Chinese storytelling has survived through more than a millennium into our own time, while similar oral arts have fallen into oblivion in the West. Under the main heading of 'The Eternal Storyteller', in August 1996 the Nordic Institute of Asian Studies hosted an International Workshop on Oral Literature in Modern China. To this meeting, the first of its kind in Europe, five special guests were invited - master tellers from Yangzhou: Wang Xizotang, Li Xintang, Fei Zhengliang, Dai Buzhang and Hui Zhaolong. The volume derived from this meeting includes an introductory article written by John Miles Foley entitled 'A Comparative View on Oral Traditions'. Thereafter, a wide range of topics relating to Chinese oral literature is covered under the headings: 'Historical Lines', 'A Spectrium of Genres', 'Studies of Yangzhou and Suzhou Story- telling' and 'Performances of Yangzhou Storytelling'. However, the present volume does more than include papers derived from the meeting. It is also lavishly illustrated in word and picture from performances by the guest-storytellers. In so doing, the world of Chinese story telling is not just described and analysed - it is also brought to life.

This text examines the traditional oral narrative of the Yangzi delta.

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER #1 bestselling author Lisa Scottoline offers a sweeping and shattering epic of historical fiction fueled by shocking true events, the tale of a love triangle that unfolds in the heart of Rome...in the creeping shadow of fascism. What war destroys, only love can heal. Elisabetta, Marco, and Sandro grow up as the best of friends despite their differences. Elisabetta is a feisty beauty who dreams of becoming a novelist; Marco the brash and athletic son in a family of professional cyclists; and Sandro a Jewish mathematics prodigy, kind-hearted and thoughtful, the son of a lawyer and a doctor. Their friendship blossoms to love, with both Sandro and Marco hoping to win Elisabetta's heart. But in the autumn of 1937, all of that begins to change as Mussolini asserts his power, aligning Italy's Fascists with Hitler's Nazis and altering the very laws that govern Rome. In time, everything that the three hold dear--their families, their homes, and their connection to one another--is tested in ways they never could have imagined. As anti-Semitism takes legal root and World War II erupts, the threesome realizes that Mussolini was only the beginning. The Nazis invade Rome, and with their occupation come new atrocities against the city's Jews, culminating in a final, horrific betrayal. Against this backdrop, the intertwined fates of Elisabetta, Marco, Sandro, and their families will be decided, in a heartbreaking story of both the best and the worst that the world has to offer. Unfolding over decades, Eternal is a tale of loyalty and loss, family and food, love and war--all set in one of the world's most beautiful cities at its darkest moment. This moving novel will be forever etched in the hearts and minds of readers.

Step Carefully For The Night Is Dark Kylie Porter needs a break. Novacry VR's Eternal Night is it - the VR vampire game that her editor wants her to write about. But she's not a gamer, so she's going to have to learn to fake it for her article. With a little help. Johnathan Masters is that help. An old friend who is doing her a favour, he's a lot more confident and good looking in the game, even if they've both touched themselves up. But she's a professional and this is just a game. None of it's really real? Is it? First Steps into the Night is a Vampire LitRPG Short Story (approximately 10k long) written by Tao Wong, the author of the System Apocalypse, Hidden Wishes and A Thousand Li series. It is not a fade-to-black story, set in a VR vampire MMORPG.

Chinese Storytellers takes us to the teahouses and hidden corners of Yangzhou to explore the ancient art of Chinese storytelling (shuoshu).

Focusing on the figure of the storyteller, this study breaks new ground in the approach to reading contemporary literature by identifying a growing interest in storytelling. For the last thirty years contemporary fiction has been influenced by theoretical discourses, textuality and writing. Only since the rise of postcolonialism have academic critics been more overtly interested in stories, where high theory frameworks are less applicable. However, as we move through various contemporary contexts engaging with postcolonial identities and hybridity, to narratives of disability and evolutionary accounts of group and individual survival, a common feature of all is the centrality of story, which posits both the idea of survival and the passing on of traditions. The Return of the Storyteller in Contemporary Fiction closely examines this preoccupation with story and storytelling through a close reading of six contemporary international novelists that are either about actual 'storytellers' or engage with the figure of the storyteller, revealing how death of the author has given birth to the storyteller.

In Gilded Voices: Economics, Politics, and Storytelling in the Yangzi Delta since 1949, Qiliang He pieces together published, archival, and oral history sources to explore the role of the cultural market in mediating between the state and artists in the PRC era. By focusing on pingtan, a storytelling art using the Suzhou dialect, the book documents both the state’s efforts to police artists and their repertoire and storytellers’ collaboration with, as well as resistance to, state supervision and intervention. The book thereby challenges long-held scholarly assumptions about the Chinese Communist Party’s success in politicizing popular culture, patronizing artists, abolishing the cultural market, and enforcing rigid censorship in Mao’s times.

Writing together for the first time, New York Times bestselling authors Lynsay Sands and Hannah Howell present the darkly passionate story of two men sworn to conquer the hunger that pounds in their blood—and the women who may be their only salvation . . . WHEN DARKNESS FALLS . . . Cathal MacNachton and Connall MacAdie are cousins bound by far more than blood ties and the rugged Highland landscape their clan calls home. The ancient curse of their ancestry has fated them to live by night with an unquenchable thirst that neither can tame. The only thing that can save their souls is marriage to Outsiders—mortals whose untainted blood will weaken the curse in their children and break the chains of fear that have made their clan a breed apart. Bridget Callan and Eva Caxton are the women who will shape the clan’s destiny. Marriage to these strange and mysterious men will rescue each of them from desperate circumstances—and draw them into a web of danger, desire, and intrigue . . .

From the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of The Alice Network and The Diamond Eye comes a historical saga about obsession, betrayal, and destiny. Sabina may be Empress of Rome, but she still stands poised on a knife’s edge. She must keep the peace between two deadly enemies: her husband Hadrian, Rome’s brilliant and sinister Emperor; and battered warrior Vix, her first love. But Sabina is guardian of a deadly secret: Vix’s beautiful son Antinous has become the Emperor’s latest obsession. Empress and Emperor, father and son will spin in a deadly dance of passion, betrayal, conspiracy, and war. As tragedy sends Hadrian spiraling into madness, Vix and Sabina form a last desperate pact to save the Empire. But ultimately, the fate of Rome lies with an untried girl, a spirited redhead who may just be the next Lady of the Eternal City....

A comprehensive history of the continent, “full of engaging and attention-catching information about North America’s geology, climate, and paleontology” (The Washington Post Book World). Here, “the rock star of modern science” tells the unforgettable story of the geological and biological evolution of the North American continent, from the time of the asteroid strike that wiped out the dinosaurs 65 million years ago to the present day (Jared Diamond, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Guns, Germs, and Steel). Flannery describes the development of North America’s deciduous forests and other flora, and tracks the migrations of various animals to and from Europe, Asia, and South America, showing how plant and animal species have either adapted or become extinct. The story spans the massive changes wrought by the ice ages and the coming of the Native Americans. It continues right up to the present, covering the deforestation of the Northeast, the decimation of the buffalo, and other consequences of frontier settlement and the industrial development of the United States. This is science writing at its very best—both an engrossing narrative and a scholarly trove of information that “will forever change your perspective on the North American continent” (The New York Review of Books).