Asian history Books

Book SynopsisAfter a Chosŏn faction realigned Korea with the Ming dynasty, the Manchu attacked in 1627 and again a decade later, forcing Korea to support the newly founded Qing dynasty. The Korean scholar-official Na Man’gap (1592–1642) recorded the second Manchu invasion in the only first-person account chronicling the dramatic Korean resistance.Trade ReviewThe Diary of 1636 is a fascinating firsthand description of the turmoil and difficulties in Chosŏn during the second Manchu invasion. Kallander’s engaging and highly readable translation provides an understanding of the Chosŏn response to the invasions, internal power struggles, and consequences of this momentous event that reshaped the face of East Asia. -- Michael J. Pettid, coeditor of Premodern Korean Literary ProseNa Man’gap’s vivid and detailed description of the Manchu invasion of Korea constitutes an essential work for anyone interested in Manchu-Korean relations. George Kallander’s expert translation and exhaustive introduction make The Diary of 1636 one of the most important primary sources available in English on early seventeenth-century Korean and East Asian history. -- Nicola Di Cosmo, translator of The Diary of a Manchu Soldier in Seventeenth-Century ChinaThe Diary of 1636 offers a fascinating narrative of the military attack, traumatic experiences, humiliating defeat, surrender, and the post-invasion political circumstances. This excellent translation is a must-read for students and scholars working on Sino-Korean relations in the early modern period. -- Jisoo M. Kim, author of The Emotions of Justice: Gender, Status, and Legal Performance in Choson KoreaKallander’s translation of Na Man’gap’s eyewitness account of the 1637 Manchu invasion of Korea opens a window into an important event in Korea history. Providing insight into the Chosŏn response, Na's diary shows the attempt to balance the loyalty to the Ming that Confucian ethics demanded with the recognition of the overwhelming strength of the invading Manchu forces that realism required. Truly required reading for the history of Korea’s Chosŏn dynasty. -- Don Baker, author of Catholics and Anti-Catholicism in Chosŏn Dynasty KoreaProviding access to an important text that gives us a sense of life at the frontline of one of the most devastating military invasions in Korea’s history, The Diary of 1636 is a vital text, highlighting a part of Korean history that has been neglected. -- Andrew David Jackson, Monash UniversityAn interesting read not just as an eyewitness account of a major event in Korean history, but also for the introduction and notes by George Kallander. * London Korean Links *Kallander’s translation will be a critical source for teaching and research in Korean and Northeast Asian history . . . He has also paved the way for future collaboration between scholars in Korean, Manchu, and Chinese studies through the reading and contemplation of accounts in multiple languages of this pivotal milestone in Northeast Asia’s early modern political development. * Sungkyun Journal of East Asian Studies *Table of ContentsAcknowledgmentsIntroductionDramatis PersonaeTranslator’s NoteEarly ComplicationsDaily Records After Urgent Reports from the FrontierRecord of Loyalists EverywhereKanghwa Island RecordsRecords of Several People Who Rejected Peace Negotiations and Died of RighteousnessMiscellaneous Notes Concerning What Happened After the UpheavalRecord of Ch’ŏngŭm’s SlanderingHumiliation Received from the QingGlossary of Names, Terms, and PlacesNotesBibliographyIndex

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Book SynopsisAfter a Chosŏn faction realigned Korea with the Ming dynasty, the Manchu attacked in 1627 and again a decade later, forcing Korea to support the newly founded Qing dynasty. The Korean scholar-official Na Man’gap (1592–1642) recorded the second Manchu invasion in the only first-person account chronicling the dramatic Korean resistance.Trade ReviewThe Diary of 1636 is a fascinating firsthand description of the turmoil and difficulties in Chosŏn during the second Manchu invasion. Kallander’s engaging and highly readable translation provides an understanding of the Chosŏn response to the invasions, internal power struggles, and consequences of this momentous event that reshaped the face of East Asia. -- Michael J. Pettid, coeditor of Premodern Korean Literary ProseNa Man’gap’s vivid and detailed description of the Manchu invasion of Korea constitutes an essential work for anyone interested in Manchu-Korean relations. George Kallander’s expert translation and exhaustive introduction make The Diary of 1636 one of the most important primary sources available in English on early seventeenth-century Korean and East Asian history. -- Nicola Di Cosmo, translator of The Diary of a Manchu Soldier in Seventeenth-Century ChinaThe Diary of 1636 offers a fascinating narrative of the military attack, traumatic experiences, humiliating defeat, surrender, and the post-invasion political circumstances. This excellent translation is a must-read for students and scholars working on Sino-Korean relations in the early modern period. -- Jisoo M. Kim, author of The Emotions of Justice: Gender, Status, and Legal Performance in Choson KoreaKallander’s translation of Na Man’gap’s eyewitness account of the 1637 Manchu invasion of Korea opens a window into an important event in Korea history. Providing insight into the Chosŏn response, Na's diary shows the attempt to balance the loyalty to the Ming that Confucian ethics demanded with the recognition of the overwhelming strength of the invading Manchu forces that realism required. Truly required reading for the history of Korea’s Chosŏn dynasty. -- Don Baker, author of Catholics and Anti-Catholicism in Chosŏn Dynasty KoreaProviding access to an important text that gives us a sense of life at the frontline of one of the most devastating military invasions in Korea’s history, The Diary of 1636 is a vital text, highlighting a part of Korean history that has been neglected. -- Andrew David Jackson, Monash UniversityAn interesting read not just as an eyewitness account of a major event in Korean history, but also for the introduction and notes by George Kallander. * London Korean Links *Kallander’s translation will be a critical source for teaching and research in Korean and Northeast Asian history . . . He has also paved the way for future collaboration between scholars in Korean, Manchu, and Chinese studies through the reading and contemplation of accounts in multiple languages of this pivotal milestone in Northeast Asia’s early modern political development. * Sungkyun Journal of East Asian Studies *Table of ContentsAcknowledgmentsIntroductionDramatis PersonaeTranslator’s NoteEarly ComplicationsDaily Records After Urgent Reports from the FrontierRecord of Loyalists EverywhereKanghwa Island RecordsRecords of Several People Who Rejected Peace Negotiations and Died of RighteousnessMiscellaneous Notes Concerning What Happened After the UpheavalRecord of Ch’ŏngŭm’s SlanderingHumiliation Received from the QingGlossary of Names, Terms, and PlacesNotesBibliographyIndex

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Book SynopsisNira Wickramasinghe uncovers the traces of slavery in the history and memory of the Indian Ocean world, exploring moments of revolt in the lives of enslaved people in Sri Lanka in the wake of abolition. Slave in a Palanquin offers a vital new portrait of the local and transnational worlds of the colonial-era Asian slave trade in the Indian Ocean.Trade ReviewSlave in a Palanquin is one of the most remarkable and original works I have read on the history of the Indian Ocean. With her enormous scholarly gifts, Wickramasinghe endeavors to recover what she calls “fugitive lives,” a project that is as much as anything a meditation on the archive of slavery—its silences, fractures, and unexpected shards of illumination. -- Sunil Amrith, author of Unruly WatersSlave in a Palanquin is a deft exorcism of the specter of slavery for an island whose history is often simplistically cast in terms of colonizer and colonized, or Sinhala and Tamil. It is a model treatment of the diverse forms that slavery could take in the Indian Ocean world. -- Michael Laffan, editor of Belonging Across the Bay of Bengal: Religious Rites, Colonial Migrations, National RightsAt once humane, lucid, intelligent, and highly innovative, this is a masterly analysis of the various regimes of slavery in Sri Lanka under both Dutch and British colonial rule, their demise, and the reasons they were forgotten. Nira Wickramasinghe has produced a major work of comparative scholarship. -- Robert Ross, author of The Borders of Race in Colonial South Africa: The Kat River Settlement, 1829–1856A compellingly important work by one of Sri Lanka's best historians. Slave in a Palanquin challenges narratives of purity and authenticity on an island where murmurings about descent are far too common but where memories of enslavement have been erased. By turning to forgotten records and traces, Wickramasinghe insists on the subaltern, the resistant, and the particular. As the book proceeds, Sri Lanka moves into the center of key debates in world history about labor, memory, freedom, and power. -- Sujit Sivasundaram, author of Islanded: Britain, Sri Lanka, and the Bounds of an Indian Ocean ColonyEngaging and beautifully written. * Journal of British Studies *Highly recommended. * Choice *This ambitious book is a vital contribution that speaks to scholarship both on the Indian Ocean and global slavery. * H-Soz-Kult *Table of ContentsList of IllustrationsAcknowledgmentsIntroduction1. A Dutch Fiscal’s Murder: Interrogating the Identity of Slaves, Blacks, and “Kaffirs”2. From Colombo to Galle: Enslaved Bodies in an Archive of Violence3. Slave in a Palanquin: Jaffna in the Early Nineteenth Century4. The Chilaw “Experiment”: Labor for Freedom5. The Plaint of an Emancipated Slave: A Play in Two Acts6. Eclipse of the Slave: Traces, HauntingsGlossaryNotesBibliographyIndex

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Book SynopsisInternationalist Aesthetics offers a groundbreaking account of the crucial role that China played in the early Soviet cultural imagination. Reading across genres and media from reportage and biography to ballet and documentary film, Edward Tyerman shows how Soviet culture sought an aesthetics that could foster a sense of internationalist community.Trade ReviewIn this book, Tyerman achieves nothing less than a full historical reconstruction of how “China” became mediated as an essential component of Soviet political and cultural imagining after the failure of hoped for revolutions in Western Europe. This is a landmark work of Sino-Soviet transnational cultural history. -- Roy Chan, author of The Edge of Knowing: Dreams, History, and Realism in Modern Chinese LiteratureEdward Tyerman has produced the most sophisticated and rigorous study to date of Soviet-Chinese cultural interactions in the 1920s and beyond. Internationalist Aesthetics is a feat of both scholarship and conceptualization and is a must-read for all those seriously interested in leftist internationalism or transnational cultural encounters. -- Katerina Clark, author of Eurasia Without Borders: The Dream of a Leftist Literary Commons, 1919–1943A tour de force of scholarship that examines the possibilities and contradictions of the radical early Soviet project of transforming subjectivity from a completely new perspective: the Soviet engagement with China. Relying on his broad and deep knowledge of two different cultural contexts, Tyerman reveals the Soviet aspiration to create an “internationalist, anti-imperialist community” through the transformation of sensory experience across cultures. -- Elizabeth Papazian, author of Manufacturing Truth: The Documentary Moment in Early Soviet CultureThis scintillating study explores the efforts of Soviet cultural producers in the 1920s to construct ‘China’ as a site for imagining a socialist 'international aesthetics.' With insight and sympathy, Tyerman conveys the idealism involved in this project while showing that it was undercut by assumptions about the universality of the Soviet experience. -- S.A. Smith, author of Revolution and the People in Russia and China: A Comparative HistoryThis is a pathbreaking work. With great nuance and superbly insightful close readings, Internationalist Aesthetics shows the rise of this aesthetic, as well as its decline, and ponders its legacies for both Soviet culture and global cultural production. -- Nicolai Volland, author of Socialist Cosmopolitanism: The Chinese Literary Universe, 1945-1965Tyerman carve[s] out huge new areas of inquiry . . . The scholarship is fine-grained. -- Caryl Emerson * Times Literary Supplement *Ambitious, complex, and skilfully executed, Tyerman’s study is a true journey of discovery. -- Iva Glisic * Australian Book Review *A phenomenal intellectual achievement . . . Internationalist Aesthetics is a staggeringly erudite, formidably argued and fundamentally important book. -- Julian Graffy * Studies in Russian and Soviet Cinema *A timely interdisciplinary study . . . abounds in rich factual and theoretical interpretations. -- Victor Zatsepine * Journal of Asian Studies *Ground-breaking, erudite and sophisticated . . . an impressive example of scholarship that cuts across, and brings into conversation, multiple fields, disciplines, and intellectual and aesthetic debates to shed light on the significance and use of China in the formation of early Soviet revolutionary culture of the 1920s. -- Susanna Lim * China Quarterly *This masterfully curated tour of the many Chinas documented, imagined, and crafted by some of the most creative minds in the Soviet cultural milieu of the 1920s is a definitive treatment of a topic that so far has evaded systematic elucidation. -- Elizabeth McGuire * The Russian Review *Internationalist Aestheticsis a well-crafted and insightful study that will inspire future scholarship. -- Emily Wilcox * Twentieth-Century China *Original and highly revealing . . . [this book] represents a welcome addition to the study of Chinese-Russian cultural relations. -- Qiang Zhai * The Chinese Historical Review *Ambitious, sophisticated, and wide-ranging. * Modern Language Review *This is a very close textual analysis of important sources, some of which are not easily accessible, andthus this study will be useful for those interested in these sources. * Pacific Affairs *Table of ContentsAcknowledgmentsIntroduction: China and Early Soviet Culture 1. Sight, Sound, and Similarity: Soviet Writers Travel to China2. Translating China Onstage: Roar, China! and The Red Poppy3. Through an Internationalist Lens: China in Early Soviet Cinema4. Confessions and Collaborations: Authority, Agency and Factographic Internationalism in Den Shi-khuaEpilogue: International Literature, National Form, and Missed ConnectionsNotesBibliography and SourcesIndex

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Book SynopsisBaptizing Burma explores the history of how the American Baptist mission to Burma failed to convert the country yet succeeded in transforming its religious landscape.Trade ReviewBaptizing Burma provides an important overview of religious change in Burma that provides insights relevant outside the narrow confines of religious studies. A well-researched and thought-out account of Burma, religion, and missionary activity, shedding light on the Judsons’ story, their legacy, and Burmese religious thought. * Asian Review of Books *Baptizing Burma will spur conversations among diverse scholars about multiple perspectives towards religious objects. * Asian Studies Review *Meticulously researched and theoretically distilled, Baptizing Burma offers fresh understandings of material culture among nineteenth-century Theravada Buddhists and converted Protestant American Baptist Christians in Myanmar. Kaloyanides’s insightful and clearly articulated analysis of religious change focuses on how sacred texts, schools, pagodas, and visual representations were revalorized in dynamic ways that proved transformational for adherents of both traditions. Essential reading for students of Southeast Asian religious cultures and history. -- John Clifford Holt, author of Theravada Traditions: Buddhist Ritual Cultures in Contemporary Southeast Asia and Sri LankaRich with multiperspectival sources and stories, Baptizing Burma offers a fascinating vantage point onto the material culture of nineteenth-century American Baptist missionaries to Burma. Alexandra Kaloyanides invites her reader to consider the lingering resonances of these missionaries and their images, sites of memory, and writings among U.S. and Burmese Baptists today. -- Pamela Klassen, author of The Story of Radio Mind: A Missionary's Journey on Indigenous LandBaptizing Burma reveals the nuanced and agentive interactions between American Baptist missionaries and Burmese Buddhists. Drawing on rich archives in counterintuitive ways, Baptizing Burma stands out for its exploration of religious landscapes and transformations unlimited by the imagined boundaries of Buddhism or Christianity. It is bound to reshape how we understand religion in colonial Burma. -- Alicia Turner, author of Saving Buddhism: The Impermanence of Religion in Colonial BurmaNeither a triumphalist insider account of the heroes of the mission nor a Saidian takedown of imperialist Orientalists, Baptizing Burma examines a series of objects as a window onto the translation from Baptist to Buddhist and vice versa. In the process Kaloyanides provides new ways of thinking about the interaction between Christian missionaries and Buddhists that resonate with recent work on the material aspects of Protestant missions in Africa, the Americas, and other parts of Asia. Because of her close attention to Buddhist doctrine and history, she also offers insights into Buddhist materiality. Not only did Protestants adopt different approaches to the material when they stepped away from their pulpits back home to enter the missionary field, Buddhists too worked within different frameworks of the material depending on their status within local society. -- John Kieschnick, author of Buddhist Historiography in ChinaTable of ContentsAcknowledgmentsIntroduction1: The Book: Religious Texts of Nineteenth-Century Burma2: The School: Models of Religious Imagination in Burmese Education3: The Pagoda: Icons and Iconoclasm4: The Portrait: American Jesus in BurmaConclusionNotesWorks CitedIndex

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Book SynopsisBaptizing Burma explores the history of how the American Baptist mission to Burma failed to convert the country yet succeeded in transforming its religious landscape.Trade ReviewBaptizing Burma provides an important overview of religious change in Burma that provides insights relevant outside the narrow confines of religious studies. A well-researched and thought-out account of Burma, religion, and missionary activity, shedding light on the Judsons’ story, their legacy, and Burmese religious thought. * Asian Review of Books *Baptizing Burma will spur conversations among diverse scholars about multiple perspectives towards religious objects. * Asian Studies Review *Meticulously researched and theoretically distilled, Baptizing Burma offers fresh understandings of material culture among nineteenth-century Theravada Buddhists and converted Protestant American Baptist Christians in Myanmar. Kaloyanides’s insightful and clearly articulated analysis of religious change focuses on how sacred texts, schools, pagodas, and visual representations were revalorized in dynamic ways that proved transformational for adherents of both traditions. Essential reading for students of Southeast Asian religious cultures and history. -- John Clifford Holt, author of Theravada Traditions: Buddhist Ritual Cultures in Contemporary Southeast Asia and Sri LankaRich with multiperspectival sources and stories, Baptizing Burma offers a fascinating vantage point onto the material culture of nineteenth-century American Baptist missionaries to Burma. Alexandra Kaloyanides invites her reader to consider the lingering resonances of these missionaries and their images, sites of memory, and writings among U.S. and Burmese Baptists today. -- Pamela Klassen, author of The Story of Radio Mind: A Missionary's Journey on Indigenous LandBaptizing Burma reveals the nuanced and agentive interactions between American Baptist missionaries and Burmese Buddhists. Drawing on rich archives in counterintuitive ways, Baptizing Burma stands out for its exploration of religious landscapes and transformations unlimited by the imagined boundaries of Buddhism or Christianity. It is bound to reshape how we understand religion in colonial Burma. -- Alicia Turner, author of Saving Buddhism: The Impermanence of Religion in Colonial BurmaNeither a triumphalist insider account of the heroes of the mission nor a Saidian takedown of imperialist Orientalists, Baptizing Burma examines a series of objects as a window onto the translation from Baptist to Buddhist and vice versa. In the process Kaloyanides provides new ways of thinking about the interaction between Christian missionaries and Buddhists that resonate with recent work on the material aspects of Protestant missions in Africa, the Americas, and other parts of Asia. Because of her close attention to Buddhist doctrine and history, she also offers insights into Buddhist materiality. Not only did Protestants adopt different approaches to the material when they stepped away from their pulpits back home to enter the missionary field, Buddhists too worked within different frameworks of the material depending on their status within local society. -- John Kieschnick, author of Buddhist Historiography in ChinaTable of ContentsAcknowledgmentsIntroduction1: The Book: Religious Texts of Nineteenth-Century Burma2: The School: Models of Religious Imagination in Burmese Education3: The Pagoda: Icons and Iconoclasm4: The Portrait: American Jesus in BurmaConclusionNotesWorks CitedIndex

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Book SynopsisLet There Be Light is a groundbreaking history of electrification in Hong Kong. Mark L. Clifford traces how a power company and its visionary founder jumpstarted the British colony’s postwar economic rise and set in motion far-reaching political and social change.Trade ReviewLet There Be Light is a cultural, business, and political history of the world’s single most indispensable technology—electricity generation—in a great city that it helped create. This elegantly written, deeply researched, and thoughtful book offers, in microcosm, a global vision of development, finance, and state engagement with the economy. -- Thomas W. Laqueur, author of The Work of the Dead: A Cultural History of Mortal RemainsAn insightful and vivid history. Mark Clifford challenges the conventional view of Hong Kong as a laissez-faire state. He shows instead the complex and successful collaboration between its government and its most important industry—electricity. At the center stands Lawrence Kadoorie—a colonial British capitalist at the door of communist China, a Jewish entrepreneur in a city riven with antisemitism. This is a valuable history of business and of technology—and of Hong Kong’s and China’s rise. -- Jonathan Kaufman, author of The Last Kings of Shanghai: The Rival Jewish Dynasties That Helped Create Modern ChinaBeautifully written and rich in fascinating detail, Let There Be Light tells the history of China Light & Power—a company that shaped modern Hong Kong. With scholarly rigor and a journalist’s flair for storytelling, Clifford chronicles the central role a company and its people played in building one of the world’s great cities. An impressive achievement and essential reading for anyone interested in electricity markets, Hong Kong history, or the relationship between businesses and governments more broadly. -- David Sandalow, author of Guide to Chinese Climate PolicyTable of Contents1. Private Light and Colonial Power2. In the Beginning: China Light & Power, 1900–19403. War, Occupation, and New Possibilities, 1941–19464. “The Problem of People,” 1947–19585. Electricity as a Political Project, 1959–19646. “Die-Hard Reactionary” in the Expanding Colonial State, 1964–19737. “Intelligent Anticipation” for “1997 and All That,” 1974–19828. Sing the City ElectricAcknowledgmentsNotesBibliographyIndex

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Book SynopsisDaniel Barish explores debates surrounding the education of the final three Qing emperors, showing how imperial curricula became proxy battles for divergent visions of how to restabilize the country. Through the lens of the education of young emperors, Learning to Rule develops a new understanding of the late Qing era.Trade ReviewIt is a classic problem in Qing history: How in the aftermath of the profound devastation of the Taiping War did the Qing empire not only survive but also initiate a degree of reform and transformation? Daniel Barish suggests an intriguing explanation: The education of the Xianfeng emperor and his successors provided an effective synthesis of traditional ethics and novel, reformist political theories (particularly relating to constitutional monarchy), undergirded by new media of print and photography, could have allowed the emperors to become modernizing public figures. It suggests a comparative context encompassing other reforming monarchies in a global “late imperial” era. The emperors and their courts could not sustain the dynasty beyond 1912, but the ruler as a public presence as shaped in these last Qing decades continued as a subliminal model for post-imperial leaders from Sun Yatsen to Mao. In this way, Barish demonstrates the far-reaching impact of the late nineteenth-century Qing emperors on ruling style and presentation in twentieth-century China. -- Pamela Kyle Crossley, author of Orphan Warriors: Three Manchu Generations and the End of the Qing World and The Wobbling Pivot: China Since 1800Eschewing stale teleologies of nineteenth-century decline, this highly original and well-crafted study of late Qing reforms thoughtfully probes what happens to imperial politics and national ambitions when the emperor is a child and his tutors the most powerful men in the land. -- Mark C. Elliott, author of The Manchu Way: The Eight Banners and Ethnic Identity in Late Imperial ChinaIn Barish’s study of imperial education, Empress Dowager Cixi emerges as a skillful coalition builder, open to diverse policy stances, who participates in the global movement toward nationalizing monarchies. Learning to Rule offers readers a fresh, complex vision of Qing rule in its last decades. -- Evelyn S. Rawski, author of The Last Emperors: A Social History of Qing Imperial InstitutionsBased on a wide range of sources, Daniel Barish’s eminently readable investigation of the people and issues surrounding the education of the three child-emperors of the late Qing dynasty is deeply insightful. He offers key new perspectives on the survival of the Qing into the twentieth century, the evolving political views of the educated classes, and the global forces at work in an era of nationalizing monarchies. -- Peter Zarrow, author of Educating China: Knowledge, Society, and Textbooks in a Modernizing World, 1902–1937Table of ContentsAcknowledgmentsIntroduction1. New Forms of Learning for a New Age of Imperial Rule, 1861–18742. The Malleability of Youth: Guangxu in the Classroom, 1875–18903. Putting Lessons Into Practice: Guangxu on the Throne, 1891–18984. Cixi’s Pedagogy: Female Education and Constitutional Governance, 1898–19085. Learning to Be a Constitutional Monarch, 1908–1912Conclusion: Emperor and Nation in Modern ChinaCharacter GlossaryNotesBibliographyIndex

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Book SynopsisShameem Black travels into unexpected realms of popular culture in English from India, its diaspora, and the West to explore and critique yoga as an exercise in cultural power.Trade ReviewShameem Black’s Flexible India provides an important new perspective on the complex politics of yoga in contemporary India. In a style that is lucid, incisive, and critically insightful, her analysis sheds light on how the practice of yoga, and claims to authority over its historical representation, are riven with contradictions that reinforce inequities and injustices. At the same time, yoga’s flexible multivocality animates the possibility of practice that transcends entrenched forms of exclusion, exploitation, and alienation. With deep empathy and critical reasoning, Black shows how the rigidity of India’s twenty-first-century modernity can be understood in terms that work out the tensions of nationalism and the contortions of neoliberalism. -- Joseph S. Alter, author of Yoga in Modern IndiaShameem Black invites us to reassess the idea of ‘yoga’ in the popular cultural imaginary. Her timely, thoughtful, and erudite study tackles notions of cultural appropriation, social inequality, and political critique, channeled through a wonderfully blended academic and creative endeavor. -- E. Dawson Varughese, author of author of Reading New India: Post-Millennial Indian Fiction in EnglishBlack’s richly textured analysis takes us on a journey across disciplines, genres, and lenses, highlighting crucial questions surrounding the meaning, value, and practice of yoga, all the while gloriously centering its messy multiplicity and internal contradictions. An ambitious, skillfully written book—and a truly edifying, rewarding read. -- Farah Godrej, author of Freedom Inside? Yoga and Meditation in the Carceral StateFlexible India is a stirringly intimate portrait of both the beauty and the vicissitudes of global yoga. Black expertly unfurls the complex ethical debates of modern yoga without relinquishing its generative possibilities for hope, imagination, and flexibility. A must read. -- Amanda Lucia, author of White Utopias: The Religious Exoticism of Transformational FestivalsFlexible India offers a powerful panorama of the paradoxes and transformative potential of yoga. Never reductive, Shameem Black lays bare painful contradictions in sensitive and compassionate prose. She interrogates power imbalances, cultural appropriation, and the possibility of positive transformation through yoga with integrity and bravery. -- Suzanne Newcombe, author of Yoga in Britain: Stretching Spirituality and Educating YogisTable of ContentsAcknowledgmentsNote on TransliterationPrologue: The Bracelet1. Setting Up: Yoga’s Flexible Forms2. Conducting Mass Practice: India’s Vision for Yoga3. Aligning Both Hands: Yoga in Indian Fiction4. Assuming Corpse Pose: Yoga in U.S. Popular Culture5. Bending Over Backward: Yoga’s Precarious Work6. Framing New Parts: Yoga Through Diasporic Critique7. Lying Out: Spectral YogaEpilogue: The MoonNotesBibliographyIndex

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Book SynopsisShameem Black travels into unexpected realms of popular culture in English from India, its diaspora, and the West to explore and critique yoga as an exercise in cultural power.Trade ReviewShameem Black’s Flexible India provides an important new perspective on the complex politics of yoga in contemporary India. In a style that is lucid, incisive, and critically insightful, her analysis sheds light on how the practice of yoga, and claims to authority over its historical representation, are riven with contradictions that reinforce inequities and injustices. At the same time, yoga’s flexible multivocality animates the possibility of practice that transcends entrenched forms of exclusion, exploitation, and alienation. With deep empathy and critical reasoning, Black shows how the rigidity of India’s twenty-first-century modernity can be understood in terms that work out the tensions of nationalism and the contortions of neoliberalism. -- Joseph S. Alter, author of Yoga in Modern IndiaShameem Black invites us to reassess the idea of ‘yoga’ in the popular cultural imaginary. Her timely, thoughtful, and erudite study tackles notions of cultural appropriation, social inequality, and political critique, channeled through a wonderfully blended academic and creative endeavor. -- E. Dawson Varughese, author of author of Reading New India: Post-Millennial Indian Fiction in EnglishBlack’s richly textured analysis takes us on a journey across disciplines, genres, and lenses, highlighting crucial questions surrounding the meaning, value, and practice of yoga, all the while gloriously centering its messy multiplicity and internal contradictions. An ambitious, skillfully written book—and a truly edifying, rewarding read. -- Farah Godrej, author of Freedom Inside? Yoga and Meditation in the Carceral StateFlexible India is a stirringly intimate portrait of both the beauty and the vicissitudes of global yoga. Black expertly unfurls the complex ethical debates of modern yoga without relinquishing its generative possibilities for hope, imagination, and flexibility. A must read. -- Amanda Lucia, author of White Utopias: The Religious Exoticism of Transformational FestivalsFlexible India offers a powerful panorama of the paradoxes and transformative potential of yoga. Never reductive, Shameem Black lays bare painful contradictions in sensitive and compassionate prose. She interrogates power imbalances, cultural appropriation, and the possibility of positive transformation through yoga with integrity and bravery. -- Suzanne Newcombe, author of Yoga in Britain: Stretching Spirituality and Educating YogisTable of ContentsAcknowledgmentsNote on TransliterationPrologue: The Bracelet1. Setting Up: Yoga’s Flexible Forms2. Conducting Mass Practice: India’s Vision for Yoga3. Aligning Both Hands: Yoga in Indian Fiction4. Assuming Corpse Pose: Yoga in U.S. Popular Culture5. Bending Over Backward: Yoga’s Precarious Work6. Framing New Parts: Yoga Through Diasporic Critique7. Lying Out: Spectral YogaEpilogue: The MoonNotesBibliographyIndex

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Book SynopsisLan Wu analyzes how Tibetan Buddhists and the Qing imperial rulers interacted and negotiated as both sought strategies to extend their influence in eighteenth-century Inner Asia. Revealing the interdependency of two expanding powers, Common Ground recasts the entangled histories of political, social, and cultural ties between Tibet and China.Trade ReviewCommon Ground brilliantly explores the entangled history of the Qing imperial enterprise and the Gelukpa expansion in East Asia, which produced a shared communal Buddhist identity. Lan Wu examines the transregional knowledge network woven by Buddhist intellectuals through monasteries, texts, and images, shedding light on the peripheral regions of Amdo and Inner Mongolia as well as cosmopolitan Beijing. -- Isabelle Charleux, author of Nomads on Pilgrimage: Mongols on Wutaishan (China), 1800–1940Common Ground is a significant addition to the study of late imperial China and Inner Asia. Reconfiguring the terms of the imperial encounter between Qing rulers and Tibetan lamas, it provides a critical contribution to discussions and interpretations of Buddhism as a rhetorical, intellectual, and political space. -- Nicola Di Cosmo, Institute for Advanced StudyCommon Ground delivers fresh perspectives on the formation of the Qing Empire from the vantage of its swelling Inner Asian frontier. Admirably, Lan Wu decenters court narratives in favor of “negotiated platforms” through which Tibetans, Mongols, Manchus, and Chinese actors made (and unmade) visions of sovereignty, territoriality, and belonging. -- Matthew King, author of Ocean of Milk, Ocean of Blood: A Mongolian Monk in the Ruins of the Qing EmpireLan Wu’s engaging and erudite study tours the key nodes of Buddhist Inner Asia, from Lhasa to Beijing. Each stop offers vivid insight into the social, intellectual, and institutional networks built by the Qing state and Buddhist clergy as they competed and cooperated – shaping in the process the trajectories of China, Mongolia, and Tibet. -- Matthew Mosca, author of From Frontier Policy to Foreign Policy: The Question of India and the Transformation of Geopolitics in Qing ChinaThis study by Lan Wu breaks important new ground, conceptually as well as historically. It focuses on the various ways in which the Gelukpa school of Tibetan Buddhism's Ganden Podrang government in Lhasa negotiated a political and a religious status quo with the Qing court in Beijing and vice versa. The book makes good on the promise that it seeks to capture "the changing dynamics in the space between the two epicenters of Beijing and Lhasa," the space being occupied by Tibetan Buddhist Inner Asia. The two principals were hardly equals, and Lan Wu deftly analyses the mise en scène of this "common ground" in which there was an obvious give and take by both parties, even if this was not always readily acknowledged by either one. This is a riveting book and a welcome addition to the growing number of studiesthat deal with the relationships that were forged between different Tibetan Buddhist and Manchu actors during the late seventeenth and eighteenth centuries in which of necessity the Mongols played an important if not a central role. -- Leonard W.J. van der Kuijp, Harvard UniversityProvides a unique perspective for understanding the flexible geopolitics strategy of the Qing dynasty. * Religious Studies Review *Table of ContentsAcknowledgmentsNote on Transliteration and TranslationIntroduction: Buddhist Inner Asia1. Campaigns2. Manufacturing3. Assemblies4. GovernanceEpilogue: A Balancing ActNotesBibliographyIndex

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Book SynopsisThe Precious Summary is the most important work of Mongolian history on the three-hundred-year period before the rise of the Manchu Qing dynasty. Written by Sagang Sechen in 1662, shortly after the Mongols’ submission to the Qing, it spans Buddhist cosmology, Chinggis Khan, the post-Yuan Mongols, and the Mongols’ conversion to Buddhism.Trade ReviewThis edition of The Precious Summary shows, once again, that Johan Elverskog is the preeminent English-language translator of Mongolian classics working today. -- Lhamsuren Munkh-Erdene, author of The Taiji Government and the Rise of the Warrior State: The Formation of the Qing Imperial ConstitutionNot since the Secret History of the Mongols first appeared forty years ago has a Mongol masterpiece of equal importance found its way into English. Elverskog's linguistic intelligence and profound knowledge of Mongolian history make the prose and poetry of this historical classic shine. -- Timothy Brook, author of Great State: China and the WorldAlmost two hundred years after I. J. Schmidt’s first translation into German, Elverskog has finally given us an authoritative English rendition of Sagang Sechen’s Precious Summary, designed for a wide readership and accounting for the most modern scholarship. The Precious Summary is a must-read for all those interested in Mongolian civilization. -- Christopher Atwood, editor and translator of The Rise of the Mongols: Five Chinese SourcesJohan Elverskog’s annotated translation of a critically important Mongol text comes as the most comprehensive translation to date. Elverskog not only helps us in forming a unique understanding of the seventeenth-century text, but he also provides essential references and analyses to previous translations and other texts from Inner Asia which now can be seen in a new light. -- Uranchimeg Tsultemin, author of A Monastery on the Move: Art and Politics in Later Buddhist Mongolia[An] extraordinary achievement . . . which will remain the standard reference work for this important Mongolian chronicle for many years to come. -- Karénina Kollmar-Paulenz * Journal of Chinese History *Accessible and erudite, Johan Elverskog’s translation of this seventeenth-century classic of Mongolian literature is a major contribution to the study of Inner Asian history. -- David Sneath * The Seventeenth Century *Table of ContentsIntroduction1. History of the Universe, the Buddha, and India2. History of Tibet3. History of Chinggis Khan4. History of the Yuan Dynasty5. History of the Northern Yuan Dynasty6. History of the Mongol-Oirat Wars7. History of Dayan Khan8. History of the Six Tümen9. History of Khutugtai Sechen Khung Taiji10. History of Altan Khan and the Buddhist Conversion11. History of the Dalai Lamas and the Ordos12. History of the Ming and Qing Dynasties13. Epilogue14. ColophonNotesBibliographyIndex

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Book SynopsisUnsettling Exiles recasts identity formation in Hong Kong, demonstrating that the complexities of crossing borders shaped the city’s uneasy place in the Sinophone world. Angelina Y. Chin foregrounds the experiences of the many people who passed through Hong Kong without settling down or finding a sense of belonging.Trade ReviewIn Unsettling Exiles, the story of postwar Hong Kong is not simply one of socioeconomic perseverance but must also be understood in the contexts of the trauma and sense of dislocation experienced by many who had, for a variety of reasons, left China for the British colony. In so telling the story, Chin offers not only to place the experiences of many in Hong Kong in the broader context of what she refers to as the “Southern Periphery” but also to connect the challenges Hong Kong has faced since the 1997 handover to a longer history of fear, despair, and disillusionment. -- Leo K. Shin, founding convenor of the Hong Kong Studies Initiative, University of British ColumbiaBold and exquisite, this book exhumes from history a “Southern Periphery” at the doorstep of the People’s Republic of China. Nurtured by the visions and voices of forgotten exiles, refugees, and deportees falling through the cracks of conventional analytical categories—nations, borders, citizenship, and diaspora—the legacies of this unique political landscape still reverberate today. -- Ching Kwan Lee, author of Hong Kong: Global China’s Restive FrontierDoes geography shape destiny? How have the borders of land and sea that bind Hong Kong to China shaped the fates of Hong Kongers, many of whom fled CCP authoritarianism and found no other home amid the racist legacies of decolonization and the Cold War’s political divides, which fueled Hong Kong’s insecure sovereignty. Published in the aftermath of China’s sweeping National Security Law, Chin’s nuanced study of Hong Kongers’ limited mobility and precarious immobility throbs with poignant hindsight. -- Madeline Y. Hsu, author of The Good Immigrants: How the Yellow Peril Became the Model MinorityUnsettling Exiles introduces the Southern Periphery of the PRC: a place of permeable borders, political exiles, unwelcome migrants, unidentified corpses, idealists, grifters, and wary state apparatuses. Chin gives close and compassionate attention to people creating lives in circumstances they did not choose, all the while imagining a future China they could call home. A powerful argument that understanding the center requires acknowledging the loyalties, longings, and traumatic memories of those on the periphery. -- Gail Hershatter, University of California, Santa CruzIn this pioneering and captivating book, Angelina Chin shows how Cold War Hong Kong became a dumping ground for Chinese refugees, deportees, and a host of other “undesirables.” Instead of finding cosmopolitanism and success, as the triumphal “Hong Kong story” goes, these exiles often faced despair and marginality. Unsettling indeed! -- John M. Carroll, author of The Hong Kong-China Nexus: A Brief HistoryStimulating and provocative. * China Quarterly *Table of ContentsAcknowledgmentsA Note on TransliterationIntroduction1. “Refugees” or “Undesirables”: The Fate of Chinese Escapees in the 1950s and 1960s2. The Third Force and the Culture of Dissent in Hong Kong3. Cultural Revolution at Sea: Dead Bodies and Kidnapping in the Hong Kong Sea Territories4. The Unwanted in Limbo: Was Hong Kong a Refuge or a Dumping Ground?5. The Three Escapees6. Commemorating the Big Escape: The Question of MemoriesEpilogueGlossary of Chinese CharactersNotesBibliographyIndex

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Book SynopsisUnsettling Exiles recasts identity formation in Hong Kong, demonstrating that the complexities of crossing borders shaped the city’s uneasy place in the Sinophone world. Angelina Y. Chin foregrounds the experiences of the many people who passed through Hong Kong without settling down or finding a sense of belonging.Trade ReviewIn Unsettling Exiles, the story of postwar Hong Kong is not simply one of socioeconomic perseverance but must also be understood in the contexts of the trauma and sense of dislocation experienced by many who had, for a variety of reasons, left China for the British colony. In so telling the story, Chin offers not only to place the experiences of many in Hong Kong in the broader context of what she refers to as the “Southern Periphery” but also to connect the challenges Hong Kong has faced since the 1997 handover to a longer history of fear, despair, and disillusionment. -- Leo K. Shin, founding convenor of the Hong Kong Studies Initiative, University of British ColumbiaBold and exquisite, this book exhumes from history a “Southern Periphery” at the doorstep of the People’s Republic of China. Nurtured by the visions and voices of forgotten exiles, refugees, and deportees falling through the cracks of conventional analytical categories—nations, borders, citizenship, and diaspora—the legacies of this unique political landscape still reverberate today. -- Ching Kwan Lee, author of Hong Kong: Global China’s Restive FrontierDoes geography shape destiny? How have the borders of land and sea that bind Hong Kong to China shaped the fates of Hong Kongers, many of whom fled CCP authoritarianism and found no other home amid the racist legacies of decolonization and the Cold War’s political divides, which fueled Hong Kong’s insecure sovereignty. Published in the aftermath of China’s sweeping National Security Law, Chin’s nuanced study of Hong Kongers’ limited mobility and precarious immobility throbs with poignant hindsight. -- Madeline Y. Hsu, author of The Good Immigrants: How the Yellow Peril Became the Model MinorityUnsettling Exiles introduces the Southern Periphery of the PRC: a place of permeable borders, political exiles, unwelcome migrants, unidentified corpses, idealists, grifters, and wary state apparatuses. Chin gives close and compassionate attention to people creating lives in circumstances they did not choose, all the while imagining a future China they could call home. A powerful argument that understanding the center requires acknowledging the loyalties, longings, and traumatic memories of those on the periphery. -- Gail Hershatter, University of California, Santa CruzIn this pioneering and captivating book, Angelina Chin shows how Cold War Hong Kong became a dumping ground for Chinese refugees, deportees, and a host of other “undesirables.” Instead of finding cosmopolitanism and success, as the triumphal “Hong Kong story” goes, these exiles often faced despair and marginality. Unsettling indeed! -- John M. Carroll, author of The Hong Kong-China Nexus: A Brief HistoryStimulating and provocative. * China Quarterly *Table of ContentsAcknowledgmentsA Note on TransliterationIntroduction1. “Refugees” or “Undesirables”: The Fate of Chinese Escapees in the 1950s and 1960s2. The Third Force and the Culture of Dissent in Hong Kong3. Cultural Revolution at Sea: Dead Bodies and Kidnapping in the Hong Kong Sea Territories4. The Unwanted in Limbo: Was Hong Kong a Refuge or a Dumping Ground?5. The Three Escapees6. Commemorating the Big Escape: The Question of MemoriesEpilogueGlossary of Chinese CharactersNotesBibliographyIndex

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Book SynopsisS. E. Kile argues that Li Yu’s cultural experimentation draws attention to the materiality of particular media forms, expanding the scope of early modern media by interweaving books, buildings, and bodies.Trade ReviewWith its incisive analysis, eloquent writing, and integrated use of theories, this book is of great value for scholars in literature, print culture, and material culture. * H-Material-Culture *A brilliant new conceptualization of the maverick Li Yu as entrepreneur, designer, playwright, and multimedia specialist. Kile’s daring, astute study of this most original seventeenth-century Chinese writer grabs you from page one. A true tour de force. -- Judith Zeitlin, author of The Phantom Heroine: Ghosts and Gender in Seventeenth-Century Chinese LiteratureLi Yu had a career as full of twists as his stories are. Taking media innovation as the thread that connects Li Yu’s many activities, this study opens new windows in his floating towers and adds arias to his silent operas. -- Haun Saussy, author of The Making of Barbarians: Chinese Literature and Multilingual AsiaIn this important and absorbing study of Li Yu, Kile shows how thinking through media in its multiple forms—print culture, the sights and sounds of the theater, spatial constructs, the human body—yields fresh insights into early modern China. -- Wai-yee Li, author of The Promise and Peril of Things: Literature and Material Culture in Late Imperial ChinaTowers in the Void provides authoritative new insights into Li Yu’s writings based on a broad examination of his corpus. Integrating insightful and innovative readings of Li Yu’s creative works with his prescriptions on garden design and lengthy musings, Kile offers a new and productive approach to the study of Li Yu that can inspire other such innovative analyses of late imperial Chinese literature. -- Robert Hegel, cotranslator of A Couple of Soles: A Comic Play from Seventeenth-Century ChinaTable of ContentsAcknowledgmentsConventionsIntroductionPart I: Textual Media1. Cultural Entrepreneurship and Woodblock Print2. Building with WordsPart II: Spatial Media3. Fictional Space in Twelve Towers4. Garden Space in Leisure NotesPart III: Corporeal Media5. Remodeling Fictional Bodies6. Remodeling Real Bodies in Leisure NotesEpilogueAppendix: Li Yu’s OeuvreNotesWorks CitedIndex

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Book SynopsisS. E. Kile argues that Li Yu’s cultural experimentation draws attention to the materiality of particular media forms, expanding the scope of early modern media by interweaving books, buildings, and bodies.Trade ReviewWith its incisive analysis, eloquent writing, and integrated use of theories, this book is of great value for scholars in literature, print culture, and material culture. * H-Material-Culture *A brilliant new conceptualization of the maverick Li Yu as entrepreneur, designer, playwright, and multimedia specialist. Kile’s daring, astute study of this most original seventeenth-century Chinese writer grabs you from page one. A true tour de force. -- Judith Zeitlin, author of The Phantom Heroine: Ghosts and Gender in Seventeenth-Century Chinese LiteratureLi Yu had a career as full of twists as his stories are. Taking media innovation as the thread that connects Li Yu’s many activities, this study opens new windows in his floating towers and adds arias to his silent operas. -- Haun Saussy, author of The Making of Barbarians: Chinese Literature and Multilingual AsiaIn this important and absorbing study of Li Yu, Kile shows how thinking through media in its multiple forms—print culture, the sights and sounds of the theater, spatial constructs, the human body—yields fresh insights into early modern China. -- Wai-yee Li, author of The Promise and Peril of Things: Literature and Material Culture in Late Imperial ChinaTowers in the Void provides authoritative new insights into Li Yu’s writings based on a broad examination of his corpus. Integrating insightful and innovative readings of Li Yu’s creative works with his prescriptions on garden design and lengthy musings, Kile offers a new and productive approach to the study of Li Yu that can inspire other such innovative analyses of late imperial Chinese literature. -- Robert Hegel, cotranslator of A Couple of Soles: A Comic Play from Seventeenth-Century ChinaTable of ContentsAcknowledgmentsConventionsIntroductionPart I: Textual Media1. Cultural Entrepreneurship and Woodblock Print2. Building with WordsPart II: Spatial Media3. Fictional Space in Twelve Towers4. Garden Space in Leisure NotesPart III: Corporeal Media5. Remodeling Fictional Bodies6. Remodeling Real Bodies in Leisure NotesEpilogueAppendix: Li Yu’s OeuvreNotesWorks CitedIndex

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Book SynopsisSherAli Tareen explores how leading South Asian Muslim thinkers imagined and contested the boundaries of Hindu-Muslim friendship from the late eighteenth to the mid-twentieth centuries.Trade ReviewTareen's book is a learned and thought-provoking contribution to the question of whether there can be friendship between Hindu and Muslim communities in South Asia. It draws intriguingly on Derrida on the fragility of political friendship. For anyone thinking seriously about the problem of secularism and sovereign power, this book is strongly recommended. -- Talal Asad, author of Secular Translations: Nation-State, Modern Self, and Calculative ReasonPerilous Intimacies is terrific. Tareen is a precise and nuanced thinker and leans into (rather than shying away from) slippery concepts that are often presented by other analysts as uninterrogated, naturalized binaries. This book will be an excellent resource for scholars thinking about tradition and reform, South Asian Islamic history, secular modernity, and political theology. -- Anna Bigelow, editor of Islam through ObjectsIntra-Muslim debate outweighs external issues and events in considering modern-day Hindu-Muslim friendship. In lapidary prose, SherAli Tareen explores how British rule redefined the parameters but not the particulars of Muslim-Hindu relations in the Asian subcontinent. His is an argument at once bold, eloquent, and compelling, essential for students of critical theory as well as global history. -- Bruce B. Lawrence, author of Islamicate Cosmopolitan SpiritThis innovative study brings much depth and insight to our understanding of how South Asian Muslim scholars have viewed friendship across religious boundaries. It illuminates new facets of Islamic thought in colonial India and authoritatively introduces styles of argumentation long characteristic of Muslim scholarly culture. Tareen’s book is important, timely, and accessible, and it deserves to be read widely. -- Muhammad Qasim Zaman, author of Islam in Pakistan: A HistoryTable of ContentsForeword, by Faisal DevjiAcknowledgmentsNote on TransliterationIntroduction: The Promise and Peril of Hindu-Muslim Friendship1. Translating the “Other”: Early Modern Muslim Understandings of Hinduism2. Deciding the “True” God: Miracle Wars and Interreligious Polemics3. Friendship and Sovereign Fantasies4. The Cow and the Caliphate5. The Contagion of Imitation: A Select Genealogy6. The Aligarh-Deoband Divide: Competing Rationalities of Reform in Muslim South AsiaEpilogueAppendix: Suggestions and Discussion Questions for Teaching This BookGlossaryNotesSelect BibliographyIndex

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Book SynopsisSherAli Tareen explores how leading South Asian Muslim thinkers imagined and contested the boundaries of Hindu-Muslim friendship from the late eighteenth to the mid-twentieth centuries.Trade ReviewTareen's book is a learned and thought-provoking contribution to the question of whether there can be friendship between Hindu and Muslim communities in South Asia. It draws intriguingly on Derrida on the fragility of political friendship. For anyone thinking seriously about the problem of secularism and sovereign power, this book is strongly recommended. -- Talal Asad, author of Secular Translations: Nation-State, Modern Self, and Calculative ReasonPerilous Intimacies is terrific. Tareen is a precise and nuanced thinker and leans into (rather than shying away from) slippery concepts that are often presented by other analysts as uninterrogated, naturalized binaries. This book will be an excellent resource for scholars thinking about tradition and reform, South Asian Islamic history, secular modernity, and political theology. -- Anna Bigelow, editor of Islam through ObjectsIntra-Muslim debate outweighs external issues and events in considering modern-day Hindu-Muslim friendship. In lapidary prose, SherAli Tareen explores how British rule redefined the parameters but not the particulars of Muslim-Hindu relations in the Asian subcontinent. His is an argument at once bold, eloquent, and compelling, essential for students of critical theory as well as global history. -- Bruce B. Lawrence, author of Islamicate Cosmopolitan SpiritThis innovative study brings much depth and insight to our understanding of how South Asian Muslim scholars have viewed friendship across religious boundaries. It illuminates new facets of Islamic thought in colonial India and authoritatively introduces styles of argumentation long characteristic of Muslim scholarly culture. Tareen’s book is important, timely, and accessible, and it deserves to be read widely. -- Muhammad Qasim Zaman, author of Islam in Pakistan: A HistoryTable of ContentsForeword, by Faisal DevjiAcknowledgmentsNote on TransliterationIntroduction: The Promise and Peril of Hindu-Muslim Friendship1. Translating the “Other”: Early Modern Muslim Understandings of Hinduism2. Deciding the “True” God: Miracle Wars and Interreligious Polemics3. Friendship and Sovereign Fantasies4. The Cow and the Caliphate5. The Contagion of Imitation: A Select Genealogy6. The Aligarh-Deoband Divide: Competing Rationalities of Reform in Muslim South AsiaEpilogueAppendix: Suggestions and Discussion Questions for Teaching This BookGlossaryNotesSelect BibliographyIndex

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Book SynopsisDavid C. Porter traces how the hereditary Eight Banner system created a service elite, exploring the Qing approach to one of the fundamental challenges of early modern state-building.Trade ReviewPorter effectively develops an analytic framework to understand the importance of "service elites" in empires. His analysis of how the Qing empire promoted the banner system to create a loyal elite, a status group that was inclusive of diversity to extend the empire’s military, social, and political administration, is brilliant. His work adds to the best of the scholarship on China. -- Karen Barkey, author of Empire of Difference: The Ottomans in Comparative PerspectivePorter’s far-reaching book has many virtues. Perhaps most important is that features that have sometimes been portrayed as opaquely "ethnic" in character are illuminated here as imperial—that is, as produced by processes of conquest, occupation, and responses to fiscal challenges. This rescues the idea of empire and the history of the Qing empire in particular from the ahistorical and occasional romanticized encumbrances of primary and fixed cultural orientations and provides a platform for comparison to similar phenomena across early modern Eurasia. -- Pamela Kyle Crossley, author of A Translucent Mirror: History and Identity in Qing Imperial IdeologyAs soldiers, administrators, and advisors, Chinese members of the Eight Banners—the Hanjun—were a keystone of Qing control over China. In this pathbreaking study, Porter shows that the shifting fortunes of the Hanjun hold the key not only to understanding Qing conceptions of identity, ethnicity, and service but also to placing the empire’s statecraft in comparative Eurasian perspective. -- Matthew W. Mosca, author of From Frontier Policy to Foreign Policy: The Question of India and the Transformation of Geopolitics in Qing ChinaTable of ContentsAcknowledgmentsIntroduction1. The Qing Status System2. Who Belonged in the Banners? The Makeup of the Qing Service Elite3. Duty, Service, and Status Performance4. Privilege and State Support5. A Female Service Elite: Status, Ethnicity, and Qing Bannerwomen6. A Comparative History of Service Elites7. Challenging the Service Elite Model8. Expulsion, Resistance, and the Return of the Service EliteConclusionAppendix: Reign Names, Dates, and AbbreviationsSource AbbreviationsNotesBibliographyIndex

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Book SynopsisDavid C. Porter traces how the hereditary Eight Banner system created a service elite, exploring the Qing approach to one of the fundamental challenges of early modern state-building.Trade ReviewPorter effectively develops an analytic framework to understand the importance of "service elites" in empires. His analysis of how the Qing empire promoted the banner system to create a loyal elite, a status group that was inclusive of diversity to extend the empire’s military, social, and political administration, is brilliant. His work adds to the best of the scholarship on China. -- Karen Barkey, author of Empire of Difference: The Ottomans in Comparative PerspectivePorter’s far-reaching book has many virtues. Perhaps most important is that features that have sometimes been portrayed as opaquely "ethnic" in character are illuminated here as imperial—that is, as produced by processes of conquest, occupation, and responses to fiscal challenges. This rescues the idea of empire and the history of the Qing empire in particular from the ahistorical and occasional romanticized encumbrances of primary and fixed cultural orientations and provides a platform for comparison to similar phenomena across early modern Eurasia. -- Pamela Kyle Crossley, author of A Translucent Mirror: History and Identity in Qing Imperial IdeologyAs soldiers, administrators, and advisors, Chinese members of the Eight Banners—the Hanjun—were a keystone of Qing control over China. In this pathbreaking study, Porter shows that the shifting fortunes of the Hanjun hold the key not only to understanding Qing conceptions of identity, ethnicity, and service but also to placing the empire’s statecraft in comparative Eurasian perspective. -- Matthew W. Mosca, author of From Frontier Policy to Foreign Policy: The Question of India and the Transformation of Geopolitics in Qing ChinaTable of ContentsAcknowledgmentsIntroduction1. The Qing Status System2. Who Belonged in the Banners? The Makeup of the Qing Service Elite3. Duty, Service, and Status Performance4. Privilege and State Support5. A Female Service Elite: Status, Ethnicity, and Qing Bannerwomen6. A Comparative History of Service Elites7. Challenging the Service Elite Model8. Expulsion, Resistance, and the Return of the Service EliteConclusionAppendix: Reign Names, Dates, and AbbreviationsSource AbbreviationsNotesBibliographyIndex

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Book SynopsisTraversing the no-man's-land of political loyalty and betrayal, this title documents the fierce battle for the minds and hearts of American prisoners during the Korean War. It describes the soldiers' day-to-day experiences in prisoner-of-war camps and the shocking treatment some of them received at the hands of their own countrymen after the war.Trade Review"Lech reconstructs the POW experience in Korea and its aftermath, exposing the brutality of the captors and the inconsistency of US military justice. He supplies the most comprehensive account to date of the subject." -- Library Journal"A well-balanced history of the war that treats the issues fairly and comprehensively..."--Journal of Contemporary History"This is a unique and important book, a top-notch investigation into the POW issue in the Korean War, which had been kept under wraps. Based largely on materials Lech was able to pry out of the government using the Secrets Act, Broken Soldiers amounts to a world scoop on the subject."--David C. Smith, coeditor of American Women in a World at War: Contemporary Accounts from World War II

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Book SynopsisFostering national culture in Singapore through Chinese street opera performanceTrade Review“Interesting and informative ... this work presents a valuable case study in the historical fluctuation of cultural categories that challenges the notion of inherent artistic value.”--Journal of Folklore Research"A fascinating effort to rethink the question of art as cultural capital in a nationalist narrative."--The Journal of Theatre Research International"A valuable contribution to the study of traditional performing arts in Singapore and is a useful resource not only for ethnomusicological studies but also for non-music students alike."--The World of Music"This groundbreaking study examines the ways Chinese street opera has been redefined and transformed as part of the process of nation building in Singapore. It becomes a lens through which we can observe changing social dynamics, the pragmatic ways performance can be appropriated and/or reinterpreted by various social groups, and the politicized ways in which cultural representation can intersect with ideas about nationalism, modernity, and cosmopolitanism. The author makes excellent use of business and management models in his sophisticated exploration of organizational structure, entrepreneurship, and cultural development in Chinese street opera. A stimulating book, it is one of the few studies of traditional performing arts in Singapore and Malaysia, which makes it a very precious resource."--Margaret Sarkissian, associate professor of music, Smith College"Based on detailed ethnographic and archival research, this study of Chinese opera in Singapore subtly highlights the nuances of professional vs. amateur performance, the contributions of different dialect groups, and the tie-in by the 1990s with officially promoted cultural nationalism and tourism. The author is a cultural insider whose linguistic expertise and personal experience greatly enrich his treatment of the topic."--Helen Rees, author of Echoes of History: Naxi Music in Modern ChinaTable of ContentsAcknowledgments vii Introduction 1 1. Chinese Opera in Singapore, 1940s-1960s 15 2. Chinese Street Opera and Professional Opera Troupes 42 3. Amateur Chinese Opera and Confucianism 75 4. Reinstating Patronage and Tradition: Chinese Temples and the Revival of Chinese Street Opera 96 5. Tourism and Cultural Authenticity in Chinese Opera 117 6. Chinese Opera and the Concept of Culture in Singapore 138 Conclusion 159 Notes 165 Glossary 183 Bibliography 197 Index 215

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Book SynopsisThe transnational history and cultural politics of the Shaw Brothers' movie empireTrade Review“Something for everyone . . . effectively lays down a solid foundation for further research.”--China Quarterly"An impressive, in-depth inquiry into the historical mutations, cultural innovations, and political implications of the rise and development of the Shaw Brothers’ movie empire. Of the many volumes on Hong Kong movie industries, this is the first to focus solely on the history of the Shaw Brothers."--David Der-wei Wang, author of The Monster That Is History: History, Violence, and Fictional Writing in Twentieth-Century China"This instructive book will be a pleasure for seasoned scholars and amateurs of Hong King cinema alike. Extremely useful for Asian cinema courses, this first book-length study of the Shaw Brothers--who were pioneers in the Chinese language and trans-Asian commercial film industry--provides valuable cultural history and global context."--Tonglin Lu, author of Confronting Modernity in the Cinemas in Taiwan and Mainland China"Reopens the gates to the Shaw Brothers' legend."--Electronic Book ReviewTable of ContentsAcknowledgments vii Introduction: The Shaw Brothers Diasporic Cinema 1Poshek Fu 1. Shaw Cinema Enterprise and Understanding Cultural Industries 27Lily Kong 2. Shaw's Cantonese Productions and Their Interactions with Contemporary Local and Hollywood Cinema 57Law Kar 3. Embracing Glocalization and Hong Kong-Made Musical FIlm 74Siu Leung Li 4. Three Readings of Hong Kong Nocturne 95Paul G. Pickowicz 5. The Black-and-White Wenyi Films of Shaws 115Wong Ain-ling 6. Territorialization and the Entertainment Industry of the Shaw Brothers in Southeast Asia 133Sai-shing Yung 7. The Shaw Brothers' Malay FIlms 154Timothy P. Barnard 8. Bridging the Pacific with Love Eterne 174Ramona Curry 9. Black Audiences, Blaxploitation and Kung Fu Films, and Challenges to White Celluloid Masculinity 199Sundiata Keita Cha-Jua 10. Shaw Brothers Cinema and the Hip-Hop Imagination 224Fanon Che Wilkins 11. Reminiscences of the Life of an Actress in Shaw Brothers' Movietown 246Cheng Pei-pei (translated by Jing Jing Chang and Jeff McClain) Select Filmography 255Lane J. Harris Contributors 257 Index 261

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Book SynopsisThe unique lives and careers of contemporary Chinese musiciansTrade Review“In a difficult field...[this] book breaks new ground by bringing us the real lives of real musicians.”--Songlines"A magnificent contribution to English-language scholarship on the music of China. . . . The exceptional writing throughout the volume results in a collection that displays ethnographic research and writing at its best."-- The World of Music“The essays integrate the life stories of each musician into political, social, and economic developments in China. . . . Recommended.”--Choice"Lives in Chinese Music represents a pioneering work in the field of ethnomusicology. The seven essays, highly uniform in length and very well structured, provide contrasting approaches and perspectives to the study of musical biography. The volume is certainly a valuable addition to the scholarship of Chinese music both inside and outside the Euro-American scholarship worlds."--China Review International"Each essay in this collection makes original contributions to Chinese music scholarship, and the juxtaposition of musicians from different ethnic and cultural backgrounds provides a viable forum for future research and discussion. By privileging musicians and their works, the authors render many nameless musicians visible; more important, this book provides a much-needed and nuanced understanding of how music is produced on the ground and how attention to this kind of music production enriches Chinese music historiography."--Frederick Lau, author of Music in China: Experiencing Music, Expressing Culture"Rees has brought together a lively and engaging collection of essays that shows the breadth of music-making possibilities in China. The stimulating essays cover a very broad range of music makers, including illiterate village musicians, an ethnic minority rock star, elitist instrumentalists, and a Cantonese opera singer living in England. A truly unique and welcome approach."--Nancy Guy, author of Peking Opera and Politics in Taiwan

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Book SynopsisTraces the shadowy history of Chinese leftism and the role of the Kuomintang of China in influencing affairs in America. This book penetrates the overly politicized portrayals of a history shaped by global alliances and enmities and the hard intolerance of the Cold War era.Trade ReviewReceived an honorable mention for the Book Award in History from the Association for Asian American Studies (AAAS), 2012. "A remarkable collection that shows the dedication, diligence, and accomplishments of Him Mark Lai, an amateur historian who devoted himself to researching and writing the history of Chinese American communities. Lai's command of the sources and his commitment to a faithful recording of Chinese American history are extraordinary."--Renqiu Yu, author of To Save China, To Save Ourselves: The Chinese Hand Laundry Alliance of New York"A remarkable account of the history of Chinese American communities."--The Journal of Asian Studies

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Book SynopsisTracing the international growth of a transformative Japanese dance formTrade Review"Translated poetically and mapped out with scientific precision . . . The book offers a pedagogical map for taking the time to suspend what we know, how we believe we've come to know it, and question what might happen, if we turn, spiral, slip, fall, slither, and sense our way 'back to the dance itself.'" --Dance Research Journal"Illuminates the myriad ways butoh and its Japanese aesthetic have influenced and been influenced by Western thought."--Pacific Affairs"Recommended."--Choice"An engaging, informative, and thought provoking text useful to anyone who is engaged with dance, somatics, transformation, or healing."--American Journal of Dance Therapy"There are moments of breathtaking beauty in this book--many of them--as Fraleigh shares her deep, personal engagement with butoh history and its current expressions. She expertly weaves philosophical reflections through engaging descriptions of dances she has seen to bring butoh to life for her readers as a global phenomenon that is transforming and healing western values."--Kimerer LaMothe, Ph.D., author of Nietzsche's Dancers: Isadora Duncan, Martha Graham, and the Revaluation of Christian Values

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Book SynopsisThe first English-language compilation of research on Japanese cooking and food cultureTrade Review"An excellent resource. . . . An exciting addition to a growing collection of English-language literature on the foodways of Japan."--Journal of Folklore Research"Significantly advances our knowledge of the history of Japanese food."--Gastronomica "This volume makes an important contribution to a growing field of study."--Monumenta Nipponica"Required reading for anyone interested in Japanese history, food, and foodways. I couldn't put this book down!"--Samuel Hideo Yamashita, author of Leaves from an Autumn of Emergencies: Selections from the Wartime Diaries of Ordinary Japanese"A pathbreaking volume on Japanese culinary history with great depth and scope."--Merry Isaacs White, author of Perfectly Japanese: Making Families in an Era of Upheaval"Provides an eye-opening view of the influence that other countries had on Japanese food culture, and how Japan was never an island unto itself."--Choice"A welcome addition to the growing body of scholarly literature on Japanese food and foodways."--Southeast Review of Asian StudiesTable of ContentsLIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS vii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ix INTRODUCTION 1Eric C. Rath and Stephanie AssmannPART 1 Early Modern Japan 1 Honzen Dining: The Poetry of Formal Meals in Late Medieval and Early Modern Japan 19 ERIC C. RATH 2 "How to Eat the Ten Thousand Things": Table Manners in the Edo Period 42 MICHAEL KINSKI 3. "Stones for the Belly": Kaiseki Cuisine for Tea during the Early Edo Period 68 GARY SOKA CADWALLADER AND JOSEPH R. JUSTICE 4 Meat-eating in the Kojimachi District of Edo 92 AKIRA SHIMIZU 5 Wine-drinking Culture in Seventeeth-century Japan: The Role of Dutch Merchants 108 JOJI NOZAWAPART II Modern Japan 6 The History of Domestic Cookbooks in Modern Japan 129 SHOKO HIGASHIYOTSU YANAGI 7 Imperial Cuisines in Taisho Foodways 145 BARAK KUSHNER 8 Beyond HUnger: Grocery Shopping, Cooking, and Eating in 1940s Japan 166 KATARZYNA CWIERTKA AND MIHO YASUHARA 9 Ramen and U.S. Occupation Policy 186 GEORGE SOLT 10 Bento: Boxed Love, Eaten by the Eye 201 TOMOKO ONABEPART III Contemporary Japan 11 Mountain Vegetables and the Politics of Local Flavor in Japan 221 BRIDGET LOVE 12 Reinventing Culinary Heritage in Northern Japan: Slow Food and Traditional Vegetables 243 STEPHANIE ASSMANN 13 Ramen Connoisseurs: Class, Gender, and the Internet 257 SATOMI FUKUTOMI 14 Irretrievably in Love with Japanese Cuisine 275 DAVID E. WELLS CONTRIBUTORS 285 INDEX 289List of Illustrations 1 A three-tray honezen meal from Ryori kondateshu 22 2 Snipe in (eggplant) jars from Shichi no zen jukyu kon no maki 32 3 A supervisory housewife and a servant from Shiroto ryori nenju sozai no shikata zen 135 4 An old housewife and two servants from Sozai ryori no okeiko 137 5 A young housewife in a kitchen from Katei yoshoku ryoriho 139 6 A housewife and maid discussing kitchen tasks from Renovating Kitchens 151 7 Members of a neighborhood farm group preparing steamed buns 222 8 Local female farmers work part-time at company headquarters 230 9 A female farmers' group from Yuda's Makino district 232 10 The three basic types of Japanese knives 276 11 Cutting a carrot into a plum blossom 277 12 Peeling daikon 278 13 Tempura 283

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Book SynopsisDescribes how Filipino exiles and immigrants in the United States played a crucial role in overthrowing the dictatorship of former president Ferdinand Marcos.Trade Review "A well-researched, engaging narrative of the Filipino exile movement in the United States to topple the Marcos dictatorship in the Philippines. Fuentecilla is gifted with a journalistic eye for human-interest stories of resistance and activism that will keep readers enthralled."--Augusto Fauni Espiritu, author of Five Faces of Exile: The Nation and Filipino American Intellectuals"A book that triggers memories—some good and some not so bracing."--The FilAm

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Book SynopsisProvides an important alternative reading of Singaporean society.Trade Review"An engaging study that draws from a rich and previously unstudied repertoire of Singaporean history. Tarulevicz provides a valuable framework for understanding how a diverse migrant society can use food to map a sense of collective identity."--Mark Swislocki, author of Culinary Nostalgia: Regional Food Culture and the Urban Experience in Shanghai"Nicole Tarulevicz's Eating Her Curries and Kway is able to locate yet another lens for deciphering race, postcolonialism, and identity in Singapore: food culture. . . . The Singapore neophyte will find it pleasantly readable, but the serious cultural scholar will also benefit from Tarulevicz's steady stream of insights and fresh perspectives."--The Journal of Asian Studies

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Book SynopsisBased on extensive research in India and Pakistan, this book examines the ways drumming and voices interconnect over vast areas of South Asia and considers what it means for instruments to be voice-like and carry textual messages in particular contexts.Trade Review"As can be expected from Richard K. Wolf, The Voice in the Drum is an erudite and masterful contribution to South Asian ethnomusicology. But it is more: a deep contribution to experimental writing, full of nuanced engagement with why the poetics and politics of representation is critical to contemporary music ethnography."--Steven Feld, Distinguished Professor of Anthropology and Music, University of New Mexico"Emerging afresh from numerous fields of cultural anthropology, including ethnology, ethnomusicology, humanistic anthropology, linguistics, the anthropology of religion, visual anthropology, and others, The Voice in the Drum contributes new insights and creates innovative methodologies much needed in today's growing anthropological and empathic understandings of the performance of emotion in South Asian Islam."--American Anthropologist"The Voice in the Drum, by Richard Wolf, Professor of Music and South Asian Studies at Harvard, is a completely unique development in ethnomusicology. By skillfully drawing out his research interests through the character of Muharram Ali, Wolf manages to draw the reader into a historical drama of idealism and naivete falling apart." --Leonardo Reviews"Innovative and richly detailed." --American Ethnologist"No one else has conducted such multi-local research on traditions like this, and he has done a masterful job of relating these otherwise disparate traditions by highlighting their affinities, especially in terms of the ways in which their performers conceive of the drums as speaking in one manner or another. The result is a remarkable and unique scholarly opus."--Peter Manuel, author of East Indian Music in the West Indies: Tan-singing, Chutney, and the Making of Indo-Caribbean Culture

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Book SynopsisTrade Review"Peter Manuel's book is therefore a welcome addition to the existing Indian historiography of the Caribbean… Manuel uses mainly an ethnographic approach to support his analyses, essentially visiting and participating in events relating to Bhojpuri music in India, the Caribbean (mainly Trinidad) and the Indo-Caribbean North American diaspora. This approach has produced one of the most compelling books on Indo-Caribbean music… Manuel must be commended for producing this important scholarship on music in the Caribbean in particular, as well as India and the Indian diaspora in general."--Ethnomusicology Forum"A truly significant contribution. . . . The focus on under-theorized, flexibly handled, challengingly conceived if sometimes simple musical phenomena is much in keeping with Manuel's work throughout his career and this book is, in my view, a crowning achievement in that regard."--Richard Wolf, author of The Voice in the Drum: Music, Language, and Emotion in Islamicate South Asia"A definitive study of diverse musical traditions among the Indian communities of Trinidad, Suriname, Guyana, and the U.S. Manuel offers a descriptive/historical study based no extensive fieldwork. . . . Although he has published in this area previously, there are no comparable books. . . . no one else could have written such a comprehensive and clear study. Recommended."--Choice "Of great value to scholars and students of both Caribbean and Indian music, as well as to individuals with a general interest in diaspora studies."--Journal of Folklore Research"An ambitious study of diaspora dynamics with significant implications for contemporary understandings of Indo-Caribbean identity and musical traditions, national identity in Trinidad, Guyana, Suriname, and Fiji, and the concept of diaspora itself. Timely and relevent in its topic, scope, observations, and conclusions, it fills a gap in the extant literature on Indo-Caribbean musical traditions, specifically with regard to tassa drumming… Tales, Tunes, and Tassa Drums is destined to be well-received and much consulted in the years to come."--Notes"In Tales, Tunes, and Tassa Drums Peter Manuel investigates the concepts of retention and invention in underexplored musics of the Indo-Caribbean diaspora that have only been briefly studied in previous ethnomusicological research… A captivating read for anyone interested in music in the Caribbean and diaspora studies more generally."--Latin American Music Review"Manuel distinguishes himself by remaining clear-headed with his analysis, elegantly using apolitical musical analysis to inform discussion of long-standing social tensions between Indian-and African-Trinidadians without getting bogged down in unnecessary details. . . . Tales, Tunes, and Tassa Drums is thoughtful and witty while demonstrating a depth of knowledge that no other author could achieve."--Western Folklore"The author is careful not to over-generalize, looking at each example in comparative contexts before making any broad theoretical claims. The work is provocative and will be a welcome addition to the literature on Indian diasporic music."--Frank J. Korom, author of Hosay Trinidad: Muharram Performances in an Indo-Caribbean Diaspora

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Book SynopsisWhen the United States acquired the Philippines and Puerto Rico, it reconciled its status as an empire with its anticolonial roots by claiming that it would altruistically establish democratic institutions in its new colonies. Ever since, Filipino and Puerto Rican artists have challenged promises of benevolent assimilation and portray U.S. imperialism as both self-interested and unexceptional among empires. Faye Caronan's examination interprets the pivotal engagement of novels, films, performance poetry, and other cultural productions as both symptoms of and resistance against American military, social, economic, and political incursions. Though the Philippines became an independent nation and Puerto Rico a U.S. commonwealth, both remain subordinate to the United States. Caronan's juxtaposition reveals two different yet simultaneous models of U.S. neocolonial power and contradicts American exceptionalism as a reluctant empire that only accepts colonies for the benefit of the coloniTrade Review"A great companion to the best books on imperialism and its multiple genres as well as a smart and useful guide to reading contemporary cultural texts that subversively persist in enabling alternative renditions of U.S. multiculturalism." --Rick Bonus, author of Locating Filipino Americans: Ethnicity and the Cultural Politics of Space"[Legitimizing Empire's] successful location of both mainstream American culture and the subcultures examined in the context of historic American imperialism (and ongoing neo-imperialism) is impressive and thought provoking. It very effectively challenges enduring narratives of "benevolent assimilation" in the history of American imperialism, and of multiculturalism as retrospectively justifying such US exceptionalism."--H-Empire"Legitimizing Empire offers fresh insights into the continuities and divergences of Philippine and Puerto Rican histories in ways that reveal the seemingly monolithic but uneven deployment of U.S. empire. This work is profoundly instructive both in terms of its illuminating comparative framework which, in itself, approximates so well a non-exceptionalist rendition of U.S. imperial history, but also in its calculated engagement with cultural production as a critique of empire emanating from multiple locations--from the nations/territories themselves and in places where diasporic populations are situated. A great companion to the best books on imperialism and its multiple genres as well as a smart and useful guide to reading contemporary cultural texts that subversively persist in enabling alternative renditions of U.S. multiculturalism."--Rick Bonus, author of Locating Filipino Americans: Ethnicity and the Cultural Politics of Space"Legitimizing Empire places the Philippine and Puerto Rican cases in dialogue to tell distinct stories about U.S. national history and identity with which these nations are intertwined. A fascinating and wonderfully original archive of Filipino and Puerto Rican performance and activism."--Allan Isaac, author of American Tropics: Articulating Filipino America

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Book SynopsisTrade Review"Merchant offers a nuanced, intelligent understanding of the relationship between gender and musical culture in contemporary Uzbeck society. In addressing the place of women in the musical life of the country, she throws light not only on the music but also on how the music has negotiated and contributed to the historical dynamic that has existed since the Soviet Union annexed Uzbekistan… A valuable resource for those interested in anthropology, Central Asian studies, gender studies… Highly recommended."--Choice"Readable and useful not only to those interested in the legacies of Soviet rule, but also to ethnomusicologists and scholars interested in gender issues."--Journal of Folklore Research"A beautifully textured account of contemporary Uzbekistan's national project, and the central role of women musicians in this construction. . . . Filled with interesting and timely material, this book is truly a wonderful read."--Ellen Koskoff, author of A Feminist Ethnomusicology"Merchant has listened carefully to the voices of Central Asian women musicians, so this book advances understanding of both a neglected world area and of women's experience in a postcolonial, Islamic-influenced society."--Mark Slobin, author of Folk Music: A Very Short Introduction"This book provides a timely focus on gender in Central Asian music--an area which deserves greater attention. It includes strong ethnographic material and interviews with musicians, draws on relevant theoretical literature, and addresses a range of issues concerning gender and the performance of Uzbek national identity, genre, and gendered economies of performance."--Rachel Harris, author of The Making of a Musical Canon in Chinese Central Asia: The Uyghur Twelve Muqam

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Book SynopsisTrade Review"Focusing on Vietnam’s labor export policy to Malaysia, Angie Trần shows us why gender and ethnic hierarchies matter in remaking the politics of control and dissent. Essential reading for all those interested in South-South labor brokerage and temporary migration." --Brenda S. A. Yeoh, coeditor of Routledge Handbook of Asian Migrations"This book features workers describing their conditions as laborers in foreign countries. Often shining through is how workers turned adversities into triumphs, usually modest but still invigorating. Also significant is that the workers are from five ethnic groups within Vietnamese society." --Benedict J. Tria Kerkvliet, author of Speaking Out in Vietnam: Public Political Criticism in a Communist Party–Ruled NationTable of ContentsAcknowledgmentsAbbreviationsIntroductionChapter 1. Contexts Matter: Historical, Economic, Cultural, Religious Practices of the Five Ethnic GroupsChapter 2. Transnational Labor Brokerage System and Its InfrastructureChapter 3. Labor Recruitment Process and IndebtednessChapter 4. Precarity and Coping MechanismsChapter 5. Physical Third Space EmpowermentChapter 6. Metaphorical Third Space EmpowermentChapter 7. Aspirations After MalaysiaConclusionAppendix 1. Descriptions of the SamplesAppendix 2. Land Issues for the Five Ethnic Groups in This StudyAppendix 3. Chronology of the Transnational Labor Brokerage State System, 1980s–2019Appendix 4. Legal Documentation of Labor Export PoliciesAppendix 5. List of OrganizationsNotesBibliographyIndex

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Book SynopsisTrade Review"Recommended." --Choice"With The Huawei Model, Yun Wen has written a superb book on the complex relationship between Huawei and China as well as the implications of their simultaneous rises, albeit in different roles, with regard to the information and communications technology (ICT) industry and geopolitics." --Chinese Journal of Communication"Yun Wen's book The Huawei Model provides a detailed and useful account of the evolution and global expansion of Huawei Technologies." --China Quarterly​"An exhaustive history and analysis of a company in the diplomatic crosshairs." --Literary Review of Canada“Finally, there is a systematic analysis of Huawei, China's leading tech giant. Yun Wen's account is comprehensive, rigorous, and truly global spanning both the South and the North. Definitely a must-read.”--Jack Linchuan Qiu, author of Goodbye iSlave: A Manifesto for Digital Abolition ​"The well-organized approach, including the discussions of overseas investment and labor practices, presents unique findings, and adds to our knowledge not only of Huawei's path, but also of Chinese private company dynamics in broader terms. The primary source material, especially the author interviews with Huawei and other Chinese corporate officials, adds a valuable dimension to our understanding of the company's development."--Eric Harwit, author of China's Telecommunications RevolutionTable of ContentsList of IllustrationsAbbreviationsAcknowledgmentsIntroduction {Introductions and conclusions don’t typically have chapter numbers}Chapter 1. Huawei’s Domestic Accumulation: A Path Intertwining with China’s ICT DevelopmentChapter 2. Going Global: Outward Expansion into the Global SouthChapter 3. March into the Global North: Opportunity or Peril?Chapter 4. From Path-Dependent to Path-Breaking? Huawei’s Technological Capability DevelopmentChapter 5. Ownership, Management, and Labor DisciplineConclusionNotesIndex

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Book SynopsisTrade ReviewWinner of the ICA ACJS Outstanding Book Award "A compelling analysis . . . Osman does an excellent job of articulating the histories and traces of what she calls both foreign and indigenous forms of modernisation, and helpfully details the narratives of successive foreign incursions and their backlashes. She convincingly shows that any perspective which poses contemporary American/global ideas of modernity as being in direct contrast with deep-seated and supposedly static forms of tribal patriarchy and tradition is of little help in understanding the contemporary situation." --Critical Studies in Television "In Television and the Afghan Culture Wars, Wazhmah Osman takes readers on a powerful tour of Afghan media, politics, and society. . . . A rich analysis of the local-global nexus. . . . Fiercely critical of the imperial gaze." --Television and New Media"Television and the Afghan Culture Wars poignantly critiques discourses of failure and immutability, bringing to the foreground the dynamism and talents of an Afghan population that is well-integrated with global flows of consumption and entertainment. Nuanced and deeply researched." --Iranian Studies"An excellent introductory text on contemporary Afghanistan through a non-western perspective that centers the everyday life, agency, and desires of ordinary Afghans." --International Journal of Middle East Studies​"Osman's analysis of the televisual medium in Afghanistan is valuable and serves as a timely marker of the end of an era and the beginning of another." --Media, Culture, and Society​"Osman's book is a lucid read about complicated dynamics." --Interventions"An insider look into Afghanistan's social norms and cultural narratives." --SouthAsia"Television and the Afghan Culture Wars is an insightful, powerful book. Weaving together nuanced ethnography, complex media theory, and even a touch of personal memoir, Osman provides a compelling perspective on the world of Afghan television. Nuanced and deeply researched, the book is an important contribution to a number of fields, including war and conflict studies, media globalization, and development communication."--Matt Sienkiewicz, author of The Other Air Force: U.S. Efforts to Reshape Middle Eastern Media since 9/11 "This is the first richly observed ethnographic account of the landscape of media in post-US invasion Afghanistan. Osman’s self-reflexive voice in telling the story of the dynamic media field in Afghanistan is in and of itself of import. The limited scholarship that exists on media and democracy under occupation in the Global South tends to reproduce paternalistic narratives of development. In contrast, this critical work foregrounds the geopolitical context that leads to a television 'boom,' highlighting the important role of women and ethnic minority communities in Afghani media production and consumption. Television and Afghan Culture Wars is a must read for scholars and students of global media and American empire."--Paula Chakravartty, coeditor of Race, Empire and the Crisis of the SubprimeTable of ContentsAcknowledgmentsIntroductionChapter 1. Legitimizing Modernity: Indigenous Modernities, Foreign Incursions, and Their BacklashesChapter 2. Imperialism, Globalization, and Development: Overlaps and DisjuncturesChapter 3. Afghan Television Production: A Distinctive Political EconomyChapter 4. Producers and Production: The Development Gaze and the Imperial GazeChapter 5. Reaching Vulnerable and Dangerous Populations: Women and the PashtunsChapter 6. Reception and Audiences: The Demands and Desires of Afghan PeopleConclusion: The Future of Media, the Future of AfghanistanAppendix A: Ethnic Groups TableAppendix B: Media Funding Sources and Recipients TableAppendix C: TV Stations and Affiliations TableNotesReferencesIndex

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Book SynopsisIndonesia's two leading Muslim organizations - Muhammadiyah and Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) - have created enormous networks led by women who interpret sacred texts and exercise powerful religious influence. This book explores the work of these contemporary women leaders, examining their attitudes toward the rise of radical Islamists.Trade Review"Given the current interest in women and gender issues in Islam, and scholarly neglect of Islam in Southeast Asia, this book provides a wonderful addition to the literature. . . . Based on extensive fieldwork in Indonesia, the book skillfully weaves interviews, songs, observations, written materials, and theoretical insight into a highly readable account of how Muslim women in a specific context negotiate their roles in modern Muslim society. . . . Highly recommended."--Choice"Van Doorn-Harder has risen to the challenge of breaking down stereotypes of Islam by combining an ethnographic and historical analysis of these two traditions in Indonesia as well as the influence of women in shaping standards for women's rights."--Sociology of Religion “The core of Women Shaping Islam is Van Doorn-Harder’s sensitive and nuanced depiction of women in Muhammadiyah and NU. . . . Gives rise to new and complex questions.”--Journal of the American Academy of Religion

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Book SynopsisUntil recently, women in the Red Army have only been a small part of the history of the Long MarchTrade Review"Young has both enriched and altered our views of the Long March by presenting the experiences and memories of women who participated in this epic yet deeply human event. . . . In examining the lives of these women, we ourselves come to have a richer, more human, and more believable understanding of the Long March. Highly recommended."--Lyman P. Van Slyke, author of Yangtze: Nature, History, and the River

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Book SynopsisThe transnational history and cultural politics of the Shaw Brothers' movie empireTrade Review“Something for everyone . . . effectively lays down a solid foundation for further research.”--China Quarterly"An impressive, in-depth inquiry into the historical mutations, cultural innovations, and political implications of the rise and development of the Shaw Brothers’ movie empire. Of the many volumes on Hong Kong movie industries, this is the first to focus solely on the history of the Shaw Brothers."--David Der-wei Wang, author of The Monster That Is History: History, Violence, and Fictional Writing in Twentieth-Century China"This instructive book will be a pleasure for seasoned scholars and amateurs of Hong King cinema alike. Extremely useful for Asian cinema courses, this first book-length study of the Shaw Brothers--who were pioneers in the Chinese language and trans-Asian commercial film industry--provides valuable cultural history and global context."--Tonglin Lu, author of Confronting Modernity in the Cinemas in Taiwan and Mainland China"Reopens the gates to the Shaw Brothers' legend."--Electronic Book ReviewTable of ContentsAcknowledgments vii Introduction: The Shaw Brothers Diasporic Cinema 1Poshek Fu 1. Shaw Cinema Enterprise and Understanding Cultural Industries 27Lily Kong 2. Shaw's Cantonese Productions and Their Interactions with Contemporary Local and Hollywood Cinema 57Law Kar 3. Embracing Glocalization and Hong Kong-Made Musical FIlm 74Siu Leung Li 4. Three Readings of Hong Kong Nocturne 95Paul G. Pickowicz 5. The Black-and-White Wenyi Films of Shaws 115Wong Ain-ling 6. Territorialization and the Entertainment Industry of the Shaw Brothers in Southeast Asia 133Sai-shing Yung 7. The Shaw Brothers' Malay FIlms 154Timothy P. Barnard 8. Bridging the Pacific with Love Eterne 174Ramona Curry 9. Black Audiences, Blaxploitation and Kung Fu Films, and Challenges to White Celluloid Masculinity 199Sundiata Keita Cha-Jua 10. Shaw Brothers Cinema and the Hip-Hop Imagination 224Fanon Che Wilkins 11. Reminiscences of the Life of an Actress in Shaw Brothers' Movietown 246Cheng Pei-pei (translated by Jing Jing Chang and Jeff McClain) Select Filmography 255Lane J. Harris Contributors 257 Index 261

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Book SynopsisTracing the international growth of a transformative Japanese dance formTrade Review"Translated poetically and mapped out with scientific precision . . . The book offers a pedagogical map for taking the time to suspend what we know, how we believe we've come to know it, and question what might happen, if we turn, spiral, slip, fall, slither, and sense our way 'back to the dance itself.'" --Dance Research Journal"Illuminates the myriad ways butoh and its Japanese aesthetic have influenced and been influenced by Western thought."--Pacific Affairs"Recommended."--Choice"An engaging, informative, and thought provoking text useful to anyone who is engaged with dance, somatics, transformation, or healing."--American Journal of Dance Therapy"There are moments of breathtaking beauty in this book--many of them--as Fraleigh shares her deep, personal engagement with butoh history and its current expressions. She expertly weaves philosophical reflections through engaging descriptions of dances she has seen to bring butoh to life for her readers as a global phenomenon that is transforming and healing western values."--Kimerer LaMothe, Ph.D., author of Nietzsche's Dancers: Isadora Duncan, Martha Graham, and the Revaluation of Christian Values

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Book SynopsisThe first English-language compilation of research on Japanese cooking and food cultureTrade Review"An excellent resource. . . . An exciting addition to a growing collection of English-language literature on the foodways of Japan."--Journal of Folklore Research"Significantly advances our knowledge of the history of Japanese food."--Gastronomica "This volume makes an important contribution to a growing field of study."--Monumenta Nipponica"Required reading for anyone interested in Japanese history, food, and foodways. I couldn't put this book down!"--Samuel Hideo Yamashita, author of Leaves from an Autumn of Emergencies: Selections from the Wartime Diaries of Ordinary Japanese"A pathbreaking volume on Japanese culinary history with great depth and scope."--Merry Isaacs White, author of Perfectly Japanese: Making Families in an Era of Upheaval"Provides an eye-opening view of the influence that other countries had on Japanese food culture, and how Japan was never an island unto itself."--Choice"A welcome addition to the growing body of scholarly literature on Japanese food and foodways."--Southeast Review of Asian StudiesTable of ContentsLIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS vii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ix INTRODUCTION 1Eric C. Rath and Stephanie AssmannPART 1 Early Modern Japan 1 Honzen Dining: The Poetry of Formal Meals in Late Medieval and Early Modern Japan 19 ERIC C. RATH 2 "How to Eat the Ten Thousand Things": Table Manners in the Edo Period 42 MICHAEL KINSKI 3. "Stones for the Belly": Kaiseki Cuisine for Tea during the Early Edo Period 68 GARY SOKA CADWALLADER AND JOSEPH R. JUSTICE 4 Meat-eating in the Kojimachi District of Edo 92 AKIRA SHIMIZU 5 Wine-drinking Culture in Seventeeth-century Japan: The Role of Dutch Merchants 108 JOJI NOZAWAPART II Modern Japan 6 The History of Domestic Cookbooks in Modern Japan 129 SHOKO HIGASHIYOTSU YANAGI 7 Imperial Cuisines in Taisho Foodways 145 BARAK KUSHNER 8 Beyond HUnger: Grocery Shopping, Cooking, and Eating in 1940s Japan 166 KATARZYNA CWIERTKA AND MIHO YASUHARA 9 Ramen and U.S. Occupation Policy 186 GEORGE SOLT 10 Bento: Boxed Love, Eaten by the Eye 201 TOMOKO ONABEPART III Contemporary Japan 11 Mountain Vegetables and the Politics of Local Flavor in Japan 221 BRIDGET LOVE 12 Reinventing Culinary Heritage in Northern Japan: Slow Food and Traditional Vegetables 243 STEPHANIE ASSMANN 13 Ramen Connoisseurs: Class, Gender, and the Internet 257 SATOMI FUKUTOMI 14 Irretrievably in Love with Japanese Cuisine 275 DAVID E. WELLS CONTRIBUTORS 285 INDEX 289List of Illustrations 1 A three-tray honezen meal from Ryori kondateshu 22 2 Snipe in (eggplant) jars from Shichi no zen jukyu kon no maki 32 3 A supervisory housewife and a servant from Shiroto ryori nenju sozai no shikata zen 135 4 An old housewife and two servants from Sozai ryori no okeiko 137 5 A young housewife in a kitchen from Katei yoshoku ryoriho 139 6 A housewife and maid discussing kitchen tasks from Renovating Kitchens 151 7 Members of a neighborhood farm group preparing steamed buns 222 8 Local female farmers work part-time at company headquarters 230 9 A female farmers' group from Yuda's Makino district 232 10 The three basic types of Japanese knives 276 11 Cutting a carrot into a plum blossom 277 12 Peeling daikon 278 13 Tempura 283

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Book SynopsisDescribes how Filipino exiles and immigrants in the United States played a crucial role in overthrowing the dictatorship of former president Ferdinand Marcos.Trade Review "A well-researched, engaging narrative of the Filipino exile movement in the United States to topple the Marcos dictatorship in the Philippines. Fuentecilla is gifted with a journalistic eye for human-interest stories of resistance and activism that will keep readers enthralled."--Augusto Fauni Espiritu, author of Five Faces of Exile: The Nation and Filipino American Intellectuals"A book that triggers memories—some good and some not so bracing."--The FilAm

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Book SynopsisWhen the United States acquired the Philippines and Puerto Rico, it reconciled its status as an empire with its anticolonial roots by claiming that it would altruistically establish democratic institutions in its new colonies. Ever since, Filipino and Puerto Rican artists have challenged promises of benevolent assimilation and portray U.S. imperialism as both self-interested and unexceptional among empires. Faye Caronan's examination interprets the pivotal engagement of novels, films, performance poetry, and other cultural productions as both symptoms of and resistance against American military, social, economic, and political incursions. Though the Philippines became an independent nation and Puerto Rico a U.S. commonwealth, both remain subordinate to the United States. Caronan's juxtaposition reveals two different yet simultaneous models of U.S. neocolonial power and contradicts American exceptionalism as a reluctant empire that only accepts colonies for the benefit of the coloniTrade Review"A great companion to the best books on imperialism and its multiple genres as well as a smart and useful guide to reading contemporary cultural texts that subversively persist in enabling alternative renditions of U.S. multiculturalism." --Rick Bonus, author of Locating Filipino Americans: Ethnicity and the Cultural Politics of Space"[Legitimizing Empire's] successful location of both mainstream American culture and the subcultures examined in the context of historic American imperialism (and ongoing neo-imperialism) is impressive and thought provoking. It very effectively challenges enduring narratives of "benevolent assimilation" in the history of American imperialism, and of multiculturalism as retrospectively justifying such US exceptionalism."--H-Empire"Legitimizing Empire offers fresh insights into the continuities and divergences of Philippine and Puerto Rican histories in ways that reveal the seemingly monolithic but uneven deployment of U.S. empire. This work is profoundly instructive both in terms of its illuminating comparative framework which, in itself, approximates so well a non-exceptionalist rendition of U.S. imperial history, but also in its calculated engagement with cultural production as a critique of empire emanating from multiple locations--from the nations/territories themselves and in places where diasporic populations are situated. A great companion to the best books on imperialism and its multiple genres as well as a smart and useful guide to reading contemporary cultural texts that subversively persist in enabling alternative renditions of U.S. multiculturalism."--Rick Bonus, author of Locating Filipino Americans: Ethnicity and the Cultural Politics of Space"Legitimizing Empire places the Philippine and Puerto Rican cases in dialogue to tell distinct stories about U.S. national history and identity with which these nations are intertwined. A fascinating and wonderfully original archive of Filipino and Puerto Rican performance and activism."--Allan Isaac, author of American Tropics: Articulating Filipino America

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Book SynopsisTrade Review"Merchant offers a nuanced, intelligent understanding of the relationship between gender and musical culture in contemporary Uzbeck society. In addressing the place of women in the musical life of the country, she throws light not only on the music but also on how the music has negotiated and contributed to the historical dynamic that has existed since the Soviet Union annexed Uzbekistan… A valuable resource for those interested in anthropology, Central Asian studies, gender studies… Highly recommended."--Choice"Readable and useful not only to those interested in the legacies of Soviet rule, but also to ethnomusicologists and scholars interested in gender issues."--Journal of Folklore Research"A beautifully textured account of contemporary Uzbekistan's national project, and the central role of women musicians in this construction. . . . Filled with interesting and timely material, this book is truly a wonderful read."--Ellen Koskoff, author of A Feminist Ethnomusicology"Merchant has listened carefully to the voices of Central Asian women musicians, so this book advances understanding of both a neglected world area and of women's experience in a postcolonial, Islamic-influenced society."--Mark Slobin, author of Folk Music: A Very Short Introduction"This book provides a timely focus on gender in Central Asian music--an area which deserves greater attention. It includes strong ethnographic material and interviews with musicians, draws on relevant theoretical literature, and addresses a range of issues concerning gender and the performance of Uzbek national identity, genre, and gendered economies of performance."--Rachel Harris, author of The Making of a Musical Canon in Chinese Central Asia: The Uyghur Twelve Muqam

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Book SynopsisTrade Review"As can be expected from Richard K. Wolf, The Voice in the Drum is an erudite and masterful contribution to South Asian ethnomusicology. But it is more: a deep contribution to experimental writing, full of nuanced engagement with why the poetics and politics of representation is critical to contemporary music ethnography."--Steven Feld, Distinguished Professor of Anthropology and Music, University of New Mexico"Emerging afresh from numerous fields of cultural anthropology, including ethnology, ethnomusicology, humanistic anthropology, linguistics, the anthropology of religion, visual anthropology, and others, The Voice in the Drum contributes new insights and creates innovative methodologies much needed in today's growing anthropological and empathic understandings of the performance of emotion in South Asian Islam."--American Anthropologist"The Voice in the Drum, by Richard Wolf, Professor of Music and South Asian Studies at Harvard, is a completely unique development in ethnomusicology. By skillfully drawing out his research interests through the character of Muharram Ali, Wolf manages to draw the reader into a historical drama of idealism and naivete falling apart." --Leonardo Reviews"Innovative and richly detailed." --American Ethnologist"No one else has conducted such multi-local research on traditions like this, and he has done a masterful job of relating these otherwise disparate traditions by highlighting their affinities, especially in terms of the ways in which their performers conceive of the drums as speaking in one manner or another. The result is a remarkable and unique scholarly opus."--Peter Manuel, author of East Indian Music in the West Indies: Tan-singing, Chutney, and the Making of Indo-Caribbean Culture

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