Songs of the Bamboo does not only record Vietnamese historical events but also reproduces folk tales and comic stories. My book is a rehabilitation of the present vicissitudes. Wasn't the 9/11 event a coup of terror and a clash between civilizations? In order to cure it, instead of being at war against each other, I would like to present my civilization of the bamboo, which would imply that we are only different in order to be one, since all of us look for human perfection and life happiness. My presentation of the bamboo civilization might not be complete, since now that I am away from my country, I can only rely on my memory. Bamboo is valued for its intrepidity. It cannot be broken by the most blustering wind. Therefore, the bamboo incarnates the virtue of the "royal man" (quan tu), or the chivalrous man so idealized by the Vietnamese civilization that it can often be called the civilization of the bamboo. Thus, our bamboo sings, followed by the wind as a humming accompaniment. Its songs present a variety of historical events and country folklore, with legends I am trying to reproduce as ricochets on the surface of an unknown pond. Xuan-Lan Nguyen was a professor of English at the Universities of Saigon and Hue in Vietnam. She now teaches English courses at Montgomery College in Maryland. Her earlier three books describe the struggles of the Vietnamese people under communist rule, with mass imprisonment, state confiscation of people's properties by expelling them from their homes, and sending them to live and work in wild forests and on the coastline. Publisher's website: http: //sbpra.com/XuanLanNguyen