L’Esprit de la nature : Sayed Haider Raza (The Spirit of Nature: Sayed Haider Raza), is a collective work edited by Ashok Vajpeyi and Annie Montaut, bringing together contributions from art critics, artists and art historians concerning Sayed Haider Raza, one of the major painters of the twentieth century who lived in France, but was still immersed in Indian culture. It aims to articulate the spiritual dimension of his work that all critics unanimously recognise in the artist's paintings - an ethics of cohabitation with nature. The mode of cohabitation offered by Raza's abstract art is understood as a partnership that establishes respect and love for the elementary universe in conjunction with the feeling of being consubstantial with them. To this he adds secular Indian traditions, both in the great classical texts and in popular beliefs and literature oral or written vernacular. The original trajectory of Sayed Haider Raza (1922-2016), born and raised in the middle of the forests of Central India, then co-founder of the Bombay Progressive Artist Group, member noticed from the Paris school in the fifties before defining himself outside any school or any movement, focusing on indian aesthetic and philosophical traditions, is the subject of the first part (autobiographical texts by Raza, Vajpeyi). The second places it in the history of Indian and Western art (Waldemar-George, Gaudibert, von Leyden, Dalmia). The third develops a series of more technical analyzes of art and aims of the painter (Bartholomew, Hoskote, Padgaonkar, Vajpeyi, Shahani, Puskale). The last section gathers memories of painters friends and interviews (Khanna, Kumar, Nair). The introduction is by Annie Montaut.

The first original screenplay published in French of a Chinese-language film, the screenplay for the City of Pain (Golden Lion in Venice in 1989), a masterpiece of Taiwanese cinema directed by Hou Hsiaohsien, is presented here as a literary work. Co-written by Chu Tien-wen and Wu Nien-jen, it makes us feel intimately, through the abundant and tragic story of the Lim family, the “pains” of the island of Taiwan following the dramatic events of February-March 1947, a tragic episode that no film had yet dared to mention. The reader will be able to appreciate the complexity of the political situation and social relations at the time when the Japanese colonizer is giving way to the authoritarian government of the Republic of China. They will (re)discover a brilliant woman of letters well known for her novels and short stories, and a remarkable screenwriter-dialogue writer (and director). They will also gain an in-depth understanding of a powerful and original cinematographic work through both its political and its memorial approach.

The Ming scholars (1368-164) [...] felt that "in meditation, in the mountains, the days lie down ". They listen to the streams, the waterfalls, the sounds that match the beats from the heart with a delicacy where the subtle becomes indistinguishable and indistinguishable. They enter little by little little in nature and in a state where all the sounds perceived simultaneously plunge them into the ultimate silence, where not one noise wins over another. This is "to find your Heart", in Chinese xin, a term which designates both the heart as that organ, and the mind, the center of being. [...] Many painters have thus made meditation one of the themes of their painting, theme little put forward until this study by Cédric Laurent who, through the presentation of very beautiful texts, poems and paintings, sensitizes us to this aesthetic and to this philosophy of being developed and put into practice by scholars of the Ming, a golden age for Chinese landscape painting. He makes us realize the importance of meditation in them and among the neo-Confucians, especially those from the School of the Heart, who reinterpreted the texts classics of Confucianism in relation to Buddhism and Taoism. (Extracts from the preface by Catherine Despeux)

""Le féminin et le religieux" (the feminine and the religious) is the expression used by Brigitte Baptandier in reference to the red thread that runs through her ethnological research on China since 1979 and crosses her questioning on the liturgical and shamanic traditions of Taoism. The title of this book, which we dedicate to her, was therefore quite appropriate, and it is this same red thread that the eight authors who contribute to paying homage to her have followed in order to explore further what the feminine and the religious held together can tell us not only about China of yesterday and today, but also, in a comparative perspective, about European and Indian traditions." (Excerpt from the Introduction)

This book, which brings together contributions from eight scholars in different fields, invites reflection on the complex and multiple links that connect the feminine and the religious. Family disorder, illness, suicide, pregnancy, infanticide, broken or thwarted designs, death, masculine and feminine creativity, begetting, rituals and the relationship to the afterlife are some of the themes that this book addresses through ethnography, history, literature, mythology and psychoanalysis. The different cases presented in this book question the ritual prohibitions in various religious contexts with regard to the conceptions of a pollution of the feminine, linked in particular to blood. They also show that the resulting forms of asymmetry between men and women do not prevent the existence of a specifically feminine power to act. Finally, they contribute to the reflection on the game of possibilities, via the phenomena of inversion or indifferentiation.

Book published under the direction of Gladys Chicharo, Stéphane Gros, Adeline Herrou and Aurélie Névot.

Analysis of vintage taste in sinophone cinema. The author synthesizes the major works that have studied this movement, more complex than just mere nostalgia, and seeks to identify what Taiwanese, Hong Kong or Chinese people try to express based on detailed analyzes of Hou Hsiao-Hsien, Edward Yang or Tsai Ming-Liang's movies.

Emile Guimet Prize for Asian Literature 2020.

The novel 'Funérailles molles' tackles the sensitive and disturbing subject of the Agrarian Reform in China. Having preceded the Cultural Revolution by ten years, it is one of the most deadly episodes in the country's recent history, seldom covered in Chinese literature owing to the taboo associated with it. Inspired by a true story, the novel begins with veiled hints at the painful events that a young woman experienced and which she kept hidden throughout her life, because the memories were unbearable. Having now grown older, she suddenly sees the past resurface violently and, the shock, having caused her extreme distress, compels her to internally relive, step by step, the tragedies that she tried to erase from her memory while her son struggles to reconstitute them - until the moment he gives up, deeming it preferable to forget. This novel appears both as exceptional documentary evidence and as a major literary work. As interesting in substance as in form, it goes beyond the framework of the Chinese Agrarian Reform to deliver a universal and still current reflection on the temptation to forget and the duty to remember in a context where historical truth is elusive.

The novella Ton temps hors d'atteinte offers to readers a surprising love story, considered over a long period of time, from childhood to adulthood. Written in an original way by a “me” (the narrator) addressing a “you” (the loved one), it tells the story of two beings as different from each other as they are from those around them, constantly playing on contrast and shift, concepts brilliantly embodied in the narration of the different times to which the two protagonists belong. Ending in a sort of tragic road trip like "Bonnie and Clyde", the novella unfolds patiently and subtly, according to the protagonist's different memories. The science fiction element of the novella only really reveals itself in the last part of the text, evoking other works by Xia Jia: a subtle, unspectacular innovation but which suggests the possibility of an inventive technology in the service of human rather than destructive and threatening. It is in this combination of romance and science fiction, both delicately brought together, that the success of the text is undoubtedly found. As Xia Jia herself mentions in her collection of short stories: “The most beautiful science fiction stories are not so different from the story of first love.”

The collection of short stories Salaam (« Allégeance »), translated from Hindi and published in India in 2000, offers 14 short stories dealing with the issues constantly faced by the population of the lower castes, also referred to as the dalite community. Some of the short stories take place in an urban surroudings with the emergence of an dalite "elite" who must hide the caste they come from in order to find an housing and manage to mix with the neigboors. However, as soon as their statut of untouchables is revealed, they become subject of denigration and sudden spurge of hate and aversion from the neigboors. This change of behaviour toward dalits also occures at work, especially for those working as office workers, as humilation, act of intimidations and harassement at work become common practices once they are seen as part of the dalite community. Other short stories take place in village, considered as a heavenly place according to the ideals of Gandhi. Yet, for the untouchables, villages are hellish places where arbitay and tiranic power prevails along with social injustice, feodalism, capitalism and Brahmanism, which characterised somehow the hindouist system. The author expresses himself in his short stories in the third person and often resorts to dialogue. The descriptions are both concise and meticulously detailled. The facts speak for themselves and awaken readers to the harsh reality of the Dalite community, making them aware of their suffering and ultimately bringing them to a state of consciousness that makes possible a social change that can restore the dignity of those who have been deprived of it for centuries.

There is an art of living well and aging well in Japan. The author invites us to discover it in Ogura, a small village nestled in the hollow of a valley at the foot of the mountains around Kyoto. Hubert Delahaye spent his professional life at the Collège de France in the field of sinology. He was attached to the Chair of Social and Intellectual History of China by Jacques Gernet and then to the Institutes of the Far East as a lecturer. It is natural that he was also interested in Japanese neighbors, those islanders so close to the Chinese and at the same time so different. For years, Hubert Delahaye has regularly immersed himself in this miniature world where, despite the passage of the seasons and a world in full mutation, time seems suspended. Borrowing the gaze and voice of one of his inhabitants, an old lady with confounding benevolence and wisdom, he brought back these letters, an impressionist painting of an intimate Japan. The evocation of a nature overflowing with life where men and beasts coexist in a delicate harmony is accompanied, in a subtle counterpoint, by reflections on the relations between generations, respect for religious traditions, social assistance, the abandonment of the countryside, but also the memory of a painful past, the upheaval of climate or cracks in family ties, all stakes for contemporary Japanese society. The old lady seems to be telling us: "I was born, so I'm here, and no matter how bad the world is, it's good to live, grow old and even die in Ogura."

Since its first publication in Korea in 1991, Je veux aller dans cette île (The Island) has attracted widespread public attention, owing to its unique style. Through a series of dramatic, authentic, and frankly comic episodes, Lim Chul-woo brings the reader on a journey with him to his home island. Remembrance, tenderness, tradition: these are a few of the subjects that The Island touches on, along with the beauty of human relations in these rural communities, isolated from the modern world. Lim Chul-woo, born in 1954, is the author of various powerful works that have earned him prestigious literary awards and international recognition. Je veux aller dans cette île (The Island), directly inspired from the world of his childhood, has been adapted into a film (Kŭ sŏm'e kago sipta / To the Starry Island) which he co-wrote with Lee Chang-dong (who also wrote the postface of 'Je veux aller dans cette île') and which was directed by Park Kwang-su.

'Je veux aller dans cette île' : the French version, was published by L'Asiathèque on September 4th 2013. You can now read an extract from 'Je veux aller dans cette île' here, or a review (in French) by the Corée Magazine here.

'The Island' : the English version is available in English bookstores.

South Korea, April 16th, 2014; the Sewol shipwreck cost the life of 304 people, most of them teenagers on a school trip. An huge scandal that highlights multiple failings, especially in the organization of coastguards. This drama and its aftermath will contribute to the deposition of former korean president Park Geun-hye. The story takes the form of a written statement of the narrator - a professional diver - intended to exonerate one of his colleagues who is accused of manslaughter. He evokes the infernal search for corpses through the obscure labyrinth of the wreck, the serious trauma suffered by the divers and denounces the carelessness with which the operations were carried out, as well as the unfair accusations held against those who have devoted themselves to return the bodies to the families. The author does not cite the name of the ship, nor those of the real protagonists, as he wish to give the novel an universal scope. He indicates in the afterword that the diver he used as model passed away. The investigation following his death led to the conclusion of a suicide. Kim Takhwan, born in 1968, is the author of successful historical novels, which have regularly been adapted to television. A committed writer, he draws his themes from Korean history to denounce injustices, call for a citizen revolution and encourage civic action. Only one of his books, Les Romans meurtriers, has been translated in French and published by Philippe Picquier, in 2010.

At the request of the Russian consul in Turkey, a Kurdish Sunni mullah describes the main aspects of social organization and Kurdish traditions: the structure of family and villages, the place of women, rules of conduct, festivals and ceremonies , religion and beliefs. Sandrine Alexie is both writer and translator. Author of novels on mythical, medieval or contemporary Kurdistan, she also translated Mem and Zîn from Ahmedê Khanî, a masterpiece of classical Kurdish literature, which is co-published with Geuthner.

Syaman Rapongan, author belonging to the indigenous group of Tao and who likes to define himself as a writer-fisherman, looks back on his youth, when he left his native island of Botel Tobago (Orchid Island off the east coast of Taiwan) to join the Taiwanese “mainland”. In this largely autobiographical work, Syaman Rapongan recounts how he was encouraged to leave his birthplace and that of his ancestors to find work in the "civilized" metropolis. He tells about his identity mistakes, the discriminations he suffers, both as an indigenous and as a proletarian, and also what pushes him to reconsider the value of the culture of his ancestors, and finally, to return home and to fight. for the recognition of the rights of its people.

The Taiwanese social chronicle of the 1970s and 1980s, at a time when Indigenous people were still considered backward and savage, Les Yeux de l’océan - Mata nu Wawa ("Eye of the sea - Mata nu Wawa") offers another facet of the "Taiwanese economic miracle." With a pen both full of anger and hope, Syaman Rapongan recounts how the injustices of yesterday have helped to shape today's Taiwan and how the cultural heritage of the Formosan indigenous people can regenerate contemporary Taiwanese culture by situating it in a new transpacific dynamic. Despite his double marginalization, as an indigenous and as a Taiwanese, Syaman Rapongan also shows how Taiwan can participate in debates about the future of the world.

René Grousset follows the two Chinese pilgrims Hiuan-tsang and Yi-tsing across the Gobi desert and the Pamir mountains, as they risk their lives to find knowledge, manuscripts, and Buddhist religious objects in India. The setting is the 7th century, a time when India and China are experiencing explosions of growth in their spiritual, intellectual, and artistic cultures. Hiuan-tsang is the main hero of the book. The detailed description of the lands they travel through, of monuments, of traditions and ceremonies, of the social mores of the peoples they encounter, and of the dramatic episodes of the voyage, make this story extraordinarily vibrant. This book includes a biography of René Grousset by Pierre-Lucien Lamant, color and black and white photographs by André Bareau, Dominique Darbois, Hélène Disrens, Gérard Fussman, and a large format color map that traces the path of the two pilgrims. René Grousset, who died in 1952, was an expert who has put within reach of the public the knowledge he acquired over many years of research and reflection. He is the author of Les Civilisations de l’Orient (The Civilizations of the Orient), Histoire de l’Asie (History of Asia), L’Épopée des croisades (The Epic of the Crusades), L’Empire des steppes (The Empire of the Steppes), Bilan de l’histoire (Balance of History). The author of the preface, André Bareau was an expert in Buddhist studies who also taught at Collège de France. He died in 1993. His warm preface celebrates the talent of René Grousset and the merits of Sur les traces du Bouddha.

Drawing on Tibetan and Chinese literature, travellers' accounts and the work of numerous researchers, Rolf Alfred Stein (1911-1999) presents here the abundant wealth of Tibetan civilisation in all its various aspects: habitat and population, history, social organization, religion and custom, arts and literature. HHis aim is to give, through a selection of subjects, documents and facts, a general and significant view that will allow the reader to apprehend a universe where the sacred and the profane mingle in every gesture, in every sound, in every journey. The book, first published in 1962 and then revised by the author in 1987, is a particularly valuable reference book at a time when the Tibetans are facing a serious threat to the preservation of their ancestral way of life and their unique cultural traditions. Rolf A. Stein, professor at the Collège de France, held the chair of Chinese World Studies, Institutions and Concepts from 1966 to 1981, and is the author of numerous works, including the Tibetan Epic of Gesar in its Lamaistic version of Ling (1956) and The World in Small, Miniature Gardens and Dwellings in Far Eastern Religious Thought (1987). As a tribute to Rolf A. Stein and on the occasion of the centenary of his birth (June 13, 1911), this new edition ends with the In memoriam that Mrs. Kuo Liying, Director of Studies at the EFEO, has dedicated to this great scholar, and which was published in the Cahiers d'Extrême-Asie II (1999-2000).