Bookstore in a Dream

Each of the 1,000 basic Chinese characters in this volume is chosen with beginners in mind. Each character is accompanied by a detailed analysis, explaining the equivalent meaning in English with ample bilingual samples; common collocations and their related idiomatic usage; tone and pronunciation specific to the usage; stroke order with simplified and traditional forms; and parts of speech. Also included are indices and appendices for easy reference.

Talk Mandarin Today is a practical guide for learning and getting by in Mandarin Chinese for adult learners. With the busy reader in mind, each lesson works first to bring fast acquisition and build practical ability in speaking the language. By providing simple sentence structures and concise grammar notes, the book helps readers learn the language in a more intuitive way. Learners will build confidence fast in order to speak, to try, and to put what they have learned into practice.

There are thirty lessons in the book of which the contents are selected considering time, space and human activities. This book is sold with a CD.

Drawing inspirations from a vast oeuvre of more than a thousand poems, Eliot Weinberger has deftly composed a montage of fifty-eight poems derived and adapted from the lines, images, and feelings in Tu Fu’s poetry. These poems weave a tapestry of Tu Fu’s turbulent life and times of war and disaster.
In the post-pandemic era, we may appreciate the profound solitude and desolation in Tu Fu’s poetry that still resonates across the span of a millennium. More than an homage to the life of Tu Fu, this work is a meditation on the self, suffering, and our transient beings.

Grotto Art of China: A Sourcebook traces the origins of this unique art form from the Indian subcontinent to its monumental flowering in China, offering a comprehensive look at the artistic, religious, and historical narratives of these sacred sites.

This volume brings together contributions from leading international scholars, providing systematic studies of major cave complexes—such as Dunhuang’s Mogao Grottoes, Yungang, Longmen, and Xiangtangshan—alongside lesser-known regional sites. Organized geographically, the book traces the evolution of cave art from its origins in early Indian Buddhist practice to its adaptation in China, where it became a medium for devotion, political authority, and cultural exchange. The book explores a range of topics, including how rulers like the Northern Wei and Tang dynasties sponsored colossal Buddha images, the distinctive artistic styles and techniques across regions like Xinjiang, Gansu, and Shandong, the role of caves in Buddhist worship, and the modern-day challenges of preservation and loss.
Rigorously researched and thoughtfully curated, Grotto Art of China serves as an indispensable reference for researchers, students, and travelers. It offers new insights into the spiritual, historical, and artistic dimensions of a tradition that bridged cultures, faiths, and empires.

History remembers Du Fu (712–70) as the Confucian poet-sage, but why would he abandon his official post to wander the remote fringes of the Tang empire? This exploration of Du Fu’s late wanderings reveals the restless spiritual and intellectual journey that mirrored his seemingly directionless, perplexing physical travels. Moving beyond traditional portrayals, it uncovers a complex figure torn between north and south, service and retreat, and the truths of the Three Teachings.

A close reading of the poems from his last, prolific decade follows Du Fu as he confronts the brilliance and collapse of his dynasty, transforming all he experienced into poetry that became both his autobiography and his apology. Through his verse, a man who refused to settle for a single answer emerges, one whose constant wavering was a part of his greatness and ultimately redefined the possibilities of Chinese poetry.

The centenary Art Deco movement is often neglected at the peripheries of architectural history of Asia and Hong Kong. This volume is the first study relating Art Deco architecture in the city with local socioeconomic and political contexts, adopts the theoretical lens to examine how they framed practices of everyday life, and narrates how Art Deco became part of the modern Hong Kong ethos via such architectural typologies as public and institutional sites, residential properties, commercial, industrial, and utility buildings. As surviving Art Deco buildings are hidden treasures and portals to forgotten marvels and little-known history of interwar Hong Kong, Lau and Yeung show us how Art Deco heritage bears witness to the city’s societal progress in various aspects, early efforts at modernization before the postwar era, and its aesthetic connections with the international stage.