Book briefs
(China Daily)
Updated: 2010-07-09 09:38
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Enduring appeal of Tibetan love songs
The love songs and poems of Tsangyang Gyatso (1683-1706), the legendary sixth Dalai Lama, moved generations of readers and listeners. His songs are still sung today and have been translated into English and other languages.
In her new book, Not Failing the Buddha and You: Poems and Love of Tsangyang Gyatso, Chengdu-based writer Yao Min, 37, recounts Tsangyang Gyatso's life and works in elegant prose. Yao records her trips in Tibet in search of the religious leader's footsteps, and recreates the historical period in which he lived.
The book is packaged with a free copy of a collection of Tsangyang Gyatso's poems.
Tibetan flower fairy animated
Sichuan Nationalities Publishing House is animating an important traditional Tibetan opera for the silver screen. As one of the nation's leading publishers of minority literature, the publishing house founded in 1953 in Chengdu, Sichuan province, has excelled in recording the histories of Tibetan, Yi and Qiang people in their own languages.
Flower Fairy (Drowa Sangmo), one of eight classic Tibetan operas, will be the country's first digital animations based on a story of ethnic groups. The love story between an ancient King and the Flower Fairy will be bilingual, in Mandarin and Tibetan, with English subtitles.
The 100-minute film will be finished next July. Free discs will be supplied to primary and middle schools located in Tibetan communities while the movie will be shown in cinemas and on CCTV.
The publishing house recently unveiled a number of new books, including Precious and Rare Wildlife in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, a work that took five years to complete and includes more than 600 photos to illustrate 317 kinds of typical wildlife on the plateau.
Locking the Sand, a novel on ecological conservation by Guo Yanli, Classics of Shibi of Qiang Minority, and a Mandarin version of Compilation of Chinese Minorities' Ancient Classics are other eye-catching works.
Pointers for good presentations
Don't Tell Me that You Know PPT, which appeared in January, has become a surprising bestseller as the author Li Zhi provides a new approach to being promoted at work, offering techniques and strategies.
Li considers her distillation of "10 years practical experience" far more than a know-how book, she views it as a book that presents a professional working attitude and the art of being an employee.
Li, who once worked at PepsiCo in the United States, was successful at school and at work due to her mastery of PowerPoint skills. Based on her university and company lectures on producing such presentations, Li shares her thoughts and methods in giving PowerPoint presentations with creativity and humor. Numerous real life cases from Li's career make the book a fun and thought-provoking read.
Revealing class discrimination
Selecting from 30 cases of children of migrant workers in cities who have experienced education inequality, prolific children's literature writer Wu Meizhen has recorded the six most representative stories in her book Desk Under the Blue Sky (Lantian Xiade Kezhuo).
She discusses the problems the children face in getting admitted and becoming integrated at school.
Wu is famous for her humorous and witty works, but in this book, she tells real stories with neutrality.
She was inspired to write about this group of children two years ago when she was a hotline psychology counselor for students. Wu then started to maintain contact with some of them and talked to some of them face to face.
"Their living conditions made them shy but tough, sensitive but with high self-esteem," Wu says. "Education is their stepping stone to a better life in the city and they should not be deprived of that."