Xun Liu

This compilation of the New Practical Chinese Reader is organized by the China National office for Teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language (NOCFL). Now available in four volumes, this series features a total of 50 lessons. It includes vocabulary, grammar, drills and text grouped around the following topics: courtship, the role of men and women in society, career objectives, traditions of the Spring Festival, the writings of Lu Xun, bargaining for discounts, interviewing for a job, part-time work, family planning in China, visiting a traditional Chinese doctor, and China's launch of the Shenzhou 5 spacecraft. These textbooks have been widely used by students in North America, Australia and Europe. The fifth and sixth volumes of the series will be published later this year. Text in simplified Chinese characters.

新实用汉语课本

David A Palmer

An interdisciplinary group of scholars explores the social history and anthropology of Daoism from the late nineteenth century to the present, focusing on the evolution of traditional forms of practice and community, as well as modern reforms and reinventions. Essays investigate ritual specialists, body cultivation and meditation traditions, monasticism, new religious movements, state-sponsored institutionalization, and transnational networks"--Publisher's Web site.

Daoism in the Twentieth Century

Vincent Goossaert

This book questions whether temples and Daoism are two independent aspects of modern Chinese religion or if they are indissolubly linked. It presents a useful analysis as to how modern history has changed the structure and organization of religious and social life in China, and the role that Daoism plays in this. Using an interdisciplinary approach combining historical research and fieldwork, this book focuses on urban centers in China, as this is where sociopolitical changes came earliest and affected religious life to the greatest extent and also where the largest central Daoist temples were and are located. It compares case studies from central, eastern, and southern China with published evidence and research on other Chinese cities. Contributors examine how Daoism interacted with traditional urban social, cultural, and commercial institutions and pays close attention to how it dealt with processes of state expansion, commercialization, migration, and urban development in modern times. This book also analyses the evolution of urban religious life in modern China, particularly the ways in which temple communities, lay urbanites, and professional Daoists interact with one another. A solid ethnography that presents an abundance of new historical information, this book will be of interest to academics in the field of Asian studies, Daoist studies, Asian religions, and modern China.

Xun Liu

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