to share Eliza’s experiences as she leaves home to embark on married life, starts and raises a family, grieves at the abrupt and tragic loss of her husband, Charles Batten Hillier, and then sets about re-building

…. to imagine a language means to imagine a form of life. ––Ludwig Wittgenstein (Philosophical Investigation, 1953) Whatever specific goal motivated people who study Chinese at first eventually dissolves into the larger Chinese world, and that world—its loves and joys, its stings and frustrations, in any case its incapability of being boring—takes over. This is a fascinating, insightful collection of essays by some of the world’s most renowned China experts, who share personal recollections of their time in China—often beginning in the 1970s, when foreigners were just beginning to navigate the linguistic and cultural terrain of that country—and reflect on what learning Chinese has meant to them in their careers and lives. These ten native English speakers share rare and, at times, humorous and intimate moments, of how learning and speaking Chinese has removed barriers, built rapport, opened doors and sometimes led them down entirely unexpected roads that have changed the course of th

Sam, working as a trainee waiter in a small Italian restaurant near the West End of London, was one day fooled by a bohemian sort of man with a bad sort of logic that led to his dismissal by the head waitress. Feeling lost and trotting along Regent Street he bumped into his girl friend Amy who had just been through a similar scenario, and that made them both laugh away their ‘misfortune’ to start afresh. Sam decided to take a critical thinking course run by a certain Professor Panggloss, a name that rang a bell for him, recalling Voltaire’s famous novel Candide, and the course turned out to be very useful, albeit puzzling at times, which therefore troubled Sam quite a lot, so much so that he had to share his critical thinking problems with Amy, even when she was already away from the UK, holidaying at her aunt’s invitation in Hong Kong. The lovers, separated by at least six thousand miles, carried on their intimate communication using state-of-the-art IT, frequently disturbing each o

This authoritative collection contains writings by some thirty of the most significant Chinese writers of the period between 1919 and 1949. The three decades from which these pieces are drawn encompass most of the Republican period, a tumultuous era in Chinese history in which modernization and republicanism coexisted with classical culture. Thematically, these xiaopin wen, or modern Chinese essays, differ significantly from the more social and political fiction of the May Fourth movement. Their scope varies, from ruminations on broader existential issues to more personal contemplations on everyday life, often delving into issues of morality and interpersonal relations. Although described as "essays," they are not restrained by the formal, expository connotations of this English term; rather, their tone is more intimate, reflective, and at times witty or tinged with melancholy.