This is a nice introduction to chinese new year. I will use it as a informational guide and have my Chinese-Vietnamese students look it over to facilitate a discussion about their new year. Thanks.

This is a simply written and beautifully illustrated book about the Chinese New Year. Through delicate line drawings and jewel like colors the author/illustrator captures the essence of Chinese mythical creatures, flora, fauna, heavenly creatures and mortals. We learn about Chinese zodiac symbols, gods, how Chinese people prepare for the New Year, why they eat special kinds of foods on New Year's Day, the symbolism of specific flowers as gifts, and the meanings of Chinese characters hung on doorways. Demi is the talented author and illustrator of many children's books with Chinese themes. This book is definitely one of my favorites.

Need an excuse to explore ethnic and religious holidays and practices? This is your vehicle. The interesting and exciting practices surrounding Chinese New Year can so easily be compared in writing, drama and story-telling of many other cultures. You cannot go wrong with this book.

This work is a brief text written by Chen Wei-Ming, a tai chi master in the early twentieth century. It is in a question and answer format, and was written with the purpose of responding to common difficulties that students were having with the form. Chen covers a variety of topics, ranging from the history of tai chi, to the form, to combat applications. The answers are usually fairly short, but the translation is good, and this book contains much useful information. I would recommend this book for anyone interested in an old master's thoughts on Yang style tai chi chuan.

It is incredible how in only 60 pages you get the most of answers you were looking for about Tai Chi. There is matter enough in this book to write at the least 5 books. Anyway this is not a book for beginner or not Tai Chi practitioners. You can get the most from this book only if you are an experienced Tai Chi student. The best chapters in my opinion are the ones dedicated to pushing hands exercise and real fighting. If you have approached Tai chi from years of study on a hard stile, the answers could also sound trivial but at the least they will reinforce your intuitions on Tai Chi. On the other hand if you don't have experience on fighting this book clarify you on the item.

Excellent little book about the main points of practice. It is a lot like talking with a T'ai-Chi Master after practice and asking him questions about what you've just done.

The Old Master who collected Chinese wisdom in Tao Te Ching some 2,500 years ago wrote pithily:
"The sage never has a mind of his own;
He considers the minds of the common people to be his mind."

Today, he would not change a word for the sage: the sheng-jen in Beijing. True, modern China, a colossus of 1.2 billion people, is fronted by Shanghai and other booming, skyscrapered, fiber-opticked, globally connected metropolises. But beyond the urban fronts, reality is 900 million peasants--75% of the total population--living a rural, feudal life with Marxist trappings. What gives the Beijing mandarin insomnia is not rhetorical exchanges with America like we saw earlier in 2001. No, it's much more the primal fear bad weather and bad crops might visit hunger upon the 900 million--if the peasants go hungry, the government goes down and chaos surely follows. Chaos, for the Chinese mind, being anathema (off the Tao, hindering wu-wei).

The Rice-Sprout Song by Eileen Chang (1920-95), first published in 1955, deftly evokes rural Chinese life in the early days of the Maoist Revolution. Though well known to Chinese readers everywhere, Chang's work has only recently been in print again for English readers. In 1998, three years after her death, the University of California reissued this novel and a companion work, The Rouge of the North.

Chang, a giant in Chinese literature, wrote and lived a self-proclaimed aesthetic of desolation, especially after immigrating to the United States in the mid-Fifties. A Garbo-esque recluse, Chang was found dead in a barren Hollywood, California, studio apartment. Her will asked that her body be "cremated instantly, the ashes scattered in any desolate spot, over a fairly wide area, if on land." If Chang, as she said, was haunted by thoughts of desolation, then The Rice-Sprout Song shows a corollary to her artistic hunger: Her writing transcends any simple, obvious political interpretation of her material. Neither pro-Mao nor anti-Mao, but a literary meditation on peasant lives caught up in the ironies of political will and human need when hunger stalks the countryside.

The Rice-Sprout Song gets underway with a common family event: a wedding. Gold Flower of T'an Village will marry Plenty Own Chou of neighboring Chou Village. This might not be a joyous occasion for Chang begins to summon the isolation and loneliness of village life: "Sunlight lay across the street like an old yellow dog, barring the way. The sun had grown old here." Yes, even that universal restorer of the spirit--the sun--can be menacing. That all is not right when the festive wedding occasion arrives is shown by note of the "inferior food" that of necessity is served. Big Uncle complains that he cannot see the rice in his bowl of watery gruel. This jho mush--anything but solid rice--becomes one thematic particular for hunger that haunts this novel.

If Chang were less an artist, the reader's easy-to-hate nemesis would be Comrade Wong, the kan pu of T'an Village, the local representative of the Party. For it is Comrade Wong's unenviable task to carry out a political action showing support for the People's Liberation Army in their fight on the Korean front: a gift the peasants cannot afford: half a pig and forty catties of rice cakes from each family. But before this leads to the tragic end to The Rice-Sprout Song, we follow, in flashback, Wong as he finds the love of his life, Shah Ming. He loses her in the vagaries of fighting for the PLA. When at last he sees her again, she waves from a window in the facade of a collapsed building on the battlefield. Inside the building, Wong sees only rubble and overhead, at the window, nothing. He knows his hallucination proved Shah Ming was saying good-bye from beyond. For Comrade Wong, fate gave him nothing but the Party.

We also see dramatic irony when Comrade Ku, the city intellectual, comes to live in T'an Village, to learn the ways of the peasants. His goal of a movie script about village life suffers from writer's block; he habitually sneaks off to another town to buy food to eat on the sly. And when Big Aunt, who spouts Communist rhetoric that is appallingly upbeat, breaks down in a fit of anger. She says they are all empty-bellied and she doesn't care if she is reported. And when Moon Scent, the wife of Gold Root, returns from working three years as a maid in Shanghai. A force to be reckoned with, Moon Scent, in an act of righteous anger, gives this tragedy its capstone.

Essential reading that shares the texture, the heritage, and the yearnings of nearly a billion of our fellow earthlings, search out this reissue of The Rice-Sprout Song. As one t'ai chi ch'uan teacher said, "Perfect doesn't exist. Near-perfect does." The Rice-Sprout Song is a "near-perfect" evocation of the common people in the timeless Middle Kingdom.

I am like The Rice Sprout Song.Eileen chang is the greatest writer of China.

Rice Sprout Song is possibly the best work of literature I have ever read. It was first recommended to me as descriptive of the collectivization era shortly after the 1949 Revolution in China, a classic tale between the state and the individual. It is a spellbinding, troubling work, and is almost impossible to believe that it was Eileen Chang's first work in English. The language she uses is sparse, beautiful and conveys greatest impact after the last page is read, and the cover closed. It is more than an interesting story about conflict between the state and the individual. It is an unsettling story of physical starvation and the death of hope and love.

Eileen Chang has created a vivid and poignant portrait of a young who is trapped in a traditional, patriachal system. Yindi, a lower-class girl, is forced into an unhappy marriage. Her husband is ineffectual and somewhat infantile. Blind and addicted to opium, he can not defend Yindi and himself. Yindi's mother-in-law, Old Mistress, is also a victim of the system herself. She turns her power onto everyone in the house. In reality, after her death, none of her sons gets a dime. In the end, Yindi mistakens her madness as her power. Her insanity escalates as China goes through drastic changes. Chang's prose is captivating; it keeps spinning the fascinating, complex of Yindi. The descriptions are vividly drawn. Chang wrote this novel in English (no translation).

In Ding Ling's "Miss Sophia's Diary," in the entry of March 28, the main character, Sophia, makes an honest assessment of her life as a woman: "....why I've felt such bitter despair for so long. Only I know how many tears I've shed....Rather than calling this diary a record of my life, it's more accurate to regard it as the sum of all my tears." In a way, Eileen(Ai-Ling)Chang's Rouge of the North is the sum of Yindi's tears. From a lower class, Yindi is fated to be doomed in a patriarchal system. As a woman, she does not have much choice in deciding whom she's going to marry. Her only shred of freedom is shown when she fantasizes about marrying Young Liu. However, she knows, for more practical reasons, that marrying Young Liu is out of the question. He is poor and unassertive. Her brother and sister-in-law quickly arrange her marriage with a richer family. Little does she know, her new husband is blind and somewhat an invalid, who lies in bed and gets high on opium. The second part, a big bulk of it, devotes to Yindi's life at the Yao's residence. At her new husband's residence, Yindi has to deal with her controlling mother-in-law, Big Mistress, who, after the death of her husband, practically takes over the household. Furthermore, Yindi is more like a babysitter to her husband than she is a wife to him. He refuses to talk about their future or where they're standing as far as family inheritance is concerned. Along with a demanding mother-in-law, Yindi also has to face the other sisters-in-law. They ridicule her of her child-like husband and her sex life. However, later on, Yindi finds out that Third Mistress (or third sister-in-law) is as unhappy as she is. Third Mistress eventually laments to Yindi that Third Master is never home. He is always at a "singsong" house or an opium den. He usually comes home in the wee hour of the night. On top of that, Third Mistress has to concoct all sorts of stories to save him from his mother, Old Mistress. Through out this part of the novel, we also learn that Third Master and Yindi have sexual attraction for each other. Whether or not they carry that relationship further, I am not quite sure. That part of the relationship is rather ambiguous. However, readers can definitely feel the sexual tension or attraction between them. In any cases, it seems that Yindi revels in that kind of tension. She needs attention. Another interesting element in the novel is how Chang creates that competitive sense among these women. They all want to protect each other; unfortunately, they also feel to have the need to stab each other's back. It is like a vicious cycle. In the final part, Yindi gives birth to a boy,Yensheng, which itself is a blessing and a celebration. The birth of a girl would probably not only diminish Yindi's status but also devastate her. Yengsheng also becomes an opium addict. As a child, he has chronic asthma. They breath opium into him to relieve his asthmatic symptoms. Also at this point of the novel, as China is going through drastic changes, so does the Yao family. Old Mistress dies. China is at war with the Japanese. The family wealths are divided among the men, of course. Most of these men are senior members of the family. With the possibility that Yensheng may be inherited the future estate, Yindi's power is spinning out of control. The family is falling apart. Third Master is getting old and being pounded by debt collectors. I think Third Mistress kills herself (I am not sure). Consequently, in the end, we see Yindi gradually becoming powerful, in a mad sense. Eileen (Ai-Ling) Chang has created a brilliant portrait of a young girl going mad because of the patriarchal, recyclic system, in which women are regarded as merely a reproductive opportunity. Whether one sees Yindi as a coward or a victim, one thing is certainly true, she does not have a choice. Like Flaubert's Madame Bovary or any of Austen's female characters, regardless of their status and intelligence, marriage and death are the only two options. The viable option is obvious. After reading The Rouge of the North, one either senses the triumphant of Yindi's perseverance or sees her as a mad concubine who chooses to compromise her dignity for power. Whatever view the readers adopt, one thing is certain, Eileen Chang has written a poignant masterpiece of an incredible woman who perseveres through the confinement by her society.

** Also read Su Tong's Raise the Red Lanterns (also a film by Zhang Yimou) and anything works by Ding Ling **

This book is good,too.I am like it.

I think this book is very,very good. It was a great book about China also a good book for childrens around the world. This book is about a girl named Yeh-Shen that was a orpahan. She had to work for her stepmother and her stepsister. Yeh-Shen had a fish that she did not know that it was magic fish. The fish's name is goldeyes. Yeh-Shen stepsister found out that Yeh-Shen had a friend that was a fish. The stepsister want and told her mother. The stepmother told Yeh-Shen to get some wood from the far side of the land. At the end of the story Yeh-Shen married the king.

In almost every culture, parents tell children a story that resembles the European Cinderella. Scholars have collected more than 500 versions of the story. In the past couple of decades a lot of these multicultural variations on Cinderella have been turned into children's picture books. The familiar story gives kids a great introduction to people of the world. Several of these books are very good, but two are exceptional. One is John Steptoe's "Mufaro's Beautiful Daughters," an African version of the story. The other is this one.

"Yeh-Shen," a Chinese version of the tale almost a thousand years older than the earliest known European version, contains many familiar details - a poor over-worked girl, a wicked stepmother and stepsister, a magical helper, a king in search of a wife, and a lost shoe. But while Cinderella is simply handed gifts from her fairy godmother, Yeh-Shen earns her wishes through kindness to a magic fish. This one change makes a big difference in the ethical tone of the book. It also makes the reader feel much more sympathetic toward Yeh-Shen, who seems to deserve every bit of good fortune she gets.

The illustrations greatly add to the book's charm. Ed Young's style is striking and unique. There's a misty, ethereal quality to his art that makes everything look as if it were taking place in a dream - which is just perfect for the book.

This is the oldest known version of Cinderella. It dates back to 9BC China. Having taught a unit on the history of Cinderella to my class every year around Holiday time, I'm pleased to finally have a copy of the book -- the copy from the Minneapolis Public Library is missing -- because it teaches children that not every version is about pumpkin coaches and glass slippers. Beautifully illustrated by Ed Young, the theme of the fish/fairy godmother character plays throughout the book.

Enjoy this version, along with Shirley Chimo's Egyptian and Korean Cinderellas, The Turkey Girl, The Rough Face Girl, Sootface, and of course, the old classic versions.

This book is an excellent addition to your multicultural children's collection!

Whether you are an experienced t'ai chi student, starting out or have just enjoyed the feeling of wind against your skin, this book can provide a context for your experiences. The writing is clear, simple and incisive. To read it felt like coming home.

Very good. Really, one of the best despite being 13-years-old book.

This is one of those "underground classics" -- a book that wasn't slick or mainstream enough to make it onto any New Age bestseller lists, but that is recognized as a gem by everyone lucky enough to have stumbled across it.

With clarity and down-to-earth examples, Ai Gvhdi Waya describes how our souls can become fragmented, and how a shaman can journey to the realm of spirit to restore wholeness. Although this is not intended to be a how-to manual, it will give you a VERY clear idea of what a soul retrieval/soul recovery is like -- both from the point of view of the shaman, AND from the point of view of the person needing healing.

Of particular interest are nine case studies that are given in full, including: the life problems the person was having that caused him or her to seek help from a shaman; what the shaman "saw" and did in the spirit realm on the person's behalf; the shaman's interpretation of the symbolic dimensions and significance of what transpired in the spirit realm; what kind of "homework" the client had to do to integrate the changes into real life; whether the healing "took" or whether further work was necessary; and follow-up on changes the client experienced over time in life and behavior, reflecting the work that was done.

These case histories give you a clear picture of what the client goes through in the process of healing and for that reason I would recommend this book to anyone who is considering having someone else do shamanic work on their behalf.

Especially useful is a short section titled "Finding The Right Shaman" -- which also briefly discusses the related topic of avoiding the WRONG shaman. This was of particular interest to me because of a previous bad experience of mine.

Some years before, I'd had a soul retrieval done by a friend-of-a-friend who had credentials as a "certified shamanic counsellor" (trained in the Harner/Ingerman school) but who gave off bad vibes. Well I should have listened to the vibes, because after I let that woman do a soul retrieval for me, I felt violently agitated, invaded, and violated by her.

Then I read this book and when I got to the part where the author (briefly) describes what can happen to you if you get mixed up with a shaman who's into power trips, boy, did that ring a bell with me. Following the pointers in this book and using my own common sense, I was able to avoid repeating the mistakes I made the first time, and find a shaman who was right for ME. And I'm happy to say we were able to clear out the damage that had been done to me by the previous shaman, and get me back on the path towards healing.

Of course, on the whole it would be better to avoid situations like that in the first place! I wish I'd known about this book sooner, I think it would have saved me some grief. I would HIGHLY recommend this book to anyone who is considering having a soul recovery/soul retrieval done. It will help you to understand and to actively participate in the healing process, and to steer clear of possible pitfalls.

This books is quite short, but it's to the point and packs a lot of bang for the buck. You won't find anything here about the anthropology of shamanism -- the author does not have a Ph.D. in psychology or anthropology, but draws on knowledge that was passed down in her own family for generations (she is part Eastern Cherokee) and on her own experience. She shows great insight into her subject.

The author's brother is a Shaman and he did a soul recovery for me. He sent me this book and said it was a 'must read'. He was right. This book is short, to the point and packed with fantastic information. She writes from the heart with great intent. This is a book I'll keep giving away and re-purchasing for myself.

This book is written with clear, concise instructions. It also gives quality background, research, historical data of T'ai Chi.The book outlines the health benefits gained when following a simple fifteen minute seated T'ai Chi exercise program. The exercise regiment contained within these pages can be used by anyone regardless of age or health handicap. Beginners as well as those who participate in daily exercise routines will reap the benefits of involving themselves in an exercise program using T'ai Chi in a Chair. It will allow muscles to gain flexibility without causing injury to the participant. I was amazed at how well the author accomplishes the task of instructing the reader in a simple, uncomplicated manner. Investing in this work is an investment in health.

This book is great, I never had time for any exercise program due to my busy schedule, but this book fits the bill... I have been exercising at my desk for the past month, and the results have been astounding... I would recommend this book to anyone with limited time in their schedule, that wants to keep fit and healthy...This book will become a bible for health and fitness....

As a teacher of Taiji I often find my beginners classes full of people who have no other Martial Arts experience nor even take any other form of exercise - making the teaching of the complex movements and concepts of Taiji quite a challenge! One of my teaching tricks has been to have the pupils come up for their own descriptive names for the movements which, while useful and indeed entertaining, does result in some of the flavor and meaning being lost. This book, with it's breakdown and explanation of the elements of the Chinese characters, will allow teachers and pupils alike to understand the meanings of the names and their inferred movement concepts while still allowing the reader to use his/her creative imagination to reach a deeper level of understanding and retention. And as if that's not enough, it's an entertaining read. A winner!

This great book gives a lot of valuable background information about the meaning of the Taiji movements. It adds much to taijiquan lessons thanks to its light-hearted look. Much too often taijiquan practitioners do not exactly know what the movements mean they practice. Diving into a Chinese dictionary is not easy either. My Chinese teacher explained a lot, but language often was some sort of a barrier. Thanks to Jane Schorre's book this barrier has gone. Further the book contains beautiful calligraphy by Marget Chang in a large size. I like the structure of the book; left side calligraphy, right side explanation. This book is a must for every taijiquan practitioner no matter the style.

It is not absolutely necessary to understand the origins and meanings of the movement names in taijiquan. But it sure is fun! This book scratches an itch. It informs without boring. It is added insight for the student of taijiquan, but it tickles as it goes down.

Volume 2: Mix-Down continues the story of Yota "Dateless" Moteuchi, Moemi, the girl he's in love with, Takashi, the guy she's in love with, and Ai, the girl who came out of Yota's TV set to console him. Much of this volume will be new to people who have watched the Video Girl Ai anime, as it contains a storyline that was largely skipped in the video series. Ai has been recalled by her creator for falling in love with Yota and failing in her proper role as a Video Girl.

Ai eventually convinces her creator to send her back to Yota. She can be with him as long as it takes... to help get him and Moemi together. Furthermore, she must distance herself from Yota emotionally, and cannot give him the slightest sign that she loves him, or she will be erased, deleted permanently.

And so begins one of the most exquisitely painful storylines ever. No one has has a good time in this volume. Moemi and Takashi's relationship is going nowhere. Ai must keep herself distant from Yota or cease to exist. Yota's feelings are split between Moemi, who is going out with Takashi, and Ai, who has been increasingly strange lately. The only clue Yota has about the 'new' Ai is that the package for her tape has changed....

Video Girl Ai is a wonderful series, and worth picking up by anyone who enjoys good characters and good graphic storytelling.

I thought the second volume was even better than the first. In this volume, Yota has been searching for Ai, who disappeared at the end of the last book. The mysterious man in the trenchcoat, Ai's creator, as decided to allow Ai to go back to Yota, with a few conditions. Because Ai has fallen in love with Yota, something forbidden to video girls, these conditions are hard to her to follow, because they require her to put distance between herself and Yota.

I really enjoyed this volume. Yota was much more likeable, I think. Instead of spending all his time thinking about female anatomy, he actually started to think about what and who he wanted. Unfortunately for him, this doesn't make his life any more simple, because he realizes that what he wants is both Moemi and Ai. My biggest complaint in this volume is Moemi, who seems content to let her feelings get stomped on by her boyfriend, Takashi. She's like a human door mat, but this doesn't seem to diminish Yota's feeling for her any. I found Ai to be much more likeable.

Video Girl AI is one of my favorite mangas. It's got some of the most interesting characters around, with a main character that you can actually care for. There's no action or giant robots, just a lot of romance and drama, but told so it would be more appealing for guys, and not at all like a sappy romance novel or chick flick. The series is just incredibly engrossing, a lot like Parasyte(another great manga). Once you finish the last page you REALLY wanna know what happens next. Unfortunately you're in for a long wait. This is an 18 book series, and it's taking Dark Horse forever to translate and market each one.

In this book, you get to see AI's creators, who tell AI that she cannot have feelings for Yota. If she abides by these rules, her time limit with Yota will be taken away, and she'll be sent back to him. Also, Moemi's feelings are revealed, which may bring Yota's crush on her to an end. I don't wanna reveal any more than I already have. If you bought the last one, you've gotta get this one too.