stephchun

Race and Citizenship in Hawaii’s Japanese American Consumer Culture

Posted on August 13, 2010 by stephchun

In 1922 the U.S. Supreme Court declared Japanese immigrants ineligible for American citizenship because they were not “white,” dismissing the plaintiff’s appeal to skin tone. Unable to claim whiteness through naturalization laws, Japanese Americans in Hawai‘i developed their own racial currency to secure a prominent place in the Island’s postwar social hierarchy. Creating the Nisei Market: Race and Citizenship in Hawaii’s Japanese American Consumer Culture, by Shiho Imai, explores how different groups within Japanese American society (in particular the press and merchants) staked a claim to whiteness on the basis of hue and culture. Using Japanese- and English-language sources from the interwar years, it demonstrates how the meaning of whiteness evolved from mere physical distinctions to cultural markers of difference, increasingly articulated in material terms.

August 2010 / ISBN 978-0-8248-3332-9 / $38.00 (CLOTH)

The Adventures of Vela Wins Commonwealth Writers’ Prize

Posted on August 10, 2010 by stephchun

The Adventures of Vela, by Albert Wendt and published last fall by UH Press and Huia Publishers, was awarded the 2010 Commonwealth Writers’ Prize for the Southeast Asia/Pacific region.

At the award ceremony in April, Huia’s Robyn Bargh commented: “We were honored to . . . see Albert’s work recognized in this way. [The award] shows he is one of the worlds leading indigenous writers.” Among this year’s finalists were J. M. Coetzee, Peter Carey, and Thomas Keneally.

For more information, go to http://www.huia.co.nz/?sn=31&pg=557&st=1.

Making Transcendents Receives Award for Excellence

Posted on August 10, 2010 by stephchun

Making Transcendents: Ascetics and Social Memory in Early Medieval China, by Robert Ford Campany, has been selected to receive the American Academy of Religion’s Award for Excellence in the Study of Religion (historical studies category). The award will be presented during the 2010 AAR Annual Meeting in Atlanta, on October 30–November 1, 2010.

“If one day we arrive at a more profound understanding of the hidden agendas behind so much of Chinese writing, hagiographical as well as historical, Making Transcendents will undoubtedly have played a significant role in that process.” —Journal of Asian Studies

“Invaluable for anyone who wishes to understand the phenomenon of sanctity in general and the Chinese cult of xian in particular.” —Religious Studies Review

Rethinking Pattern and Mind in the Pacific

Posted on August 5, 2010 by stephchun

Building on historical and contemporary literature in anthropology and art theory, Lines That Connect: Rethinking Pattern and Mind in the Pacific, by Graeme Were, treats pattern as a material form of thought that provokes connections between disparate things through processes of resemblance, memory, and transformation. Pattern is constantly in a state of motion as it traverses spatial and temporal divides and acts as an endless source for innovation through its inherent transformability. Were argues that it is the ideas carried by pattern’s relational capacity that allows Pacific islanders to express their links to land, genealogy, and resources in the most economic ways. In doing so, his book is a timely and unique contribution to the analysis of pattern and decorative art in the Pacific amid growing debates in anthropology and art history.

August 2010 / ISBN 978-0-8248-3384-8 / $38.00 (CLOTH)

Inaugural Volume in the Race and Ethnicity in Hawai‘i Series

Posted on August 3, 2010 by stephchun

Haoles in Hawai‘i, by Judy Rohrer, strives to make sense of haole (white person/whiteness in Hawai‘i) and “the politics of haole” in current debates about race in Hawai‘i. Recognizing it as a form of American whiteness specific to Hawai‘i, the author argues that haole was forged and reforged over two centuries of colonization and needs to be understood in that context.

“Haoles in Hawai‘i is a terrific book. It handles complex and sensitive issues with knowledge, grace, and sophistication, while at the same time making them accessible to the general reader. Judy Rohrer knows this subject from a lifetime of experience and years of scholarly study. Although it is certain to appear on many college and university reading lists, this is a book that everyone should read. It will make Hawai‘i a better place.” —David E. Stannard, professor of American studies, University of Hawai‘i, and author of Honor Killing: How the Infamous “Massie Affair” Transformed Hawai‘i

August 2010 / ISBN 978-0-8248-3405-0 / $14.99 (PAPER)
Race and Ethnicity in Hawai‘i

Discourses of Ch’angguk

Posted on August 3, 2010 by stephchun

In Search of Korean Traditional Opera: Discourses of Ch’angguk, by Andrew Killick, is the first book on Korean opera in a language other than Korean. Ch’angguk is a form of musical theater that has developed over the last hundred years from the older narrative singing tradition of p’ansori. Killick examines the history and current practice of ch’angguk as an ongoing attempt to invent a traditional Korean opera form to compare with those of neighboring China and Japan. In this, the work addresses a growing interest within the fields of ethnomusicology and Asian studies in the adaptation of traditional arts to conditions in the modern world.

August 2010 / ISBN 978-0-8248-3290-2 / $48.00 (CLOTH)
A Study of the International Center for Korean Studies, Research Institute of Korean Studies, Korea University

Luo Guanzhong’s Comic Novel of the Ming Dynasty in Song Masquerade

Posted on August 3, 2010 by stephchun

The twenty-chapter novel The Three Sui Quash the Demons’ Revolt, is traditionally attributed to Luo Guanzhong (d. after 1364?), the alleged author of two of China’s most famous and beloved works of fiction, The Romance of the Three Kingdoms and The Water Margin. The Three Sui tells the story of the uprising of adherents of the Maitreya Buddha led by Wang Ze in 1047–1048. Wang Ze was eventually executed and all future heterodox activity outlawed. Paradoxically, The Three Sui treats the rebellion as an occasion for slapstick, baggy-pants humor in which facts are distorted and wildly mixed with fiction.

“Lois Fusek’s annotated translation of this neglected work of traditional Chinese vernacular fiction makes a significant contribution to our understanding and appreciation of that important body of work. Her work is of the very highest order and in draft form has invariably met with an enthusiastic response from students in my courses on Chinese literature at the University of Chicago. There is a wonderful lighthearted insouciance about this text that makes it virtually unique in the history of Chinese fiction, and it should attract not only students of the subject but anyone interested in narratology, the history of fiction, or a good read.” —David T. Roy, professor emeritus of Chinese literature at the University of Chicago and translator of the Chin P’ing Mei (titled The Plum in the Golden Vase)

August 2010 / ISBN 978-0-8248-3406-7 / $49.00 (CLOTH)

New Edition of Integrated Korean: Beginning 2

Posted on August 3, 2010 by stephchun

This is a thoroughly revised edition of Integrated Korean: Beginning 2, the second volume of the best-selling series developed collaboratively by leading classroom teachers and linguists of Korean. In response to comments from hundreds of students and instructors of the first edition, the new edition features a more attractive two-color design with all new photos and drawings and an additional lesson and vocabulary exercises. Lessons are now organized into two main sections, each containing a conversational text (with its own vocabulary list) and a reading passage. The accompanying workbook, newly written, provides students with extensive skill-using activities based on the skills learned in the main text.

Integrated Korean series
August 2010 / ISBN 978-0-8248-3515-6 / $28.00 (PAPER)

Audio files for both the textbook and workbook may be downloaded in MP3 format at http://www.kleartextbook.com.

Cries of Joy, Songs of Sorrow Now Available in Paperback

Posted on August 3, 2010 by stephchun

Since the mid-1990s, Taiwan’s unique brand of Mandopop (Mandarin Chinese–language pop music) has dictated the musical tastes of the mainland and the rest of Chinese-speaking Asia. Cries of Joy, Songs of Sorrow: Chinese Pop Music and Its Cultural Connotations, by Marc L. Moskowitz, explores Mandopop’s surprisingly complex cultural implications in Taiwan and the PRC, where it has established new gender roles, created a vocabulary to express individualism, and introduced transnational culture to a country that had closed its doors to the world for twenty years.

August 2010 / ISBN 978-0-8248-3422-7 / $24.00 (PAPER)

Hart Wood Authors Presentation at Reed Space HNL

Posted on July 22, 2010 by stephchun

Don Hibbard and Glenn Mason, coauthors of Hart Wood: Architectural Regionalism in Hawai‘i, will give a presentation and discuss their work on the book on Tuesday, August 3, at 6:30 pm, at the Waikiki Parc Hotel. Books will be available for purchase and signing after the presentation. Free and open to the public, the talk is part of Interisland Terminal’s Reed Space HNL events. Free validated parking is available for Reed Space attendees.

Victoria Kneubuhl Thinking Out Loud

Posted on July 20, 2010 by stephchun

Victoria Kneubuhl, author of Murder Casts a Shadow and Hawai‘i Nei: Island Plays, will be a guest on the Japanese Cultural Center’s Thinking Out Loud: Talking Issues, Taking Action (KZOO-AM 1210), Monday, July 26, 6:30-7:30 pm.

Kneubuhl is a winner of the Hawai‘i Literary Arts Council’s Award for Literature. Her plays have been performed in Hawai‘i and elsewhere in the Pacific, the continental U.S., Britain, and Asia. She is currently the writer and co-producer for the television series Biography Hawaii.

New Book Blog Hosts Updates and Discussion

Posted on July 20, 2010 by stephchun

The Value of Hawai‘i Blog is born!

Go to http://thevalueofhawaii.wordpress.com/ for the latest information and to join community discussion events on contemporary Hawai‘i issues.

Coeditors Craig Howes and Jon Osorio will be guests on Hawai‘i Public Radio’s (KIPO 89.3 FM) Town Square, hosted by Beth-Ann Kozlovich, Thursday, July 22, 5-6 pm. They will also be “talking story” on the Japanese Cultural Center’s Thinking Out Loud: Talking Issues, Taking Action (KZOO-AM 1210), Monday, August 30, 6:30-7:30 pm.