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rhoelle's review
3.0
Hit and miss.
Contents:
Introduction by Elizabeth ten Grotenhuis
1. Conversation with Yo-Yo Ma by Ted Levin [music]
2. Melodic Migration in NW China by Bright Sheng [music]
3. Fashioned from Fiber by Elizabeth Barber [textiles]
4. Astrology and a Japanese Star Mandala by Elizabeth ten Grotenhuis [astrology]
5. Sacred Sites along the Silk Road by Kenro Izu [photography]
6. Traveling Technologies by Merton C. Flemings [metallurgy]
7. Iranian Cinema by Hamid Naficy [film]
As the table of contents shows, this introductory work is rather a mixed bag in both quality and content, much of it originally published elsewhere in longer form. Hits include the pieces on music, textiles and metallurgy. The piece on astrology probably won't find a general audience and the pop art chapter on Iranian film seems oddly out of sync with the rest. Photos and illustrations are good. Text is a double-spaced 144 pages with fairly wide margins. There are irritations such as the p. 42 suggestion identifying the ancient Xiong Nu as ancestors of modern Hungarians that show outside review was needed (the common blunder of confusing Huns and the similar sounding Hungarians). Bright Sheng's piece discusses White Mongols and Yellow Mongols without really explaining the terms and one has to wonder why we have the music composer writing about history. Elizabeth Barber's piece shows the influence of the theories of Victor Mair, with whom she has worked. These theories of ancient Iranian influence on China (what Mair terms the "East Asian heartland") are not so universally accepted as the text suggests, or, at least, not everyone discusses them as much as does Mair. One gets the feeling that the book was thrown together fairly quickly and haphazardly in order to have merchandise to sell at the concerts of Yo-Yo Ma's worldwide Silk Road tour. In these circumstances it was probably too much to hope that it would have the same excellent quality as the tour itself.
Contents:
Introduction by Elizabeth ten Grotenhuis
1. Conversation with Yo-Yo Ma by Ted Levin [music]
2. Melodic Migration in NW China by Bright Sheng [music]
3. Fashioned from Fiber by Elizabeth Barber [textiles]
4. Astrology and a Japanese Star Mandala by Elizabeth ten Grotenhuis [astrology]
5. Sacred Sites along the Silk Road by Kenro Izu [photography]
6. Traveling Technologies by Merton C. Flemings [metallurgy]
7. Iranian Cinema by Hamid Naficy [film]
As the table of contents shows, this introductory work is rather a mixed bag in both quality and content, much of it originally published elsewhere in longer form. Hits include the pieces on music, textiles and metallurgy. The piece on astrology probably won't find a general audience and the pop art chapter on Iranian film seems oddly out of sync with the rest. Photos and illustrations are good. Text is a double-spaced 144 pages with fairly wide margins. There are irritations such as the p. 42 suggestion identifying the ancient Xiong Nu as ancestors of modern Hungarians that show outside review was needed (the common blunder of confusing Huns and the similar sounding Hungarians). Bright Sheng's piece discusses White Mongols and Yellow Mongols without really explaining the terms and one has to wonder why we have the music composer writing about history. Elizabeth Barber's piece shows the influence of the theories of Victor Mair, with whom she has worked. These theories of ancient Iranian influence on China (what Mair terms the "East Asian heartland") are not so universally accepted as the text suggests, or, at least, not everyone discusses them as much as does Mair. One gets the feeling that the book was thrown together fairly quickly and haphazardly in order to have merchandise to sell at the concerts of Yo-Yo Ma's worldwide Silk Road tour. In these circumstances it was probably too much to hope that it would have the same excellent quality as the tour itself.