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Food and Festivals of Chinaby: Yan Liao
Broomall PA:
Mason Crest Publishers 2006, Paperback
ISBN: 1-5904-827-6
Reviewed by: Jacqueline M. Newman
Spring Volume: 2007 Issue: 14(1) page(s): 21 and 37
 The first chapter,called: Windorws to Culture, discusses this large country and its culture. Others tackle food and holidays. The latter are more detailed, the former but a handful of pages; hardly enough to do credit.
Geared to older children and young adults, the book ends with additional readings and internet resources, but does not list this magazine in either category. What is does provide are 'Fast Facts' in boxes with general items not as universal as implied. Two such items include that 'soup comes last in a meal' and that 'banquet dishes typically run more than a dozen dishes.' Both fail to take into account differences among those in this country where one and a third billion people live, nor do they discuss what peoples other than the Han majority population does. The best information is in the holiday chapters, the weakest is the single-page fifteen-item Glossary. This book is one in a series including Ancient History of China, The Government of China, Famous People of China, etc. For school libraries, this book and probably the others in the series, can be initiations to this most ancient culture and country. |
