On Thu, 20 Sep 2007 13:31:07 -0400, Anonymous wrote:
> Thanks very much for your reply. I have Lau's book as well as the first
> Syllabus by Li. I have Sloan's book on order, and I have his DVD. I
> also have "Four Great Games" which treats Western chess, XiangQi, Shogi
> and Go. I have on order "Games Ancient and Oriental and How to Play
> Them" and "The Chess of China." Most of these books are inexpensive.
> The other Syllabus books will cause me to save my pennies so that I can
> afford them.
You look like you've covered a lot of the market there!
> Not long after I bought XieXie, http://cc-xiexie.com/
seemed to
> disappear a few days ago. I can't connect to the server. I have found
> Qianhong and bought Chinese Chess Deluxe but haven't examined that yet.
I can access http://cc-xiexie.com,
but not http://www.cc-xiexie.com.
It
could be that their server is misconfigured.
> "The Mystery of Chess Boxing" is available inexpensively in VHS format
> on Amazon.
You can get it on DVD as well. As I said, it's just an interesting aside
and a fun film.
> I find your comments about the "popularity" of XiangQi versus the
> "elite" status of WeiQi or Western chess to be very interesting. Is
> XiangQi considered a kind of "folk" entertainment that lacks the
> mystique of Go or of Western chess? I wish that I could read more about
> that.
I'm very cautious of appearing to be any sort of authority. My knowledge
comes from reading what I can find on the 'net and by talking to some
Chinese friends. I'm a member of http://www.couchsurfing.com,
and so often
host visitors here in York. On the various occasions that we've had
Chinese visitors, I usually chat to them a bit about weiqi and xiangqi.
From what I can gather, xiangqi is seen as a far more approachable --
something that anyone can play. I think that it even used to be taught in
schools. Weiqi seems to have more the status of a high intellectual art
that only clever people play. Having said that, I don't think that Chinese
chess is played very commonly by ordinary people. It's perhaps more played
than Chess is in the West, but I don't get the impression that you'll trip
over players in the street very often.
I have some guests from Taiwan at the moment, and they told me that old
men quite often play xiangqi in parks over there, with spectators
gathering to watch. I asked if the same thing happened with weiqi, and
they said that they hadn't seen it.
As another point of interest, there is a novel set during the Chinese
cultural revolution called "The Chess Master", by A Cheng, translated by
W.J.F. Jenner. The edition that I have is bilingual Chinese/English. You
might find it interesting to read.
I think that I've now poured out everything I know! Do feel free to share
anything else that you find out here.
Joss
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