Asian history Books

This masterfully crafted guide to ninjutsu or budo explores in depth the history, culture, and philosophy of this fascinating and enduring Japanese martial art.Budo is one of the least understood forms of art in the world. Even more than skills or...

This samurai strategy books is the first widely available English translation of Yamamoto Kansuke's classic treatise on strategy and tactics. Secrets of the Japanese Art of Warfare is Thomas Cleary's translation of the seminal writings attributed to...

Two volumes in one!This is a complete, two-volume set of one of the greatest books on 19th century Japanese history and culture. Though Lafcadio Hearn went on to write a dozen more books on Japan, this collection of first impressions remains his most...

This book tells the story of Bali the "paradise island of the Pacific" its rulers and its people, and their encounters with the Western world. Bali is a perennially popular tourist destination. It is also home to a fascinating people with a long and...

For anyone wanting to get beyond tired travel guide cliches, A Geek in Indonesia is a hip, irreverent, and streetwise introduction to Southeast Asia's biggest country.Jump from the beaches of Bali to a tour bus circuit of the...

In just fifty years, South Korea has transformed itself from a failed state, ruined and partitioned by war and decades of colonial rule, into an economic powerhouse and a democracy that serves as a model for other countries. How was it able to...

Every year, millions of foreign tourists flock to China - only to find themselves overwhelmed by the complexities of navigating the world's largest and fastest culture. A professor, blogger, and avid China explorer, Matthew B. Christensen created this...

A Geek in Korea reinvents the culture guide for the Internet age. Packed with articles and photographs, it covers all the touchstones of Korean culture - from Buddhism and Confucianism to chapters on the traditional arts and...

In 1841, the Welsh sent their first missionary, Thomas Jones, to evangelise the tribal peoples of the Khasi Hills of north-east India. This book follows Jones from rural Wales to Cherrapunji, the wettest place on earth and now one of the most...

The Island of Bali, one of only a handful of places in the world where a rich and ancient culture survives intact into the 21st century, is now caught between two realities its role as a booming international tourism destination and the struggle of the...

Words for the Heart is a captivating treasury of emotion terms drawn from some of India's earliest classical languages. Inspired by the traditional Indian genre of a 'treasury' - a wordbook or anthology of short texts or poems - this...

With this volume, W. Allyn Rickett completes the first full translation of the Guanzi into English.Named for the famous Chinese minister of state, Guan Zhong (d. 645 B.C.), the Guanzi is one of the largest collections of ancient Chinese writings still in...

A pioneering history that transforms our understanding of the colonial era and China's place in it. China has conventionally been considered a land empire whose lack of maritime and colonial reach contributed to its economic decline after the...

A riveting account of how a popularly elected leader has steered the world's largest democracy toward authoritarianism and intolerance.Over the past two decades, thanks to Narendra Modi, Hindu nationalism has been coupled with a form of...

During the late nineteenth century, opium was integral to European colonial rule in Southeast Asia. The taxation of opium was a major source of revenue for British and French colonizers, who also derived moral authority from imposing a tax on a peculiar...

How British authorities and Indian intellectuals developed ideas about deviant female sexuality to control and organize modern society in IndiaDuring the colonial period in India, European scholars, British officials, and elite Indian...

A sweeping exploration of animals in Japanese art and culture across sixteen centuriesFew countries have devoted as much artistic energy to the depiction of animal life as Japan. Drawing upon the country's unique spiritual heritage, rich literary...

The gripping story of an explosive turning point in the history of modern IndiaOn the night of June 25, 1975, Indira Gandhi declared a state of emergency in India, suspending constitutional rights and rounding up her political opponents in midnight raids...

Since 1949, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has maintained unrivalled control over the country, persisting even in the face of economic calamity, widespread social upheaval, and violence against its own people. Yet the party does not sustain dominance...

Zen and Japanese Culture is a classic that has influenced generations of readers and played a major role in shaping conceptions of Zen's influence on Japanese traditional arts. In simple and poetic language, Daisetz Suzuki describes Zen and its...

In 1949, at the end of a long period of wars, one of the biggest challenges facing leaders of the new People's Republic of China was how much they did not know. The government of one of the world's largest nations was committed to fundamentally...

From the acclaimed author of The Gunpowder Age, a book that casts new light on the history of China and the West at the turn of the nineteenth century.George Macartney's disastrous 1793 mission to China plays a central role in the prevailing...

An innovative look at how families in Ming dynasty China negotiated military and political obligations to the state How did ordinary people in the Ming dynasty (1368-1644) deal with the demands of the state? In The Art of Being Governed, Michael Szonyi...

It has long been contended that the Indian Constitution of 1950, a document in English created by elite consensus, has had little influence on India's greater population. Drawing upon the previously unexplored records of the Supreme Court of India, A...

An unprecedented survey of the origins and evolution of Chinese architecture, from the last millennia BCE to todayThroughout history, China has maintained one of the world's richest built civilizations. The nation's architectural achievements range from...

Why some of Asia's authoritarian regimes have democratised as they have grown richer and why others haven't.Over the past century, Asia has been transformed by rapid economic growth, industrialisation, and urbanisation a spectacular record of development...

In this sweeping and richly illustrated history, S. Frederick Starr tells the fascinating but largely unknown story of Central Asia's medieval enlightenment through the eventful lives and astonishing accomplishments of its greatest minds--remarkable...

With more than 5,000 entries totaling over a million words, this is the most comprehensive and authoritative dictionary of Buddhism ever produced in English. It is also the first to cover terms from all of the canonical Buddhist languages and traditions:...

The first complete history of Central Eurasia from ancient times to the present day, Empires of the Silk Road represents a fundamental rethinking of the origins, history, and significance of this major world region. Christopher Beckwith describes the...

In the centuries leading up to our own, the volume of traffic across Asian sea routes an area stretching from East Africa and the Middle East to Japan grew dramatically, eventually making them the busiest in the world. The result was a massive...

A groundbreaking new history of how the Vietnam War thwarted U.S. liberal ambitions in the developing world and at home in the 1960sAt the start of the 1960s, John F. Kennedy and other American liberals expressed boundless optimism about the ability of...

Princeton's Great Persian Book of Kings presents the first comprehensive examination of a beautifully decorated yet relatively unknown manuscript of the Shahnama (Book of Kings), created in 158990 in the flourishing cultural center of Shiraz. Held by...

Tales from 5000 Years of Chinese History covers the history of China in an anecdotal fashion that makes each event come alive. Entertaining and informative, this ambitious narrative will enlighten all those who wish to know more about the chronicles of...

Tales from Five Thousand Years of Chinese History, consisting of two volumes, is a collection of stories arranged in chronological order, covering the period from ancient times to the pre-Opium-War Qing Dynasty. Open these pages to discover the great...

William of Rubruck was a Franciscan friar who wrote the first great travel book about Asia. In 1253-55 he made the journey from the Holy Land to the court of the Great Khan Mngke at Qaraqorum in Mongolia and back again. William was interested in all that...

China is one of the world's most rapidly changing cultural and economic landscapes which is being transformed from the inside by a new generation of savvy and inspired individuals. Zha collects nuanced and sharply etched profiles of these movers and...

In 1908 at the age of two, Henry Pu Yi ascended to become the last emperor of the centuries-old Manchu dynasty. After revolutionaries forced Pu Yi to abdicate in 1911, the young emperor lived for thirteen years in Peking's Forbidden City, but with none...

"Island of Bali" is now available with a foreword by Professor Adrian Vickers which puts the book into context for a modern audience. First published in 1937, "Island of Bali" is still regarded by many as the most authoritative text on Bali and its...

In The Ninja Defense, the classic art of the ninja is updated for maximum effectiveness in modern day situations. Stephen K. Hayes has distilled and refined the knowledge he has built studying and teaching ninjutsu for decades into a comprehensive...

"In the back alley at daybreakI write you name, O democracy"-Chiha Kim

Echoing Song presents the work of 20 contemporary Korean women poets active from the 1970s to the present. Each poet is represented with 10 to 15 poems reflecting the range of their poetic development. This anthology demonstrates the originality and...

This is the first English translation of a controversial Japanese best seller that made the public aware of the social problem of hikikomori, or "withdrawal"-a phenomenon estimated by the author to involve as many as one million Japanese adolescents and...

"Kanji Pict-o-Graphix offers an engaging way to learn and memorize Kanji."-Rocky Mountain Region Japan Project "A fun book for studying kanji. The illustration reveals more of its contents and method than any description ever could."-Japan Times"It is a...

Sure to be a classic, Donald Richie's concise, profound insights into the mysteries of Japanese Aesthetics.This provocative book is a tractate-a treatise-on beauty in Japanese art, written in the manner of a zuihitsu, a free-ranging assortment of ideas...

A comprehensive volume on major directors in the history of Japanese film.This important work fills the need for a reasonably priced yet comprehensive volume on major directors in the history of Japanese film. With clear insight and without academic...

Originally published in Japanese in 1931, this is the true story-in comic book style-of four friends who in 1904 come from Japan to work in the U.S. They serve as houseboys, toil in the fields, and live through the 1906 SF earthquake. They also suffer...

The hottest directors, their coolest films . . . A complete guide to today's Japanese movie renaissanceAn eye-opening portrait of a vibrant film culture, The Midnight Eye Guide to New Japanese Film is the most comprehensive study of the Japanese...

This memoir of a life in the Qing dynasty reveals a sensitive and artistic man, who failed at the civil service examinations that were the gateway to official employment and had to settle for becoming an itinerant private secretary, dabbling...