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192 China Review International: Vol. 4, No. 1, Spring 1997 temple oracles is not "the best study" (p. 15 n. 45); W. Banck's second volume, not referred to, is far more comprehensive.1 The book is very well produced. Very few misprints or typos are to be found. It is pleasing to see Chinese characters inserted in the text (a first for SUNY Press, I believe). But a few minor errors escaped the copyeditor's attention: "literati" on page 90 should be literatus (singular in Latin); "rhinoceri" on p. 96 should be rhinoceroses ; and "pheonix" (pp. 225-227) should be "phoenix." Ofcourse, my "hobby horse" is fhe spelling of "Taoism" and "Taoist." I do not object to the use of the pinyin romanization system, but "Taoism" and "Taoist" were already part ofthe English vocabulary before fhe birth ofpinyin. It is good to see that "Tao" appears occasionally (pp. 87 and 89). These are minor considerations. Overall, A God's Own Tale is work of excellence, and hopefully will inspire others to engage in research at the same high level ofquality. Julian F. Pas University ofSaskatchewan Julian F. Pas is a professor emeritus ofreligious studies specializing in Taoism in particular and the Chinese religious tradition in general. N OTE S 1. Werner Banck, Das Chinesische Tempelorakel, teil 2, Übersetzung undAnalysen (The Chinese temple oracle, part 2, Translation and analysis), Asiatische Forshungen, band 90 (Wiesbaden: O. Harrassowitz, 1985); reviewed by J. Pas in History ofReligions 28 (1988): 173-175. Gary Klintworth. New Taiwan, New China: Taiwan's Changing Role in the Asia-Pacific Region. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1995. viii, 336 pp. Hardcover $49.95, isbn 0-312-12550-X. Noting the precarious position of small states among the great powers ofAsia, Prime Minister Mahathir of Malaysia once quipped tiiat it doesn't matter ifthe elephants fight or make love, the grass still gets trampled. In New Taiwan, New China, Klintworth argues that Taiwan's strategic position among the Pacific powers ofJapan, China, and the United States has made Taiwan a particularly resil-© 1997 by University ient and increasingly consequential tuft ofgrass. ofHawai'i PressIn fact, while the politics ofthis great power vortex have long made Taiwan's status anomalous and its survival precarious, Taiwan's strategic location has ultimately proven, Klintworth contends, remarkably positive and prosperous for Tai- Reviews 193 wan. Taiwan's small-state standing is now giving way to one ofTaiwan as the "newest middle power in the Asia-Pacific region." Klintworth provides the reader with convincing evidence—financial, trade, and even diplomatic—that Taiwan has arrived. This "orphan billionaire," he argues, is getting richer, more democratic , more popular, and increasingly influential with each passing year. Unlike most recent studies ofTaiwan extolling the virtues ofits developmental state, its Confucian culture, or its export-oriented trade regime, Klintworth attributes this success to the structural "geo-economics" ofTaiwan's international setting. His nuanced analysis of the influence and interactions of the three Pacific powers and the very real impact they have had on Taiwan provides the most important and most original contribution of New Taiwan, New China. Klintworth first examines Taiwan's break from China in 1895 and its initially painful but ultimately positive participation in an ongoing Japanese-led economic hierarchy. Following the Pacific War, Taiwan tilted toward the United States, bolstering its Japanese economic base with crucial American aid, military protection, markets, technology, and training in American education, business practices, and consumer culture. During this postwar period, fhe Chinese threat ofinvasion provided Taiwan's transplanted regime legitimacy and its hard-working citizenry justification in the pursuit of forced-draft industrialization. This threat ofinvasion has now given way to beckoning opportunities of trade and investment complementarities in the wake ofthe cross-strait détente that began in the mid-1980s. As a result of this most recent shift, Klintworth finds Taiwan for the first time "located at a point almost equidistant between the three poles ofgravity posed by Japan, China and the United States" (p. 3). This strategic accommodation —combined with Taiwan's location, Sinic culture and heritage, ambiguous national status, economic (and military) strength, and its growing reputation as a world trader and financial powerhouse—have...

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