My Coffee Table

Books

• Romance of the Three Kingdoms - one of the Four Great Classical Novels in Chinese literature;
• Book of Han;
• The Art of War - the original by Sun Zi; probably the best known of the Seven Military Classics; I also have another version with annotations by eleven Chinese historical figures, including the ambitious Cao Cao from the period of the Three Kingdoms;
• Kong Ming's Art of War - Kong Ming (Zhuge Liang's courtesy name) is a great politician, strategist, and tactician of legendary fame from the Three Kingdoms period; many people's favourite character in The Romance of the Three Kingdoms, mostly for his wit, sense of honour, and loyalty;
• Wei Liao Zi's Art of War - Wei Liao Zi is not as famous as Sun Zi or Kong Ming, but still a great strategist and political theorist; another one of the Seven Military Classics;
• Questions and Answers between Emperor Taizong of Tang and Li Jing - another one of the Seven Military Classics;
• Four Books - the reference for Confucianism;
• The Heavenly Sword and the Dragon Saber - wuxia novel by Jinyong;
• The Deer and the Cauldron - another wuxia novel by Jinyong;
• The Legend of the Condor Heroes - another one by Jinyong;
• Three Hundred Poems of the Tang Dynasty;
• Le Petit Prince - (finally some non-Chinese stuff, haha);
• Technology & the Future - this is actually a required textbook of one of our engineering core classes; I kept it because it is an interesting read;
• Invitation au latin, 4e - Highschool textbook to learn the Latin language and Roman history; written in French;
• Invitation au latin, 3e - Despite the number, it is actually more advanced than the 4e.

Please note that I would rather read the Jinyong novels than watching any of these movies: Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Hero, or House of Flying Daggers. I consider the Hollywood effect dangerous and harmful to the proper development and preservation of the authentic wuxia genre.

Music

I have so much music that I can't make an exhaustive list of it, so I'll just list my favourite artists and albums in general.

• Yoko Kanno - I basically listen to anything she composes;
• Yuki Kajiura - another composer whose works I listen to indiscriminately;
• Joe Hisaishi - this guy is like the appointed composer for Hayao Miyazaki; indiscriminate listening; although the Princess Mononoke sound track is by far my favourite among his works;
• all sound tracks of Serial Experiments Lain;
• all sound tracks of Full Metal Panic!, Full Metal Panic? Fumoffu, and Full Metal Panic!: The Second Raid
• most sound tracks of the Gundam meta-series