This book is still very much available and in Print. One can also order the cassette that helps one learn the true Chinese diction of the words. There is a glossary of words in the book that are used on the cassette.
The author, Coleen Cain (formerly Beth Bauer) was a Journalist for the Post-Intelligencer of Bellevue, WA while she was living in China.
A member of the Seattle Free Lances, she has authored a number of other books as well.
I have used the book as a gift to friends visiting China.

Between the Hammer and the Anvil? Chinese and Russian Policies in Outer Mongolia, 1911-1921 by Thomas E.Ewing

If you are looking to understand the enigma that is Shanghai, then look no further than Mr. Lu's incredibly insightful "Beyond the Neon Lights". It could be subtitled: "Beyond the hype, the myths, the stereotypes and the cliches," but Mr. Lu is an academic, and uses sound research to sell his books rather than sensationalism. Bravo for him, I say.

Shanghai history books - the sensationalist, badly researched ones, at least - tend to present an Old Shanghai of Gangsters, Bankers, Hookers, and Foreigners...oh my! Even the more thorough ones present mostly the wild advantures of those wacky expatriates, ignoring or neglecting the role and the life of the "laobaixing", the ordinary people of Shanghai.

"Beyond the Neon Lights" fills this very large gap amazingly well. It is dedicated to life in the lanes that were and are the arteries of the city, the source of its lifeblood, the petty urbanites. Lu explores the architecture of the Shikumen, the typical pre-1920s Shanghai lane dwelling, and explains how its system of sub-sub- and sub-letting fomented the complicated communities that emerged there. He also conveys how the social structures and cultural habits changed with the introduction of more modern lanes (with indoor plumbing, fewer households, etc) and the Art Deco highrises.

Every aspect of life in Shanghai was and often still is structured around the lane neighborhood. Although the new-style lanes are less contained, more open, and thus less of a microcosm, both vintages boast their own economy of scale. There is the old-style convenience store, the "tobacco and paper shop", at the entrance, plus a tailor, produce dealer, shoe-repairman, locksmith, pharacist...and more in the larger lanes. Other needs were serviced by the itineret peddlars, selling goods or repairing them or buying rubbish. The latter, Lu explains, were the main source of income for the housekeepers of the middle class.

The roving peddlers still ply their trade in Shanghai's remaining lanes; all that has changed are their regional backgrounds and some of their wares. But now, as then, they are distinguished by the ditties they sing to announce their arrival. I awake every morning to the tune of one of the three rice vendors who frequents my lane; he is followed by a series of seasonal fruit vendors, the chicken man, the beer man, and the used electronic buyers. About once a week the wicker chair repairman wanders by. The travelling cobbler skirts my street, since he has three permanent competitors on the block, but I see and hear him elsewhere. I rarely use their services, but I love hearing them: they make Shanghai Shanghai.

Lu also documents the migration patterns that configured the people who normally count themselves as Shanghainese. The relatively high-class ones came from Ningbo, Hangzhou and elsewhere in Zhejiang Province, the middle class from Jiangsu south of the Yangtze, and the dregs from north of the Yangtze. "Beyond the Neon Lights" goes into interesting depths about the slums of these despised "Jiangbei" people. This was of particular interest to me, as my current and previous residences are adjacent to the most notorious old slums: along the Suzhou Creek, which still exists, and on the Zhaojiabang Creek, which has since given way to a six-lane highway.

All the bustle, activity, and "decadence" that happened on Shanghai's main streets was only possible because of the oddly parochial yet international Shanghainese attitudes cultivated in the lanes. They were the foundation of the city, and these attitudes will prevail long after the lanes have vanished to give way to the urban planners' (mostly vengeful Jiangbei people) futuristic vision. The stories contained in "Beyond the Neon Lights" pose an argument why Shanghai's rapidly vanishing lanes should be preserved, or at least why you should enjoy them while you can.

James A. Millward's study of the Qing dynasty's governance of Xinjiang is possibly the most careful study of the subject written since Owen Lattimore's studies of Central Asia. Taking on the Fairbankian idea of concentric rings of Chinese empire, Millward reminds us that the ways in which the Qing dynasty governed its far western regions was a Manchu policy, with distinct characteristics. The treatment is topical, but does not lose sight of the chronological narrative. The study ends, however, before the Muslim rebellions in the region changed it forever, both in its ethnicity and demographics. Most enjoyably, Millward writes engaging prose, and has produced a scholarly work that is also a good read.

BEYOND THE SCREEN is an apt title; it describes this book both literally and metaphorically. Nancy Berliner and fourcontributing writers dissect both the life and furniture of sixtheen and seventeenth China in a work that combines art, craft and social history. My husband, an amateur woodworker, was fascinated with descriptions of workmanship and digrams of joinery. I preferred the sections that talked about the people -- both the craftsmen (usually anonymous) that made the furniture and the elite who commissioned it. But the focus point of the book is undoubtedly the photographs of the furniture itself -- some pieces which are classically simple, others that are intricately carved. Berliner comments at length on each piece. For collectors of antique Chinese furniture -- or reproductions -- this book is an absolute must-have. It gives the story behind the craft and makes sitting down so much more interesting!

"Long ago in the middle kingdom, in a village by the sea, there lived a girl called Mei Mei. She was a girl with no prospects." So begins Jeanne Lee's evocative folktale set in a fifteenth century Chinese village. When Mei Mei's father dies on the eve of her wedding, her brothers use her dowry to pay for an extravagant funeral, then take all his possessions for themselves, and throw her out of the house. Unable to marry and shunned by the village, she eventually finds work and shelter with the crippled old woman, Po Po, another outcast who makes and sells her bitter dumplings each day at the market. When the Emperor's treasure fleet sails into the harbor, a ship's slave escapes, and asks the two women to hide him, and this, the three find is the start of a new beginning for all of them..... Ms Lee's dramatic text is filled with history as her story unfolds, slowly, towards its happy and satisfying conclusion, and is complemented by eloquent illustrations in soft and muted colors. Together, word and art transport the reader to a far-away place and time. With an author's note filled with historical details that enhance the story, Bitter Dumplings is an engaging tale, perfect for youngsters 7-10, or as a read-aloud for younger children.

Little has been translated into English by Chinese writers whose novels are set in the 1990's. Liu Heng, author of the story which formed the basis for the film, Ju Dou, fills in much of that gap with Howard Goldblatt's excellent translation. A poignant, compelling novel of unrelenting realism, "Black Snow" portrays contemporary life in Beijing in stark and everyday terms. It is a masterpiece of insight into the neglected landscape of ordinary workers existing in extraordinary times. Somehow the mundane comes alive in Liu's writing. The characters are round and, therefore, believable, unlike so many we read in other novels by both exile Chinese and American writers. Nothing is predictable yet nothing is made sensational for its own sake to merely titillate the reader. My graduate students are reading it with keen interest here in Beijing and confirm its veracity. They even admit to having learned a thing or two about the lives of street peddlars in the process. The novel addresses the question of what happens when a disaffected youth attempts to redeem himself, not so much in the eyes of others, as in his own eyes. The finest novel available in English in this genre, in my opinion.

As a college student in the late '60s, R. Thomas Collins Jr. felt torn over Vietnam. Would he enlist or resist? He never had to choose. He flunked his draft physical because of a pustule on his rump.
A quarter century later, he finds himself in a Hanoi hotel room struggling with the ghosts of war. Now a Mobil public relations executive, Collins is on the front line of the battle for drilling rights along the shore of America's former enemy. He finds the waters of Southeast Asia remain treacherous, the political currents swift and unpredictable -- and that's before all hell breaks loose when a reporter leaks word of the secret negotiations. Collins soon discovers that the passions of a long-ago war remain strong on both sides of the Pacific.
In Blue Dragon, Collins has gathered up all the ingredients of a first-rate political thriller, but he gets no credit for imagination: It's all true. Collins, a former journalist, reports insightfully on this little-known coda to the war that helped shape his generation...

A very moving and powerful novel that tells the story of the Mennonites who fled the Soviet Union to escape religious persecution. Although not as highly acclaimed as some of his other works, The Blue Mountains of China is perhaps one of the great Canadian novels.

This book is great. It gives a great story about a Tibetan village named Jyeko, and the trials that come to pass with the Communist invasion of Tibet in the 1950's. It also follows the lives of Scottish radio operator Jamie Wilson and a Tibetan outcast named Puton. It tells of love and trials. Of anger turning into unification in the face of neccesity. It is simply a great book.