Welcome to Asia Bookroom

Welcome to Asia Bookroom: the Internet's specialists in books on all parts of Asia. Our stock extends from new books hot off the press to rare antiquarian volumes, and includes a great range of books on China, Japan, India, Korea, all parts of Southeast Asia including Indonesia, Thailand, Burma, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, Malaysia and Singapore, as well as books on Central Asia, the Himalayas, the Pacific and the Middle East. We also stock a wide range of books on Asian Art, Religion & Philosophy, Language Learning, Film & Theatre, Cooking, Travel, Martial Arts, as well as DVD movies, World Music, and Software.

New books are arriving all the time. Here are a just few of the latest.

China Witness. Voices from a Silent Generation.
XINRAN.
AU$34.95
Map, black and white as well as colour photographic illustrations, 434pp, index, paperback. A hugely important, groundbreaking book, this unprecedented oral history of a vast and powerful nation gives voice to a silent generation and tells the secret history of 20th century China. In 1912, 5,000 years of feudal rule ended in China. Warlords, Western businessmen, soldiers, missionaries, and Japanese all ruled China, exploited, and fought one another, and the Chinese. In 1949, Mao Zedong came to power. China Witness is a personal testimony from a normally silent generation, a huge, major work of oral history which sums up, in their own words, the vast changes which have overtaken China and its people over a century. The book is at once a journey by the author through time and through her own country, and a memorial to an extraordinary generation who have lived through war and civil war, invasion, revolution, famine, modernization, Westernization - and have survived into the 21st century to tell the story of their times. In the lifetimes of these men and women, China has transformed from a largely peasant, agricultural country of more than 1.3 billion people into a modern state. These are ordinary people - a herb woman at a market, retired teachers, a legendary 'bandit' woman, Red Guards, oil pioneers, an acrobat, a naval general, a shoemender, a lantern maker, taxi drivers, and others - from across the vast country, now in their seventies, eighties and nineties and whose memories will soon die with them. Xinran has gone all over China, from west to east, between the Yellow River and the Yangtze, interviewing them about their lives, their feelings, their hopes and fears, and their memories.They are a reticent generation from a country where the idea of collective guilt is deeply rooted and where freedom of speech can be a dangerous and unfamiliar concept. and for the first time many of them will speak out about their lives and private thoughts, about what they witnessed and what they felt - about everything from the Long March to oil pipelines, from land reform to folk medicine, from Mao to marriage.Together their stories are perhaps the only accurate record of modern Chinese history and paint an unprecedentedly intimate portrait of this vast and powerful country and its people, close-up and personal. Its aim, as Xinran says is 'to help our future understand our past'. (When referring to this item please quote stockid 123493) ... more
Stock ID: 123493

Beijing - A Concise History.
HAW, STEPHEN G.
AU$65.00
Maps, black and white photographic illustrations, xi + 212pp, bibliography, index, paperback. Stephen Haw sets out the history of the city of Beijing, charting the course of its development from its early roots before 2000 BC to its contemporary position as capital of the People's Republic of China. Haw, a well-established author on China, outlines the establishment of the earliest cities in the years before 1000 BC, its status as regional capital during most of the long Zhou dynasty, and its emergence as capital of the whole of China after the conquest of the Mongol invaders under Chenghiz Khan and his successors. He considers the city's assumption of its modern name 'Beijing' under the Ming dynasty, conquest by the Manchus and the turbulent years of civil war that followed the collapse of the Qing dynasty in 1911, culminating in the communist revolution and Beijing's resumption of the role of capital of China in 1949. Overall, Haw gives an impressive account of the long and fascinating history of a city that is growing in prominence as an urban centre of global significance. (When referring to this item please quote stockid 123550) ... more
Stock ID: 123550

The Old Tea Seller. Life and Zen Poetry in 18th Century Kyoto.
BAISAO BY NORMAN WADDELL.
AU$37.95
Black and white illustrations, 222pp, notes, bibliography, dustjacket. This book includes virtually all of his writings translated for the first time into English, together with the first biography of Baisao to appear in any language. It is bound to establish Baisao's place alongside other Zen-inspired poets such as Basho and Ryokan. (When referring to this item please quote stockid 123619) ... more
Stock ID: 123619

Traces in the Desert. Journeys of Discovery Across Central Asia.
BAUMER, CHRISTOPH.
AU$59.95
Maps, colour photographic plates, xxi + 218pp, notes, bibliography, index, dustjacket. For five millennia, the peoples and cultures of East and West have met and mingled in Central Asia. For explorers and travellers it is a promised land, a region of white spaces on the map, forgotten cities and archaeological treasures. Christoph Baumer has spent a lifetime travelling through the countries of Central Asia, making extraordinary discoveries along the way. "Traces in the Desert" follows in his intrepid footsteps as he finds evidence of Indo-Europeans in the steppes of Western Mongolia, discovers lost oasis cities in the Taklamakan and unearths art treasures in Tibet. He embarks on a quest to find Genghis Khan's long-lost tomb and has numerous, occasionally hair-raising, encounters with shamans, Iranian politicians and armed Tibetan bandits. Enlightening and full of adventure, "Traces in the Desert" uniquely illuminates the hidden parts of Central Asia that have not just disappeared beneath the shifting sands, but also from the horizon of our memory. (When referring to this item please quote stockid 123566) ... more
Stock ID: 123566

Classic Palestinian Cuisine.
NASSER, CHRISTIANE DABDOUB.
AU$49.95
Colour photographic illustrations, 271pp, index, paperback. This cookbook features a rich variety of dishes characteristic of the eastern regions of the Mediterranean and their culinary cultures. It is a collection of over 100 recipes - salads, soups, one-dish meals, stews and desserts - which represent traditional Palestinian cooking but also expose possibilities for a wider and more eclectic cuisine. This is also a very contemporary cookery book, aware of the need for more health-oriented and less time-consuming recipes while preserving the heritage handed down through the generations. The culinary experience is enriched by the incorporation of anecdotes, excerpts and illustrations of cultural and celebratory traditions from different regions of Palestine. (When referring to this item please quote stockid 123563) ... more
Stock ID: 123563