Ghosts Of The Triad

“A fantastic job of storytelling to the point that it literally sends shivers down the reader’s spine . . . entertaining and informative” (YES! Weekly). Don’t be fooled by the scenic beauty of North Carolina’s Piedmont Triad—the ghosts of the past haunt these rolling hills and unique cities. From the smallpox-stricken ghost that haunts Salem Tavern in Winston-Salem to the slain Revolutionary War soldiers who linger in the park surrounding Guilford Courthouse in Greensboro, these phantoms all have a tale to tell. Some ghosts even support education. Take Jane, the lonely spinster who haunts Aycock Auditorium at the UNC-Greensboro campus, or Herschel, High Point University’s ghost of the former Memorial Theater. And though Spookywoods Haunted Attraction in Kersey Valley often frightens and astounds, some of the resident ghosts aren’t just special effects. Join Camel City Spirit Seekers Michael Renegar and Amy Spease as they reveal the eerie and chilling stories from the heart of the Piedmont. Includes photos! “If you want some spooky ghost stories to get you in the mood for Halloween, Triad ghost-hunters/authors Michael Renegar and Amy Spease may have just what you’re looking for.” —The News & Record

James Wainwright never thought of himself a father, he's grown to love and cherish Xin Yan, the girl he rescued all those years ago. When she's taken from him, first by the courts, then by Triad kidnappers, the engineer will stop at nothing to get her back. He'll go from Chinatown to Hong Kong to Beijing, fearlessly contending with gangsters, rogue inventors, monks, and heads of state, letting none deter him. It'll take more than stubbornness and the brute tactics of a berserker to succeed in the Republic of China, though – James will first have to master himself. And if he fails, he risks losing his daughter, the last tenuous strand connecting him to his humanity, the only bulwark he has against the madness to which inventors of his ilk all too often succumb. Ghosts of Shaolin is the fifth Galvanic Century novel.

Contemporary scholars of Chinese philosophy often presuppose that early China possessed a naturalistic worldview, devoid of any non-natural concepts, such as transcendence. Challenging this presupposition head-on, Joshua R. Brown and Alexus McLeod argue that non-naturalism and transcendence have a robust and significant place in early Chinese thought. This book reveals that non-naturalist positions can be found in early Chinese texts, in topics including conceptions of the divine, cosmogony, and apophatic philosophy. Moreover, by closely examining a range of early Chinese texts, and providing comparative readings of a number of Western texts and thinkers, the book offers a way of reading early Chinese Philosophy as consistent with the religious philosophy of the East and West, including the Abrahamic and the Brahmanistic religions. Co-written by a philosopher and theologian, this book draws out unique insights into early Chinese thought, highlighting in particular new ways to consider a range of Chinese concepts, including tian, dao, li, and you/wu.

In 1896, Maxim Gorky declared cinema "the Kingdom of Shadows." In its silent, ashen-grey world, he saw a land of spectral, and ever since then cinema has had a special relationship with the haunted and the ghostly. Cinematic Ghosts is the first collection devoted to this subject, including fourteen new essays, dedicated to exploring the many permutations of the movies' phantoms. Cinematic Ghosts contains essays revisiting some classic ghost films within the genres of horror (The Haunting, 1963), romance (Portrait of Jennie, 1948), comedy (Beetlejuice, 1988) and the art film (Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives, 2010), as well as essays dealing with a number of films from around the world, from Sweden to China. Cinematic Ghosts traces the archetype of the cinematic ghost from the silent era until today, offering analyses from a range of historical, aesthetic and theoretical dimensions.

The author's intent in presenting these ten stories early in 2017 is to remind Americans and right-leaning Europeans that there is a cost to attempting to return to a bygone era which was never really a paradise. The stories deal with themes such as the degraded position of women before the advent of birth-control pills; education in an anti-intellectual country; ill-starred youths and ghosts in the Japanese-American community of Los Angeles; ghostly and grisly Chinese traditions; the dark underbelly of the American musical scenes in the 1950s and 20-Naughts. 'The Joys of Trumpery' and 'The Last Trump' provide a caricature vision of the deepest fears of anti-Trump liberals who resent and even resist the Presidency of Donald Trump. The author is decidedly not 'anti-Trump'. Nevertheless, having lived through the 1950s without being lobotomized, imprisoned, wounded in battle or strapped in an electric chair, he is grateful for benefits provided by many who, deservedly or not, suffered and are forgotten.

The extensive ritual and mythological lore of the Chinese Triads form the scope of this new paperback title in Brill’s Scholars’ List. The author critically evaluates the extant sources and offers a wealth of contextual information. The core of the book is formed by a close reading of the initiation ritual, including the burning of incense, the altar, the enactment of a journey of life and death, and the blood covenant. Different narrative structures are also presented. These include the messianic demonological paradigm, political legitimation, and the foundation of myth. Triad lore is placed in its own religious and cultural context, allowing radically new conclusions about its origins, meanings and functions. This book is of special interest to social historians, anthropologists, and students of Chinese religious culture.