作者写道：“人类历史上最默默无闻的英雄，就是发明下水道的智者，制作浴缸的能人，让你领略淋浴魅力的才子，阴沟的建造者……卑微的管子工……爱尔兰人也许拯救了人类文明一次，但管子工们拯救了无数次。”
当我们考虑那些福利设施真正让我们过上文明生活的时候，优秀的管子工所做的一切便名列前茅了。但我们几乎没花一点时间去欣赏这种技术奇迹，它用一个水龙头给我们千家万户带来干净水，用一根杠杆把我们的排泄物冲刷掉——直到今天。
本书行文幽默风趣，所叙述的奇闻轶事给人以愉悦的阅读感受。不仅把管子工行业悠久的历史娓娓道来，而且描述了作者制造铅水管的艰辛过程，参观伦敦下水道的“惊险”旅程，在自家浴室安装最新型日本马桶的尝试，展示了他为全面了解这个最被嘀咕的文明支柱所付出的无畏努力。
本书成功地将历史、科学和作者的切身经历融为一体，令那些从未思考过这个日常技术奇迹所隐藏的错综复杂知识的人大开眼界。

“可爱”已经成为遍布全球的一大现象……二十世纪八十年代流行的漫画文字和“酒井法子式用语”、九十年代的“御宅族”以及二十一世纪兴起的“萌”热潮，日本的“可爱”文化在世界亚文化群中，具有独一无二的彻底去政治化。本书从“可爱”现象入手，分析了“可爱”的语源，对“可爱”要素进行了分析，探讨了“可爱”的重要属性，是第一本专门对“可爱”这一文化现象进行深入研究的著作。

Should you take your BlackBerry on vacation? What is the best way to accept a compliment? Is an e-mail an acceptable means of writing a Thank-You note? While the tenets of gracious behavior never change, the situations a gentleman faces do and have changed significantly in the last ten years. In this revised, updated, and expanded version of the bestselling How to Be a Gentleman, Bridges addresses new issues such as airport security, Bluetooth and BlackBerry usage, and appropriate internet and instant message communication. Still featured are topics ranging from how to receive a compliment to how to act at funerals. Certain to be the must-have guide for the modern gentleman, this revised edition will echo the success of its predecessor.

我们的丑陋，来自我们不知道自己丑陋。
台湾著名作家柏杨以“恨铁不成钢”的态度，强烈批判中国人的“脏、乱、吵”、“窝里斗”、“不能团结”、“死不认错”等，指出中国传统文化有一种滤过性疾病使我们的子子孙孙受感染，到今天也不能痊愈。

There is nowhere else in the world quite like Chungking Mansions, a dilapidated seventeen-story commercial and residential structure in the heart of Hong Kong’s tourist district. A remarkably motley group of people call the building home; Pakistani phone stall operators, Chinese guesthouse workers, Nepalese heroin addicts, Indonesian sex workers, and traders and asylum seekers from all over Asia and Africa live and work there—even backpacking tourists rent rooms. In short, it is possibly the most globalized spot on the planet.
But as Ghetto at the Center of the World shows us, a trip to Chungking Mansions reveals a far less glamorous side of globalization. A world away from the gleaming headquarters of multinational corporations, Chungking Mansions is emblematic of the way globalization actually works for most of the world’s people. Gordon Mathews’s intimate portrayal of the building’s polyethnic residents lays bare their intricate connections to the international circulation of goods, money, and ideas. We come to understand the day-to-day realities of globalization through the stories of entrepreneurs from Africa carting cell phones in their luggage to sell back home and temporary workers from South Asia struggling to earn money to bring to their families. And we see that this so-called ghetto—which inspires fear in many of Hong Kong’s other residents, despite its low crime rate—is not a place of darkness and desperation but a beacon of hope.
Gordon Mathews’s compendium of riveting stories enthralls and instructs in equal measure, making Ghetto at the Center of the World not just a fascinating tour of a singular place but also a peek into the future of life on our shrinking planet.

Talks about the rich, the famous and the infamous, history, tradition, folklore, legends, nursery rhymes, festivals, music, food, and attitudes. Suitable as a reference support for culture and institutions courses and inter-cultural awareness training, this title contains over 10,000 entries and many illustrations.

◎编辑推荐
你知道武王克商的繁复真相么？你知道我们所能见到的有关猫的最早实物么？你知道知名的司母戊鼎有一个假耳朵么？你知道孟姜女姓姜不姓孟么？你知道汉代穿深衣的人所穿的裤子是露屁股的开裆袴么？你知道最古老的同心结是什么样子么？你知道黄帝战蚩尤的真相么？你知道最古老的酒瓶出现在6000年前么？你知道猪肉的“腥”字本来是什么意思么？你知道中国近3500年来经历过何等让人匪夷所思的三次大规模变冷么？
精彩内文：全彩版在黑白版的基础之上，精勘精校，完善并增补了与中国古代文化相关的考古新知，而且进一步提高了图片解析力。
精良印刷：内文选用优质日本进口纸张，用顶尖级德国海德堡四色印刷机印刷，并根据文物实物对印刷颜色做了校正，以期对文物影像做到高度还原。
◎内容简介
本书是王力教授主持并召集众多专家共同编写的关于中国古代文化常识的简明读本，出版50余年来前后历经4次重要修订，到今天仍然是大众认识中国古代文化面貌最重要、最全面的基础参考书。全书分礼俗、宗法、饮食、衣饰等十四个方面。本书曾在港台地区出版并被译成日、韩等语言流行于海内外。
本次修订突破了以往的模式，特聘请在美国任教的汉学专家刘乐园（Lewis Eden），以中国考古学黄金时代的成果为出发点，通过近世考古发现与传统文献相结合的“古史新证”，从考古学和人类学的角度增补最新文化研究成果。修订的文稿和图片注释无一句空话，深入浅出，新意连连，水平之高为数十年来同类出版物中之翘楚。修订的内容中增加了一部分与文稿相配合的图片，某些关键文物的照片解析力之高也是惊人的。完成后的修订版文稿，具有很强的实用性和趣味性，修订委员会还专门为有兴趣的中学生阅读本书扫清了字词和基本概念上的障碍。