The charismatic form of healing called qigong, based on meditative breathing exercises, has achieved enormous popularity in China during the last two decades. Qigong served a critical social organizational function, as practitioners formed new informal networks, sometimes on an international scale, at a time when China was shifting from state-subsidized medical care to for-profit market medicine. The emergence of new psychological states deemed to be deviant led the Chinese state to "medic...

What we eat, how we eat, where we eat, and when we eat are deeply embedded cultural practices. Eating is also related to how we medicate. The multimillion-dollar diet industry offers advice on how to eat for a better body and longer life, and avoiding harmful foods (or choosing healthy ones) is considered separate from consuming medicine-another multimillion-dollar industry. In contrast, most traditional medical systems view food as inseparable from medicine and regard medicinal foods as t...

Everyone loves a good cinnamon roll, but did you know cinnamon can help your hair grow longer and stronger? In 101 Amazing Uses for Cinnamon, discover the many ways this simple spice can improve your health, your home, and of course, your food. From improving memory to aiding digestion to supporting a healthy garden, add some spice to your life with cinnamon.Millions of people are turning away from the harsh effects of modern solutions and back to the gentle but powerful b...

A smart, supportive guide to staying engaged and motivated, written by a student for students.Daniel Wong doesn't have a PhD in education or psychology—but his transformation from unhappy overachiever to happy straight-A student has given him unique insight into what motivates students intrinsically.Sharing with readers his personal story and the five-step program he has developed, this book can help struggling or unmotivated students everywhere understand ...

In this exploration of the central Chinese concept of qi, a team of authors trace its role in early texts and contemporary neuroscience to show how it continues to be relevant beyond China.As life-long scholars of qi related practices, Adam Frank, Nancy Chen, and Stephen Field offer new insights into the significance of qi in the current Anthropocene. They connect Daoist studies, Chinese medicine, martial arts, popular culture, and historical phenomenology to exami...

China Urban is an ethnographic account of China’s cities and the place that urban space holds in China’s imagination. In addition to investigating this nation’s rapidly changing urban landscape, its contributors emphasize the need to rethink the very meaning of the “urban” and the utility of urban-focused anthropological critiques during a period of unprecedented change on local, regional, national, and global levels.Through close attention to everyday lives and narratives...

Providing the first overview of Asia’s emerging biosciences landscape, this timely and important collection brings together ethnographic case studies on biotech endeavors such as genetically modified foods in China, clinical trials in India, blood collection in Singapore and China, and stem-cell research in Singapore, South Korea, and Taiwan. While biotech policies and projects vary by country, the contributors identify a significant trend toward state entrepreneurialism in biotechnology, ...

What would you do if the sun became your enemy? That’s exactly what happens to Viola Li after she returns from a trip abroad and develops a sudden and extreme case of photosensitivity—an inexplicable allergy to sunlight. Thanks toher crisis-manager parents, she doesn’t just have to wear layers of clothes and a hat the size of a spaceship. She has to stay away from all hint of light. Say goodbye to windows and running outdoors. Even her phone becomes a threat when its screen burns he...

Gretchen Lin, adrift at the age of thirty, leaves her floundering marriage in San Francisco to move back to her childhood home in Singapore and immediately finds herself face-to-face with the twin headaches she’s avoided her entire adult life: her mother’s drinking problem and the machinations of her father’s artisanal soy sauce business.Surrounded by family, Gretchen struggles with the tension between personal ambition and filial duty, but still finds time to explore a new romance...

-Best Books of the Year, Kirkus Reviews-Finalist, 9 state book awards-Starred review, Publishers Weekly-Starred review, Kirkus Reviews-Starred review, BooklistAs he continued to stare, I wanted to point to my cheek and remind him, "But you were the one who wanted this, remember? You're the one who asked - and I repeat - Why not fix your face?"It's hard not to notice Terra Cooper.She's tall, blond, and has an enviable body. But with on...

A Little Golden Book version of the exciting new Disney film Ralph Breaks the Internet: Wreck-It Ralph 2--coming to theaters in November 2018!Walt Disney Animation Studios welcomes Wreck-It Ralph back to the big screen for a smashing sequel! This time, Wreck-It Ralph leaves the arcade behind, venturing into the expansive universe of the internet--which may or may not survive Ralph's not-so-light touch. This Little Golden Book is based on the upcoming featu...

The Spring 2021 Issue. Ploughshares is an award-winning journal of new writing. Since 1971, Ploughshares has discovered and cultivated the freshest voices in contemporary American literature, and remains prescient in the digital age by providing readers with thoughtful and entertaining literature in a variety of formats. Find out why the New York Times named Ploughshares “the Triton among minnows.”As guest-editor Laura van den Berg writes in her introduction, “At its core, literatu...