In a conspiracy, she became the sinner that caused his first love to turn into a vegetable. A will. She became his wife. After four years of marriage, he hated her to the bone and humiliated her in every way. However, as the five-year engagement was about to end, when she thought that she would be able to leave safely, he instead gave her a bone-eroding favor. "Tang Haonan, sign this!" Placing three signed 'divorce agreements' in front of him, she said quietly. Tang Haonan grabbed the divorce papers on the table and tore them into pieces! He said, "Xia Yiran! Even if you get a divorce, Party A shouldn't be you! "A puppet like you isn't qualified!" She used up all her strength to turn around, and at the same time, she extracted his soul! Many years later, she became the widow of a tycoon. She had millions of assets, and she returned with her daughter ...
The first and best biography of the great Troubadour with artwork by Martin Sharp. Throughout his lifetime, Tiny Tim was a repository of recorded music stemming from the early days of vaudeville to the latest chart favourites. But despite all these influences he remained a true original perfecting his performances as an outreach of his personality. True, he had some strange traits, but they did not impede on his enthusiastic kindness to people he loved, to the musicians he accompanied, and to the many listeners he met. In the age of celebrity, he functioned as the complete entertainer. Lowell Tarling has provided Tiny with a living biography and given us a definitive incentive to re-listen to his recording and re-visit his numerous You Tube postings. You get the feeling that somewhere Tiny is standing on his tiptoes, strumming his ukulele, blowing kisses and saying, 'God bless you all!' - Hal Stein, (Tiny's cousin and close friend) April 2013
THE STORY: December 24th and 25th, amidst cardboard shelters and trash-can hearths, Otis Pope, a sardonic army veteran, decides who is allowed to stay in the enclave, and who must go. Currently part of this family are Verna, a disoriented frequen
As Bing Crosby once put it, Tiny Tim represents 'one of the most phenomenal success stories in show business'. In 1968, after years of playing dive bars and lesbian cabarets on the Greenwich Village scene, rubbing shoulders with the likes of Bob Dylan and Lenny Bruce, the forty-something falsetto-voiced, ukulele-playing Tiny Tim landed a recording contract with Sinatra's Reprise label and an appearance on NBC's Laugh-In. The resulting album, God Bless Tiny Tim, and its single, 'Tip-toe Thru' The Tulips With Me', catapulted him to the highest levels of fame. Soon, Tiny was playing to huge audiences in the USA and Europe, while his marriage to the seventeen-year-old 'Miss' Vicki was broadcast on The Tonight Show in front of an audience of fifty million. Before long, however, his star began to fade. Miss Vicki left him, his earnings evaporated, and the mainstream turned its back on him. He would spend the rest of his life trying to revive his career, with many of those attempts taking a turn toward the absurd. But while he is often characterized as an oddball curio, Tiny Tim was a master interpreter and student of early American popular song, and his story is one of Shakespearean tragedy framed around a bizarre yet loveable public persona. Here, drawing on dozens of new interviews, never-before-seen diaries, and years of original research, author Justin Martell brings that story to life with the first serious biography of one of the most fascinating yet misunderstood figures in popular music.
“Charming. . . . A moving testament to the diversity and depths of love.” —Publishers Weekly You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you’ll be swept away—in less time than it takes to read this paragraph. Here are 175 true stories—honest, funny, tender and wise—each as moving as a lyric poem, all told in no more than one hundred words. An electrician lights up a woman’s life, a sister longs for her homeless brother, strangers dream of what might have been. Love lost, found and reclaimed. Love that’s romantic, familial, platonic and unexpected. Most of all, these stories celebrate love as it exists in real life: a silly remark that leads to a lifetime together, a father who struggles to remember his son, ordinary moments that burn bright.
This new text examines recent popular Chinese films and derivative cultural phenomena, with a focus on films directed by celebrity directors such as Han Han, Guo Jingming, Xu Jinglei and Zhao Wei. In opposition to Fifth and Sixth Generation Chinese filmmakers who explored the grand-narratives of history, the oppression of the pre-socialist and socialist eras, and those marginalized by socio-economic changes, the celebrity directors at the heart of this book center on the new trends of living and emotional challenges faced by contemporary Chinese people, in particular the younger generations. This book sheds light on newly emerging social and cultural fashions in contemporary China, such as the social stigma of being ‘left-over’ (reflected in Xu Jinglei’s films), the issue of wealth ‘flaunting’ (represented in Guo Jingming’s films) or nostalgia for the long lost innocence of adolescence (demonstrated in Zhao Wei’s film). Considering present-day consumer capitalism through the lens of cinema, this text analyses in detail the significance of films chosen for their relevance, providing a reflection of social reality and cultural changes in 21st century China.
Decoded tells the story of Rong Jinzhwen, one of the great code-breakers in the world. A semi-autistic mathematical genius, Jinzhen is recruited to the cryptography department of China's secret services, Unit 701, where he is assigned the task of breaking the elusive 'Code Purple'. Jinzhen rises through the ranks to eventually become China's greatest and most celebrated code-breaker; until he makes a mistake. Then begins his descent through the unfathomable darkness of the world of cryptology into madness. Decoded was an immediate success when it was published in 2002 in China and has become an international bestseller. With the pacing of a literary crime thriller, Mai Jia's masterpiece also combines elements of historical fiction and state espionage. Taking place in the shadowy world of Chinese secret security, where Mai Jia worked for decades, it introduces us to a place that is unfamiliar, intriguing and authentic. And with Rong Jinzhen, it introduces us to a character who is deeply flawed and fragile, yet possessing exceptional intelligence. Decoded is an unforgettable and gripping story of genius, brilliance, insanity and human frailty. Mai Jia (the pseudonym of Jiang Benhu) is arguably the most successful writer in China today. His books are constant bestsellers, with total sales over three million copies. He became the highest paid author in China last year with his new book, Wind Talk. He has achieved unprecedented success with film adaptation: all of his novels are made - or are being made - into major films or TV series, the screenplays of which are often written by Mai Jia himself. He is hailed as the forerunner of Chinese espionage fiction, and has created a unique genre that combines spycraft, code-breaking, crime, human drama, historical fiction, and metafiction. He has won almost every major award in China, including the highest literary honor - the Mao Dun Award.
The Reform and Opening-up of China since the late 1970s has not only transformed the economic and political situation of the country but also transformed the Chinese film industry. This volume focuses on the 40 years of the history of Chinese film in the post-Mao era. As all aspects of film production, distribution, and exhibition have been commercialized, Chinese film has become an industry of immense scale and has grown by leaps and bounds. Meanwhile, contemporary Chinese film is marked by a new zeitgeist, with Chinese film closely integrated with Chinese society and the economy. The author argues that the Chinese film industry clearly stands at a turning point where the future of Chinese film and the way to further awaken, change, and shape film production have become important issues worth consideration in contemporary film history. The book will be an essential reading for scholars and students in film studies, Chinese studies, cultural studies and media studies, helping readers to develop a comprehensive understanding of Chinese film.
