Category: Asia

Latest in KLEAR Integrated Korean text series

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A Resource for Korean Grammar InstructionThis book accompanies KLEAR’s Integrated Korean text series. It contains nearly 1,000 activities on 160 of the most commonly used grammar patterns for beginning and intermediate levels, all sorted by alphabetical order, as well as topics for comprehensive grammar instruction using an interactive approach. Nearly 40 practical activities and lesson ideas for advanced levels are also included. These activities are sorted by skill orientation (e.g., speaking-oriented, reading-oriented, etc.), which will allow them to be used with any Korean-language textbook published in the U.S., Korea, or elsewhere.

A Resource for Korean Grammar Instruction is divided into two main parts: 1) activities by forms for beginning and intermediate levels; and 2) activities by skill for more advanced levels. The first part includes greetings and Hangul, sentence endings, clausal endings, other suffixes, particles, and more. The second covers vocabulary-oriented activities, speaking/listening activities, reading-oriented activities, and writing-oriented activities. Supplementary instructional materials such as Power Point presentations, video clips, photos and images, and sample quizzes are available free for download at www.kleartextbook.com under the Instructor section after a simple login. Instructors who teach Korean as a foreign language in colleges, secondary schools, and community schools and even as private tutors will welcome this easy-to-use book.

2013, 440 pages; ISBN: 978-0-8248-3816-4, Cloth $55.00
KLEAR Textbooks in Korean Language

The Aesthetics of Strangeness: Eccentricity and Madness in Early Modern Japan

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The Aesthetics of Strangeness: Eccentricity and Madness in Early Modern JapanEccentric artists are “the vagaries of humanity” that inhabit the deviant underside of Japanese society: This was the conclusion drawn by pre–World War II commentators on most early modern Japanese artists. Postwar scholarship, as it searched for evidence of Japan’s modern roots, concluded the opposite: The eccentric, mad, and strange are moral exemplars, paragons of virtue, and shining hallmarks of modern consciousness. In recent years, the pendulum has swung again, this time in favor of viewing these oddballs as failures and dropouts without lasting cultural significance.

This work corrects the disciplinary (and exclusionary) nature of such interpretations by reconsidering the sudden and dramatic emergence of aesthetic eccentricity during the Edo period (1600–1868). A study of impressive historical and disciplinary breadth, The Aesthetics of Strangeness also makes extensive use of primary sources, many previously overlooked in existing English scholarship. Its coverage of the entire Edo period and engagement with both Chinese and native Japanese traditions reinterprets Edo-period tastes and perceptions of normalcy. By wedding art history to intellectual history, literature, aesthetics, and cultural practice, W. Puck Brecher strives for a broadly interdisciplinary perspective on this topic. The Aesthetics of Strangeness demystifies this emergent paradigm by illuminating the conditions and tensions under which certain rubrics of strangeness— ki and kyō particularly—were appointed as aesthetic criteria. Its revision of early modern Japanese culture constitutes an important contribution to the field.

2013, 272 pages, 26 illustrations; ISBN: 978-0-8248-3666-5, Cloth $42.00

The Buddhist Schools of the Small Vehicle

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The Buddhist Schools of the Small VehicleAndré Bareau (1921–1993) was one of the foremost scholars of Buddhism of his generation. Dissatisfied with piecemeal and contradictory information on early Buddhist schools, he set out to construct a coherent and authoritative overview, which has remained the standard treatment in the field since its appearance in 1955. This book offers a close description and analysis of Bareau’s findings on the history, geographical whereabouts, and doctrinal positions of early schools of Buddhism. The Buddhist Schools of the Small Vehicle will be used by students and scholars as a primary resource and starting point for any discussion on the history and doctrines of early Buddhism and Buddhist schools. This seminal work is translated by Sara Boin-Webb, who across a career of four decades translated into English some of the most important French-language works of Buddhist scholarship.

“Bareau’s Les sectes bouddhiques was—and remains—a highly influential contribution to the study of Indian Buddhism in general, and of the doctrinal debates of the various schools or sects of Indian Buddhism in particular. More than half a century after its original publication, Les sectes remains a standard reference work. . . . This book will stimulate research for years to come. . . . A reliable English translation of this work, then, is a welcome and timely contribution. It will be of interest to upper-level undergraduate students in Asian religions, Asian history, and philosophy. It will be required reading for graduate students in Asian religions.” —Shayne Clarke, McMaster University

Published in association with The Buddhist Society Trust
July 2013 / ISBN 978-0-8248-3566-8 / $65.00 (Cloth)

The Environmental Context of a Global Power

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Japan at Nature's EdgeJapan at Nature’s Edge: The Environmental Context of a Global Power, edited by Ian Jared Miller, Julia Adeney Thomas, and Brett L. Walker, is a timely collection of essays that explores the relationship between Japan’s history, culture, and physical environment. It greatly expands the focus of previous work on Japanese modernization by examining Japan’s role in global environmental transformation and how Japanese ideas have shaped bodies and landscapes over the centuries.

“At last, a multi-faceted environmental history of Japan! Ranging from a Tokugawa national biological survey to the aftermath of the Fukushima nuclear disaster, this fascinating volume is now the place to start for anyone interested in the subject.” —J. R. McNeill, Georgetown University

July 2013 / ISBN 978-0-8248-3876-8 / $30.00 (PAPER)

Two New Titles in the Spatial Habitus Series

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Architecture and UrbanismAlthough modernization in Korea started more than a century later than in the West, it has worked as a prominent ideology throughout the past century—in particular it has brought radical changes in Korean architecture and cities. Traditional structures and ways of life have been thoroughly uprooted in modernity’s continuous negation of the past. Architecture and Urbanism in Modern Korea, by Inha Jung, presents a comprehensive overview of architectural development and urbanization in Korea within the broad framework of modernization.

“Inha Jung has written a fine volume, full of very well informed accounts of events, insightful analyses of projects, and nuanced ideas about the unique flow of architectural and urban modernization in Korea. Jung is a mature scholar who delivers a well-balanced and original account that is both ambitious in scope and delivered in unencumbered and economical prose, with lavish documentation should one want to go further into particular aspects. It is a book that can easily be read and appreciated by people outside the field, in, say, cultural or Korean studies, as well as by those without disciplinary affiliation who are simply interested in Korea.” —Peter G. Rowe, Raymond Garbe Professor of Architecture and Urban Design, Harvard University

July 2013
ISBN 978-0-8248-3585-9 / $42.00 (CLOTH)

China's Contested CapitalWhen the Chinese Nationalist Party nominally reunified the country in 1928, Chiang Kai-shek and other party leaders insisted that Nanjing was better suited than Beijing to serve as its capital. For the next decade, until the Japanese invasion in 1937, Nanjing was the “model capital” of Nationalist China, the center of not just a new regime, but also a new modern outlook in a China destined to reclaim its place at the forefront of nations. Interesting parallels between China’s recent rise under the Post-Mao Chinese Communist Party and the Nationalist era have brought increasing scholarly attention to the Nanjing Decade (1927–1937); however, study of Nanjing itself has been neglected. In China’s Contested Capital: Architecture, Ritual, and Response in Nanjing, Charles Musgrove brings the city back into the discussion of China’s modern development, focusing on how it was transformed from a factional capital with only regional influence into a symbol of nationhood—a city where newly forming ideals of citizenship were celebrated and contested on its streets and at its monuments.

“China’s Contested Capital provides a nuanced, holistic view of the political, spatial, and social dimensions of Nanjing as the Guomindang capital. The grandiose plans for the governmental complex and the strikingly novel architecture of individual buildings aimed to promote Nanjing, Sun Yat-sen’s ‘Three Principles of the People,’ and the ROC’s governmental structure as modernist templates to the rest of the world. Musgrove’s chronicle of the optimism that propelled the city’s transformation and its eventual disappointment allows us to apprehend as never before the lively drama of Nanjing urban space.” —Peter J. Carroll, Wayne V. Jones Research Professor in History, Northwestern University

July 2013
ISBN 978-0-8248-3628-3 / $49.00 (CLOTH)

Spatial Habitus: Making and Meaning in Asia’s Architecture
Published in association with Hong Kong University Press

New in the Nanzan Library of Asian Religion and Culture

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Nothingness and DesireThe six lectures that make up this book were delivered in March 2011 at London University’s School of Oriental and Asian Studies as the Jordan Lectures on Comparative Religion. They revolve around the intersection of two ideas, nothingness and desire, as they apply to a re-examination of the questions of self, God, morality, property, and the East-West philosophical divide.

“Many readers already know Jim Heisig through his ground-breaking critical studies and translations of Japanese philosophy. Others admire him for his efforts at interreligious dialogue and his personal activities related to global justice, education for the disenfranchised, and ecological sustainability. In this book, Heisig engages his extraordinary grasp of philosophical resources, eastern and western, Buddhist and Christian, to address the global crises we face today.” —Thomas P. Kasulis, The Ohio State University

Nanzan Library of Asian Religion and Culture
July 2013
ISBN 978-0-8248-3885-0 / $49.00 (CLOTH)
ISBN 978-0-8248-3886-7 / $25.00 (PAPER)

Stories of Time and Space in Japanese Modernist Fiction, 1911-1932

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Three-Dimensional ReadingA 29th-century dystopian society seen through the eyes of a mutant-cum-romantic poet; a post-impressionist landscape of orbs and cubes experienced by a wandering underdog; an imaginary sick room generated entirely from sounds reaching the ears of an invalid: These and other haunting re-presentations of time and space constitute the Japanese modernist landscape depicted in Three-Dimensional Reading: Stories of Time and Space in Japanese Modernist Fiction, 1911-1932, edited by Angela Yiu.

“This book makes an important contribution to our understanding of Japanese modernism. The translations, each with a helpful and thought-provoking introduction, have been skillfully chosen to offer fresh insights on canonical writers or contribute to our understanding of lesser-known authors. All of the stories are interesting, and several are truly remarkable. I highly recommend the volume for both Asian and comparative literature programs.” —William Gardner, Swarthmore College

July 2013 / ISBN 978-0-8248-3801-0 / $25.00 (PAPER)

New in the Hawaii Studies on Korea Series

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Non-Traditional Security IssuesIn the wake of political succession to Kim Jung Un, the issue of non-traditional security (NTS) is increasingly important. From the lasting effects of the famine of the 1990s to continued food shortages and the growing marketization of North Korean society, the Pyongyang regime is facing diverse and unprecedented challenges. Non-Traditional Security Issues in North Korea, edited by Kyung-Ae Park, offers cutting-edge analyses of emerging North Korean NTS issues by the world’s leading specialists in the field. It looks at these issues and their effects at the local, regional, and international level, as well as examining the international community’s efforts to promote an NTS approach to North Korea. More specifically, the volume addresses the traditional and non-traditional security paradigms, energy security, gender security, transnational organized crime, the internal and external dimensions of North Korea’s food security, the “Responsibility to Protect,” refugee issues and international law, and the role of NGOs in promoting NTS in North Korea.

Hawai‘i Studies on Korea
July 2013 / ISBN 978-0-8248-3739-6 / $54.00 (CLOTH)

Chinese Modernity and Global Biopolitics Book Review Seminar

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Chinese ModernitySheldon Lu will be participating in a book review seminar of his recent book Chinese Modernity and Global Biopolitics: Studies in Literature and Visual Culture, at City University of Hong Kong on Friday, June 28, 4:30-6:30 pm. For more information, go to: http://ctl.cityu.edu.hk/NewsCentre/f_usr/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=1356&FORUM_ID=8&CAT_ID=1&FORUM_TITLE=Upcoming+Events.

Professor Lu is also the editor (with Emilie Yueh-yu Yeh) of Chinese-Language Film: Historiography, Poetics, Politics and Transnational Chinese Cinemas: Identity, Nationhood, Gender.

UH Press Titles Make the 2013 ICAS Book Prize Short List

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Two UH Press titles have been short listed for the 2013 ICAS (International Convention of Asia Scholars) Book Prize in the humanities and the social sciences. Winners will be announced during the ICAS Book Prize Awards Ceremony on June 25, 2013, in Macao. Press director Michael Duckworth, marketing manager Colins Kawai, and acquisitions editor Pamela Kelley will be attending this year’s meeting.

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)

Faking It in China – Original Copies at the NYR Blog

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Original CopiesWhat drives China’s obsession with foreign styles? In a New York Review of Books blog post, “Faking It in China,” Ian Johnson provides some answers in his discussion of Bianca Bosker’s Original Copies: Architectural Mimicry in Contemporary China:

“In her fascinating new book . . . Bosker focuses on the suburbs for the upper class that began to be built in the late 1990s, following the privatization of real estate. These are not just individual buildings but entire streetscapes, with cobblestone alleys, faux churches (often used as concert halls), towers, and landscaping designed to reproduce the feel of European and North American cities. . . . Original Copies is filled with analysis about why these developments flourish.”

Original Copies is part of the Spatial Habitus: Making and Meaning in Asia’s Architecture series and is
published in association with Hong Kong University Press.

For more on China’s architectural mimicry:
Copycat Architects in China Take Aim at the Stars: http://www.spiegel.de/international/zeitgeist/pirated-copy-of-design-by-star-architect-hadid-being-built-in-china-a-874390.html
China’s Copycat Cities: http://uhpress.wordpress.com/2012/12/03/foreign-policy-article-on-chinas-copycat-cities/

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