...about the powerful Soong family. It's so easy to fall under the spell of this seemingly untouchable family who appeared to have it all--wealth, power, education, etc.--but we are reminded of the shady dealings and deeds that catapulted the family to its near-invincible status and its iconic place in world history.

If this book sparks your interest, definitely try out an even better read--George Kerr's Formosa Betrayed. Kerr's book focuses on the early history of the Taiwan-China conflict: the turnover from Japanese Imperial rule, the subsequent and tumultuous Nationalist/KMT government, the 2-28 Incident and March Massacre, and the U.S.'s part throughout it all. Kerr's book is all-encompassing, but as regards the Soongs, it reminds you that beneath the glamour and wealth of people like the Soongs was the unscrupulous trading that bankrupted millions while feeding personal family fortunes. (Specifically look for allusions to T.V. Soong's influence on the then-impending economic collapse of Taiwan, and you'll never again be dazzled by the Soongs' bright lights and propaganda show.) Read it, not because you dare, but because you CAN.

Having read Seagrave's other works I have to say this is easily the best effort. People who wonder why Mao Tse Tung is still revered amongst many Chinese people should read this book.

The alternative to Mao was the 'Generalissimo' Chiang Kai Shek. Seagrave does a good job of underlining the fact that almost anyone would have been preferable to Chiang. He also clearly shows that Mao was the only leader capable of mobilising and motivating the peasants into an army capable of defeating the Japanese. It truly is a shame how Mao allowed absolute power to subsequently corrupt him into the vile creature he was to become. Chiang's long history of needless brutal murder and his seedy connections with the Shanghai Triads is also quite well covered.

What this book is really about though is the remarkable influence 3 sisters had on the history of the sleeping giant which was China. The book also presents the striking contrast between the motivations of each sister. One lusting for power, the other lusting for money and the third who was a true chinese patriot.

One does develop a strong connection with the third sister's strength of character. It's difficult to imagine anyone being able to maintain such honest, good intentions when surrounded by such ugly greed. While Chinese people were being slaughtered by the invading hordes of Japanese the 'Generalissimo'& Co. were busy lining their pockets with money which they solicited from the US. Many US citzens would be interested to know just how much US money for the war effort was funelled via TV Soong into various investments throughout the world.

This is one of many books which depict the tragic story of China for much of the twentieth century. By concentrating on the lives of these sisters Seagrave makes the history of China come alive. A super read, very difficult to put down and very difficult to forget.

Controversial as the subject matter may be, Sterling Seagrave's 1982 book, "The Soong Dynasty" certainly is an interesting and behind-the-scenes view of the gangs and warlords that Chiang Kai-shek relied on to attain power and to stay in power in Nationalist China before the Revolution of 1949.

Sterling Seagrave rightly comes by his ability to dig behind the scenes on the subject matter of the book. He is an investigative journalist and was raised in the Orient. All of his books deal with oriental subjects and are written in an attractive manner which keeps the reader anxious to read more.

With the bestseller lists populated by the likes of such adventure stories as Into Thin Air and other contrived adventures of the bored rich, it is refreshing to read about adventure stories that hark back to a time when man was less concerned with adventure and more concerned with science, discovery, or just making a living. Adventure was just something you accidentally stumbled into. The author recounts many lesser known survival stories, and attempts to reconstruct a mental and psychological profile of the victims as well. In an age where we look at adventure and heroism as more important than the preparation and foresight that would make such adventure unnecessary, it is refreshing to read about survival stories where those suffering the hardships simply want to get it over with. The book hums along nicely for about 2/3 of the 500+ pages, but the author seems to run out of steam and stories, and seems to want to read more i nto the adventure experience than is actually there. Many of the survivors seem less than willing to elaborate upon their experiences, or semed less than heroic in their hardships, but this only adds weight to the contrast between explorer/discoverer and the modern adventurer. But those of you with a taste for the bizarre will love this book, it contains enough morbidity,death, cannibalism and suffering to satisfy the most harcore adventure enthusiast. THe chapters on the rampant cannibalism i n the history of the British Navy and in other adventure scenarios are especially gruesome. Bon Appetit! All in all a worthwhile if a bit long of a read.

I wondered if people were ever REALLY trapped on desert islands for years (a la Gilligan and "Cast Away"), and if so, what would it do to them psychologically? This is the perfect book to answer that. Some folks have spiritual revelations, some give up the idea of god altogether, some go crazy. And who survives, and who dies of panic or bad planning? All incredibly interesting. Stories range from pirate mutinies to a woman trapped under her car on a snowy road... oh, and those Japanese soldiers in WWII who didn't know the war ended! What a lot of good stories.

After reading this, I had this strange period of looking at the world from the point of view of a castaway... "what is useful to me in this situation? What can be salvaged here?", which was interesting, to say the least. Any book that gives you a new way to think deserves 5 stars!

This was a fascinating book. It contains many true stories of survival. If you liked the books Alive or The Perfect Storm, you will love this.

I almost would say that this book is as much about the Philippines as it is about the fun loving dictators the Marcos's. The book covers about 50 years and covers more then just the rise to power of these two, but also detail in what was happening in the country as a whole. I came away thinking the book could have been called the Marcos Crime Family, I guess if you are in power for so long it is easy to keep slipping more and more down that path. I was also interested in how much the USA was involved in keeping them in power, sure it probably seemed like the best thing to do, but the country suffered under his uninspired rule for so long how many years will it take for them to get up to the level of many of the other countries in Asia?

You can tell that the author is an investigative journalist because of the straightforward, detailed account he gives. This book comes at you almost like the author had an ax to grind. I would have liked a bit more on the end - what happened after they left? Overall the book was enjoyable and worth the effort.

This book manages to shed a light on the Marcos Dynasty & what they have done to the Phillippines. Whilst some incidents seemed to be far-fetched, for those who have lived in Asia for a long time, the incidents seem to make sense afterall. Connections & corruptions come hand-in-hand. The book also dented the shiny armour of USA of their involvement in local politics. The book is incomplete on its own. Rather, if we read all the book offerings by Sterling Seagrave such as the Yamato Dynasty, Soong Dynasty, & Marcos Dynasty, we would get a better picture. I suppose the author is running short of space. otherwise, I wouldn't mind knowing the aftermath of the Marcos Dynasty after they have shifted to the States & also the former wife that Ferdinand has left behind. Otherwise, this book is a very good effort, indeed.

Excellent! This is a must read for Filipinos! I know it because I am a Filipino!

The first part of this book is both entertaining and enlightening, an overview of historical tension in China between bureaucratic North and freewheeling, entrepreneurial South which, the author convincingly argues, has served as the impetus for the international diaspora of the overseas Chinese. Splendidly done.

Unfortunately, the second part purports to analyze the overseas Chinese themselves in a contemporary context, and proceeds to do nothing of the sort. Seagrave instead selects a series of Southeast Asian countries and fries up steamy helpings of tabloidesque gossip about a wealthy or powerful figure who has lived there. Entertaining to be sure, but singularly unhelpful for those of us who naively believed the book might deliver what its subtitle promised. The chapter on Indonesia is particularly miffing, because it focuses on the events surrounding the fall of Sukarno and the rise of Suharto, neither of whom are even ethnic Chinese. The chapter on Taiwan is a lazy regurgitation of the author's previous "Soong Dynasty," which roots out various scandals of Chiang Kai-shek and his family. There is a bountiful load of fertilizer in this topic, but it is entirely unrelated to the issue of Taiwan's role as member of the overseas Chinese community or the immigrant character of its population.

When all the dirty laundry has been aired, Seagrave apparently runs out of space and dispenses with addressing his chosen subject altogether. Ultimately, no clear picture of the overseas Chinese emerges at all. This is a pity, because the book jumps out of the gate with a good deal of promise.

Brent Heinrich, Taipei

Conspicuous by its absence, Sterling Seabright's Lords of the Rim has clearly ruffled more than a few feathers, at least in the Chinese Pacific Rim Community. It strikes me as odd that Seabright's EXCELLENT TREATMENT of such topical subjects as Chinese Triad criminal activity, colonialism, monopoly and banking practices and, most recently, the triggering of the so-called Asian contagion by an oligarchy of greedy, Chinese-Thai land speculators and monopolists should suddenly be unavailable. Perhaps Seagrave's blunt warning to us and his glaring examples from elsehwere on the Rim were a tad too clear for Canada's cloyingly naive immigration and multicultural establishment. We, in Canada are arguably next in line for slow colonization of China's Triad driven migration . Seagrave does well to warn us of it. Other, less cogent and less relevant works by the same author are easy to find. What, then, has happened to Lords of the Rim?? Seagrave's publisher does us a disservice by not making such a recent Seabright work available.

This book gives a compelling view of the world of the expatriate Chinese, whom many have been settled throughout the world. Some may be rich and some may be poor. It gives a very in-depth explaination of what and how the expatriate Chinese came about and why they are so. Being a descendent of expatriate Chinese myself, I find this book very refreshing and provides me with a clearer picture of the intricacies of the workings of the Chinese, particularly in South East Asian countries. Besides that, Mr. Seagrave has also shown how the networks of the Chinese have come about and gives me a sense of things to come about. After reading this book, the reader will no doubt gain a better understanding of the cultural differences between the west and the east, particularly the Chinese. This points to a greater opportunity of cooperation and understanding between cultures and thus between governments and businesses of the west and the east.

I have studied late Ch'ing dynasty in detail from Chinese sources and can safely say that I have never encountered a more distorted and fictional view of the period. Seagrave's thesis that the 'evil legend' of Tz'u-hsi was invented by Bland and Backhouse is false: apart from the material based on the Ching-shan diary, virtually everything in 'China under the Empress Dowager' is based on authentic Chinese sources. Seagrave creates an imaginary political scenario of a court dominated by a fictitious 'Ironhat' clique. Virtually every page in this book contains some sort of error, distortion, sweeping judgement based on minimal evidence, fabrication or even an ocasional barefaced lie. If you want a true picture of the late Ch'ing, read Marina Warner's biography of Tz'u-hsi. A comprehensive and accurate account can be found in the five-volume 'Ch'ing-tai t'ung-shih' by Hsiao I-shan. Seagrave's book is an entertaining novel.

The Soong Dynasty, by the same author, is among the best I've ever read. Sadly, I can't say the same for Dragon Lady. Yes, this dealt rather completely with the Ching dynasty's last gasps, and the Boxer Rebellion is treated admirably, but this lacked focus and intensity. This is an apologia, not a biography. Seagrave's true focus is debunking the European myth of Chinese history, and exposing the European "experts" of the period as hooligans and liars of the first order. Only rarely does the reader learn anything about an historical figure who seems remarkably complex and worthy of independent investigation. My rating is based on what is rich in this book, historical detail, rather than what is missing, biographical investigation. Then again, maybe the error was in the title.

This history flies in the face of the popular conception of Tzu Hsi, propagated by a cabal of British reporters & writers in China at the turn of the 20th century & seemingly swallowed hook, line & sinker by historians & the popular press for the next hundred years. Not having read these authors accounts of the supposed excesses in the behaviour of Empress Tzu Hsi, I can only comment on Seagrave's version of events. The life story of the Empress is a fascinating one, worthy of the telling, & the sources of Seagrave's research stand up to fairly close examination. It is a detailed history spreading through the eight decades of her life, so if you pick up this book because you enjoyed the movie "55 days at Peking" (as I did) then you are in for a disappointment. The Seige of the Legations was apparantly something of a sham with the principle Chinese general, charged with the of taking the Legations, spending a fair amount of his afforts giving assistance & succour to the defenders rather than bringing about their downfall. I was left with a somewhat pitiable final impression of Tzu Hsi that I feel has a significant parallel with the fate of her country during her lifetime. Never a prime mover of events she, like China, was much more a victim of Manchu intrigue & obsolescence & European duplicity & greed. This book however, is extremely well written & not at all dry. The content, presentation & opinion is first class & I really enjoyed the read.

It is always nice to see an "outsider" write something which challenges much of the orthodoxy of Japanese history. This is particularly so with a subject such as the imperial family, where the freedom of expression of people in Japan to write freely and bluntly about the subject is kept in check by the threat of, well, death, among other things.

That said, the Seagraves do not read Japanese and rely heavily on sources that do not either (e.g. books such as "Sheathing the Sword" and "Soldiers of the Sun"). So much of what they rely on is filtered. So, as serious scholarship goes, its all rubbish. But readable, tantalizing and entertaining rubbish. If even 20% of what they assert is true then the assertions are worth keeping in the back of one`s mind when looking at more traditional historical works.

"The Yamato Dynasty", Sterling & Peggy Seagrave's expose on the role of the Imperial Family in Japanese society since the Meiji Restoration is written in a style more resembling a political thriller than history. Sure, the mafia-like grip of Japan's all-powerful financial and business oligarchy over the nation's wealth and economy and the Imperial Family's collusion in willingly playing the part of a stooge in return for a lifetime of comfort and wealth with America's secret backing is a shocking eye opener for readers who know little of Japan's history. Reading the book helps us understand why the Japanese economy remains moribund and in a state of paralysis since the bubble burst in the early 90s. Genuine reform cannot take place because the oligarchs and political leaders pulling the strings will never act against their own interests. Neither will the bureaucracy which feeds from it. A truly damning appraisal of the state of Japan as a nation. Yet, I had difficulty accepting all of the Seagraves' account of it as history because of their highly controversial if not downright sensational style in telling it. If history were written and taught this way in school, you'd have no problems filling up the class. Don't get me wrong. The book makes for rivetting reading. It is absolutely unputdownable. Nevertheless, historians might react with horror at some of the gross oversimplication of the truth as told by the Seagraves. It is not difficult to imagine that that they might call into question the source and accuracy of some of the information used in the book. The Seagraves' monochrome/black and white portrayal of the wide cast of characters also turns history into faction, if not soap opera. I enjoyed 'The Yamato Dynasty" tremendously and would recommend it without hesitation to others. But I would be cautious in reading it as history. Better to judge it as a dramatised story of the Japanese imperial family in the post-Meiji era.

This is an intriguing, often mesmerizing, account of the secret history of Japan's Yamato Dynasty, from the decade prior to the Meiji Restoration to the present. The Seagraves must be commended for their scholarship, if not perhaps, for their writing (Although the writing is good, it never rises to the literary eloquence shown by distinguished historians such as Herbert Bix and John Dower.). However, this book raises many questions regarding the conduct of individual family members before, during, and immediately after World War II, which should be addressed by the likes of Herbert Bix and John Dower. It is certainly a provocative look at Japan's royal family - and indeed, of Japanese government - since the end of the American occupation. Hopefully this is the first of many books which will address the Yamato Dynasty's culpability in planning and conducting the Pacific War during World War II.