{"title":"Asian History","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"9781913083342","title":"The Shortest History of India","description":"\u003cbr\u003eBinding: Hardback","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43127998611634,"sku":"9781913083342","price":12.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781913083342.jpg?v=1786030760"},{"product_id":"9781804175750","title":"Japanese Ancient Origins","description":"• A Collector's Edition, with deluxe binding and cover.• A new introduction highlights the interplay between history and myth• Introduces the characters, landscape and the culture.• The series spans history and the origins of modern fiction in myth and fable.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43128042684594,"sku":"9781804175750","price":10.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781804175750.jpg?v=1786026708"},{"product_id":"9781472157140","title":"Fortune's Bazaar","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eA timely, well-researched, and vibrant new history of Hong Kong that reveals the untold stories of the diverse peoples who have made it a multicultural world metropolis-and whose freedoms are endangered today.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHong Kong has always been many cities to many people: a seaport, a gateway to an empire, a place where fortunes can be dramatically made or lost, a place to disappear and reinvent oneself, and a mixing pot of diverse populations from literally everywhere around the globe. A British Crown Colony for 155 years, Hong Kong is now ruled by the Chinese Communist Party who continues to threaten its democracy and put its rich legacy at risk. Here, renowned journalist Vaudine England delves into Hong Kong's complex history and its people-diverse, multi-cultural, cosmopolitan-who have made this one-time fishing village into the world port city it is today.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eRather than a traditional history describing a town led by British Governors or a mere offshoot of a collapsing Chinese empire, Fortune's Bazaar is the first thorough examination of the varied peoples who made Hong Kong. While British traders and Asian merchants had long been busy in the Indian and South East Asian seas, there were many from different cultures and ethnic backgrounds who arrived in Hong Kong, met and married-despite all taboos-and created a distinct community. Many of Hong Kong's most influential figures during its first century as a city were neither British nor Chinese-they were Malay or Indian, Jewish or Armenian, Parsi or Portuguese, Eurasian or Chindian-or simply, Hong Kongers. England describes those overlooked in history including the opium-traders who built synagogues or churches, ship-owners carrying gold-rush migrants, property tycoons, and more. Here, too, is the visionary who plumbed Hong Kong's harbor depths to spur reclamation, the half-Dutch Chinese gentleman with two wives who was knighted by Queen Victoria, and the landscape gardeners who settled Kowloon and became millionaires.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eA story of empire, race, and sex, \u003ci\u003eFortune's Bazaar\u003c\/i\u003e combines deep archival research and oral history to present a vivid history of a special place-a unique city made by diverse people of the world, whose part in its creation has never been properly told until now.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43128703353010,"sku":"9781472157140","price":25.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781472157140_73f5911a-49d3-4827-8202-efe2761fa96e.jpg?v=1786020494"},{"product_id":"9780702315732","title":"I Love Chinese New Year","description":"       A gorgeously illustrated introduction to Chinese New      Year, written by Eva Wong Nava and illustrated by Li Xin.         'Twelve animals, one for each year, each one with their own      special powers.         It all started with a race to cross the most heavenly of rivers.'      Chinese New Year is right around the corner and Mai-Anne      is so excited!       As her family start decorating the house, there's a knock on the      door... her grandmother, Nai Nai, has arrived!      They start their celebrations with a traditional meal filled with      fish for good luck, noodles for long life, dumplings for blessings      and a WHOLE chicken. Then after dinner Nai Nai tells the story      of how Chinese New year began, with the Great Race!      Join Mai-Anne as she learns about twelve animals and their      special powers in the story of how Chinese New Year began!            A beautifully illustrated introduction to the true meaning of      Chinese New Year and family traditions for little ones      A love letter to all the grandparents in the world      Features some non-fiction facts on the last pages for especially      curious minds about Chinese New Year, including different countries'      traditions      Illustrations of China Towns around the world on the first and      last pages      Written and illustrated by two brilliantly talented Asian women","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43128882954418,"sku":"9780702315732","price":7.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780702315732_0d672e52-6ca7-4627-bc10-74f077913c83.jpg?v=1786014651"},{"product_id":"9780500480878","title":"Southeast Asia","description":"Created in collaboration with the British Museum, this richly illustrated volume displays the arts, histories, and cultures of Southeast Asia from about 6,000 years ago to the twenty-first century, covering modern-day Myanmar, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia, East Timor, Brunei, the Philippines, and Singapore. The incredible diversity of the region appears through the ancient sculptures of Java, Bagan, Angkor, and Sukhothai, paintings, ceramics, silver, ritual objects, basketry, textiles, and contemporary art.Southeast Asia: A History in ObjectsExploring topics like the monuments of Angkor Wat and Borobudur, the spirits of the Philippines, funerary figures of the Toraja people, the narrative paintings of Bali, and the musical instruments and shadow puppets of Java and Thailand, this volume is an informative visual treat for curious minds, historians, and cultural adventurers everywhere.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43128906449074,"sku":"9780500480878","price":32.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780500480878_3b49bb5a-c475-43eb-abae-a6b54e9cc666.jpg?v=1786013652"},{"product_id":"9780500480809","title":"Creators of Modern China","description":"Discover the stories of 100 women and men whose activities in the 19th century laid the foundations of modern China.     Through telling the lives of one hundred significant individuals, this book explores how China transformed from dynastic empire to modern republican nation during the period 1796 to 1912.   Both famous and surprisingly little-known women and men are brought together in eight thematic sections that bring to life the complexities of China’s path to modernity. Featured figures include the Dowager Empress Cixi, the power behind the throne of the Qing dynasty for fifty years; Yu Rongling, the aristocratic daughter of a Qing diplomat who trained in Paris with Isadora Duncan and is now seen as one of the founders of modern dance in China; Shi Yang, the most powerful woman pirate in the world, celebrated in popular culture as a female icon; the Manchu-Chinese Duanfang, a lynchpin of late Qing government and an avid collector of international art, murdered by his own troops in the 1911 Revolution that ended dynastic rule; Luo Zhenyu, a pioneer of Chinese archaeology whose discoveries and research empirically confirmed the antiquity of Chinese civilization; and many others.     Written by an international team of specialists, this book populates the landscapes of modern Chinese history with extraordinary individuals, making sense of the drama and creativity of the country’s ‘long 19th century’.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43128906481842,"sku":"9780500480809","price":35.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780500480809.jpg?v=1786013648"},{"product_id":"9781035014729","title":"India After Gandhi","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e'Magisterial' - \u003ci\u003eThe Financial Times\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAn updated edition of Ramachandra Guha's \u003ci\u003eIndia After Gandhi\u003c\/i\u003e with new material that explains the major events, policy shifts and controversies of the past decade, placing them in their proper sociological and historical context and setting out the author's justifiable concerns for the decline of democracy in India.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBorn against a background of privation and civil war, divided along lines of caste, class, language and religion, independent India emerged, somehow, as a united and democratic country. Ramachandra Guha’s hugely acclaimed book tells the full story – the pain and the struggle, the humiliations and the glories – of the world’s largest and least likely democracy.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWhile India is sometimes the most exasperating country in the world, it is also the most interesting. Ramachandra Guha writes compellingly of the myriad protests and conflicts that have peppered the history of free India. Moving between history and biography, the story of modern India is peopled with extraordinary characters. Guha gives fresh insights into the lives and public careers of those long-serving Prime Ministers, Jawaharlal Nehru and Indira Gandhi. 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This third edition brings the story fully up to date.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43172904960178,"sku":"9781035014729","price":25.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781035014729.jpg?v=1786017234"},{"product_id":"9780006388517","title":"Freedom at Midnight","description":"The electrifying story of India’s struggle for independence, told in this classic account (first published in 1975) by two fine journalists who conducted hundreds of interviews with nearly all the surviving participants – from Mountbatten to the assassins of Mahatma Gandhi.On 14 August 1947 one-fifth of humanity claimed their independence from the greatest empire history has ever seen. But 400 million people were to find that the immediate price of freedom was partition and war, riot and murder. In this superb reconstruction, Collins and Lapierre recount the eclipse of the fabled British Raj and examine the roles enacted by, among others, Mahatma Gandhi and Lord Mountbatten in its violent transformation into the new India and Pakistan.This is the India of Jawaharlal Nehru, heart-broken by the tragedy of the country’s division; of Mohammed Ali Jinnah, a Moslem who drank, ate pork and rarely entered a mosque, yet led 45 million Muslims to nationhood; of Gandhi, who stirred a subcontinent without raising his voice; of the last viceroy, Mountbatten, beseeched by the leaders of an independent India to take back the powers he’d just passed to them.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43201133445298,"sku":"9780006388517","price":16.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780006388517.jpg?v=1785658569"},{"product_id":"9780008356262","title":"The Gate to China","description":"‘Impressive … Fascinating’ Sunday Times‘An authoritative history’ Financial Times‘Gripping and richly researched’ Rana MitterA superb new history of the rise of China and the fall of Hong Kong to authoritarian rule.The rise of China and the fall of Hong Kong to authoritarian rule are told with unique insight in this new history by Michael Sheridan, drawing on eyewitness reporting over three decades, interviews with key figures and documents from archives in China and the West.The story sweeps the reader from the earliest days of trade through the Opium Wars of the 19th century to the age of globalisation and the handover of Hong Kong from Britain to China. It ends with the battle for democracy on the city’s streets and the ultimate victory of the Chinese Communist Party.How did it come to this? We learn from private papers that Margaret Thatcher anguished over the fate of Hong Kong, sought secret American briefings on how to handle China and put her trust in an adviser who was torn between duty and pride. The deal they made with Beijing did not last.The Chinese side of this history, so often unheard, emerges from memoirs and documents, many new to the foreign reader, revealing how the party’s iron will and negotiating tactics crushed its opponents. Yet the voices of Hong Kong people – eloquent, smart and bold – speak out here for ideals that refuse to die.Sheridan’s book tells how Hong Kong opened the way for the People’s Republic as it reformed its economy and changed the world, emerging to challenge the West with a new order that raises fundamental questions about progress, identity and freedom. 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Four men, three women. Before and after being jailed or deported they did remarkable and pioneering work in a variety of fields: journalism, social reform, education, organic agriculture, environmentalism.This book tells their stories, each renegade motivated by idealism and genuine sacrifice; each connected to Gandhi, though some as acolytes where others found endless infuriation in his views; each understanding they would likely face prison sentences for their resistance, and likely live and die in India; each one leaving a profound impact on the region in which they worked, their legacies continuing through the institutions they founded and the generations and individuals they inspired.Through the entwined lives, wonderfully told by one of the world’s finest historians, we reach deep insights into relations between India and the West, and India’s story as a country searching for its identity and liberty beyond British colonial rule.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43201318092978,"sku":"9780008498801","price":11.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780008498801_6e064565-093e-4ae3-9e86-b9e53a358e29.jpg?v=1786011135"},{"product_id":"9780060957513","title":"From Third World to First","description":"\u003cp\u003eFew gave tiny Singapore much chance of survival when it was granted independence in 1965. 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This miraculous history is dramatically recounted by the man who not only lived through it all but who fearlessly forged ahead and brought about most of these changes.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e Delving deep into his own meticulous notes, as well as previously unpublished government papers and official records, Lee details the extraordinary efforts it took for an island city–state in Southeast Asia to survive at that time.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e Lee explains how he and his cabinet colleagues finished off the communist threat to the fledgling state's security and began the arduous process of nation building: forging basic infrastructural roads through a land that still consisted primarily of swamps, creating an army from a hitherto racially and ideologically divided population, stamping out the last vestiges of colonial–era corruption, providing mass public housing, and establishing a national airline and airport.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e In this illuminating account, Lee writes frankly about his trenchant approach to political opponents and his often unorthodox views on human rights, democracy, and inherited intelligence, aiming always \"to be correct, not politically correct.\" Nothing in Singapore escaped his watchful eye: whether choosing shrubs for the greening of the country, restoring the romance of the historic Raffles Hotel, or openly, unabashedly persuading young men to marry women as well educated as themselves. 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Although the modern nation of Pakistan as we know it was created as a homeland for the Muslims of British India, it is impossible to understand the complex tapestry of linguistic, ethnic, and cultural identities and tensions of the region without tracing its deep past.This Very Short Introduction looks at Pakistan as one of the two nation-states of the Indian sub-continent that emerged in 1947. Pippa Virdee reaches into the ancient past to demonstrate the influence of trajectories of human settlement and civilisation on Pakistan's contemporary political arena, and shows how the longer continuities between the land and its peoples are as important as the short-term changes in the political landscape. She considers Pakistan's religion and society, the state and the military, everyday life, popular culture, languages and literature, as well as Pakistan's relationship with the rest of the world. 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Much attention has been given to how China's geo-economic vision is playing out in the global economy, or how its technology is reshaping the planet, yet it is over its western borders, in Central Asia, that China's influence has been quietly expanding in a more pervasive way. It is here that you can find the first strand of Xi Jinping's grand Belt and Road Initiative, China's new Silk Road to the West. It is to the Eurasian heartland that we can look for an understanding of China's new foreign policy vision and its consequences. In Sinostan, two acclaimed foreign policy experts recount their travels across Central Asia to keep their finger on the pulse and tell the story of China's growing influence. They interview Chinese traders in latter day Silk Road bazaars; climb remote mountain passes threatened by construction; commiserate with Afghan archaeologists charged with saving centuries-old Buddhist ruins before they are swept away by mining projects; meet with eager young Central Asians learning Mandarin; and sit with officials in all five Central Asian capitals, bearing witness to a region increasingly transformed by Beijing's presence. 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How did conscripts and volunteers live through the war and how can they live with the scars?\u003cbr\u003eMark Baker recorded conversations with dozens of Vietnam veterans.  NAM is a unique and harrowing collection of those interviews, as raw and shocking as an open wound.  This is the story of the human cost of a war that had no survivors, only veterans.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43201733656754,"sku":"9780349102399","price":12.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780349102399.jpg?v=1786013692"},{"product_id":"9780349144481","title":"Lion City","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eLion City\u003c\/i\u003e tells the extraordinary story of Singapore - the world's most successful city state.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e In 1965, Singapore's GDP per capita was on a par with Jordan. Now it has outstripped Japan. 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This is a concise and entertaining guide to the complex tradition of Chinese mythology. While many around the world are familiar with some aspects of Chinese myth – through Chinese New Year festivities or the classic adventures of the Monkey King in Journey to the West – few outside of China understand the richness of Chinese mythology, influenced by Daoism, Buddhism and Confucianism.       Offering much more than any competing overview of Chinese mythology, The Chinese Myths not only retells the ancient stories but also considers their place within the patterns of Chinese religions, culture and history. 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This is a smart and succinct guide to the rich tradition of Japanese mythology, from the earliest recorded legends of Izanagi and Izanami, their divine offspring and the creation of Japan, to medieval tales of vengeful ghosts, through to the modern-day reincarnation of ancient deities as the heroes of mecha anime. While many around the world love Japan’s cultural exports, few are familiar with Japan’s unique mythology - enriched by Shinto, Buddhism and regional folklore.       Mythology remains a living, evolving part of Japanese society, and the ways in which the people of Japan understand their myths are very different today even from a century ago, let alone over a millennium into the past. Offering much more than any competing overview of Japanese mythology, The Japanese Myths not only retells the ancient stories but also considers their place within the patterns of Japanese religions, culture and history, helping readers to understand the deep links between past and present in Japan, and the ways these myths live and grow.     Joshua Frydman takes the very earliest written myths in the Kojiki and the Nihonshoki as his starting point, and from there traces Japan’s mythology through to post-war State Shinto, the rise of the manga industry in the 1960s, J-horror and modern-day myths. Reinventions and retellings of myth are present across all genres of contemporary Japanese culture, from its auteur cinema to renowned video games such as Okami. 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A must-read for those who want – and need – to know about the China of yesterday, today and tomorrow' Peter Frankopan\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eChina’s story is extraordinarily rich and dramatic. Now Michael Wood, one of the UK's pre-eminent historians, brings it all together in a major new one-volume history of China that is essential reading for anyone who wants to understand its burgeoning role in our world today.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e China is the oldest living civilisation on earth, but its history is still surprisingly little known in the wider world. Michael Wood's sparkling narrative, which mingles the grand sweep with local and personal stories, woven together with the author’s own travel journals, is an enthralling account of China’s 4000-year-old tradition, taking in life stationed on the \u003cb\u003eGreat Wall\u003c\/b\u003e or inside the \u003cb\u003eForbidden City\u003c\/b\u003e. 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Some of the most brutal and widespread ethnic cleansing in modern history erupted on both sides of the new border, carving a gulf between India and Pakistan that remains a root cause of many evils.From jihadi terrorism to nuclear proliferation, the searing tale told in Midnight’s Furies explains all too many of the headlines we read today.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43204428857522,"sku":"9781445660134","price":14.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781445660134.jpg?v=1786020882"},{"product_id":"9781529332469","title":"The Emperor's Feast","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e'A galloping journey through thousands of years of Chinese culinary history . . . a timely reminder that the country's modern cuisine is the delicious fruit of a rich, ancient and perhaps surprisingly multicultural tradition' \u003c\/b\u003eFUCHSIA DUNLOP, \u003ci\u003eSPECTATOR\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e'A tasty portrait of a nation' \u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003eSUNDAY TELEGRAPH\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e'A\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003e splendid introduction to the complex history of China\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003e' \u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003eGUARDIAN\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e'A terrific read . . . 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