Ma Jianzhong was a close adviser to the powerful Qing government official, Li Hong-zhang, and wrote several essays between 1878 and 1890 outlining his plans for economic and administrative reform. He was the first Chinese to advocate the creation of a specialized and professional diplomatic corps. His contribution to the late nineteenth-century Chinese discourse on the state and the economy has hitherto been neglected. Paul Bailey's translation of his essays will contribute to a wider understanding of the origins and circulation of reform ideas in the late Qing.

In this stunning collection, the best and brightest writers working today reimagine familiar stories from the greatest operas. Don Giovanni's ghost haunts a young boy, Fidelio meets Porgy and Bess and two hapless men stage a Mozartian love test. Long-lost loves enter the dating game and undying witches finally get grey hairs. Funny, macabre or irreverent, these stories are charming for any opera lover and a beguiling collection in their own right.