Sri Lanka’s Cultural Triangle embraces an area encompassing the ancient sites of Anuradhapura, Dambulla, Polonnaruwa, and Segiriya, and the city of Kandy. This area is perhaps the area most visited on the island, and is well worth the trip. Each of the ancient sites have book kiosks in the museums, and there are a number […]
Read the rest of this entry »Archive for the 'Literature' Category
WoWasis book review: Bangkok forensic science maven Porntip Rojanasunan’s new book ‘The Dead DO Talk’
The Director of Thailand’s General Institute of Forensic Science is the famous Dr. Porntip Rojanasunan, who co-founded the agency in 2002. With her jet-set hair, stylish wardrobe, and enthusiasm for forensic science, she’s one of the most photographed women in Thailand. She’s also well-loved and humble, and was voted by Reader’s Digest readers in 2010 […]
Read the rest of this entry »WoWasis bids fond goodbye to publisher Barney Rosset
Legendary publisher and WoWasis friend Barney Rosset died this week at the age of 89. Although primarily known as the publisher of Grove Press and the Evergreen Review, he is particularly memorable in Thailand for publishing Patpong Sisters, the late Cleo Odzer’s role-switching romp through the nightlife of Bangkok. We interviewed him back in 2004 […]
Read the rest of this entry »WoWasis book review: Nihal De Silva’s ‘The Road from Elephant Pass’ Sri Lanka
Every so often an exceptional book by an emerging author reaches out and strikes the reader unaware. Somewhat less often does the book encompass more than 400 pages. And rarer than that are cases in which the author, in some sense, predicts his own upcoming death. In an apt metaphor, the finally-fledged Sri Lankan writer […]
Read the rest of this entry »WoWasis book review: of tea plantations in Sri Lanka
Herman Gunaratne is a well-known Sri Lankan tea planter, executive, and politician, who worked himself up through the ranks at the lowest levels in plantation life. He has written his fascinating memoirs in The Suicide Club (2010, ISBN 978-955-0000-02-9), the title of which refers to an exclusive and informal club, of which his illustrious grandfather […]
Read the rest of this entry »WoWasis book review: Chinese prostitutes in 19th century San Francisco by Benson Tong
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 »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 »WoWasis book review: The Tragedy of Sri Lanka: William McGowan’s ‘Only Man Is Vile’
Sri Lanka has stabilized, to the extent that the country is now charging for tourist visas, instead of for years practically begging people to come. Here at WoWasis, we’re going there next month to investigate. So what were the Civil War years, from 1983-2009 really all about. As journalist William McGowan so cogently describes in […]
Read the rest of this entry »WoWasis book review: ‘Kempei Tai: Japanese Secret Service’ by Richard Deacon
Veteran espionage historian Richard Deacon really seems to love the Kempei Tai, Japan’s pre-Cold War military police-based intelligence agency. His Kempei Tai: A History of the Japanese Secret Service (1983, ISBN 0-8253-0131-9) is replete with personal histories of its founders and leaders, stories of intrigue, and arcane espionage factoids. The author emphasizes intelligence-gathering as practically […]
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 […]
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