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Asia
Here are some of our favorite guides and literature on Asia that we have previously featured on our home page.

Sea of Poppies Amitav Ghosh ( Farrar Straus Giroux, $26.00) This lush, exuberant, information-and-action-packed historical novel is set on the Indian Ocean in 1838 aboard the Ibis, a slaver that has been refitted to transport opium into China for the British East India Company, and indentured laborers into the British cane fields on Fiji and Trinidad. The web of empire gathers a wide range of characters - traders, seamen, runaways, addicts – who form a social community within the ship that mirrors, in miniature, the great transformations that are occurring in the wider world. The 19th century’s version of globalization is illuminated by a kaleidoscope of argots, creoles and pidgins that make every page an adventure (there is a helpful glossary in the back). Imagine a Patrick O'Brian ocean saga retold by Edward Said. We get enough kidnappings, rescues, sword fights and heroic exploits to satisfy the child in us, while we come to grips with an part colonial history that has rarely been explored in such depth. - ADD TO CART	Catfish and Mandala Andrew X. Pham ( Picador USA, paper, $15.00) Andrew X. Pham is, in a sense, a man without a country. Born in Vietnam but transplanted to California as a young refugee with his family, he feels isolated from his adopted homeland and family. So, in search of identity and hoping to find some answers in Vietnam, he cycles out of San Francisco heading north without telling his parents where he is going. His story is a fascinating look at Vietnamese culture and more; by exploring life as an outsider in America, Vietnam, and within his own family, Pham has written a powerful book in simple prose that prods readers to reflect on their own lives and prejudices. - ADD TO CART
Under the Loving Care of the Fatherly Leader: North Korea and the Kim Dynasty Bradley K. Martin ( Thomas Dunne Books, $19.95) To paraphrase author L.P. Hartley, "North Korea is a foreign country. They do things differently there." Kim Il-sung, a guerrilla fighter against the Japanese and founder of North Korea, and his son and heir, Kim Jong-il, created an all-encompassing cult of personality in North Korea. While playing off China and the Soviet Union, the Kims pursued a policy of national self-sufficiency. Author Bradley K. Martin shows that the combination of ideology and invincibility created an Alice-in-Wonderland reality: to create a respected national cinema, Kim Jong-il kidnapped two of South Korea's leading actors and directors; radios, modified to receive only state broadcasts, are rationed only to the deserving. Martin interviews the kidnapped, the defectors, and possibly even an illegitimate child of Kim Il-sung. This is a page-turner with footnotes as interesting as the narrative. - ADD TO CART	Apples Are From Kazakhstan Christopher Robbins ( Atlas & Co., $24.00) Nursultan Nazarbayev had served as First Secretary of the Kazah Communist Party before becoming Kazakhstan's first post-Soviet president. By the time author Christopher Robbins breaks bread (actually, boiled sheep's head) and flies in the presidential entourage with him, Nazarbayev has privatized the economy; cut multi-billion oil deals with Exxon and Chevron; and built a new capital city 600 hundred miles away from the old one. Robbins perhaps isn't critical enough about the president's authoritarian tendencies, but the word on the street is that Nazarbayev has changed the country for the better. Bar hopping with the beautiful people of Almaty or hanging out with oilmen in the wild West, Robbins is visiting Kazakhstan in the era of globalization. Beyond the people he meets and the beauty of the landscape, Robbins is fascinated with Kazakh's role in history as Russia's place of exile and deportation. Dostoyevsky and Trotsky both spent time exiled here. The Chechnyans, Crimean Tatars, Volga Germans and Korean-Russians were all deported here by Stalin. Robbins is erudite without being stuffy. His year in the country affords us much more than fleeting impressions of the country. - ADD TO CART
In Other Rooms, Other Wonders Daniyal Mueenuddin ( W.W. Norton, paperback, $13.95) We will soon need to be learning more about Pakistan, whether we like it or not. One relatively painless way to begin is with this collection of elegantly crafted, interweaving short stories, all connected to the household of a feudal landowner, whose estate is being whittled away by the tides of history and his family's dissipation. The prose is delicate and precise, like the ceremonial patterns of courtesy that govern even the most intimate exchanges; while under the surface the narratives seethe with emotional violence, as the characters (ranging from jet-setters to servants to impoverished villagers) scheme and maneuver to gain or retain a precarious foothold on the social ladder. It is a dark canvas, illuminated by the author's generous empathy with his characters' struggle for some measure of security and emotional fulfillment within the increasingly chaotic social landscape of contemporary Pakistan. - ADD TO CART	Burma: The Alternative Guide Elena Jotow & Nicholas Ganz ( Thames & Hudson Publishers, $19.95) At first glance this book seems to be a see-no-evil, speak-no-evil guide to Burma. Glossy pictures of pagodas, palm trees, and smiling people abound. Province by province, the cities and sites are described in ways similar to other guidebooks. Just when you might conclude that the authors have their heads stuck in the sand, the chapter headings change to "The Hidden Reality," "The Struggle for Freedom," and "Burma in Exile." Pictures of soldiers and demonstrators replace the smiles and temples. This book works as a political primer as well as a guidebook. Frankly, I don't know how the Burmese government would permit someone to bring it into their country. - ADD TO CART
A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush Eric Newby ( Lonely Planet, $14.99) Eric Newby was inexplicably and miserably working in haute couture in post-war Britain when struck with the idea of climbing a remote mountain range in Afghanistan, not ever having climbed much of anything previously. The journey starts with a failed fashion show followed by four days in Wales in which Newby and his traveling companion Hugh Carless, a diplomat formally posted to the British embassy in Kabul, attempt to learn to mountain climb, courtesy of a pub waitress. Newby’s charming irreverence stays with him as the landscape shifts overland across Europe, through Turkey and into a remote region of Afghanistan with the aim of climbing the 19,800 ft. Mir Samir. The fact that the climb was unsuccessful is irrelevant; this is a book that confirms that clichés are borne from truths, the journey is the destination. Newby and Carless find themselves among nomadic peoples of Nuristan who were only forced to convert to Islam a generation earlier (as Newby points out, perhaps the last mass forced conversion in history). Newby was an intrepid explorer who helped define the modern travel narrative with sly commentary on our common humanity. “Here on the Arayu, one of the lonely places of the earth with all the winds of Asia droning over it, where the mountains seemed like the bones of the world breaking through, I had the sensation of emerging from a country that would continue to exist more or less unchanged whatever disasters overtook the rest of mankind.” - ADD TO CART	Pyongyang: A Journey in North Korea Guy Delisle ( Drawn & Quarterly Books, paperback, $14.95) This is a beautifully drawn graphic novel depicting the artist's stay in North Korea. Delisle oversaw the production of a French cartoon whose bit parts had been outsourced to a North Korean company. Full of interesting and detailed observations of his new surroundings and the local ex-pat community, Delisle puts a new spin on the standard perspective of this closed-door communist country. In a place where a foreigner can't take a taxi alone or admit to lascivious Western values, he humorously tries to explain reggae music, world politics, and Orwell's 1984 to his guides, translators, and North Korean co-workers. His detailed illustrations of eerily dark streets, fanatically clean highways, and monolithic images of the Great Leader make for a more complete understanding of this isolated nation. - ADD TO CART
Burma Chronicles Guy Delisle ( Drawn & Quarterly, hardback, $19.95) After a stint in Pyongyang and Shenzhen, cartoonist Guy Delisle finds himself living in Rangoon after his wife takes a job with Doctors Without Borders. Something like an illustrated diary, Delisle writes and draws about the peculiar life of a privileged Westerner in one of the poorest countries of the world. His world doesn't include membership at the Australian Club, nannies or a 4-wheel drive SUV, like many of the diplomats and NGO aid workers he is acquainted with. His daily glimpses of that world, though, make up a large part of the storyline. For access to local Burmese, his infant son, Louis, who the Burmese dote on, is a great social lubricant. Delisle's daily life also includes constant power blackouts, unexplained bombings, trips to the countryside and rumors about the ruling generals. Throughout the book, Delisle remains faithful to drawing what he experiences. But for a foreigner in a country like Burma, the mundane is never uninteresting. - ADD TO CART	Shenzhen: A Travelogue from China Guy Delisle ( Drawn & Quarterly Books, $19.95) From the creator of Pyongyang: A Journey to North Korea comes another graphic novel, this time about the unglamorous city Shenzhen in China. Shenzhen is a sprawling industrial city near the southern border with Hong Kong, suffering from its reputation as a backwater location. Delisle has been sent there to supervise animation for a French cartoon company. No matter how trying at the time, Delisle always manages to convey the absurdities and joys of living in a foreign country, particularly one where you are rarely understood. He spends days without saying a single word, his inner dialogue the voice-over narration of an imaginary movie. Food becomes one of his delights with hand gestures alone helping him survive meals. His only communication with a local cook is the shared gesture for the dish “with egg.” The illustrations are detailed with intricate line drawings that aptly represent the changing face of the new and improved China: Gold’s Gym, crowds of bicyclists, rapid high-rise construction, and dental work done in the street. - ADD TO CART
70 Japanese Gestures: No Language Communication Hamiru-aqui ( Stone Bridge Press, $9.95) Forty years after Bruno Munari's dictionary of Italian hand/body/facial gestures (Supplemento al dizionario italiano), comes Hamiru-aqui's book, 70 Japanese Gestures. While it is fun to look at the photos, it is a real primer on Japanese body language. While a thumbs up gesture means "a-ok" in America, it means "a steady boyfriend" in Japan. Another "a-ok" in America, the rounded fore-finger and thumb, signifies "condom" in Japan (it is a vulgar gesture in Brazil; maybe somebody over there should do a book). - ADD TO CART	Underground Haruki Murakami ( Vintage Books, $14.95) When members of the Aum Shinrikyo cult struck the Tokyo subway system with serin gas during a Monday morning commute, some victims literally tried to crawl to work. They tell their stories to novelist Murakami who hopes that by listening to their multiple viewpoints he will better understand a shocked Japanese society. As well as interviewing the survivors, he complicates the general consensus of “us” versus a lunatic fringe by talking with members of the cult. Again, there is no one story; but seekers of liberation who desire renunciation from the world and a technocratic elite of discarded selves share an escape from the contradictions of reality. Murakami's project digs into the feelings of incomprehensibility of his subjects and his society, and includes passages in which he expresses his own grasping at understanding, trying to open what he calls the black box: the cult as a “distorted image of ourselves.” - ADD TO CART
Japrocksampler: How the Post-War Japanese Blew Their Minds on Rock'n'roll Julian Cope ( Bloomsbury, paperback, $18.95) This compendium begins with a brief history of Japan's transformation from a feudal, insular country to the post-war conditions that enabled the wholesale adoption of American culture. It's fascinating reading, and opens up an entire world of new music to investigate, from Flower Travellin' Band, (the naked motorcycle riders on the book-jacket) to Speed, Glue & Shinki. Some of the rock'n'roll hijinks are a little more extreme than anything Jimi or Janis got up to; the bass-player of Radical Music Black Gypsy Band was involved in the hijacking of an airplane. The rock music industry was a space in which the constraints of traditional Japanese culture could be thwarted. This investigation into the resulting cacophany is both rewarding and enlightening. - ADD TO CART	Japanland: A Year in Search of Wa Karin Muller ( Rodale, $14.95) At first glance Muller’s attempt to find “wa,” loosely translated as “harmony,” in Japan seems absurdly difficult. She arranges a host family with a judo instructor, a hobby of hers for many years, and then works hard to please the exacting demands of her host mother. She experiences Japan in ways that go beyond the average tourist, such as witnessing sword making by a master craftsman, following ascetic training by an obscure mountain cult, harvesting rice in a small country village, and a carrying a portable shrine in a Tokyo festival. As she makes a documentary, being aired this fall, she also explores her own personal issues with fitting in, finding grace and harmony, and the proper way to hang the toilet paper roll. - ADD TO CART
A Year in Japan Kate T. Williamson ( Princeton Architectural Press, $19.95) Beautifully illustrated with watercolor and ink drawings, this memoir dwells on overlooked aspects of Japan while at the same time touching on famous festivals, temples, and sights. Williamson’s drawings convey a sense of gracefulness in the more mundane aspects of Japanese culture. She is intrigued by colorful socks, seasonal candies, glittery sweaters, and traditional moon viewing. The minimal text includes facts such as the counting words for blocks of tofu, the musical possibilities of a modern toilet, and the variety of convenience store food. This book is a delight to see and read. - ADD TO CART	The Big Bento Box of Unuseless Japanese Inventions Kenji Kawakami ( W.W. Norton, $12.95) From Japan comes this picture book of truly unuseless inventions. You know, unuseless: inventions that are impractical and logic defying but actually work. There is an international organization of such inventors (www.chindogu.com) from which these products emerged. What makes the book such a kick is the ironic product descriptions alongside totally deadpan individuals in the act of demonstrating the devices. Examples include teeth covers, a metal device that saves one from having to brush after eating; baby mops, an attachment that hooks on baby clothes and picks up dust as the baby crawls around the floor; and portable commuter seats, a small metal bar with a flip-down seat that fits into the small spaces between passengers on full subway benches. It’s an encyclopedia of the absurd that is fun to read. - ADD TO CART
The Thorn of Lion City: A Memoir Lucy Lum ( PublicAffairs, $14.95) In this unique memoir, Lim recounts the greed, racism, infidelity and jealousies that passed for her family relations. The brutal Japanese occupation of 1940s Singapore isn’t what marked Lim’s childhood. The Japanese neighbors and military officers are just backdrops to her home life. The son-in-law in her debt, which can never be repaid, the maternal grandmother rules the house with a heavy hand. Grandmother’s daughter is a princess, the eldest grandson is treated like a future king. For Lim herself, childhood is a series of beatings and humiliations. Her father’s gentleness is no match for his wife and mother-in-law. When he invites beggars to his table, his wife expresses her displeasure by pouring a bowl of rice over his head. The father is the one source of love and support in Lim’s life and she is fiercely loyal to him. Despite the bleakness of her story, Lim writes in the clear, unsentimental style of an adult looking back across a great emotional divide. - ADD TO CART	Bangladesh 5th ed. Marika McAdam ( Lonely Planet Publications, $25.99) Why Bangladesh is off the radar of most travelers is something of a mystery. Sure the monsoon season is long and not a good time to go, but October to February is a time of sunny skies and cooler temperatures. Lonely Planet's updated edition is essential for those inclined to find the magic of Bangladesh: the surreal wildlife of the Sundarbans, forests, mosques, beaches, and the endless curiosity of the people. The guide supplies the traveler with all the necessary practical information and sightseeing suggestions for travelers of any budget and length of visit. - ADD TO CART
Asiaddict: A Cartoon Travelog Mats!? ( Sparkplug Comic Books, $15.00) Though it’s in a comic book format, this travelogue surprisingly includes a fair amount of useful information for Southeast Asian countries. Using photo-collage as well as color graphics and simple pencil and ink drawings this book conveys the chaos, excitement, and even pollution and over-population you experience in Thailand, Cambodia, and Laos. It includes the bizarre and the mundane, so don’t be surprised when you see a description of “Corpse Meditation” next to “Phnom Penh MotoTaxi.” It’s a great reminder of how crazy it can be to travel in Asia and how entertaining it can be as well. - ADD TO CART	The Last Days of Old Beijing: Life in the Vanishing Backstreets of a City Transformed Michael Meyer ( Walker & Co., $16.00) As China prepares for the Olympics, stories abound about the transformation of the Chinese capital into a modern, efficient city. High rises, shopping centers and eight lane boulevards are rising out of a fictive nowhere. In Michael Meyer's wonderful new book, this transformation by bureaucratic fiat has very real consequences on the residents of the old hutong (narrow lane) neighborhoods that are the traditional core of Beijing. Meyer, who lives in a crumbling hutong southwest of Tiananmen Square, is a witness to the encroaching destruction of his surrounding neighborhoods. Literally overnight, chai ("to be razed") notices put up by a nameless/faceless system work their way through the old districts like an out of control oil spill. This is not a carefully planned Haussmannian makeover, but a hodge-podge scramble for development rights and quick profits. Meyer doesn"t romanticize the hutong housing; four pit toilets for over 1000 residents, no hot water and coal braziers for heating. Even the residents complain. It is the "intangible social patterns" that make the hutong unique and so different from the high rise apartment blocks. "They did not witness how even small fissures - a new road; the eviction of a few families - led to irreparable fractures." By introducing us to his neighbors and daily encounters Meyer humanizes this enormous upheaval that has already displaced more than 500,000 people in Beijing. - ADD TO CART
Moth Smoke Mohsin Hamid ( Picador, paperback, $14.00) Moth Smoke is set in a Pakistan that is quite different from the one that filters through the lens of the American media; the characters that populate the novel exist within (or just outside) a decadent, ecstasy-fueled party world quite opposite from the sectarian violence that characterizes the 'western' idea of Pakistan. Moshin Hamid's writing is tense and cool. It manages to exemplify and skewer the moral lassitude of the people he depicts. When we first meet Daru, he is a cynical pot smoking investment banker who flirts with a rich old school friend's beautiful sardonic wife. It's clear Daru feels separate from this crowd both financially and psychologically. He is disparaging in the manner of an outsider who covets the idle rich lifestyle but is also contemptuous of its excesses. We follow Daru's descent from one who hovers just outside of these air-conditioned mansions and SUVs like a moth in a streetlight through his slide into an electricity-free drug haze. The tightly wrought multi-narrator format opens up modern Pakistan, exposing its contradictions and corruptions. Moshin Hamid's modern voice and dark humored prose make this Great Gatsby-esque morality tale an elegantly compelling read. - ADD TO CART	Even a Daughter is Better Than Nothing Mykel Board ( Garrett County Press, $14.95) When Mykel Board accepted a teaching job in Mongolia, he was warned about “roaming bands of drunken, angry, unemployed thugs” who “mug people at random.” He leaves New York with trepidation, but also the desire to go Mongolia because it is the “farthest you can go.” With wit and sarcasm Board, a columnist for Maximum Rock ‘n Roll recalls his life among Mongolians. He is often cold, horny, hung over and the butt of Mongolian jokes. Yet he really likes his time there. Board’s observations on the physical landscape are not as fleshed out as his writing on the people he meets. But, it is a fun recollection about a year spent far away from anywhere you know. - ADD TO CART
The Reindeer People Piers Vitebsky ( Mariner Books, $15.95) An anthropologist's account of the importance of reindeer to the lives of the Eveny peoples of Siberia sounds dry, perhaps for academic interest only. However Vitebsky's writing leaps off the page; it's vivid and alluring while retaining the scholarly detail expected of an academic work. He traces the importance of the reindeer in myth and legend and how these myths weave into the lives of the Eveny people. It's easy to envision Siberia as being a giant Soviet era gulag; this book opens up the subtleties of the land and its inhabitants, and demonstrates how the animals and the people are deeply and spiritually connected for survival and solace. - ADD TO CART	Fourth Uncle in the Mountain: A Memoir of a Barefoot Doctor in Vietnam Quang Van Nguyen and Marjorie Pivar ( St Martin’s Press, $15.95) Growing up in the devastation of war is confusing and emotionally painful. In this memoir, Quang recounts his youth enduring the wars in Vietnam: French, American and later communist. Fortunately, his adopted father was a healer and monk whose direction helped him develop a gentle nature. Quang’s words are soothing and healing. A myriad of teachers educated him in traditional Vietnamese medicine, contagious magic, meditation, and religions. Quang also studied martial arts and secretly meddled in sorcery, eventually causing him and his father serious illness. His greatest teacher, however, was his “Fourth Uncle” who lived his life meditating in a cave. Fourth Uncle in the Mountain challenged my Western belief (or non-belief) of reality, and left me feeling positive about Southeast Asian medicine and spirituality, but saddened by how much is lost and continues to disappear. - ADD TO CART
All the Fishes Come Home to Roost: An American Misfit in India Rachel Manija Brown ( Rodale Publishing, $14.95) This memoir draws from the collective experience of being the picked-on kid at school and mixes in a stark dose of rural India. The author, Rachel Brown, moved to India as a child when her parents decided to live at the ashram of their Indian guru, Mehr Baba. Brown’s descriptions of India from the perspective of a young girl go beyond the wackiness of living in a cult-ish ashram and reveal the people and places that make up her world. As she suffers under the masochistic ministrations of her Catholic school teachers, she opens up the flood gates to any and all childhood trauma. - ADD TO CART	Goodbye Madame Butterfly Sumie Kawakami ( Chin Music Press Inc., $20.00) In Goodbye Madame Butterfly, author Kawakami dispels the notion that in Japan all oneï¿½s sexual fantasies can come true. She sites for example a Durex condom survey based on interviews in 41 countries where Japan ranked last in amount of sexual activity. That may be hard to believe, considering there are many legal 'entertainment and amusementï¿½' services that substitute for prostitution, which is illegal in Japan. Goodbye Madame Butterfly is a series of essays taken from interviews of mostly Japanese women, ranging from sexless and sex-seeking housewives and downtown professionals, to a single mom having an affair with her boss, to the wife of a Shinto priest, to a male sex volunteer who helps women achieve orgasms. But make no mistake, this is definitely a book about Japanese women and their roles, or lack thereof, in a seemingly lax sexual culture. - ADD TO CART
Sacred Games Vikram Chandra ( Harper Perennial, $16.95) This Bombay cops-and-robbers novel intertwines the stories of two men, police inspector Sartaj Singh and gang lord Ganesh Gaitonde. Though they represent forces that are (at least in theory) diametrically opposed, Chandra's two antiheroes struggle alongside each other to escape the forces of corruption and greed on both sides of the law. His characters are rendered with such compassion that you find yourself rooting for cop and criminal with equal fervor. The supporting cast of fast-talking Bombay lowlifes includes a gangster-cum-film producer and a Bollywood film star-cum-gangster. The central star of the story, however, is the city itself. Chandra's depiction of Bombay is so engrossing that after finishing Sacred Games you will find yourself homesick for the crowds and chaos of the city, the stink of garbage and the taste of fresh bhelpuri even if you've never experienced it firsthand. - ADD TO CART	Serve the People! Yan Lianke ( Black Cat Press, $14.00) Serve the People! is a satire of life in China during the Cultural Revolution.It was banned in China by the Central Propaganda Bureau. Yan Lianke's novel centers around Wu Dawang, a dedicated sergeant in the army, who longs for promotion. Wu Dawang, who gains notice for being a model soldier and an excellent cook, is assigned to be the General Orderly for the Division Commander. His days are filled with the tireless duty of caring for the Division Commander's home and preparing the meals. His order is upset by Liu Lian, the Commander's young wife. When her husband is away on a lengthy assignment, she conspires to lead Wu Dawang into an affair. The affair starts as a twist on the Maoist Motto "Serve the People!" as Wu Dawang begins servicing Liu Lian. After one of their encounters, Wu Dawang accidentally breaks a plaster bust of Chairman Mao. Erotically charged by the accident, the couple then explores other acts of desecrating communist symbols, leading to consequences for everyone involved. - ADD TO CART
Good-bye Yoshihiro Tatsumi ( Drawn and Quarterly, $19.95) As the first generation of manga reading children grew up in the sixties and seventies, they wanted something written for an adult audience. Tatsumi coined the term gekiga (Japanese for “dramatic pictures”) to refer to the more adult-oriented work that he and others were creating. He helped to define the genre, but is now largely forgotten in Japan. He is enjoying renewed popularity in America, though, thanks largely to Drawn and Quarterly’s annual publications of his work. Good-bye encompasses stories from 1970-71. In “Hell”, an amateur photographer captures the shadow of a son massaging his mother’s shoulders that was seared onto a wall when the bomb dropped on Hiroshima. After the image has gained world fame as an icon of peace, the photographer discovers it is not the image of a devoted son after all, but of a man strangling a woman from behind. Most of the stories are not as heavy on plot, but are succinct vignettes of the mundane struggles and frustrated passions of ordinary people. There are no innocents in these stories. Although we may be disgusted by the behavior of his characters, they are pitiful and evoke sympathy. - ADD TO CART	I Love Dollars And Other Stories of China Zhu Weh ( Columbia University Press, $24.95) In the 1990s, Chinese fiction writers were prevented from reflecting on the events leading up to the Tienamman Square massacre. Questions about modern Chinese writing in relation to Western fiction, a topic of the 1980s, were set aside.Writing, once again, was to be used in support of the state ideology. Tabloid journalism was tolerated and took off. Aware of the popularity of stories about wealth, sex and gossip,writers like Zhu Wen zoomed in on the new capitalism and individualism of the decade. In this collection of stories, he informs his hedonistic tales of sex and money with traditional themes of filial respect and family obligations. Behind it all is an increasing sense of alienation and resignation. The stories – like the character in “A Hospital Night” who has to assist his girlfriend’s bedridden father to urinate into a bottle – though intentionally provocative, are not maudlin, but grimly funny. - ADD TO CART