Flying Dragons Flowing Streams

Review: ?It is a rare treat to encounter a book that is as carefully researched, as thoroughly documented, as intelligently written and as fascinating and enjoyable to read as Ronald Riddle's book on music in the life of San Francisco's Chinese.... Riddle has amassed a truly astonishing amount of material with fascinating details on the lives of the performers, audience, staging, musical instruments, and the theater itself--all presented against the backdrop of the turbulant social history of the early Chinese Americans and their interaction with the mainstream' society.

His elaborations, generalizations, criticisms, and conclusions on the subject matter are intelligent and convincing, reflecting his vast knowledge and deep understanding of the Cantonese opera as well as a compassion for the community and its culture. ... Riddle's enlightened comments gently and discreetly put issues into proper focus and perspective.?-Ethnomusicology