In this eloquent plea for compassion and respect for all species, journalist and gardener Nancy Lawson describes why and how to welcome wildlife to our backyards. Through engaging anecdotes and inspired advice, profiles of home gardeners throughout the country, and interviews with scientists and horticulturalists, Lawson applies the broader lessons of ecology to our own outdoor spaces. Detailed chapters address planting for wildlife by choosing native species; providing habitats that shelter baby animals, as well as birds, bees, and butterflies; creating safe zones in the garden; cohabiting with creatures often regarded as pests; letting nature be your garden designer; and encouraging natural processes and evolution in the garden. The Humane Gardener fills a unique niche in describing simple principles for both attracting wildlife and peacefully resolving conflicts with all the creatures that share our world.

“Showcases the extremes of one of the world’s capitals. From ghost stories, to historical thrills, to underworld brutality . . . endlessly fascinating.”—CrimeReads Akashic Books continues its award-winning series of original noir anthologies, launched in 2004 with Brooklyn Noir. Each book comprises all new stories, each one set in a distinct neighborhood or location within the respective city. In Hong Kong Noir, fourteen of the city’s finest authors explore the dark heart of the Pearl of the Orient in haunting stories of depravity and despair. This anthology includes brand-new stories by Jason Y. Ng, Xu Xi, Marshall Moore, Brittani Sonnenberg, Tiffany Hawk, James Tam, Rhiannon Jenkins Tsang, Christina Liang, Feng Chi-shun, Charles Philipp Martin, Shannon Young, Shen Jian, Carmen Suen, and Ysabelle Cheung. “The history of Hong Kong, once a fishing village, encompasses piracy, the opium trade, prostitution, corruption, espionage and revolutionary plots; grist for the 14 dark tales in Hong Kong Noir.”—BBC Culture “A delightfully dark collection of fiction from Hong Kong, a city where talk is cheap and cash is still king.”—Ritz-Carlton Magazine “Ng and Blumberg-Kason defy the fates by presenting a collection of 14 stores—by Chinese tradition, an ominous number—illustrating their city’s dark side . . . Readers can feel lucky to have such a collection.”—Kirkus Reviews "Hong Kong Noir digs below the financial center’s gleaming surface to unearth stories of the city’s ghosts and spirits.”—South China Morning Post

Western Gardeners’ Guide to the Essence of Korean Traditional Gardens Korean gardens strive to be in harmony with nature and to encourage the quiet contemplation of the natural world. They are intentionally humble in their conception and very different from Japanese and Chinese gardens. Korean gardens deserve to be more widely appreciated in the West as a separate, distinctive, venerable and continuing garden tradition, capable of wide appeal if better known. They are the unknown treasures among the world’s gardening traditions. The survival and continuous restoration of old Korean gardens demonstrate the cultural resilience and tenacity of the Korean people despite their tumultuous history. This book introduces, describes and explains traditional Korean gardens to Western readers. It contains more than one hundred photos and maps and details of 20 notable gardens. Pre-publication reviews The ‘foot’ and the ‘mind’ must be put to use to understand the genuine aesthetics of the Korean garden. The author has spared no foot-work nor mindful deliberation to successfully deliver the essence of the Korean garden in this book. I do not doubt that this book will guide those who wish to discover the true beauty of the Korean garden: its harmony with nature, reflection of the inner world, and yearning toward the outside world. Professor Sung Jong-sang, Department of Landscape Architecture, Dean Graduate School of Environmental Studies, Seoul National University This is an exquisitely written reference book concerning the traditional gardens and landscapes in South Korea. Horticulturists in western gardens today often unknowingly use plants and trees native to Korea, which have long been cultivated in Korean gardens. This book will entice any keen gardener or plantsman to make a visit to see these traditional gardens that are so clearly described in this wonderful book. Tony Kirkham, Head of the Arboretum, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, England The traditional gardens of Korea are one of the country’s best-kept secrets. Few visitors even realize what beauties exist. That is largely because Korean gardens are far less formal and ornamental and much closer to nature than the famed gardens of Japan and China. This book offers readers a key, which opens the door to Korean gardens in all their delicate beauty. It will guide those who wish to discover the true beauty of the Korean garden: its harmony with nature, reflection on the inner-world, and yearning toward the outside world. Brother Anthony of Taize (An Son-jae), President of the Royal Asiatic Society, Korea This beautiful book breaks new ground, illuminating the history and richness of Korean gardens for English-speakers. The author has a professional knowledge of horticulture, and gives a clear explanation of unique Korean attitudes to garden-making and nature … The author delivers lively observations concerning the complex and sophisticated design of traditional Korean gardens and rightly admires the determination of Koreans to reconstruct them, after repeated destruction. Stuart Read, National Management Committee, Australian Garden History Society

Rather than presenting another narrative of Singapore history, The Scripting of a National History: Singapore and Its Pasts studies the constructed nature of the history endorsed by the state, which blurs the distinction between what happened in the past, and how the state intends that past to be understood. The People's Action Party (PAP) government's unbroken mandate to rule has come in no small part from the way it explains its lineage and record to Singaporeans. The power vested in various aspects of Singapore's history is thus examined through a consideration of past and present politics. The authors trace state discourses on Singapore history from the decision immediately after independence to recognize the nineteenth-century British acquisition of the island as its founding moment, to the 1980s and 1990s when an essentially Confucian heritage was recognized under the rubric of "Asian values", and finally to an emphasis on the history of racial fragility and harmony in response to the threat of terrorism in the twenty-first century. Embedded within these discourses is the story of the PAP as the heir of the economic dynamics of the pax Britannica, as an exponent of the morality and righteousness of the Chinese scholar-gentleman, and as the firm hand that balances the interests of the majority Chinese against those of the minority populations, particularly the Malays. The authors examine the underlying template of Singapore history, the negotiation with its immigrant past, and the popularization of history through conscription of national heroes. The chapters range from considering how political leaders claim to be historians by virtue of being the makers of history, to the vicissitudes undergone by two originally private homes turned into symbols of Singapore's Chinese modernity. The Scripting of a National History: Singapore and Its Pasts is highly relevant not only to academics but also for the Singapore general reader interested to see what are meant to be received wisdoms for the citizenry interrogated in a well-reasoned and engaging exercise, as well as for an international readership to whom Singapore has become a fascinating enigma. They may well be intrigued by the anxieties of being Singaporean.

Industry insider Scott Lukas teaches you how to design exciting, believable, authentic themed spaces. Make your immersive worlds come alive with the gems in this book, including key industry interviews and case studies!

Subject: Autobiography. Escape from Paradise is a contemporary and true woman?s story set in Singapore, Brunei, Australia, England, and the United States. It involves Singapore?s famous Tiger Balm family, and a wealthy and mysterious family from Brunei?and the link between them, a young Singaporean woman, May Chu Lee. From its first paragraph, the book draws the reader into the ambiance of a cosmopolitan Asia never touched upon by any other book ?

This innovative collaborative work—the first to focus on Buddhist tourism—explores how Buddhists, government organizations, business corporations, and individuals in Asia participate in re-imaginings of Buddhism through tourism. Contributors from religious studies, anthropology, and art history examine sacred places and religious monuments as they have been shaped and reshaped by socioeconomic and cultural trends in the region. Following an introduction that offers the first theoretical understanding of tourism from a Buddhist studies’ perspective, early chapters discuss the ways Buddhists and non-Buddhists imagine concepts and places related to the religion. Case studies highlight Buddhist peace in India, Buddhist heavens and hells in Singapore, Thai temple space, and the future Buddha Maitreya in China. Buddhist tourism’s connections to the state, market, and new technologies are explored in chapters on Indian package tours for pilgrims, thematic Buddhist tourism in Cambodia, the technological innovations of Buddhist temples in China, and the promotion of pilgrimage sites in Japan. Contributors then situate the financial concerns of Chinese temples, speed dating in temples in Japan, and the diffuse and pervasive nature of Buddhism for tourism promotion in Ladakh, India. How have tourist routes, groups, sites, and practices associated with Buddhism come to be possible and what are the effects? In what ways do travelers derive meaning from Buddhist places? How do Buddhist sites fortify national, cultural, or religious identities? The comparative research in South, Southeast, and East Asia presented here draws attention to the intertwining of the sacred and the financial and how local and national sites are situated within global networks. Together these findings generate a compelling comparative investigation of Buddhist spaces, identities, and practices.

Chanticleer, a forty-eight-acre garden on Philadelphia's historic Main Line, is many things simultaneously: a lush display of verdant intensity and variety, an irreverent and informal setting for inventive plant combinations, a homage to the native trees and horticultural heritage of the mid-Atlantic, a testament to one man's devotion to his family's estate and legacy, and a good spot for a stroll and picnic amid the blooms. In Chanticleer: A Pleasure Garden, Adrian Higgins and photographer Rob Cardillo chronicle the garden's many charms over the course of two growing cycles. Built on the grounds of the Rosengarten estate in Wayne, Pennsylvania, Chanticleer retains a domestic scale, resulting in an intimate, welcoming atmosphere. The structure of the estate has been thoughtfully incorporated into the garden's overall design, such that small gardens created in the footprint of the old tennis court and on the foundation of one of the family homes share space with more traditional landscapes woven around streams and an orchard. Through conversations and rambles with Chanticleer's team of gardeners and artisans, Higgins follows the garden's development and reinvention as it changes from season to season, rejoicing in the hundred thousand daffodils blooming on the Orchard Lawn in spring and marveling at the Serpentine's late summer crop of cotton, planted as a reminder of Pennsylvania's agrarian past. Cardillo's photographs reveal further nuances in Chanticleer's landscape: a rare and venerable black walnut tree near the entrance, pairs of gaily painted chairs along the paths, a backlit arbor draped in mounds of fragrant wisteria. Chanticleer fuses a strenuous devotion to the beauty and health of its plantings with a constant dedication to the mutability and natural energy of a living space. And within the garden, Higgins notes, there is a thread of perfection entwined with whimsy and continuous renewal.

Cochran reconsiders the nature and role of consumer culture in the spread of globalization and illuminates enduring features of the Chinese experience of consumer culture. The history of Chinese medicine men in pre-socialist China, he suggests, has relevance for the 21st century because they achieved goals that resonate with their successors today.