Rating: 
Summary: Excellent
Review: I read this book some years ago when it first came out, and thought it was excellent. The book is basically a chronicle of Smith's trip to the Orient and his encounters with a number of different masters with descriptions of their methods and ideas. Smith's travelogue makes for an absorbing account, and he includes many interesting anecdotes and stories about the various masters he meets. It is not a picture book or instructional book in that sense, but more of a personal memoir. It is also interesting in that it bears a strong resemblance to the books written by John Gilbey, a purported textile heir and martial arts master who also travelled the world meeting many intereting and unusual masters, and who returned to write about his experiences. The writing styles are quite similar--both Gilbey and Smith like to pepper the text with quotes from their favorite writers--the main difference being Gilbey's experiences are probably fanciful. It is likely that Smith was writing under the pseudonym of Gilbey for these entertaining books, so you should take his accounts with a large grain of salt, lest you be taken in by Smith's engaging, conversational style and his fascinating stories. To give you just one example of this, in the most recent of the three Gilbey books, unfortunately the title escapes me right now, but anyway, he describes an encounter with an Icelandic master who claims to use the energy of black holes to obtain fastastic power, and which occurs in a train station. Well, there is no train system, or train station, in Iceland and never was one. The only thing that ever existed in the way of a train was a small-gauge railway that wasn't for passenger service and which I understand no longer operates. To give just one more example, in one of the other books Gilbey describes a Pakistani art by the name of Fiz-Lez-Loo whereby the energy of the attacker's blow is directed and reflected by the adept back into the attacker. This expert asked Gilbey to strike him on the nose, but Gilbey instead punches him in the groin as hard as he can. Gilbey passes out and spends the next week in the hospital recuperating. While I have been a martial artist and instructor myself for almost 40 years, having started studying when I was only 11, and have seen some pretty amazing things myself in that time, I am fairly certain that this art doesn't exist, and that it couldn't be developed. That having been said, I think Gilbey's books are worth reading for their entertainment value alone, as long as you keep in mind my warning about maintaining a healthy dose of scepticism and don't take what he says too seriously.
Rating: 
Summary: Name dropping at its worst
Review: I was very disappointed with this book. I was really hoping for some inspirational tales of martial arts that would encourage me when I became unhappy with my own progress, but this book completely failed to deliver. The meat of the book is Mr. Smith's stories of his own training in China. In fact, it's not really about his training so much as it is a set of press realeases about the people he met during his training and outlandish stories involving them. "Mr. Chan was the greatest <boxer, puncher, kicker, tai-chi master> in <northern, eastern, southern> China. He once defeated 8 armed men and a mule while carrying six old ladies across the street." This book is a waste of time.
Rating:
Summary: For those who want to learn more
Review: Mr. Smiths book has been around for quite sometime now however, with the current popularity of Chinese Boxing in AMerica and much of the mystic that surrounds many of those who teach it. THis book presents in a very clear light just who the traditional CHinese Boxing MAsters really were and just exactly what their views were and are on the study of CHinese Boxing. Smith is impressed by the subjects of his book, and rightly so, however he dosen't become so engrossed with them that he falls prey to the depths of mysticisim. His observations are informative, educational and at times down right funny. This is far from a how to learn Tai Chi book, it is however a very educational read on true Chinese Boxing,
Rating:
Summary: For those who want to learn more
Review: Mr. Smiths book has been around for quite sometime now however, with the current popularity of Chinese Boxing in AMerica and much of the mystic that surrounds many of those who teach it. THis book presents in a very clear light just who the traditional CHinese Boxing MAsters really were and just exactly what their views were and are on the study of CHinese Boxing. Smith is impressed by the subjects of his book, and rightly so, however he dosen't become so engrossed with them that he falls prey to the depths of mysticisim. His observations are informative, educational and at times down right funny. This is far from a how to learn Tai Chi book, it is however a very educational read on true Chinese Boxing,
Rating: 
Summary: very informative; not a how to manual!
Review: The writer tells his own encounters with masters form Taiwan and the Chinese mainland. you learn about training methods ,principles and masters. Do not expect series of techniques, but do expect a clear view on the different styles! It is a good book for every kung fu enthousiast! worth buying!
Rating:
Summary: Simply the best
Review: There are many manuals of Chinese boxing. This is not one of them. The author, then a US government employee, arrived in Taiwan when that nation's government was extremely grateful to the US. He was given introductions to many of the leading Chinese martial artists of the time, and took up every one -- adding what they had to teach him to what he had learned earlier in the US and during a posting in Japan. Virtually all of the masters he describes in the book are dead and no longer available for interview. His accounts of what he saw, heard and experienced can never be matched, and Asian principles of loyalty to a single master mean that nobody other than he was able to study as widely from the leading teachers of the day. The more you learn personally about Chinese boxing, the better this book shows itself to be. For those on the first steps of this study, the book's a profound inspiration.
Rating:
Summary: Simply the best
Review: There are many manuals of Chinese boxing. This is not one of them. The author, then a US government employee, arrived in Taiwan when that nation's government was extremely grateful to the US. He was given introductions to many of the leading Chinese martial artists of the time, and took up every one -- adding what they had to teach him to what he had learned earlier in the US and during a posting in Japan. Virtually all of the masters he describes in the book are dead and no longer available for interview. His accounts of what he saw, heard and experienced can never be matched, and Asian principles of loyalty to a single master mean that nobody other than he was able to study as widely from the leading teachers of the day. The more you learn personally about Chinese boxing, the better this book shows itself to be. For those on the first steps of this study, the book's a profound inspiration.
Rating:
Summary: Good Concept, Cruddy Writing
Review: This book does a great job of describing Smith's experiences with various Chinese Boxing masters. It tells a lot of great stories and in that sense, it's a very interesting book and quite informative. But the writing is horrible. Smith is busy quoting someone on every paragraph, "As Mark Twain once said..." "Camus once mused..." "Jung stated.." etc.. He drops so many names, quotes so needlessly, that it's almost as if he's trying to impress you with how intellectual he is. It's like he's saying to himself, "Ooo let me quote Seneca here, not because it really adds anything to the effectiveness of my writing, but because quoting is so darn fun, and plus people might think I'm soooo deep because of it." Except for Smith's literary pretensions, this is a great book, a good buy.
Rating:
Summary: Better than Fiction
Review: This is a real account from a real person. Bob Smith's book does exactly what it sets out to do, to showcase the personalities of the martial arts masters he encountered during his stay in Taiwan. He lived the dream. He went, he sought, he learned from the masters who made the art great.
It was Sir Arthur Conan Doyle who wrote, through the voice of Sherlock Holmes, that reality would always be far more interesting and challenging than fiction. Smith's book is reality.
Rating:
Summary: Why I Enjoyed This Book...
Review: This was the first English language book by someone who had actually studied Chinese martial arts in Asia (Taiwan, as China was 'cleansing' all their old school martial arists at the time--before their potential as $-making tourist attractions became evident). Some of Smith's observations seem exaggerated, but he is a believer in chi gung, so this deosn't surprise me, and shouldn't annoy skeptics who can read around the personal beliefs/handicaps of martial arts writers. Smith is a VERY knowledgeable martial artist (even if you don't buy into all of the chi stories), and his experiences are worth reading about. He discusses many teachers whi have made a huge impact on the Chinese-martial arts world without trying too hard to sell himself. Other good books in this vein (Chinese martial arts books which are semi-autobiographical works describing the training and experiences of the authors) include Mark Salzman's two books, "Iron & Silk" and pre-quil "Lost In Place", and a book by Howard Thomas called "Tai Chi Training in China". Smith's latest book, "Martial Musings" is worth a read too.
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