Welcome to Asia Bookroom

Welcome to Asia Bookroom: the Internet's specialists in books on all parts of Asia. Our stock extends from new books hot off the press to rare antiquarian volumes, and includes a great range of books on China, Japan, India, Korea, all parts of Southeast Asia including Indonesia, Thailand, Burma, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, Malaysia and Singapore, as well as books on Central Asia, the Himalayas, the Pacific and the Middle East. We also stock a wide range of books on Asian Art, Religion & Philosophy, Language Learning, Film & Theatre, Cooking, Travel, Martial Arts, as well as DVD movies, World Music, and Software.

New books are arriving all the time. Here are a just few of the latest.

The City of Heavenly Tranquillity. Beijing in the History of China.
BECKER, JASPER.
AU$49.95
Maps, black and white photographic plates, viii + 370pp, bibliography, notes, index, dustjacket. The great city of Beijing, capital of China from the ninth century, and given its form for five hundred years by the Ming Dynasty, was for a millennium one of the most extraordinary places on earth. At a time when London, Paris, or Rome had only several hundred thousand residents, Beijing held over a million. This book tells the history of this great city, and through it provides a highly engaging summary history of China.In the summer of 1997, President Jiang Zemin made a decision to destroy the old city. There was no announcement, no explanation given, nor any attempt made to justify his decision. Even those working as architects only became aware of what was happening when it was already too late. Expertly moving between historical analysis and reportage, Jasper Becker describes the impact of this systematic destruction. This is a unique telling of the history of Beijing that encapsulates both the grandeur of its creation and the tragedy of its current transformation. (When referring to this item please quote stockid 123533) ... more
Stock ID: 123533

Vishnu's Crowded Temple. India Since the Great Rebellion.
MISRA, MARIA.
AU$26.95
Maps, black and white as well as colour plates, 535pp, index, bibliography, index, paperback. There can be few more discussed countries in the world today than India. From being a seemingly closed off, economically stagnant part of Asia, with intractable problems of poverty and population, India has in a short space of time reached an astonishing level of growth, taking with China the lion's share of the benefits from post-Cold War globalization. In "Vishnu's Crowded Temple", Maria Misra has written the essential history to allow us to understand this extraordinary transformation. (When referring to this item please quote stockid 123535) ... more
Stock ID: 123535

The Penguin History of Modern China. The Fall and Rise of a Great Power, 1850 - 2008.
FENBY, JONATHAN.
AU$69.95
Maps, colour as well as black and white photographic plates, xlvii + 762pp, notes, bibliography, appendices, index, dustjacket, octavo. In the second half of the 19th century, China appeared as the sick man of Asia, rocked by recurrent revolts and huge natural disasters, ruled by an anachronistic imperial system and humiliated by foreign invasions. Karl Marx saw it as bound to disintegrate, like 'any mummy carefully preserved in a hermetically sealed coffin'. The first half of the 20th century was even worse, culminating in fourteen years of invasion by Japan, four years of civil war and three decades of chaotic, oppressive rule by Mao Zedong that killed tens of millions. Now, at the start of the 21st century, China is a major global force, booming economically and confident that it holds the keys to a future in which it will rival the United States.It is impossible to understand modern China without understanding the country's terrible recent past and Jonathan Fenby's magnificent new book is the essential work. "The Penguin History of Modern China" is both a brilliant narrative, crammed with surprising and interesting stories, and a profound study of the nature of political power and its abuse. (When referring to this item please quote stockid 123534) ... more
Stock ID: 123534

Military History of India and South Asia. From the East India Company to the Nuclear Era.
MARSTON, DANIEL P., AND CHANDAR S. SUNDARAM,
AU$46.95
Maps, black and white photographic illustrations, xii + 235pp, notes, index, paperback. "A Military History of India and South Asia" provides a much-needed overview of the military history of the region since 1700, covering the areas that are today the states of India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and Bangladesh. In chapters devoid of academic jargon, leading scholars offer lucid introductions to topics ranging from the rise of the British East India Company, to the Indian Army in the First World War, to the rise of national armies and current tensions between India and Pakistan. Contributors are Rajesh M Basrur, Raymond Callahan, Bhashyam Kasturi, Daniel P Marston, Tim Moreman, David Omissi, Douglas M Peers, Srinath Raghavan, Kaushik Roy, Chandar S Sundaram, and Channa Wickremesekera. (When referring to this item please quote stockid 123103) ... more
Stock ID: 123103

Conquering the Desert of Death. Across the Taklamakan.
BLACKMORE, CHARLES.
AU$35.00
Maps, colour as well as black and white photographic illustrations, xxv + 268pp, appendix, paperback. The ferocious Taklamakan desert, the harshest on earth, is known by the Chinese as the 'desert of death' or the 'place of no return' - you go in but you don't come out. It sustains no life and has taken the lives of many of those who have ventured in. Its unknown depths are said to be haunted by demons and spirits and legend has it that ancient cities filled with treasure lie lost and buried beneath its dunes. The only certainty is that no human being in history had ever crossed it from end to end. But, after five years of planning, Charles Blackmore together with a team of British, Chinese and Uyghurs and a caravan of thirty camels, set out to accomplish the seemingly impossible: they would cross the Taklamakan, west to east, directly through its unmapped, untrodden centre. "Conquering the Desert of Death" is at once a deeply personal journey and the story of an adventure that will go down in history as one of the great achievements of exploration. (When referring to this item please quote stockid 123743) ... more
Stock ID: 123743