As Benson Tong attests in his book Unsubmissive Women: Chinese Prostitutes in Nineteenth-Century San Francisco (1994, ISBN 0-8061-3284-1), the Chinese prostitution dynamic in California has been thriving quite a while. As WoWasis reported in April, 2011, Asian Apartment Massage Parlors (AAMPs) proliferate today through the San Francisco Bay Area and the west coast of North America. […]
Read the rest of this entry »Archive for the 'China' Category
WoWasis book review: Mao Tse-Tung on Guerilla Warfare
Here at WoWasis, we’d guess that the collective United States military never got around to reading Mao Tse-Tung’s 73 page Yu Chi Chan, an expert treatise on the art of guerilla war, before it got hopelessly bogged down in the quagmire called Vietnam. Translated brilliantly by Brigadier General Samuel B. Griffith, USMC (Ret.) as Mao […]
Read the rest of this entry »French silicone breast implant scandal thought not to include SE Asia
The scandal involving French implant company Poly Implant Prothèse (PIP)’s use of substandard, industrial silicone for breast implants concerns potentially tens of thousands of women in at least half a dozen European countries. So far, it appears that none of these implants, which reportedly are prone to rupturing, were distributed in Southeast Asia. As reported […]
Read the rest of this entry »WoWasis book review: ‘Chinese Eunuchs: The Structure of Intimate Politics’
Although the last of the remaining Chinese court eunuchs died in the early 20th century, the world continues to be fascinated by them. Kyoto University scholar Taisuke Mitamura’s Chinese Eunuchs: The Structure of Intimate Politics (1963, 1970 English translation by Charles A. Pomeroy) is an informative, readable monograph on the history of the individuals and […]
Read the rest of this entry »WoWasis book review: Jay Taylor’s ‘The Generalissimo’s Son: Chiang Ching-kuo and the Revolutions in China and Taiwan’
In this book, The Generalissimo’s Son: Chiang Ching-kuo and the Revolutions in China and Taiwan (2000, ISBN 0-674-00287-3), Jay Taylor provides a fascinating history of the man who presided over much of the political modernization of Taiwan. Ching-kuo was, at one point, a communist student in the Soviet Union, and maintained ties there throughout his […]
Read the rest of this entry »WoWasis book review: Jay Taylor’s ‘The Generalissimo: Chiang Kai-shek and the Struggle for Modern China’
As we here at WoWasis found when we visited Taiwan, English books on Chiang Kai-shek are damned hard to find. Chiang isn’t a very popular figure in many Taiwanese circles, which is why, as a bookstore clerk explained to us, books on Chiang would be found in the “China,” rather than the “Taiwan” section of […]
Read the rest of this entry »WoWasis book review: Wang Wen-hsing’s ‘Family Catastrophe’ from Taiwan
When originally written in 1972, Wang Wen-hsing’s ‘Family Catastrophe’ created a ton of controversy. His story of a dysfunctional family flew in the face of the Confucian concept of respect for parents. The story revolves around a young man named Fan Yeh, and is unfolded in a non-traditional time-lapse interpretation involving an older step-brother, a […]
Read the rest of this entry »WoWasis Taiwan shopping tip: buy a Fucashun multilingual world globe
Looking for something extraordinary to bring back home with you coming back from Taiwan? How about a Fucashun Chinese-English world globe? We here at WoWasis, think there’s nothing like having a real globe at home and work. Atlases and internet graphics can never truly portray the scope and distance of various countries and world geographical […]
Read the rest of this entry »WoWasis book review: ‘Dragon Lady’ by Sterling Seagrave
China’s Dowager Empress Tzu Hsi (1835-1908) was truly the stuff of legend, but as veteran Asian historian Sterling Seagrave (along with co-researcher Peggy Seagrave) points out, most of the legend was false. In Dragon Lady: The Life and Legend of the Last Empress of China (1992, ISBN 0-679-40230-6), the author debunks the myths that unfairly […]
Read the rest of this entry »5 travel tips from WoWasis on avoiding getting robbed overseas
Compared to most Western countries, we here at WoWasis feel Asia is pretty safe. Most travelers can go just about anywhere, any time, and not have to be constantly looking over their shoulders. Nevertheless, travelers not practicing basic security measures are leaving themselves open to the occasional theft. So here are some things to keep […]
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