Asian Art

The goals of the budo - the martial arts and ways of Japan - lie in refining the body and spirit. These goals are not always the obvious ones - and are learned only through the guidance and direction of great teachers. The techniques, methods, and rituals of the sensei can serve as guides to a well-lived life - and provide invaluable lessons for today's martial artists.

In Bending Adversity, Financial Times Asia editor David Pilling presents a fresh vision of Japan, drawing on his own deep experience, as well as observations from a cross section of Japanese citizenry, including novelist Haruki Murakami, former prime minister Junichiro Koizumi, industrialists and bankers, activists and artists, teenagers and octogenarians. Through their voices, Pilling captures the dynamism and diversity of contemporary Japan.

Kim Barker is not your typical, impassive foreign correspondent—she is candid, self-deprecating, laugh-out-loud funny. At first an awkward newbie in Afghanistan, she grows into a wisecracking, seasoned reporter with grave concerns about our ability to win hearts and minds in the region. In The Taliban Shuffle, Barker offers an insider’s account of the “forgotten war” in Afghanistan and Pakistan, chronicling the years after America’s initial routing of the Taliban, when we failed to finish the job.

Like one in six people in India, Sujatha Gidla was born an untouchable. While most untouchables are illiterate, her family was educated by Canadian missionaries in the 1930s, making it possible for Gidla to attend elite schools and move to America at the age of 26. It was only then that she saw how extraordinary - and yet how typical - her family history truly was.

When Kong-sang was a young boy in Hong Kong, he enjoyed practicing martial arts with his dad but hated going to school. He was eventually enrolled in the China Drama Academy, where he improved his martial arts skills and became a stuntman. That training led to a successful career as an actor. Kong-sang, now known as Jackie Chan, never gave up on his passion for screwball physical comedy.

Dong Tu may be a normal girl, but her high-profile affair with the Whispered World’s most dangerous man, Obsidian, has created more attention than she needs. Set in a fantasy world similar to ancient Asia, The Winter Epic series is the story of Luu Dong Tu and the dangerous Eighteen of the Whispered World. It is a riveting adventure in the fantasy martial art world of swordplays, air bending, wind walking, superpower, elemental magic, and martial art combats... Books in the series are stand-alone although it's recommended to read them in this order: #1 “The Girl Who Kept Winter” ...

“Pioneer” — as a noun is defined as “a person who is among the first to explore or settle a new country or area.” As a verb, it means “develop or be the first to use or apply (a new method, area of knowledge, or activity).” This anthology gives the reader the experience of the explorers who went to foreign lands to discover and learn about a specific field of knowledge and skills:the Asian martial arts.The eight chapters included here share a common root in the pioneers' desire to travel far and wide in search for practical martial arts useful in the street as well as for ...

This imagined retelling of Jho Low’s story, based on real events, gives listeners an insider’s view of the glitzy, glamorous world of wealth and privilege, as well as a close-up look at this enigmatic protagonist’s high-stakes fall from grace. The narrator is quirky yet eloquent, at times thoughtful and other times brash, as he leads readers through the corridors of power, where the line between friend and foe blurs. As secrets unravel and fortunes teeter on the edge, readers get a front-row seat to the dark underbelly of high finance and the price of unchecked ambition and greed.

On the eve of WWII, the foreign-controlled port of Shanghai was the rendezvous for the 20th century's most outlandish adventurers, all under the watchful eye of the fabulously wealthy Sir Victor Sassoon. Emily Hahn was a legendary New Yorker writer who would cover China for nearly 50 years, and play an integral part in opening Asia up to the West. But at the height of the Depression, "Mickey" Hahn, had just arrived in Shanghai nursing a broken heart after a disappointing affair.

Set in Calcutta, London, the glacier-locked wilds of the Karakoram, and on Everest itself, The Last Englishmen is also the story of a generation. The cast of this exhilarating drama includes Indian and English writers and artists, explorers and Communist spies, Die Hards and Indian nationalists, political rogues and police informers. Key among them is a highborn Bengali poet named Sudhin Datta, a melancholy soul torn, like many of his generation, between hatred of the British Empire and a deep love of European literature, whose life would be upended by the arrival of war on his Calcutta doorstep.

A story of a young woman left behind and a young reporter coming of age in a world of war; a gripping memoir of Cambodia and Vietnam in the 1970s. As brutal wars in Cambodia and Vietnam come to swift and cataclysmic ends, a young reporter plans a last minute rescue of a woman he loved. The rescue fails.

READY FOR A ROARING ADVENTURE? HERE YOU ARE!What separates a man from a monster or demon is found in the heart. Step into the mystical realm of ancient China, where a serpent's quest for love and humanity has captivated hearts for centuries. "The Legend of Lady White Snake" is a mesmerizing literary analysis of the iconic myth of Madam White Snake, a powerful and alluring symbol of transformation and devotion. Story lines for game night and an an epic in its own right! Experience the epic romance and martial arts adventure of Lady White Snake like never before! Discover the nine worlds of ...

It’s Victorian London. China Town A crisis is about to explode. Ghosts are marauding the merchants. Merchants are being murdered in ghastly ways. But only certain items are being stolen. Why? And what need to ghosts have of physical Things? None of it makes sense. Detective Dee is asked to help solve this growing Puzzle and trend of violence. But how do you stop marauders who Are not ghosts, and yet can materialize And vanish like one?

Yip Chi Chuan, a young martial and spiritual ascetic, must flee as the only home he has ever known, the ancient monastery of the Priests of K’un Lun, is destroyed by a newly ascendant extradimensional evil. Cast out and alone, Yip strikes out on a quest spanning the breadth of his home world of Ea’ae and into the greater macroverse beyond in an attempt to unseat an all-consuming Darkness rooted in his once vaunted order’s distant past. Will Yip, the last of his kind to walk the wide world beyond his fallen sanctuary, succeed where his mighty brethren failed in ages past? Unfortunately...

The demons that could control stones and elementals have been defeated, but the most powerful of Simon Wong's associates still remains to create almost undetectable copies of humans and Shen. This demon allies with Kitty Kwok to prepare a torturous trap for Emma and Simone, from which they may never return.

Now tell us - did you ever like Japan? Do you know anything about its history, or just what you learned from television and anime, in general? That's a good starting point, anyway. If you want to delve deeper into Japanese history, in chronological order, and see the main events that transformed Japan into what it is today, you've just hit the jackpot.

The Emerald Maharaja by Tessa O’Shea: Amid stolen treasures and shattered pasts, two hearts rewrite history. When art historian Dr Aanya Roy loses a cherished family heirloom at a glittering Delhi auction, her search leads her to the enigmatic billionaire Veer Raj Ranasar—a man cloaked in silk, scandal, and secrets. Veer offers her a dangerous bargain: curate his royal collection at his remote palace in exchange for a temporary return of her ancestor’s priceless miniature painting. But Lake Ranasar holds more than relics. As monsoon rains awaken long-buried ghosts and forbidden ...

Originally written in the fifth century, The Art of War is a masterpiece of military strategy and Chinese philosophy that has influenced countless leaders, both on the battlefield and in the boardroom. The exhortations and advice from The Art of War have echoed throughout the centuries as pieces of timeless wisdom, no matter the foe you may be facing.

The reason you never heard these histories is so dark that few have dared to speak about it, until now. Completely new and meticulously researched, Tai Chi, Baguazhang and the Golden Elixir erases 120 years of confusion and error to reveal the specific theatrical and religious origins of Chinese internal martial arts.

Adventurer Sylvain Tesson has led a restless life, riding across Central Asia on horseback, freeclimbing the Eiffel Tower and Notre Dame, and traversing the Himalayas by foot. But while recovering from an accident that left him in a coma, and nursing his wounds from a lost love, he found himself domesticated, his lust for life draining with each moment spent staring at a screen. An expedition to the mountains of Tibet, in search of the famously elusive snow leopard, presented itself as a cure.