The Adventures Of Ma Suzhen

The comic novel, The Adventures of Ma Suzhen, was written during a highpoint in the popularity of xia “knight-errant” fiction. It is an action-packed tale of a young woman who takes revenge for her brother, Ma Yongzhen, a gangster and performing strongman, who has been murdered by a rival gang in China’s most cosmopolitan city, Shanghai. After publication of the book in 1923, the character of Ma Suzhen appeared on stage, and subsequently in a film made by the Mingxing Film Company. The book version translated here, displays a delightful combination of the xia and popular“Mandarin Ducks and Butterflies” genres, with additional elements of Gong’an “court case” fiction. The translation is followed by an essay that explores the background to the legend of Ma Suzhen – a fictional figure, whose exhilarating escapades reflect some of the new possibilities and freedoms available to women following the founding of the Chinese Republic.

With detailed photographs and clear instruction for practice, this is the first book comprehensively to cover the history, development and training methods of this rarely taught esoteric internal martial art. The deceptively simple postures and movements of Yiquan are highly effective for achieving results for both health and combat, making it very appealing to martial artists, and Master Tang here reveals the secrets of a martial art still surrounded in mystery. He also provides a history of the origins and lineage of the Yiquan tradition, as well as detailed information on the stances and movements, weapons, and programs, grading and teaching. This complete guide to Yiquan will be essential for anyone interested in Yiquan or oriental martial and internal arts more generally.

Xiao Le's grandmother lives in a faraway village. A visit with Grandma is always a special event, but this time she is frail. With encouragement from his mom, Xiao Le plays with and helps Grandma. When Grandma dies shortly thereafter, Xiao Le comforts his mom—reminding her that when it rains, Grandma is washing her clothes in the sky . . . and that although the Perfume Village in heaven cannot be reached by train, it can be accessed by the heart. Fang Suzhen’s moving story, with stunning illustrations by Sonja Danowski, is a powerful reminder that love transcends all.

In a world where humanity lives in suspended space, children undergo a fishing test when they come of age. Those with immaculate talents have the possibility of becoming great fishing masters. In the endless sea, every life is imbued with a sacred mission. There are fish that can fly, turtles that have absorbed the worldly essence, and whales that can devour the heaven and earth… There are also countless fishers. Fishing is an art. There is an ancient saying: If you can't fish, you might as well be bait.

In A Modern Miscellany Paul Bevan demonstrates that in the 1930s the Chinese cartoon was not only important in the sphere of Shanghai popular culture but that it occupied a central place in the primary discourse of Chinese modern art history.

China today is sexually (and in many other ways) a very repressive so ciety, yet ancient China was very different. Some of the earliest surviving literature of China is devoted to discussions of sexual topics, and the sexual implications of the Ym and Yang theories common in ancient China continue to influence Tantric and esoteric sexual practices today far dis tant from their Chinese origins. In recent years, a number of books have been written exploring the history of sexual practices and ideas in China, but most have ended the discussion with ancient China and have not continued up to the present time. Fang Fu Ruan first surveys the ancient assumptions and beliefs, then carries the story to present-day China with brief descriptions of homosexuality, lesbianism, transvestism, transsexualism, and prostitution, and ends with a chapter on changing attitudes toward sex in China today. Dr. Ruan is well qualified to give such an overview. Until he left China in the 1980s, he was a leader in attempting to change the repressive attitudes of the government toward human sexuality. He wrote a best selling book on sex in China, and had written to and corresponded with a number of people in China who considered him as confidant and ad visor about their sex problems. A physician and medical historian, Dr. Ruan's doctoral dissertation was a study of the history of sex in China.

Resonances: Engaging Music in Its Cultural Context offers a fresh curriculum for the college-level music appreciation course. The musical examples are drawn from classical, popular, and folk traditions from around the globe. These examples are organized into thematic chapters, each of which explores a particular way in which human beings use music. Topics include storytelling, political expression, spirituality, dance, domestic entertainment, and more. The chapters and examples can be taught in any order, making Resonances a flexible resource that can be adapted to your teaching or learning needs. This textbook is accompanied by a complete set of PowerPoint slides, a test bank, and learning objectives.

In Intoxicating Shanghai, Paul Bevan explores the work of a number of Chinese modernist figures in the fields of literature and the visual arts, with an emphasis on the literary group the New-sensationists and its equivalents in the Shanghai art world, examining the work of these figures as it appeared in pictorial magazines. It undertakes a detailed examination into the significance of the pictorial magazine as a medium for the dissemination of literature and art during the 1930s. The research locates the work of these artists and writers within the context of wider literary and art production in Shanghai, focusing on art, literature, cinema, music, and dance hall culture, with a specific emphasis on 1934 – ‘The Year of the Magazine’.