Cheng Li does an outstanding job of uncovering the relationships that propel many of China's leaders. Excellent piece of scholarship and the best book I have run across dealing with elite Chinese politics. This is a must read for any person interested in China.

Taking the old "kremlinology" approach to figuring out Chinese politics, this book organizes each leader's factional affiliation by education, geographic location (the "Shanghai clique", etc.) and others. This approach has always been usable only as a general guide to leadership behavior, but it's all we've got. This book does it as well as any other, but a reader should know that it's not written in a narrative style, but rather in a reference format. Highly useful.

I just finished reading this book, and it is truly a first rate piece of China scholarship. It is a must read book for anyone trying to understand the leadership transition currently underway in Beijing. The book is very well written, and very readable. It also is clearly based upon first rate research and analysis. The entire new generation of leadership is discussed, plus more in depth discussions of Hu Jintao, Zeng Qinghong, and Wen Jiabao. Any journalist wanting to understand Chinese politics needs to read this book.

Includes history, poems and treatises about tea, tea houses, ceremonies, brewing, cups and vessels, varieties, and the effect that tea has on the physical health and psyche. Everything you need to know about Chinese teas is contained in this book. A very welcome addition to anyone's culinary library!

Great in-depth overview of the varieties of tea and drinking vessels! You need this book.

This man, though not Chinese, truly knows his subject and loves it. It shows all through the book. its a masterpiece! a simply MUST HAVE for all admirers of tea or the Chinese culture/ppl/way. Perhaps in a way it is fitting that the author is not Chinese. It shows that even a barbarian [foreigner] can learn something so different when he has enough love and time and determination.

Chinese Numerology: The Way to Prosperity & Fulfillment is Richard Webster's latest book, and it's a fascinating guide to the arcane world of numerology.

Webster explains how, nearly 4,000 years ago, Wu of Hsia discovered a special tortoise shell. The markings on the back of the shell formed a magic three-by-three square. Named the Lo Shu grid, the square was regarded as magic "because every horizontal, vertical, and diagonal row added up to fifteen," a number of great significance in ancient China.

Chinese numerology, as well as I Ching, feng shui, and other Chinese divination techniques, evolved from the Lo Shu grid.

Three systems of Chinese numerology are currently in use, and Webster presents complete directions on how to use each of them. He starts with the Western version of Chinese numerology, which is the easiest to learn. He explains how to calculate your life path number, and the significance of each number. For example, "people with a life path number of 6 are nurturing, caring, and responsible," while 22's "are able to achieve anything they set their minds on."

He then shows how to calculate individual strengths and weaknesses, using personal Lo Shu grids. He presents grids of celebrities as examples. Edgar Cayce, Beethoven, and Mozart all had grids indicating growth in knowledge and wisdom through great personal losses.

Webster explains that "we live our lives in nine-year cycles. Each year contains a different energy, and if we work with the energy, or tone, of the year we will progress smoothly and quickly. Conversely, if we fight the tone of the year, we will struggle all year long." He then presents a simple way to determine which year you are in and gives examples of what kinds of activities are good for each year of the cycle.

Traditional Chinese numerology uses the Lo Shu grid, but the numbers are determined using the lunar calendar rather than the Western solar calendar. Not to worry--Webster includes an extensive solar-lunar conversion chart in the appendix.

The Ki, or Nine House Divination, is more complex. It "starts with the same magic square, but the numbers change position every year creating nine different combinations." In addition, the numbers are associated with the basic elements of wood, fire, earth, metal, and water. Each number also has its own color.

Whether you are simply interested in learning what numerology is all about, or wish to use it for character analysis or planning your future, you'll find Chinese Numerology informative and helpful.

But I give it five stars anyway. Just when I thought that I'd learned all there was to learn about numerology, and just when I thought that I'd heard of every possible way to use numbers to diagram lives, along comes this book. It has many "innovative" methods to tell lots about different personality types using personal info such as date of birth, name, etc. It also gives compatability information along with number and personality signs. There are methods of numerology in this book that most practicing "numerologists" probably don't even know about--it's that diverse, interesting, and innovative. Though I'm interested in these things, I'm a die-hard skeptic. I was a non-believer until I did a few diagrams for myself, and then for people that I know. The nail was hit dead on the head each time. Move over, Western astrology, and make room for Chinese numerology!

Best Book Written On This Subject!

I have read many books on numerology, but he describes in full detail the solar/lunar conversion that I have never heard about before that is very accurate. It is very insightful into other realms I didn't think possible to understand. He has done a great job explaining exactly how to interpret what these numbers mean also.

Wei Jingsheng is well known as China's leading dissident, but this book also establishes him as one of China's leading intellectuals. He has the courage to see and to say what others in China cannot. His letter to Deng Xiaoping about Tibet is an extraordinarily powerful piece of writing. It is worth buying the book for this alone.

The lack of heroes these days has become a truism. Our political leaders are beset by satyriasis and mendacity. Our sports icons gobble steroids, routinely violate the terms of their parole, and sometimes even behead their wives.

That makes it surprising to encounter a genuine hero, which the author of The Courage To Stand Alone certainly is. It is doubly strange that he should emerge from China, the land of groupthink and hyperconformity. Who would have thought that a child of the Cultural Revolution would become a major force for decency and dignity even as those qualities were being rendered quaint and passe by the rush for market share in the New Global Economy?

When Wei Jingsheng was first put into prison and began writing the letters that make up the bulk of To Stand Alone, Mandela had been in prison for 17 years, Solzhenitsyn had just published Gulag in English, and the concept of dissent was unknown in China. When Wei was released in 1997 and flew to the US after having served 18 years in China's gulag (known there as laogai), Mandela was president of South Africa, Solzhenitsyn had returned to a free Russia, and Deng had transformed China from a socialist police state to a plutocratic police state. With all the stuff in our hardware stores and clothing shops bearing the Made in China tag, you might even think China had been transformed into a free society. You would be mistaken to think that, however. Wei was imprisoned for exercising one of the simplest and most basic rights, that of free speech. He published a magazine. In it, he urged the Chinese Communist Party to honor all the grand promises it made in the constitutions it churned out from time to time, promises like "The People have the right to speak out freely, air views fully, hold great debates, and write dazibao (large character posters posted on walls in public places for all to read)".

Wei had begun his career as a dissident by putting up one such dazibao: his essay "Democracy: The Fifth Modernization". This document (included in To Stand Alone) is a piece of impassioned logic which a Jefferson or Hancock would be proud to sign. He wrote it and posted it the same night on Beijing's Democracy Wall. Unlike the others who posted writings there, Wei left his name and number. That wasn't safe, but Wei believed the Chinese were getting a worldwide reputation for spinelessness, thanks to people like Deng and Lin Biao who, during the reign of Mao Zedong, had taken the craft of brown-nosing and sycophancy to new depths.

In 1979 Deng was just beginning his reign, and many thought he was a new kind of leader, which he was, in some ways. In other ways he was the oldest kind of leader there is: a tyrant. In his magazine, Wei identified him as dictator-in-the-making a full 10 years before Deng ordered the murder of hundreds of students in Tiananmen Square. That prediction put Wei in prison, the special Chinese kind of prison where you are expected to confess your "errors" and "crimes".

There was a certain amount of international pressure on China, so Wei probably could have gotten out early for confessing his "crimes". But he had that thing about backbone, about standing upright for what you believe in. He was, it must be noted, a little stubborn. Actually, more than a little stubborn. Actually, you know nothing about stubborn until you read this book. Picture David Niven going into the oven in Bridge On The River Kwai for insisting on being treated like an officer according to the Geneva Convention. Now picture him doing that every day for 18 years, and you have some idea of what Wei went through. Not an oven, but a box without windows, very little food, very little heat in a region bordering Tibet, no medical care, sleep made impossible, beatings, solitary confinement for months on end...All these measures notwithstanding, Wei would not confess to a crime he had not committed. He wouldn't even get impolite. In his letters from prison, he demands the basic rights he's been stripped of in a tone less harsh than I use on my neighbor's barking dog. Reading these letters one occasionally gets the feeling he's been detained through some silly bureaucratic mix-up. Of course, he wasn't. He was thrown into the largest system of concentration camps that yet exists on the planet, just like millions of his compatriots. He's out now, but the others are still there, doing slave labor, starving, being executed by the score, involuntarily donating their organs to international markets...

When the Chinese Communist Party falls, as all brutal, sadistic regimes inevitably do, this book of letters and one landmark essay will be remembered as one of the chief causes of its demise.

Wei, if you read this, I would urge you to post Democracy: The Fifth Modernization on this site. It's common for authors to put excerpts of their books here, and that essay would be a perfect sample. I doubt the Party will be able to have it removed.

As a Chinese communist party member, I'm supposed to tell a lie as usual, but I have to admit that I really love this book. However, sad stories are always hard to go over again and again, which will make me emotionally unacceptable. If I were a girl, Jingsheng, I would like to be your lover, but never your wife.

This book is a wonderful story&it is especially won-
derful to read in this the 50th anniversary of the achievment of
the summit of Mount Everest by Sir Edmund Hillary&Tenzing Norgay.
Momo showed courage as she made her way out of Tibet&down to In-
dia.I also loved the way it introduced another culture&religion.

I read this book voraciously from start to finish when I was in 7th grade and have never forgotten it. It illustrates how important it is to have faith in a dream and to go after what you want even when everyone tells you it's impossible. And if you've ever dearly loved a pet, this is the story for you.

Momo, a young Tibetian girl, yearns to own a Lhasa Apso, but an expensive pedigree dog like that is beyond her family's meager budget. Undaunted, Momo hopes and prays for one to come her way, certain that it will. Her faith and tenacity pay off when a traveling merchant presents her with an adorable Lhasa puppy, whom Momo promptly names Pempa. All is perfect in Momo's world until the day Pempa is stolen by thieves on their way to India. You will learn a lot about that part of the world as Momo tirelessly treks through Tibet, Nepal, Bhutan, and finally India to retrieve her beloved pooch.

She stumbles into a lot of interesting characters along the way, making this story an even more enjoyable read.

I Loved this book to death. I fell in love with it. I don't think that it could've been writen any better then it was. I feel into the book, and I didn't want to come out. Even though the ending was upsetting, because I felt he should go back to indians, I realized that that was his home, that was where he needed to be. This book could've been writen about any person changing, and nowing they belonged. Everyone has a place they just need to find it. Jim Keath didn't now who he was, he always felt like somebody else, he needed to belong, and to change. He changed, and he realized he needed to stay for Dan'l. It's an awesome book that'd I recomend to any one.

I just finished reading Dear Alice. I found it extremely helpful in preparing myself mentally for an upcoming trip to China. The letters were quite authentic and honest, often revealing small details about the enigma of life in China. While I can't assume that I'll have a similar experience to that of the writers, I feel comforted to know that others have dealt with China and survived. A great book if you're curious about this foreign culture and an especially illuminating book for those of you from the United States and who are interested in the ways Americans might react to "The land on the other side of the looking glass."

First of all, I would like to mention that I had the opportunity to teach for one year in Xi'an, the ancient capital of China, and now the capital of Shaanxi province. I am thankful to Alice Renouf, the "Alice" of the title "Dear Alice", for making this dream come true. I went in 1992, if I remember correctly. Since I began reading this wonderful book, I have been unable to put it down. So many forgotten memories and subtle emotions came pouring into my consciousness. From the shock of the first weeks in China to standing in front of the classroom to the everday rush of life which I was part of, to eating in the nightmarket. Reading this book is a vivid and emotional experience. Second only to going to China oneself. Though, I feel it is a must read for anyone planning to go; either as teacher, student, tourist, businessman, politician. In fact, I feel it is not only important for those going to China, but also for anyone who intends to immerse themself in another culture. But even if you just want to read a good book, either while sitting on a warm and glistening sandy beach, with the waves lapping against the shore; or while sitting in your living room sipping a cup of coffee or tea; this is certainly a worthwhile, entertaining, and educational book. After all, it is about becoming sensitive to another culture, and discovering one's own, in the process. I highly recommend "Dear Alice". You will certainly enjoy it.

"Dear Alice" is a must read for anyone headed for China. It's a collection of hundreds of letters by English teachers from America, who arrived to discover China was a bit too different. Often in desperation, but usually with great wit and insight, they sought a shoulder to cry on. So they wrote barrel-fulls of letters to the person who sent them there; hence, Dear Alice .... Alice Renouf, the author, began sending teachers to China years ago and now runs a full-fledged human resources firm helping people who want to teach English in a truly different, challenging environment. Even the locals will tell you China is a crazy place -- a soviet-style bureaucracy trying to run a 3,000 year old society on a marathon of change. Some of the 1.2 runners are at 'start' and some in the 20th centruy. The route changes hourly, and the finishline is definitely "mei you." But if you want to know people who suffer awful frustration with courage, you're in the right place. The best part of the book is learning how many Americans overcome their initial shock, and why they don't flee to the nearest airport. The common strategy seems to be (1) Talk about it (2) Make friends with fellow suffers first, i.e. other Americans. This sounds a bit stand-offish considering you've gone all the way to China to meet Chinese, but it isn't, (3) Learn Chinese if you can, but failing that develop a busy schedule. China is truly ugly, but always interesting, so don't allow yourself an idle minute to examine your (usually) wretched physical surroundings, (4) Take enough money, or make enough. China isn't cheap, and a "mental holiday" in a place like China (dinner at a joint venture hotel) is many times costlier than in the US, (5) Travel and see the country. Make the experience count, and (6) Be prepared for the ultimate culture shock -- ending up where you may have started -- wiser and more tolerant perhaps, but believing your own culture makes considerably more sense.

Mike Chinoy has done an excellent job of bringing to life a country that many people think they know so much about but in reality know so lillte about. China is a fascinating country. I spent six weeks there two years ago at a central bank conference so I studied the country in great detail. After my return I read Mike Chinoy's book and I feel it is a balanced account of the Middle Kingdom. Chinoy tells of his fascination with the country in the early days of U.S.-Sino relations. He details the changes that take place after the death of Mao Zadong and the economic changes through he leadership of Deng Xiopang. But his best reporting is the riveting account of June 4, 1989. This was Tiananmen Square and the brutal assault of the peaceful demonstrators. Chinoy was in the thick of the assault and he details his experiences not only on the night but also the next few days. All Chinese should read this book. Many Chinese think that the press has embellished what happened that night and that the government needed to restore order. Reading Chinoy's book may lead them to re-assess their governemnt's brutal policies. As a self-appointed Sinologist and one that has read many many articles and books on " Zhong guo" I would highly recommend this book. And some day I might get the opportunity to sit and talk with Mike Chinoy about his experiences in China.

I could not put this book down. Chinoy (a cousin of mine, but that bears no influence in my review) invites you into the past where you find yourself in the midst of major historical events. His writing is filled with sincere emotion, high-spirited wit and a true sense of the human struggle to be free from opression. The book also opens the door to the fast-paced and unpredictable life of the foreign correspondent and how that role in our society has changed and is changing. A truly insightful book that should make its way into high school history classes -- I would have actually stayed awake in class if we had had material like this.

This is an absolutely delightful book. It makes the perfect gift for anyone interested in Chinese affairs providing remarkable insight. I was devastated to read the irresponsible inaccuracies in China Wakes by Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl Wudunn. Theirs was a China written in the tradition of Ugly Americans who stay at the Palace Hotel for one week complaining about the lack of ice for their Coke. I vowed that I would never ever read another book on China written by American journalists. Luckily, I was given Mike Chinoy's book by a friend. Absolutely brilliant!

I found this book on a coffee table at a lodge in a remote part of WA state. I'm ashamed to say, I enjoyed it so much I snitched it and took it home with me. This is a fascinating book about a brave woman. She is so familiar in her writing, I felt like I knew her personally and had to find out what happened to her family! Good Read!

As the adopted granddaughter of Emily Hahn and a co-founder of Bastard Nation, I was especially moved by reading my grandmother's brave, amusing and thought-provoking account of keeping her out-of-wedlock child (my mother, Carola).

I am writing to notify all readers that Ms. Hahn passed away in February 1997. She is survived by her daughters, Carola Vecchio and Amanda Boxer, and her husband, Charles Ralph Boxer

Helps push aside the distractions provided by doddering old Chinese officialdom and trade wars waged by the G7, so the reader can grasp the fighting capacity of Chinese workers and peasants. Makes the case that big business and landowning forces were genuinely rousted by popular determination. So, all the faceless, nameless Chinese people who did this are the ones who qualitatively raised the stakes for the imperial war-mongers in their plans for World War III -- now they have to try to get back China, too! Useful and concrete on the bureaucratic stranglehold that the Chinese Communist Party maintained over the workers' movement from the very beginning. But the popular determination to repulse the invasion of Korea, and obtain land and freedom forced even Mao's hand. Also contains an article on challenges in developing China's backward economy that is very apropos today, given China's entry into the World Trade Organization and all the bunk that is being written about that.

China is under attack from both Imperial political parties ( Democrats/Republicans ) , union bureaucrats, and the "anti-globalization"/Dalai Lama combination. Why ?

China shook the world in 1949.The Chinese revolution tore one fourth of humanity out of the orbit of the British and Yanqui imperial domains.The workers took the factories, the peasants took the land, and China stood up in the world'rising from its knees. But this revolution was betrayed from the beginning by its leadership.The documents in this collection, written during the events by leading militants of a revolutionary workers party here in the U.S., explain this mighty revolution and its deformation 'by the opposite of communism : Stalin-ism, represented both by Mao Tse-tung and the ancestors of the present ruling clique.Chinese workers are already beginning to resist the encroachments of Imperial capital, organized by the capitalist wannabes at the head if the Chinese "Communist" Party. As capitalism spirals into its New Depression, the Chinese workers will resist in their hundreds of millions ' billions ! ' and shake the world again, together with the workers and farmers of the world, including here in the U.S.

This short work is an excellent introduction to huge developments in world history: the course of the anti-capitalist revolution that swept China after World War II and the controversial questions of leadership posed by the Maoist forces that headed the Chinese Communist Party at the time.

"The Chinese Revolution and Its Development" reprints a series of resolutions and articles adopted by revolutionary socialists in the United States during the 1950s and 1960s, analyzing and assessing the events in China at the time. The specific facts of the struggle for power in China in the late 1940s as part of the anti-colonial revolutions that swept much of the Third World after World War II; The U.S. war in Korea and the response of the Chinese worker and peasants; the twists and turns of the Maoist leadership once in power-- its all covered here. Of particular value are the detailed discussions of what it takes to overthrow capitalist rule and open the way to the possibility of developing a new, socialist society.

I'd strongly recommend following up this work with two longer titles on China published by Pathfinder Press: "Leon Trotsky on China" and "The Chinese Communist Party in Power" by veteran Chinese revolutionary P'eng Shu-tse.

Eileen Yin-Fei Lo is an excellent teacher and I have several of her books, and love them all, but to be real honest, this is not a low-fat low-cal cookbook. This is a tiny portion cookbook.

At first glance her recipes seem to be low-cal, low-fat, but look again. For instance, tonight I made the pepper steak recipe. Delicious yes, but the recipe called for 4 oz. of meat and 3/4 lb. of peppers and this was supposed to feed 6 people! Maybe that would be satisfactory if you were making several dishes and soup, but for a Sunday night one pot dinner it was just enough for two, tripling the calorie and fat content listed.
Yes buy the book and cook from it, just take a real look at portions and how many a dish is supposed to feed and then ask yourself is this really going to feed my family?

A great book. I had been searching for an authentic Chinese cookbook for some time. I took a gamble on this book by Eileen Yin-Fei Lo, and it was a rewarding pay-off. This book has everything. Some information on the history of Chinese cooking, on buying and seasoning a wok, on steam-proofing dishes, on some of the more hard to find ingredients, and personal stories from her upbringing. Not to mention, some fantastic recipies including one I've wanted to try for some time, fish soup. While prep-work is not one of my favorite parts of cooking, (although somewhat necessary in these recipies)the reward of a fantasic dish is well worth it. Added bonuses are sections on how to properly make rice (harder than you may think), and calorie counting information for every dish. I can't wait to try some of the other books by Eileen Yin-Fei Lo. If they're 1/2 as good as this one, they already have my approval.

We can't say enough about this book since we began cooking with it. Although it took a little time to stock our pantry with the ingredients, it was well worth the time. Thankfully we have some local Asian markets. There has yet to be a recipe that we've made that we have not thoroughly enjoyed. Surprisingly our picky 2 year old has also enjoyed the food. The book is extremely well written with straight forward step by step instructions that allow us to make exceptional cuisine. By no means does the food taste low in fat. The tastes are superb. We plan to purchase another recipe book by Eileen Yin-Fei Lo.