Asia Audiobooks | Travel

The Emperor's New Road: China and the Project of the Century

A prominent authority on China's Belt and Road Initiative reveals the global risks lurking within Beijing's project of the century China's Belt and Road Initiative is the world's most ambitious and misunderstood geoeconomic vision. To carry out President Xi's flagship foreign-policy effort, China promises to spend over one trillion dollars for new ports, railways, fiber-optic cables, power plants, and other connections. It touches more than one hundred and thirty countries and has expanded into the Arctic, cyberspace, and even outer space. Beijing promises that it is promoting global development, but Washington warns that it is charting a path to global dominance. Taking listeners on a journey to China's projects in Asia, Europe, and Africa, Jonathan E. Hillman reveals how this grand vision is unfolding on the ground. As China pushes beyond its borders and deep into dangerous terrain, it is repeating the mistakes of the great powers that came before it, Hillman argues. If China succeeds, it will remake the world and place itself at the center of everything. But Xi may be overreaching: all roads do not yet lead to Beijing.

Jonathan E. Hillman (Author), Eric Jason Martin (Narrator)

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Japanese Language & Culture :: How To Discover The Ins And Outs Of Japanese Society So You Can Learn

Are you planning a trip to Japan and would you like to enjoy an unforgettable experience? Are you learning Japanese, and would you like to know how to use the language in the correct way? If you answered “Yes!” to at least one of those previous questions, then this book is for you This book will help you to know The Ins And Outs Of Japanese Society, and walk among the people as if you were one of them, Here Is A Preview Of You Can Expect: - Walks you through the history of etiquette in Japan and helps you understand the importance of it in modern society - Helps you avoid social ostracization - Ensures that your trip to Japan is not only more enjoyable but the memories you make there will all be happy and fun-filled instead of embarrassing. - Enriches your social skills not only in Japan but across other cultures as well - You will be a different understanding of social interaction when you are done with this book If you’re ready to improve your social skills and enjoy the tranquil and colorful life of Japan, then buy Japanese Language & Culture now. It’s up to you to take action and reap the rewards waiting for you.

Jpinsiders (Author), Jason Fella (Narrator)

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Zhuangzi | Chuang Tzu: The foundation of chinese esoteric thought

The Chuang Tsu is one of the most important books in Chinese literature and philosophy. It is one of the two foundational texts of Daoism. Also titled Zhuangzi, it is a commentary and extension of the Dao de Jing/Tao Te Ching, in the same way that Mencius' Analects are an exploration of Confucius' thought. Written in around 300BCE during the Warring States period, it is a collection of anecdotes, fables, and stories that are as silly and funny as they are profound and thought provoking. Where the Dao De Jing is a distilled and poetic exploration of the Way, Zhuangi takes a much more human and real-world path through the mysteries of the Dao. Using often humorous anecdotes, allegories, parables and fables mixed with conversations about particular aspects of the Way. James Legge’s translation is perhaps the most sophisticated and exacting one in existence. It carries as much as possible of the subtlety and detail in the original masterwork. It is regarded as one of the greatest literary works in all of Chinese history, and has been called 'the most important pre-Qin text for the study of Chinese literature.' Its main themes are of spontaneity in action and of freedom from the human world and its conventions. The fables and anecdotes in the text illustrate the illusion of distinctions between good and bad, large and small, life and death, and human and nature. While other ancient Chinese philosophers focused on moral and personal duty, Zhuangzi promoted carefree wandering and becoming one with 'the Way' (Dào 道) by following nature. It has influenced great Chinese and Western writers for more than 2000 years, including Oscar Wilde, Yeats, Nietzsche, Sima Xiangru, Li Bai, Su Shi and Lu You.

James Legge, Zhuang Zi (Author), Chirag Patel (Narrator)

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HISTORIA MÍNIMA DE JAPÓN

Este libro presenta, a grandes rasgos, el extraordindario desarrollo político, económico, social y cultural de Japón desde sus orígenes hasta nuestros días. Se trata, también, de una caracterización de los cambios y las permanencias durante el proceso de conformación de lo japonés, en contraste e interacción constante con as experiencias de otro pueblos.

Michiko Tanaka (Author), Cristina Tenorio (Narrator)

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Champions Day: The End of Old Shanghai

How a single day revealed the history and foreshadowed the future of Shanghai. It is November 12, 1941, and the world is at war. In Shanghai, just weeks before Pearl Harbor, thousands celebrate the birthday of China's founding father, Sun Yat-sen, in a new city center built to challenge European imperialism. Across town, crowds of Shanghai residents from all walks of life attend the funeral of China's wealthiest woman, the Chinese-French widow of a Baghdadi Jewish businessman whose death was symbolic of the passing of a generation that had seen Shanghai's rise to global prominence. But it is the racetrack that attracts the largest crowd of all. At the center of the International Settlement, the heart of Western colonization-but also of Chinese progressivism, art, commerce, cosmopolitanism, and celebrity-Champions Day unfolds, drawing tens of thousands of Chinese spectators and Europeans alike to bet on the horses. In a sharp and lively snapshot of the day's events, James Carter recaptures the complex history of Old Shanghai. Champions Day is a kaleidoscopic portrait of city poised for revolution.

James Carter (Author), Paul Heitsch (Narrator)

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Ghost Flames: Life and Death in a Hidden War, Korea 1950-1953

A powerful, character-driven narrative of the Korean War from the Pulitzer Prize-winning writer who helped uncover some of its longest-held and darkest secrets The war that broke out in Korea on a Sunday morning 70 years ago has come to be recognized as a critical turning point in modern history, as the first great clash of arms of the Cold War, the last conflict between superpowers, and the root of a nuclear crisis that grips the world to this day. In this vivid, emotionally compelling and highly original account, Charles J. Hanley tells the story of the Korean War through the eyes of 20 individuals who lived through it--from a North Korean refugee girl to an American nun, a Chinese general to a black American prisoner of war, a British journalist to a US Marine hero. This is an intimate, deeper kind of history, whose meticulous research and rich detail, drawing on recently unearthed materials and eyewitness accounts, brings the true face of the Korean War, the vastness of its human tragedy, into a sharper focus than ever before. The 'Forgotten War' becomes unforgettable. In decades as an international journalist, Hanley reported from some 100 countries and covered more than a half-dozen conflicts, from Vietnam to Afghanistan and Iraq.

Charles J. Hanley (Author), Dan Woren (Narrator)

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Japan's Infamous Unit 731: Firsthand Accounts of Japan's Wartime Human Experimentation Program

This is a riveting and disturbing account of the medical atrocities performed in China during WWII. Some of the cruelest deeds of Japan's war in Asia did not occur on the battlefield, but in quiet, antiseptic medical wards in obscure parts of China. Far from front lines and prying eyes, Japanese doctors and their assistants subjected human guinea pigs to gruesome medical experiments in the name of science and Japan's wartime chemical and biological warfare research. Author Hal Gold draws upon a wealth of sources to construct a portrait of the Imperial Japanese Army's most notorious medical unit, giving an overview of its history and detailing its most shocking activities. The book presents the words of former unit members themselves, taken from remarks they made at a traveling Unit 731 exhibition held in Japan in 1994-95. They recount vivid first-hand memories of what it was like to take part in horrific experiments on men, women, and children, their motivations and reasons why they chose to speak about their actions all these years later. By showing how the ethics of normal men and women, and even an entire profession, can be warped by the fire of war, this important book offers a window on a time of human madness and the hope that history will not be repeated.

Hal Gold (Author), Joe Barrett (Narrator)

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Unconditional: The Japanese Surrender in World War II

Signed on September 2, 1945 by Japanese and Allied leaders, the instrument of surrender that formally ended the war in the Pacific brought to a close one of the most cataclysmic engagements in history. The surrender fulfilled the commitment that Franklin Roosevelt had made in 1943 at the Casablanca conference that it be 'unconditional.' Though readily accepted as policy at the time, after Roosevelt's death in April 1945 support for unconditional surrender wavered, particularly among Republicans in Congress, when the bloody campaigns on Iwo Jima and Okinawa made clear the cost of military victory against Japan. Though this was the last time American forces would impose surrender unconditionally, questions surrounding it continued through the 1950s and 1960s-with the Korean and Vietnam Wars-when liberal and conservative views reversed, including over the definition of 'peace with honor.' The subject was revived during the ceremonies surrounding the fiftieth anniversary in 1995, and the Gulf and Iraq Wars, when the subjects of exit strategies and 'accomplished missions' were debated. Marc Gallicchio reveals how and why the surrender in Tokyo Bay unfolded as it did and the principle figures behind it. Most importantly, Gallicchio reveals how the policy of unconditional surrender has shaped our memory and our understanding of World War II.

Marc Gallicchio (Author), Eric Michael Summerer (Narrator)

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Haunted Japan: Exploring the World of Japanese Yokai, Ghosts and the Paranormal

Japanese folklore is abundant with tales of ghostly creatures and the supernatural. In Haunted Japan, author Catrien Ross reveals the legends that have been passed down for generations and continue to terrify us today. To research this book on the country's ghosts, demons and paranormal phenomena, Ross collected accounts from across Japan including: ● Sacred Mount Osore, a Japanese gateway to the land of the dead, where people gather to contact those who have passed on ● The Tokyo grave of the samurai Taira no Masakado, where passersby regularly witnessed his ghost until prayers finally laid him to rest ● The mummified remains of the monk Tetsumonkai at the Churenji Temple on Mount Yudono-a place where bizarre happenings are common ● The ruins of Hachioji Castle in Tokyo, which was abandoned for many years because of its many hauntings The result is an unparalleled insight into the dark corners of the Japanese psyche-a world filled with horrifying creatures including Oni (demons with fierce and ghastly appearances), Yurei (Japanese ghosts who inhabit the world of the living), and Yokai (supernatural monsters).

Catrien Ross (Author), Ruth Urquhart (Narrator)

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Even the Women Must Fight: Memories of War from North Vietnam

A searing chronicle of wartime experiences, Even the Women Must Fight probes the cultural legacy of North Vietnam's American War. Unflinching in its portrayal of hardship, valor, and personal sacrifice, this wrenching account is nothing short of a revelation, banishing in one bold stroke the familiar image of Vietnamese women as passive onlookers, war brides, prostitutes, or helpless refugees.

Karen Gottschang Turner (Author), Stephanie Nguyen (Narrator)

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To Hell And Back: The Last Train From Hiroshima

To Hell and Back offers listeners a stunning, 'you are there' time capsule, wrapped in elegant prose. Charles Pellegrino's scientific authority and close relationship with the A-bomb survivors make his account the most gripping and authoritative ever written. At the narrative's core are eyewitness accounts of those who experienced the atomic explosions firsthand-the Japanese civilians on the ground. As the first city targeted, Hiroshima is the focus of most histories. Pellegrino gives equal weight to the bombing of Nagasaki, symbolized by the thirty people who are known to have fled Hiroshima for Nagasaki-where they arrived just in time to survive the second bomb. One of them, Tsutomu Yamaguchi, is the only person who experienced the full effects of both cataclysms within Ground Zero. The second time, the blast effects were diverted around the stairwell behind which Yamaguchi's office conference was convened-placing him and few others in a shock cocoon that offered protection while the entire building disappeared around them. Pellegrino weaves spellbinding stories together within an illustrated narrative that challenges the 'official report,' showing exactly what happened in Hiroshima and Nagasaki-and why.

Charles Pellegrino (Author), David Colacci (Narrator)

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Superpower Interrupted: The Chinese History of the World

This global history as the Chinese would write it gives brilliant and unconventional insights for understanding China's role in the world, especially the drive to 'Make China Great Again.' We in the West routinely ask: 'What does China want?' The answer is quite simple: the superpower status it always had, but briefly lost. In this colorful, informative story filled with fascinating characters, epic battles, influential thinkers, and decisive moments, we come to understand how the Chinese view their own history and how its narrative is distinctly different from that of Western civilization. More important, we come to see how this unique Chinese history of the world shapes China's economic policy, attitude toward the United States and the rest of the world, relations with its neighbors, positions on democracy and human rights, and notions of good government. As the Chinese see it, for as far back as anyone can remember, China had the richest economy, the strongest military, and the most advanced philosophy, culture, and technology. The collision with the West knocked China's historical narrative off course for the first time, as its 5,000-year reign as an unrivaled superpower came to an ignominious end. Ever since, the Chinese have licked their wounds and fixated on returning their country to its former greatness, restoring the Chinese version of its place in the world as they had always known it. For the Chinese, the question was never if they could reclaim their former dominant position in the world, but when.

Michael Schuman (Author), Shawn Compton (Narrator)

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Asia Audiobooks in Travel