Last Bender

The Golden Khersonese STUDIES IN THE HISTORICAL GEOGRAPHY OF THE MALAY PENINSULA BEFORE A.D. 1500 By Paul Wheatley Kuala Lumpur University of Malaya Press 1961 An historical geography, in the hands of the right author, is an instance of what I would call the poetry of fact. Most poets are attracted to nonfiction. Blaise Cendrars, [...]

The Rice Economies   By Francesca Bray   Basil Blackwell Ltd 1986   http://www.amazon.com/Rice-Economies-Francesca-Bray/dp/B001Q1YHAG/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1233256698&sr=1-6     Just as any study of Vietnam in some way begins with Chinese written sources, any understanding of Vietnam must begin with rice. And the book on rice I started with is Francesca Bray’s The Rice Economies. Bray is not [...]

THE VERMILLION BIRD   T’ANG IMAGES OF THE SOUTH   By Edward H. Schafer   University of California Press Berkely and Los Angeles, California Cambridge University Press London, England Copyright, 1967 by The Regents of the University of California       INTRODUCTION   “Although we know that high cultures were possible long ago in [...]