Everlasting Empire (Yongwonhan chekuk) is a Korean historical novel written as a mystery story. The narrator frames the main story with his "discovery" of a 150-year-old manuscript. Because of problems verifying the authenticity of the original writer, the narrator offers the book not as genuine history but as a story. The narrative opens on a winter morning in 1800 with the discovery that the Royal Book Examiner has died in the night while working alone on a secret project for the Korean king. His death sets in motion a series of events revealing the contours of philosophical and political conflict among the literati in the royal court. Set at a pivotal moment in Korean history, when the nation’s last strong king was attempting to consolidate the authority of the monarchy against the dangerous encumbrance of bureaucratic factional infighting, and when Western ideas were beginning to infiltrate Korea, Everlasting Empire is not only an exciting and informative novel but offers genuine insight into the history and culture of late eighteenth-early nineteenth century Korea. The original Korean edition was published in 1993 and was a bestseller in Korea, selling more than one million copies. In was translated into French and published by Maisonneuve & Larose in 2000 and was made into a film in Korean which collected six prestigious Grand Bell Awards. " Yi In-hwa has achieved a goal that eludes most authors of historical fiction: He has created a tale so plausible that it can almost pass for the work of a historian rather than a novelist. This novel opens a window into the turbulent world of Chosen dynasty politics, in which political disagreements often had deadly consequences. Yi In-hwa has captured the rivalries, cruelty, and treachery on Chongjo’s Seoul with a vividness equaled by few historical records, or even historians’ reconstructions. I recommend Everlasting Empire to anyone who wants to experience political intrigue on the Korean peninsula two centuries ago." -From the Introduction by Don Baker

Everlasting Empire

Literature & Fiction

In-hwa Yi

Genre Fiction

Eastbridge

This critical study of three intrepid travelers to Southeast Asia –– Bird (1831–1904), Dauthendey (1867–1918), Wu (1904–1992) — combines detailed analysis of travel literature with carefully researched historical background and argues that any travel narrative is inevitably a product of the traveler’s own cultural and social background. Thus travel narrative is never an objective account –– the reader must take into consideration the traveler’s own history. By juxtaposing the views of a Chinese with those of two Western travelers, this book shows that prejudice and racism can exist in both the West and the East. In choosing a Victorian traveler, a German poet, and a Chinese writer, Ng’s study encompasses a geographical area that includes Britain, Germany, China, as well as Southeast Asia and an historical span from the Victorian era to the twentieth century. Three Exotic Views of Southeast Asia is theoretically informed by postcolonial and poststructural criticism. But it also details particular historical contexts, thus evoking the glamour and magic of traveling in a bygone era. Apart from an examination of a broad range of literature by, among many others, Henry Mayhew, Somerset Maugham, Thomas Mann, and Ba Jin, this groundbreaking study also discusses architecture, fine arts, philanthropic culture, and the rise of mass tourism. Original translations from the German and the Chinese are by the author.

Three Exotic Views of Southeast Asia (D'Asia Vu Reprint Library (Series).)

History

Ng, Maria Noelle

Asia

Oriole's Song: Growing Up American in Wartime China (Signature Books)

The Oriole's Song is a love story -- love of family, of entwined cultures, of life itself -- during and after the turmoil of war. This beautiful recollection of an American girlhood in China during World War II is a continual delight with large insights and small moments made exqusite by delicate prose. On May 17, 1951, Dwight Rugh — a Yale-in-China representative for twenty years and one of the last Americans remaining in China after the Communist Revolution — was taken from his home in Changsha to a mass rally where he was denounced as an imperialist spy. Twenty-three years later, his daughter was one of the first Americans to enter China after it reopened to the West. Despite the fact that the Cultural Revolution was in full sway, she visited the site of her father’s "trial" and met with some of his friends and colleagues who had been compelled to participate in the proceedings. In this evocative and beautifully written memoir, BJ Elder tells the remarkable story of her family and what it was like for her, an only child, to grow up in China during the Second World War. Born in Hunan, hers was a childhood spent in two languages and "between two names." In a remote river town, she shares the terrors and enthusiasms of her Chinese friends, hides from Japanese bombs, struggles over Chinese calligraphy, and spends enchanted summers in a hidden valley. Yet she thinks of America as "home." When the family goes home to the United States, however, she finds herself drawn back to the country of her birth. This is an account of how one person has tried to make sense of the past, of being formed by two cultures yet never completely belonging to either, of seeing the world from one point of view, but feeling the presence of another, like print coming through from the other side of the page. In the end, two decades after the Cultural Revolution, she takes us "home" again to a much more open China, where she comes to terms with the past and with her place between the two worlds she has known.

The Oriole's Song: An American Girlhood in Wartime China (Signature Books)

BJ Elder

From Yan'an To The World: Origins And Development Of Chinese Communist Foreign Policy (VOICES OF ASIA)

In the 1930s, the core interest of the CCP was simple survival. By its ascent to power in 1949, the Party’s interest had grown to focus on national consolidation and the intense and complex struggle that required. Similarly, the rigid Marxist-Leninist world view originally held by CCP leaders yielded over time to realism as Mao Zedong became a skilled and effective player on the stage of world politics. Drawing from a wealth of previously inaccessible Chinese archival sources, memoirs, and official documents, Professor Niu Jun charts CCP foreign policy during the period prior to 1949. His analysis is well informed, subtle, and persuasive as he presents the intricate twists and turns in the evolution of CCP foreign policy, details the intra-party conflicts, and discusses the tensions between the Yan’an leadership and Moscow. He also revisits a critical period in the evolution of Sino-American relations when an opportunity might well have existed to avert the confrontation that led to the Sino-American war in Korea in 1950. Published in Chinese in 1992, Professor Niu’s book is recognized in China as a major contribution to 20th Century history. It is now, for the first time, available in English translation. This landmark study significantly advances Western understanding of the evolutionary process by which the entire CCP leadership, including Chairman Mao Zedong, gained knowledge and experience of the world. The role of China’s intensifying interaction with the United States, Great Britain, and the USSR is explored in depth. Abandoning neither their commitment to Marxism-Leninism nor their deference to the Soviet Union’s leading role in the international communist movement, Mao Zedong and his close associates came to understand China’s interests, in general — and the interests of the CCP in particular — were not always congruent with those of the Soviet leadership.

Niu, Jun

The Missionary Kaleidoscope: Portraits of Six China Missionaries

Religion & Spirituality

Christian Books & Bibles

In official U.S. military annals there is only the barest mention of the intrepid agents of the Office of Strategic Services who in 1945 lived in the jungles of Vietnam with Ho Chi Minh. Their mission was to train and arm a cadre of his Vietminh guerrillas for combat against the Japanese. This novel is based on that clandestine operation and on OSS interviews with Ho Chi Minh in Vietnam and South China. 
The story unfolds at an historic moment in the last months of World War II when President Truman was deciding whether to pursue the Roosevelt aim of transforming Vietnam into a U.N. trusteeship leading to independence or yield to Charles De Gaulle’s demands for restoration of French suzerainty. On a secret mission to realize President Roosevelt’s vision, Travis Duncan, special agent of the OSS, undertakes a perilous journey, eluding Japanese forces and bandits, for a meeting with Ho Chi Minh in his remote headquarters. Duncan becomes witness in North and South Vietnam to the intrigue and brutality of the decisive power struggle between the Vietnamese nationalists and the French colonialists. Two women out of Duncan’s past, a Vietnamese who had become a deputy to Ho Chi Minh, and a French Gaullist agent, emerge as key actors in his mission. 
The reader will recognize the historic figures portrayed in this novel. The other characters are based on real individuals or are fictional. All serve to recall a turning point in history and a lost opportunity in dealing with Ho Ch-Minh that could have spared us the agony of the Vietnam War.

Fatal Crossroads: A Novel of Vietnam 1945

Seymour Topping

Americas

When Soong Meiling, better known to the world as Madame Chiang Kai-shek, died in October 2003, her life of over a century almost exactly paralleled America's own century of direct involvement with Asia, which began with the acquisition of the Philippines. Alone among Western Powers, the United States championed an Open Door policy toward China. The Madame's Christian family and her American education perfectly suited the American aspirations for a free and democratic China. And when Japan threatened both countries, the Madame, in perfect English, spoke directly to Americans as the heroic symbol of Chinese resistance. Never mind that she and her husband turned increasingly authoritarian and that the Guomindang was defeated by Chairman Mao Zedong's communists. And never mind that she never really connected with the vast majority of Chinese living in the countryside. Today, as China is again catching up to the West in leaps and bounds, it is almost as if Soong Meiling, ending her life after a Rip Van Winkle-like retirement in the United States, is ushering in another century, when new Open Door Americans look toward China again. Here for a new generation of general readers and scholars are thoughtful reflections on the significant impact of a major twentieth-century figure who fascinated Americans for decades and had a significant impact on American perceptions of China.

Madame Chiang Kai-shek and Her China

Biographies & Memoirs

Samuel C. Chu

Community & Culture

When Soong Meiling, better known to the world as Madame Chiang Kai-shek, died in October 2003, her life of over a century almost exactly paralleled America's own century of direct involvement with Asia, which began with the acquisition of the Philippines. Alone among Western Powers, the United States championed an Open Door policy toward China. The Madame's Christian family and her American education perfectly suited the American aspirations for a free and democratic China. And when Japan threatened both countries, the Madame, in perfect English, spoke directly to Americans as the heroic symbol of Chinese resistance. Never mind that she and her husband turned increasingly authoritarian and that the Guomindang was defeated by Chairman Mao Zedong's communists. And never mind that she never really connected with the vast majority of Chinese living in the countryside. Today, as China is again catching up to the West in leaps and bounds, it is almost as if Soong Meiling, ending her life after a Rip Van Winkle-like retirement in the United States, is ushering in another century, when new Open Door Americans look toward China again. Here for a new generation of general readers and scholars are thoughtful reflections on the significant impact of a major twentieth-century figure who fascinated Americans for decades and had a significant impact on American perceptions of China.

Madame Chiang Kai-shek And Her China (Signature Books)

Upstream Odyssey: An American in China, 1895-1944

Daniel W Crofts

One Hundred Years of Chinese Cinema: A Generational Dialogue

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