Reviews


Li Shi-Zhen's Pulse Studies: An Illustrated Guide
Date Added: 02/13/2014 by Robert Baker
This is enlightening in many ways. A completely credible and understandable interpretation of many of the classics of Pulse Diagnosis....


Contemporary Chinese: 2 MP3 (For Beginners)
Date Added: 01/31/2014 by Peter Whiteley
The listening component of the Contemporary Chinese course is a necessary companion to the books for a native English speaker like me. It is helpful that everything is read out by both a male and female speaker one after the other. It was the only way I could "triangulate" some pronunciations, and this brings me to the issue I found with this the Contemporary Chinese course as a native English speaker. It would have helped me if the books and audio made COMPARISONS of initials' pronunciation with familiar English letter combinations. As in "qi sounds like chi" etc. I had the same problem in my Chinese class and had to ask the teacher to clarify the pronunciations of initials using similar sounding English letter combinations so i could comprehend the sound my mouth was meant to be making. Of course exact phonetic representations aren't available for all the initials, but for initials like "zh", "q" "x" it would have helped me wrap my head around the sound I was meant to be making. Due to my difficulty with this I had to repeatedly listen to some initials to simply guess the way the speaker was saying it, only to find out when speaking to a native Mandarin speaker that what I thought I had heard was wrong! A second issue that stemmed from the first was that for me some of the initials are so similar sounding to one another that I could not understand how to make them sound DIFFERENT as they are meant to be. These issues slowed my development down considerably, but apart from the immense irritation I felt at these 2 issues, the listening component is an adequate companion to the course content and does still help everywhere else. I still recommend this, but attention given to comparative pronunciations using English letter combinations would have helped me learn a LOT quicker....


Illustrated Chinese Tuina Techniques and Methods
Date Added: 01/01/2014 by Robert MIceli
A very economically priced text on classical Tuina techniques.Written in both Chinese & English languages.The first 100 pages of the text gives instruction on Qi Gong movements using real people to give accurate stance and positioning.
The Qi Gong practice is to preserve,and enhance Qi so that the practitioner does not become energy depleted as a result of providing Chinese Tuina on the patient.The book then covers Tuina
techniques such as one finger pushing, rocking manipulation, rolling, kneading, different rubbing methods, scrubbing, twisting, hooking, scraping, compressions, grasping, nipping and many more. Regretfully, these are line drawing illustrations but more than adequate for understanding.There is quite an extensive section dealing with the application of Tuina, to treat specific afflictions and injuries... not only with Tuina techniques but also drawing on the use of acupuncture points.Contra-indications are given for patient safety.
All in all a very good hard bound text, comprising of 327 pages on good quality paper. I highly recommend this text for any student learning Tuina, Remedial Massage or indeed for all Chinese Medicine practitioners as a reference resource....


Stone Seal Set (Free carving, with ink pad and brocade box)
Date Added: 12/10/2013 by Maureen Biagi
Very good value. Truthfully, I was not expecting this quality for this price. The seal is beautiful, the carving well done, and the freedom to choose what I wanted on the seal is appreciated. It stamps very well. And your customer service is excellent. I am delighted with my purchase, and with discovering Purple Culture....


China in the Eyes of Flying Tigers 1944-1945
Date Added: 08/04/2013 by Vera Adams
I too am a child of a Flying Tiger stationed in Kunming. I just purchased the book and look forward to seeing 1944 thru my father's eyes. I will report my findings....


Primary Cudgel Play
Date Added: 07/29/2013 by Gang Ma
Very good and easy understand.


Chinese Breeze Graded Reader Series, Level 2: 500 Word Level: After the Accident (with CD)
Date Added: 07/23/2013 by Portia Snijders
Nice little love story. Very clever to write such a story with only 300 (plus some new) words. Good for your reading skills but I especially liked the DVD with a slow and "normal" spoken version to upgrade my listening skills....


Primary Cudgel Play
Date Added: 06/19/2013 by Gang Ma
Nice book. The CD makes it easier understandable.


Classical Chinese for Modern Usage vol.2
Date Added: 06/10/2013 by zhong
very costly


New Practical Chinese Reader vol.1 Textbook with DVD Video
Date Added: 06/05/2013 by Silke Becker
A good and thorough language learning book, giving comprehensive guiding throughout. However, the accompanying DVD certainly lacks exactly this - it does not offer pronounciation helps and the texts are spoken so fast that a beginner will struggle to understand the difference between the tones and some letters sounding similar in the beginning....