Author: Cong Zhang Publisher: ISBN: Category : Biography & Autobiography Languages : en Pages : 330
Book Description
During the Song (960-1279), all educated Chinese men traveled frequently, journeying long distances to attend school and take civil service examinations. They crisscrossed the country to assume government posts, report back to the capital, and return home between assignments and to attend to family matters. Based on a wide array of texts, Transformative Journeys analyzes the impact of travel on this group of elite men and the places they visited. In the first part of the book, Cong Ellen Zhang considers the practical aspects of travel during the Song in the context of state mobilization of and assistance to government travelers, including the infrastructure of waterways and highways, the bureaucratic procedures entailed in official travel, and the means of transport and types of lodging. The second part of the book focuses on elite activities on the road, especially the elaborate farewell banquets, welcoming ceremonies, and visits to famous places. Zhang argues convincingly that abundant travel experience became integral to Song elite identity and status, greatly strengthening the social and cultural coherence of the practitioners. In promoting their experience of traveling across a large empire, Song elite men firmly established their position as the country’s political, social, and cultural leaders. The literary compositions and physical traces they left behind also formed an overlapping web of collective memories, continually enhancing local pride and defining the place of various localities in the cultural geography of the country. Transformative Journeys sheds new light on the nature of Chinese literati, their dominance of culture and society, and China’s social and cultural integration. Those interested in premodern China and travel literature will find a wealth of material previously unavailable to Western readers.
Author: Michelle Jana Chan Publisher: Unbound Publishing ISBN: 1783525444 Category : Fiction Languages : en Pages : 397
Book Description
'Jana Chan has produced a wonderfully lush and atmospheric odyssey of survival against all odds' Bernardine Evaristo, Booker Prize-winning author of Girl, Woman, Other 'A strong picaresque element powers this saga' Daily Mail 'Michelle Jana Chan brings a world of equal peril and possibility to life with her rich, radiant prose' Tatler 'A beautifully told tale with fascinating historical insight' Vanity Fair Song is just a boy when he sets out from Lishui village in China. Brimming with courage and ambition, he leaves behind his impoverished broken family, hoping he’ll make his fortune and return home. Chasing tales of sugarcane, rubber and gold, Song embarks upon a perilous voyage across the oceans to the British colony of Guiana, but once there he discovers riches are not so easy to come by and he is forced into labouring as an indentured plantation worker. This is only the beginning of Song’s remarkable life, but as he finds himself between places and between peoples, and increasingly aware that the circumstances of birth carry more weight than accomplishments or good deeds, Song fears he may live as an outsider forever. This beautifully written and evocative story spans nearly half a century and half the globe, and though it is set in another century, Song’s story of emigration and the quest for an opportunity to improve his life is timeless.
Author: Publisher: Simon and Schuster ISBN: 1614290660 Category : Religion Languages : en Pages : 171
Book Description
In Song of the Road, Tsarchen Losal Gyatso (1502-66), a tantric master of the Sakya tradition of Tibetan Buddhism, weaves ecstatic poetry, song, and accounts of visionary experiences into a record of pilgrimage to central Tibet. Translated for the first time here, Tsarchen's work, a favorite of the Fifth Dalai Lama, brims with striking descriptions of encounters with the divine as well as lyrical portraits of Tibetan landscape. The literary flights of Song of the Road are anchored by Tsarchen's candid observations on the social and political climate of his day, including a rare example in Tibetan literature of open critique of religious power. Like the Japanese master Basho's famous Narrow Road to the Interior, written 150 years later, Tsarchen's travelogue contains a mixture of luminous prose and verse, rich with allusions. Traveling on horseback with a band of companions, Tsarchen visited some of the most renowned holy sites of the Tsang region, incluing Jonang, Tropu, Ngor, Shalu, and Gyantse. In his introduction and copious notes, Cyrus Stearns unearths the layers of meaning concealed in the text, excavating the history, legends, and lore associated with people and places encountered on the pilgrimage, revealing the spiritual as well as geographical topography of Tsarchen's journey.
Author: Larissa Pham Publisher: Catapult ISBN: 1646220277 Category : Biography & Autobiography Languages : en Pages : 288
Book Description
"A warm and expansive portrait of a woman’s mind that feels at once singular and universal," this collection of essays interweaves commentary on modern life, feminism, art, and sex with the author's own experiences of obsession, heartbreak, and vulnerability (BuzzFeed). Like a song that feels written just for you, Larissa Pham's debut work of nonfiction captures the imagination and refuses to let go. Pop Song is a book about love and about falling in love—with a place, or a painting, or a person—and the joy and terror inherent in the experience of that love. Plumbing the well of culture for clues and patterns about love and loss—from Agnes Martin's abstract paintings to James Turrell's transcendent light works, and Anne Carson's Eros the Bittersweet to Frank Ocean's Blonde—Pham writes of her youthful attempts to find meaning in travel, sex, drugs, and art, before sensing that she might need to turn her gaze upon herself. Pop Song is also a book about distances, near and far. As she travels from Taos, New Mexico, to Shanghai, China and beyond, Pham meditates on the miles we are willing to cover to get away from ourselves, or those who hurt us, and the impossible gaps that can exist between two people sharing a bed. Pop Song is a book about all the routes by which we might escape our own needs before finally finding a way home. There is heartache in these pages, but Pham's electric ways of seeing create a perfectly fractured portrait of modern intimacy that is triumphant in both its vulnerability and restlessness. "Each of the essays in this debut collection reads like a mini-memoir . . . in which the author reflects on her experiences of young love, trauma, and transcendence through discussions of art and music . . . with an intimacy that is at once tender and expansive." —New York magazine
Author: Regina Porter Publisher: Hogarth ISBN: 0525576207 Category : Fiction Languages : en Pages : 322
Book Description
“American history comes to vivid, engaging life in this tale of two interconnected families (one white, one black) that spans from the 1950s to Barack Obama’s first year as president. . . . The complex, beautifully drawn characters are unique and indelible.”—Entertainment Weekly “An astoundingly audacious debut.”—O: The Oprah Magazine • “A gorgeous generational saga.”—New York Post NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY ESQUIRE • FINALIST FOR THE PEN/HEMINGWAY AWARD FOR DEBUT NOVEL Meet James Samuel Vincent, an affluent Manhattan attorney who shirks his modest Irish American background but hews to his father’s meandering ways. James muddles through a topsy-turvy relationship with his son, Rufus, which is further complicated when Rufus marries Claudia Christie. Claudia’s mother—Agnes Miller Christie—is a beautiful African American woman who survives a chance encounter on a Georgia road that propels her into a new life in the Bronx. Soon after, her husband, Eddie Christie, is called to duty on an air craft carrier in Vietnam, where Tom Stoppard’s play “Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead” becomes Eddie’s life anchor, as he grapples with mounting racial tensions on the ship and counts the days until he will see Agnes again. These unforgettable characters’ lives intersect with a cast of lovers and friends—the unapologetic black lesbian who finds her groove in 1970s Berlin; a moving man stranded in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, during a Thanksgiving storm; two half-brothers who meet as adults in a crayon factory; and a Coney Island waitress whose Prince Charming is too good to be true. With piercing humor, exacting dialogue, and a beautiful sense of place, Regina Porter’s debut is both an intimate family portrait and a sweeping exploration of what it means to be American today. Praise for The Travelers “[A] kaleidoscopic début . . . Porter deftly skips back and forth through the decades, sometimes summarizing a life in a few paragraphs, sometimes spending pages on one conversation. As one character observes, ‘We move in circles in this life.’” —The New Yorker “Porter’s electric debut is a sprawling saga that follows two interconnected American families. . . . Readers will certainly be drawn in by Porter’s sharp writing and kept hooked by the black-and-white photographs interspersed throughout the book, which give faces to the evocative voices.”—Booklist
Author: Sheena Roberts Publisher: Barefoot Books ISBN: 9781841484105 Category : Juvenile Fiction Languages : en Pages : 32
Book Description
I spy with my little eye, you can hear with your little ear, A bright red truck goes rumble rumble rumble. A yellow school bus goes beep beep beep.
Author: Steve Moretti Publisher: ISBN: Category : Languages : en Pages : 812
Book Description
"Embedded in my soul forever." A time-travel adventure powered by the mysterious musical forces that connect two women across time through their cello. The two gifted composers are transposed into each other's world and find their souls have somehow intertwined. In 2018, an aspiring young cellist dreams of joining the National Arts Centre Orchestra in Ottawa. But after a crushing rejection, a new hope emerges in the form of a long lost music score from her dying grandmother in Scotland. In Book I of the Song for a Lost Kingdom series, Adeena Stuart plays this music on the oldest surviving cello made in the United Kingdom, and she's connected to another woman from the past, Katharine Carnegie. Katharine living in 18th century Scotland is also a cellist and a composer. Their connection is augmented by the love of the same man doomed to die after the Battle of Culloden in 1746. In Book II, James Drummond fights alongside Prince Charles Edward Stuart in the 1746 Jacobite uprising. Though their cause is doomed, and James is destined to die shortly after the Battle of Culloden, Adeena's determination to save him never wavers. Left behind in the present, Adeena's friends and families are equally determined to return her to 2019 before the expanding growth in her head becomes fatal. But even they are deceived by the truth of what is about to unfold. In Book III, the final instalment of the series, Adeena and Katharine Carnegie search for the music that neither can complete on their own. Finding themselves living three centuries apart and each assuming the identity of the other, they must overcome their own unique challenges, all the while hiding the truth of who they really are from those around them. The box set is specially priced and also includes the Prequel to the series plus bonus goodies such as the sheet music and lyrics to three original songs featured in the books. (Song for a Lost Kingdom, The Heart Beats in Time and A Foolish Man). Other bonus features include character profiles and a forward by series editor Lara Clouden. The Song for a Lost Kingdom boxset includes: Book I: Music is Not Bound by Time Book II: Love Never Surrenders Book III: The Heart Beats in Time The Prequel: A Kingdom is Lost, A Song is Born. Get swept away in this historical time-slip fantasy-adventure powered by classical music that refuses to be bound by time - and an impossible love that defies the tragic fate already determined by history.
Author: Pamela Conn Beall Publisher: Penguin ISBN: 0843120983 Category : Juvenile Nonfiction Languages : en Pages : 67
Book Description
Experience the wonderful world of storytelling and unique humor of traditional folk music with this collection of classics songs passed down from generation to generation.
Author: Willard A. Palmer Publisher: Alfred Music ISBN: 1457421216 Category : Music Languages : en Pages : 98
Book Description
This method begins with a review of the concepts presented in Level 2, then introduces new pieces and lessons in new keys to prepare the student for more advanced studies. Includes a "Just for Fun" section and an "Ambitious" section for the student who will devote a little extra effort toward learning some of the great masterworks that require additional practice.
Author: Daria Song Publisher: Watson-Guptill ISBN: 1607749602 Category : Games & Activities Languages : en Pages : 82
Book Description
Step into a magical world with this dazzlingly beautiful coloring book for all ages and explore a fantastical cuckoo-clock inspired realm “Intricately drawn . . . [offers] an experience that is both meditative and creatively stimulating.”—The A.V. Club One night, a young girl’s father brings home an antique cuckoo clock. Journey with her through the doors of this mysterious clock into its inky inner workings and discover a magical land of clock gears, rooftops, starry skies, and giant flying owls—all ready for you to customize with whatever colors you can dream up. Cuckoo . . . cuckoo . . . cuckoo . . . When the clock strikes midnight, you’ll wonder—was it all a dream? The Time Garden has extra-thick craft paper and a removable—and colorable!—jacket. Featuring gorgeous gold foil on the cover and a customizable dedication page, The Time Garden is perfect for anyone looking to add some magic into their lives. Unleash your creativity with Daria Song’s whimsical Time series: THE TIME GARDEN • THE TIME CHAMBER • THE NIGHT VOYAGE
Author: Cong Zhang
Author: Michelle Jana Chan
Author: 
Author: Larissa Pham
Author: Regina Porter
Author: Sheena Roberts
Author: Steve Moretti
Author: Pamela Conn Beall
Author: Willard A. Palmer
Author: Daria Song