Asian history Books

Book SynopsisVietnam annually sends a half million laborers to work at low-skill jobs abroad. Angie Ng?c Tr?n concentrates on ethnicity, class, and gender to examine how migrant workers belonging to the Kinh, Hoa, Hrê, Khmer, and Chãm ethnic groups challenge a transnational process that coerces and exploits them. Focusing on migrant laborers working in Malaysia, Tr?n looks at how they carve out a third space that allows them a socially accepted means of resistance to survive and even thrive at times. She also shows how the Vietnamese state uses Malaysia as a place to send poor workers, especially from ethnic minorities; how it manipulates its rural poor into accepting work in Malaysia; and the ways in which both countries benefit from the arrangement. A rare study of labor migration in the Global South, Ethnic Dissent and Empowerment answers essential questions about why nations export and import migrant workers and how the workers protect themselves not only within the system, but by circumventingTrade 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 ContentsAcknowledgments Abbreviations Introduction Chapter 1. Contexts Matter: Historical, Economic, Cultural, Religious Practices of the Five Ethnic Groups Chapter 2. Transnational Labor Brokerage System and Its Infrastructure Chapter 3. Labor Recruitment Process and Indebtedness Chapter 4. Precarity and Coping Mechanisms Chapter 5. Physical Third Space Empowerment Chapter 6. Metaphorical Third Space Empowerment Chapter 7. Aspirations After Malaysia Conclusion Appendix 1. Descriptions of the Samples Appendix 2. Land Issues for the Five Ethnic Groups in This Study Appendix 3. Chronology of the Transnational Labor Brokerage State System, 1980s–2019 Appendix 4. Legal Documentation of Labor Export Policies Appendix 5. List of Organizations Notes Bibliography Index

Read more less

Book SynopsisPortrayed in Western discourse as tribal and traditional, Afghans have in fact intensely debated women's rights, democracy, modernity, and Islam as part of their nation building in the post-9/11 era. Wazhmah Osman places television at the heart of these public and politically charged clashes while revealing how the medium also provides war-weary Afghans with a semblance of open discussion and healing. After four decades of gender and sectarian violence, she argues, the internationally funded media sector has the potential to bring about justice, national integration, and peace. Fieldwork from across Afghanistan allowed Osman to record the voices of many Afghan media producers and people. Afghans offer their own seldom-heard views on the country's cultural progress and belief systems, their understandings of themselves, and the role of international interventions. Osman analyzes the impact of transnational media and foreign funding while keeping the focus on local cultural contestationsTrade ReviewICA ACJS Outstanding Book Award, 2021— ICA ACJS Outstanding Book AwardTable of ContentsAcknowledgments Introduction Chapter 1. Legitimizing Modernity: Indigenous Modernities, Foreign Incursions, and Their Backlashes Chapter 2. Imperialism, Globalization, and Development: Overlaps and Disjunctures Chapter 3. Afghan Television Production: A Distinctive Political Economy Chapter 4. Producers and Production: The Development Gaze and the Imperial Gaze Chapter 5. Reaching Vulnerable and Dangerous Populations: Women and the Pashtuns Chapter 6. Reception and Audiences: The Demands and Desires of Afghan People Conclusion: The Future of Media, the Future of Afghanistan Appendix A: Ethnic Groups Table Appendix B: Media Funding Sources and Recipients Table Appendix C: TV Stations and Affiliations Table Notes References Index

Read more less

Book SynopsisShows how Dalits are fighting oppression through the power of musicTrade ReviewZoe Sherinian's Tamil Folk Music as Dalit Liberation Theology is a landmark study of how music can combat oppression. The book deserves to be read by all ethnomusicologists interested in social justice movements, applied ethnomusi-cology, South Asian musics, and global Christianity. * Ethnomusicology *Sherinian's book is of obvious interest to ethnomusicologists, anthropologists, and other socially oriented scholars focused on South India and on Christianity, as well as being relevant for students of theology in a global frame (and liberation theology). . . . It also breaks ground as an ethnomusicological study of an individual, because it not only presents a musical biography but also structures its ethnomusicological analyses around the theoretical framework developed by that individual. * Global Forum on Arts and Christian Faith *[T]his book makes a huge contribution to knowledge of a socially significant genre just as neglected, until now, as the people who perform it. . . . Highly recommended. * Choice *Tamil Folk Music as Liberation Theology helps us to understand what is at stake for people making a transformative choice to reclaim local folk music in a particular community and liturgical setting. It powerfully and eloquently traces a complicated history of caste oppression, missionary activity, the internalization of hegemonic attitudes, and loss of identity. * Asian Ethnology *Sherinian's book offers a compelling account of Tamil Folk music (complete with transcriptions and links to online recordings); its social locations, and broader theological potential—and makes a number of important contributions along the way. * Journal of Hindu Christian Studies *Table of ContentsPreface List of PURL Audio and Video files Introduction: Singing The Lord's Prayer and Dalit Liberation in Tamil Nadu1. Musical Style and Indigenization in Tamil Christian Music 2. Sharing the Meal: A Dalit Family's Dialogue with the History of Tamil Christian Music, 1850-1994 3. Parattai's Dalit Theology 4. Ethnography as Transformative Musical Dialogue 5. Reception and Transformation from the Seminary to the Village: 6. Performing Global Dalit ConsciousnessAppendixes Appendix 1: Music Transcriptions Appendix 2: Song Lyrics By J. Theophilus Appavoo (Parattai) NotesBibliography Index

Read more less

Book SynopsisFor centuries, travelers have made Central Asia known to the wider world through their writings. In this volume, scholars employ these little-known texts in a range of Asian and European languages to trace how Central Asia was gradually absorbed into global affairs.Trade Review[A]n eclectic collection that spans from the sixteenth to the twentieth century, offers contributions from historians, literary scholars, and ethnomusicologists. . . We gain a sense of the evolving goals of outside powers: Russian and Persian missions sought to halt a burgeoning slave trade; Indian princedoms sought allies; Chinese Qing bureaucrats sought to categorize and rule the peoples on the edge of their empire; German anthropologists sought an 'Aryan heartland'; and the British worked to define geographic markers to their advantage in the nineteenth century 'Great Game' with the tsarist empire. * American Historical Review *In his engaging, lucid introduction to 'Writing Travel in Central Asian History', Nile Green writes that its chapters use the lens of travel writing to 'explore the different meanings given to Central Asia in the far corners of the world during the region's most intensive periods of globalization between the sixteenth and twentieth centuries'. . . intriguing and valuable . . . .May 2016 * Journal of Asian Studies *Accustomed as we have become to appraise Central Asia through the prism of postcolonialism, Nile Green's collection turns our collective head 180 degrees. The eight essays and Green's introduction that frames them sets us off in an entirely new direction. . . . The essays provide a new approach for the study of Central Asia, and, they are excellent for this reason. * Slavic Review *Aiming 'to connect Central Asia to global history', this body of research will prove an important anthology for scholars and advanced students alike who are interested in exploring the cultural connections uniting these proximate spheres. * Central Asian Survery *Table of ContentsIntroduction: Travel, Writing and the Global History of Central Asia Nile Green Part I. Identity, Information and Trade, c.1500-18501. Early Modern Circulation and the Question of 'Patriotism' between Central Asia and India Sanjay Subrahmanyam 2. Prescribing the Boundaries of Knowledge: Seventeenth Century Russian Diplomatic Missions to Central Asia Ron Sela3. Central Asians in the Eighteenth Century Qing Illustrations of Tributary Peoples Laura Hostetler4. The Steppe Roads of Central Asia and the Persian Captivity Narrative of Mirza Mahmud Taqi Abbas Amanat and Arash KhazeniPart II. Empire, Archaeology and the Arts, c.1850-19405. 'The Rubicon between the Empires': The River Oxus in the Nineteenth Century British Geographical Imaginary Kate Teltscher6. Buddhist Relics from the Western Regions: Japanese Archaeological Exploration of Central Asia Imre Galambos7.: A Russian Futurist in Asia: Velimir Khlebnikov's Travelogue in Verse Ronald Vroon 8. Narrating the Ichkari Soundscape: European and American Travelers on Central Asian Women's Lives and Music Tanya Merchant

Read more less

Book SynopsisFor centuries, travelers have made Central Asia known to the wider world through their writings. In this volume, scholars employ these little-known texts in a range of Asian and European languages to trace how Central Asia was gradually absorbed into global affairs.Trade Review[A]n eclectic collection that spans from the sixteenth to the twentieth century, offers contributions from historians, literary scholars, and ethnomusicologists. . . We gain a sense of the evolving goals of outside powers: Russian and Persian missions sought to halt a burgeoning slave trade; Indian princedoms sought allies; Chinese Qing bureaucrats sought to categorize and rule the peoples on the edge of their empire; German anthropologists sought an 'Aryan heartland'; and the British worked to define geographic markers to their advantage in the nineteenth century 'Great Game' with the tsarist empire. * American Historical Review *In his engaging, lucid introduction to 'Writing Travel in Central Asian History', Nile Green writes that its chapters use the lens of travel writing to 'explore the different meanings given to Central Asia in the far corners of the world during the region's most intensive periods of globalization between the sixteenth and twentieth centuries'. . . intriguing and valuable . . . .May 2016 * Journal of Asian Studies *Accustomed as we have become to appraise Central Asia through the prism of postcolonialism, Nile Green's collection turns our collective head 180 degrees. The eight essays and Green's introduction that frames them sets us off in an entirely new direction. . . . The essays provide a new approach for the study of Central Asia, and, they are excellent for this reason. * Slavic Review *Aiming 'to connect Central Asia to global history', this body of research will prove an important anthology for scholars and advanced students alike who are interested in exploring the cultural connections uniting these proximate spheres. * Central Asian Survery *Table of ContentsIntroduction: Travel, Writing and the Global History of Central Asia Nile Green Part I. Identity, Information and Trade, c.1500-18501. Early Modern Circulation and the Question of 'Patriotism' between Central Asia and India Sanjay Subrahmanyam 2. Prescribing the Boundaries of Knowledge: Seventeenth Century Russian Diplomatic Missions to Central Asia Ron Sela3. Central Asians in the Eighteenth Century Qing Illustrations of Tributary Peoples Laura Hostetler4. The Steppe Roads of Central Asia and the Persian Captivity Narrative of Mirza Mahmud Taqi Abbas Amanat and Arash KhazeniPart II. Empire, Archaeology and the Arts, c.1850-19405. 'The Rubicon between the Empires': The River Oxus in the Nineteenth Century British Geographical Imaginary Kate Teltscher6. Buddhist Relics from the Western Regions: Japanese Archaeological Exploration of Central Asia Imre Galambos7.: A Russian Futurist in Asia: Velimir Khlebnikov's Travelogue in Verse Ronald Vroon 8. Narrating the Ichkari Soundscape: European and American Travelers on Central Asian Women's Lives and Music Tanya Merchant

Read more less

Book SynopsisProvides a unique perspective on how politics is performed in everyday life.Trade ReviewEthnographies of the State in Central Asia is the right kind of edited volume. . . . it showcases the richness and diversity of the scholarship that is being carried out at the intersection of anthropology and science. The chapters . . . speak the same conceptual language, address each other's claims, and complement each other's insights. . . . The volume is enjoyable to read and largely jargon-free, meaning that it is suitable for assigning in an undergraduate course, but it is theoretically sophisticated enough that it will serve as a valuable source for graduate research as well. * Russian Review *It is a rare edited volume that keeps readers moving from chapter to chapter like a single-author book, but that is precisely what Ethnographies of the State in Central Asia accomplishes. * Central Asian Survey *Table of ContentsIntroduction: Performances, Possibilities, and Practices of the Political in Central Asia Johan Rasanayagam, Judith Beyer, and Madeleine ReevesPart I. Staging the Political1. The Global Performance State: A Reconsideration of the Central Asian "Weak State" John Heathershaw2. Dialogic Authority: Kazakh Aitys Poets and Their Patrons Eva-Marie Dubuisson3. Performing Democracy: State-Making through Patronage in Kyrgyzstan Aksana Ismailbekova4. "There is This Law..." Performing the State in the Kyrgyz Courts of Elders Judith BeyerPart II. Political Materials, Political Fantasies5. The Master Plan of Astana: Between the "Art of Government" and the "Art of Being Global" Alima Bissenova6. State Building(s): Built Forms, Materiality, and the State in Astana Mateusz Laszczkowski7. The Bulldozer State: Chinese Socialist Development in Xinjiang Ildikó Bellér-Hann8. The Time of the Border: Contingency, Conflict and Popular Statism at the Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan Boundary Madeleine ReevesPart III. Moral Positionings9. Reclaiming Ma'naviyat: Morality, Criminality and Dissident Politics in Uzbekistan Sarah Kendzior10. The Reshaping of Cities and Citizens in Uzbekistan: The Case of Namangan's "New Uzbeks" Tommaso Trevisani11. Massacre Through a Kaleidoscope: Fragmented Moral Imaginaries of the State in Central Asia Morgan Liu12. Cold War Memories and Post-Cold War Realities: The Politics of Memory and Identity in the Everyday Life of Kazakhstan's Radiation Victims Cynthia Werner and Kathleen Purvis-Roberts

Read more less

Book SynopsisProvides a unique perspective on how politics is performed in everyday life.Trade ReviewEthnographies of the State in Central Asia is the right kind of edited volume. . . . it showcases the richness and diversity of the scholarship that is being carried out at the intersection of anthropology and science. The chapters . . . speak the same conceptual language, address each other's claims, and complement each other's insights. . . . The volume is enjoyable to read and largely jargon-free, meaning that it is suitable for assigning in an undergraduate course, but it is theoretically sophisticated enough that it will serve as a valuable source for graduate research as well. * Russian Review *It is a rare edited volume that keeps readers moving from chapter to chapter like a single-author book, but that is precisely what Ethnographies of the State in Central Asia accomplishes. * Central Asian Survey *Table of ContentsIntroduction: Performances, Possibilities, and Practices of the Political in Central Asia Johan Rasanayagam, Judith Beyer, and Madeleine ReevesPart I. Staging the Political1. The Global Performance State: A Reconsideration of the Central Asian "Weak State" John Heathershaw2. Dialogic Authority: Kazakh Aitys Poets and Their Patrons Eva-Marie Dubuisson3. Performing Democracy: State-Making through Patronage in Kyrgyzstan Aksana Ismailbekova4. "There is This Law..." Performing the State in the Kyrgyz Courts of Elders Judith BeyerPart II. Political Materials, Political Fantasies5. The Master Plan of Astana: Between the "Art of Government" and the "Art of Being Global" Alima Bissenova6. State Building(s): Built Forms, Materiality, and the State in Astana Mateusz Laszczkowski7. The Bulldozer State: Chinese Socialist Development in Xinjiang Ildikó Bellér-Hann8. The Time of the Border: Contingency, Conflict and Popular Statism at the Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan Boundary Madeleine ReevesPart III. Moral Positionings9. Reclaiming Ma'naviyat: Morality, Criminality and Dissident Politics in Uzbekistan Sarah Kendzior10. The Reshaping of Cities and Citizens in Uzbekistan: The Case of Namangan's "New Uzbeks" Tommaso Trevisani11. Massacre Through a Kaleidoscope: Fragmented Moral Imaginaries of the State in Central Asia Morgan Liu12. Cold War Memories and Post-Cold War Realities: The Politics of Memory and Identity in the Everyday Life of Kazakhstan's Radiation Victims Cynthia Werner and Kathleen Purvis-Roberts

Read more less

Book SynopsisFrom yellow-face performance in the 19th century to Jackie Chan in the 21st, this book examines articles of clothing and modes of adornment as a window on how American views of China have changed in the past 150 years. It provides a cultural history of three iconic objects in theatrical and cinematic performance.Trade ReviewProfessor Metzger offers a rich and detailed study of Chinese fashion, calling it the 'Sino/American interface' that marks political and cultural investments in America's views of China and Chinese Americans. * New Books in Asian American Studies *Chinese Looks is a sophisticated and well-researched publication that sheds light on how our appearances are tools for expressing identity, culture, politics, and issues that cross these complex boundaries. * Costume *Cultivating both a careful examination of cinematic technique and a broad theoretical understanding of global cultural exchange, Metzger does an especially good job of putting the cultural industries of China and North America into conversation. * The Drama Review *This is an important work that should be of interest to scholars in the fields of theatre, performance, cinema, queer studies, art history, costume design, and visual culture. * Modern Drama *A welcome addition to theatre and performance studies, film studies, Asian American studies, fashion theory, and gender and sexuality studies, Chinese Looks is poised to provide entree into future conversations about China's continued rise in geopolitics, the next chapter in the Sino/American interface. * Journal of American Drama and Theatre *Table of ContentsIntroduction Part I. The Queue 1. Charles Parsloe's Chinese Fetish 2. Screening Tails Part II. The Qipao 3. Anna May Wong and the Qipao's American Debut 4. Exoticus Eroticus, or the Silhouette of Suzie's Slits during the Cold War 5. Cut from Memory: Wong Kar-Wai's Fashionable Homage Part III. The Mao Suit 6. An Unsightly Vision 7. Uniform Beliefs? 8. Mao Fun Suits Epilogue: The TuxedoNotesIndex

Read more less

Book SynopsisFrom yellow-face performance in the 19th century to Jackie Chan in the 21st, this book examines articles of clothing and modes of adornment as a window on how American views of China have changed in the past 150 years. It provides a cultural history of three iconic objects in theatrical and cinematic performance.Trade ReviewProfessor Metzger offers a rich and detailed study of Chinese fashion, calling it the 'Sino/American interface' that marks political and cultural investments in America's views of China and Chinese Americans. * New Books in Asian American Studies *Chinese Looks is a sophisticated and well-researched publication that sheds light on how our appearances are tools for expressing identity, culture, politics, and issues that cross these complex boundaries. * Costume *Cultivating both a careful examination of cinematic technique and a broad theoretical understanding of global cultural exchange, Metzger does an especially good job of putting the cultural industries of China and North America into conversation. * The Drama Review *This is an important work that should be of interest to scholars in the fields of theatre, performance, cinema, queer studies, art history, costume design, and visual culture. * Modern Drama *A welcome addition to theatre and performance studies, film studies, Asian American studies, fashion theory, and gender and sexuality studies, Chinese Looks is poised to provide entree into future conversations about China's continued rise in geopolitics, the next chapter in the Sino/American interface. * Journal of American Drama and Theatre *Table of ContentsIntroduction Part I. The Queue 1. Charles Parsloe's Chinese Fetish 2. Screening Tails Part II. The Qipao 3. Anna May Wong and the Qipao's American Debut 4. Exoticus Eroticus, or the Silhouette of Suzie's Slits during the Cold War 5. Cut from Memory: Wong Kar-Wai's Fashionable Homage Part III. The Mao Suit 6. An Unsightly Vision 7. Uniform Beliefs? 8. Mao Fun Suits Epilogue: The TuxedoNotesIndex

Read more less

Book SynopsisVietnam, January, 1968. As the citizens of Hue are preparing to celebrate Tet, the start of the Lunar New Year, Nha Ca arrives in the city to attend her father's funeral. Without warning, war erupts all around them, drastically changing or cutting short their lives.Trade ReviewThe author's narrative burns with firsthand accounts, her own and those of others who shared their stories, as they all were trapped in blasted houses, churches and makeshift shelters, wounded, starving, sick and overrun by the Communists and their squads of vengeful executioners...[A] searing first-person account of the misery of war visited upon her family, neighbors and countrymen, caught in senseless, chaotic horror...A visceral reminder of war's intimate slaughter. * Kirkus Reviews *Nha Ca relates countless moments of terror she and her extended family members suffered and shares stories told to her by others who faced similarly dire circumstances. It's an intimate—and disturbing—account of war at its most brutal, told from the point of view of civilians trying to survive the maelstrom. * Publishers Weekly *To this day, her harrowing account—of war casualties, searches and arrests, ideological purges—generates intense debates about accountability during war time. * Shelf Awareness *...[A] searing eyewitness account...It makes for an intimate—and disturbing—account of war at its most brutal told from the point of view of civilians trying to survive the maelstrom. * VVA Veteran *This is a worthy addition to accounts that help readers understand the Vietnam War. . . . Highly recommended. * Choice *On the whole, scholars will find this memoir invaluable for understanding the American War in Vietnam as an internal civil war between the Vietnamese. * H-Net Reviews H-War *In her translation of A Mourning Headband for Hue, Olga Dror has traversed the terrain of contemporary Vietnamese literature, selected a wonderful gem, Gii Khăn Sô Cho Hu by Nhã Ca, and made it accessible to an English readership. . . . It is simultaneously an account of the experience of civilians trapped in a city under siege and a literary response to the brutalities of war by a leading poet and writer of South Vietnam. * Journal of Vietnamese Studies *Mourning Headband for Hue is Nhã Ca's searing condemnation of the brutality of war. * Michigan War Studies Review *A work of great historical and literary value ideal for use in the classroom, Mourning Headband for Hue highlights overlooked voices and facets of the Vietnam War, meriting inclusion among the classics of wartime fiction. * Southeast Asian Studies *Table of ContentsAcknowledgmentsNote on TranslationTranslator's IntroductionSmall Preface: Writing to Admit Guilt1. First Hours2. The Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer3. Hodge-podge4. On a Boat Trip5. A Person from Tu Dam Comes Back and Tells His Story6. Going Back into the Hell of the Fighting7. Story from the Citadel8. Returning to the Old House9. A Dog in Midstream10. Little Child of, Hue Little Child of Vietnam, I Wish You Luck!

Read more less

Book SynopsisBasing her analysis on extensive research in archival and primary sources, the author reconstructs the issues, debates, and personalities that shaped the development of Russian policies toward the empire's Muslims and the impact of the Muslim Question on the modernizing path that Russia would follow.Trade ReviewThis fine book is particularly recommended for courses on comparative empires, Muslims in world history, and European imperialism. * Review of Middle East Studies *For someone whose native language is not English, [Campbell's] prose is remarkably clear, and she makes a major contribution to the understanding of Russia's 'Muslim Question'—past and present. . . . Recommended. * CHOICE *Campbell's book shows how profound official Islamophobia paradoxically led to the preservation of earlier confessional structures, grudging non-interference with the spiritual and social life of most Muslim communities, a restraining hand on the actions (if not the rhetoric) of Orthodox missionaries, and a certain uneasy toleration. * Slavonic and East European Review *While Campbell's study covers mostly well-trodden ground, she provides an engaging and enlightening synthesis which significantly supplements, compliments, and at times challenges existing scholarship. She pulls together a tight, lucid, and well-structured study anchored firmly in multiple archival, primary and secondary sources. * Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations *While this volume covers mostly familiar ground with respect to developments taking place between Muslims and state officials in imperial Russia, Campbell's extensive use of state archival sources adds new source-based material to discussions of this subject. As such, The Muslim Question should constitute necessary reading for anyone interested in issues pertaining to Muslims in imperial Russia. * Russian Review *Readable, original, and endlessly interesting, Campbell's book deserves the very highest praise. * Journal of Islamic Studies *The Muslim Question's thoroughness and its unique focus make it a fruitful resource ideally suited to advanced undergraduates and to graduate students. * Religiious Studies Review *Table of ContentsIntroduction: Understanding the "Muslim Question" and Its Changing Contexts Part I. The Emergence of the Muslim Question 1. The Crimean War and Its Aftermath: The Question of Muslim Loyalty and Alienation 2. The Challenges of Apostasy to Islam 3. "What do we need from Muslims?" Combating Ignorance, Alienation, and Tatarization 4. "In Asia we come as Masters:" The Challenge of the Civilizing Mission in Turkestan 5. Dilemmas of Regulation and Rapprochement: The Problem of Muslim Religious Institutions Part II. The Muslim Question during the Era of Mass Politics 6. Challenges of Revolution and Reform 7. The Muslim Question in the Aftermath of the Revolution 8. "Solving" the Muslim Question 9. World War I Conclusion: Could the Muslim Question Have Been Solved? Notes Bibliography Index

Read more less

Book SynopsisHealth patterns in Southeast Asia have changed profoundly over the past century. This volume provides an approach to the history of health in Southeast Asia.Trade ReviewThe essays in this volume . . . deserve a wide readership, not only by those interested in the history of medicine but by all who are interested in the history of Southeast Asia. * East Asian Science, Technology and Society *[T]his volume is a remarkable addition to scholarship. . . . Highly recommended. * Choice *Table of ContentsIntroduction / Sunil Amrith and Tim HarperPart I. The Long Duree1. Knowledge Transition and the Transformation of Medicine in Early Modern Siam / Komatra Chuengsatiansup & Nopphanat Anuphongphat Part II. Health and Crisis2. Pilgrim Ships and the Frontiers of Contagion: Quarantine Regimes from Southeast Asia to the Red Sea / Eric Tagliacozzo3. The Influenza Epidemic of 1918-19 / Kirsty Walker4. Disaster Medicine in Southeast Asia / Greg BankoffPart III. Uneven Transitions5. The Demographic History of Southeast Asia in the Twentieth Century / Peter Boomgaard6. "Rural" Health in Modern Southeast Asia / Atsuko Naoko 7. Population Ageing and the Family: The Southeast Asian Context / Theresa W. Devasahayam8. Epidemic Disease in Modern and Contemporary Southeast Asia / Mary WilsonPart IV. The Politics of Health9. The Internationalization of Health in Southeast Asia / Sunil Amrith10. Modernising yet Marginal: Hospitals and Asylums in Southeast Asia in the 20th Century / Loh Kah Seng11. Healing the Nation: Politics, Medicine and Analogies of Health in Southeast Asia / Rachel Leow12. Health or Tobacco: Competing Perspectives in Modern Southeast Asia / Loh Wei Leng13. The Role of Non-governmental Organizations in the Field of Health in Modern Southeast Asia: the Philippine Experience / Teresa S Encarnacion TademNotesContributorsIndex

Read more less

Book SynopsisThe Ahmadiyya Muslim community represents the followers of Mirza Ghulam Ahmad (1835-1908), a charismatic leader whose claims of spiritual authority brought him into conflict with most other Muslim leaders of the time. This book traces the origins of Ahmadi Islam from a small Sufi-style brotherhood to a major transnational organization.Trade Review From Sufism to Ahmadiyya: A Muslim Minority Movement in South Asia is an important book on an area of history that is not well covered. It will be essential reading for all who work on Pakistan or on modern South Asian Islam. * American Historical Review *From Sufism to Ahmadiyya is among the finest works on Islam in modern South Asia that exhibits a remarkable assemblage of intellectual, institutional, and social history. And while focused on a modern context, Khan's command over pre-modern Muslim intellectual traditions shines throughout the book. * Nova Religio *Khan examines the origins of the controversial South Asian Ahmadi Islam movement and its progression from a Sufistyle brotherhood to a major international organisation. He explores the persecution members of this movement have faced from other Muslim sects, studying how this experience has shaped Ahmadi identity. 57.5 Oct.-Nov. 2015 * Survival *Overall From Sufism to Ahmadiyya adopts a position of responsible scholarly scrutiny to develop several interesting perspectives that shed new light on a sensitive topic. * The Muslim World Book Review *Table of ContentsIntroduction1. Mirza Ghulam Ahmad Qadiani before Prophethood2. The Prophetic Claims of Mirza Ghulam Ahmad3. Authority, Khilāfat, and the Lahori-Qadiani Split4. Politics and the Ahmadiyya Movement under Mirza Bashir al-Din Mahmud Ahmad5. Religion and Politics after Partition: The Ahmadi Jihad for Kashmir6. Early Opposition and the Roots of Ahmadi Persecution7. Persecution in Pakistan and Politicization of Ahmadi IdentityConclusion

Read more less

Book SynopsisTrade Review"Zuzanna Olszewska's virtuoso study explores how young progressive Afghan intellectuals use the writing and performance of poetry as a prestigious discourse, to sustain community and claim dignity in exile. Her work makes an essential new contribution in Persian literary studies, ethnolinguistics, and refugee cultural studies worldwide." -Margaret A. Mills, Professor Emerita of Persian and Folklore, Ohio State University "Well beyond its focus on a community of Persian-speaking Afghan intellectuals living in exile in Mashhad, Iran, over the past three decades, The Pearl of Dari offers the reader the precious pearl of a genuine reading and learning experience. Zuzanna Olszewska combines solid scholarship with uplifting sensitivity to create a lively narrative replete with joyful discoveries of genuine personhood, agency, and humanity in the midst of multiple marginalities, an account of growing up amid layer upon layer of tension, bravely defying overwhelming odds." -Ahmad Karimi-Hakkak, University of MarylandTable of ContentsPrefaceA Note on the Translations, Transliteration, and DatesIntroduction1. Border Crossings and Fractured Selves: A History of the Afghan Presence in Iran2. The Melancholy Modern: The Rise of a Refugee Intelligentsia3. Afghan Literary Organizations in Post-revolutionary Iran4. The Social Lives of Poets and Poetry5. Modern Love: Poetry, Companionate Marriage and Recrafting the Self6. "When Your Darun Speaks to You": Ethics of Revelation and Concealment in Lyric PoetryConclusionEpilogue

Read more less

Book SynopsisTrade Review"Zuzanna Olszewska's virtuoso study explores how young progressive Afghan intellectuals use the writing and performance of poetry as a prestigious discourse, to sustain community and claim dignity in exile. Her work makes an essential new contribution in Persian literary studies, ethnolinguistics, and refugee cultural studies worldwide." -Margaret A. Mills, Professor Emerita of Persian and Folklore, Ohio State University "Well beyond its focus on a community of Persian-speaking Afghan intellectuals living in exile in Mashhad, Iran, over the past three decades, The Pearl of Dari offers the reader the precious pearl of a genuine reading and learning experience. Zuzanna Olszewska combines solid scholarship with uplifting sensitivity to create a lively narrative replete with joyful discoveries of genuine personhood, agency, and humanity in the midst of multiple marginalities, an account of growing up amid layer upon layer of tension, bravely defying overwhelming odds." -Ahmad Karimi-Hakkak, University of MarylandTable of ContentsPrefaceA Note on the Translations, Transliteration, and DatesIntroduction1. Border Crossings and Fractured Selves: A History of the Afghan Presence in Iran2. The Melancholy Modern: The Rise of a Refugee Intelligentsia3. Afghan Literary Organizations in Post-revolutionary Iran4. The Social Lives of Poets and Poetry5. Modern Love: Poetry, Companionate Marriage and Recrafting the Self6. "When Your Darun Speaks to You": Ethics of Revelation and Concealment in Lyric PoetryConclusionEpilogue

Read more less

Book SynopsisTrade ReviewA scathing dispatch from an embedded journalist in Afghanistan. . . . Pungent, embittered, eye-opening observations of a conflict involving lessons still unlearned. * Kirkus Reviews *One of the state's most intrepid combat reporters, Wissing went to Afghanistan for a third time in 2013, expecting to watch the war wind down. Instead, he found a place still rife with conflict. . . . [Wissing] gives readers a view of both the perils and the many examples of money being wasted in a country where even something as seemingly benign as digging wells has devastating consequences. * Indianapolis Monthly *It's that kind of book. It reminds us of Peter Van Buren's We Meant Well book on Iraq. * Diplopundit *This is not a book that directly engages the theories and conceptions of twenty-first-century US military intervention, in its full-spectrum approach from counterinsurgency to development, in numerous working papers, articles, and monographs. It does not invoke 'hard power,' 'soft power,' or 'smart power.' But in this case, that is an asset. Sometimes the most effective response to all the proposals of what could or should be is the observation of what is. * H-Diplo *Wissing's moving and exceptionally well-written account makes sad reading . . . The book becomes a heart-breaking travelogue, accompanied by Wissing's own photos. . . . [but] however corrupt and misguided the war, however much damage it has done, Wissing says, 'I met American after American determined to make the world a better place.' * Bloom Magazine *On page after page, as Wissing travels around the country, we are told how U.S. operatives continue to repeat the same mistakes over and over, leaving a trail of unfinished/sabotaged projects that have no value to the people of Afghanistan. * OpEd News *Table of ContentsList of AbbreviationsPrologue1. Landing2. Problems3. In/Out4. Reify5. Shoulders6. Salerno7. Retrograde8. Better9. Boom10. WHAM11. Luck12. Shitholes13. Road14. Friends15. Kandahar16. Leatherneck17. Sex18. Drugs19. Brains20. Birds21. Geronimo22. Dream23. Ship24. Slaughter25. System26. Believers27. Rumi28. Enduring29. Beauty30. Sustaining31. Challenges32. Women33. Dutch34. Intermediates35. Embassy36. Loss37. OptimismEpilogueIndex

Read more less

Book SynopsisTrade ReviewThis book is an important contribution to a growing literature on Central Asian politics and society, and by complicating dominant narratives about the dangers of weak state institutions, Ismailbekova has much to offer to the broader research project on democratisation and clientelism. * Europe-Asia Studies *Table of ContentsForeword: On Native Sons, Fake Brothers, and Big Men / Peter FinkeAcknowledgmentsNote on TransliterationList of AcronymsIntroduction: The Native Son and Blood Ties1. Kinship and Patronage in Kyrgyz History2. Scales of Rahim's Kinship: Zooming In and Zooming Out3. "Renewing the Bone": Kinship Categories, Practices and Patronage Networks in Bulak Village 4. The Irony of the Circle of Trust: The Dynamics and Mechanism of Patronage on the Private Farm5. Patronage and Poetics of Democracy6. The Return of the Native Son: The Symbolic Construction of the Election Day7. Rahim's Victory Feast: Political Patronage and Kinship in SolidarityConcluding words: Native son, Democratisation, and Poetics of PatronageGlossary of Local TermsBibliographyIndex

Read more less

Book SynopsisTrade ReviewThis book is an important contribution to a growing literature on Central Asian politics and society, and by complicating dominant narratives about the dangers of weak state institutions, Ismailbekova has much to offer to the broader research project on democratisation and clientelism. * Europe-Asia Studies *Table of ContentsForeword: On Native Sons, Fake Brothers, and Big Men / Peter FinkeAcknowledgmentsNote on TransliterationList of AcronymsIntroduction: The Native Son and Blood Ties1. Kinship and Patronage in Kyrgyz History2. Scales of Rahim's Kinship: Zooming In and Zooming Out3. "Renewing the Bone": Kinship Categories, Practices and Patronage Networks in Bulak Village 4. The Irony of the Circle of Trust: The Dynamics and Mechanism of Patronage on the Private Farm5. Patronage and Poetics of Democracy6. The Return of the Native Son: The Symbolic Construction of the Election Day7. Rahim's Victory Feast: Political Patronage and Kinship in SolidarityConcluding words: Native son, Democratisation, and Poetics of PatronageGlossary of Local TermsBibliographyIndex

Read more less

Book SynopsisTrade Review[T]he Grand Scribe's Records volume 8 is a remarkable achievement and an interesting experiment in combining something resembling a traditional Chinese commentarial style with a Western scholarly context. . . . And, as with previous volumes, the intrepid beginner or the careful specialist will find volume 8 to be ahelpful aid to research on the Shiji. * China Review International *These volumes are most welcome. . . . The English translation has been done meticulously, with full scholarly apparatus. . . . These volumes are essential library additions. * Choice *[T]he Grand Scribe's Records volume 8 is a remarkable achievement and an interesting experiment in combining something resembling a traditional Chinese commentarial style with a Western scholarly context. . . . And, as with previous volumes, the intrepid beginner or the careful specialist will find volume 8 to be a helpful aid to research on the Shiji. * China Review International *Table of ContentsAcknowledgmentsIntroductionOn Using This BookWeights and MeasuresList of AbbreviationsMemoir 29 (William H. Nienhauser, Jr. , translator)Memoir 30 (Stephen Durrant, translator)Memoir 31 (Meghan Cai and Qian Liu, translators)Memoir 32 (Wang Jing, translator)Memoir 33 (Reinhard Emmerich, translator)Memoir 34 (Zhao Hua, translator)Memoir 35 (William H. Nienhauser, Jr., translator)Memoir 36 (William H. Nienhauser, Jr., translator)Memoir 37 (Hans van Ess, translator)Memoir 38 (Michael Schimmelpfennig, translator)Memoir 39 (Christian Meyer, translator)Memoir 40 (Judith Suwald, translator)Memoir 41 (Marc Nurnberger, translator)Memoir 42 (Hans van Ess, translator)Memoir 43 (Wang Jing, translator)Memoir 44 (Hans van Ess, translator)Frequently Mentioned CommentatorsBiographical Sketches of Shih chi Commentators (Erich Haenisch and Liu Po-chuang)ErratumSelected Recent Studies of the Shih chiIndex

Read more less

Book SynopsisTrade ReviewChinese Folklore Studies Today is a very rich book which covers a wide range of contemporary topics, research interests, and methodologies, and in addition provides an introduction to the history of folklore studies in China. . . . This book is warmly recommended to folklorists, anthropologists, and specialists in East Asian studies. It opens up our understanding of an academic area not known widely enough. -- James H. Grayson * Folklore *Table of ContentsForeword / Chao GejinAcknowledgmentsIntroduction: History and Trends of Chinese Folklore Studies / Lijun Zhang and Ziying You1. Disciplinary Tradition, Everyday Life, and Childbirth Negotiation: The Past and Present of Chinese Urban Folklore Studies / Yongyi Yue, Translated by Wenyuan Shao and Yuanhao Zhao2. From "Women" to "Female Folklore Practitioners": The History and Current Trend of Women's Folklore Studies in China / Junxia Wang3. A Semiotics of Song: Fusing Lyrical and Social Narratives in Contemporary China / Levi S. Gibbs4. Contested Myth, History, and Beliefs: Remaking Yao and Shun's Stories in Hongtong, Shanxi / Ziying You5. Institutional Practice of Heritage-Making: The Transformation of Tulou from Residential Home to UNESCO World Heritage / Lijun ZhangIndex

Read more less

Book SynopsisTrade ReviewChinese Folklore Studies Today is a very rich book which covers a wide range of contemporary topics, research interests, and methodologies, and in addition provides an introduction to the history of folklore studies in China. . . . This book is warmly recommended to folklorists, anthropologists, and specialists in East Asian studies. It opens up our understanding of an academic area not known widely enough. -- James H. Grayson * Folklore *Table of ContentsForeword / Chao GejinAcknowledgmentsIntroduction: History and Trends of Chinese Folklore Studies / Lijun Zhang and Ziying You1. Disciplinary Tradition, Everyday Life, and Childbirth Negotiation: The Past and Present of Chinese Urban Folklore Studies / Yongyi Yue, Translated by Wenyuan Shao and Yuanhao Zhao2. From "Women" to "Female Folklore Practitioners": The History and Current Trend of Women's Folklore Studies in China / Junxia Wang3. A Semiotics of Song: Fusing Lyrical and Social Narratives in Contemporary China / Levi S. Gibbs4. Contested Myth, History, and Beliefs: Remaking Yao and Shun's Stories in Hongtong, Shanxi / Ziying You5. Institutional Practice of Heritage-Making: The Transformation of Tulou from Residential Home to UNESCO World Heritage / Lijun ZhangIndex

Read more less

Book SynopsisThe defeat of 90,000 Commonwealth soldiers by 50,000 Japanese soldiers made the Battle for Malaya during World War II an important encounter for both political and military reasons. British military prestige was shattered, fanning the fires of nationalism in Asia, especially in India.Table of ContentsIntroduction1. Prelude to Invasion2. The Imperial Armies3. Retreat from the Beaches4. Defeat along the Slim and Muar Rivers5. Disaster at Johore6. Endgame at Singapore7. Assessment8. ConclusionBibliographyIndex

Read more less

Book SynopsisTrade ReviewThis is a rich study that makes important contributions to the historiography of the Russian Empire, sharpening our picture of an empire in which lines between colonizer and colonized were far from clear. * The Middle Ground Journal *Ross offers a fascinating, well-researched narrative that fills an important lacuna in our understanding of Russia's engagement with Islam. As her clearly clearly shows, Ross engages not only with topics related to the study of Islam but also with some of the key themes of Russian history: Empire and Nation, Islam and Modernity, and the way empire worked by mutual relations and not by a unidirectional vector of power and control. Her study of the Machkaran network of scholars provides an important corrective to an image of Islamic reform dominated by Central Asian and Crimean Jadidism; it is bound tostimulate further research. -- Orel Beilinson * Euraian Geography and Economics *Danielle Ross' monograph, Tatar Empire: Kazan's Muslims and the Making of Imperial Russia, offers a substantive and thought-provoking addition to the historiography of both the Russian Empire in general and its relationship with its subject Muslim peoples in particular. . . . Tatar Empire is a fascinating and well-written contribution to the field. It is recommended not only to scholars interested in the history of Russian-Muslim relations, but also to a wider audience of experts interested in questions of empire, religion, and the emergence of nationalism. -- John M. Romero * Canadian-American Slavic Studies *Table of ContentsAcknowledgmentsIntroduction: The Empire that Tatars Built1. The Age of the Settler Ulamā2. The Art of Accruing Scholarly Prestige3. Colonial Trade and Religious Revival4. A Shaykhly Rural Gentry5. Knowledge, History-Writing, and Becoming Colonial6. Muslim Cultural Reform and Kazan Tatar Cultural Imperialism7. Fundamentalism, Nationalism, and Social Conflict8. At War with the Tatar Kingdom9. An Empire without RussiansConclusionGlossaryBibliographyIndex

Read more less

Book SynopsisIn the 1700s, Kazan Tatar (Muslim scholars of Kazan) and scholarly networks stood at the forefront of Russia's expansion into the South Urals, western Siberia, and the Kazakh steppe. It was there that the Tatars worked with Russian agents, established settlements, and spread their own religious and intellectual cuture that helped shaped their identity in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Kazan Tatars profited economically from Russia's commercial and military expansion to Muslim lands and began to present themselves as leaders capable of bringing Islamic modernity to the rest of Russia's Muslim population. Danielle Ross bridges the history of Russia's imperial project with the history of Russia's Muslims by exploring the Kazan Tatars as participants in the construction of the Russian empire. Ross focuses on Muslim clerical and commercial networks to reconstruct the ongoing interaction among Russian imperial policy, nonstate actors, and intellectual developments within Kazan's Muslim cTrade ReviewThis is a rich study that makes important contributions to the historiography of the Russian Empire, sharpening our picture of an empire in which lines between colonizer and colonized were far from clear. * The Middle Ground Journal *Ross offers a fascinating, well-researched narrative that fills an important lacuna in our understanding of Russia's engagement with Islam. As her clearly clearly shows, Ross engages not only with topics related to the study of Islam but also with some of the key themes of Russian history: Empire and Nation, Islam and Modernity, and the way empire worked by mutual relations and not by a unidirectional vector of power and control. Her study of the Machkaran network of scholars provides an important corrective to an image of Islamic reform dominated by Central Asian and Crimean Jadidism; it is bound tostimulate further research. -- Orel Beilinson * Euraian Geography and Economics *Danielle Ross' monograph, Tatar Empire: Kazan's Muslims and the Making of Imperial Russia, offers a substantive and thought-provoking addition to the historiography of both the Russian Empire in general and its relationship with its subject Muslim peoples in particular. . . . Tatar Empire is a fascinating and well-written contribution to the field. It is recommended not only to scholars interested in the history of Russian-Muslim relations, but also to a wider audience of experts interested in questions of empire, religion, and the emergence of nationalism. -- John M. Romero * Canadian-American Slavic Studies *Table of ContentsAcknowledgmentsIntroduction: The Empire that Tatars Built1. The Age of the Settler Ulamā2. The Art of Accruing Scholarly Prestige3. Colonial Trade and Religious Revival4. A Shaykhly Rural Gentry5. Knowledge, History-Writing, and Becoming Colonial6. Muslim Cultural Reform and Kazan Tatar Cultural Imperialism7. Fundamentalism, Nationalism, and Social Conflict8. At War with the Tatar Kingdom9. An Empire without RussiansConclusionGlossaryBibliographyIndex

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book SynopsisTrade ReviewBy focusing on folk literati and cultural traditions in Hongtong, Ziying You engages with a cultural dialogue that spans the local and global, the East and the West, academic and folk, and the past and the present. It allows readers to obtain a deep understanding of the interplay of individual agency and social institutions in processing tradition and making heritage in China and beyond. -- Xiaohong Chen * Journal of Folklore Research *The topic is highly sensitive to current efforts in reworking writings on historical developments in China. This review is important due to the fact that it allows many people to access details of the topic and to start a future discourse about some of the arising questions on heritage and historical values as well as about grassroot intellectuals and existing power structures. -- Corey Moore * Asian-European Music Research Journal *This book is a deep field study of the transmission of local culture in Hongtong, Shanxi. Focusing on the worship of ancient sage kings Yao and Shun, the book extends outward, from the logic of ritual life in three villages, to the continuity and evolution of tradition within an 'ecology' of competing forces and manifestations, and the disruptions introduced by local media and the nomination of local rituals as Intangible Cultural Heritage. . . . With its high level of detail, applied with equal care to textual sources, theory, and fieldwork, You's work stands out in its field. Her sympathetic picture of China's folk literati represents a unique contribution to understanding the transmission and adaptation of local culture both past and present. -- Thomas David DuBois * The China Journal *Table of ContentsAcknowledgmentsA Note on Romanization, Chinese Characters, and English TranslationIntroduction1. Background: Situating Local Beliefs about Ehuang and Nüying in Hongtong, Shanxi2. Incense Is Kept Burning: The Role of Folk Literati in Continuing and Representing Local Traditions3. Contested Myth, History, and Beliefs: Worshipping Yao and Shun at Village Temples in Hongtong4. Tradition Ecology: Debating and Remaking Ehuang and Nüying's Conflict Legends by Folk Literati5. Reproducing Tradition: Folk Literati, Sociocultural Differentiation, and Their Interaction with Other Social Actors6. Making Intangible Cultural Heritage: Folklore, Tradition, and PowerConclusionAppendix: In Commemoration of the Reconstruction of the Shun TempleBibliographyIndex

Read more less

Book SynopsisTrade ReviewBy focusing on folk literati and cultural traditions in Hongtong, Ziying You engages with a cultural dialogue that spans the local and global, the East and the West, academic and folk, and the past and the present. It allows readers to obtain a deep understanding of the interplay of individual agency and social institutions in processing tradition and making heritage in China and beyond. -- Xiaohong Chen * Journal of Folklore Research *The topic is highly sensitive to current efforts in reworking writings on historical developments in China. This review is important due to the fact that it allows many people to access details of the topic and to start a future discourse about some of the arising questions on heritage and historical values as well as about grassroot intellectuals and existing power structures. -- Corey Moore * Asian-European Music Research Journal *This book is a deep field study of the transmission of local culture in Hongtong, Shanxi. Focusing on the worship of ancient sage kings Yao and Shun, the book extends outward, from the logic of ritual life in three villages, to the continuity and evolution of tradition within an 'ecology' of competing forces and manifestations, and the disruptions introduced by local media and the nomination of local rituals as Intangible Cultural Heritage. . . . With its high level of detail, applied with equal care to textual sources, theory, and fieldwork, You's work stands out in its field. Her sympathetic picture of China's folk literati represents a unique contribution to understanding the transmission and adaptation of local culture both past and present. -- Thomas David DuBois * The China Journal *Table of ContentsAcknowledgmentsA Note on Romanization, Chinese Characters, and English TranslationIntroduction1. Background: Situating Local Beliefs about Ehuang and Nüying in Hongtong, Shanxi2. Incense Is Kept Burning: The Role of Folk Literati in Continuing and Representing Local Traditions3. Contested Myth, History, and Beliefs: Worshipping Yao and Shun at Village Temples in Hongtong4. Tradition Ecology: Debating and Remaking Ehuang and Nüying's Conflict Legends by Folk Literati5. Reproducing Tradition: Folk Literati, Sociocultural Differentiation, and Their Interaction with Other Social Actors6. Making Intangible Cultural Heritage: Folklore, Tradition, and PowerConclusionAppendix: In Commemoration of the Reconstruction of the Shun TempleBibliographyIndex

Read more less

Book SynopsisTrade ReviewZoe Sherinian's Tamil Folk Music as Dalit Liberation Theology is a landmark study of how music can combat oppression. The book deserves to be read by all ethnomusicologists interested in social justice movements, applied ethnomusi-cology, South Asian musics, and global Christianity. * Ethnomusicology *Sherinian's book is of obvious interest to ethnomusicologists, anthropologists, and other socially oriented scholars focused on South India and on Christianity, as well as being relevant for students of theology in a global frame (and liberation theology). . . . It also breaks ground as an ethnomusicological study of an individual, because it not only presents a musical biography but also structures its ethnomusicological analyses around the theoretical framework developed by that individual. * Global Forum on Arts and Christian Faith *[T]his book makes a huge contribution to knowledge of a socially significant genre just as neglected, until now, as the people who perform it. . . . Highly recommended. * Choice *Tamil Folk Music as Liberation Theology helps us to understand what is at stake for people making a transformative choice to reclaim local folk music in a particular community and liturgical setting. It powerfully and eloquently traces a complicated history of caste oppression, missionary activity, the internalization of hegemonic attitudes, and loss of identity. * Asian Ethnology *Sherinian's book offers a compelling account of Tamil Folk music (complete with transcriptions and links to online recordings); its social locations, and broader theological potential—and makes a number of important contributions along the way. * Journal of Hindu Christian Studies *Table of ContentsPreface List of PURL Audio and Video files Introduction: Singing The Lord's Prayer and Dalit Liberation in Tamil Nadu1. Musical Style and Indigenization in Tamil Christian Music 2. Sharing the Meal: A Dalit Family's Dialogue with the History of Tamil Christian Music, 1850-1994 3. Parattai's Dalit Theology 4. Ethnography as Transformative Musical Dialogue 5. Reception and Transformation from the Seminary to the Village: 6. Performing Global Dalit ConsciousnessAppendixes Appendix 1: Music Transcriptions Appendix 2: Song Lyrics By J. Theophilus Appavoo (Parattai) NotesBibliography Index

Read more less

Book SynopsisGo East! provides fresh insight into Turanism's key political and artistic influences in Hungary and illuminates the mark it has left on history.Trade Review"A long-awaited history of Turanism in Hungary that conjures cultural history and politics across two full centuries. A fascinating travel into a key concept of modern Hungary's ideological roots."—Marlene Laruelle, George Washington UniversityTable of ContentsMapsAcknowledgmentsList of Abbreviations1. A Batch of Bread2. György Ilosvay Writes a Letter3. The Moment4. Silver Age5. Székelys, Pagans and Hunters6. Everyday Life and Holidays in Turania7. Dévény and Tokyo8. Waiting for the Winds to Change9. Renaissance and MannerismBibliographyIndex

Read more less

Book SynopsisA fascinating read combining film and Asian studies, Theorizing Colonial Cinema reveals new contexts within film theory, history, and ideologies as it centers the question of the colonial perspective and emphasizes how the present is constantly entangled with the colonial past.Trade Review"With this excellent anthology, the history of colonization finally receives the full reckoning it deserves in articulations of film history and theory. By accounting for the legacies, stages, stagings, and afterlives of imperialism writ large and small in cinemas of or about Asia, the authors of this collection teach us how profoundly our historical and conceptual understanding of film transforms when we begin from the time and place of the colony. This is a ground shift that can no longer be ignored."—Priya Jaikumar, author of Where Histories Reside: India as Filmed Space"There was a time when writing about cinema was mostly about cinema from Western European countries and the US, spoken in one of the six European languages of Western modernity. No longer. Storytelling in moving images and non-Western languages carries within them praxes of living rooted in colonial legacies absent in the hegemonic history of Western cinematography. Theorizing Colonial Cinema is written by a majority of scholars that inhabits and endures colonial legacies and are embedded in the soundtrack languages of these moving images. This book is a landmark that complements and surpasses Third Cinema's heritage of the '60s and '70s."—Walter D. Mignolo, author of The Politis of Decolonial Investigations"A brilliant intervention into history, film, and cultural studies that goes far beyond the national cinema rubric and conventional binaries such as colonizer/colonized, white/non-white, East/West, anthropos/humanitas, theory/text, human/animal – this work by leading scholars of colonialism and film excavates cultural production and its political unconscious under colonialism to show not only the entanglements of colonialism and film but also the coloniality of cinema itself and the inevitable return of the repressed through the Cold War and postmillennial moments. A major work that will make many waves across disciplines and areas of specialization."—Takashi Fujitani, author of Race for Empire, University of TorontoTable of ContentsAcknowledgmentsOn Romanization, Naming and TranslationIntroduction, by Nayoung Aimee Kwon and Takushi OdagiriPart I: "Time and Racialized Other: Colonial Modernity and Early Cinema"1. Time, Race, and the Asynchronous in the Colonial Documentaries of Malaya, by Nadine Chan2. Facing Malcontent Colonial Korean Comrades: A Typology of Colonial Cinema in Asia's Socialist Alliances, by Moonim Baek3. Colonial-Era Film Theory, Spectatorship, and the Problem of Internalization, by Aaron Gerow4. Chinese Cinema's Other: Wrangling over "China-humiliating" Films (ruHua pian), by Yiman Wang5. World Export: Melodramas of Colonial Conquest, by Jane Marie GainesPart II: "Divided Mis-en-Scène: Colonial Cinema and Cold War Afterimages"6. Tarzan/Taishan and Other Orphans: Taiwan's Melodrama of Decolonization, by Zhang Zhen7. What Is an Auteur? Hŏ Yŏng/Hinatsu Eitarō/Huyung Between (Post)Colonial Indonesia, Japan, and Korea, by Thomas A. C. Barker and Nikki J. Y. LeePart III: "Millennial Hauntings: Rising Global Asian Cinemas"8. Cinema's Coloniality, by Takushi Odagiri9. A Hallucinatory History of the Philippine-American War: Khavn's Balangiga: Howling Wilderness, by José B. Capino10. Millennial Vengeance: Park Chan-Wook's Agassi (The Handmaiden) and the Return of Postcolonial Japonisme, by Nayoung Aimee KwonIndex

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book SynopsisTable of ContentsDedicationAcknowledgmentsIntroductionOn Using this BookWeights and Measures (Lu Zongli)List of AbbreviationsTranslated Chapters"Ch'en She, Hereditary House 18," trans. by William H. Nienhauser, Jr."Affectionate Members of the Outer Family, Hered. House 19," trans. by Hans van Ess"King Yüan of Ch'u, Hereditary House 20," translated by Marc Nürnberger"King Ching and King Yan, Hereditary House 21," translated by Zheyu Su"King Tao Hui of Ch'i, Hereditary House 22," translated by Sebastian Eicher"Chancellor of State Hsiao, Hereditary House 23," translated by Hongyu Huang"Chancellor of State Ts'ao, Hereditary House 24," translated by Clara Luhn"The Marquis of Liu, Hereditary House 25," translated by Masha Kobzeva"Chancellor Ch'en, Hereditary House 26," translated by Weiguo Cao"Chou Po, Marquis of Chiang, Hereditary House 27," translated by Yixuan Cai"King Hsiao of Liang, Hereditary House 28," translated by Nicolae Statu"The Five Lineages, Hereditary House 29," translated by Jakob Pöllath"The Three Kings, Hereditary House 30," translated by Maria KhayutinaFrequently Mentioned CommentatorsIndex

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book SynopsisA vivid and moving account of life in a north Indian village in the late colonial period.Table of ContentsPreliminary Table of Contents: Introduction to the Second Edition by Vasudha DalmiaIntroduction to the First Edition by Gordon C. RoadarmelGodaan: The Gift of a CowGlossary

Read more less

Book SynopsisDealing with the Pinyin romanization, this collection of stories provides an eyewitness view of everyday life in China during the Cultural Revolution.Table of ContentsThe Execution of Mayor Yin"Chairman Mao Is a Rotten Egg"Night DutyResidency CheckJen Hsiu-lanThe Big FishKeng Erh in PekingNixon's Press Corps

Read more less

Book SynopsisA collection of essays that discusses TV institutions, programming, and audiences in Greater China and the Chinese diaspora.Trade Review[This] volume has succeeded in filling a number of gaps, most notably in bringing together within one volume various approaches to the study of Chinese television as a cultural phenomenon that is at once national, transnational, and diasporic. It is a welcome addition to the field, and students and researchers of Chinese media, culture and society, as well as television studies academics in general, should find the book a very useful reference.199 Sept. 2009 -- Wanning Sun * China Quarterly *TV China provides us with a timely and comprehensive compilation of writings on Chinese television. By presenting the regional dynamics of Chinese television production and reception, Ying Zhu and Chris Berry provide a broad canvas enriched by contemporary media theory. . . . In summary, this is a fine collection, and will become a benchmark for students and researchers of Chinese media. No. 63, Jan. 2010 * The China Journal *Zhu and Berry have succeeded in fulfilling their objective of offering 'balanced coverage' of the topic of Chinese television. Culturally and geographically, this anthology covers mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and the Chinese diaspora. Four key research areas demarcate its distinct thematic sections: institutions, programming, reception, and 'going global'.32.2 2012 * HIST JRNL FILM RADIO & TV *. . . The book's content certainly helps to fill in cracks and crannies of Chinese television studies, for which readers will be thankful . . . July 2009 * Choice *TV China is a very welcome addition to the limited number of major works dedicated to this topic. To varying degrees and adopting diverse approaches, individual contributors have updated and expanded our current knowledge of Chinese television...the volume has succeeded in filling a number of gaps, most notably in bringing together within one volume various approaches to the study of Chinese television as a cultural phenomenon that is at once national, transnational and diasporic. It is a welcome addition to the field, and students and researchers of Chinese media, culture and society, as well as television studies academics in general, should find the book a very useful reference.Sept. 2009 -- Wanning Sun * China Quarterly *Table of ContentsContentsIntroduction Ying Zhu and Chris BerryPart 1. Institution1. Toward Television Regionalization in Greater China and Beyond Joseph M. Chan2. CCTV in the Reform Years: A New Model for China's Television? Junhao Hong, Yanmei Lü, and William Zou3. Hong Kong Television: Same as It Ever Was? Karin Gwinn WilkinsPart 2. Programming4. Shanghai Television's Documentary Channel: Chinese Television as Public Space Chris Berry5. Made in Taiwan: An Analysis of Meteor Garden as an East Asian Idol Drama Hsiu-Chuang Deppman6. Ritual, Television, and State Ideology: Rereading CCTV's 2006 Spring Festival Gala Xinyu LuPart 3. Reception7. Mediation Journalism in Chinese Television: Double-Time Narrations of SARS Haiqing Yu8. Building a Chinese "Middle Class": Consumer Education and Identity Construction in Television Land Janice Hua Xu9. Chinese Television Audience Research Tongdao ZhangPart 4. Going Global10. Hong Kong Television and the Making of New Diasporic Imaginaries Amy Lee11. Globalizing Television: Chinese Satellite Television outside Greater China Cindy Hing-Yuk Wong12. Transnational Circulation of Chinese-Language Television Dramas Ying ZhuAppendix: Relevant Milestone Events in the Development of Chinese TelevisionList of ContributorsIndex

Read more less

Book SynopsisWhat makes someone willing to die, not for a nation, but for a language? In the 1950s and 1960s, southern India saw a wave of dramatic suicides in the name of the Telugu language. This title traces the colonial-era changes in knowledge and practice linked to language that lay behind these events.Trade Review[O]riginal and persuasive . . . This lucid and engaging work will appeal to South Asianists as well as to other scholars interested in the history of language and literacy.Dec. 2009 -- Mary Hancock * University of California, Santa Barbara *[M]akes a brilliant intervention in the study of language and modernity by critically interrogating the concept of the 'mother tongue' . . . brims with interesting and provocative ideas that extend beyond its immediate focus. . . .a fascinating and ambitious project.Vol. 82, No. 4, 2009 -- Amanda Weidman * Bryn Mawr College *Mitchell's study successfully demonstrates that 'The story of colonial encounters with language in Southern India includes the story of efforts to bring very different sensibilities regarding language into a single frame of discourse'. While colonial restructuring of language contributed significantly to the making of the mother tongues, the fact remains that the resurgence of regional languages and the demand for linguistic states in South India served a powerful impulse—cultural unification and political empowerment of people scattered among arbitrary administrative divisions.Nov 2011 * Journal of Asian Studies *The study subtly identies links that all too often appear lost in the haze of un-critical activism. For that reason, along with its readable and forceful prose, this book makes a lasting contribution to knowledge and offers a valuable addition to any reading list on modern South Asian history. * South Asia Research *The aim of 'Language, Emotion, and Politics in South India' is to show how the specific history of Telugu-language politics can shed new light on general questions of importance to researchers in a variety of fields who are concerned to understand "the processes that have led speakers of particular languages to see themselves as having a separate history, literature, politics, and identity". . . [An] ambitious and creative work.Feb 2010 * Cultural Anthropology - AAA *Table of ContentsAcknowledgmentsNote on Transliteration and Spelling Introduction: A New Emotional Commitment to Language1. From Language of the Land to Language of the People: Geography, Language, and Community in Southern India2. Making a Subject of Language3. Making the Local Foreign: Shared Language and History in Southern India4. From Pandit to Primer: Pedagogy and Its Mediums5. From the Art of Memory to the Art of Translation: Making Languages Parallel6. Martyrs in the Name of Language? Death and the Making of Linguistic PassionConclusion: Language as a New Foundational CategoryNotesBibliographyIndex

Read more less

Book SynopsisMuslim-Christian co-existence through public artTrade ReviewVolk presents a wonderful narrative of key turning points in the history of modern Lebanon. . . . [A] rigorous study and a pleasure to read. * H-net Reviews *Volk's argument is relevant, interesting and worthy of praise and follow-up: thinking about Lebanese society outside confessional boxes is tragically relevant in times of sectarian warfare in Syria and beyond.40.3 2013 * British Jrnl Middle Eastern Studies *Volk's identification of subjacent gender and class issues in memorialization points the way to fertile ground for future scholarship. ... Would memorials commemorating the contributions of women or the working-class bring into question the status quo by relativizing the power of elite males? These are not questions that Memorials and Martyrs foregrounds but the book makes it much easier and more plausible to ask them. The next time somebody asks what good scholarship can do for civil society, I'll try to remember this. * Journal of Arabic Literature *Table of ContentsList of IllustrationsAcknowledgmentsNote on Transliteration of ArabicIntroduction1. The Politics of Memory in Lebanon: Sectarianism, Memorials, and Martyrdom2. Sculpting Independence: Competing Ceremonies and Mutilated Faces (1915-1957)3. Remembering Civil Wars: Fearless Faces and Wounded Bodies (1958-1995)4. Reconstructing while Re-destructing Lebanon: Dismembered Bodies and National Unity (1996-2003)5. Revisiting Independence and Mobilizing Resistance: Assassinations, Massacres, and Divided Memory-Scapes (2004-2006)6. Memorial Politics and National Imaginings: Possibilities and LimitsAppendix: Important DatesNotesBibliographyIndex

Read more less

Book SynopsisThe patrons and artists of Bijapur, an Islamic kingdom that flourished in the Deccan region of India in the 16th and 17th centuries, produced lush paintings and elaborately carved architecture. This illustrated study traces the development of Bijapuri art and courtly identity through detailed examination of selected paintings and architecture.Trade Review. . . [D]iscusses the architecture and painting of Bijapur, the capital of an Islamic kingdom in the Deccan region of India at its heyday between 1565 and 1635. Hutton describes the building of cities with fine stone palaces, tombs, and mosques; their carved decoration, paintings, and inscriptions; and how these reflected the courtly identity of the Khan. . . . Recommended. * Choice *I found the book a sheer joy to merely look at and immensely illuminating when I read it. . . * The Muslim World Book Review *. . . beautifully illustrated . . . and is an essential addition to religion and art collections that seek truly global coverage of the arts of Islamdom.13.1 2009 -- John Renard * Saint Louis University *Table of ContentsContentsList of IllustrationsAcknowledgments1. Introduction2. Prosperous Beginnings3. Developing Visual Metaphors4. Meaning in Ornament5. ConclusionAppendix A: Adil Shahi Rulers of BijapurAppendix B: The Pem Nem's IllustrationsNotesBibliographyIndex

Read more less

Book SynopsisTrade Review. . .a significant contribution to both Gandhian studies and our understanding of India between 1920 and 1940. * Religious Studies Review *. . . a fascinating and informative study of that most familiar artefact of Indian nationalism. Its main achievement is to present a coherent and very persuasive analysis of the ways in which this basic, everyday object became representative of the nation.Summer 2009 * Journal of Social History *Trivedi engages with relevant theoretical and historiographical issues, and this is done whle maintaining a clear, and readable narrative. . . . Students will find it accessible and informative as they study the history of modern India. Researchers working on nationalism, consumption and visual studies will find this thoughtfully argued book very useful indeed. Vol. 18.4, December 2010 * Contemporary South Asia *Table of ContentsContentsList of IllustrationsAcknowledgmentsIntroduction1. A Politics of Consumption: Swadeshi and Its Institutions2. Technologies of Nationhood: Visually Mapping the Nation3. The Nation Clothed: Making an "Indian" Body4. Rituals of Time: The Flag and the Nationalist Calendar5. Inhabiting National Space: Khadi in PublicConclusionNotesBibliographyIndex

Read more less

Book SynopsisMemoir of an Indian diplomat that sheds light on a critical period in India's historyTrade Review. . . Singh's anecdotal memoirs are worthwhile for scholars of India and South Asian diplomacy. . . . Recommended. * Choice *Table of ContentsContentsForeword by Strobe TalbottPreface: Prelude to HonorAcknowledgmentsList of AbbreviationsPart I. A Look Back1. Memories of a Sunlit Land2. Born of the Same Womb: Pakistan3. India: The Journey from Nation to StatehoodPart II. Challenge and Response4. Pokhran II: The Implosion of Nuclear Apartheid5. Pokhran Looks East6. The Asian Two: India and ChinaPart III. Statecraft Is a Cruel Business7. Troubled Neighbor, Turbulent Times: 19998. Troubled Neighbor, Turbulent Times: 20019. Engaging the Natural Ally10. The Republican Innings11. Some AfterwordsAppendixesGlossaryIndex

Read more less

Book SynopsisArgues that any exploration of the social uses to which cinema is put in a place like India can only make sense if it transforms our understanding of cinema itself. This work examines three moments of crisis for the Indian State in which cinema played a central role.Trade ReviewBy analyzing theories of spectatorship, Rajadhyaksha defines the aesthetic that is Bollywood. . . . Recommended.May 2010 * Choice *Table of Contents1. IntroductionPART I: THE 'CINEMA-EFFECT' OUTSIDE THE CINEMA: 'BOLLYWOOD' AND THE PERFORMING CITIZEN2. 'Bollywood' 2004: The Globalized Freak Show of what was Cinema3. When Was Bollywood?4. The 'Cinema-Effect': Cultural Rights Vs. The Production Of Authenticity5. Social Lineages of the Cinema-Effect: Demonstrating Spectatorial AbilityAfterword: Bollywood And The Cinema-Effect: A Concluding NotePART II: ADMINISTERING THE SYMBOLS OF AUTHENTICITY-PRODUCTION: THE CINEMA-EFFECT AND THE STATE - AND REVISITING A 1990s CONTROVERSY6. Administering The Symbols Of Authenticity-Production7. 'You Can See Without Looking': The Cinematic 'Author' and Freedom Of Expression in the Cinema8. 'People-Nation' And Spectatorial Rights: The Political 'Authenticity-Effect', the Shiv Sena and a Very Bombay HistoryPART III: 1970S QUESTIONS: THE CINEMA-EFFECT, THE NATIONAL SYMBOLIC AND THE AVANT-GARDE9. The Nation Detours10. The Indian Emergency11. The Problem, and a 'Coproduction Of Modernities'12. 'Taking' The Shot': Alternative Beginnings To The Mechanism13. The Practice: Two Films And A Painting (1): Bhupen Khakhar's List14. The Practice: Two Films And A Painting (2): Mani Kaul And The 'Cinematic Object' - Uski Roti15. The Practice: Two Films And A Painting (3): Gautam Ghose's Maabhoomi, Territorial Realism And The 'Narrator'

Read more less

Book SynopsisJudith M. Brown analyzes the lives of South Asians in recent history with a focus on the late nineteenth and early twentieth century.Trade Review"This book provides an example of the historian's craft at its best. Known throughout the world for her balanced and influential interpretation of modern India, Mahatma Gandhi, and Nehru, Judith Brown has excelled herself by opening windows into India's recent past that hitherto have remained closed. The elegance of style adds to the power of the argument. Read it: you will enjoy the experience." —Anthony Parel, University of Calgary"Once again, Judith Brown has amazed us with something truly remarkable. Her latest book, so exquisitely well crafted, is a gem. It gives us fresh glimpses into facets of India's (or South Asia's) recent past, of things never before seen, or imagined. Reflecting brilliance of imagination and insight, it shows us new ways of 'doing history.' By focusing upon dynastic 'lives' of specific institutions—cohorts and families of Balliol College, as well as individuals in their 'public' and 'private' worlds—this work turns our understandings around. Never again will we look at the Raj, or at Gandhi and Nehru, in quite the same way." —Robert Eric Frykenberg, University of Wisconsin-Madison"Utilizing Balliol College records, personal photographs, life histories, and more traditional sources such as autobiographies and private papers, Judith Brown incisively explores multiple themes in the history of colonial and independent India. They range from the graduates of Balliol College who formed 'dynasties' within an imperial administration to how the iconic Indian leaders, Gandhi and Nehru, confronted public and private challenges while creating an Indian nation. Her fascinating narrative of family histories will stimulate both professional historians and popular audiences to reconsider how such histories can illuminate broader topics such as imperial dominance, nation-building, and globalization." —Barbara Ramusack, Charles Phelps Taft Professor, University of Cincinnati"Judith Brown provides an insightful demonstration of the diverse uses historians can make of biography as a means of interrogating the past and of communicating with a wider public outside academia. In taking 'life history' beyond the study of individuals to explore family, group, and institutional trajectories over several generations, Brown's innovative analyses extend from the lives of powerful and well-documented figures central to the evolution of modern India, particularly Gandhi and Nehru, to British family 'dynasties' and educational institutions that decisively shaped the Raj to the lives of ordinary Indian women and men who left few written traces. Her work positions South Asia and its peoples, particularly its imperial and international migrants and diasporas, within a suggestively global framework." —Elizabeth Buettner, University of York“Windows into the Past is Judith M. Brown’s analysis of the lives of the people of South Asia in recent history with a focus on the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. Focusing on the personal lives in both private and public, Brown gives readers a comprehensive overview of the common man in India and other countries of the era. Windows into the Past is a fine addition to any history collection focusing on culture.” —The Midwest Book Review“. . . Brown successively examines an Oxford college, the changing lives of several Indian families during the last century, and lives—both ‘public’ and ‘inner’—of two famous individuals, Mohandas Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru.” —Journal of Interdisciplinary History

Read more less

Book SynopsisIn this engaging and innovative new book, French scholar Jacques Proust analyzes the image Europe presented to Japan, deliberately or otherwise, from the mid-sixteenth century to the end of the eighteenth century. Appearing for the first time in an American translation, Europe through the Prism of Japan relies on a large quantity of underexplored documents from which Proust has tried to reconstruct, like a puzzle, Japanese-European relations during the age of European exploration.This fascinating book describes in careful detail developments in Japanese culture and civilization during three hundred years of interaction between Japanese and Europeans, including Dutch merchants, Spanish Catholic missionaries, and German and Portuguese Jesuits. Proust examines not only Europeans' influence on Japan but also the unique Japanese interpretation of European culture. This fresh perspective offers a prism through which Europe may be viewed and frequently sheds light on facets of EuropTrade Review“Europe Through the Prism of Japan is a true tour-de-force in historiography. A study of European civilization based on the way that civilization presented itself to Japan, between the 16th and 18th centuries, it is one of the more innovative and informative works I have read in a long time.” —Annette Aronowicz, professor of religious studies, Franklin & Marshall College“… thought-provoking …there are many useful insights to be gained from Proust’s book …” —Sixteenth Century Journal"This is an interesting … addition to the history of cross-cultural contacts, which should join the ranks of such classics as C.R. Boxer’s The Christian Century in Japan (1951) and Noel Perrin’s Giving up the Gun (CH, Nov’79). Upper-division undergraduates and above.” —Choice“[A] careful, detailed, scholarly analysis of how Japan perceived Europe from the mid-sixteenth to eighteenth century. A brief insert section of color plates with relevant works of art illustrates this remarkable cross-cultural study.” —Midwest Book Review“...the reader is treated to a detailed picture of developments in the culture and civilization of Japan during a span of three centuries. A wide range of areas, from art history and theology to social history and medicine is discussed, illuminating our understanding of two very different cultures.” —Virgina Quarterly Review“...thought-provoking...” —Renaissance Quarterly

Read more less

Book SynopsisThe thought of René Girard on violence, sacrifice, and mimetic theory has exerted a strong influence on Japanese scholars as well as around the world. In this collection of essays, originating from a Tokyo conference on violence and religion, scholars call on Girardian ideas to address apocalyptic events that have marked Japan''s recent history as well as other aspects of, primarily, Japanese literature and culture. Girard''s theological notion of apocalypse resonates strongly with those grappling with the horrors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, as well as events such as the 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami and the Fukushima nuclear disaster. In its focus on Girard and devastating violence, the contributors raise issues of promise and peril for us all.The essays in Part I of the volume are primarily rooted in the events of World War II. The contributors employ mimetic theory to respond to the use of nuclear weapons and the threat of absolute destruction. Essays in Part II cover Trade Review“[A] compendium of essays in which religion and scientific rationality intertwines with folk history, literature, theatre, biblical exegesis, and Japanese film, anime, and manga characters. . . . [I]n Apocalypse Deferred: Girard and Japan, the sense of an inevitable nuclear confrontation is taken seriously by the pool of international scholars.” —Catholic Library World“While readers from diverse fields will find specific chapters—the atomic bombings, folk rituals, anime, popular film—of interest, this reviewer suspects every reader will find something new—and quite possibly challenging or rewarding—in this collection. By extending Girard’s mimetic theory to Japan, these essays demonstrate its usefulness and validity in non-Judeo-Christian contexts.“ —Reading Religion"Rather than a compendium of essays, this book comprises an entire curriculum for rethinking our understanding of religion and scientific rationality and everything in between, including and especially the looming prospect of planetary catastrophe. Through the lens of René Girard’s mimetic anthropology, the essays in this volume by scholars on both sides of the Pacific range from issues in geopolitics to folk customs, from biblical exegesis to Japanese film, anime, and manga. Abounding with stunning insights into the explanatory scope of Girard’s ideas, every contribution is cogently argued and abundantly researched. It delights the intellect, stretching its potential; it collectively provides an urgently needed epistemology for the role of violence in our globally challenging controversies." —Andrew J. McKenna, emeritus professor of French, Loyola University Chicago"This is the first major interdisciplinary response to Girard's apocalyptic-themed late work Achever Clausewitz. The Japanese cultural material explored here not only reveals evidence for aspects of the mimetic theory from folk history, literature, theatre, and popular culture (e.g., anime), but from a non-Western nation it raises the question of necessary Judeo-Christian input into the revealing of scapegoating dynamics." —Scott Cowdell, Charles Sturt University, Canberra, Australia

Read more less