This book presents photos of archeological
findings of weapons from ancient china from
bows and arrows that have been carbon dated
to 28,000(!) years old down to Ming dynasty
cannons. There are 388(!) b&W photos and
line drawings (298 pages) and 57 color photos
(16 pages). The accompanying text describes
the artifacts and weapons development of the
times. Each chapters also come with a good list
of primary references.

This book is loaded with drawings and photographs of Shang, Zhou and Qin dynasty weapons. Arrow points and spear points throughout these periods are well represented including styles I have not seen elsewhere. Numerous examples of crossbow mechanisms are illustrated. Technical information includes alloys and archaeological proveniences.

For many Americans, Jackie Chan made his screen debut in the late 1990s with such hits as *Rumble in the Bronx* or *Rush Hour*. But a privileged few have been enjoying his movies for more than two decades, from the cheap, non-stop-kung-fu flicks he first starred in to his more recent and more expensive cop movies and period pieces.

*I Am Jackie Chan* is the story of the making of these movies and of the man who made them possible: a first-hand, first-person account of Jackie Chan's eventful life, from his training at a Peking Opera school, where we discover the overweight bully who was to become "big brother" Samo Hung, to his second and hugely successful attempt to conquer the American public.

The book unravels the rather bumpy ride to stardom of this atypical martial artist who always preferred being beaten up by the bad guys to the other way around, who repeatedly risked his life to perform the most incredible stunts ever filmed (Jackie stop! We don't want to lose you!) and whose happy-go-lucky persona finally eclipsed that of Bruce Lee himself.

I really loved this success-story, set in a world whose death warrant was signed in 1997 when the Communists took control of Hong Kong. Jackie has seen it all, from the Shaw Brothers to Golden Harvest; from the greatest of all Hong Kong directors, King Hu, to that smug, overbearing, cigar-smoking individual with a penchant for "bathroom humor and clumsy slapstick"- Lo Wei; from the evil Triads to the elitist clique of the movie stuntmen, who lived in the present because their future didn't even have a wire to hang on to.

If for you the names of Cheng Pei Pei, Michelle Yeoh (pre-Tomorrow Never Dies) and Yuen Woo Ping (pre-Matrix) have more magic to them than the equivalent Hollywood names, then you will enjoy this unique, exotic auto-biography, which really begs for a screen version in the vein of *Dragon: The Story of Bruce Lee*.

A good companion to this volume is the 75-minute video documentary entitled *Jackie Chan: My Own Story*, which shows rare footage from his films, bloopers and interviews with Jackie Chan, his closest associates and the American stars who count themselves his fans. At the end of this documentary, Chan says that he has fulfilled his three dreams of personal success, but that he now has a fourth one: world peace. I think we definitely ought to give him that. He deserves it.

I have read the autobiography, I Am Jackie Chan.This book is some three-hundred pages long but good from page one.I liked this book because it was very well written by the person who actually lived it.This book takes you all through the life of a small poor Chinese boy who worked his way up and went on to become a well known movie star.It all started with his living in the emporer's castle, his dad being the cook and his mom the maid.On ascale from one to ten I give it a ten because it kept me interested the whole time and I never wanted to put it down.Jackie Chan had many experiences in his life that we will never have. He attended the school of the Peking Opera in his days as a child.Also a student at the opera was NBC's hit show Martial Law's star, Samo Hung.Jackie started out as a stuntman, constantly searching for work. He became known for his stunts and began getting bigger and bigger pieces of movies,and in more famous movies themselves.If you look carefully you can find Jackie Chan in Bruce Lee's famous movie, Enter the Dragon.(My personal favorite)To sum this all up I'm just going to say that this book is great and beyond a shdow of a doubt well worth reading.

First and formost, if your a Jackie Chan fan, you owe it to yourself to read this book. I was captivated from beginning to end with this surprisingly touching book. It really sounds like Jackie is talking to you, giving you insite rarley seen anywhere else. I had no idea of the things he has gone through in his 45+ life so far. This book also has an added chapter, bring the book up to the beginning talks of Shanghai Noon (previously it went up to filimg Rush Hour). Highly recommended to everyone curious about this incredible action star.

Fill in the following blanks: Chinese __, Japanese __, Korean __, Indian __, Vietnamese __, and Thai __. How many words can you put in each blank? This book is an excellent guide to solve this puzzle.
Written by editors of a magazine specializing in Asian-American culture, EASTERN STANDARD TIME (EST) covers a wide range of topics in detail. In particular, 'FILM AND TELEVISION' chapter covers both old and new animations and movies even natives from those cultures don't know. Also, recognizing great influence of Asian foods, the book spares many pages on them with recipes for some typical dishes.
Besides minor glitches (obvious typos), EST may be a great help to have a common background with your Asian or Asian-American friends.

This book is a great look into the ever growing Asian Culture in the the 90's! Jeff Yang is my second-cousin and we've spoken for hours on end about his book. It's amazing how much information you can learn from this. Being Taiwanese, I found this book a fresh breath from the Asian Sterotypes. It has everything for everyone, not just non-Asians. It includes the histories of Film&Movies, Literature, Food, Culture, Music, Tradition and other interesting catagories. This is truly where East meets West! Asian culture given a new fresh wind in the 90's. Bravo!

I wasn't sure what EST was about but I really wanted to find out. It turned out to be a mixed bag. I don't think A. Magazine or the editors should have marketed the book as a definitive guide to 'ASIAN-AMERICAN pop culture'. It's really a guide to Asian influences in mainstream culture and a guide to popular aspects of Asian culture, namely film and music. While incredibly informative and broad in its scope, as a young politically active Korean-American, I can't say I identified with much in this book. And I don't believe Asian-Americans are meant to read this book and go, 'Wow, that's what I grew up with and how I live'. The opposite, 'Wow, I should buy/wear/eat/learn some of that to get more in touch with my roots and be cool in an Asian way' seems to be more the attitude of this book. In fact, it almost seems more geared toward non-Asians who are interested in 'Asian-ness'. I hate to say it, but this 'definitive work' is guilty of exotifying itself in order to sell. I had to force myself to read the entire thing. There is a huge difference between what is 'ASIAN' and what is 'ASIAN-AMERICAN'. Japanese or Hong Kong new-wave popular culture has almost NOTHING to do with me or my life as an Asian-American. Japanese thrash metal and Korean modern art are not part of a normal 'Asian-American' experience unless one actively seeks them out and thus do NOT constitute 'Asian-American' popular culture. If I have to read a book in order to find out what my relevant 'pop-culture' consists of, then it must not have existed there in the first place. However, it was a good effort, nicely packaged, was an encyclopedia of facts, and since it attempted to be a breakthrough work (and is in theory), I give it 5 stars. I love learning about _other_ cultures but I really hope that next time, there will be something about 'Asian-AMERICAN popular culture'.