Bücher veröffentlicht von Balestier Press

How do you brand a revolution?In his engaging new book, Taking a Bite out of the Apple: A Graphic Designer's Tale, Rob Janoff - designer of the world-famous Apple logo - shares what it was like to live through the heady days of the home computer revolution. From his fateful meeting with Steve Jobs in Silicon Valley as a young art director in 1977, to his current position heading up an international branding company with his Australian business partner, Rob's career continues with its focus on distilling a client's business personality into a memorable icon.Taking a Bite out of the Apple is an intimate view into how Rob's design for a young, start-up company became a defining moment in a long career. After working on national brands like Apple, IBM, Intel, Kraft and Kleenex at top US agencies, Rob now enjoys working with a diversity of companies from Japan, Italy, Australia, China and the UK.Telling the true tale of how the globally loved icon came to be, Rob offers insight and inspiration to young people considering the field of graphic design - and to the young at heart who share his love of memorable graphics. Reviewed By Jack Magnus for Readers' Favorite:Taking a Bite Out of the Apple: A Graphic Designer's Tale (Hearing Others' Voices) is a nonfiction memoir for young adults written by Rob Janoff. While he had gone to college to study industrial design, Janoff was more intrigued by the creative possibilities that graphic design seemed to offer. Indeed, his whole outlook on the world seemed to point him in that direction. He had had some success in designing logos for new tech companies when he went to work for the Regis McKenna Agency in Silicon Valley. That tech experience led his boss, Regis McKenna, to offer him a somewhat off-the-wall assignment. Janoff's mind was far away as his boss discussed the assignment, but eventually the words "apple" and "computers" broke through his distraction. Janoff even knew of Steve Jobs, the iconic inventor who, with his partner, had turned a garage into the birthplace of the personal computer. But how to render Steve's concepts into a logo? Janoff's mind kept toying with the idea, his hand quickly sketching and erasing ideas as they paraded through his imagination. Then he hit on it.Rob Janoff's nonfiction memoir for young adults, Taking a Bite Out of the Apple: A Graphic Designer's Tale, is a beautifully written and fascinating account by the designer of the world-famous Apple logo. Anyone who loves computers and has an interest in how the personal computer came to be will have as much fun reading this book as I did. But there's more to this memoir than tech history. Janoff's description of how he tackled the project, working feverishly with a bowl of apples as inspiration is a joy to read. Any creative person should find Janoff's story inspiring, and his smooth conversational style makes following along as he works towards that one perfect image a grand and entertaining experience. Taking a Bite Out of the Apple: A Graphic Designer's Tale is most highly recommended.

Born in 1912, Qian Xiuling displayed exceptional academic prowess from a young age. Inspired by the achievements of Marie Curie, she departed China at the age of 17, earning a dual doctorate in physics and chemistry from the University of Louvain. During her time there, she courageously broke off an arranged engagement to marry Dr. Grégoire de Perlinghi, a physician of Greek-Russian descent.Their plans for a life in China were disrupted by the Japanese invasion, leading them to settle in Herbeumont, where World War II unfolded around them. Qian Xiuling's life took a remarkable turn as she emerged as a savior for over a hundred hostages, primarily from Écaussinnes. She skillfully advocated for their cause with General von Falkenhausen, the military governor of Belgium, leveraging a connection through her cousin, a Kuomintang general. Her efforts earned her the Belgian Reconnaissance Medal 1940-1945.Despite facing scrutiny for defending von Falkenhausen before the War Council and averting a death sentence, Qian Xiuling was unable to fulfill her dream of a scientific career. However, she would go on to become the proprietor of Brussels' most prestigious Chinese restaurant, a path that showcased her resilience and determination in the face of adversity.

Confucius sits in his chair. A mute uncle utters his first word in decades. A talking potato is sworn to confidentiality.These are stories written with Liang Wern Fook's left hand. All authors write with this hand, coaxing out left-handed stories from a right-handed reality. Liang has been writing with his right hand for a long time, but in this thought-provoking collection, he has returned to his left, crafting stories that surprise even his right. Stories that are replete with playful irony, ranging from the absurd to the comical; stories which transcend personal difficulties to reveal shared tragedies, collectively endured.About the Author:Liang Wern Fook is a writer, musician, singer, and professor of Chinese literature. During the 1980s, he played a pivotal role as one of the pioneering figures in the xinyao movement, which celebrated Singaporean Chinese folk songs. He has received numerous awards across diverse artistic genres, including the prestigious Singapore Cultural Medallion. With a prolific body of work, he boasts over twenty publications spanning various creative genres and an impressive repertoire of more than three hundred songs. Widely recognised for his ability to blend literature and music, his works have left an indelible mark on Singapore's vibrant art scene.About the Translator:Christina Ng is a Singaporean writer, journalist and translator based in Berlin. Her Chinese to English translations include poetry by Singaporean poets Liang Wern Fook, Ting Kheng Siong, Dan Ying and Chinese poet Hua Qing.

The world is full of ghosts, but only donkeys can see them. Meanwhile, in the human world, war has been waging for a hundred years with no resolution in sight, the death toll climbing higher and higher like the pagodas of sound built by donkeys braying and humans chanting scripture.Hsieh, a young jenny, is thrust into the care of Ku, who is tasked with bringing her across the immense desert between the two warring kingdoms. On a year-long journey filled with fearsome battles, headless ghosts and randy jacks, donkey and man come to realise the futility of this endless war and are forced to confront the most fundamental law of nature: everything has a soul.Set in Liu Liangcheng's home region of Xinjiang during ancient times, Bearing Word explores the power of sound and the many languages scattered across the vast expanse of the Gobi Desert, in a narrative set against the backdrop of a century-long war. About the Author:Dubbed a "bucolic philosopher", Liu Liangcheng was born in Xinjiang in 1962. After his first writing job at the Worker's Daily newspaper, he later turned to poetry, essays, and eventually (with the 2006 novel Loose Earth) fiction. He received the 2014 Lu Xun Literature Prize for his essay anthology In Xinjiang.About the Translator:Jeremy Tiang is a novelist, playwright and literary translator. He has translated over twenty books from across the Chinese-speaking world, including novels by Yan Ge, Lo Yi-Chin, Zhang Yueran, and Yeng Pway Ngon's novels (Unrest and Costume, published by Balestier Press). He was awarded a PEN/Heim Grant, an NEA Literary Translation Fellowship, and a People's Literature Award Mao- Tai Cup. In 2018, he won the Singapore Literature Prize for his debut novel State of Emergency. In 2023, his translation of Ninth Building was longlisted for the International Booker Prize. Tiang was the Princeton University Translator-in-Residence and an International Booker Prize judge. "In Liu's novel, everything comes alive...The novel is a journey into the crevices of language, the dark spots where limitations become possibilities and vice versa." ­- Cha: An Asian Literary Journal

Traditional Chinese cuisine, jade, batik, embroidery, and horticulture.In Soon Ai Ling's fiction, newly translated into English by Yeo Wei Wei, the lives of twentieth-century Chinese diaspora unravel in the midst of emblems and environments resplendent with cultural influences from East and Southeast Asia.Life is strange, painful, and beautiful. In stories set across Singapore, Hong Kong and Malaysia, the characters in Diasporic struggle for freedom to love, freedom from fate.CONTENTS: Chef Tham, Fans of the Phoenix, Jade and Fate, Clove, Batik Melody, Bai Xiangzu and Her Embroidered Peacocks, Jade Butterflies, The Song of Life, Blossoms of the Moon SeasonSoon Ai Ling is a native of Huiyang, Guangdong. She holds a bachelor's degree in Chinese Language and Literature from Nanyang University, Singapore (1971), and a PhD from the University of Hong Kong (1995). Soon is an award-winning author of several novels and anthologies. Her works have been translated into Japanese, English and Malay. She was a lecturer at the Hong Kong Institute of Education (1997-2005) and the National Institute of Education at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (2006-2013). At present, she is a guest lecturer at the Education University of Hong Kong and NTU Singapore.Yeo Wei Wei is a writer and translator based in Singapore. Her short stories have been longlisted in the Commonwealth Short Story Prize (2021) and Glimmer Train (2013). She holds a MA in Creative Writing (Prose Fiction) from the University of East Anglia.

The past gets in the way of present and future possibilities, yet without it, what hope is there for self-knowing and wisdom? These questions are explored in Yeo Wei Wei's transcreation and adaptation of Soon Ai Ling's stories.Characters are caught up in private fantasies as they strive for freedom to love, freedom from fate.A multi-generational family mourns the mysterious disappearance of a flamboyant uncle with vampiric complexion. A teacher looks forward to her reunion with an apprentice whom she has adored for decades and secretly worships as a reincarnated goddess of Chinese embroidery. A teenager tries to save her baby by hugging a vending machine and refusing to give birth.CONTENTS:PART 1: ADAPTATIONSClan; The Phoenix of Big House; Table Manners; Dreaming of Madam Bai and Her Noble PeacocksPART 2: TRANCREATIONSBatik Rondo; The Talented Chef Tham; Opera; The Jade Around My Neck; Possession Soon Ai Ling is a native of Huiyang, Guangdong. She holds a bachelor's degree in Chinese Language and Literature from Nanyang University, Singapore (1971), and a PhD from the University of Hong Kong (1995). Soon is an award-winning author of several novels and anthologies. Her works have been translated into Japanese, English and Malay. She was a lecturer at the Hong Kong Institute of Education (1997-2005) and the National Institute of Education at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (2006-2013). At present, she is a guest lecturer at the Education University of Hong Kong and NTU Singapore.Yeo Wei Wei is a writer and translator based in Singapore. Her short stories have been longlisted in the Commonwealth Short Story Prize (2021) and Glimmer Train (2013). She holds a MA in Creative Writing (Prose Fiction) from the University of East Anglia.

Water is fluid, soft, yielding. But water will wear away rock...what is soft is strong. - Lao TzuIn 1920s Detroit, King Ying stands on a box to iron clothes in her parent's laundry business and endures taunts of Ching-Ching Chinaman on the playground. She dreams of a home and the elegance of her Jane Arden paper dolls. But when her father incurs steep debts during the Great Depression, he sends her far from hope to live in his ancestral village.In remote Tai Ting Pong in the Guangdong province of China, King Ying feels as foreign in the land of her heritage as she did in the country of her birth. There, she must survive hunger, deadly superstition, and Japanese invasion. When a guardian angel helps her return to California, it's a chance to seize her American dream ... if she can overcome mid-20th century racism, those who prey on the economically vulnerable, and her family's expectations about marriage.In this debut memoir, Karin K. Jensen records her mother's transpacific quest for identity, survival, and new world dreams. The Strength of Water is a work of Asian American history revealed through one's family's experiences.Review"The Strength of Water is a heartening read about an immigrant daughter's odyssey. Through her mother's stories and family oral histories, Karin Jensen successfully provides us with a moving glimpse of Chinese American life in the last century, revealing the humanity of immigrant laborers, how they lived, and what they felt." - Harvey Dong, Lecturer, Asian American & Asian Diaspora Studies, UC Berkeley"Some stories cry out to be told. Karin Jensen's debut memoir, The Strength of Water, is such a story. This book is a must-read for anyone interested in the sociology of early twentieth-century China or the experience of Chinese immigrants. Ms. Jensen tells her mother's story with clarity, wit, and a deft touch for the unvarnished truth." - Tani Hanes, author of Obachan: A Young Girl's Struggle for Freedom in 20th-Century Japan"One woman's epic odyssey, one family's story of striving in a foreign country, one generation's unique memory. An amazing memoir where the "strength of water," the power of resilience and adapting to any circumstance, is the common thread that flows throughout the whole family, connecting everyone's lives. Touching, inspiring, and brilliantly written." - Shen Yang, author of More Than One Child"Karin Jensen has wonderfully captured history and culture along with the incredible stories of her Chinese American mother, who indeed lived a big life, persevering through astonishing hardships, discrimination, and difficult family relationships to finally find golden times." -- Linda Austin, co-author of the WWII memoir Cherry Blossoms in Twilight

Nanjing, China, 1937. Eight-year-old Orange is uprooted from her comfortable home when the family is forced to flee from Japanese bombing raids. They take refuge in Chengdu, West China, where she grows up with her professor father, hard-working mother, two sisters, two brothers and Tianlu, a war orphan. At first, the irrepressible Orange hardly notices how hard life is for the adults around her. She is much too busy having adventures and getting into the inevitable scrapes. Her life is full of laughter, and the music that her family and their friends make. But as she comes of age and the war creeps closer, she begins to learn the joys and heartbreak of love and loss.About the Author: Huang Beijia is one of China's most important children's writers. Born in 1955. Writer, known in the 1980s for her stories about intellectuals, their emotional lives and Chinese masculinity. More recently better known for her children's books. Nominated for the Hans Christian Andersen Award 2020.About the Translator: ¿Nicky Harman lives in the UK and is a full-time translator of Chinese literary works. She has won several awards, including the 2020 Special Book Award, China, the 2015 Mao Tai Cup People's Literature Chinese-English translation prize, and the 2013 China International Translation Contest, Chinese-to-English section. When not translating, she promotes contemporary Chinese fiction through teaching, blogs, talks and her work on Paper-Republic.org.

In World War II Singapore (1942-1945), many people went through unimaginable suffering. Siew Chin was forced to become a "comfort woman" in a Japanese military brothel. Her husband Tiong was taken away to be massacred. Ah Ding collaborated with the Japanese occupiers. And yet, as is always the case with the moral complexities of war, Ah Ding was also a volunteer in the very guerrilla unit whose members he came to incriminate with his pointed finger, and it was he who pointed Siew Chin towards a new life.Years later, Siew Chin encounters Ah Ding once again. Tortured by unwanted memories, Ah Ding recoils from this long-buried remnant of his past. Can Ah Ding finally make peace with his history, or will he succumb to the overwhelming guilt and shame that has plagued him for six decades? Lying Eyes gives voices to people caught up in the powerful currents of national events, silent characters whom history has largely passed over.About the author:A.K. Kulshreshth's short stories have been published in eight countries. Together with his mother, he has translated four books from Hindi to English. In 2021, he completed Bride of the City, the first ever translation into English of the classic 1949 Hindi novel Vaishali Ki Nagarvadhu. His first novel Lying Eyes was longlisted for 2022 Epigram Books Fiction Prize."Highly recommended"-The Historical Novels Review"A literary achievement of social inspection that provides enlightening, thought-provoking, and hard to put down."-Midwest Book Review2022 Epigram Books Fiction Prize (Longlist)

Flowers of Lhasa is a stark and urgent tale of four young women thrown into the seedy underbelly of a sacred city undergoing rapid change.After coming to the big city to look for work, a tragedy befalls Drölkar and leads her to a nightclub called the Rose and a life of selling her body for money. There, she falls in with Yangdzom, Dzomkyi, and Xiao Li. Four women--three Tibetan, one Chinese--all migrant laborers who move to the city and whose misfortunes take them down similar paths. We read of their encounters with wealthy, callous, and often violent men, their struggles to stay afloat and to support their impoverished families, and the hopes and dreams they still cherish despite it all.Tsering Yangkyi's novel paints a vivid portrait of Lhasa, Tibet's cultural and religious capital. This is a holy city where thousands of pilgrims daily circumambulate the Potala Palace and the Jokhang Temple, but it is also a modern city, with all the problems of the modern world. While immersing us in the vibrant uniqueness of Tibetan life, Flowers of Lhasa also paints a haunting picture that deals with global and timely concerns.(Winner of English PEN Award)About the AuthorTsering Yangkyi is one of the most recognized names in the Tibetan literary world. She began publishing fiction in the 1980s and has built up a body of work that concerns itself first and foremost with women and the underclass of Tibetan society. She began Flowers of Lhasa, her first novel, in 2009, and it took seven years to complete. When it was published in 2016, it became only the second novel by a Tibetan woman. In Tibet, the publication of her novel was immediately met with widespread acclaim, from critics and readers alike.

Author, playwright, translator, theater and film director Roger Pulvers has translated and adapted one of world theater's greatest comic classics, Nikolai Gogol's The Government Inspector. This version for two actors, here in print for the first time, has been produced in Japan and Australia to great acclaim. Roger Pulvers writes in his Foreword ... "The Government Inspector for Two Actors is a theatrical challenge to actors and staff, especially costume designer and stage manager. It requires ultra-quick changes. The challenge lies not only in getting the actor into the right costume at the right time, but also for the actors to transform themselves instantaneously from one character to another. But the script was constructed with all this in mind from the beginning. Its premise is that you can be anybody you want to be, so long as you can convince others of it. In that sense The Government Inspector for Two Actors is about the theater itself as much as it is about the true and false faces of our society.""A sharp satire made for today" Yomiuri Shimbun "Genius and hilarity" The Canberra Times "Gogol for two superb" The Australian "For comedy, this is as good as it gets" Canberra City News "A revelation ... the integrity of Gogol's message about corrupt bureaucracy remains alive and well" Brisbane Courier Mail "Satire good as gold" Sun Herald "It's a farce, and a very funny one at that" Sunday Telegraph "Be astounded that this old play can resonate today and that it is hilariously funny" Daily Telegraph "The comedy stakes are raised through Roger Pulvers' terrific adaptation for two actors" Sydney Morning Herald

MIYAZAWA KENJI remains not only Japan's most popular and beloved writer of stories for children and adults but a prescient voice for this century on how we can survive and prevail over the most challenging conditions that we face on this planet. Roger Pulvers writes in his Introduction ..."Kenji's message is: It is easy to exclude others who are 'different' from your circle, but if you exclude others, you exclude yourself, because you are inextricably linked to them; it is easy to be unkind to others, but if you are unkind to others, you are unkind to yourself; it is very easy to kill, but if you kill another person, the person who dies within is yourself.""Destroy nature in any or all of its qualities and we destroy human goodness, compassion and love. No Japanese understood this more profoundly than Miyazawa Kenji, and the people of the world need to know that."In this new collection, acclaimed author, translator and film director Roger Pulvers presents, in masterful translations, some of Miyazawa Kenji's most well-known stories. In "The Boy of the Winds" the wind arrives in a village in the form of a boy, Matasaburo, bringing, with great compassion, a warning over the abuse of nature by humans. In "The Bears on Mt. Nametoko," the fate of the king of the mountains, Kojuro, becomes that of the bears he hunts. And in the exquisitely poignant "Barefeet of Light" two young brothers face the cruelest hardships ... and the message Kenji gives us is always one of devotion and love.In addition, there are stories here by other well-known Japanese authors, the final one being the beautiful tribute to the importance of water in our lives, Inoue Hisashi's "The Water Letters."All translations come with commentary that puts the works in their historical and social context.The Japan Times has written of an earlier anthology of his works translated by Roger Pulvers: "The reader can clearly feel Miyazawa's values and hopes for humanity across time...."

Some may like plastic bags for their convenience, while others may dislike them for polluting the environment. Regardless of anyone's stance, the plastic bag as an object is just something that passes through our lives.Kresek is the rustling of plastic bags in Bahasa Indonesia. It is also the title of this light-hearted wordless comic, revolving around the little movements of the plastic bag.This book offers a fresh perspective of the plastic bag by giving the common object a face and a personality. Following the earthly adventures of the plastic bag, this book invites people to give the plastic bag more thought, connecting to it and examining its place in today's cultures. When we have hopefully passed the plastic bag obsession in the future, this book will be a reminder of a behaviour that we once had.About the AuthorExploring the curiosities and subtleties of daily life and experience of time are important to Cynthia Delaney Suwito's practice as an artist. Her work distill the complexity of the meanings we attach to everyday materials, situations and behaviours into a poetic simplicity that is relatable and engaging. it is her hope that through her work, people can slow down and reflect, seeing daily things with a different perspective and forming new approaches of thinking. Indonesian-born and Singapore-based, Cynthia have exhibited in Singapore and Indonesia, was features in the 2017 Forbes 30 under 30 Asia in the arts and on BBC Asia and Channel News Asia.

Roger Pulvers' translations - with detailed notes and commentary - of Japan's greatest tanka poet, Takuboku Ishikawa, is now available here for the first time in this volume. Each tanka - a poem that in Japanese has thirty-one syllables - is a microcosm of the human psyche, revealing astounding insights into human behaviors, love (and hate) relationships, as well as social and political circumstances that presage our own times.In his short life (1886-1912) Takuboku experienced many loves, a tumultuous marriage, fatherhood of three children, one of whom died shortly after birth, a brilliant career as a journalist and wildly popular poet, not to mention a political awakening that was leading him onto the path of the revolutionary.In "Old Love Letters," he writes ... There are so many spelling mistakes In those old love letters. I never noticed until now.In "The New Year" ... Will this year be like all others With my mind conjuring only things That the world will not accept?And in "The Patient" ... One push of the door, a single step And the corridor seems to stretch As far as the eye can see.Pulvers writes in The Illusions of Self ...Takuboku puts every aspect of his character on the line for us to judge. Japan today craves writers who have the integrity of self-expression and the clarity of vision on their society that Takuboku expresses to us. In the mirror of his works, we are compelled to see our own face in a clear and honest light.Of these translations, distinguished author and translator of American literature Motoyuki Shibata has written: "These masterful translations will be a revelation for lovers of Takuboku's poetry while, at the same time, comprising a stylish introduction to those who wish to know it."

"If you want to know how Russians feel about their country, read the poetry of Sergei Esenin. "The 'old plank bridge' spans not only eras but centuries; not only one Russia with another, but Russia with the rest of the world."So writes acclaimed author and translator Roger Pulvers about this collection of translations of the best and most moving poems by Sergei Esenin, still, nearly a century after his death, Russia's most popular poet.I am the last poet of the village.The old plank bridge is humble in my songs.With extensive notes and commentary on the poet, his life, loves and the tumultuous times that straddled the Russian revolution, this new collection of beautiful poems brings to light an era of grand romance and high tragedy.¿¿¿Roger Pulvers is an author, playwright, theater director, translator and filmmaker. He has published more than fifty books in Japanese and English, including novels, essays, plays and poetry. Working as assistant to director Oshima Nagisa on Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence brought him back to Japan and inspired him to become the award-winning playwright, film director and prolific author he is today. His novel, Hoshizuna Monogatari (Star Sand), which he wrote in Japanese, was published by Kodansha, Japan's largest publisher, in 2015, and subsequently in English and French in 2016 and 2017 respectively. It was released as a film, directed by him, in 2017. His most recent books are the novels, Half of Each Other and Peaceful Circumstances, his autobiography, The Unmaking of an American, and a cultural memoir, My Japan, all published by Balestier Press.

Roger Pulvers has been writing fiction set in Japan for over fifty years. Now, for the first time, a collection of his very best short stories has been brought together in a single volume. Some of these stories, like the one that gives the collection its title, The Charter tells the story of a man who has chartered a boat on Tokyo's Sumida River. He is celebrating his eightieth birthday and has invited his entire family to celebrate with him. But, curiously, it is a little girl engaging with him on the deck who comes to symbolize the real love that seems absent in his 'loved ones'. The two make a promise to each other there and then that represents another kind of 'charter'.The great variety of characters encountered in these poignant and often highly humourous stories include a little boy who, it seems, will stop at nothing to get his feuding parents together again; a young woman who reconnects with an ancestor and finds love in the process; a beautiful Japanese singer who goes to Las Vegas to make it big time; a Japanese salaryman who, on an impulse, travels to Holland in search of Vermeer and loses himself instead; a naïve American who falls for a young Japanese woman, only to have to witness her modelling in the nude for a dissolute artist he despises; two young women - one Japanese, the other Indonesian - who discover that they have the same father ... and other colourful characters that give great insight into contemporary Japanese life.