{"title":"Ronald G Knapp","description":"\u003cp\u003eExplore the works of Ronald G. Knapp, a renowned geographer and sinologist. Dive into Chinese cultural landscapes, traditional architecture, and rural life through his insightful books. A fascinating journey awaits!\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"things-chinese-book-ronald-g-knapp-9780804841870","title":"Things Chinese","description":"China's art objects and traditionally manufactured products have long been sought by collectors—from porcelains and silk fabrics to furniture and even the lacquered chopsticks that are a distant relation to ones found in most Chinese restaurants. Things Chinese presents sixty distinctive items that are typical of Chinese culture and together open a special window onto the people, history, and society of the world's largest nation. Many of the objects are collectibles, and each has a story to tell.   The objects relate to six major areas of cultural life: the home, the personal, arts \u0026amp; crafts, eating \u0026amp; drinking, entertainment, and religious practice. They include items both familiar and unfamiliar—from snuff  bottles and calligraphy scrolls to moon cake molds and Mao memorabilia. Ronald Knapp's evocative text  describes the history, cultural significance, and customs relating to each object, while Michael Freeman's superb photographs illustrate them. Together, text and photographs offer a unique look at the material culture of China and the aesthetics that inform it.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49594112278801,"sku":"GOR008661273","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50098146410769,"sku":"CIN080484187XG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":50701381599505,"sku":"GOR014040393","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ LIKE_NEW \/ SBYB","offer_id":53370044350737,"sku":"CIN080484187XLN","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":53496293720337,"sku":"CIN080484187XVG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/080484187X.jpg?v=1751139047"},{"product_id":"chinese-bridges-book-ronald-g-knapp-9780804838849","title":"Chinese Bridges","description":"\u003cb\u003eBridges, the least known and understood of China's many wonders, are one of its most striking and resilient feats of architectural prowess.\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ci\u003eChinese Bridges\u003c\/i\u003e brings together a thorough look at the marvels of Chinese bridge design from one of the world's leading experts on Chinese culture and historical geography, Ronald G. Knapp. While many consider bridges to be merely utilitarian civil engineering, the bridges of China move beyond that stereotype, as many are undeniably dramatic, even majestic and daring. \u003ci\u003eChinese Bridges\u003c\/i\u003e illustrates in detail 20 well-preserved ancient bridges along with descriptions and essays on the distinctive architectural elements shared by the various designs. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eFor the first time in an English-language book, \u003ci\u003eChinese Bridges\u003c\/i\u003e records scores of newly discovered bridges across China's vast landscape, illustrated with over 400 color photographs, as well as woodblock prints, historic images, paintings and line drawings.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49622805020945,"sku":"GOR013686438","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0804838844.jpg?v=1751296329"},{"product_id":"peranakan-chinese-home-book-ronald-g-knapp-9780804848909","title":"The Peranakan Chinese Home","description":"Discover the rarified Peranakan (native-born Chinese of Southeast Asia) aesthetics that are today highly sought-after for their beauty: distinctive furniture and ceramics, textiles and jewelry, and many other art objects. Peranakan Chinese Home displays these extraordinary objects, visible markers of a highly developed culture.   The broad range of beautiful objects which the Peranakan Chinese created and enjoyed in their daily lives is astounding. Each chapter in The Peranakan Chinese Home focuses on a different area and presents objects used or found in those spaces. Each piece is described in the context of their utility as household objects, as part of periodic celebrations to mark the Chinese New Year and other holidays, or in important life passage rituals relating to ancestor worship, birth, marriage, mourning and burial. The meaning of the rich symbolic and ornamental motifs found on the objects is discussed in detail, and key differences are highlighted between Peranakan objects and similar ones found in China.  A fascinating mix of Chinese, European and Southeast Asian influences, the distinctly Peranakan identity of a people and their culture is beautifully portrayed through objects and archival photographs in this lovely and exotic book.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ GARDNERS","offer_id":49730996666641,"sku":"NGR9780804848909","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50131058983185,"sku":"CIN0804848904G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":51007702532369,"sku":"NIN9780804848909","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0804848904.jpg?v=1751434776"},{"product_id":"chinese-landscapes-book-ronald-g-knapp-9780824814137","title":"Chinese Landscapes","description":null,"brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":49799233634577,"sku":"CIN0824814134G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0824814134.jpg?v=1750746578"},{"product_id":"theodore-burr-and-the-bridging-of-early-america-book-ronald-g-knapp-9781916787834","title":"Theodore Burr and the Bridging of Early America","description":null,"brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":49946344096017,"sku":"CIN1916787835G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":51054123745553,"sku":"NIN9781916787834","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1916787835.jpg?v=1751028506"},{"product_id":"china-s-living-houses-book-ronald-g-knapp-9780824820794","title":"China's Living Houses","description":"It has been said that for the Chinese \"a house is a living symbol\", one endowed with meaning and the result of conscious action. This text reveals dwellings as the dynamic entities that express the vitality of Chinese families as each journeys through life. Ronald Knapp argues that the spaces and structures that comprise dwellings throughout China are replete with striking meanings, echoing the most fundamental aspects of Chinese culture. This book explores the complex links among folk beliefs and household ornamentation across time, space and social class.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50368945619217,"sku":"CIN0824820797G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50368949911825,"sku":"CIN0824820797VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0824820797.jpg?v=1750702989"},{"product_id":"gunks-ridge-and-valley-towns-through-time-book-ronald-g-knapp-9781635000146","title":"The Gunks Ridge and Valley Towns Through Time","description":"The Shawangunk Mountains the Gunks are renowned for stunning landscapes on and off the ridge in a region that has remained a favorite destination for visitors since the middle of the nineteenth century. While the mountain elevations are not high nowhere exceeding 2240 feet they present rugged topography with glistening grey-white escarpments, jumbled boulders at the base of cliffs, deep crevices, as well as precipitation-fed \"sky lakes.\" Arnold Guyot, the first Professor of Geology and Geography at Princeton University, remarked in 1887 that \"Few spots on our continent unite so much beauty of scenery, both grand and lovely, within so small a compass, to be enjoyed with so much ease,\" a sentiment echoed by many today. Three magnificent Victorian hotels were constructed in the northern Shawangunk Mountains in the decades after 1869, one situated along Lake Mohonk and two others on cliffs above Lake Minnewaska. Only the grand Mohonk Mountain House remains. Framing the Gunks are the valleys of the Rondout Creek and the Wallkill River where one finds New Paltz, which lays claim to being \"one of the oldest towns in America\" because of the stone houses aligned along Huguenot Street, as well as quaint hamlets like Gardiner, Rosendale, Accord, High Falls, and Marbletown.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50388090585361,"sku":"CIN1635000149G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1635000149.jpg?v=1751342876"},{"product_id":"house-home-family-book-ronald-g-knapp-9780824829537","title":"House Home Family","description":"Drawing on the work of scholars in anthropology, architecture, art, art history, geography, and history, this book explores and analyzes the functional, social, and symbolic attributes of Chinese dwellings. It clarifies the diverse nature of house, home, and family in China.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50482570166545,"sku":"CIN0824829530VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":52857054920977,"sku":"GOR008347301","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0824829530.jpg?v=1751010758"},{"product_id":"things-chinese-book-ronald-g-knapp-9780804849890","title":"Things Chinese","description":"China's art objects and traditionally manufactured products have long been sought by collectors—from porcelains and silk fabrics to furniture and even the lacquered chopsticks that are a distant relation to ones found in most Chinese restaurants. Things Chinese presents sixty distinctive items that are typical of Chinese culture and together open a special window onto the people, history, and society of the world's largest nation. Many of the objects are collectibles, and each has a story to tell.   The objects relate to six major areas of cultural life: the home, the personal, arts \u0026amp; crafts, eating \u0026amp; drinking, entertainment, and religious practice. They include items both familiar and unfamiliar—from snuff  bottles and calligraphy scrolls to moon cake molds and Mao memorabilia. Ronald Knapp's evocative text  describes the history, cultural significance, and customs relating to each object, while Michael Freeman's superb photographs illustrate them. Together, text and photographs offer a unique look at the material culture of China and the aesthetics that inform it.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50501091721489,"sku":"CIN0804849897G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":51007774720273,"sku":"NIN9780804849890","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0804849897.jpg?v=1751043805"},{"product_id":"chinese-bridges-book-ronald-g-knapp-9780804849685","title":"Chinese Bridges","description":"Bridges, the least known and understood of China's many wonders, are one of its most striking and resilient feats of architectural prowess.  Chinese Bridges brings together a thorough look at the marvels of Chinese bridge design from one of the world's leading experts on Chinese culture and historical geography, Ronald G. Knapp.  While many consider bridges to be merely utilitarian civil engineering, the bridges of China move beyond that stereotype, as many are undeniably dramatic, even majestic and daring. Chinese Bridges illustrates in detail 20 well-preserved ancient bridges along with descriptions and essays on the distinctive architectural elements shared by the various designs.   For the first time in an English-language book, Chinese Bridges records scores of newly discovered bridges across China's vast landscape, illustrated with over 400 color photographs, as well as woodblock prints, historical images, paintings and line drawings.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ -","offer_id":51007623627025,"sku":"","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":51007626936593,"sku":"NIN9780804849685","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":51895167123729,"sku":"CIN0804849684G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0804849684.jpg?v=1751233523"},{"product_id":"theodore-burr-and-the-bridging-of-early-america-book-ronald-g-knapp-9781916787773","title":"Theodore Burr and the Bridging of Early America","description":null,"brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ -","offer_id":51054107820305,"sku":"","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":51054110376209,"sku":"NIN9781916787773","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1916787770.jpg?v=1751347579"},{"product_id":"china-s-old-dwellings-book-ronald-g-knapp-9780824822149","title":"China's Old Dwellings","description":"A comprehensive critical examination of China's folk architectural forms. Together with its companion volume, \"China's Living Houses: Folk Beliefs, Symbols, and Household Ornamentation\", it provides a study of the environmental, historical and social factors that influence housing forms for nearly a quarter of the world's population. Both books draw on the author's 30 years of fieldwork and travel in China, as well as on published and unpublished material in many languages. The work begins by tracing the interest in Chinese vernacular buildings in the 20th century. Early chapters detail common and distinctive spatial components, including the interior and exterior modular spaces that are axiomatic components of most Chinese dwellings as well as conventional structural components and building materials that are common in Chinese construction. Later chapters examine representative housing types in the three broad cultural realms - northern, southern and western - into which China has been divided. Knapp completes his survey with an exploration of China's old dwellings in the context of the rapid economic and social changes that are destroying so many of them.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ -","offer_id":51388179349777,"sku":"","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":51388179874065,"sku":"GOR014250304","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0824822145.jpg?v=1751044696"},{"product_id":"china-s-covered-bridges-book-ronald-g-knapp-9781952461026","title":"China's Covered Bridges","description":"China’s Covered Bridges: Architecture over Water is the first book in English to examine comprehensively one of the three great covered bridge traditions in the world. Based on decades of observation and ten years of intensive field research throughout China, this book illuminates countless covered bridges that have never been presented in a Western language.  Terry E. Miller, Ronald G. Knapp, and A. Chester Ong, whose America’s Covered Bridges: Practical Crossings, Nostalgic Icons, broke new ground, have joined here with Liu Jie, China’s leading timber covered bridge scholar. This team has traveled in areas rarely visited by others to document a living tradition whose roots go deep into Chinese history.  Long before professional engineers analyzed bridge structure mechanically, early builders in China, as in North America and Europe, solved the daunting problem of spanning deep ravines and wild rivers to facilitate the flow of pedestrians, animals, and vehicles. Their collective, yet independent, efforts represent the triumph of ingenuity and common sense.   Although there has been no census of covered bridges, and it is impossible to calculate how many existed in the past in China, some 3,000 remain, far more than found elsewhere in the world. Wooden trusses as understood in the West were not a component of China’s bridge-building traditions.  Instead, covered corridors were situated atop either a masonry base or, more significantly, supported by an ingenious assemblage of timbers.   China’s Covered Bridges highlights covered bridges with a timber sub-structure, including both a variety of cantilevered forms and extraordinary \"woven arch\/woven arch-beam\" types that until the until the last quarter of the 20th century were believed to have died out more than a millennium earlier.   The story of China’s covered bridges is fascinating not only in terms of technological achievement, social functioning, and aesthetic identity. Each covered bridge in China, whether still standing or long gone, has a story to tell about the nature of rural and urban life.  Thoroughly researched with a text of over 70,000 words and profusely illustrated with more than 600 historic and contemporary photographs, this book features the work of master photographer A. Chester Ong and is supplemented by photographs by the authors.  Like America’s Covered Bridges, China’s Covered Bridges is written in an accessible style that will satisfy not only those with general interests but also those with more specialized knowledge.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ -","offer_id":51602644959505,"sku":"","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":51602646139153,"sku":"CIN1952461022VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1952461022.jpg?v=1750728246"},{"product_id":"chinese-house-book-ronald-g-knapp-9780195851151","title":"The Chinese House","description":"This pioneering work in Chinese domestic architecture examines for the first time the Chinese house from a cultural perspective. Knapp explores how the typical Chinese home reveals a long folk tradition of craft and symbolism, including the popular practices of \u003cem\u003efengshui\u003c\/em\u003e. Extensively illustrated with wood block prints from traditional Chinese homes, original line drawings, and Knapp's own photographs, the book vividly portrays a living tradition of amazing resilience.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ -","offer_id":51850101850385,"sku":null,"price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":51850102636817,"sku":"GOR007189535","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9780195851151.jpg?v=1753540818"},{"product_id":"china-s-vernacular-architecture-book-ronald-g-knapp-9780824812041","title":"China's Vernacular Architecture","description":null,"brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":53257361326353,"sku":"CIN0824812042G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9780824812041.jpg?v=1773685044"}],"url":"https:\/\/www.worldofbooks.com\/collections\/author-books-by-ronald-g-knapp.oembed","provider":"World of Books ","version":"1.0","type":"link"}