ASIAN BEAUTIES: CHINA CALLING

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About ASIAN BEAUTIES: CHINA CALLING

Introduction and AcknowledgmentsThis book is a picture compendium of Chinese people, places, and events which I recorded while on a study tour of China. We were looking at new freedoms being experienced in China after the demise of Chairman Mao. What I found was a mesmerizing blend of tradition with the modern. In essence, I learned from a Chinese man reading a government newspaper stuck on a wall, “to read between the lines”. I hope you will closely observe the faces in this book as it may help you enter into a new understanding of China. The structure is vertical historical text as well as horizontal human pictures. Understanding this will help you see the Chinese nation as a work in progress. The historical narrative is based on two China lecture series presented by Dr. Christina Han, Ph.D. at Wilfrid Laurier University (Brantford) in 2013. My thanks go to Reg Tomkinson, project manager as well as Enid Maize, M.T.S. and Dave Letendre, P.Eng and all the others who have added their input. Photos are reproduced using a new technique called crystallization of reflected images on glass beads which gives a soft effect. All photos are by the author. All rights reserved © Darragh Christie 2014.Preface to the first edition of China CallingWhat is Asia? Is it not all people east of the Himalayan Mountains? How did this group of people come to be called Asian? Asia translated from the Greek language (Anatole) is “Orient/East” which contains the meaning “where the sun rises”. At the turn of the nineteenth century, Okakura Kakuzo stated, “All Asia is one based on shared values” whereas the West is based on the notion of individual progress. We will learn if this is true. The idea of progress was attempted by Japan in the 1930s called the “Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere”. This reorganized model for Asia, by Japan, came to be called the Imperial Japanese Empire. In earlier times, European progress led to Crusades. Asia can be considered a g