A practical and accessible guide to an ancient but rapidly changing culture—now revised and updated Perfect for business, pleasure, or armchair travelers, China A to Z explains the customs, culture, and etiquette essential for any trip or for anyone wanting to understand this complex country. In one hundred brief, reader-friendly essays alphabetized by subject, this fully revised and updated edition provides a crash course in the etiquette and politics of contemporary China as well as the nation’s geography and venerable history. In it, readers will discover: · How the recently selected President and his advisors approach global relations · Why China is considered the fastest growing market for fashion and luxury goods · What you should bring when visiting a Chinese household · What’s hot in Chinese art · How recent scandals impact Chinese society From architecture and body language to Confucianism and feng shui, China A to Z offers accessible and authoritative information about China.

China A to Z: Everything You Need to Know to Understand Chinese Customs and Culture

Chai, May-Lee

Chai, Winberg

Reference

Plume

A true story of love, betrayal, and healing, The Girl from Purple Mountain begins with a mystery: The Chai family matriarch, Ruth Mei-en Tsao Chai, dies unexpectedly and her grieving husband discovers that she had secretly arranged to be buried alone-rather than in the shared plots they had purchased together years ago. In this extraordinary and moving family epic set against the shifting tides of twentieth-century China, Ruth's first-born son, Winberg, and his daughter, May-lee, explore family history to reconstruct her life as they seek to understand her fateful decision.

The Girl from Purple Mountain : Love, Honor, War, and One Family's Journey from China to America

Biographies & Memoirs

Community & Culture

Thomas Dunne Books

A family memoir set against the shifting tides of twentieth-century China, The Girl from Purple Mountain begins with a mystery: the Chai family matriarch, Ruth Mei-en Tsao Chai, dies unexpectedly and her grieving husband discovers that she had secretly arranged to be buried alone―rather than in the shared plots they had purchased together years ago. 
For many years, Ruth's family remained shocked by her decision and could not begin to fathom her motivations. Over time, they would fully understand her extraordinary story. Ruth was born in China at the beginning of the 20th century, during the reign of the last emperor. Educated by American missionaries, she was one of the first women admitted into a Chinese university, during an era when most Chinese women were illiterate and had bound feet. She would defy tradition and refuse to marry the man her family had chosen for her, instead choosing his younger brother as her husband. Later, as the Japanese Army advanced across China during World War II, her foresight and quick thinking kept her family alive as she, her husband, and their three sons were forced to flee from city to city. In war-torn Chungking, she was Lady Mountbatten's interpreter as the Allies struggled to help China. After the war, the Chais immigrated to the U.S. to what seemed, until Ruth's death, a happier and more peaceful life. 
In this extraordinary family epic, Ruth's first-born son, Winberg, and his daughter May-lee explore family history to reconstruct her life as they seek to understand her fateful decision. As Winberg writes: "It is my duty to try to understand my mother, to seek answers. To ignore the past is too much like forgetting . . . I hope my memories are enough to fulfill a son's obligations."

The Girl from Purple Mountain: Love, Honor, War, and One Family's Journey from China to America

Parenting & Relationships

St. Martin's: Griffin

A practical and accessible guide to an ancient but rapidly changing culture Perfect for business and armchair travelers alike, China A to Z explains the customs, culture, and etiquette essential for any trip or for anyone wanting to understand this complex country. In one hundred brief, reader-friendly chapters, alphabetized by subject, China A to Z introduces a general audience to contemporary Chinese society, as well as its venerable history. Discover: ? Why Chinese names are written in reverse order ? What to bring when visiting a Chinese household ? What the current relationship is between Japan and China ? Why you should wrap gifts in red or pink paper, and never send white flowers With the 2008 Summer Olympics being held in Beijing, thousands of Chinese adoptions occurring each year, and China becoming the fourth most popular international destination, the need for information about this complex country is greater than ever.

History

Asia

In this lyrical collection, May-lee Chai explores the diversity of the Asian-American experience by challenging stereotypes while experimenting with form, language, metaphor, and myth.

Glamorous Asians: Short Stories & Essays

Humor & Entertainment

Univ of Indianapolis Pr

In the title story of this timely and innovative collection, a young woman wearing a Prada coat attempts to redeem a coupon for plastic storage bins while her in-laws are at home watching the Chinese news and taking her private phone calls. It is the lively and wise juxtaposition of cultures, generations, and emotions that characterize May-lee Chai’s amazing stories. Within them, readers will find a complex blend of cultures spanning China, the Chinese diaspora in America, and finally, the world at large. With luminous prose and sharp-eyed observations, Chai reveals her characters’ hopes and fears, and our own: a grieving historian seeking solace from an old lover in Beijing, a young girl discovering her immigrant mother's infidelity, workers constructing a shopping mall in central China who make a shocking discovery. Families struggle with long-held grudges, reinvent traditions, and make mysterious visits to shadowy strangers from their past―all rendered with economy and beauty. With hearts that break and sometimes mend, with families who fight and sometimes forgive, the timely stories in Useful Phrases for Immigrants illuminate complicated lives with empathy and passion. Chai's stories are essential reading for an increasingly globalized world.

Useful Phrases for Immigrants: Stories (Bakwin Award)

Literature & Fiction

United States

Blair

A young woman who has everything she could wish for in China--beauty, a good teaching job, a mother-in-law with connections, a darling son, and a TV set--finds herself determined to find happiness despite a failing marriage

My Lucky Face: A Novel

Soho Pr Inc

Lin Jun has everything a modern woman in China could hope for: a good teaching job; a handsome, intellectual husband; a mother-in-law with connections; a darling son; a TV set; and a "good fortune" face-she is beautiful. But neither the television nor her marriage is working, and Lin Jun is determined to find happiness.

My Lucky Face

Soho Press

Hapa Girl: A Memoir

Temple University Press

In the mid-1960s, Winberg Chai, a young academic and the son of Chinese immigrants, married an Irish-American artist. In Hapa Girl ("hapa" is Hawaiian for "mixed") their daughter tells the story of this loving family as they moved from Southern California to New York to a South Dakota farm by the 1980s. In their new Midwestern home, the family finds itself the object of unwelcome attention, which swiftly escalates to violence. The Chais are suddenly socially isolated and barely able to cope with the tension that arises from daily incidents of racial animosity, including random acts of cruelty.
May-lee Chai's memoir ends in China, where she arrives just in time to witness a riot and demonstrations. Here she realizes that the rural Americans' "fears of change, of economic uncertainty, of racial anxiety, of the unknowable future compared to the known past were the same as China's. And I realized finally that it had not been my fault."

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Chai, May-Lee. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Chai, May-Lee

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Chai, May-Lee. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

China A to Z: Everything You Need to Know to Understand Chinese Customs and Culture

The Girl from Purple Mountain : Love, Honor, War, and One Family's Journey from China to America

The Girl from Purple Mountain: Love, Honor, War, and One Family's Journey from China to America

China A to Z: Everything You Need to Know to Understand Chinese Customs and Culture

Glamorous Asians: Short Stories & Essays

Useful Phrases for Immigrants: Stories (Bakwin Award)

My Lucky Face: A Novel

My Lucky Face

Hapa Girl: A Memoir

Hapa Girl: A Memoir