Author: UH Press

The Contemporary Pacific, vol. 13, no. 2 (2001): Native Pacific Cultural Studies

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SPECIAL ISSUE: Native Pacific Cultural Studies on the Edge
guest-edited by Vicente M Diaz and J Kehaulani Kauanui

ARTICLES

Native Pacific Cultural Studies on the Edge, p. 315
Vicente M Diaz and J Kehaulani Kauanui

This special issue features work by Native and nonnative Pacific scholars that seeks to triangulate the arenas of “native studies,” “Pacific studies,” and “cultural studies.” … These invited works were presented at a two-day symposium, “Native Pacific Cultural Studies on the Edge,” held on 11–12 February 2000 at the University of California at Santa Cruz. The event was sponsored by the university’s Center for Cultural Studies with funding support from a University of California Pacific Rim Research Grant. As joint organizers and conveners of the symposium, we each presented papers as well. One final participant, Donna Matahaere of Otago University, Dunedin, New Zealand, unfortunately could not attend. In addition to the papers presented here, the symposium included critical respondents and roundtable participants: Christopher Connery, April Henderson, Adria Lyn Imada, Glen Masato Mimura, Michael Perez, Joakim Peter, John Chock Rosa, and Dana Takagi (see a line-up of the program in the appendix). The event also featured an art installation by Angelina Naidu and Teresia Teaiwa—”Postcards from the Edge”—and an exhibit by Jewel Castro, “Daughters of Salamasina.”

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China Review International, vol. 8, no. 1 (2001)

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CRI initialThis issue is available online at Project Muse.

FEATURES

“Like Kissing through a Handkerchief”: Traduttore Traditore (a review of Lydia Liu, editor, Tokens of Exchange: The Problem of Translation in Global Circulations)
Reviewed by Joshua A. Fogel, 1

Göran Malmqvist, Bernhard Karlgren: Ett Forskarporträtt
Reviewed by Lothar von Falkenhausen, 15

Second-Language Studies and College-level Chinese Language Textbooks in the U.S.
By Cynthia Y. Ning, 34

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Korean Studies, vol. 25, no. 1 (2001)

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ARTICLES

Military Examinations in Late Chosôn, 1700–1863: Elite Substratification and Non-Elite Accommodation
Eugene Y. Park, 1

In late Chosôn, increasing domination of the civil branch of the central government by capital civil official families led to the political marginalization of other yangban families. Turning to military examinations, some in Seoul reproduced themselves as semihereditary military lines that enjoyed the powerful civil officials’ patronage and government support. Many among the provincial elite also chose military careers in the course of their exclusion from central politics. Possible weakening of their local political hegemony, however, may have made the elite status more purely ascriptive in nature, and the military examination degree seems to have lost its appeal. Despite the differentiation, the central civil official, central military official, and local elite families continued to constitute one yangban status group. This elite substratification process enabled the capital military men to retain their membership in yangban society, take pride in their profession, and loyally defend the existing order. Meanwhile, commoners began to participate en masse in the military examinations, but the degree merely helped to satisfy their aspirations for higher social status without actually allowing their political participation. By facilitating elite substratification and non-elite accommodation, the military examinations in late Chosôn appear to have promoted social stability and dynastic longevity.

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Asian Theatre Journal, vol. 18, no. 1 (2001): On Puppetry

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SPECIAL ISSUE ON PUPPETRY, Guest Editor, Kathy Foley

Editor’s Note, p. iii

PLAY

The Origin of Kala: A Sundanese Wayang Golek Purwa Play by Abah Sunarya and Gamelan Giri Harja I
Translated and introduced by Kathy Foley, p. 1

These scenes from a performance done on December 24, 1978, at Cibintinu near Bandung in West Java were presented in the style of wayang golek purwa–a wooden rod-puppet theatre telling Ramayana and Mahabharata stories that is popular among the Sundanese-speakers who live in this region of Indonesia. The dalang (puppetmaster), Abah Sunarya, was at that time one of the foremost popular performers in West Java. In this genre intricately carved doll puppets dance to the music of the gamelan orchestra on a temporary stage set up in front of the house of the person who has hired the troupe. The dalang does the narration, singing, and dialogue with occasional comments or questions added by the musicians, especially the lurah sekar (head musician). The puppeteer and troupe perform on a raised stage; in front of it is a banana log placed horizontally to form the playboard where the puppets present the play. The play is at once an entertainment and an exorcism. As the performance progresses, the puppets on stage all have their counterparts in the ritual. But rather than a play within a play, this is a play within a ceremony where the script and ritual action intersect at key points. While the mantras are efficacious regardless of the entertainment or educational value, there is no doubt that being able to point out parallels between the mythic monsters and members of the Suharto family won this performer the rapt attention of his audience. Perhaps it was his renown as a dalang who did exorcisms that prevented the censors from stopping his performances.

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