Frances Wood Bücher

Erlesene Stoffe und exotische Gewürze, orientalische Basare und schwer bepackte Karawanen, Marco Polo und Dschingis Khan: Erleben Sie den Zauber der Seidenstraße, lesen Sie die spannende Geschichte dieses legendären Handelswegs!

Set against the backdrop of World War I, the narrative explores China's struggle with diplomatic challenges stemming from inexperienced leadership and regional divisions. As the country engaged with international organizations and adhered to the Hague Conventions, its representatives faced the delicate task of balancing patriotism with the need to maintain colonial order amidst the chaos of war. The story highlights the complexities of foreign relations and the impact of global conflict on China's sovereignty and political landscape.

3000 years of Chinese history presented through the lives of ninety-six illustrious participants from all periods and all parts of the country China is the most populous country on earth, with the longest history of any modern nation. Here, the full range of Chinese cultural and scientific achievements, as well as its military conquests, wars, rebellions, and political and philosophical movements, are told through the eyes of real people who created or were involved in them. The subjects include emperors and empresses, concubines, officials and political figures, rebels, exiles, philosophers, writers and poets, artists, musicians, scientists, military leaders, and committed pacifists. From Fu Hao, an early warrior lady of the thirteenth century BC, to the late twentieth-century leader Deng Xiaoping, their careers, achievements, misdeeds, disasters, punishments, ideas and love stories make this an unforgettable read. Illustrated with portraits, paintings, written documents, bronzes, sculptures, and location maps, and written in an authoritative yet accessible style, Chinese Lives provides the perfect introduction to China’s history and her peoples.

Challenging the widely accepted narrative of Marco Polo's travels, Frances Wood presents a compelling argument that he may never have reached China, possibly not even beyond the Black Sea. Through a thorough examination of Polo's family history, merchant activities, and his famous book, A Description of the World, Wood highlights significant omissions in Polo's accounts, such as the absence of tea and the Great Wall. This exploration not only questions the authenticity of Polo's experiences but also offers insights into medieval European and Chinese history, igniting debate about this enduring myth.

The book offers an insightful exploration of Chinese culture and civilization by presenting key literary works from ancient times to the present. Each selection is accompanied by concise introductions that illuminate the historical and cultural context, making it accessible for readers seeking to understand the richness of Chinese literature and its impact on society. This approach highlights the evolution of themes and ideas throughout China's literary history.

There is great interest in WW1 but almost nobody knows that China not only supplied 340,000 labourers to support the war effort of the allies, but also in August 1917 declared war on Germany, thus earning a place at the Versailles peace conference.

"Shining a light on a little-known area of Chinese decorative arts from 1850 to 1930, this lavishly illustrated book presents dazzling jewellery from an important private North American collection. Immortals, dragons, magpies, monkeys and bats populate this pioneering book on Chinese jewellery of the late 19th to early 20th century. In so many aspects, these exquisite objects - made with silver, jade, tourmaline, amethyst, rock crystal, rose quartz, carnelian and serpentine -- reveal a previously unexplored journey, not just from Heaven to Earth but from the West to the East and back again. The appeal of the jewellery is more than just aesthetic, and their varied design and decoration speak of the social, religious, economic and political climate of their time. Their period of production, from the Late Qing dynasty through to the 1930s, is one that has been insufficiently explored by historians as a whole. This was the time when the Treaty Ports attracted foreign residence and tourism, when Western visitors flocked to Shanghai and Peking to buy Chinese souvenirs, and when fashionable young Chinese of the Republican period embraced aspects of foreign life and design. Many of the pieces naturally reflect Chinese designs and motifs, particularly in the bold association of colours, their use of re-purposed carved plaques and the emphasis on luck-bearing emblems. Western influence creeps in, however, in the form of secure box-and-tongue clasps and the occasional maker's or retailer's names, as well as stamps such as 'Chinese sterling'. Do these makers' marks suggest that the items were produced for export or do they simply represent a nod to modernity?"--Publisher's description

Discover - or rediscover - the major achievements of Chinese culture and civilization.Great Books of China offers concise introductions - each of them accompanied by generous quotation (in English) from the book in question - to sixty-six works in the canon of Chinese literature.The books chosen reflect the chronological and thematic breadth of Chinese literary tradition, ranging from such classics as The Book of Songs and the Confucian Analects, through popular dramas and novels (The Romance of the Western Chamber; The Water Margin), twentieth-century political and biographical works (Quotations from Chairman Mao, the autobiography of the last emperor) and modern novels that are little known in the West (Memories of South Peking, Six Chapters from a Cadre School Life).Frances Wood presents a comprehensive, accessible and richly informative primer for the uninitiated; a box of delights that opens up an entire literary culture to the inquisitive reader.

Všichni „víme", že benátský cestovatel a obchodník Marco Polo, přezdívaný Milión (asi 1254–1324), byl v Číně, kde sloužil chánovi Kublajovi a odkud prý přivezl do Evropy špagety a zmrzlinu. F. Woodová, ředitelka čínského odd. Britské knihovny v Londýně, však o jeho cestě pochybuje. Uvádí řadu vážných argumentů, např. nejen že se Polo nezmínil třeba o slavném čínském čaji nebo o Čínské zdi, ale není o něm vůbec žádná zmínka v čínských archivech. Záhada rozpoutala mezi historiky i laiky polemiku rovnající se bitvě. Kniha je nabitá zajímavostmi kupříkladu o dovozu exotického zboží z Asie do Evropy. Dovážely se nejen rubíny, sezamový olej, bavlna, ale i ocelové a asbestové vojenské košile, cukr, pepř, kokosové ořechy a samozřejmě slavná ambra. O tom všem se zmiňuje ve svém cestopise Popis světa sám Marco Polo. Spisovatelka Woodová však objevuje spoustu věci, o nichž Polo kupodivu vůbec nevěděl, ačkoliv byly součástí dobových rituálů. Např., že mladým dívkám podvazovali drastickým způsobem chodidla, takže prakticky nemohly chodit, jenom cupitat. A to se dělo v Číně více než 800 let. Atd. Autorka, která sama dlouhá léta v Číně žila, nabízí čtenáři opravdu vzrušující četbu. Ostatně, potvrzují to i ohlasy knihy ve světovém tisku.