Chinese Language, Literature & Culture

Set in 19th-century China, two master warriors are faced with their greatest challenge when the treasured Green Destiny sword is stolen. A young aristocratic woman prepares for an arranged marriage, but soon reveals her superior fighting talents and her romantic past. As each warrior battles for justice, they come face-to-face with their worst enemy, and the enduring power of love. Academy Awards Winner for Best Foreign Language Film.

Story that spans more than 50 years in the lives of two men at the Peking Opera, friends since childhood, and the woman who comes between them. Also an absorbing drama of the period in Chinese history from the warlord era through the Cultural Revolution. An Academy Awards Nominee for Best Foreign Language Film.

Set in late nineteenth-century Shanghai and takes place in an elegant brothel. With its own highly ritualized codes of behavior, the lives of the "Flower girls" depend on their ability to win, and then keep, the affections of their wealthy callers.

With supernatural skill and no fear a nameless soldier embarks on a mission of revenge against the fearsome army that massacred his people. Now, to achieve the justice he seeks, he must take on the empire's most ruthless assassins and reach the enemy he has sworn to defeat. An Academy Awards Nominee for Best Foreign Language Film.

During the reign of the Tang dynasty in China, a secret organization called "The House of the Flying Daggers" rises and opposes the government. Leo is a police officer who sends officer Jin to investigate a young dancer named Mei, claiming that she has ties to the "Flying Daggers" organization. Leo ends up arresting Mei, only to have Jin break her free in a plot to gain her trust and lead the police to the new leader of the secret organization. But things are far more complicated than they seem.

The abused wife of a sadistic Chinese mill owner and his overworked nephew fall in love. Only murder could free the lovers from the mill owner's tyranny- or could it? An Academy Awards Nominee for Best Foreign Language Film.

Beginning as a lusty romantic comedy about a nervous young bride's arrival and ensuing seduction at a remote winery, and ending as a heroic drama of partisan resistance during the Japanese occupation. An Academy Awards Nominee for Best Foreign Language Film.

An award-winning film from the novel Gang Law by Li Xiao. A young boy fresh from the countryside is assigned to serve the girlfriend of an organized crime boss. A bloody assault forces the wounded boss and his assistants to a remote island, where they re-group and plan their strategy of revenge. Meanwhile, his girlfriend befriends the boy and two naive neighbors with tragic results.

This story follows the individual lives of the Jian family. Due to many circumstances, the entire family will have to re-evaluate who they are and what their lives have become.

Available in print and as an e-book

Available in print and e-book

E-book

Explains the essential customs, culture, and etiquette in one hundred brief, reader-friendly chapters. China A to Z introduces a general audience to contemporary Chinese society, as well as its venerable history.