- Hardcover: 160 pages
- Publisher: Oxford Univ Pr (Txt) (February 1, 1987)
- ISBN: 0195841212
Xinjiang, the Silk Road: Islam's Overland Route to China
by
Wei-Chuan Weng,
Wei-Ch Uan Weng
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Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
As a filmmaker, Yung penetrated the "multi-national, multi-religious and multi-lingual" Xinjiang province in western China and traveled the region's Silk Road, the ancient conduit for goods, art and religion between China, the Middle East and Europe. The awesome natural scenery of deserts and mountain ranges is captured in native myths as well as in Yung's color photographs, and readers can view the Heavenly Lake where the Fairy Queen of the West is said to have washed her feet. Xinjiang is a Moslem stronghold, and the work features a number of mosques, decorated with engraved pillars, geometric carvings and blue, gold and green ceramic-tiled mosaics. Unfortunately, the volume is poorly organized, and the color pictures are lumped together rather than adjacent to corresponding narrative. Readers will espy the diversity and charm of China's minority tribes (e.g., the nomadic Kazaks, or Cossaks, and Tajiks) but ultimately will confuse their colorful customs, dress and architecture. Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc. From Library Journal From ancient times the Xinjiang province in Western China has served as a conduit for cultural exchange between Central Asia and the West. Filmmaker Yung has photographed this area extensively for 10 years. He captures a huge land of southern desert and frigid north mountains, of warm, friendly people, in photographs of such clarity and depth you could almost step into them. Colorful pictures of daily lifemen getting haircuts, children in street performancevie with breath-catching views of rugged mountains. There is text enough to give the uninitiated a frame on which to hang these stunning images. For photography collections and, even more, China collections. Johanna Ezell, Pennsylvania State Univ. Lib., Mont Alto Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc. |