Old China Books was created to publish books related to China of the 19th and earlier centuries, in particular the historical novel Yang Shen, a tale of the
encounter - sometimes the clash - of Americans and Chinese. As their concerns converge, greater understanding of that encounter between America and China
seems merited, as it occurs today and as it happened in the past. Like the camelback bridge pictured above, an icon of old China, Old China Books may serve
in a small way as a bridge to further understanding. Nevertheless, we also anticipate expanding our list to embrace other works as well, including journals,
memoirs and poetry.
Yang Shen: The God from the West, Book I, 1st Edition
Continuing in the tradition of Shōgun and Taipan, James Lande is writing a
blockbuster novel about the adventure of a 19th Century American soldier-of-
fortune who returns to China to topple the Manchu dynasty and make himself a
prince, even emperor, in China. Arriving in the midst of the bloodiest civil war in
human history, Fletcher Thorson Wood instead takes up the imperial cause against
the "Christian" rebels, trains and fights beside native Chinese troops and mandarins,
builds the most powerful army in China, and as reward for his achievements is
made not a prince but a Chinese god. If you liked Shōgun, you may also like Yang
Shen. Available now in print and as Kindle and other eBooks.
ISBN: 978-0-9831454-0-0, Historical Fiction, 556 pages, Trade Paperback, $20.00
Events
Future Offerings
Click cover to go to
Yang Shen website
eBook on Kindle & Nook
An eBook version of Yang
Shen is now at Amazon and
Barnes & Noble. See the
Yang Shen website eBook
page for details
Book Reading San Diego Public Library Borrego Springs CA Saturday, April 21, 2012 5:00pm to 6:00pm
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How to Buy Yang Shen
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Dragon art courtesy of Gustavo Rezenda and the Open Clip Art Library www.openclipart.org/detail/101305/chinese-dragon-by-gustavorezende
New eBook formats
Yang Shen can now be
downloaded in other eBook
Nook) from Omni Lit. See
the Yang Shen website
eBooks page
Friends of Old China Books
FlipReads.com
Yankee Mandarin (no longer available from Amazon)
Yankee Mandarin is a publisher's experiment in repackaging Yang Shen for what
we are told is a different audience - readers who buy eBooks and make them
bestsellers on Amazon. This edition of the novel has been reduced to bare
essentials, removing all the paraphernalia having to do with the print edition, all the
Chinese language, and the appendices, to make a slim edition that can be more
quickly evaluated by a potential reader on the basis of cover, blurb, and the first
300 words. Otherwise, Yankee Mandarin tells the same exciting tale as Yang Shen,
Available now as a Kindle eBook.
Historical Fiction, 556 pages, special Kindle eBook edition, $2.99.
Click cover to go to Yankee Mandarin website
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Yang Shen: , Book I, 2nd edition
Only one man dared fight to defend Shanghai from rebel hordes - the
American adventurer who called up a ragtag band of deserters to defeat
armies of thousands.
"A master in hell before a minion in Heaven. I'll be a prince in China, and lord
over these heathen beggars, or I'll make a great many of them wish they'd better
joss - better luck - than to cross my bow."
Click cover to go to
Yang Shen website
Arriving in the midst of the bloodiest civil war in human history, Fletcher Thorson Wood takes
up the imperial cause against the "Christian" rebels, trains and fights beside native Chinese
troops, mandarins, and "Manilamen," builds the most powerful Army in China, and as reward for
his achievements grateful Chinese appoint Fletcher a mandarin of high rank, a general, and even
honor him with a temple near Shanghai.
Yang Shen makes the reader see, feel, and understand the tumult of 1860s China - "the ships and
weapons, the countryside with its intricate network of canals, the arcane maneuverings of
Chinese politicians and merchants and the equally complex rivalries among the foreign powers,
the squalid bars and brothels whose denizens simply struggled to survive each day, and the
equally squalid conditions of the Chinese people in their villages."
Yang Shen is also about the encounter, sometimes the clash, of Americans and Chinese. More
than a historical adventure, this novel recreates times long past, places long lost in China, and
long-silent voices of people in America, China, England and the Philippines who lived through
cataclysmic events that echo still.
"...puts the reader directly into the chaos of mid-19th century Shanghai."
"Historically convincing and very, very lively!" Pamela K. Crossley, author of The Orphan
Warriors
"A fascinating, eminently readable and vivid evocation of the time, place and personalities of a
truly remarkable moment in modern Chinese history." Richard J. Smith, author of Mercenaries
and Mandarins
If you liked Shōgun, you may also like Yang Shen.
Available soon in print and as Kindle and other eBooks.
ISBN: 978-0-9831454-1-7, Historical Fiction, 556 pages, Trade Paperback, $20.00

Yang Shen Videos
Three videos related to Yang
Shen can be seen now on
YouTube.
Yang Shen Book Trailer
An introduction to the story
told in Yang Shen and the
players in Shanghai in
1860 (2.3 min, 44MB).
Yang Shen Media page.
China in 1860
A brief overview of the
history underlying the novel
Yang Shen, giving the reader
the historical context of
China's Ch'ing (Qing)
dynasty, the Opium Wars,
Treaty Ports, and
the Taiping Rebellion. A
painless introduction to
complex times (7 1/2 min,
108MB). Yang Shen Media
page.
The Lower Reaches
Journey aboard the clipper
Essex to China, and the
Chinese war-steamer
Confucius up the Yangtze
River into the heart of China
following the maps in the
novel Yang Shen and visit
the locations of the story
(15 min, 210MB). Yang
Shen Media page.
Now available!