Manga Mousepads

A variety of powerful Manga illustrations adorn these mousepads, making them the perfect gift for comic book lovers. From hip and heroic to soft and sexy, these unique designs will add style to any desktop workstation. These official Manga artworks are sold under license from Chinese illustration Studios.

http://www.cafepress.com/hantranslation/513277

Political Zodiac

Even the symbolism of the 12 ancient Chinese Zodiac animals can reflect the current political landscape. Our designs use real Japanese Kanji characters that have a striking similarity to the Democratic and Republican party mascots. But what better way to express your political views that by proclaiming your candidate in the year of the "Rat" and the year of the "Ape."

http://www.cafepress.com/hantranslation/583851

Vintage Japan

The origins of the Japanese woodblock prints or ukiyo-e (pictures of the floating world) go back to the middle of the 17th century. The first prints were black and white, but the technique to use more one block (one for each color) and allowed the introduction of color woodblock prints. The most commonly illustrated subjects are theater, women, landscapes, animals and scenes from old legends. In the second half of the 19th century when Japan's isolation was broken by the US navy under Captain Perry's command, Ukiyo-e soon became very popular all over the world. Enjoy our reprint collection of these fashionable and timeless beauties from Japan.

http://www.cafepress.com/hantranslation/387477

China Photo Postcards

Send your greetings from Asia without ever leaving your own home. Enjoy and share postcards greetings with our internationally acclaimed photography by SongLi. Over the years as a Creative Director in advertising, he has worked for major agencies around the world. His unique vision brings even simple subjects to life. Now you can share his award winning photography with these limited edition postcards taken around Japan and China.

http://www.cafepress.com/hantranslation/495164

Buddhism Swastika Awareness

The swastika is an ancient symbol found worldwide and especially common in India. The swastika's Indian name comes the Sanskrit word "svasti," meaning good fortune, luck and well being. In Hinduism, the right-hand (clockwise) swastika is a solar symbol and the left-hand (counter-clockwise) swastika represents Kali and magic. The Buddhist swastika is almost always clockwise. In Buddhism, the swastika was commonly used in sacred art before the days of the Buddha image. As in Hinduism, it signified auspiciousness and good fortune, but also symbolized the Buddha's footprints. The swastika has often been used to mark the beginning of Buddhist texts. In China and Japan, the Buddhist swastika was seen as a symbol of plurality, eternity, abundance, prosperity and long life. Today, the swastika is still used as an auspicious mark on Buddhist images and temples. It is also often inscribed on the chest, palms or feet of images of the Buddha. In Tibetan Buddhism, it is used as a clothing decoration.

http://www.cafepress.com/hantranslation/625897

China Dolls

An assortment of illustrated Chinese beauties, showcasing traditional glamour and style from the closing days of Imperial rule. Their elegant look was a prelude to the popular evolution of Western-based fashion which was the hallmark of the 1930s. A vibrant but forgotten era, now captured in an assortment of items to collect and share. These official Manga artworks are sold under license from Chinese illustration Studios.

http://www.cafepress.com/hantranslation/513966

Colonial Manchuria

China's famous and historic landmarks did not change, even when the country was dominated by foriegn powers. We now offer numerous reproduction souvenirs from China in the 1930s, during its occupation by Japanese forces. Many of these rare items are made even more collectable by their special commemorative stamps. While this period is a darker chapter in Chinese history and is often overlooked, it has an unforgettable legacy and contemporary connection.

http://www.cafepress.com/hantranslation/558044

Kanji Zodiac

Kanji characters in Japan and China are used for writing and as symbolic artwork. These ancient ideograms are the central feature of our original and stylish designs. Our hot selling Chinese Zodiac products are taken from the 12 animal "years." They use both traditional Japanese and simplified Mandarin Kanji characters, uniquely crafted together into popular works of art.

http://www.cafepress.com/hantranslation/381667

China Photo Prints

Enjoy and share our internationally acclaimed photography by SongLi. Over the years as a Creative Director in advertising, he has worked for major agencies around the world. His unique vision brings even simple subjects to life. Now you can own a copy of his award winning photography with these limited edition prints taken around China. Currently, SongLi can be seen as the evening news anchor for the Dalian TV News Network.

http://www.cafepress.com/hantranslation/383691

Blue Sky Red Tears - Mandarin Edition

Dairen was Japan's first colonial city in Machuria. It was a foothold for the Empire's plans of expansion in and conquest of China. But the prosperity of the 1930s was not shared by all of the colony's citizens. "Blue Sky Red Tears" follows the life of Lin Baixue. Born from a secret affair between a high ranking Japanese official and his Manchurian Chinese housemaid, Baixue struggles to find her identity within two societies that each view her as an outcast. As she comes of age, the secrets in her household continue to mount. Through her misery, Baixue dreams of a life in Japan on the eve a war that will envelop all of Asia. This historically detailed novel is currently banned from reading and distribution in China. It is not a political book and, in fact, details many Japanese war crimes against the Chinese. However, the subject matter is too sensitive for governmental censors. (UPDATE) In an effort to reach the Chinese-speaking market, a Mandarin edition has been translated. It will be offered for sale through CafePress this month, as soon as the Chinese government finishes its approval process. It has been with great risk and persistance that this effort was undertaken.

http://www.cafepress.com/hantranslation/576607

On the Great Highway

James Creelman became the first American journalist to interview the Pope, accompanied the Japanese in their war with China in Manchuria, visited Tolstoy at his home in Russia, got wounded in the Philippines as a correspondent in the Spanish-American War (he was taunting the Spanish after the Americans had seized their flag), pow-wowed with Sitting Bull, and reported on the death of President McKinley at the hands of an assassin. With the sharp, clipped writing of a master journalist, Creelman tells the story of his times, and of the part he played in that story.

http://www.cafepress.com/hantranslation.26018447

China and the Foreign Powers

The relationship between China and the world is a complex one of economic cooperation and political mistrust. This book give a detailed account of the turbulent times in Asia at the turn of the century. Plus, its historic perspective sheds light on the damaging effects caused by Japan and interfering Western Powers. It is set at a time when China is surrounded by outside forces, while being torn apart by inner ones. There remain many parallels to the condition of China then and now, and the resulting global effects. The future of China remains deeply rooted in its past, and to understand its course, we must first review its previous directions.

http://www.cafepress.com/hantranslation.15709683

The Civilization of China

Herbert Allen Giles (1845-1935) was a British linguist who modified a Mandarin Chinese Romanization system established by Thomas Wade earlier, resulting in the Wade-Giles Chinese transliteration system. Giles was a diplomat to China (1867-1892) who later became a Chinese professor at Cambridge. This book "The Civilization of China" is his classic detailed history of China, beginning in the Feudal Age and continues until 1911, long before the Communist Revolution.

http://www.cafepress.com/hantranslation.15881767

China and the Manchus

Herbert Allen Giles (1845-1935) was a British linguist who modified a Mandarin Chinese Romanization system established by Thomas Wade earlier, resulting in the Wade-Giles Chinese transliteration system. Giles was a diplomat to China (1867-1892) who later became a Chinese professor at Cambridge. This book "China and the Manchu" is his classic detailed history of the Manchu Empire and its 300 year reign in China.

http://www.cafepress.com/hantranslation.14506371

New Forces In Old China

This book from 1909 describes the development of change within old, conservative, exclusive China by the three great transforming forces of the modern world - Western trade, Western politics and Western religion. These forces are producing stupendous changes in China with its sluggish reform policies. The full significance of these changes both to China and to the world cannot be comprehended now. There is something fascinating about a nation numbering nearly one-third of the human race slowly and majestically giving way to its old dogma and embracing the influence of new and powerful revolutionary forces. No other movement of our age is so colossal with more meaning.

http://www.cafepress.com/hantranslation.26102625

The Awakening of China

China's period of isolation is over. To understand its future, look to its recent past. A century ago, China was considered a theatre of the greatest movement taking place on the face of the globe. Efforts of all other developing nations shrink to insignificance - for it was not political, but social. Its object was not a changed dynasty, nor a revolution in the form of government, but the promise of nothing short of the complete renovation of the oldest, most populous, and most conservative of empires. Is there a people in either hemisphere that can afford to look on with indifference to the development of China? These words still ring true all these decades later.

http://www.cafepress.com/hantranslation.26100518

Memoir of a Chinese Princess

Princess Der Ling was the daughter of Lord Yu Keng, head of the Chinese Foreign Office, then Minister to France between 1899 and 1903. Wishing his daughters to have a progressive education, Lord Ku Yeng defied censure and even attempts at impeachment by placing them in European schools. When he and his family returned to China in 1903, Princess Der Ling became First Lady-in-Waiting to Tzu-Hsi, the Empress Dowager, who was fascinated by the young woman's travels and experiences in places the Empress would never see. Der Ling served her Empress for two years inside the walls of Gu Gong, Peking's Forbidden City, a walled palace built in the year 1407, and which had been the seat of government for 24 Chinese emperors. Her intimate observations of court life under the Empress Dowager, aunt to China's last emperor, P'u Yi, allow a rare look into life in a time and place still shrouded in mystery, into the last years of imperial Chinese rule, and most importantly, into the character of the remarkable woman who ruled China for more than 40 years.

http://www.cafepress.com/hantranslation.15292849

Court Life in China

One woman ruled China for nearly half a century, The Empress Dowager. An unequaled historical figure, the Empress has often been misunderstood and misrepresented. From her participation in the Boxer movement to failing to modernize China in defense against Western Powers, she has been both praised and critisized, but rarely understood. This personal account of the Empress Dowager was written by a family doctor and close personal friend. This very intimate perspective details the womans life and influence on China, the effect of which can still be felt in the country today. A must read for anyone studying Chinese history.

http://www.cafepress.com/hantranslation.15508702

Notable Women of Modern China

During a stay of some months in China during 1909, Margaret E. Burton had an opportunity to see the educational system of the country for women. She was greatly impressed, and compiled profiles of some of the most notable female figures she came to know. It was a time of an emerging New China in which women were trying to break free of centuries of tradition and enslavement by means of education. This book details their efforts to mould both their personal future and their country's.

http://www.cafepress.com/hantranslation.19485691

Glimpses of Unfamiliar Japan

Hearn offers a look into a side of Japan that no longer exists, lost in modern history. Yet his observations gave the Western world its first look at this mysterious and misunderstood culture. This first series contains many stories that transcend time and remain an insightful and intriguing. A must read for anyone interested in Japanese history and society.

http://www.cafepress.com/hantranslation.15018052

More Glimpses of Unfamiliar Japan

Hearn offers another look into a side of Japan that no longer exists, lost in modern history. Yet his observations gave the Western world its first look at this mysterious and misunderstood culture. This second series also contains many stories that transcend time and remain an insightful and intriguing. A must read for anyone interested in Japanese history and society.

http://www.cafepress.com/hantranslation.15018123

Kokoro: Hints and Echoes of Japanese Inner Life

These stories follow Hearn's particular interests of Japanese folklore and the vanishing culture of which he found himself a part in post-Meji Japan. Each story is a slice of life focusing on Japanese character, morals and feelings. This is what the Japanese people care about, what they think is important, what is inside.

http://www.cafepress.com/hantranslation.15018085

In Ghostly Japan

Much of the collection focuses on how incense relates to ghosts in terms of the Shinto and Buddhist religion. In addition, there is a mix of true stories and Japanese lore as they relate to the world of the dead.

http://www.cafepress.com/hantranslation.15017961

Kwaidan: Stories and Studies of Strange Things

This collection of 17 old stories from Japan was collected and translated by the well-known ethnographer, Lafcadio Hearn, and first published in English in 1904. The tales are old folk stories that deal with ghosts and the spirit world. Many feature the theme of spirits who take human form to disguise their true nature. They are spooky, old-fashioned stories which remain as intriguing today as when they were first written.

http://www.cafepress.com/hantranslation.15017778

JAPAN: An Attempt at Interpretation

Hearn's book is incredibly insightful and thorough, offering a history of the various forms of Shinto, Buddhism, Confucianism and other folk-practices that shaped the national character of Japan. It also details Japanese interactions and culture, and most interesting are his speculations of Japanese culture, and where it would go in his pre-WWII era. Unfortunately, some of his worst fears were realized.

http://www.cafepress.com/hantranslation.15017841

Folklore of Old Japan

Algernon Bertram Freeman-Mitford (1837-1916), Lord Redesdale, was in the British Foreign Service as a young man. He was assigned to the legation in Japan for several years and acquired a life-long fascination with Japanese culture. This book has been a standard source of information about Japanese folklore and customs since its original publication in 1871 and has been in print ever since.

http://www.cafepress.com/hantranslation.15667494

Japanese Fairy Tales

Yei Theodora Ozaki’s classic Japanese fairy tales are showcased in this new compilation. Featured are twenty-two favorite tales that introduce the vivid world of Japanese fantasy. It is a landscape of ghouls, goblins, and ogres. Of sea serpents and sea kings. Kind and magical animals. Demons and dragons, princes and princesses. A must read for anyone interested in Japanese myths and legends.

http://www.cafepress.com/hantranslation.14700518

Bushido: The Soul of Japan

Originally written during the Russo-Japanese War of 1904, this revised edition explains the Japanese soul from a unique historical perspective. Written by a Japanese professor, it contrasts the Spirit of Japanese culture at a time of its transition into the modern world. Bushido as the warrior code of the samurai. Bushido was a strict code that demanded loyalty, devotion, and honor to the death. Under Bushido, if a samurai failed to uphold his honor he could regain it by performing seppuku (ritual suicide).

http://www.cafepress.com/hantranslation.15685822

Christianity In Japan

This book attempts to interpret the characteristics of Japan at a time when it became a modern power. It focuses on many social attitudes, and the role of religion and influences of Christianity on the society. Written over a hundred years ago, the study remains key to understanding the modern Japanese mind, and unlocking further understanding of past events.

http://www.cafepress.com/hantranslation.15996425

Diaries of Court Ladies From Old Japan

Written nearly one thousand years ago, these diaries continue to intrigue modern readers. Authored by three Ladies of the Royal Court in Japan, they show not only Imperial life, but also life in Japan before its traditional fourteenth-century image. These diaries were written centuries before the Shogun or samurai developed into the powerful military class that divided all of Japan, and plunged it into a long and bloody civil war. The events detailed are therefore very different in context to how the Western World views Old Japan. These accounts are also some of the oldest records in not only Japanese history, but in written history.

http://www.cafepress.com/hantranslation.16435666

The Tale Of Genji

Murasaki Shikibu's epic-length novel, The Tale of Genji, probes the psychological, romantic and political workings of mid-Heian Japan. The novel earned Murasaki Shikibu notoriety even in the early 11th century, some six hundred years before the printing press made it available to the masses. Court society, which served as the subject of the novel, sought out chapters. Ladies-in-waiting and courtiers even pilfered unrevised copies, according to legend. Some thousand years later, the novel continues to delight an enthusiastic audience. Murasaki Shikibu and her creation Genji have achieved National Treasure status in Japan and admiration all over the world. The tale spreads across four generations, splashed with poetry and romance and heightened awareness to the fleeting quality of life. Murasaki Shikibu's tale of love, sex, and politics explores a complex web of human and spiritual relationships.

http://www.cafepress.com/hantranslation.16655098