a tree is a tree

In 1989, When Walt Hackman’s son was tragically murdered his world collapsed around him. Seeking peace of mind and a new beginning, Walt sought to honor his son’s memory by bringing to life a dream that his son shared with him but had long been delayed — to live on a Chinese junk. And the first thing: to build one. 

What followed was 5 trips to China in 4 years, dealing with people of totally different customs and culture, learning about Chinese history, poetry, and cuisine while learning Chinese, and rediscovering the China that Marco Polo observed 800 years ago. 

The result was Mei Wen Ti, an authentic Chinese handcrafted wooden junk made with exactly the same techniques as when Marco Polo eyewitnessed in the Yuan Dynsaty. While the junk was named “Mei Wen Ti” which was a pet phrase of the Chinese workers that means “no problem”, Walt was met with numerous problems from the workers’ lack of knowledges of modern engines to not being able to find a shipping line to carry the junk to US. But he managed to get over the significant cultural barriers, making unlikely friends, achieving an improbable dream against all odds, and built the Chinese junk that changed his life forever. 

Filled with humor, drama, mystery, and suspense, this delightful memoir is interspersed with intriguing Chinese anecdotes, poetry, and recipes. Walt’s extraordinary journey to build a wooden boat ultimately helped him honor the beloved son he lost and sail new seas.

Author Walt Hackman is a retired computer executive, art gallery owner, philanthropist, Navy serviceman, father, husband, and world traveler. 

Walt joined the Navy in 1954, where his attachment to the ocean began. While stationed aboard the Kermit Roosevelt, Walt traveled extensively throughout Southeast Asia and developed an ardent and abiding interest in Asian and Pacific Rim culture. 

Walt lives in Southern California with his wife Virginia Harmening. 

This is a fascinating story that anyone who loves classic wooden boats will enjoy. Walt Hackman's conversational story style does a superb job of blending China's history with his own experiences and making even a simple breakfast surprisingly interesting. Having seen wooden junks weaving among great modern cargo ships in Hong Kong harbor fifty years ago, I felt a special kinship with Mr. Hackman's pursuit of his dream to have a wooden junk built half-way around the world by people who spoke little English for a customer who spoke virtually no Chinese.

--Thomas Jonathan Jackson

This is a memoir that moved me emotionally. I don’t need to say much about the themes because the blurb says it all. This book gives you an insight into the author’s life—the ups and downs, times of utter chagrin and the process of rekindling the light of hope. It is also filled with anecdotes about the author’s experiences in China and provides interesting details about the country’s unique culture.
The adventure of building a boat helped the author cope with the many tragedies in his life. While reading this book I felt like I too was a part of this journey. There are sections of this book which are extremely agonizing and there are sections which are incredibly funny. After all, life itself is that way; there are those inevitable crests and troughs. The writer has documented the changes in his life without any exaggeration. The portrayal of feelings and implicit realizations are just as brilliant as the description of nature or that of people.
Although there are many aspects of this fascinating memoir, the boat remains an integral part of it. I was completely engrossed in the captivating account of the author’s boat building venture. It’s something very new to me. I also admired the way Walter Hackman has described China and its inhabitants.
Penned in impeccable style, this book makes a perfect read. It is both entertaining and inspirational. Well done, Mr. Walt!

--Page-Hungry Bookworm

A pioneer in the study of Chinese Visual Poetry---which has never been recognized as a poetic genre yet remain dynamic and active up to now, Dr. Tan explores the chronological development of Chinese visual poetry in all its forms, chiefly including the earliest inscription fossils in prehistoric times, various types of Chinese calligraphy, hidden verse as displayed in the headwords of a common poem or doggerel, Chinese couplets, paper-cutting, Peking Opera masks, and poetic designs in advertisements and public posters in the present age. This book deserved to be considered an encyclopedic of Chinese visual poetry. At the same time, Dr. Tan also provides a convincing interpretation of Chinese mindset, world view, culture, philosophy and psychology as embodied in the visual poetry.

Hanwei Tan received his Ph.D. in Comparative Literature from Indiana University in 2009. His major publications on word-image relations include, "Image and the Poetic: Micro-poetics of Chinese Characters" (2008), "Visual Poetry : A Typological Approach" (2006), "Concrete Poetry and the Literary Inheritance"(2006). He has co-authored three books, A Course in American Literature(1995), Intermediate English Composition(1994), Proper Names of Chinese-English Dictionary (1996).

A ground-breaking study of Chinese visual poetry from the perspective of comparative literature.

A well-planned comparative research layout which is helpful to explore and shape a clear and engaging picture of Chinese visual poetry in terms of its historical development, graphic and rhythmic features, and interactive relations with visual verses in other languages, especially those recently emerging visual verses in the present age of globalization, multiculturalism and cyber technology.

A milestone in studying Chinese visual poetry.

---- Professor Liu Shusen, Peking University

As one of the most ambitious and toughest efforts Dr. Hanwei Tan endeavors to make in this study, this book intends to explore Chinese visual poetry, including its history of evolution as represented by the typical poems of distinguished poets and the core values and nature of its visual poetics, by contextualizing it in the realm of world literature and comparing it with its counterparts in the tradition of Western poetry, instead of looking into it as a separate kind of visual poetry that has little to do with visual poetry in other languages. It is generally agreed that different from phonological languages of various families, all the major ancient pictographic languages in the world such as Egyptian, Sumerian, Indian and Chinese are universally characterized by some kind of visual arts that dramatically represent the sense and emotions of the words in those earliest human languages.

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 Mr. Li Jinyuan is a highly successful Chinese entrepreneur. He has created one of the world’s largest health-focused organizations, Tiens Group, with millions of customers in most countries of the world. Li Jinyuan is also a philanthropist who has given many millions of dollars for humanitarian causes.

This book is a collection of Li Jinyuan’s thoughts on a range of topics under the broad categories of Health, Happiness and Fortune. Li shows his strong charisma as a leader, his deep belief in the essential goodness of people, his love for and commitment to all human beings and his appreciation of China and Chinese culture. The clarity and the power of Li Jinyuan's comments have inspired many, and we hope will inspire you too.

 Li Jinyuan is a graduate of Nankai University. He is founder and Chairman of Tiens Group Co. Limited, a private company headquarted in Tianjin, People's Republic of China. He has received awards and honors within China and from around the world for his work and his contributions to the society.

Kevin McConkey is a graduate of the University of Queensland and is an Emeritus Professor of Psychology at the University of New South Wales, Australia. He is an International Advisor to Tiens Group. He has received awards and honors within Australia, including being a Fellow of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia, a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Company Directors, and a Member of the Order of Australia.