Average customer rating:
- Calculations are only as good as your numbers
- Pants on fire?
- Accepted History & Chronology Must Be Changed.
- Very Interesting
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History: Fiction or Science? (Chronology, No. 1)
Anatoly Fomenko
Manufacturer: Mithec
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Binding: Paperback
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ASIN: 2913621058 |
Book Description
Recorded history is a finely-woven magic fabric of intricate lies about events predating the sixteenth century. There is not a single piece of evidence that can be reliably and independently traced back earlier than the eleventh century. This book details events that are substantiated by hard facts and logic, and validated by new astronomical research and statistical analysis of ancient sources.
Customer Reviews:
Calculations are only as good as your numbers.......2007-08-03
Yes, we can all agree that mainstream history is nearly 100% BS due to politics, economics, ego, problems with dating techniques, and various conspiracies. Agreed. But, I've been researching the distinct possibility that human history (in terms of civilizations) are much more ancient than we've been told, so coming across this book was very interesting to me. I wondered how Fomenko could be wrong (if at all) because he is very persuasive in his presentations. Then it dawned on me. If at previous times in prehistory, due to the various catastrophies that are well documented (comets, asteroids, planetary disruptions, plasma discharge, pole reversals, etc) the Earth was in a different position in relation to the sun, different tilt on its axis, different orbit, different rotation (in terms of velocity and DIRECTION), and the continents were in different positions, then would this not cause the ancients to see the sky (constellations) differently? In other words, is Fomenko making erronious assumptions about the physics of the Earth in pre-history, which then corrupt his data with regards to dating the relevant astrology? The last event to seriously disrupt our planet occured roughly 3500 years ago, according to other good researchers, so is it possible Fomenko has been confused by this? The vastly different physics of our planet in the not so distant past may explain this confusion, which is not to say the "mainstream" version of history is correct; on the contrary. I am not an expert in these fields, but wanted to see if this idea could spark discussion.
Pants on fire?.......2007-07-19
Will people ever read before spamming? Yes, Jesuits could not rewrite world history alone, they had help. Anyway, Dr Prof Acad A.Fomenko does not point to jesuits as the driving force of world wide history manipulation in published volumes 1,2,3;, actually he barely mentions the poor devils. Check it with 'Search inside' feature, please. China is rarely mentioned either, in fact, Dr Fomenko is completely eurocentric. Right, his theory contradicts all mainstream schools of history, because in their actual state they are all built on blatantly erroneus chronology. You don't need a mysterious cabal (conspiracy) to falsify history, the falsification is its modus operandi. It is inherent to history(ians) to falsify (distort) events, as it is inherent to humans to boast as it is inherent to power (authority) to legimize itself by referrring to glorious past made to its own order. Dr Prof Fomenko and team have identified scores of instances of such manipulation in Russian, European, etc.. history, and delivered valid statistical proof thereof. His own 'reconstruction' is completely another story. Forget c14 as a valid method of dating. W.Libby has initially discovered a brilliant method of INDEPENDENT dating. Too bad, c14 method has become a joke after a forced marrige with dendrochronology with consensual chronological scale inbuilt. Radiocarbon method can't stand blind tests, but is so very productive as a rubberstamp.
Accepted History & Chronology Must Be Changed. .......2007-04-09
There is no doubt that history as most know it is a sham, & institution's version of History both University & Church is fradulent & inaccurate. Everything was established with an agenda, The real "Dark Ages" are now when we have access to incredible amounts of information past authorities & more important 'common folk' didn't have but our institutions & educators are slow to evolve because of what has ignorantly & arrogantly been taught for too long. This is on many subjects not just Chronology.
For anyone to question "Why would a Mathematician have anything credible to say of History?" The answer is from Dr. Fomenko's preface in the book: "It would be worthwhile to remind the reader that in the XVI-XVII century Chronology was considered to be a subdivision of Mathematics." These volumes could possibly be some of the most important works to date & should be read by everyone with an interest in History, especially professors & educators who have a duty to the public. I have read both books & must say that 'Chronology 1' has some very eye opening & revolutionary information. Even if these volumes are part true the implications are profound & opens the doors to further investigations & questions which must be done. I speak several different lanquages & must say the logic Dr. Fomenko uses with "inflection" of words & words being read from left to right in one region & right to left in another then written backwards, the removal of vowels & get down to basics of words, or different cities & locations having the same name etc. is correct. Vowel usage has always been optional & varied, actually complicating linquistics & study. The first thing one has to understand is that words never had a fixed spelling in history like we do now, the spelling of words was mutable & regional, as well as names & titles of people were vast, varied & changed, NOTHING WAS FIXED or understood linear. Matters of Life & Death as well as financial profiteering yesterday & today were & are made with ignorant, illogical & conspiratorial views of history & reality, it's time people get closer to the Truth & society collectively grow up.
Very Interesting.......2007-03-07
It is a good proposal and I believe it will mature into something even better in the future. I think it deserves to be read.
History as Science Fiction.......2007-01-10
Anatoly Fomenko has written a very intriguing book, full of pictures, charts, and computer 'proof' of his thesis: backwards of AD900 we don't really know what happened or when. Between AD900 and AD1600 there is more certainty, but there is still a lot of fuzzy ground, and things don't get reliable until we get past the 1600's where the printing press made it very difficult for the perpetrators of this timeline manipulation to change anything that had been committed to print. The Dark Ages did not happen. Books were burned for a reason. One organization has doubled the actual length of its existence by expanding the real chronology. Read why.
I had always wondered why Christ died about AD33 and yet men waited until the 11th century to form the Knights Templar, the Cathars, etc and go after the Holy Land by force. Why the 1000 year gap? Turns out there wasn't more than a 10-12 year gap and he proves it using astronomy. This also implies that the planet is not as old as we have been told, and current Christian and other creationist scientists are already championing that idea without being aware of Fomenko's book. The two groups, creationist scientists and the Russian mathematical analysts corroborate each other. Fascinating.
Of course, all this flies in the face of what we have been told traditionally is the 'proper' chronology of western civilization, and most readers will experience 'cognitive dissonance' in reading this book. It means that our history going backwards from AD1600 becomes progressively more incorrect and unreliable until it cannot be trusted at all... in the space of 700-800 years.
Naturally, the curious, open-minded reader will want to know WHO did this, WHY, and did any of the events we think of as really ancient ever happen?
Dr. Fomenko is a respected scientist/mathematician at Moscow State University who has already answered these questions to the satisfaction of his initially skeptical colleagues. Most of them are now believers, a few still refuse to believe (the usual diehards), and of course the western press has ignored Fomenko's work -- for obvious reasons when you read the book. The ones who perpetrated this chronology ruse have a lot to answer for. They are still with us. That's why this book is a well-kept secret.
I gave the book a 4-star rating because I was unable to check out some of his claims; those I checked were as he said. But if even 1/3 of his claims are true, this punches a big hole in what we think is our history, the meaning of western civilization, our educational process (for repeating the ruse as gospel), and the trustworthiness of the organization that perpetrated this ruse, well-intentioned or not.
This book relates to current research into a Young Earth paradigm, to John Keel's discoveries about our planet, and Fr Malachi Martin's insights (in his now out-of-print books). We are indeed sheep who are manipulated and kept ignorant -- for a reason. While knowing what these men have to say may be the "booby prize" (as in: 'what can you do with this knowledge?'), it will provide interesting reading. Didn't someone say: "...and the Truth will set you free."?? For you to judge if this book contains the truth.
Book Description
From China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong to Singapore and Hollywood, from martial arts films of the early twentieth century to Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon at the turn of the twenty-first century, Chinese-language films have opened new doors to the imaging and construction of national and ethnic identity. This volume, the most comprehensive work to date on Chinese film, explores the manifold dimensions of the subject and highlights areas overlooked in previous studies.
In the essays in this collection leading scholars take up issues and topics covering the entire range of Chinese cinema. Their cross-cultural engagements with individual films, accomplished with an acute sense of chronology and history, tackle questions of issues related to historiography, poetics, aesthetics, genres, and directorial styles; at the same time, they address the economics of film production and consumption as well as the cultural politics of globalization, identity, subjectivity, nationality, citizenship, and gender formation as embodied in filmic texts. They offer insightful, detailed analyses of films by such internationally renowned directors as Zhang Yimou, Hou Hsia-hsien, Ang Lee, Wong Kar-wai, Zhang Yuan, Jia Zhangke, Tsai Ming-liang, Lin Cheng-sheng, Jiang Wen, Ann Hui, Sylvia Chang, Wu Nianzhen, Eric Koo, and others.
Chinese-Language Film makes a significant contribution to international film studies. It will become required reading for all those, whether student, specialist, or general reader, who are interested in Chinese cinema and international film culture or concerned with questions of nationalism, transnationalism, globalization, and multiculturalism.
Book Description
Since the early 1990s, while mainland China’s state-owned movie studios have struggled with financial and ideological constraints, an exciting alternative cinema has developed. Dubbed the âUrban Generation,â this new cinema is driven by young filmmakers who emerged in the shadow of the events at Tiananmen Square in 1989. What unites diverse directors under the âUrban Generationâ rubric is their creative engagement with the wrenching economic and social transformations underway in China. Urban Generation filmmakers are vanguard interpreters of the confusion and anxiety triggered by the massive urbanization of contemporary China. This collection brings together some of the most recent original research on this emerging cinema and its relationship to Chinese society.
The contributors analyze the historical and social conditions that gave rise to the Urban Generation, its aesthetic innovation, and its ambivalent relationship to China’s mainstream film industry and the international film market. Focusing attention on the Urban Generation’s sense of social urgency, its documentary impulses, and its representations of gender and sexuality, the contributors highlight the characters who populate this new urban cinemaâordinary and marginalized city dwellers including aimless bohemians, petty thieves, prostitutes, postal workers, taxi drivers, migrant workersâand the fact that these âfloating urban subjectsâ are often portrayed by non-professional actors. Some essays concentrate on specific films (such as Shower and Suzhou River) or filmmakers (including Jia Zhangke and Zhang Yuan), while others survey broader concerns. Together the thirteen essays in this collection give a multifaceted account of a significant, ongoing cinematic and cultural phenomenon.
Contributors. Chris Berry, Yomi Braester, Shuqin Cui, Linda Chiu-han Lai, Charles Leary, Sheldon H. Lu, Jason McGrath, Augusta Palmer, Bérénice Reynaud, Yaohua Shi, Yingjin Zhang, Zhang Zhen, Xueping Zhong
Book Description
Douglas Wile translates and analyzes four collections of recently released nineteenth-century manuscripts on T'ai-chi ch'uan. These writings of Wu's older brothers Ch'eng-ch'ing and Ju-ch'ing, and his nephew Li I-yu, together with the transmissions of Yang Pan-hou, represent a significant addition to the seminal literature. The rich new texts allow us to make a fresh survey of longstanding issues in T'ai-chi history: the origins of the art; the authorship of the "classics;" the differences between Wu, Yang, and Li; and the roles of Chang San-feng, Wang Tsung-yueh, Chiang Fa, and the formerly missing link, Ch'ang Nai-chou. The original Chinese texts of the four new sets of classics have been appended for the convenience of Chinese readers and scholars.
The book reconsiders the world of the Wu, Yang, and Li families of Yung-nien and reconstructs it against the background of the Opium Wars, the Taiping Rebellion, and the decline of the Manchu dynasty. New biographical sources illuminate the domestic and political lives of the Yung-nien circle and their orientation to the late imperial intellectual trends. The development of T'ai-chi ch'uan in the nineteenth century is explored in the context of China's cultural response to the challenge of the West and the role of body-centered arts in Asia during the drive for independence and the ongoing search for national identity.
Customer Reviews:
Serious Tai Chi.......2000-04-18
In a market saturated with nonsense that passes as tai chi, it is refreshing that someone has taken the trouble to publish something as potentially useful as this book. Not only does it provide several very old texts on tai chi which were written by acknowledged masters, but it also explores the history of tai chi in a more scholarly manner, rather than passing on half truths about "my teacher once told me that his teacher told him...". Thanks to Douglas Wile for raising the bar on tai chi literature in the US. Hope to see more like this one.
Product Description
`History: Fiction or Science? Chronology 2` is the second volume of the most explosive and astounding tractate on history ever written - however, every theory it contains, no matter how unorthodox, is backed by rock solid scientific data. The book is easy and pleasant to read; it is well-illustrated, contains hundreds of charts, graphs and illustrations, copies of ancient manuscripts, and countless facts attesting to the falsity of the chronology used nowadays. You will be amazed to discover: - That the chronology universally accepted today and taken for granted is simply wrong; - That ALL methods of dating of ancient sources and artefacts known today are erroneous or non-exact; - That there is not a single document that could be reliably dated earlier than the XIth century; The Author refers to the Middle Ages as the Antiquity and proves mutual superimposition of the Second and the Third Roman Empire, both of which become identified as the respective kingdoms of Israel and Judah. Furthermore, he asserts that the famous reform of the Occidental Church in the XI century by Pope Gregory Hildebrand was the reflection of the XII century reforms of Byzantine emperor Andronicus who in his turn identifies with Jesus Christ. The Trojan war counted by Homer happened only as late as of the XIII century A.D. and the great poet actually lived in XIV century A.D. No stone in history of Antiquity is left unturned. Literally. This book is the beginning of a major correction to the chronology we live with.
Customer Reviews:
Check and see.......2007-06-21
I don't care what other people say of this book. Those affirmig it's fake, they hadn't ever read it. Or have some special reasons to do so. "Living is easy with eyes closed, misunderstanding all you see..." This book won't make you feel comfortable. It'll make you feel free. It'll make you feel you're "not the only one" to feel you'd been lied to for centuries.
Suprise! Suprise!.......2007-03-22
Here is a serie of books which turns "the whole world" upside down. I learned a lot of it and I hope that a new book from A.T. Fomenko will follow very quick. A absolute must for everybody who is interested in history or even a little bit from it.
Prescient St Augustine?.......2006-02-05
We can so far divide the New Chronology into the following three parts:
a) The verifiable theory that proves consensual chronology wrong with the aid of astronomy, statistics and mathematics;
b) The new chronology hypothesis based on a new understanding of known historical facts and the most likely logical explanation of the most obvious inconsistencies inherent in the official version of history;
c) The history conjectures, that is experimental historical reconstructions based on assumptions that the authors believe to make sense in the light of their research and linguistic parallels - void of ironclad factual support to date.
Fomenko's theory complies with the most rigid scientific standards as a whole:
It gives a coherent explanation of what we already know.
- It is consistent: independent lines of inquiry all lead to the same conclusion.
- The predictions it makes are confirmed empirically.
Fomenko goes by the following axioms:
- Chronology is the basis of history;
- Human evolution has always been linear, gradual and irreversible;
- The "cyclic" nature of human civilization is a myth, likewise all the gaps, duplicates, "dark ages" and "renaissances" that we know from consensual history;
- The accumulation of geographical knowledge as reflected in cartography is a gradual and irreversible process;
- The chronological distance between a given manuscript and the events described therein is proportional to the amount of distortions it contains;
- There is no "useless" information in authentic ancient sources.
Why the mainstream historians do not shower mathematician Academician Dr.Prof Fomenko with thanks and laurels?
The Russians:
Because Fomenko asserts that there was no such thing as the Tartar and Mongol invasion followed by three centuries of slavery, providing a formidable body of documental evidence to prove his assertion. The so-called "Tartars and Mongols" were the actual ancestors of the modern Russians, living in a bilingual state with Arabic spoken as freely as Russian. The ancient Russian state was governed by a double structure of civil and military authorities. The hordes were actually professional armies with a tradition of lifelong conscription (the recruitment being the so-called "blood tax"). Their "invasions" were punitive operations against the regions that attempted tax evasion. Fomenko proves that Russian history as we know it today is a blatant forgery concocted by a host of German scientists brought to Russia by the usurper dynasty of the Romanovs, whose ascension to the throne was the result of coup d'état, charged with the mission of making their reign look legitimate. Fomenko proves Ivan the Terrible to be a collation of four rulers, no less. They represented the two rival dynasties - the legitimate rulers and the ambitious upstarts. The winner took it all! Over some 30 years of controversy, Russian historians have made a most remarkable transition - they were initially accusing the young mathematician Fomenko of anticommunist dissident activity and attempts to deface the historical legacy of Soviet Russia; nowadays the middle-aged mathematician is accused of adhering to "pro-communist Russian nationalism" and defacing the proud historical legacy of Great Russia.
The Westerners:
Because Fomenko blows consensual Russian history to smithereens, successfully removing a crucial cornerstone from underneath the otherwise impeccable edifice of World History. Fomenko adds insult to injury, wiping out one by one the Ancient Rome (the foundation of Rome in Italy is dated to the XIV century A. D.), the Ancient Greece and its numerous poleis, which he identifies as the mediaeval crusader settlements on the territory of Greece, and the Ancient Egypt (the pyramids of Giza become dated to the XI-XV century A. D. and identified as the royal cemetery of the Global "Mongolian" Empire, no less). The civilization of the Ancient Egypt is irrefutably dated to the XII-XV century A. D. with the aid of the ancient Egyptian horoscopes cut in stone. He was the first one to decipher and date all such horoscopes, coming up with mediaeval dates in every case. English historians rage at the suggestion that the history of Ancient England was de facto a Byzantine import transplanted to the English soil by the fugitive Byzantine nobility. To reward the English historians who consider themselves the true scribes of World History, the cover of the present book portrays Tintoretto's Jesus Christ crucified on the Big Ben.
The Chinese:
Because Fomenko wipes out the Ancient History of China outright. No such thing. Full point. The compilation of the so-called Ancient Chinese History is reliably datable to the XVII-XVIII century only. It is perfectly recognizable as the Ancient European history, reworked and transcribed in hieroglyphs as yet another historical transplantation, this time performed on the Chinese soil by the loving Jesuit hands. The Chinese are the next in line to go berserk. Chinese history is inevitably bound to get both more ancient and more eventful, proportionally to the growing involvement of China in the world affairs. Chinese historians will keep on finding valid proof of prehistoric Chinese spaceflights until the Politburo orders them to shut up.
The Arabs:
Too bad. Islam with all its key figures is datable to XV-XVI century A. D. Arabic historians may find consolation in the crucial historical role of the Ottoman Empire in the XVI-XVII century. The trouble is that this empire was initially a Christian state, with Hagia Sophia identifiable as Temple of Solomon, according to Fomenko! We can only guess if the acquisition of Alexander the Great (a Macedonian and a Christian) as the founder of the Muslim World Empire will make Fomenko's theories more acceptable to the Arabic mainstream. He certainly does not spare any holy cows at all, claiming The Stone of Qa'Aba in Mecca to contain the lost Arch of the Covenant.
The Divinity:
Despite of reiterated statement that his theory is all about chronology and not Religion, Fomenko stirs up a whole condominium of wasp nests. His collection of anathemas, fatwa, and other condemnations from all parties concerned is already considerable. Little wonder, considering that the history of religions à la Fomenko looks as follows: the pre-Christian period (before the XI century and JC), Bacchic Christianity (XI-XII century, before and after JC), JC Christianity (XII-XVI century) and its subsequent mutations into Orthodox Christianity, the Catholicism, Islam, Buddhism, and so on.
According to Fomenko we know strictly NOTHING about the events that predate the X century A. D.
St Augustin was prescient when he spoke unto us: "be wary of mathematicians, particularly when they speak the truth."
Something of a disappointment.......2005-09-09
After having read the first volume of this expected series of 7 volumes I was triggered by the thesis of these authors that ancient Greek and Roman history did in fact take place in the Middle Ages. So I started studying medieval history of the Middle East - also known as Islamic history - to find out if the opponents of the ancient Greeks and Romans - the Acheamenid Persians, Sassanids, Scythians, Egyptians, etc. - also have their duplicates in medieval history. My search was disappointing: none of the many medieval Islamic dynasties seemed to correspond to the ancient middle eastern rulers.
However, I did find a close correspondence between Herodotus' Persian kings and medieval events:
- the defeat and capture of an Anatolian king - the Lydian Croesus - by the Persian conqueror Cyrus is identical to the defeat and capture of another Anatolian king - sultan Bayezid - by the Asian/Mongol conqueror Tamerlane;
- the Persian conquest of Egypt by the cruel tyrant Cambyses reds almost exactly as the Ottoman conquest of Egypt by Selim the Grim (note the nickname!);
- Darius the Lawgiver of the Persian Empire looks very much alike to Sulayman the Magnificent, the Lawgiver in Islamic history;
- Xerxes, whose main claim to fame is to be defeated by the Greeks at the naval battle of Salamis, looks like Selim II (the Sot) whose main claim to fame is to be defeated by a Spanish-Italian alliance at the naval battle of Lepanto.
I should have expected Fomenko et al. to arrive at similar conclusions, however, they claim that the Persian kings are the alter egos of the Angevin kings of Sicily whose biographies do not contain the exploits of the Persian kings.
The similiarities I indicate lead to the conclusion that Herodotus must have written his Histories at the close of the 16th century. But this is extremely late, given that Herodotus is "the Father of History", so therefore all other "ancient" histories must have been fabricated even later. Yet, the founders of modern chronology - Scaliger and Petavius - laid their foundations also at the close of the 16th century and had the full corpus of ancient histories already at their disposal.
It seems to me that Fomenko has to address these inconsistencies, maybe in the forthcoming 5 volumes?
Another critique of their book is that the correspondencies between different rulers are often based on a superficial comparison of the biographies; upon a more thorough comparison many details appear that do not correspond at all.
Finally, the authors rely heavily on the works of Gregorovius (1821-1891!!) - his medieval histories of Rome and Athens - as the source of medieval history; these works are - at least in the West - hoplessly outdated and have been superceded by more up-to-date works (for instance, Julius Norwich's trilogy on Byzantine history is not even cited).
Romulus courts Helen, Paris founds Rome, Moses goes to Troy.........2005-07-30
If you agree with Fomenko that Roman chronology is basically the foundation of the entire edifice of global chronology; you would also certainly agree that despite its numerous gaps and inconsistencies, Roman history is the best-documented field of ancient history, and thus a reference scale. But how well is the actual date of the Eternal City's foundation known?
Firstly, Rome is supposed to have been founded by the Trojans who had to flee after the fall of Troy. Some claim Rome to have been founded by Aeneas and Ulysses shortly after Troy had fallen; others are of the opinion that there was an entire dynasty that ruled for 500 years between the fall of Troy and the foundation of Rome.
Well, that's just an innocent 500 years long misunderstanding compared with what heretic Fomenko says, asserts, proves in his second volume: Second Roman Empire, Third Roman Empire, Biblical Kingdom of Israel, Biblical Kingdom of Judah, Holy Roman Empire are stories about basically same events, written from different points of view at different times. The underlying events have actually taken place during xii-xv cy. These histories have been written and perfected by multitude of highly talented humanist and clerical writers of xiii-xvi cy disguised as "ancients" with glorious names like Homer, Pluto, Thucydides etc..Chronology 2.0 beta..
Historians are kindly invited to report the bugs.
Book Description
The Chinese cinemas--including mainland China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong--have been the most internationally popular and successful non-Western cinemas for almost two decades now. In recent years, they have generated a vigorous and thriving field of interpretation and criticism. Chinese Films in Focus: 25 New Takes is an anthology of 25 fresh and original readings of individual Chinese films. Mainland China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and the diaspora are all included, and historical coverage ranges from the 1930s to the present. Film titles covered include Farewell My Concubine, Chungking Express, Flowers of Shanghai, The Goddess, Bullet in the Head, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, Crows and Sparrows, Yi Yi, and many more. As well as globally famous films, the anthology also introduces a number of Chinese classics that are less well known internationally and deserve more attention.
The essays are concise, accessible, rich, and on the cutting edge of current research. Each one outlines existing writing on the film, and then presents an original perspective. All are designed for classroom use, scholarly research, and to appeal to the general reader with an interest in Chinese film.
Product Description
This beautiful table book contains a short introduction to the craft and history of kite making in China, followed by 84 of elaborate examples of the art. In full color.
Book Description
Lucid, authoritative, written with verve by two respected American scholars, this generously illustrated work provides an introduction to more than 7,000 years of Chinese art—from the pottery-making and jade-carving cultures of the Neolithic Age to contemporary Chinese artists working in video,installation, and performance media.
By placing the arts in context—in active engagement with societies, economies, and wider fields of culture—the authors of this much-needed general survey introduce a dynamic and continually evolving tradition rather than a sequence of isolated museum masterpieces. Although the story of Chinese art unfolds chronologically, the authors introduce relevant themes for each era that will deepen the reader's understanding of and appreciation for what they describe as arguably “the most abundantly productive, continuous artistic culture in the history of the world.”
Customer Reviews:
A great survey on Chinese art!.......2002-03-06
This is a great book for a serious survey of Chinese art and also for common readers interested in Chinese art and culture. The first six chapters by Robert Thorp deal with the period between the Neolithic and the Tang, and the rest of four chapters by Richard Vinograd cover from the Song to the 20th century. Both scholars offer succint yet comprehensive historical and cultural backgrounds, and also the images are discussed in terms of important concepts and themes in Chinese art, rather than traditional categories of architecture, sculpture, painting, and decorative arts. This approach works effectively in avoiding any imposition of the art historical concepts derived from European tradition, and also enable readers to be fully engaged in the subject. When comparing with other survey books on Chinese art, it takes a middle path between the traditional style of _Arts of China_ by Michael Sullivan and an intense and provoking style of _Art in China_ by Craig Clunas.
Book Description
What is the sentimental? How can we understand it by way of the visual and narrative modes of signification specific to cinema and through the manners of social interaction and collective imagining specific to a particular culture in transition? What can the sentimental tell us about the precarious foundations of human coexistence in this age of globalization?
Rey Chow explores these questions through nine contemporary Chinese directors (Chen Kaige, Wong Kar-wai, Zhang Yimou, Ann Hui, Peter Chan, Wayne Wang, Ang Lee, Li Yang, and Tsai Ming-liang) whose accomplishments have become historic events in world cinema. Approaching their works from multiple perspectives, including the question of origins, nostalgia, the everyday, feminine "psychic interiority," commodification, biopolitics, migration, education, homosexuality, kinship, and incest, and concluding with an account of the Chinese films' epistemic affinity with the Hollywood blockbuster Brokeback Mountain, Chow proposes that the sentimental is a discursive constellation traversing affect, time, identity, and social mores, a constellation whose contours tends to morph under different historical circumstances and in different genres and media. In contemporary Chinese films, she argues, the sentimental consistently takes the form not of revolution but of compromise, not of radical departure but of moderation, endurance, and accommodation. By naming these films sentimental fabulations& mdash;screen artifacts of cultural becoming with irreducible aesthetic, conceptual, and speculative logics of their own& mdash;Chow presents Chinese cinema first and foremost as an invitation to the pleasures and challenges of critical thinking.
Book Description
This is an ideal introduction to the Chinese language and culture for business people, students, and travelers. It sheds light on the character and personality of the Chinese by examining the meaning, historical significance, and use of more than 300 Chinese expressions. This practical guide will help readers anticipate Chinese behavior and avoid cultural faux pas.
Customer Reviews:
Ugh..........2007-06-02
I am a student of Mandarin Chinese, and that is why this book looked so appealing.
This book is nothing more than the opinions of an amateur anthropologist. As others have said, it is full of value judgments and is condescending. It contains no references or citations. It could have been written 100 years ago. Its only value is as a study of what arrogant authors will churn out to make a buck. The suggested pronunciations are of limited value because they are incomplete and without tones. There are some interesting parts and it is a very easy read, but I wouldn't trust any of it to be 100% accurate.
A good book to complement your bookshelf but.......2007-03-19
not a good book to form the basis of your understanding of Chinese culture, by a long shot. While other reviews have gone into detail about the author's lack of understanding of Chinese culture, or rather his bias, it's the two critical aspects of Chinese written language Mr. De Mente neglects that is even more important - namely the lack of emphasis on calligraphy and the radicals (sub-characters) that make up each character.
This complexity is what gives Chinese so many more dimensions and to have him continually delve into the same theme of a subservient and troubled non-individual culture takes so much away from that.
Now for the good. The author does give you a lot of information, but only in passing. The remaining legwork remains yours, which is what an author should do in the first place - inspire you to want to learn on your own. This is a decent source to refer to for research or if you are simply curious about Chinese. While his bias is inherent, it is not altogether off the mark given the standard of living in China even in this day and age. Refusing to embellish and feed the Western reader ambiguous Eastern mysticism easily distinguish the writer from the typical writings about Chinese culture and language.
With all that said, this is only a work you should buy AFTER you have already formed an informed and detailed opinion about Chinese culture and thought. If not, you will definitely get an inaccurate impression that will only harm your ability to learn. Great tidbits and trivia all along the way, but skip this incomplete guide if you don't have time to burn.
Fraught with language errors and cultural misconceptions.......2006-02-27
The author paints China as this complex system of mannerisms and beliefs, when people are just people here in China. If you want a truly real perspective on China, I suggest you buy another book. If you are going to be on a plane for 14 hours, then it might be worthwhile to flip around in it, as it touches on a few interesting topics.
Although the book tends to get it right on the larger scale of things, I thought the author must have been a person who collaborated the book from previous texts while on a "study vacation" of no more than 2 years in China. As soon as I read the first section on love, I hastily flipped to the front of the book to see when this book was published; horrificially I discovered it was first published in 2000 and furthermore would like to note was horrified as I was sure the book must have been published in the late 80s.
There are so many language errors in this book, even of the Chinese characters written on the top of each section, that this author lost all credability with me immediately. The author attempts to portray that he is an expert on the subject of China, but I kept wondering the entire time: "Who edited this book? They should have caught these language errors." For example on page 26 entitled "Engaging in Melancholy", the correct romanization of the character should be qiu, not chou; and the first thing I thought of was "stinky" (which is one of the translations for the word chou).
Another culturally insensitive, completely erroneous, and embarassing mistake is that the author contends that the word 'haole' (a Hawaiian word) translate to "white pig", while discribing other cultural ways of terming foreigners (see page 145). Having absolutely nothing to do with the subject of the book and being completely in error, I wish the editor or the author would have removed the unnecessary comment.
Furthermore on page 145 the author asserts the term yang gui zi means "ocean ghosts", when in fact the character yang was used specifically to describe foreign things or items during the Opium War (things coming from beyond the ocean), during which this specific use of the language came out. The term should be corrected to mean "foreign devil".
Again, page 404 title "A Chinese Nooner", the correct romanization should be wu xiu, not wu xin, or more colloquially refered to as zhong xiu.
Anyway, maybe I am being picky...but this book does not represent China. If I could take the subjects in this book and write my own paragraph on them, I think it would be a lot different. That's the beauty of China, everyone takes away something different. I just have a lot more positive view than the author.
This book deserves 5 stars..........2004-02-18
But I'm going to give it four because the fort collins reviewer who points out the author's "bitter, judgemental, and condescending interpretation" is actually correct. I wouldn't characterize De Mente so harshly, but as much as the author loves and understands Chinese culture, it's clear that De Mente just doesn't get it. He points out, for example, a quotation from Mao Zedung who said that the Chinese are like grass. If you mow them over, more will grow to replace them.
De Mente uses this example to shock western sensibilities and show how far "behind" the Chinese are in individual rights. Yet this is what makes China China: the focus on society and not the individual.
For what it's worth, though, individual rights are coming to China because the Chinese want them. And so De Mente's judgements while perhaps inappropriate are not irrelevant.
Personally, my biggest criticism of this book is that every Chinese word he presents is accompanied with his own transcription that I found worthless. I would've preferred that he used pinyin with tonal markers. But that's a small criticism considering the focus of the book is the exposition of each word, a collection of maybe a 100 essays, that give wonderfully concise -- and ignoring the subjective judgements, accurate -- summaries of Chinese culture.
Interesting, but very condescending.......2004-01-02
On the positive side, the format of this book is wonderful and easy to read, and the commentaries are educational and often insightful. However, this book is suffused with a bitter, judgemental, and condescending interpretation of Chinese culture. De Mente portrays the Chinese as misogynistic, ruthlessly authoritarian, and socially backwards, pointing to an obviously negative experience De Mente had living there.
The easiest way to illustrate this problem is with an example. Let us turn the tables and use De Mente's style to do a silly definition of "Liberty" in American culture: "The American concept of liberty has created a culture that is exclusively focused on the self centered pursuit of indulgence, entertainment and wealth. This corrosive desire to be free of any form of social obligation prevents the healthy formation of any family or communal relationships. Although a growing number of Americans are being exposed to the benefits of Chinese culture, it is unlikely that this trait will ever be fully exorcised from the American psyche until several generations have experienced life in a society that understands and values responsibility and respect."
The last few sentences of this example were actually lifted right out of the book, but with the value judgements reversed. As you can see, this commentary may be true, educational, or even insightful, but it is obviously offensive and condescending when there really is no need to be. If you are using this book to learn about Chinese culture, keep these cautions in mind, as De Mente vents frustration on Chinese culture in almost every definition.
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