Ethnic China Living Books
Since I started with the page more than 10 years ago I have been posting some book reviews and news. Now that information is going to be expanded with the small summaries that I make (sometimes) for myself after reading a book or an article, or some of the notes that I take after the readings. In some interesting books that I have not been able to read or of which I do not keep any notes, I may put the text provided by the publisher.
I think all readers will be able to distinguish when it is a personal opinion, when it is an excerpt from the work, and when it is material provided by the publisher.
I have organized the material in the following sections. If you think something is missing, please write to me at the address below.
– Art
– Buddhism
– Classics of Chinese culture
– Daoism or Taoism
– Ethnic groups
– Folklore
– Gender, women and matriarchy
– History
– Idiom and language
– Journeys and travels
– Literature and poetry
– Myths, tales and legends
– Novels
– Orientalisms. Novels set in China.
– Philosophy
– Qi Gong, taiji and health techniques.
– Religion
– Society
– Tibet
– Zoom on politics and current affairs
LAST POSTS ABOUT BOOKS ON CHINA
Hong Ying- An Art of Love without art and without love
Hong Ying- An Art of Love without art and without love In Brief: A scandalous novel that fails to shock, and an art of love that is conspicuous by its absence. Already from the beginning, we know that this is a love story without a future because the novel begins with...
Xin Ran – Sky Burial: An Epic Love Story of Tibet
Xin Ran - Sky Burial: An Epic Love Story of Tibet In Brief: A work full of exoticism that describes some interesting customs of the Tibetan nomads, but fails to convey emotions to the reader. Sky Burial: An Epic Love Story of Tibet is a novel set in the late 1950s. A...
Mao Dun – Rainbow, a beautiful metaphor about a woman and China
Mao Dun - Rainbow, a beautiful metaphor about a woman and China In short: This officially unfinished novel by the writer Mao Dun takes on a life of its own to become a model of the vital development of each person and at the same time of the social effervescence that...
Mao Dun’s Spring Silkworms-A must read
Mao Dun's Spring Silkworms-A must read In short: A set of stories of exacerbated realism by one of the finest pens of 20th century Chinese literature, which no one should miss in order to understand both the literature and the life and history of contemporary China....
Midnight by Mao Dun – a failed novel
Midnight by Mao Dun - a failed novel Before reading "Midnight", the masterpiece of Mao Dun, the most powerful Chinese writer in the twentieth century, reading the presentations of the Chinese edition, one wonders why such a great literary treasure is not better known...
Life of Milarepa, the hermit poet
Life of Milarepa, the hermit poet. MiIarepa is one of the most beloved religious leaders of Tibet. His story, full of unique facts, has been told again and again over the centuries, and if the publishers did not warn that this is the autobiography written by the holy...
The history of the Sani of the Stone Forest
The history of the Sani of the Stone Forest As told by father Paul Vial in his book Les Lolos, Histoire, religion, mœurs, langue, écriture. The Lolos say they came from the region between Tibet and Burma, and at the very beginning of their history, they...
Violence and cannibalism in the Five Dynasties
l l Violence and cannibalism in the Five Dynasties When one begins to know the history of China, one concentrates its readings on its brilliant moments, on those great dynasties that expanded the territory, recreated surprising cultural forms and became the greatest...
DRAMATIC ART IN CHINA AT THE END OF THE DYNASTIC REGIME
oyaaDuring a break in my studies, the afternoon of Christmas Eve I was looking through a cabinet in which I have some somewhat old books bought on various occasions at flea markets in Beijing and Shanghai. After running into Lewis Morgan's "Ancient Society" and taking...
Chinese characters
Chinese characters -person
A sample of the first three pages of the English translation of my book on Chinese characters 人 rén – person, human being • adult • each. This is a pictogram of a person standing, with legs separated. Person > kind of person > every > other. It is one of the...
Ethnic groups
The five secret temples of the lamas in Lijiang
The five secret temples of the lamas in Lijiang Religions of Lijiang Although the city of Lijiang is known primarily for the Dongba religion practiced by the traditional shamans of the Naxi, also called Dongba, who with their rituals administered the religious and...
Chinese culture
Portrait of a Mandarin in 1800
Portrait of a Mandarin in 1800 This was the year in which a very interesting book was published, which through 60 portraits, tried to show some aspects of life in China to the western public. A book now in the public domain, from which we adapted "A Mandarin of...