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The brilliance of the Renaissance laid the foundation of the modern world. Textbooks tell us that it came about as a result of a rediscovery of the ideas and ideals of classical Greece and Rome. But now bestselling historian Gavin Menzies makes the startling argument that in the year 1434...

For more than two thousand years, tea has awakened, calmed, and connected people across continents and cultures. In A History of Tea, you'll travel with this extraordinary beverage on its global journey—from the tea houses of ancient China and the Zen temples of Japan to the colonial plantations of India and Sri Lanka, and into the teacups of Britain and beyond. Along the way, discover how tea shaped empires, sparked revolutions, and inspired rituals that still endure today.

One by one, Tahir Hamut Izgil's friends disappeared. The Chinese government's brutal persecution of the Uyghur people had continued for years, but in 2017 it assumed a terrifying new scale. The Uyghurs, a predominantly Muslim minority group in western China, were experiencing an echo of the worst horrors of the twentieth century. Over a million people have vanished into China's internment camps for Muslim minorities. Waiting to Be Arrested at Night is the story of the political, social, and cultural destruction of Tahir Hamut Izgil's homeland.

In this unique book, His Holiness the Dalai Lama tells the full story of his 75-year struggle with China to save Tibet and its people. Instant New York Times Bestseller The Dalai Lama has had to contend with the People’s Republic of China his entire life. He was 15 years old when communist...

These early philosophical writings underpinned the Chinese revolutions and their clarion calls to insurrection remain some of the most stirring of all time. Drawing on a dizzying array of references from contemporary culture and politics, Zizek's firecracker commentary reaches unsettling conclusions about the place of Mao's thought in the revolutionary canon.

China has become deeply integrated into the world economy. Yet, gradual marketization has facilitated the country's rise without leading to its wholesale assimilation to global neoliberalism. This book uncovers the fierce contest about economic reforms that shaped China's path.

A “gripping and scrupulously reported” (The Washington Post) investigation into the battle over identity in China, chronicling the state oppression of those who fail to conform to Xi Jinping’s definition of who is “Chinese,” from an award-winning NPR correspondent. “Emily Feng’s...

The Shaolin Monastery charts for the first time in any language the history of the Shaolin Temple and the evolution of its world-renowned martial arts. In this meticulously researched and eminently readable study Meir Shahar considers the economic political and religious factors that led Shaolin monks to disregard the Buddhist prohibition against violence and instead create fighting techniques that by the 21st century have spread throughout the world.

THE CHINESE "LORD OF THE RINGS" - NOW IN ENGLISH FOR THE FIRST TIME. THE SERIES EVERY CHINESE READER HAS BEEN ENJOYING FOR DECADES - 100 MILLION COPIES SOLD. In the Jin capital of Zhongdu, Guo Jing learns the truth of his father's death and finds he is now betrothed, against his will, to two...

Tony Saich tells the authoritative, comprehensive story of the Chinese Communist Party—its rise to power against incredible odds, its struggle to consolidate rule and overcome self-inflicted disasters, and its thriving amid other Communist parties' collapse. Saich argues that the brutal Japanese invasion in the 1930s actually helped the party. Once in power, however, the Communists faced the difficult task of learning how to rule. From Rebel to Ruler shows that the party owes its endurance to its flexibility. 

Violent confrontation between armed groups over the supply of illegal narcotics is something we commonly associate with criminal gangs in modern cities, but in the mid-19th century Great Britain went to war with Imperial China in order to continue to supply Chinese addicts with opium. The two wars that followed have become known as the Opium Wars, and they led to the utter defeat of China, the establishment of a British colony in Hong Kong, and the continuation of a narcotics trade that was worth millions of pounds each year to the British.

The Great Wall of China—stretching from the arid rises of Gansu province to the cold waters of the Bohai Sea—remains an enduring symbol of Chinese might. And yet for all its grandeur, the Wall also marks a vulnerability: an ever-present reminder of old battlelines and never-ending tension with China's northern neighbors.

This program is read by the author. Taiwan expert Kerry Brown sums up the history of Taiwan and the danger of a Chinese takeover in this succinct and authoritative book. When the bloody Chinese Civil War concluded in 1949, two Chinas were born. Mao’s Communists won and took China’s mainland...

Lunar New Year, or the first new moon of the lunar calendar, is celebrated by people around the world and across different cultures. Within Chinese culture, the ushering in of a new year is celebrated through one of 12 distinct zodiac animals, each of which is known for its power to map a person’s behavior, character, and fate. In The Chinese Zodiac in Cultures and Traditions, you’ll gain insights into how cultures make sense of the passing of time and our relationship to it.

From the author of the acclaimed ‘Mr. China’ comes another rollicking adventure story – part memoir, part history, part business imbroglio – that offers valuable lessons to help Westerners win in China. In the twenty-first century, the world has tilted eastwards in its orbit; China grows...

How can poor and weak societies escape poverty traps? Political economists have traditionally offered three answers: "stimulate growth first," "build good institutions first," or "some fortunate nations inherited good institutions that led to growth." Yuen Yuen Ang rejects all three schools of thought and their underlying assumptions: linear causation, a mechanistic worldview, and historical determinism. Instead, she launches a new paradigm grounded in complex adaptive systems, which embraces the reality of interdependence and humanity's capacity to innovate.

The Wars for Asia, 1911-1949 shows that the Western treatment of World War II, the Second Sino-Japanese War, and the Chinese Civil War as separate events misrepresents their overlapping connections and causes. The Chinese Civil War precipitated a long regional war between China and Japan that...

In 1950, China claimed sovereignty over Tibet, leading to decades of unrest and resistance, defining the country today. In Eat the Buddha, Barbara Demick chronicles the Tibetan tragedy from Ngaba, a defiant town on the eastern edge of the Tibetan plateau where dozens of Tibetans have shocked the world since 2009 by immolating themselves.

The Sino-Japanese War of 1894–1895 is a seminal event in world history, yet it has been virtually ignored in Western literature. In the East, the focus of Chinese foreign policy has been to undo its results whereas the focus of Japanese foreign policy has been to confirm them. Japan supplanted...

"In vivid detail... examines the little-known history of two extraordinary dynasties."—The Boston Globe "Not just a brilliant, well-researched, and highly readable book about China's past, it also reveals the contingencies and ironic twists of fate in China's modern history."—LA Review of...