Customer Reviews

Chinese erotic art,

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This big, beautiful book not only presents visual art from the Chinese ertoic canon, it offers enticing translations from classic bawdy as well. Because of printing technology ca. 1969, when this book was put together, most of the artwork is shown in black and white. That lets you see the general composition and themes, but hardly allows real appreciation of the detail and color in these lovely images. In about two dozen cases, however, color reproductions were printed separated and pasted in - quaint, by the standards of current printing technology, but real high spots in this volume.

Words add a lot to the pictures, however. The editors add a few explanatory notes describing the images and text, but largely let both speak for themselves. Texts, in this volume, include extracts from the Chin P'ing Mei (Plum in the Golden Vase), Ju Pu T'uan (The Carnal Prayer Mat), and others, interspersed with classical and modern love poems.

Most of the texts are available in more complete form elsewhere, and more recent picture books present the paintings better. Still, the editors have condensed a variety of visual and written materials into one enjoyable volume. This book certainly has a place in any collection dedicated to the joy of sexuality.

-- wiredweird