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Heian (pronounced "HEY-an") means "peace" in Japanese. For over 30 years, Heian has published books about Asia, aiming to promote peace through a better understanding between cultures. Stone Bridge Press is proud to introduce Heian as a new imprint, expanding our own mission to offer fine books about Japan and about Asia to Western readers. Adults retell the tales of their childhood in this unique new series. Each story can be read individually, or read aloud to young children just learning to "listen." China Tells How the World Began includes "How the World Began" and "Why Cats Hate Rats." Chinese Fables Remembered includes "The Brothers and the Birds" and "The Two Rooster Friends." Miyoko Matsutani, a past winner of the International Hans Christian Anderson Award, listened carefully as Miwa Kurita retold the stories of her childhood, transcribing them for this collection. Saoko Mitsukuri studied art in Korea and has illustrated several folktale collections.

Discover the rich background of this culture through these tales handed down from one generation to the next in the oral tradition. Every province of China is represented, and each story is put in perspective using maps, pronunciation guide, and notes

Fearless heroes, feisty princesses, sly magicians, terrifying dragons, talking foxes and miniature dogs. They all feature in this enthralling compendium of Chinese fairy tales and legends, along with an array of equally colourful characters and captivating plots. Although largely unknown in the West, the 70-plus stories in this volume are just as beguiling as the more familiar Grimms' Fairy Tales or Arabian Nights. They were collected in the early 20th century by Richard Wilhelm and first translated into English by Frederick H Martens. This beautifully produced revised and edited new edition includes updated notes which not only provide background on the tales, but also offer a fascinating insight into ancient Chinese folk lore and culture. These are stories to return to time and time again. From awesome adventures to quirky allegories, from the exploits of the gods to fables about beggars who outwit their betters, Chinese Fairy Tales and Legends is extraordinarily diverse and endlessly engaging. These wonderful stories have enduring and universal appeal, and will intrigue both children and adults.

The Story About Ping covers the concepts Family and Problem Solving. This classic children’s book was first published in 1933 and is still as delightful and relevant as ever. Ping’s owner takes him and his siblings to the river for dinner. When it’s time to go, Ping is the last duck in the water and, as such, will receive a spanking. To avoid punishment, he hides—only to be captured the next morning by a young boy for his family’s dinner. Finally Ping is set free, and when he sees his master’s boat, the last thing he fears is a spanking—he’s just thankful to be home!

Chinese in the twentieth century, intent on modernizing their country, condemned their inherited culture in part on the grounds that it was oppressive to the young. The authors of this pioneering volume provide us with the evidence to re-examine those charges. Drawing on sources ranging from art to medical treatises, fiction, and funerary writings, they separate out the many complexities in the Chinese cultural construction of childhood and the ways it has changed over time. Listening to how Chinese talked about children--whether their own child, the abstract child in need of education or medical care, the ideal precocious child, or the fictional child--lets us assess in concrete terms the structures and values that underlay Chinese life.

Flows with the naturalness of conversation. --The Small Press Book Review Translated with simplicity and lucidity. --The Book Reader This collection of twelve traditional tales from various parts of China in different time periods represents a popular choice and one sure to be well-received. --Religious Studies Review

A Foreign Affairs Book of the Year A Spectator Book of the Year “Insightful...a deft, textured work of intellectual history.” —Foreign Affairs “A timely insight into how memories and ideas about the second world war play a hugely important role in conceptualizations about the past and the present in contemporary China.” —Peter Frankopan, The Spectator For most of its history, China frowned on public discussion of the war against Japan. But as the country has grown more powerful, a wide-ranging reassessment of the war years has been central to new confidence abroad and mounting nationalism at home. Encouraged by reforms under Deng Xiaoping, Chinese scholars began to examine the long-taboo Guomindang war effort, and to investigate collaboration with the Japanese and China’s role in the post-war global order. Today museums, television shows, magazines, and social media present the war as a founding myth for an ascendant China that emerges as victor rather than victim. One narrative positions Beijing as creator and protector of the international order—a virtuous system that many in China now believe to be under threat from the United States. China’s radical reassessment of its own past is a new founding myth for a nation that sees itself as destined to shape the world. “A detailed and fascinating account of how the Chinese leadership’s strategy has evolved across eras...At its most interesting when probing Beijing’s motives for undertaking such an ambitious retooling of its past.” —Wall Street Journal “The range of evidence that Mitter marshals is impressive. The argument he makes about war, memory, and the international order is...original.” —The Economist

At long last the approach that has helped thousands of learners memorize Japanese kanji has been adapted to help students with Chinese characters. Book 1 of Remembering Simplified Hanzi covers the writing and meaning of the 1,000 most commonly used characters in the simplified Chinese writing system, plus another 500 that are best learned at an early stage. (Book 2 adds another 1,500 characters for a total of 3,000.) Of critical importance to the approach found in these pages is the systematic arranging of characters in an order best suited to memorization. In the Chinese writing system, strokes and simple components are nested within relatively simple characters, which can, in turn, serve as parts of more complicated characters and so on. Taking advantage of this allows a logical ordering, making it possible for students to approach most new characters with prior knowledge that can greatly facilitate the learning process. Guidance and detailed instructions are provided along the way. Students are taught to employ "imaginative memory" to associate each character’s component parts, or "primitive elements," with one another and with a key word that has been carefully selected to represent an important meaning of the character. This is accomplished through the creation of a "story" that engagingly ties the primitive elements and key word together. In this way, the collections of dots, strokes, and components that make up the characters are associated in memorable fashion, dramatically shortening the time required for learning and helping to prevent characters from slipping out of memory.

An inside analysis of modern cultural and political upheavals in China by a fluent Beijing correspondent describes the power struggles currently taking place between the party elite and supporters of democracy, the outcome of which the author predicts will significantly affect China's rise to a world super-power. 125,000 first printing.