Victor H. Mair

Erling Hoh

A lively, illustrated history of the ubiquitous beverage takes readers from the jungles of Southeast Asia through the decadent Tang and Song dynasties to explore tea's role in art, religion, trade, and other arenas, in an upbeat account that also covers a range of lesser-known facts, from Morocco's adoption of green tea as a national beverage and the source of the billabong in "Waltzing Matilda."

The True History of Tea

This is the remarkable story of tea and its uses from ancient times to the present. The narrative takes the reader from the jungles of Southeast Asia to the splendour of the Tang and Song Dynasties in China, from the tea ceremony aesthetics of medieval Japan to the fabled tea and horse trade of Central Asia, from the advent of Britains love affair with tea to the tea party that sparked the American Revolution. Throughout the centuries, tea has inspired artists, enhanced religious experience, played a pivotal role in the emergence of world trade, and helped trigger major wars. No other drink has touched the lives of so many people in so many different ways. The True History of Tea brings all these disparate strands together in an erudite tale full of quirky facts and unexpected byways, celebrating the common heritage of a beverage we have all come to love.

A lively and beautifully illustrated history of one of the world's favorite beverages and its uses through the ages. World-renowned sinologist Victor H. Mair teams up with journalist Erling Hoh to tell the story of this remarkable beverage and its uses, from ancient times to the present, from East to West. For the first time in a popular history of tea, the Chinese, Japanese, Tibetan, and Mongolian annals have been thoroughly consulted and carefully sifted. The resulting narrative takes the reader from the jungles of Southeast Asia to the splendor of the Tang and Song Dynasties, from the tea ceremony politics of medieval Japan to the fabled tea and horse trade of Central Asia and the arrival of the first European vessels in Far Eastern waters. Through the centuries, tea has inspired artists, enhanced religious experience, played a pivotal role in the emergence of world trade, and triggered cataclysmic events that altered the course of humankind. How did green tea become the national beverage of Morocco? And who was the beautiful Emma Hart, immortalized by George Romney in his painting The Tea-maker of Edgware Road? No other drink has touched the daily lives of so many people in so many different ways. The True History of Tea brings these disparate aspects together in an entertaining tale that combines solid scholarship with an eye for the quirky, offbeat paths that tea has strayed upon during its long voyage. It celebrates the common heritage of a beverage we have all come to love, and plays a crucial part in the work of dismantling that obsolete dictum: East is East, and West is West, and never the twain shall meet.

Xu Hongci

Mistrovské literární dílo o jediném podařeném útěku z čínského vězení. Mladý student medicíny Xu Hongci byl idealistou a věrným a oblíbeným členem komunistické strany. Ale jen do doby, než se ocitl mezi 550 000 Číňany, kteří byli na jaře roku 1957 nespravedlivě deportováni do pracovních táborů. Xu Hongci se rozhodl z tábora uniknout i přes mizivé šance na úspěch. Třikrát mu to nevyšlo, až nakonec po 14 letech věznění utekl. Pozoruhodný memoár popisuje jeho život a odvážný útěk z tábora, během něhož nebyl hlavní hrdina dopaden a popraven, ale dostal se zpět na svobodu.

Erling Hoh

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