China Books

This colourful photographic album features the Huizhou culture at the foot of the Huangshan Mountains. Situated in the south of Anhui Province and at the juncture of Jiangxi and Zhejiang provinces, Huangshan Municipality was formerly known as Huizhou Prefecture. Here, in this album, the Huizhou Culture is explored, including local trade, architecture, opera, cuisine, carving, block print, epigraphic study, Xin'an School of Painting, Xin'an medicine etc. Studies of Huizhou, Dunhuang and Tibet have become three major branches of research into China's regional culture. Contents: natural resort; scenic spots & historical sites; civilian residence; arch, pagoda, bridge, pavilion; local conditions & customs. (ISBN:7801146492) (For this item please quote stock ID 19004) ISBN: 7801146492

From ancient coastal towns to the fabled oases of Central Asia, Muslims are a part of nearly every Chinese city and town. Their magnificent mosques, richly colourful markets, and distinctive styles of food and dress help the Muslim minorities stand out in the complex ethnic patchwork of modern China. This book, directed at scholars and travellers alike, introduces each of China's ten Muslim minority groups, including the Hui, Uyghurs, and Kazakhs, and provides an introduction to the Chinese Muslims' history, religious and social customs, architecture, language, and daily life. (For this item please quote stock ID 6451) ISBN: 9780195875041

Two very different ethnic minority communities - the Naxi of the Lijiang area in northern Yunnan and the Tai (Dai) of Sipsong Panna (Xishuangbanna), along Yunnan's border with Burma and Laos - are featured in this comparative study of the implementation and reception of state minority education policy in the People's Republic of China. Based on field research and historical sources, Lessons in Being Chinese argues that state policy, which is intended to be applied uniformly across all minority regions, in fact is much more successful in some than in others. In Lijiang, elite members of the Naxi ethnic group (minzu) have a centuries-old connection with Chinese state educational systems as avenues to social mobility, and have continued this tradition under Communist rule. They participate enthusiastically in the present system, using education to gain official and professional positions. In contrast to the Lijiang area, Sipsong Panna functioned in many ways as a separate kingdom until 1950, with its own script and a separate educational system centered in Theravada Buddhist monasteries. Today, many Tai in that area still prefer monastic education for their sons, and most parents are indifferent to state education. This study finds that standardized, homogenising state education is in itself incapable of instilling in students an identification with the Chinese state, ironically often increasing ethnic identity. Lessons in Being Chinese enhances our understanding of how state policy toward minorities works in many areas of life, and its conclusions can be extended well beyond the sphere of education. It will be of interest to both anthropologists and educators. Mette Halskov Hansen is a post-doctoral research fcllow at the Centre for Development and the Environment, University of Oslo. (For this item please quote stock ID 7790) ISBN: 9789622095045

Nestled against the Tibetan highlands in the remote mountains of Liangshan in southwest China, the land of the Nuosu people was until the 1950s beyond the easy reach of the Chinese government, and the culture of the Nuosu (a branch of the Yi group) developed with little Chinese influence. In the 1960s China's Cultural Revolution suppressed and eroded Nuosu culture, but since the 1980s there has been a resurgence of Nuosu ethnic identity and culture, and a revival of traditional arts. An introductory chapter presents the history and culture of the Nuosu, and essays illustrate each of the traditional visual arts: wooden house architecture, featuring intricate post-and-beam construction and carved decoration; clothing and textiles, including elaborate needlework; red-yellow-black lacquerware, seen in both traditional village-made and modern factory-made versions; silversmithing and jewelry; musical instruments and their use; and two aspects of the ritual culture of the bimo priests - ceremonies for the souls of deceased ancestors and rituals to expel and exorcise ghosts. Mountain Patterns includes photographs representing every corner of Nuosu territory and displaying a wide variety of regional styles. The book was designed to accompany an exhibit at the Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture at the University of Washington. (For this item please quote stock ID 7803) ISBN: 9780295979373

The Chinese-speaking Muslims have for centuries been an inseperable but anomalous part of Chinese society - Sinophone yet incomprehensible, local yet outsiders, normal but different. Long regarded by the Chinese government as prone to violence, they have challenged fundamental Chinese conceptions of Self and Other and denied the totally transforming power of Chinese civilisation by tenaciously maintaining connectios with Central and West Asia as well as some cultural differences from their non-Muslim neighbours. Familiar Strangers narrates a history of the Muslims of northwest China, at the intersection of the frontiers of the Mongolian-Manchu, Tibetan, Turkic, and Chinese cultural regions. Based on primary and secondary sources in a variety of languages, Familiar Strangers examines the nature of ethnicity and periphery, the role of religion and ethnicity in personal and collective decisions in violent times, and the complexity of belonging to two cultures at once. Concerning itself with a frontier very distant from the core areas of Chinese culture and very strange to most Chinese, it explores the influence of language, religion, and place on Sino-Muslim identity. (For this item please quote stock ID 9882) ISBN: 9780295976440

In Other Chinas Ralph A. Litzinger investigates the politics of ethnic identity in postsocialist China. By combining innovative research with extensive fieldwork conducted during the late 1980s and early 1990s in south-central and southwestern China, Litzinger provides a detailed ethnography of the region?s Yao population in order to question how minority groups are represented in China. He focuses in particular on how elite members of this minority population have represented their own culture, history, and identity to a range of Chinese and Western observers. Litzinger begins by describing how during the Republican period the Yao were considered a dangerous people who preferred to consort with beasts and goblins than join in the making of a modern nation. He then compares this to the communist revolutionaries? view of the Yao as impressive rebels and positive examples of subaltern agency. Litzinger shows how scholars, government workers, communist party officials, and Taoist ritual specialists have influenced the varied depictions of the Yao and, in doing so, he advances a new understanding of both the Yao and the effects of official discourse, written histories, state policy, and practices of minority empowerment. In addition to analysing issues of ritual practice, social order, morality, and the governance of ethnic populations, Litzinger considers the Yao?s role in the cultural reforms of the 1980s. By distancing his study from romanticised depictions of minorities Litzinger is able to focus on how minority representation, struggle, and agency have influenced the history of the People?s Republic, cultural debates within contemporary Chinese society, and China?s rapidly changing role in the global order. This book will be of interest to Asianists in both anthropology and cultural studies and should appeal more generally to scholars invested in issues of ethnic identity, minority politics, and transnationalism. (For this item please quote stock ID 9891) ISBN: 9780822325499

(For this item please quote stock ID 16653) ISBN: 9780174076001

A string of valleys carved out by strange and anarchic mountains and arid lands, Mountains of the Moon is the name given to Guizhou, the province that lies in South-eastern China. This book is dedicated to the Miao, who make up the largest ethnic group of the region. It portrays their lives throughout the different seasons as well as their culture - including poems, songs, festivals and legends. The book's images preserve a people still living in a time preceding modern culture; their traditions have been maintained due to the geographical remoteness of the region. This portrayal of Guizhou and its people offers the West a unique vision of China as it once was. This book >Explores the province of Guizhou, one othe most undiscovered parts of China >Shows Guizhou's people, customs & landscape, through unique photographs, offering a fascinating view of an ancient culture unaffected by modern day change >Is especially valuable for those interested in China, cultural history & travel. (For this item please quote stock ID 24357) ISBN: 9781844300624

'Rudelson has done a wonderful job of providing an overview of the issues that confront Uyghur intellectuals over the meaning and use of history.' ? William Jankowiak, author of Sex, Death and Hierarchy in a Chinese City Drawing upon extensive fieldwork in the Xinjiang oasis of Turpan, Rudelson assesses the factors that undermine the creation of a pan-Uyghur identity. Justin Jon Rudelson is an assistant professor of anthropology at Tulane University. (For this item please quote stock ID 19278) ISBN: 9780231107877

[Indent] Until quite recently, Western scholars have tended to accept the Chinese representation of non-Han groups as marginalised minorities. Dru C. Gladney challenges this simplistic view, arguing instead that the very oppositions of majority and minority, primitive and modern, are historically constructed and are belied by examination of such disenfranchised groups as Muslims, minorities, or gendered others. Gladney locates China and Chinese culture not in some unchanging, essential 'Chinese-ness,' but in the context of historical and contemporary multicultural complexity. He investigates how this complexity plays out among a variety of places and groups, examining representations of minorities and majorities in art, movies, and theme parks; the invention of folklore and creation myths; the role of pilgrimages in constructing local identities; and the impact of globalisation and economic reforms on non-Han groups such as the Muslim Hui. In the end, Gladney argues that just as peoples in the West have defined themselves against ethnic others, so too have the Chinese defined themselves against marginalised groups in their own society. 'An important work. Dislocating China covers a wide range of issues, centering on the question of minority status in China. it is a thorough treatment of the subject and provides a nice overview, especially for those who are not specialists on the subject' - Xin Liu, University of California, Berkeley. (For this item please quote stock ID 21973) ISBN: 9780226297750

[Indent] This challenging study brings together anthropology and political science to examine how ethnic minorities are constructed by the state, and how they respond to such constructions. Disclosing endless mini-negotiations between those acting in the name of the Chinese state and those carrying the images of ethnic minority, this book provides an image of the framing of ethnicity by modern state building processes. It will be of vital interest to scholars of political science, anthropology and sociology, and is essential reading to those engaged in studying Chinese society. 'In this new work on ethnicity and identity, Chih-yu Shih, one of the most original and productive scholars writing about China, analyses a variety of minority-group perspectives in their 'China moments' of dealing with the state ...providing new insights into what it means to be Chinese today' - Peter Van Ness, Contemporary China Centre, Australian National University. (For this item please quote stock ID 21693) ISBN: 9780415283724

In the Uygur tradition the groom shoots the bride with a blunt arrow to ward off misfortune! Read about this and other fascinating marriage customs in this amazing book! (For this item please quote stock ID 21600) ISBN: 9787800051807

The Yellow River Valley was the birthplace of the Chinese nation as well as a melting pot for China?s ethnic groups. This photographic album provides an intimate look at the muddy river - 'the river in the air' now being harnessed - and an insight into the lives of the people who dwell along its banks and ply its waters. (For this item please quote stock ID 14113) ISBN: 9787505405189

This book illustrates the different lifestyles of the many Chinese ethnic groups: their attire, religion, festivals, rites and taboos. (For this item please quote stock ID 26342) ISBN: 9787800249563

This book examines how a community of urban Chinese Muslims ? residents of the old Muslim district in the ancient Chinese capital of Xi?an ? uses consumption to position its members more favourably within the Chinese government?s official paradigm for development. 'For Muslims in China, eating is a political act, and this book, the most detailed and comprehensive study of a Muslim community in China to date, explains why. In a society that views pork and secularism as the norm, to be a Muslim can be a challenging if not impossible endeavor. The book shows how a small minority can survive and maintain its values in the face of frequent intolerance by the dominant culture. It also translates the fascinating details of the lives of Chinese Muslims into larger modern problems facing communities across the globe.' ? Dru C. Gladney, University of Hawaii, Manoa (For this item please quote stock ID 18922) ISBN: 9780804746854

Text in English, illustrated with color photos. This book is one of the 9-volume photo album series, introduces to the folk arts of Guizhou minority, especially the Miao. (For this item please quote stock ID 35470) ISBN: 9787541216619

(For this item please quote stock ID 35471) ISBN: 9787541216626

(For this item please quote stock ID 35472) ISBN: 9787541216633

Text in English, illustrated with color photos. This book is one of the 9-volume photo album series, introduces to the folk arts of Guizhou minority, especially the Miao. (For this item please quote stock ID 35473) ISBN: 9787541216640

Devoted to providing an introduction to China's 55 minority ethnic groups, apart from the Hans, whose populations total 91 million people. Although these groups make up only 8% of China’s population, they are scattered across an extremely large area, covering about 64% of China’s territory. In general, most of these ethnic groups make their homes in close-knit communities in the vast plateau, grassland and forest areas. Fifty-three of the 55 minority groups have their own language. China's Minority Peoples is a useful and colourful introduction to the ethnic groups of this enormous country (For this item please quote stock ID 727) ISBN: 9787800240461