Anna in the Tropics
Average customer rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
  • At last, some content
  • Loved it on stage!
  • Overrated Nonsense
  • A Bit Predictable and Formulaic With A Few Good Moments
  • "Today we are baptizing our new cigar...Anna Karenina."
Anna in the Tropics
Nilo Cruz
Manufacturer: Theatre Communications Group
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 1559362324

Book Description

Winner of the 2003 Pulitizer Prize for Drama

. . . there are many kinds of light.
The light of fires. The light of stars.
The light that reflects off rivers.
Light that penetrates through cracks.
Then there's the type of light that reflects off the skin.
-Nilo Cruz, Anna in the Tropics

This lush romantic drama depicts a family of cigar makers whose loves and lives are played out against the backdrop of America in the midst of the Depression. Set in Ybor City (Tampa) in 1930, Cruz imagines the catalytic effect the arrival of a new "lector" (who reads Tolstoy's Anna Karenina to the workers as they toil in the cigar factory) has on a Cuban-American family. Cruz celebrates the search for identity in a new land.

"The words of Nilo Cruz waft from the stage like a scented breeze. They sparkle and prickle and swirl, enveloping those who listen in both specific place and time . . . and in timeless passions that touch us all. In Anna in the Tropics, the world premiere work he created for Coral Gables' intimate New Theatre, Cruz claims his place as a storyteller of intricate craftsmanship and poetic power."-Miami Herald

Nilo Cruz is a young Cuban-American playwright whose work has been produced widely around the United States including the Public Theater (New York, NY), South Coast Repertory (Costa Mesa, CA), Magic Theatre (San Francisco, CA), Oregon Shakespeare Festival, McCarter Theater (Princeton, NJ) and New Theatre (Coral Gables, FL). His other plays include Night Train to Bolina, Two Sisters and a Piano, Hortensia and the Museum of Dreams, among others. Anna in the Tropics also won the Steinberg Award for Best New Play. Mr. Cruz teaches playwriting at Yale University and lives in New York City.

Customer Reviews:

4 out of 5 stars At last, some content.......2006-03-01

Given that most plays should be seen and not read, this play is, for contemporary drama, refreshingly ambitious. It takes on the question of the transformative nature of art in life. Art gives dignity: These people, after all, roll cigars. But in a world of dignified work, they dress to come to work, take pride in their craft, and spend their days listening to performances (like those attending the play, right?), analyzing characters and plot and performers. To be displaced by a machine is not only to lose the craft of their work--the hand-rolled fine cigar displaced by the MacStoagie--but to lose, in the din of tending the machine, the opportunity to listen to performance. Is the bottom line more important than art? The symbolism may be heavy-handed, but the dramatist, after all, must work quickly to make his point. Shakespeare it ain't, but I found it refreshing to read a play with aspirations to lofty content.

5 out of 5 stars Loved it on stage!.......2005-11-14

I saw a university perform it and it blew me away! I saw the reviews and pictures for the broadway production and I feel that the more professional version is not doing the play justice as UTEP did. I still think that it is a beautiful well, written play.

2 out of 5 stars Overrated Nonsense.......2005-08-08

Living near McCarter Theater in Princeton my AP English class got to go see a production of this play while it was still being work-shopped for Broadway.
Afterwards, my teacher asked what we all thought, of course first stating that she loved it so that all of the "favorite" students knew which opinion to take.
They all raised their hands and said they loved it to, however, no one could say why. Why not? Because everyone hated it.
I was the first to open the flood gate.
"I thought it was ridiculous. It has no real substance to the plot."
"That's because the language is the point"
"Well the language is the worst part. Why would poor factory workers speak in absurdly flowery metaphors? Especially ones that stupid ('Does the bicicle miss the boy?')?"
My teacher flipped out at this.
"You don't understand! That's what literature is all about! Metaphors!"
The woman, asides from being a gigantic b**ch, was merely blinded by what reviews had told her to think and by her crush on Jimmy Smitts.
A month later, the New York Times, reviewed the play after its Broadway premiere. They said pretty much exactly what I thought. I was going to bring the review into class, but why bother? The woman already hated me.

PS. One earlier reviewer discussed how it was impossible to determine from the production the the daughter was raped. During a Q&A afterwards, Emily Mann stated that they were having problems deciding how to show this. I agree with the reviewer that they clearly didn't come to a good solution.

3 out of 5 stars A Bit Predictable and Formulaic With A Few Good Moments.......2004-11-24

I haven't seen a production of this play, so I'm judging only by the quality of the text on the page. As stated by a few other reviewers here, the play is just very predictable. Characters are narrowly drawn and perform like puppets used by the playwright to make a point about how the world is about to change from one that is warm and vital to one that is harsh and mechanized. Not exactly breaking new ground here, so it's odd the play earned a Pulitzer Prize. Maybe the production adds nuances that the written text just doesn't have (a good director can make even modest material come alive.) This play felt contrived and agenda-driven, not in a hugely in-your-face way, but more in a piece-of-fluff way. I can't imagine it surprised the author as he was writing it - which isn't good - and it probably won't surprise anyone reading it. It's old news and a bit tired.

4 out of 5 stars "Today we are baptizing our new cigar...Anna Karenina.".......2004-10-07

Winner of the 2003 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, Anna in the Tropics recreates the Cuban-American community in Ybor City, Florida, in 1929,with its color, its cockfights, its close relationships, and its love of romance. Santiago and his wife Ofelia own a cigar factory, where the sometimes illiterate workers roll cigars and, to keep from becoming bored, hire a "lector" to read to them. Romantic stories spice up their lives, and since they have finished Wuthering Heights, they now look forward to a new novel, Anna Karenina, read by a new lector, Juan Julian.

Conchita, one of the workers whose marriage with Palomo has grown stale, soon finds herself reenacting Anna Karenina, as she has a passionate affair with Juan Julian, and then tells Palomo about it. Marela, daughter of Santiago and Ofelia, also fantasizes about Juan Julian. Reality intrudes on romance, however, when Santiago's gambling on cockfights results in partial ownership of the factory going to Cheche, his half-brother, who now wants to introduce machines to speed up production. He also wants to eliminate the lector, to the workers' further dismay.

In language that is often lyrical and sometimes fanciful, the action unfolds, with discussions evolving about the nature and importance of literature, the enduring values of their culture, the importance of love, and the possible effects of "progress" on traditional values. The characters, though not fully drawn and sometimes too obviously following plot lines of Anna Karenina, are, nevertheless, interesting and unusual as they try to do the best they can during trying times. To celebrate their happiness with the story of Anna Karenina, they decide to create a new cigar in her honor, and to have Marela serve as the model for the cigar box, but their happiness is as fragile and temporary as the idea of a "family" of workers making cigars without machines.

When disaster strikes, it affects the entire factory, and the characters must decide to what extent it is possible to remain in a fantasy world when reality has reared its ugly head, and to what extent it is possible to hold on to the past when the survival of the factory may depend on progress. The obvious themes, their rather thin development, and the plot lines which parallel Anna Karenina show playwright Nilo Cruz's desire to give significance to this tragedy, though the characters do not develop fully on their own. Unique and unusual in its approach, however, the play beautifully captures a time and place in history. Mary Whipple
Anna in the Tropics - Playbill, Royale Theatre, New York
Average customer rating: Not rated
    Anna in the Tropics - Playbill, Royale Theatre, New York
    Nilo Cruz , and Playbill Magazine
    Manufacturer: Playbill Magazine
    ProductGroup: Book
    Binding: Paperback
    ASIN: B000TC6INC

    Product Description

    Theatre program. Cast includes Jimmy Smits, Priscilla Lopez.
    The Magic of Costa Rica
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      The Magic of Costa Rica
      Rowland Mead
      Manufacturer: New Holland Publishers
      ProductGroup: Book
      Binding: Hardcover
      ASIN: 1843309998

      Product Description

      A beautiful pictoral guide & history of the tropical Costa Rica!
      Best of Bermuda: sun, sights, and a gourmet taste of the tropics.(FIRST-CLASS TICKET) : An article from: Black Enterprise
      Average customer rating: Not rated
        Best of Bermuda: sun, sights, and a gourmet taste of the tropics.(FIRST-CLASS TICKET) : An article from: Black Enterprise
        Lee Anna Jackson
        Manufacturer: Earl G. Graves Publishing Co., Inc.
        ProductGroup: Book
        Binding: Digital

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        BermudaBermuda | Caribbean | Travel | Subjects | Books
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        ASIN: B000ALS5IS
        Release Date: 2005-07-25

        Book Description

        This digital document is an article from Black Enterprise, published by Earl G. Graves Publishing Co., Inc. on June 1, 2005. The length of the article is 535 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

        Citation Details
        Title: Best of Bermuda: sun, sights, and a gourmet taste of the tropics.(FIRST-CLASS TICKET)
        Author: Lee Anna Jackson
        Publication: Black Enterprise (Magazine/Journal)
        Date: June 1, 2005
        Publisher: Earl G. Graves Publishing Co., Inc.
        Volume: 35 Issue: 11 Page: 310(1)

        Distributed by Thomson Gale
        Nilo Cruz's "Anna in the Tropics": A Study Guide from Gale's "Drama for Students" (Volume 21, Chapter 2)
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          Nilo Cruz's "Anna in the Tropics": A Study Guide from Gale's "Drama for Students" (Volume 21, Chapter 2)

          Manufacturer: The Gale Group
          ProductGroup: Book
          Binding: Digital

          ContemporaryContemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
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          ASIN: B0009JJ83M
          Release Date: 2005-04-27

          Book Description

          Term paper due tomorrow? Need to cram for a test? Or just looking for the best information about a favorite literary work?

          Turn to "Drama for Students" to get your research done in record time. Brought to you by Thomson Gale--the world's leading source of literary criticism and analysis--this e-doc contains: author biography; plot summary; character analysis; an overview of the play's themes, style, and historical context; a compendium of in-depth critical material; study questions; suggestions for further reading; and much more.

          Why choose "Drama for Students"? Because no other source offers so much in such a compact package. Trust the experts: Thomson Gale--and "Drama for Students."
          Anna and The Tropics
          Average customer rating: Not rated
            Anna and The Tropics
            Nilo Cruz
            Manufacturer: Theatre Communications Group, 2003
            ProductGroup: Book
            Binding: Paperback
            ASIN: B000J0UERU
            In the Trades, the Tropics, & the Roaring Forties / by Lady Brassey
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              In the Trades, the Tropics, & the Roaring Forties / by Lady Brassey
              Anna (Allnutt), Baroness Brassey Brassey
              Manufacturer: Longmans, Green
              ProductGroup: Book
              Binding: Hardcover
              ASIN: B000KVDWSQ

              Japanese and Sun Yat-Sen (Historical Monographs No 27)
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                Japanese and Sun Yat-Sen (Historical Monographs No 27)
                Marius B. Jansen
                Manufacturer: Harvard Univ Pr
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                Binding: Hardcover
                ASIN: 0674472004
                Sun Yat-sen: The Man Who Changed China
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                • Modern China Comes Alive!
                Sun Yat-sen: The Man Who Changed China
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                Binding: Hardcover

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                ASIN: 9627283665

                Customer Reviews:

                5 out of 5 stars Modern China Comes Alive!.......2004-12-23

                Stella Dong's new book about Sun Yat-Sen is marvelous. The book is well-organized, well-written and fascinating to read. Ms.Dong brings modern China to life with her meticulously researched biography of this twentieth century giant among men. 5 Stars - I highly recommend it!

                J.O.
                Madame Sun Yat-Sen: Soong Ching-Ling (Lives of Modern Women)
                Average customer rating: 5 out of 5 stars
                • The jewel of the nation
                Madame Sun Yat-Sen: Soong Ching-Ling (Lives of Modern Women)
                Jung Chang , and John Halliday
                Manufacturer: Penguin (Non-Classics)
                ProductGroup: Book
                Binding: Paperback

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                ASIN: 014008455X

                Customer Reviews:

                5 out of 5 stars The jewel of the nation.......2007-04-29

                Jung Chang tells the extraordinary itinerary of Ching-ling Soong, one of the three daughters of a former US Methodist minister becoming a billionaire comprador in China, Charlie Soong.
                She married her political hero, Dr. Sun Yat-sen, founder of the Chinese republic. Sun Yat-sen was driven into he hands of the Bolsheviks, when all the aid he asked for his country was turned down by all Western countries. The only solution left was help from the communist regimes. His wife saw in the Communist Party the only real successor of her husband's revolution after his death.

                Mme Sun Yat-sen's political influence was only marginal, although she changed the face of the world by hiding Ho Chi Minh in Shanghai in the years 1933-34.
                In China, she boosted women's liberation by attacking feudal traditions, like arranged marriages.
                Internationally, she supported the `Universal Peace' movement, the `The Hague Tribunal' for settling all political disagreements and the `League for Civil Rights' which came up against torture of political prisoners.

                Being a staunch supporter of the CP, she was nevertheless briefly attacked during the Cultural Revolution and her movements were closely watched (`Burn this after reading').

                Jung Chang's vision on Mao Ze-dong changed drastically since the publication of this book, wherein she characterizes Mao's infamous intervention during the communist Moscow meeting of 1957 as `too philosophical'. But, Mao really meant what he said: 'How many people will die if war should break out? Out of the world's population of 2,700 million, one third- or, putting the figure a bit higher, one half - may be lost ... The other half would remain while imperialism would be razed to the ground and the whole world would become socialist.' (sic!)

                This short biography of an idealistic fellow traveler is a must read for all historians and Chinese scholars.
                Sun Yat-Sen, Frustrated Patriot (Studies of the East Asian Institute (Columbia Paperback))
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                  Sun Yat-Sen, Frustrated Patriot (Studies of the East Asian Institute (Columbia Paperback))
                  Clarence Martin Wilbur
                  Manufacturer: Columbia University Press
                  ProductGroup: Book
                  Binding: Hardcover

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                  ASIN: 0231040369
                  Sun Yat-sen
                  Average customer rating: 5 out of 5 stars
                  • The Demythification of Sun Yat-sen
                  • The Demythification of Sun Yat-sen
                  Sun Yat-sen
                  Marie-Claire Bergere
                  Manufacturer: Stanford University Press
                  ProductGroup: Book
                  Binding: Paperback

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                  5. 1587, A Year of No Significance: The Ming Dynasty in Decline 1587, A Year of No Significance: The Ming Dynasty in Decline

                  ASIN: 0804740119
                  Release Date: 2000-01-20

                  Book Description

                  Sun Yat-sen (1866-1925), the first president of the Republic of China, has left a supremely ambivalent political and intellectual legacy—so much so that he is claimed as a Founding Father by both the present rival governments in Taipei and Beijing. In Taiwan, he is the object of a veritable cult; in the People’s Republic of China, he is paid homage as “pioneer of the revolution,” making possible the Party’s claims of continuity with the national past. Western scholars, on the other hand, have tended to question the myth of Sun Yat-sen by stressing the man’s weaknesses, the thinker’s incoherences, and the revolutionary leader’s many failures.

                  This book argues that the life and work of Sun Yat-sen have been distorted both by the creation of the myth and by the attempts at demythification. Its aim is to provide a fresh overall evaluation of the man and the events that turned an adventurer into the founder of the Chinese Republic and the leader of a great nationalist movement. The Sun Yat-sen who emerges from this rigorously researched account is a muddled politician, an opportunist with generous but confused ideas, a theorist without great originality or intellectual rigor.

                  But the author demonstrates that the importance of Sun Yat-sen lies elsewhere. A Cantonese raised in Hawaii and Hong Kong, he was a product of maritime China, the China of the coastal provinces and overseas communities, open to foreign influences and acutely aware of the modern Western world (he was fund-raising in Denver when the eleventh attempt to bring down the Chinese empire finally succeeded). In facing the problems of change, of imitating the West, of rejecting or adapting tradition, he instinctively grasped the aspirations of his time, understood their force, and crystallized them into practical programs.

                  Sun Yat-sen’s gifts enabled him to foresee the danger that technology might represent to democracy, stressed the role of infrastructures (transport, energy) in economic modernization, and looked forward to a new style of diplomatic and international economic relations based upon cooperation that bypassed or absorbed old hostilities. These “utopias” of his, at which his contemporaries heartily jeered, now seem to be so many prophecies.

                  Customer Reviews:

                  5 out of 5 stars The Demythification of Sun Yat-sen.......2000-09-27

                  "The study of Sun has been distorted by both the creation of the myth and by attempts at demythification" argues author Marie-Claire Bergére in her ground-breaking book, SUN YAT-SEN. This recent biography by the French historian, translated in 1998 by Janet Lloyd, attempts to present a "measured analysis leading to an overall evaluation of the life and work of Sun Yat-sen." What emerges from this work is a "muddled politician, an opportunist with generous but confused ideas, interested first in power games". This Sun Yat-sen, argues Bergére, made little impression on history. "Nor was he a great theorist." What we do have as a result of Bergére's research is a Sun Yat-sen free of all the ideological baggage that has accompanied previous histories. Bergére asserts that much of what we have accepted about Sun Yat-sen as fact, is in fact exaggeration and myth. Both the Communists and Nationalists have emphasised the aspects of Sun which have suited their versions of the past. The more human picture of Sun Yat-sen that emerges from Bergére's biography is very different from the primary school type versions we have been used to.

                  Bergére claims that Sun Yat-sen made little direct impression on many of the events that he has been associated with previously. She questions whether the 1911 Revolution was really the fruit of Sun Yat-sen's efforts and claims that if he had died in 1920 his name would now probably be forgotten. Sun played no direct role in the events leading to the Wuchang insurrection of 10 October1911 and the edict of abdication of 12 February 1912. Sun Yat-sen did reap the benefits of the revolution by becoming the republic's first president. However, Sun's failure to work effectively with fellow revolutionaries and his poor leadership of the government in the early days explains why there was much support for Sun to stand down in favour of Yuan Shikai. Bergére argues that Sun only made a significant impact on events in China from 1920 when he re-invigorated his Guomindang party using Soviet support. By1924 Sun finally had all the ingredients necessary to unite China such as a secure revolutionary base in Canton, Soviet financial and technical aid and most importantly Soviet military support via the Hungpo Military Academy.

                  However, just at the time when Sun Yat-sen stood poised at the head of a revolutionary movement that was ready to challenge warlord control of China, he was struck down with cancer of the liver and died in April 1925. It was from the time of his death that Sun Yat-sen was transformed into the patriotic hero that we are familiar with in the current histories. During the Nanking regime from 1927 Sun Yat-sen was portrayed as having "single-handedly guided and inspired the revolution, ignited the 1911 revolution, and founded the Republic." There was no mention of Sun's long string of failures, of numerous attempts to achieve foreign support for his cause even at the expense of China or his pandering to Japanese imperialism in the guise of pan-Asianism. Bergére maintains that the "construction of the myth was pursued with renewed vigour, now served by the Guomindang's entire propaganda apparatus." A cult was constructed around Sun Yat-sen with the creation of a huge mausoleum at Nanking, the making of the Three Principles as a school textbook, and celebrating of Sun's birthdays and his death with national public holidays. In Nationalist China Sun Yat-sen was known by the of the 'president' up until 1940 when it was decreed that he was to be referred to as the 'Father of the Nation'. When the Nationalist Government was defeated in 1949 and retreated to the island of Taiwan it became even more crucial to rely on the myth of Sun Yat-sen to restore legitimacy in defeat.

                  It wasn't only the Guomindang which produced a neatly packaged version of Sun Yat-sen. The Communists, in their history of the revolutionary movement, revered Sun Yat-sen as 'pioneer of the revolution', though in a more modest role compared to Marx, Lenin and Mao. Similarly to the Guomindang, the Communists portrayed Sun as the exclusive leader of the revolutionary movement at least up until the appearance of the Communist party in 1921. Bergére says that from 1978 the Sunist myth has been invoked again as a justification of Deng Xiaoping's Four Modernisations policy which gives absolute priority of economic production to deal with China's backwardness. But also, Bergére maintains that in the long term the exultation of Sun Yat-sen is supposed to create the basis of an entente with the Taiwan regime and prepare the way for island's return to the mother country.

                  Bergére concludes by observing the heroic myth created by Chinese historiography has not stood up to the critical analysis by Western authors and that few of them now recognise Sun Yat-sen "as the sole guide or even the predominant leader of the Chinese revolution, neither does any of them venture explicitly to deny him any importance at all". Western studies of Sun seem to have got stuck in an impasse and that "once stripped of its legendary aura, the figure of Sun Yat-sen arouses very little interest", laments Bergére. However, after reading this book, nothing could be further from the truth. This more human portrait of Sun Yat-sen is far more scintillating, and the unravelling of myth and history that Bergére has undertaken has made reading this book a truly enlightening experience. This biography is a must for anyone wishing to understand the events in China from the turn of the century to the twenties.

                  5 out of 5 stars The Demythification of Sun Yat-sen.......2000-09-27

                  "The study of Sun has been distorted by both the creation of the myth and by attempts at demythification" argues author Marie-Claire Bergére in her ground-breaking book, SUN YAT-SEN. This recent biography by the French historian, translated in 1998 by Janet Lloyd, attempts to present a "measured analysis leading to an overall evaluation of the life and work of Sun Yat-sen." What emerges from this work is a "muddled politician, an opportunist with generous but confused ideas, interested first in power games". This Sun Yat-sen, argues Bergére, made little impression on history. "Nor was he a great theorist." What we do have as a result of Bergére's research is a Sun Yat-sen free of all the ideological baggage that has accompanied previous histories. Bergére asserts that much of what we have accepted about Sun Yat-sen as fact, is in fact exaggeration and myth. Both the Communists and Nationalists have emphasised the aspects of Sun which have suited their versions of the past. The more human picture of Sun Yat-sen that emerges from Bergére's biography is very different from the primary school type versions we have been used to.

                  Bergére claims that Sun Yat-sen made little direct impression on many of the events that he has been associated with previously. She questions whether the 1911 Revolution was really the fruit of Sun Yat-sen's efforts and claims that if he had died in 1920 his name would now probably be forgotten. Sun played no direct role in the events leading to the Wuchang insurrection of 10 October1911 and the edict of abdication of 12 February 1912. Sun Yat-sen did reap the benefits of the revolution by becoming the republic's first president. However, Sun's failure to work effectively with fellow revolutionaries and his poor leadership of the government in the early days explains why there was much support for Sun to stand down in favour of Yuan Shikai. Bergére argues that Sun only made a significant impact on events in China from 1920 when he re-invigorated his Guomindang party using Soviet support. By1924 Sun finally had all the ingredients necessary to unite China such as a secure revolutionary base in Canton, Soviet financial and technical aid and most importantly Soviet military support via the Huangpu Military Academy.

                  However, just at the time when Sun Yat-sen stood poised at the head of a revolutionary movement that was ready to challenge warlord control of China, he was struck down with cancer of the liver and died in March 1925. It was from the time of his death that Sun Yat-sen was transformed into the patriotic hero that we are familiar with in the current histories. During the Nanking regime from 1927 Sun Yat-sen was portrayed as having "single-handedly guided and inspired the revolution, ignited the 1911 revolution, and founded the Republic." There was no mention of Sun's long string of failures, of numerous attempts to achieve foreign support for his cause even at the expense of China or his pandering to Japanese imperialism in the guise of pan-Asianism. Bergére maintains that the "construction of the myth was pursued with renewed vigour, now served by the Guomindang's entire propaganda apparatus." A cult was constructed around Sun Yat-sen with the creation of a huge mausoleum at Nanking, the making of the Three Principles as a school textbook, and celebrating of Sun's birthdays and his death with national public holidays. In Nationalist China Sun Yat-sen was known by the of the 'president' up until 1940 when it was decreed that he was to be referred to as the 'Father of the Nation'. When the Nationalist Government was defeated in 1949 and retreated to the island of Taiwan it became even more crucial to rely on the myth of Sun Yat-sen to restore legitimacy in defeat.

                  It wasn't only the Guomindang which produced a neatly packaged version of Sun Yat-sen. The Communists, in their history of the revolutionary movement, revered Sun Yat-sen as 'pioneer of the revolution', though in a more modest role compared to Marx, Lenin and Mao. Similarly to the Guomindang, the Communists portrayed Sun as the exclusive leader of the revolutionary movement at least up until the appearance of the Communist party in 1921. Bergére says that from 1978 the Sunist myth has been invoked again as a justification of Deng Xiaoping's Four Modernisations policy which gives absolute priority of economic production to deal with China's backwardness. But also, Bergére maintains that in the long term the exultation of Sun Yat-sen is supposed to create the basis of an entente with the Taiwan regime and prepare the way for island's return to the mother country.

                  Bergére concludes by observing the heroic myth created by Chinese historiography has not stood up to the critical analysis by Western authors and that few of them now recognise Sun Yat-sen "as the sole guide or even the predominant leader of the Chinese revolution, neither does any of them venture explicitly to deny him any importance at all". Western studies of Sun seem to have got stuck in an impasse and that "once stripped of its legendary aura, the figure of Sun Yat-sen arouses very little interest", laments Bergére. However, after reading this book, nothing could be further from the truth. This more human portrait of Sun Yat-sen is far more scintillating, and the unravelling of myth and history that Bergére has undertaken has made reading this book a truly enlightening experience. This biography is a must for anyone wishing to understand the events in China from the turn of the century to the twenties.
                  Sun Yat-Sen in Hawaii: Activities and Supporters
                  Average customer rating: Not rated
                    Sun Yat-Sen in Hawaii: Activities and Supporters
                    Yansheng Ma Lum , and Raymond Mun Kong Lum
                    Manufacturer: Hawaii Chinese History Center
                    ProductGroup: Book
                    Binding: Paperback

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                    ASIN: 0824821793
                    Prescriptions for Saving China: Selected Writings of Sun Yat-Sen (Studies in Economic, Social, and Political Change, the Republic of China)
                    Average customer rating: 3 out of 5 stars
                    • a review on the editor's introduction only
                    Prescriptions for Saving China: Selected Writings of Sun Yat-Sen (Studies in Economic, Social, and Political Change, the Republic of China)
                    Yat-Sen Sun
                    Manufacturer: Hoover Institution Press
                    ProductGroup: Book
                    Binding: Hardcover

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                    ASIN: 0817992812

                    Customer Reviews:

                    3 out of 5 stars a review on the editor's introduction only.......2000-03-10

                    The editor's introduction reads like a propaganda commissioned by the KMT on Taiwan. I am deeply disturbed at highly biased "beautification" of the KMT rule in Taiwan and the "demonization" of the PLC regime on Mainland China. I also think that the introduction is too much a hodge-podge of KMT orthodoxies and seriously lacking in critical thinking. While I applaud the long- overdu effort to translate Sun Yat-Sen' collective works into English and making available such an important canon of modern Chinese political thought to Western audience, I sincerely hope that the introduction will be revised for future editions to render more objective verdicts (and with more intellecutal depth), of the two regimes on both sides of the Taiwan Strait.
                    The Man Who Changed China: The Story of Sun Yat-sen (World Landmark Book, 9)
                    Average customer rating: Not rated
                      The Man Who Changed China: The Story of Sun Yat-sen (World Landmark Book, 9)
                      Pearl S. Buck
                      Manufacturer: Random House
                      ProductGroup: Book
                      Binding: Library Binding

                      GeneralGeneral | China | Asia | History | Subjects | Books
                      ASIN: 0394805097
                      Sun Yat-sen and the origins of the Chinese revolution (Center for Chinese Studies. Publications)
                      Average customer rating: Not rated
                        Sun Yat-sen and the origins of the Chinese revolution (Center for Chinese Studies. Publications)
                        Harold Z Schiffrin
                        Manufacturer: University of California Press
                        ProductGroup: Book
                        Binding: Unknown Binding
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                        1. Sun Yat-sen Sun Yat-sen

                        ASIN: B0006D75IQ
                        San Min Chu I = the Three Principles of the People (China in the 20th century)
                        Average customer rating: Not rated
                          San Min Chu I = the Three Principles of the People (China in the 20th century)
                          Yat-Sen Sun
                          Manufacturer: Da Capo Pr
                          ProductGroup: Book
                          Binding: Hardcover

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                          ASIN: 0306706989

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