Linda Jaivin

From kung-fu to tofu, tea to trade routes, sages to silk, China has influenced cuisine, commerce, military strategy, aesthetics and philosophy across the world for thousands of years. Chinese history is sprawling and gloriously messy. It is full of heroes who are also villains, prosperous ages and violent rebellions, cultural vibrancy and censorious impulses, rebels, loyalists, dissidents and wits. The story of women in China, from the earliest warriors to twentieth-century suffragettes, is rarely told. And historical spectres of corruption and disunity, which have brought down many a mighty ruling house, continue to haunt the People’s Republic today. Modern China is seen variously as an economic powerhouse, an icon of urbanisation, a propaganda state or an aggressive superpower seeking world domination. Linda Jaivin distils a vast history into a short, readable account that tells you what you need to know, from China’s philosophical origins to its political system, to the COVID-19 pandemic and where the PRC is likely to lead the world. ‘China demands a great storyteller. Here, it has one.’ —Stan Grant ‘An electrifying and erudite ride ... a real page-turner.’ —Alice Pung

The Shortest History of China

From kung fu to tofu, tea to trade routes, sages to silk, China has influenced the world for millennia and emerged as a global power. Journey through its riveting history in one compact volume.

From the Ancient Dynasties to a Modern SuperpowerA Retelling for Our Times

La donna immorale

Geremie Barmé

Chinese Rebel Voices

New Ghosts, Old Dreams

Four friends, Julia, Chantal, Helen, and Philippa, discuss their sexual experiences, but increasingly veer off into fantasy

Eat Me

Jane Golley

Luigi Tomba

‘More cosmopolitan, more lively, more global’ is how the China Daily summed up the year 2016 in China. It was also a year of more control. The Chinese Communist Party laid down strict new rules of conduct for its members, continued to assert its dominance over everything from the Internet to the South China Sea and announced a new Five-Year Plan that Greenpeace called ‘quite possibly the most important document in the world in setting the pace of acting on climate change’. The China Story Yearbook 2016: Control surveys the year in China’s economy, population planning, law enforcement and reform, environment, Internet, medicine, religion, education, historiography, foreign affairs, and culture, as well as developments in Taiwan and Hong Kong.

China Story Yearbook 2016

Control

"‘A fascinating, enormously dynamic portrait of a superpower. Essential reading’ JULIA LOVELL ‘A fast-paced and witty survey of China’s past ... Iconoclastic, informative and more attentive to female figures than comparable works’ JEFFREY WASSERSTROM ‘Succinct, lucid and with a keen eye for detail, this slim book is an indispensable primer on China’ LOUISA LIM A PACY HISTORY OF CHINA THAT CAN BE READ IN AN AFTERNOON, BUT WILL TRANSFORM YOUR PERSPECTIVE FOR A LIFETIME. From kung-fu to tofu, tea to trade routes, sages to silk, China has inf luenced cuisine, commerce, military strategy, aesthetics and philosophy across the world for thousands of years. Chinese history is sprawling and gloriously messy. It is full of heroes who are also villains, prosperous ages and violent rebellions, cultural vibrancy and censorious impulses, loyalists, dissidents and wits. The story of women in China, from the earliest warriors to twentieth century suffragettes, is rarely told. And historical spectres of corruption and disunity, which have brought down many a mighty ruling house, continue to haunt the People’s Republic today. Modern China is seen variously as an economic powerhouse, an icon of urbanisation, a propaganda state or an aggressive superpower seeking world domination. Linda Jaivin distils a vast history into a short, readable account that tells you what you need to know, from China’s philosophical origins to its political system, to the COVID-19 pandemic and where the PRC is likely to lead the world."

Kisa Cin Tarihi

A ‘moderately prosperous society’ with no Chinese individual left behind—that’s the vision for China set out by Chinese President Xi Jinping in a number of important speeches in 2017. ‘Moderate’ prosperity may seem like a modest goal for a country with more billionaires (609 at last count) than the US. But the ‘China Story’ is a complex one. The China Story Yearbook 2017: Prosperity surveys the important events, pronouncements, and personalitites that defined 2017. It also presents a range of perspectives, from the global to the individual, the official to the unofficial, from mainland China to Hong Kong and Taiwan. Together, the stories present a richly textured portrait of a nation that in just forty years has lifted itself from universal poverty to (unequally distributed) wealth, changing itself and the world in the process.

Prosperity

A pacy history of China that can be read in an afternoon, but will transform your perspective for a lifetime. From kung-fu to tofu, tea to trade routes, sages to silk, China has influenced cuisine, commerce, military strategy, aesthetics and philosophy across the world for thousands of years. Chinese history is sprawling and gloriously messy. It is full of heroes who are also villains, prosperous ages and violent rebellions, cultural vibrancy and censorious impulses, rebels, loyalists, dissidents and wits. The story of women in China, from the earliest warriors to twentieth-century suffragettes, is rarely told. And historical spectres of corruption and disunity, which have brought down many a glorious ruling house, continue to haunt the People's Republic of China today. Modern China is seen variously as an economic powerhouse, an icon of urbanisation, a propaganda state and an aggressive superpower seeking world domination. China expert Linda Jaivin distils a vast history into a short, readable account that tells you what you need to know about the Middle Kingdom, from its philosophical origins to its political system, to the COVID-19 pandemic and where China is likely to lead the world.

A witty, playful, intriguing and ultimately very moving novel of identity and loss. 'Stories are the only thing that defy death. Stories are truth. I hereby give you mine...' Peking, 1944: Sir Edmund Backhouse is a man of many parts. A polyglot scholar. An effete homosexual. A genius of perversity, a forger, arms salesman, occasional spy and fantasist. Also, if he is to be believed, the onetime lover of the redoubtable Empress Dowager of China, a woman many decades his senior. In his declining years, tended by his friend, Dr Hoeppli, he writes his memoir - 'a wild tale', as he calls it, 'far-fetched and fantastical'- of his affair with the Dowager Empress. Beijing, 2014: Linnie is an Australian woman of uncertain provenance struggling to make a living in Beijing. A Sinophile, a translator of film subtitles, the author of an unpublished novel about Backhouse called the Empress Lover. One day, she receives an intriguingly old-fashioned and formal invitation from a Professor H, an invitation that promises to reveal long hidden secrets of her family... And so two worlds collide. An enchantingly slippery, sinuous, playful - and ultimately very moving - novel of love, loss, identity and history from one of Australia's finest novelists. 'Jaivin's writing shines and burns.' Sunday Age 'the Empress Lover is a fascinating work, infused as it is with China's history, Jaivin's experience of it, and her own capacious imagination. Surely this is the novel to gain her a reputation as one of Australia's best and most versatile writers.' Sydney Morning Herald 'A supple and intricate piece of storytelling ... a touching,inventive and gratifyingly unpredictable novel.' the Australian

The Empress Lover

Whether we’re aware of it or not, we spend much of our time in this globalised world in the act of translation. Language is a big part of it, of course, as anyone who has fumbled with a phrasebook in a foreign country will know, but behind language is something far more challenging to translate: culture. As a traveller, a mistranslation might land you a bowl of who-knows-what when you think you asked for noodles, and mistranslations in international politics can be a few steps from serious trouble. But translation is also a way of entering new and exciting worlds, and forging links that never before existed. Linda Jaivin has been translating from Chinese for more than thirty years. While her specialty is subtitles, she has also translated song lyrics, poetry and fiction, and interpreted for ABC film crews, Chinese artists and even the English singer Billy Bragg as he gave his take on socialism to some Beijing rockers. In Found in Translation she reveals the work of the translator and considers whether different worldviews can be bridged. She pays special attention to China and the English-speaking West, Australia in particular, but also discusses French, Japanese and even the odd phrase of Maori. This is a free-ranging essay, personal and informed, about translation in its narrowest and broadest senses, and the prism – occasionally prison – of culture. “About six years ago, President George W. Bush was delivering a speech at a G8 summit, when, made impatient by the process of translation, he interrupted his German interpreter: ‘Everybody speaks English, right?’ ...” —Linda Jaivin, Found in Translation

In Praise of a Plural World

Quarterly Essay 52 Found in Translation

Journey across China’s epic history—through millennia of early innovation to modern dominance. And upcoming from The Shortest History Series—The Shortest History of England! As we enter the “Asian century,” China demands our attention for being an economic powerhouse, a beacon of rapid modernization, and an assertive geopolitical player. To understand the nation behind the headlines, we must take in its vibrant, tumultuous past—a story of “larger-than-life characters, philosophical arguments and political intrigues, military conflicts and social upheavals, artistic invention and technological innovation.” The Shortest History of China charts a path from China’s tribal origins through its storied imperial era and up to the modern Communist Party under Xi Jinping—including the rarely told story of women in China and the specters of corruption and disunity that continue to haunt the People’s Republic today. A master storyteller and exacting historian, Linda Jaivin distills this vast history into a short, riveting account that today’s globally minded readers will find indispensable.

From the Ancient Dynasties to a Modern Superpower—A Retelling for Our Times

In her hilarious and outrageous book, Linda Jaivin gets a spanking as she interviews the manager of an S&M club and wears a penis for a week to find out how it feels to be a man. She explores the secretive world of Chinese gays and lesbians, and gives an astonishing account of what happened the night the tanks rolled in to Tiananmen Square.

Confessions of an S & M Virgin

Cómeme

Sharon Strange

The year 2020 was marked by a series of rolling crises. The Australian wildfires at the start of the year were a catastrophic sign of the global climate crisis. Xi Jinping’s announcement in September that the People’s Republic of China would become carbon neutral by 2060 could help alleviate the crisis, but China has to fix its coal problem first. The big story was, of course, the global COVID-19 pandemic. Appearing to originate in a Wuhan wet market, by year’s end the pandemic had claimed nearly 2 million lives worldwide, put whole countries into lockdown, and sent economies around the world tumbling into recession. China itself successfully suppressed the disease at home and recorded positive economic growth for the year — proving, at least according to the Chinese Communist Party, the ‘superiority of the socialist system’. Not everyone was convinced, with persistent questions about the CCP’s initial cover up of the outbreak, and how the lack of transparency helped it become a pandemic in the first place. The China Story Yearbook 2020: Crisis surveys the multiple crises of the year of the Metal Rat, including the catastrophic mid-year floods that sparked fears about the stability of the Three Gorges Dam. It looks at how Chinese women fared through the pandemic, from the rise in domestic violence to portraits of female sacrifice on the medical front line to the trolling of a famous dancer for being childless. It also examines the downward-spiralling Sino-Australian relationship, the difficult ‘co-morbidities’ of China’s relations with the US, the end of ‘One Country, Two Systems’ in Hong Kong, the simmering border conflict with India, and the rise of pandemic-related anti-Chinese racism. The Yearbook also explores the responses to crisis of, among others, Daoists, Buddhists, and humourists — because when all else fails, there’s always philosophy, prayer, and laughter.

Crisis

He was our man in Peking. She was ... everybody's. The ravishing new novel from the author of the bestselling EAT ME. 'A most engaging, clever and memorable romp' Sydney Morning Herald He was our man in Peking. She was ... everybody's. 1904. Forty-two-year-old, handsome and influential Australian G.E. Morrison, Peking correspondent for tHE tIMES of London, considered the most eligible Western bachelor in China has yet to meet his match. But one night he encounters Mae Perkins, the ravishing daughter of a California millionaire and a turbulent affair begins. War, meanwhile, has broken out between Russia and Japan for domination over northeast China. Morrison's colleague Lionel James has an idea that will revolutionise war correspondence, but only Morrison can help him. Just as Mae seems to be slipping away from Morrison, James's quest propels him into her orbit once more. Inspired by a true story, A MOSt IMMORAL WOMAN is a surprising, witty and erotic tale of sexual and other obsessions set in the 'floating world' of Westerners in China and Japan at the turn of the twentieth century. At its heart stands an original and devastatingly honest woman, as seen from the perspective of the extraordinary man who was drawn to love her. 'Cleverly constructed, this is to bodice ripping what Harvard is to Play School.' QANtAS: tHE AUStRALIAN WAY 'Jaivin creates a fully realised, intensly lived-in past ... It might be her best work' tHE AGE

A Most Immoral Woman

Ben Hillman

The year 2019 marked a number of significant anniversaries for the People’s Republic of China (PRC), each representing different ‘Chinese dreams’. There was the centennial of the May Fourth Movement — a dream of patriotism and cultural renewal. The PRC celebrated its seventieth anniversary — a dream of revolution and national strength. It was also thirty years since the student-led Protest Movement of 1989 — dreams of democracy and free expression crushed by government dreams of unity and stability. Many of these ‘dreams’ recurred in new guises in 2019. President Xi Jinping tightened his grip on power at home while calling for all citizens to ‘defend China’s honour abroad’. Escalating violence in Hong Kong, the ongoing suppression of Uyghurs in Xinjiang, and deteriorating Sino-US relations dominated the headlines. Alongside stories about China’s advances in artificial intelligence and geneticially modified babies and its ambitions in the Antarctic and outer space, these issues fuelled discussion about what Xi’s own ‘China Dream’ of national rejuvenation means for Chinese citizens and the rest of the world. The China Story Yearbook: China Dreams reflects on these issues and more. It surveys the dreams, illusions, aspirations, and nightmares that coexisted (and clashed) in 2019 in China and beyond. As ever, we take a cross-disciplinary perspective that recognises the inextricable links between economy, politics, culture, history, language, and society. The Yearbook, with its accessible analysis of the main events and trends of the year, is an essential tool for understanding China’s growing power and influence around the world.

China Dreams

Paul J. Farrelly

In 2018, the People’s Republic of China (PRC) was, by most measures, more powerful than at any other time in its history and had become one of the most powerful countries in the world. Its economy faced serious challenges, including from the ongoing ‘trade war’ with the US, but still ranked as the world’s second largest. Its Belt and Road Initiative, meanwhile, continued to carve paths of influence and economic integration across several continents. A deft combination of policy, investment, and entrepreneurship has also turned the PRC into a global ‘techno-power’. It aims, with a good chance of success, at becoming a global science and technology leader by 2049 – one hundred years from the founding of the PRC. In surveying the various ways in which the Party-state wields its hard, soft, and sharp power, the China Story Yearbook: Power offers readers a sense of the diversity of power at work both in China and abroad. Citizens of the PRC have long negotiated the state’s influence; increasingly, diaspora communities and other actors are now being subject to its might. As with previous editions in the series, we place important developments in historical context, and adopt a cross-disciplinary approach: it is our view that economy and politics cannot be divorced from culture, history, and society. The Yearbook provides accessible analysis of the main events and trends of the year and is an essential tool for understanding China’s growing power and influence around the world.

Linda Jaivin

Books

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