Revised Edition of The Pacific Islands: Environment and Society Now Available

The Pacific IslandsThe Pacific is the last major world region to be discovered by humans. Although small in total land area, its numerous islands and archipelagoes with their startlingly diverse habitats and biotas, extend across a third of the globe. This revised edition of the popular text The Pacific Islands: Environment and Society, edited by Moshe Rapaport, explores the diverse landforms, climates, and ecosystems of the Pacific island region. Multiple chapters, written by leading specialists, cover the environment, history, culture, population, and economy. The work includes new or completely revised chapters on gender, music, logging, development, education, urbanization, health, ocean resources, and tourism. Throughout two key issues are addressed: the exceptional environmental challenges and the demographic/economic/political challenges facing the region. Although modern technology and media and waves of continental tourists are fast eroding island cultures, the continuing resilience of Pacific island populations is apparent.

May 2013 / ISBN 978-0-8248-3586-6 / $48.00 (PAPER)

In Memoriam — Barbara J. Brooks (1953-2013)

Barbara J. Brooks died last month after a long and courageous battle with cancer. She was an associate professor of East Asian history at the City College and Graduate Center, City University of New York.

Barbara was the author of many articles on the history of imperial Japan in China and Northeast Asia, as well as Japan’s Imperial Diplomacy: Consuls, Treaty Ports and War in China, 1895–1938, published by UH Press in 2000. Her forthcoming book with Susan L. Burns, Gender and Law in the Japanese Imperium, will be published by the Press later this year.

We extend our sincere condolences to Barbara’s husband, David Jaffee, and their family.

Selected Essays on Korean History, Literature, and Society from the Japanese Colonial Era

Imperatives of CultureImperatives of Culture: Selected Essays on Korean History, Literature, and Society from the Japanese Colonial Era, edited by Christopher P. Hanscom, Walter K. Lew, and Youngju Ryu, contains translations—many appearing for the first time in the English language—of major literary, critical, and historical essays from the colonial period (1910–1945) in Korea. Considered representative of the debates among and between Korean and Japanese thinkers of the colonial period, these texts shed light on relatively unexplored aspects of intellectual life and take part in current conversations around the nature of the colonial experience and its effects on post-liberation Korean society and culture.

Imperatives of Culture is a landmark in bringing important Korean texts from the colonial period into the English-speaking world. Intellectuals and writers who were central to debates over Korean identity and culture—which in the 1930s and 1940s the Japanese were trying to eradicate—illumine with insight and often brilliance the dilemmas of an ancient nation captured by a curiously ‘late’ (or late-coming) twentieth-century imperialism. These essays also cast their reflection down to the present, as divided Korea enters its seventh decade. This book rewards multiple readings and will be most useful in the classroom.” —Bruce Cumings, Chair, Department of History, University of Chicago

Korean Classics Library: Historical Materials
May 2013 / ISBN 978-0-8248-3821-8 / $45.00 (CLOTH)

Living Morally and Dying of Cancer in a Chinese Village

Fighting for BreathNumerous reports of “cancer villages” have appeared in the past decade in both Chinese and Western media, highlighting the downside of China’s economic development. Less generally known is how people experience and understand cancer in areas where there is no agreement on its cause. Who or what do they blame? How do they cope with its onset? Fighting for Breath: Living Morally and Dying of Cancer in a Chinese Village, by Anna Lora-Wainwright, is the first ethnography to offer a bottom-up account of how rural families strive to make sense of cancer and care for sufferers. It addresses crucial areas of concern such as health, development, morality, and social change in an effort to understand what is at stake in the contemporary Chinese countryside.

Fighting for Breath is a well-written, ethnographically grounded, and anthropologically compelling book. It is theoretically sophisticated and clearly the work of a serious China scholar and first-rate medical anthropologist. Cancer has received much less attention in these fields than it deserves, so this volume fills an important niche.” —Arthur Kleinman, Harvard University

May 2013 / ISBN 978-0-8248-3682-5 / $52.00 (CLOTH)

The Incense Light Community and Buddhist Nuns in Contemporary Taiwan

Passing the LightThe term “revival” has been used to describe the resurgent vitality of Buddhism in Taiwan. Particularly impressive is the quality and size of the nun’s order: Taiwanese nuns today are highly educated and greatly outnumber monks. Both characteristics are unprecedented in the history of Chinese Buddhism and are evident in the Incense Light community (Xiangguang). Passing the Light: The Incense Light Community and Buddhist Nuns in Contemporary Taiwan, by Chün-Fang Yü, is the first in-depth case study of the community, which was founded in 1974 and remains a small but influential order of highly educated nuns who dedicate themselves to teaching Buddhism to lay adults.

Topics in Contemporary Buddhism
May 2013 / ISBN 978-0-8248-3812-6 / $29.00 (PAPER)

UH Press Spring Cleaning Sale Ends This Thursday at Noon

Five Dollar Friday Sale

UH Press’ second annual Spring Cleaning Sale will end at noon (HST), this Thursday, April 25! There are only a few more days to save 20-80% on hundreds of titles currently in stock, while supplies last. (Click here for a list of sale titles.) Orders are online only and nonreturnable; discounts may not be combined.

UH Press Authors, please note: If you are planning to order any Spring Cleaning Sale titles, please contact our Business Office by phone (toll free) at 1-888-847-7377 or via email at uhpbooks@hawaii.edu before logging in and creating your order to ensure that your discount is calculated correctly. We apologize for the inconvenience; thank you for your understanding.

UH Press Spring Cleaning Sale 2013 Starts Today at Noon

Five Dollar Friday Sale

UH Press’ second annual Spring Cleaning Sale starts today at noon (HST)! For one week only, save 20-80% on hundreds of titles currently in stock, while supplies last. (Click here for a list of sale titles.) Spring cleaning ends noon (HST), Thursday, April 25. Orders are online only and nonreturnable; discounts may not be combined.

UH Press Authors, please note: If you are planning to order any Spring Cleaning Sale titles, please contact our Business Office by phone (toll free) at 1-888-847-7377 or via email at uhpbooks@hawaii.edu before logging in and creating your order to ensure that your discount is calculated correctly. We apologize for the inconvenience; thank you for your understanding.

UH Press Titles Long Listed for ICAS Book Prize

Two UH Press titles have been long listed for the 2013 ICAS (International Convention of Asia Scholars) Book Prize in the humanities and the social sciences. Twelve books in each area were chosen from a total of 250 Asian studies titles submitted by 60 publishers worldwide.

ICAS will announce the short list in early May. Winners will be announced during the ICAS Book Prize Awards Ceremony on June 25, 2013, in Macao.

Chinese Architecture and the Beaux-ArtsChinese Architecture and the Beaux-Arts, edited by Jeffrey W. Cody, Nancy S. Steinhardt, and Tony Akin

“[The] fascinating and under-appreciated cross-pollination of Eastern and Western architecture is thoroughly examined in [this] absorbing new book. . . . Although filled with handsome photos contemporary and historic, Chinese Architecture and the Beaux-Arts is no coffee-table book — this volume is a thoughtful and far-ranging account of international trends in architecture, which have been too little known in the U.S. It fills an important need and is certain to find its place in every serious library of architectural history.” —Traditional Building (2011)

Burning MoneyBurning Money: The Material Spirit of the Chinese Lifeworld, by C. Fred Blake

“Blake fully illustrates the common practice of burning paper money in the daily lives of many people throughout China, exploring the forces that have continued and transformed this old tradition from old times up to the present. His book is innovative and comprehensive in its interpretation of this common custom in China and will be welcomed by anyone interested in the living traditions and cultures of China.” —Asian Ethnology (71:2, 2012)

Save 20-80% during the UH Press Spring Cleaning Sale: April 18-25

Five Dollar Friday Sale

UH Press’ second annual Spring Cleaning Sale will kick off at noon (HST), Thursday, April 18! For one week only, save 20-80% on hundreds of titles currently in stock, while supplies last. (Click here for a list of sale titles.) Spring cleaning ends noon (HST), Thursday, April 25. Orders are online only and nonreturnable; discounts may not be combined.

UH Press Authors, please note: If you are planning to order any Spring Cleaning Sale titles, please contact our Business Office by phone (toll free) at 1-888-847-7377 or via email at uhpbooks@hawaii.edu before logging in and creating your order to ensure that your discount is calculated correctly. We apologize for the inconvenience; thank you for your understanding.

Five Dollar Friday Sale is April 12 / Five Books for $5 Each

Five Dollar Friday Sale

Check out our next Five Dollar Friday Sale this week Friday, April 12. From 8am to 4pm (HST), these titles will be available for $5 each at our website, while supplies last:

UH Press at the Association for Asian American Studies Annual Conference, April 17-20, Seattle

AAAS Annual ConferenceUniversity of Hawai‘i Press will be exhibiting at the Association for Asian American Studies Annual Conference, April 17-20, at the Westin Seattle Hotel in downtown Seattle.

Editor Masako Ikeda will be attending. Please visit us in the exhibit hall, where we will be offering a 20% discount and free shipping in the U.S. (Free shipping applies only to orders placed at the conference.)

See you in Seattle!