Overview

Reality-warping Asian science fiction that just happens to be nonfiction. In 11th-century China, pilgrims would journey to Pishe Lake to witness objects that flew up nightly, shot out dazzling beams of light, then vanished at impossible speeds. In the 18th century, a high-ranking Chinese official was led by two luminous orbs away from the mountains, where female beings transported him inside one-beginning an odyssey that maps precisely onto modern alien abduction accounts. In December 1994, twenty-five witnesses near Taiwan's Presidential Office observed five UFOs: a luminous saucer accompanied by four oval objects that looked like they were made of black iron. These are not isolated incidents. For 2,000 years, Asia has preserved accounts of glowing egg shapes, armored wheels, and Uzumaki-style spirals zigzagging across the sky, emerging from lakes, and hovering over cities. In the testimonies of ancient witnesses, we find the same details that Pentagon whistleblowers report today: objects emitting powerful lights, maneuvering in ways that defy physics, accounts of missing time, sudden silences, and encounters that transform or destroy those who experience them. Drawing on declassified documents, imperial archives, classical texts, and contemporary cross-disciplinary research, award-winning writers and translators Yi Izzy Yu and John Yu Branscum expand UAP research beyond Western frameworks and open new pathways for understanding humanity's long relationship with unexplained phenomena. STARS THAT PAUSE delivers: - New translations of ancient Chinese encounters - Modern cases proving the phenomenon never left Asia - Striking connections between Eastern philosophy and current UAP conversations - 19 provocative deep dives into related subjects, including: *Chinese UFO theories rooted in qi and yin-yang dynamics *A cross-cultural history of sexual encounters with non-human entities, from ancient Asian immortals to modern aliens and spirits *The influence of Taoism on Carl Jung's psychology and his UFO hypothesis *The twinned histories of Asian shamanism and UAP encounters *Profound similarities between Asian ""strange lands"" tales and today's theories about portals and parallel dimensions *Cross-cultural connections between Asian immortals, Western fairies, and modern alien and ultraterrestrial reports *How Eastern philosophy, from Buddhism to Taoism, anticipated modern insights into consciousness, the nature of reality, and simulation theory *Global cosmic egg mythology and its reflection in modern encounter reports *Related explorations in narrative psychology, symbolic thought, and mythological engineering Essential reading for anyone fascinated by UAPs, Asian culture, or global mysteries. Stars That Pause is a must for fans of Cixin Liu, Ted Chiang, Passport to Magonia, American Cosmic, Hunt for the Skinwalker, and The Mothman Prophecies. A history truly stranger than fiction, it opens new avenues for understanding one of humanity's most persistent mysteries through the lens of one of its oldest continuous civilizations.

Full Product Details

9781953124050

Table of Contents

Reviews

""In this luminous and fascinating volume, authors Yi Izzy Yu and John Yu Branscum bring together translated ancient and contemporary accounts and refract them through Asian experience and thought. Whether ultimate explanations lie in collective madness, alien encounters, or something else entirely, Stars That Pause invites readers to explore all possibilities while blending paranormal, psychological, and personal interpretations in the authors' pensive and poetic style. Enigmatic and utterly absorbing."" --Lee Murray, five-time Bram Stoker Award-winner, recipient of New Zealand's Prime Minister's Award for Literary Achievement in Fiction, and co-editor of Unquiet Spirits: Essays by Asian Women in Horror ""Yu and Branscum have unearthed something most of us never knew was lost-two millennia of Asian encounters with phenomena that challenge everything we think we understand about reality. Not just another UFO book, this is a masterwork of comparative mythology and post-disclosure humanities that, like the best art, makes you see differently."" --Bil Brown, editor of Black & Grey magazine ""Stars That Pause is the most ambitious and mind-bending book about UFOs I've ever read. It's mind-bending Asian science fiction that just happens to be nonfiction. Drs. Yu and Branscum's meticulous translations transport you to strange places, revealing Chinese immortals who mirror today's alien profiles, sexual encounters with non-human entities, and Taoist UFO theories rooted in qi dynamics. If you thought UFOs were a solely Western obsession, prepare to have your mind blown."" --Xiuping Shang, poet and visual artist

""In this luminous and fascinating volume, authors Yi Izzy Yu and John Yu Branscum bring together translated ancient and contemporary accounts and refract them through Asian experience and thought. Whether ultimate explanations lie in collective madness, alien encounters, or something else entirely, Stars That Pause invites readers to explore all possibilities while blending paranormal, psychological, and personal interpretations in the authors' pensive and poetic style. Enigmatic and utterly absorbing."" --Lee Murray, five-time Bram Stoker Award(R)-winner, New Zealand's Prime Minister's Award for Literary Achievement in Fiction, and co-editor of Unquiet Spirits: Essays by Asian Women in Horror ""Yu and Branscum have unearthed something most of us never knew was lost-two millennia of Asian encounters with phenomena that challenge everything we think we understand about reality. This isn't another UFO book; it's archaeology of the impossible, a masterwork of comparative mythology that, like the best art, makes you see differently. Reading this as Pentagon whistleblowers make headlines feels like watching ancient prophecy unfold."" --Bil Brown, editor of Black & Grey magazine, photographer, and documentarian ""Stars That Pause is the most ambitious and mind-bending book about UFOs I've ever read. Instead of rehashing the same old Western sources, it introduces two millennia of Asian encounters-from shimmering egg-shaped objects and glowing armored wheels to symbols that function like metaphysical QR codes. The authors' meticulous translations transport you to strange places, revealing Chinese immortals who mirror today's alien profiles, sexual encounters with non-human entities, and Taoist UFO theories rooted in qi dynamics. From cross-cultural sex magic techniques to accounts that prefigure Jack Parsons' occult rocket science and today's Pentagon revelations, this book draws on testimony from international defense ministers and military personnel to university researchers and scientists. If you thought UFOs were a solely American obsession, prepare to have your mind blown with evidence, insight, and absolutely wild revelations about humanity's long intimacy with the unknown."" --Xiuping Shang, visual artist

""In this luminous and fascinating volume, authors Yi Izzy Yu and John Yu Branscum bring together translated ancient and contemporary accounts and refract them through Asian experience and thought. Whether ultimate explanations lie in collective madness, alien encounters, or something else entirely, Stars That Pause invites readers to explore all possibilities while blending paranormal, psychological, and personal interpretations in the authors' pensive and poetic style. Enigmatic and utterly absorbing."" -Lee Murray, five-time Bram Stoker Award-winner, recipient of New Zealand's Prime Minister's Award for Literary Achievement in Fiction, and co-editor of Unquiet Spirits: Essays by Asian Women in Horror ""Yu and Branscum have unearthed something most of us never knew was lost-two millennia of Asian encounters with phenomena that challenge everything we think we understand about reality. Not just another UFO book, this is a masterwork of comparative mythology and post-disclosure humanities that, like the best art, makes you see differently."" -Bil Brown, editor of Black & Grey magazine ""Stars That Pause is the most ambitious and mind-bending book about UFOs I've ever read. It's mind-bending Asian science fiction that just happens to be nonfiction. Drs. Yu and Branscum's meticulous translations transport you to strange places, revealing Chinese immortals who mirror today's alien profiles, sexual encounters with non-human entities, and Taoist UFO theories rooted in qi dynamics. If you thought UFOs were a solely Western obsession, prepare to have your mind blown."" -Xiuping Shang, poet and visual artist

Author Information

Yi Izzy Yu works, writes, and cavorts in the weird wilds of Pennsylvania. A former professor at both Chinese and American universities, she now works as a translator and cultural consultant. She is the co-translator of the acclaimed The Shadow Book of Ji Yun, and her fiction, nonfiction, and literary translations have appeared in magazines and anthologies ranging from New England Review and Strange Horizons-Samovar to Unquiet Spirits: Essays by Asian Women in Horror and Silk & Sinew: A Collection of Folk Horror from the Asian Diaspora. She was named a finalist for the 2024 Ignyte Award in Nonfiction and for the 2020 Gabriel García Márquez ""Gabo"" Award for Literature in Translation. John Yu Branscum has published books with Sarabande Books, Argus House Press, and Empress Wu Books, and short form work in magazines ranging from Cincinnati Review to Apex Magazine. He is a recipient of the Ursula Le Guin Award for Imaginative Literature, the Sarah Bruckheimer Award for Literature, and the Argus House Press Award for Poetry. He enjoys family rave nights, durian fruit, and lucid dream vacations. Currently, he is in the midst of a long-term performance art project that involves working as a professor of comparative literature, creative writing, and consciousness studies at Indiana University of Pennsylvania.

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