History > Asian

There have been a plethora of books on China in recent years. Authors have forecast the coming collapse of the People's Republic or looked to the day when it will rule the world. So why another book on the most heavily populated country on earth which has emerged in the last three decades to occupy a central position on the global stage? Because, despite the stream of publications, there is no single book which pulls together the whole of the China story linking its very disparate elements to present a coherent portrait that explai... read more

The remarkable story of the world's oldest printed book begins in a meditation cave on the edge of the Gobi Desert. In 1900, a monk who guarded the sacred Caves of the Thousand Buddhas in western China discovered a hidden library that had been sealed for more than a thousand years. When explorer Aurel Stein arrived during a dangerous and secret journey in 1907, he persuaded the monk to part with some of the treasures, including a copy of the 'Diamond Sutra' - dated AD868. Printed 500 years before Gutenberg's famous Bible, th... read more

Shortlisted for the BBC Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-Fiction 2011 Between 1958 and 1962, 45 million Chinese people were worked, starved or beaten to death. Mao Zedong threw his country into a frenzy with the Great Leap Forward, an attempt to catch up with and overtake the Western world in less than fifteen years. It lead to one of the greatest catastrophes the world has ever known. Dikotter's extraordinary research within Chinese archives brings together for the first time what happened in the corridors of power with the everyday... read more

January, 1937: Peking is a heady mix of privilege and scandal, lavish cocktail bars and opium dens, warlords and corruption, rumours and superstition - and the clock is ticking down on all of it. In the exclusive Legation Quarter, the foreign residents wait nervously for the axe to fall. Japanese troops have already occupied Manchuria and are poised to advance south. Word has it that Chiang Kai-shek and his shaky government, long since moved to Nanking, are ready to cut a deal with Tokyo and leave Peking to its fate. Each day bring... read more

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This is the semi-autobiographical account of a soldier's experiences. The hero of the story, Kien, is a captain. After 10 years of war and months as a MIA body-collector, Kien suffers a nervous breakdown in Hanoi as he tries to re-establish a relationship with his former sweetheart.

ORIENTALISM is one of the greatest and most influential of books of ideas to be published since the end of the European empires. For generations now it has defined our understanding of colonialism and empire and with each passing year its influence becomes if anything even greater. To mark its 25th anniversary, ORIENTALISM rightfully takes its place as a Pengun Modern Classic.

China's Communist Party is the largest, most powerful political machine in the world. Here, for the first time, Richard McGregor delves deeply into its inner sanctum, revealing how this secretive cabal keeps control of every aspect of the country - its military and media, legal system and businesses, even its religious organizations. How has the Party merged Marx, Mao and the market to create a global superpower? And what does this mean for the world?

This richly anecdotal guide to every street in Shanghai details many landmarks and stories associated with its best-known avenues. A definitive index to the street names of Shanghai, some of which have disappeared or been removed, allows historians, researchers, tourists, and the just plain curious to navigate the city in its pre-1949 incarnations, through the former International Settlement, French Concession, and External Roads area with a detailed map and alphabetical entry for every road.The book is lavishly illustrated with ol... read more

In the 1800s, Britain was making a mint selling Indian opium to China. In return, they were buying tea, silks and ceramics. When eventually China decided that the drug trade was ruining her people, the British declared war, declaring China 'protectionist', 'backwards-looking' and 'superstitious'. For two years Britain pummelled China's east coast, forcing her to sign a humiliating treaty allowing Britain full trading access. A weakened China was at the mercy of the West until the Communist triumph of 1949. This is the popular belie... read more

As 1936 gave way to 1937, the people of Peking waited nervously for the axe to fall. The encirclement by the Japanese army was tightening daily and troop skirmishes were on the rise. The Nationalist government of Chiang Kai-shek had fled south to Nanking, where some said he was ready to cut a deal with Tokyo and leave the people of Peking to their fate. In the opium dens of the notorious Badlands the partying was harder than usual, while the wealthy foreigners of the Legation Quarter were making the most of their final days of priv... read more

Soon China will rule the world. But in doing so, it will not become more 'Western'. Martin Jacques' groundbreaking book overturns conventional thinking about the ascendancy of China, showing how its impact will not just be economic, but cultural. As China's powerful civilization reasserts itself, it will signal the end of the global dominance of the Western nation-state, and the start of a future of 'contested modernity'. This profound, far-sighted book explains for the first time the deeper meaning of China's rise to power.

In the summer of 1976, Mao lay dying, and China was struck by a great natural disaster. The earthquake that struck Tangshan was one of the worst in recorded history, killing half a million people. But the Chinese Communist rulers in Beijing were distracted, paralysed by in-fighting over who would take control after Mao finally died.

A highly accessible, beautifully illustrated short history of Bali from the Bronze Age to the 2002 bombing. Two million tourists visit Bali every year. Many want to know more about the island, its often turbulent past, and the forces that have shaped its universally appealing culture. This lively and informative concise history is for them, and for others interested in a unique but important province of Indonesia. A Short History of Bali covers the entire history of this intriguing and mysterious island, from before the Bronze... read more

In this highly illustrated book, a team of internationally renowned scholars surveys the greatest of Asia's empires from 800 AD to the mid-20th century, from the Far East to the fringes of Europe. "The Great Empires of Asia" shows how those seven empires played a key role in forming todays global civilization. Illuminated by maps showing the growth of each empire and lists of key events, this book will be of interest to students, historians and everybody concerned with understanding the role of Asia in todays world.

An account of the life of Nien Cheng, who worked for Shell in Shanghai under Mao, and who was put under house arrest by Red Guards in 1966 accused of being a British spy. This is a first hand account of China's cultural revolution.

An invigorating book about the debates raging within China. We all know about the fast pace of change in this country. This book brings us the ideas being fought over in the country itself -- from democracy to the idea of a 'peaceful rise'. It challenges all of our assumptions about China. We know everything and nothing about China. We know that China is changing so fast that the maps in Shanghai need to be rewritten every two weeks. We know that China has brought 300 million people from agricultural backwardness into modernity in... read more

In 1975, journalist Tony Maniaty flew to the Portuguese colony of East Timor looking for a war to film. He found it at a dusty outpost called Balibo. Maniaty and his ABC News crew were shelled and five other television newsmen who followed were murdered by Indonesian troops. Maniaty reported the Balibo Five story, faced death threats and fled before the Indonesian forces invaded. In Shooting Balibo, he teams up with the cast and crew of the feature film Balibo, retraces his days of danger, and dines with Jose Ramos-Horta as the ind... read more

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