Asian history Books

The home of trusted Mandarin dictionaries for everyday language learning.Learn how to write 250 of the commonest Chinese characters, with stroke by stroke guidance on every page. With thousands of characters to learn, beginning to read and write Chinese...

The Asian literary phenomenon of the 90s. More magical than Mistry, more of a rollicking good read than Rushdie, more nerve-tinglingly imagined than Naipaul, here, perhaps, is the greatest Indian novel by a woman. Arundhati Roy has written an...

This fully updated guide by whisky authority and Japanese whisky expert Stefan Van Eycken takes you on a tour of some of the most coveted whiskies in the world. Japanese whiskies have become some of the most highly valued whiskies, and have bested...

‘Excellent’ Antony Beevor‘Saul David is a brilliant historian … In shocking and jaw-dropping detail, he brings a battle that deserves far greater prominence and understanding vividly back to life’ James Holland From award-winning historian Saul David,...

A Japanese-inspired guide to living a happier, more fulfilled life. Japonisme explores the Japanese art of finding contentment and includes practical tips and tricks to live a happier, healthier, more thoughtful life. What is your ikigai (purpose)?...

WINNER OF THE 2010 SAMUEL JOHNSON PRIZE FOR NON-FICTION What if the world imagined by George Orwell in Nineteen Eighty-four was real? What if everything around you was black and white except for the red letters on propaganda signs? Where spies like...

To imagine that we confront Asia for the first time in the twenty-first century is to deny our history and the self-awareness that comes from understanding that we have been here before. Asia appears throughout modern Australian history as a source of...

Mahjong is one of the first English language books to break down classic Chinese Mahjong.Readers learn game setup, rules, common hands, strategy, and scoring through beautiful illustrations and photography, but the book also showcases mahjong culture,...

Spend 24 hours with the ancient Chinese. The year is AD 17. The Han dynasty is in power and we are in and around Chang’an, the capital and one of the most developed regions of the empire, which is enjoying a prolonged economic and cultural pinnacle...

An inside account of the Chinese invasion of Tibet told through the voices of three persecuted monks• 2024 International Book Award Nonfiction - Creative Category• Shares the true story of three monks’ heroic escape from occupied Tibet and the subsequent...

Meet the Jewish salon host in 1930s Shanghai who brought together Chinese and expats around the arts as civil war erupted and World War II loomed on the horizon.Bernardine Szold Fritz arrived in Shanghai in 1929 to marry her fourth husband. Only...

A young teen escapes to America from Mao’s China in the early 60s and experiences the consequent culture shock of cruel racism, financial hardships, unexpected freedom, bewildering sexual mores, and the aching rejection and loneliness that so...

The life and legends of the god Ganesh in your hand, accompanied by a glorious gallery of historical imagery and art, including paintings by the renowned Indian artist, Indra Sharma.Son of the Hindu deities Shiva and Parvati, Ganesh is the...

An examination of the earliest creation traditions and symbols of China and their similarities to those of other ancient cultures • Reveals the deep parallels between early Chinese words and those of other ancient creation traditions such as the...

Batik occupies a special place in Indonesian culture. Each fabric has a rich story to tell-as a reflection of the nation's religious beliefs (Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam), sophisticated court cultures and cosmopolitan history (that...

The first book to present the amazing swords and armour belonging to the most famous Samurai in Japanese history!In Japanese Swords and Armor, Samurai sword expert Paul Martin presents scores of magnificent blades, fittings and armor from the 12th to the...

How colour is used in the most famous works of Japanese art from the 16th century to the present.From the vibrant reds of traditional kimonos to the serene blues of tarashikomi riverscapes and woodblock prints, this book shows that colour itself is a...

The Chinese picture-scroll, a long painting or calligraphic work held within a horizontal scrolling mount, has been China's pre-eminent aesthetic format for the last two millennia. This first extended history of the picture-scroll explores its...

In this fascinating biography of the Indian revolutionary M. P. T. Acharya (18871954), Ole Birk Laursen uncovers the remarkable transnational networks, movements and activities of India's most important anticolonial anarchist in the twentieth century...

In 1940s India, revolutionary and nationalistic feeling surged against colonial subjecthood and imperial war. Two-and-a-half million men from undivided India served the British during the Second World War, while 3 million civilians were killed by the...

Another India tells the story of the world's biggest religious minority. Weaving together vivid biographical portraits of a wide range of Indian Muslims - elite and subaltern, secular and clerical, activist and apolitical - it brings the experience of...

A "deeply moving book" (Studs Terkel) and the first ever oral history to document the experience of ordinary Japanese people during World War II"Hereafter no one will be able to think, write, or teach about the Pacific War without reference to [the...

A look at the painting traditions of northwestern India in the eighteenth century, and what they reveal about the political and artistic changes of the eraIn the long eighteenth century, artists from Udaipur, a city of lakes in northwestern India,...

In 1963, a human skull was discovered in a pub in south-east England. The handwritten note found inside revealed it to be that of Alum Bheg, an Indian soldier in British service who had been blown from a cannon for his role in the 1857 Uprising, his head...

This book takes us on a sweeping journey through the ebbs and flows of Pakistan's history, from the ancient Indus Valley Civilisation to contemporary times. The book uncovers influences from Turkey, Persia, Arabia and Britain that have shaped...

The pieces in this volume voice the rage and helplessness sweeping through the Kashmir Valley while offering rare insights into the lives of those caught in the crossfire. This book is a timely collection of the most exciting writing that has recently...

Daughter of the River is a memoir of China unlike any other. Born during the Great Famine of the early 1960s and raised in the slums of Chongqing, Hong Ying was constantly aware of hunger and the sacrifices required to survive. As she neared her...

Dennis Unkovic asserts that China is, contrary to popular belief,notpoised to take over from the United States as the world's pre-eminent superpower.Chinese President Xi Jinping believes his country is destined to displace the United States as the...

Korea's Three Kingdoms period is a genuine 'lost civilization', during which ancient realms vied for supremacy during the first millennium CE. Nobles from this period's feuding states adopted and adapted Buddhism and...

This exploration of the exceptional Buddhist stupa (reliquary mound) at Amaravati, one of ancient India's most extraordinary monuments, presents a fresh perspective on the rich visual culture of ancient South Asia viewed through the lens of art...

This is a captivating, richly illustrated history of the use of fired clay in Korea, spanning ancient times to the present day. Drawing on the latest research from Korean scholars, Precious beyond Measure features a wide range of examples from...

In 1600, English helmsman William Adams washed ashore in Japan, and was interrogated by Tokugawa Ieyasu, Japan's most powerful warlord and soon-to-be shogun. Far from executing Adams as a pirate, Ieyasu made him one of his most trusted advisers...

A comprehensive overview of Japanese art between 1865 and 1915. The Splendour of Modernity presents a comprehensive overview of Japanese art from 1865 to 1915, including painting, calligraphy, sculpture, prints, ceramics, lacquerware, textiles, basketry,...

The first major exploration of the mural tradition in early modern South IndiaAn astonishing variety of murals greet visitors to the temples and palaces of southern India. Beautiful in execution and extensive in scope, murals painted on walls and...

Dive into the world of timeless charm and creative expression with Blue & White Embroidery!Renowned author Kozue Yazawa introduces 30 enchanting embroidery projects, combining classic stitches with elegant nautical themes. Perfect for beginners and...

An incisive, lyrical, and deeply reported account of India's descent into authoritarianism.Traveling across India, interviewing Hindu zealots, armed insurgents, jailed dissidents, and politicians and thinkers from across the political spectrum,...

'Bob Whiting came to the city as a stranger in a strange land in 1962 and stayed for five decades - he knows the dark alleys, the good whisky bars, the crooked politicians and the crooks, the baseball players, the bookies...better than anyone...

Japanese Shinto is the simple belief that the divine dwells in all things around us!Shinto: The Japanese World of Kami Spirits is a concise guide to the fundamental elements of the Shinto religion - its rich mythology and symbols, intricate rituals,...

The international market for antique Chinese furniture is booming, and masterpieces from the Ming and Qing dynasties are now selling for hundreds of thousands of dollars.Chinese Furniture is a survey of these collectibles - from the very best...

Amidst the glass-and-steel skyscrapers and luxury apartments of modern-day Seoul, traditional Korean houses known as hanok survive and play a surprisingly important role. Inside the Korean House showcases 12 very special hanok that have been selected to...

The most comprehensive publication of Kodojin beautiful and mysterious a collection of more than 100 paintings with the English translations of his inscribed Chinese poems. The Art and Life of Fukuda Kodojin is the first publication in English to offer...

In 1912, Rash Behari Bose made his dramatic entrance into India's anti-colonial freedom movement when he orchestrated a bomb attack against the British Viceroy during a public procession in Delhi. Forced to flee his homeland, Bose settled in Japan,...

Established in the wake of the Indo-Pakistani War of 1947-8 by the Australian army officer Major-General Walter Cawthorne, then Deputy Chief of Staff in the Pakistan Army, Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) for years remained an...

During World War II, the Japanese military extended Japan's civilian licensing regime for domestic brothels to those next to its overseas bases. It did so for a simple reason:to impose the strenuous health standards necessary to control the venereal...

Born in Greece and abandoned as a child, Lafcadio Hearn lived the life of an exile. He travelled the world and became a famous writer but always felt like an outsider in Dublin, London, Cincinnati, New Orleans, and French-speaking Martinique. To him,...

An entertaining introduction to Japan's supernatural creatures!Yokai come in every imaginable shape and form ranging from frightening ghosts who haunt our dreams and cruel monsters that are deadly killers to cute fairies and mischievous...