Book Description
The tradition of Chan Buddhism--more popularly known as Zen--has been romanticized throughout its history. In this book, John R. McRae shows how modern critical techniques, supported by recent manuscript discoveries, make possible a more skeptical, accurate, and--ultimately--productive assessment of Chan lineages, teaching, fundraising practices, and social organization. Synthesizing twenty years of scholarship, Seeing through Zen offers new, accessible analytic models for the interpretation of Chan spiritual practices and religious history.
Writing in a lucid and engaging style, McRae traces the emergence of this Chinese spiritual tradition and its early figureheads, Bodhidharma and the "sixth patriarch" Huineng, through the development of Zen dialogue and koans. In addition to constructing a central narrative for the doctrinal and social evolution of the school, Seeing through Zen examines the religious dynamics behind Chan's use of iconoclastic stories and myths of patriarchal succession. McRae argues that Chinese Chan is fundamentally genealogical, both in its self-understanding as a school of Buddhism and in the very design of its practices of spiritual cultivation. Furthermore, by forgoing the standard idealization of Zen spontaneity, we can gain new insight into the religious vitality of the school as it came to dominate the Chinese religious scene, providing a model for all of East Asia--and the modern world. Ultimately, this book aims to change how we think about Chinese Chan by providing new ways of looking at the tradition.
Customer Reviews:
Beautiful Example of a Middle Way.......2006-04-09
As a Zen priest who is also an academic, I am frequently frustrated both by scholarly books on religion that dismiss practitioners' perspectives, and by religiously oriented books that accept religious claims uncritically. In Seeing Through Zen, John McRae synthesizes a great deal of recent scholarship on Ch'an (Zen) and shows that many of its central claims -- an unbroken lineage of patriarchs, the biographies of key figures such as Bodhidharma and the Sixth Patriarch Huineng, a "golden age" of iconoclastic masters during the Tang Dynasty -- are not "true" in the modern historical sense. At the same time, McRae's first rule of Zen studies is: "It's not true, therefore it's more important." His careful scholarship is balanced by sensitivity to the religious meanings and the institutional value of these myths for Ch'an/Zen practitioners. I highly recommend this book to academic students and religious practitioners of Zen.
The book opens with four axioms for Zen studies that can be applied usefully to almost any historical study. The subsequent analysis focuses on the Ch'an lineage and the literature of "encounter dialogue" (koans). McRae helps readers to understand the content of Ch'an myth and doctrine, the process by which it developed, and the ways it shaped the religious identities of institutions and individual practitioners.
He cautions readers not to accept portrayals of heroes or villains at face value, but to look beneath the rhetoric to what's at stake in their portrayals: whose interests are being served, and how? He also cautions against assuming that the more precise a Zen story is, in details of place and time, the earlier it is likely be. In fact, the opposite is more likely. The details of Bodhidharma's life, for example, accumulated gradually over a thousand years. His identity was continually reinvented by successive generations of practitioners, according to their religious identities and ideals. Likewise, the teachings of many great Tang Dynasty masters were attributed to them retrospectively by later generations of students. This does not mean, however, that the mytho-poetic accounts are worthless. They tell us about the concerns and aspirations of the people who developed them, and help us to think more carefully about the religious claims of our own era and institutions.
Western Zen is often built on misunderstandings of the tradition, in part because of the vast divide between our culture and that of Song Dynasty China, when many elements of Zen tradition took shape. For modern practitioners, it is not possible to do a careful and thoughtful job of interpreting Zen tradition for our own circumstances if we accept traditional stories unquestioningly in a literal, fundamentalist way. McRae offers helpful resources for re-thinking the tradition.
The book does have some limitations: it pays almost no attention to gender; and it focuses almost entirely on texts, rather than on, say, archaeology, religious objects, or art, all of which tell us something about how religious traditions were actually lived. The focus on texts is a bias of western Buddhist studies that has been critiqued in recent decades, because religious literature may tell us more about what elites thought practitioners should do and believe, than about what practitioners actually did. McRae also might have drawn more connections between Indian and Chinese traditions: the question-and-answer format of koan literature, for example, seems reminiscent of The Questions of King Milinda.
Despite these constraints, Seeing Through Zen is an engaging, accessible, highly informative book that demonstrates both rigorous scholarship and sympathy for the people he studies. This is a difficult balance, and McRae accomplishes it with flair.
Engaging Treatment of Chan.......2005-03-16
McRae is truly an engaging scholar. Not only are his topics intriguing, but his writing style is smooth, accessible, and clear. Seeing Though Zen was a solid treatment of commonly misunderstood aspects of Chan (chinese zen). He fills the reader in on important aspects of the development of Chan without an over-burdening assessment the factors involved (that's what the bibliography is for), but he also treats the major 20th-century scholarship on Zen which accounts for these misunderstandings. I would have liked more of a "step into the beyond" in the conclusion, but I guess I'll have to wait for the Shen-hui work.
"There is no wisdom and no gain. " Heart Sutra.......2004-11-25
Studies of this type were perhaps inevitable. Following in the footsteps of Dr.Hu Shih, John McRae questions the 'orthodox' in-terpretation of Ch'an (Zen) history. Like many others, however, I feel that he has made too much of certain arguments. Some things may be less than clear, about the early Ch'an tradition and its geneologies etc. However, the primary sources which shaped the Ch'an tradition - the T'ang masters, were very real people - and, for the most part - what has come down to us today - in their records, is a faithful reflection of what they had to teach.
John McRae makes much of 'sectarian' identities - but, did the T'ang masters encourage people to cling to such things? Masters like Ma-tsu and Shih-t'ou used to send their disciples back and forth, between each other's temples. Like Hu-shih, John McRae is keen to make it known that figures such as Hui-neng were made to bolster an 'ideological' position but, in actual fact, Hui-neng's Altar Sutra includes the story of his encounter with Yung-chia, a joint T'ien-tai/Ch'an master. Given John McRae's position, we should expect to find a 'triumphalist' account of Ch'an here - but, it actually acknowledges that Yung-chia was enlightened - and that he could hold his own - with Hui-neng. So - where's the obsession with 'sectarian' identities? The Ch'uan Teng Lu (Transmission of the Lamp) - technically a 'Ch'an-school' document, contains the records of several T'ien-tai masters.
John McRae dismisses almost everything about Hui-neng as a fiction- but, if he cares to visit to Pao-lin temple one day, not far from Canton, he will find Hui-neng's body, seated in the meditation posture. It has been there since 713, interestingly enough - in proximity to the body of an Indian master, who had predicted Hui-neng's birth and future career. Are the Buddhists who venerate this place - misguided fools? When it comes to it, the Ch'an school has not occupied the narrow horizons suggested in John McRae's account. You will find people practicing 'Pure Land meditation in Ch'an temples - and Master Yung-Ming wrote his monumental 'Tsung Ching Lu' (Record of the Source-Mirror), helping to explicate how all Buddhist teachings - as 'upaya' can be harmonised in the 'One Mind.' This affords a perspective quite different to that presented in John McRae's account. By default, perhaps, people now discriminate - and cling to sectarian identities. But is there a single T'ang master - on record, telling us to 'cling' to anything?
transforming Zen history.......2004-10-03
Separating fact from fiction in history is problematic at best. Religious history is especially difficult as there are many stakeholders propogating certain lines of belief and practice. McRae's book strips away much of the mythology of the development of Chan/Zen from the time of Bodhidharma through to the Song Dynasty (ca. 950-1300) in China. This demythologizing is sure to upset some Zen practioners and teachers whose faith in Zen Buddhism is intimately tied to an idealised version of Zen's history.
McRae not only presents a refreshing view of the Chan lineage charts and their role in the development of Zen's history, but also gives a detailed analysis of the Northern/Southern Schools split and the development of "encounter dialogues", which laid the foundation for koans. Along the way, he takes a swipe at Heinrich Dumoulin's interpretation of Zen history, the Platform Sutra as history (it never happened), and even the idea that Chan was a distinct and separate Buddhist school in ancient China. For those whose faith is based on these colourful but historically inaccurate myths, this book will be troubling and thought-provoking.
McRae and other academics in the field are providing a valuable service to Buddhism's migration from the East to the West and books such as this one should be required reading in Zen centres around the world. McRae tackles the issues with a light touch and even non-experts in the field should have little difficulty in reading this. I highly recommend this book to all who are interested in Zen's true history.
(...)
Zen Students Beware.......2004-08-09
I didn't get too far into this book before getting pissed off. And that's a GOOD thing! John McRae , as a zen student, has taken on the task of looking at the history and hagiography of zen and tried to sort out fact from fiction, uses of the fiction, implications for practice, and much more. As you read this book, if you are a zen student like I am, you will find some of your most cherished beliefs challenged in regard to zen. I find this a refreshing book. The early part on lineage is particularly interesting as most zen groups I am aware of place heavy emphasis on lineage and "proving" how they are descendant from Shakyamuni himself. This was a very rewarding read and I look forward to reading more by this author on Northern school of Zen.
Book Description
For too long, the history of contact between China and the West has been portrayed as a one-sided encounter: Europeans were said to have discovered China, while Chinese responses to the West went largely unnoticed. In this book, D. E. Mungello dispels the myth that China was a silent partner in the dialogue between Eastern and Western civilizations. Although they did not reciprocate in sending ships, cultural emissaries or religious missionaries westward, neither did the Chinese passively accept Europe's enthusiastic embrace of their culture, arts, and manufactures. Aspects of Western art, science, and religion made significant inroads into Chinese culture, which are only recently coming to the attention of Western historians. And at a time when the West is once again setting its sights on strengthening ties with China, Mungello's work offers crucial historical perspective. It reminds us that the political and economic dominance of the West is actually characteristic of only the past two centuries, prior to which it was China that led the world in terms of economic and political development, and in the sophistication of its high culture and technological achievement. This concise and well-written text will make a wonderful addition to reading lists in East Asian or Chinese History classes, as well as courses on World History. Visit our website for sample chapters.
Customer Reviews:
The Tao of China rising !.......2007-08-24
Prof. Mungello wrote this comprehensive book on the intercourse of China and West in culture and religion in a highly readable text.
Between 1500-1800, China was a powerful country. Catholics dreamed of converting China into a Christian country. However, it was Chinese influence to Europe to bring about Agricultural and Industrial Revolutions. He showed that missionaries sent back Tao Te Ching, I Ching and Confucius teaching to the European educated to help bring about the Enlightenment Movement.
What would happen when China is Christianized and the West goes Taoist Way?
By 1800, China was still in its glorious satisfaction while European Powers underwent industrialization. Britain unable to balance the trade deficit pushed opium and war on China. The 1997 Hong Kong Hand-over concluded the last British Imperial chapter in history. China was at its nadir at 1900 Boxer Movement with eight foreign countries invaded Peking.
Napoleon said, "When China wakes, it will shock the world". History affirms the Tao in East and West, strong and weak, grandeur and decline, war and peace. Prof. Mungello presents the readers the historical background to understand the modern China. A number of Westerners see Deng's reform with market economy lead to China rising as a world threat. Reading this book will help open up their horizon.
Will US wage war on China in the billions of dollar trade deficit as their British cousins did in 19th Century?
Must for whoever that are interested in Chinese studies.......2003-01-28
Dr. Mungello has done a great job in presenting how the (Far) West met with Chinese culture over the period of 1500-1800. This book was written in easy and non-technical language. As a Chinese that has learnt Chinese history all through my school years, I am intrigued to read simialar materials presented from a Western perspective in simple English.
Dr. Mungello noted that the Chinese in Song Dynasty mistook the picture of Virgin Mary as Guanyin (Chinese Goddess of the sea). A three-story high statue given by Portuguese to Macau, China shortly before 1999 was meant to be Guanyin but it certainly looks like Virgin Mary. What went around has come around:) Thanks for writing such a good book and I enjoyed it very much.
Not too shabby.......2002-11-06
I think Mungello has done a wonderful job in reconstructing the meeting between China and the Western world.
Good introductory book.......2000-04-14
University Profs take note: Although I had to read this book because I was in the author's class at Baylor, it really is a good introductory book. Dr. Mungello is one of the world's top Sinologists and did his graduate work at the U. of California at Berkeley and I am privelaged to be one of his students.
Half of the book is focused at the West meeting China, and the other half is China meeting the West. It answers the questions: What did the West reject and accept from China? What did China accept and reject from the West?
Amazon.com
From 1966 to 1976 the malevolent rage of the Chinese Cultural Revolution struck a devastating blow to all religions in China, destroying countless temples and shrines that had stood for centuries and forcibly returning thousands of monks and nuns to lay life. Bill Porter had been told that the venerable hermetic tradition in China had also succumbed, but he went looking anyway. What he found, Taoist and Buddhist monks and nuns living in huts and caves deep in the mountains of central China, is more than a revelation, it is a glimmer of hope for the future of religion in China.
Customer Reviews:
road to heaven.......2006-03-19
The over all knowledge displayed by the Author Bill Porter
is Exclent,and the knowledge of China.
A glimpse of immortals.......2005-11-21
"You can't be in a hurry. You have to be prepared to devote your whole life to your practice," says Master Hsueh T'ai-li after forty-five years on the slopes and summits of Huashan. "This is what's meant by religion. It's not a matter of spending money. You have to spend your life."
"Road to Heaven, Encounters with Chinese Hermits" by Bill Porter provides a fleeting image of the cloud people, the Chinese hermits who have turned their backs on this world of red dust - and survived.
There is a stark, and sad, contrast between the monks and hermits, and the busy American writer who is rushing about asking homely questions like: "Were you upset when the Red Guards burned your library?" or "Do you get any mail?"
"Taoism is very deep. There's a great del to learn, and you can't do it quickly. The Tao isn't something that can be put into words. You have to practice before you can understand," reiterates Master Hsueh.
And yet I find myself returning to this "Road to Heaven" because it captures a few anecdotes, gems and asides about famous and unknown hermits that makes it worthwhile reading. Searching for a lost quote, I return to the hasty interviews with abbots and nuns standing guard at old temples and crumbling shrines. And I find more layers to their brief stories than first meets the eye.
There is stillness and tranquility in the frugal lives of these Chinese hermits, and a firm and unwavering grip on the essentials of a religion. They represent the last living flicker of the spiritual wisdom originating with Lao-tzu thousands of years ago. And now their world is vanishing into the darkness, like the last sparks from a windswept fire.
From Communism to Tourism.......2005-11-02
This book is a great account of traveling in communist China and searching for the remnant hermit monks in the country's rugged mountains. I've noticed many reviewers apparently expected all sorts of different things from this book - Porter as enlightened writer weilding his pen as a delusion-cutting sword, hermit wisdom never before heard in the west that offers instant nirvana, etc. But the book is just what the title says it is: encounters with Chinese hermits, who, by going deep into the mountains and saving the essentials of their practice are "on the road to heaven."
It is refreshing to know that in China there still are hermit monks and nuns, clarifying their insight away from the world's distractions.
The hermits Bill Porter encounters in China have all survived communism, which is one subject of the book. The hardships the monks and nuns faced under communism is not a suprise, what is a suprise is the monks, nuns and temples now being sold as tourist attractions by the Chinese government. An entirely different threat - capitalism - now rears its exhausting head, and the hermits move deeper into the mountains to save their practice from becoming part of a Human Buddhist Zoo.
I stopped wanting to be a hermit.......2005-07-25
I enjoyed this biographical account of extraordinary journeys made by the author, Bill Porter, and his friend Steven Johnson in 1989. Their quest was into the heart of a range of mountains in China rumored by a few to be home to some modern Chinese Buddhist and Taoist hermits. But these hermits have been thought to be long gone, even by Buddhist and Taoist folk living in the local monasteries. Bill Porter followed his heart and a few good leads and encountered some, including some who were unaware that there had been a Maoist "cultural revolution." He was able to interview a number of these sages of the mountains, and here shares them with us plus his own studies and insights into the traditions of Chinese hermits. More exciting than fiction, here is the real deal. Quiet lives hidden away in stark, sparse, cold places, content with a dirt floor and a small fire for tea, not the romantic images I had encountered in reading the ancient poets. You should know that this is more a travelogue of incredible journeys than a book of inspiring insights into Buddhism or Taoism. Jim Harrison calls this book "a startling reminder of how far we have gone astray" and "a part of any serious Zen or Taoist library." I heartily agree.
Great reading enjoyment!.......2005-01-16
This book reads like an adventure story but it is all true...Bill Porter speaks Mandarin and has many friends in China so he could travel into territories where few Westerners are able to go without a guide. He won the trust of many hermits high up in the mountains of China and tells a wonderful tale of their survival against all odds...Sadly, they are a dying breed and the last of a generation who dedicated themselves to a monastic life of meditation and living without wordly goods. A really good read! Marilynn Seits
Book Description
The Chinese Civil War was one of the key conflicts of the twentieth century. The Communist victory determined Chinese history for several generations, and defined international relations in East Asia during the Cold War and after. Despite its importance and scope—its battles were the largest military engagements since World War II—until now remarkably little has been known about the war, and even less about its effects on the societies that suffered through it. This major new history of the Chinese Civil War attempts to answer two central questions: Why was the war fought? What were the immediate and the lasting results of the Communists’ victory?
Though the book highlights military matters, it also shows how campaigns were mounted alongside profound changes in politics, society, and culture—changes that ultimately contributed as much to the character of today’s China as did the major battles. By analyzing the war as an international conflict, the author explains why so much of the present legitimacy of the Beijing government derives from its successes during the late 1940s, and reveals how the antagonism between China and the United States was born.
Customer Reviews:
Good but partisan summary.......2007-08-10
Professor Westad offers here a concise and well-written overciew of the Chinese civil war and its international ramifications. While he is an excellent cold war scholar and I *do* recommend the book, I do so with certain reservations.
He begins by blaming Stalin for "inadvertantly" beginning the Chinese civil war via Soviet troop withdrawals from Manchuria. This analysis reflects the still-dominant view among Western academics to reflexively blame the USSR and Stalin for the cold war in general, although Professor Westad adds the liberal adverb caveat of "inadvertant." There is no analysis of what the Soviet alternative could have been: to remain in occupation of Manchuria? And then, of course, Stalin would now be blamed for "advertantly" causing the Chinese civil war by staying, and providing sanctuatry for the CCP to grow.
Similarly, Professor Westad is inclined to give Chiang Kai-Shek ("Jiang" - sorry, I just *can't* get used to Pin-Yin!) the benefit of the doubt. Professor Westad is of the opinion that Chiang was "deeply concerned" about the corruption of his Kuomintang regime, and "took steps" to correct it; but as Professor Westad is surely aware, these could be little more than rhetorical scoldings of middle and lower level cadres. The true source of the KMT's rot was at the top. Any serious anti-corruption drive would have threatened the corporate monoplies of the Soong family, which had been the backbone of Chiang's rise to power, and of the "Green Gang," a mafia brotherhood of which Chiang had long been a member. Ralph Thaxton's book, "Salt of the Earth," shows how peasant cottage industry was in basic opposition to the central monopolizing policies of the KMT and its confiscatory tax system for the favored few. Thus a mere "anti-corruption drive" could not have removed deep-seated peasant opposition going back some 20 years, and reinforced by the KMT's postwar carpetbaggery.
Also, Professor Westad brushes aside the CCP claim that it "bore the brunt" of the Japanese occupation. I find this an unsupportable conclusion, based on the logic of events. Chiang did not have the resources to drive the Japanese out of China. Knowing it would be suicidal to risk his remnant regime in an all-out assault, he knew also he must accomodate their presence, however unwillingly. But there was great advantage to him in having the Japanese in China, in providing a law and order he could not and keeping the Communists in line. Proof of this was his continued reliance on the Japanese remaining after the peace, to help him consolidate "Free China." In terms of attacks on the Japanese, the CCP definitely had nothing to lose and a world to gain by pushing a confrontional anti-Japanese policy, and thus *can* be said to have born "the brunt," however limited, of anti-Japanese resistance.
But in spite of my criticisms, I do recommend the book as a concise and necessary overview of a time and place that remains shrouded in cold war night and fog.
A good primer but needs much more detail.......2003-06-20
Prof. Westad's book provides the reader with a solid overview of the tumultuous events that engulfed China in the wake of WWII and led to China becoming the world's most populous Communist country. Prof. Westad has an engaging writing style that keeps the reader's interest, unlike many of the works written by academics. He does a good job at introducing the reader to the salient political and military events that led to the eventual defeat of the Kuomintang (KMT or Nationalist Party) and does a good job at giving those new to the subject matter the necessary background to expand their studies. Unfortunately, the work lacks in several respects. First, the the book's maps are too few and provide little of the necessary detail for one to truly understand why the principal actors made the military decisions they did. Bluntly put, the maps should have included more topographical detail and there should have been more maps covering areas of fighting in smaller increments of time to permit one to truly follow the course of military events. Furthermore, in his introduction Prof. Westad states "the main emphasis (of the book) is on the political and military history of the war..." As a former Marine combat officer who later served as a diplomat in China, I found the book lacked in both respects. There was a good deal of coverage regarding the issues of CCP debate regarding its land reform policies and debates about those policies within the party. However, the book fails to provide as much information on what the KMT leadership's thoughts about this and other important socio-economic issues. In addition, there was only superficial discussion of the military forces, organization, weaponry, and almost no real attempt to provide a detailed chronology of the war's events, at the strategic, operational or tactical level. In spite of these criticisms, I strongly recommend the book at a good starting point for those who have little or no knowledge of what happened in China during these years as there are few works available in English that deal with the subject well.
Book Description
This book examines the theory and practice of traditional medicine in modern China. Farquhar describes the logic of diagnosis and treatment from the inside perspective of doctors and scholars. She demonstrates how theoretical and textual materials interweave with the practical requirements of the clinic. By showing how Chinese medical choices are made, she considers problems of agency in relation to different forms of knowledge. Knowing Practice will be of value not only to anthropologists interested in medical practice but also to historians and sociologists interested in the social life of technical expertise and traditional teachings.
Book Description
Like his predecessor, Heinrich Harrer, who spent seven years in Tibet, Hartwig Hausdorf has ventured, virtually on foot, over many of the sacred places of the Far East. But his aim has been not to discover his own soul, but rather to uncover tell-tale traces of an Alien Mind which may have passed that way millennia ago, and may be passing by again. He has sought out the fabled, forbidden 1,000-foot White Pyramid of Xian. In so doing, he has stumbled upon the key to the ancient Chinese dream of material immortality, a dream perhaps inspired by Alien Mind, and a key hidden in the fabulous, mercury-filled tomb--chamber of the Emperor Shi Huangdi--a tomb-chamber the possible excavation of which the Chinese government has kept secret from the West. He has unearthed new facts about the mysterious stone disks of Bayan Kara Ula, which some believe tell the story of a forced alien landing 12,000 years ago. And he has discerned, in the prodigious mind-over-matter techniques of the Tibetans, the Chinese and the Japanese, the faintest whispers, still audible over the vast gulf of time, of an awesome encounter which may have taken place on the sacred peak of Mount Meru at the very beginning of man's time on earth.
Customer Reviews:
Baseless, Ridiculous, but Unintentionally Humorous.......2000-01-15
Hausdorf approaches a fascinating subject without any serious understanding of Chinese mythology and culture. He unfortunately gives equal weight to the hallucinatory poetry of James Merril, dated pulp fiction stories of Western travelers, and second and third hand accounts of strange goings on in Asia. His high seriousness combined with gross inanity make it a very funny read, though. (He should have visited/studied at the ancient Taoist monastaries such as Wu Dang and have delved more deeply into the X'ian enigma by studying Qin Dynasty cosmology/mythology for at least some understanding of a truly "otherwordly" superadvanced culture).
Highly readable.......1999-05-09
I enjoyed this book a lot. So did my non-UFO-interested girlfriend, which surprised me. Hartwig spins a great tale of mystery and adventure, enough to hook just about anybody.
Whether all of it is "fact", I don't know, but this reads like a fantastic true-life Indiana Jones meets X-FILES and that was enough for me.
Also, very little of this material is covered in other UFO books, so it was refreshing to find such a wealth of possibilities.
A must read for anyone even mildly interested in UFOs!.......1999-03-12
For this lifelong believer that humanity has always been observed by advanced off-world intelligences, a doorway was opened into ancient vistas never before glimpsed. CHINESE ROSWELL is a translation into English of a German text by Hartwig Hausdorf that clearly and concisely describes his investigations into unexplained mysteries of the Far East. Hausdorf's fascinating descriptions include unusually marked stone disks found in the Bayan Kara Ula Mountains, the probable existence of Shangri-La, a 1,000 foot white pyramid in Xian, the origins of the mythology of great winged dragons, and modern day sightings of possible extraterrestial craft. If it is true that Alien Mind(s) have long been present on Earth, this is the most astounding overlooked fact in human history. One of the great benefits of modern trends in literature/journalism is that a treasure trove of vital information is readily available to anyone who wishes to expand his/her knowledge of extraterrestrial impact on human civilization (and it is difficult to imagine anyone who would not). CHINESE ROSWELL is an important addition to that growing collection.
An excellent book covering important UFO material........1999-03-09
The Chinese Roswell by Hartwig Hausdorf
Trans. by E. Mathaey & W. Smith New Paradigm Books 22783 South State Rd. 7 Suite 97 Boca Raton, FL 33428 Softcover; $13.95; 224 pages ISBN: 1-892138-00X
Reviewed by Berthold E. Schwarz, M.D. Review published in Alternate Perceptions Winter 1999, #45
The more ancient, remote, and populous Far East including China, Japan, Tibet, India, and surrounding countries have rich traditions in their history, myths, and geopolitics for UFOs. In many instances venerable texts and writings can easily be extrapolated to the Western world and our era. In both cases past and present, East and West the twain exists and transcends the specific cultural and ethnic religious differences. Hartwig Hausdorf, like his famous and admired predecessor Nicholas Roerich artist, explorer, guru has traveled to these exotic lands, and, in some cases, to mysterious and impenetrable locations to witness, study, and learn all he can about various UFO experiences and encounters and their possible relationships to ancient monuments, pyramids, and archaeological artifacts. He provides a wide-angle overview of the UFO enigma. Although espousing the ET hypothesis, he does not let this viewpoint cloud his vision and exclude geographic and Fortean shreds of data that are challenging to the reader/researcher; he successfully penetrates the armor of 'think alike' mentation. He has a knack of presenting disparate material in a highly readable form that is highlighted by his free thinking questions and care in separating 'soft' from 'hard' data. He offers probing scholarship and leaves the reader more curious than ever about this most baffling phenomena that arches from the 'nuts and bolts' to the sometimes esoteric, recondite paranormal and, in many cases, the inextricable and inexplicable elements of the 'people part' of the equation: the always to be considered and never to be discounted parapsychological aspects. For all who wonder and desire to expand their vision about the origin, purpose, meaning, and understanding of the UFO problem, The Chinese Roswell by Hartwig Hausdorf is indispensable reading.
A waste of time and money.......1999-02-21
This book consists primarily of retellings of a variety of esoteric stories legends and myths from the far east. There is very little original material in the book. There is certainly nothing startling or memorable. Far inferior to the works of David Hatcher Childress.
Customer Reviews:
INtegrative medicine- isn't about time?.......2000-09-13
Dr. Eisenberg is one of the poineers of the Integartive medicine in US ( which is a fussion between the conventional and alternative therapies). Western medicine has achieved things that seemed imposible 1-2 centuries ago, but it seems to be stuck with its overly rationalistic approach toward disease...is the body functioning depending from the mind? Can attitude affect one's well- being? Could ther e be somthing that we still do not know about human physiology? Western science is just entering the realm of mind/body medicine( neuroscience), while some nations (like Chinese) have millenia long history of practicing and perfecting those methods of treatment....so why not learn to use those methods? Why not integrate them into conventional western medicine? Partly because the public and the medical proffessionals are not aware of all those options, and also because there is still some stigma in medical society about the alternative practices. Dr. Eisengberg's book disspels part of that stigma in a very easy to read, livelly and plesant style...
Book Description
In the summer of 1909, the gruesome murder of nineteen-year-old Elsie Sigel sent shock waves through New York City and the nation at large. The young woman's strangled corpse was discovered inside a trunk in the midtown Manhattan apartment of her reputed former Sunday school student and lover, a Chinese man named Leon Ling.
Through the lens of this unsolved murder, Mary Ting Yi Lui offers a fascinating snapshot of social and sexual relations between Chinese and non-Chinese populations in turn-of-the-century New York City. Sigel's murder was more than a notorious crime, Lui contends. It was a clear signal that attempts to maintain geographical and social boundaries between the city's Chinese male and white female populations had failed.
When police discovered Sigel and Leon Ling's love letters, giving rise to the theory that Leon Ling killed his lover in a fit of jealous rage, this idea became even more embedded in the public consciousness. New Yorkers condemned the work of Chinese missions and eagerly participated in the massive national and international manhunt to locate the vanished Leon Ling.
Lui explores how the narratives of racial and sexual danger that arose from the Sigel murder revealed widespread concerns about interracial social and sexual mixing during the era. She also examines how they provoked far-reaching skepticism about regulatory efforts to limit the social and physical mobility of Chinese immigrants and white working-class and middle-class women.
Through her thorough re-examination of this notorious murder, Lui reveals in unprecedented detail how contemporary politics of race, gender, and sexuality shaped public responses to the presence of Chinese immigrants during the Chinese exclusion era.
Customer Reviews:
Wonderful.......2007-08-02
Lui has written a wonderful book that uses a murder in New York as a means of examining the complexity of race in New York at the turn of the nineteenth century. Her research is first rate and the narrative she shapes is enthralling.
Book Description
The works in On the Edge represent the reactions of leading Chinese artists to encounters with the West. Some are contemplative musings on the space that opens up when one culture is observed from the vantage point of another. Others are more confrontational comments on Western dominance in the process of globalization. Some take strategic advantage of an outsider position. Each is symptomatic or expressive of the relationship between China and the West.
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Chinese and Jews: Encounters Between Cultures
Irene Eber
Manufacturer: Vallentine Mitchell
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
 General
| Jewish
| World
| History
| Subjects
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General
| Race Relations
| Sociology
| Social Sciences
| Nonfiction
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Sociology
| Social Sciences
| Nonfiction
| Subjects
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General
| Social Sciences
| Nonfiction
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ASIN: 0853036748 |
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