1 comments about Barbarian Lens: Western Photographers of the Qianlong Emperor's European Palaces (Documenting the Image Series).

1. Régine Thiriez, an independent scholar who holds a Ph.D. in art history and is currently an associate research fellow in the East Asia Institute in Lyon (France), preparing an inventory of China photography, presents a substantial body of important new research on photography in China from the early years in the mid-19th century to 1860 as well as Qing dynasty China's reception of European technology. Her study, Barbarian Lens: Western Photographer's of the Qianlong Emperor's European Palaces, explores the Western involvement with the ruins of the European-style buildings constructed for the Qianlong emperor (r. 1736-1795) in his summer palace of the Yuanmingyuan, the "old" summer palace outside Beijing. The Yuanmingyuan was sacked and burned in 1860 by a French and British expeditionary force. Only the European part of the garden, constructed of brick and masonry, left substantial ruins. Standing mysteriously on the overgrown grounds of the half-abandoned site, the ruins exerted a powerful pull on European memories of the humiliation of the Emperor of China, and the shameful part played by Western armies in the destruction of the incomparable garden-palace and the treasures kept there. Such are the troubled feelings invoked by photographic images of the ruins. Placing the extant photographs in their historical context, Thiriez makes available to the interested reader and China specialist alike unprecedented primary research on the beginnings of photography in China, the identities and careers of the mostly little-known men who produced photographic images, and the complex relationships between photography and Western penetration of China. Barbarian Lens contains a wealth of scholarly information, presented in clear and succinct detail. Individual chapters focus on the practice of photography in Beijing (beginning in the early 1860s), the tragic encounter of China and Europe in the destruction of the Summer Palace, the amateur and professional photographers of the ruins, as well as the overlapping personal, political, and photographic ambitions of men in the Qing Imperial Maritime Customs, Western diplomatic missions, and other various undertakings. The volume is amply illustrated with more than 50 images-most of them previously unpublished-and includes extensive appendices on such subjects as the pioneering French Mission Palais d'Été studies of the European palaces. Perhaps the most impressive appendix is an exhaustive 24-page list of all the photographs of the European ruins identified by Thiriez to date. It tabulates photographers, photographic collections and sources, cataloguing information on the individual prints surveyed, the most likely date of the photo, additional reprints or rephotography of the same images (a very thorny problem in early photography), and the importance of the photo to the study of the place. It also cross-references the images, showing how they complement each other through the years. The appendices, notes, and bibliography supplement a richly rewarding text and generously make available the result of a decade of painstaking research in an almost unknown and unstudied field. In a volume that presents a complex, fascinating, and sometimes horrifying story of destruction and recovery, Régine Thiriez's contributions to the history of China photography and the fast-growing field of Qing dynasty historical studies are invaluable.

No comments about When Serfs Stood Up in Tibet (Modern China series No. 1:).

No comments about Reineke Otten: China Daily Life.

No comments about Voyage en Abyssinie dans les provinces du Tigré, du Samen et de l\'Amhara: Tome 1.

No comments about The Siberian Overland Route from Peking to Petersburg, through the Deserts and Steppes of Mongolia, Tartary, etc..

5 comments about Wuhu Diary: On Taking My Adopted Daughter Back to Her Hometown in China.

1. As a person who knows a little girl who was adopted recently from Anhui province, I found this book very moving. Not only was it very beautiful and emotional, it also was very interesting. After reading it, I grew to love the characters, especially LuLu, TohToh, and JingJing, and felt like I knew them. The author did a wonderful job of telling this story.



2. I loved this book not only because of the wonderful author, but also because LuLu is simply a delightful child. There were many passages in the book that touched me. I didn't read the book because I wanted facts. Instead, I wished to learn more about the interactions between a mother and a child who are not of the same race. I was far from disappointed.
   This mother loved her child so much that she wanted to return to the country where LuLu was born so that LuLu could better understand her origins and why she doesn't look like her adoptive mother. Some readers were troubled that LuLu might have been too young, but they are underestimating a child's capacity and resilience. I find LuLu fascinating. I wish her mom (the author) would write more about her adopted daughter and their life together.



3. The book is well written and is fun to read. But as a parent in the process of adopting from China, and a reader with internationally adopted siblings, I agree with some of reviewers that the story tends to gloss over tough issues. Taking a 5-yr old child back to where they were is not a model for curing their problems.



4. My husband and I both found this book to be ridiculous. The writer is naive as to what really went on/goes on in a communist country. Did she not do her homework before she adopted? She couldn't believe people actually knew her every move ... what world does she live in? We feel she saw things as she wanted to see things, not as they really are. We also don't find her point of view to be of any help. Let's face it ... the average person does not have the means to spend that kind of money to live in China for 2 months after having spent $20,000 to $30,000 to adopt. We're looking for something more realistic on teaching our daughter's heritage.



5. The previous reviews show a wide range of reactions to this book. As someone who is about to take her 8 and 4 year old adopted daughters on a homeland tour that will include a brief stay in each of their home towns, I obviously see nothing wrong with taking a child Lulu's age back to China. I didn't agree with everything the author said and did, but the book gave me a lot to think about before we go on our trip. Many of the negative reviews were written in the days when homeland tours were fairly rare. Emily Prager was a pioneer! Many people have taken their adopted children back to China since then and I think we know by now that these trips are generally positive experiences for the children. There are a variety of opinions on the age at which children should return. I think that it really depends on the child and the financial resources of the parent (i.e., how often they can afford to go back).

2 comments about An Explorer's Adventures In Tibet: An 1897 Epic.

1. Savage Landor attempts to Reach the Province of Lhassa around 1897 at a time when this part of the world existed only in the fables and stories in the western world.The path to Lhassa was ridden with bandits who lived on lootings.It used to take eight months from Lassa to Peking in those days and people used to travel in groups for fear of these bandits.That was a reason why Landor chose to call this a forbidden land.But Landor also tried to find the source of the Great Indian rivers ie Indus,Ganges and Bhramaputra.He also travels to Burma which at that time is considered almost inaccessible due to its inhospitable conditions.The book provides a lot of insights of the people of the land ,the beleifs they carried at that time and their weird customs and rites.But Landor has his way to control things around him and goes to lenghts like at one point to present a person with a human skull which he boils in milk to make it white in appearence.



2. Landor's memoirs may be the pulp fiction of Victorian travel writing, but it doesn't come much better than this fast paced account of his quest to become the first white boy in Lhasa. An Explorer's Adventures recounts his stiff-upper-lipped travels in Tweed across Himalayan mountain passes with a ragbag posse of helpers, lepers and bandits who often threatened to mutiny when faced by ugly women and men with long tongues.
   
   There are inumerable tales of scrapes with local chiefs whose goals in life were to keep Johnny Foreigner out of Tibet with the promise of beheading if they didn't succeed. How many of Landor's tales are true we'll never really know, particularly his miraculous escape from beheading, but it's a cracking read and another great glimpse into the minds of men from yesteryear.
   
   A word of warning though. Political correctos with no sense of humour or perspective should steer well clear. This is blatant white man's burden stuff and only those willing to set their moral timepiece to London, 1897 will get anything out of this.
   
   It goes without saying that fans of Hopkirk and Flashman should head straight for Checkout. A hoot!

No comments about Passport Hong Kong: Your Pocket Guide to Hong Kong Business, Customs & Etiquette (Passport to the World) (Passport to the World).

3 comments about Precious Jewels of Tibet: A Journey to the Roof of the World.

1. Jane Bay has written a poignant memoire about her mystical journey to Tibet. How insightful it is for us to observe the allegory of her spiritual unfoldment, from her wounded life to wounded Tibet. Indeed, modernism has resolved a number of vicissitudes at the superficial realm of existence, but it has simultaneously magnified a piercing existential dismemberment, while escaping the most fundamental plight of the human being: the aspiration to surpass oneself, like The Buddha. Jane Bay has experienced an intimate experience of felicity. I recommend "Precious Jewels of Tibet" to anyone probing the same everlasting question : Who am I ? Graciously echoed by Jane Bay' s gifted prose, this book is a window to the quintessential matters of the soul, a longing that is invested right now, for each of us, with a very vital meaning.



2. "Precious Jewels of Tibet" speaks to us from the heart as Jane Bay shares with the reader her innermost thoughts and feelings on her life as she embarks on an incredible journey of transformation. We are lucky to have Jane share her story with us. As we feel her joy and sorrow, we get in touch with our own painful and joyous journeys of self discovery.



3. "Woven through a stimulating journey, filled with the surprises of travel in such an exotic land, are the wonderful pearls of Pablo Neruda, the Vajra-and-Bell Initiation, words from one of my favorites Chief Seattle, teachings of the Great Perfection and many more. Jane Bay's journey and narrative is the thread that holds the "Jewels" of this necklace as one piece. But most important of all, I gained from her book a new appreciation for the heroic struggle of the precious Tibetan people."

No comments about Lonely Planet Seoul City Guide (Lonely Planet City Guide).