Biography Vol. 42 No. 2 (2019)

Figure 8 from Philip Miletic’s essay “Playing a Life in Nina Freeman’s Automedia Game, Cibele.” Valtameri. The meter with the handshake in the upper right corner progresses as Nina (left) and Ichi (right) fight together.

Editor’s Note

ARTICLES IN THIS ISSUE:

Wounded Cities: Topographies of Self and Nation in Fay Afaf Kanafani’s Nadia, Captive of Hope
Hager Ben Driss

Playing a Life in Nina Freeman’s Automedia Game, Cibele
Philip Miletic

Reading, Writing, and Resistance in Audre Lorde’s Zami: A New Spelling of My Name
Sarita Cannon

“Bad” Biography Exposed!: A Critical Analysis of American Super-Pop
Oline Eaton

BOOK REVIEWS:

The Shadow in the Garden: A Biographer’s Tale, by James Atlas
Reviewed by Carl Rollyson

Experiments in Life-Writing: Intersections of Auto/Biography and Fiction, edited by Lucia Boldrini and Julia Novak
Reviewed by Alexandra Effe

American Autobiography after 9/11, by Megan Brown
Reviewed by Elisabeth Hedrick-Moser

Letter to My Father: A Memoir, by G. Thomas Couser
Reviewed by Emily Hipchen

The Selfie Generation: How Our Self Images Are Changing Our Notions of Privacy, Sex, Consent, and Culture, by Alicia Eler
Reviewed by Teresa Bruś

Invented Lives, Imagined Communities: The Biopic and American National Identity, edited by William H. Epstein and R. Barton Palmer
Reviewed by Eric M. Thau

An Artisan Intellectual: James Carter and the Rise of Modern Britain, 1792–1853, by Christopher Ferguson
Reviewed by Anna Clark

Autobiographical Writing in Latin America: Folds of the Self, by Sergio R. Franco
Reviewed by Francisco Brignole

Getting Personal: Teaching Personal Writing in the Digital Age, edited by Laura Gray-Rosendale
Reviewed by Madeleine Sorapure

The Art of Confession: The Performance of Self from Robert Lowell to Reality TV, by Christopher Grobe
Reviewed by Lynda Goldstein

A History of Irish Autobiography, edited by Liam Harte
Reviewed by Taura Napier

Victorians Undone: Tales of the Flesh in the Age of Decorum, by Kathryn Hughes
Reviewed by Alison Booth

Doña Teresa Confronts the Spanish Inquisition: A Seventeenth-Century New Mexican Drama, by Frances Levine
Reviewed by Jorge Ca.izares-Esguerra

Clio’s Lives: Biographies and Autobiographies of Historians, edited by Doug Munro and John G. Reid
Reviewed by Jaume Aurell

The Decolonial Mandela: Peace, Justice and the Politics of Life, edited by Sabelo Ndlovu-Gatsheni
Reviewed by Nick Mdika Tembo

Creating Identity in the Victorian Fictional Autobiography, by Heidi L. Pennington
Reviewed by Anne Reus

A History of Irish Working-Class Writing, edited by Michael Pierse
Reviewed by Muireann Leech

Canadian Graphic: Picturing Lives, edited by Candida Rifkind and Linda Warley
Reviewed by Roc.o G. Davis

Life? or Theatre? ( Leben? oder Theater?), by Charlotte Salomon
Reviewed by Julia Watson

The Phenomenology of Autobiography: Making it Real, by Arnaud Schmitt
Reviewed by Bettina Stumm

On the Arab-Jew, Palestine, and Other Displacements: Selected Writings, by Ella Shohat
Reviewed by Joyce Zonana

Bird-Bent Grass: A Memoir, in Pieces, by Kathleen Venema
Reviewed by G. Thomas Couser

Private Lives Made Public: The Invention of Biography in Early Modern England, by Andrea Walkden
Reviewed by Julie A. Eckerle


About the Journal

For over forty years, Biography: An Interdisciplinary Quarterly has explored the theoretical, generic, historical, and cultural dimensions of life writing.

Subscriptions

Single issue sales and annual subscriptions for both individuals and institutions available here.

Submissions

Unsolicited manuscripts between 2,500 to 7,500 words are welcome. Email inquiries and editorial correspondence to biograph@hawaii.edu.

China Review International Vol. 24 no. 3 (2017)

Volume 24 Number 3 of China Review International begins with one feature review and 20 more reviews of scholarly literature in Chinese Studies.

FEATURE REVIEW

The Persistence and Significance of Small Urban Spaces in China (reviewing Di Wang, The Teahouse under Socialism: The Decline and Renewal of Public Life in Chengdu, 1950–2000)
Reviewed by Tim Simpson

REVIEWS

Jennifer Altehenger, Legal Lessons: Popularizing Laws in the People’s Republic of China, 1949–1989
Reviewed by Ji Li

Emily Baum, The Invention of Madness: State, Society, and the Insane in Modern China
Reviewed by Hsuan-Ying Huang

Yanjie Bian, Guanxi: How China Works
Reviewed by Jack Barbalet

Steve Chan, Trust and Distrust in Sino-American Relations: Challenge and Opportunity 
Reviewed by Richard Hu

Patricia P. Chu, Where I have Never Been: Migration, Melancholia, and Memory in Asian American Narratives of Return 
Reviewed by Shawn Higgins

Melissa Dale, Inside the World of the Eunuch: A Social History of the Emperor’s Servants in Qing China
Reviewed by Ellen Soullière

Joshua Eisenman, Red China’s Green Revolution: Technological Innovation, Institutional Change, and Economic Development under the Commune
Reviewed by Zhun Xu

Luke Habberstad, Forming the Early Chinese Court: Rituals, Spaces, Roles 
Reviewed by Christopher F. Kim

Kurtis Hagen and Steve Coutinho, translated with commentary, Philosophers of the Warring States: A Sourcebook in Chinese Philosophy 
Reviewed by Robin R. Wang

Derek Hird and Geng Song, editors, The Cosmopolitan Dream: Transnational Chinese Masculinities in a Global Age
Reviewed by Yinni Peng

Ming-sho Ho, Challenging Beijing’s Mandate of Heaven: Taiwan’s Sunflower Movement and Hong Kong’s Umbrella Movement 
Reviewed by Kevin Wei Luo

Hsiao-ting Lin, Accidental State: Chiang Kai-shek, the United States, and the Making of Taiwan 
Reviewed by Syaru Shirley Lin

Thomas Maissen and Barbara Mittler, Why China Did Not Have a Renaissance – And Why That Matters: An Interdisciplinary Dialogue 
Reviewed by Luke Clossey

Yuan-ning Wen and others, edited by Christopher Rea, Imperfect Understanding: Intimate Portraits of Modern Chinese Celebrities 
Reviewed by David N. C. Hull

William T. Rowe, Speaking of Profit: Bao Shichen and Reform in Nineteenth-Century China 
Reviewed by Margherita Zanasi

Michael Szonyi, The Art of Being Governed: Everyday Politics in Late Imperial China 
Reviewed by Masato Hasegawa

Jinping Wang, In the Wake of the Mongols: The Making of a New Social Order in North China, 1200–1600  Reviewed by Carl Déry

Bing Wang, Classical Chinese Poetry in Singapore: Witnesses to Social and Cultural Transformations in the Chinese Community 
Reviewed by Jing-yi Qu

Pu Wang, The Translatability of Revolution: Guo Moruo and Twentieth-Century Chinese Culture 
Reviewed by Haosheng Yang

Yun Via, Down with Traitors: Justice and Nationalism in Wartime China 
Reviewed by Patrick Fuliang Shan

Works Received


UH Press to publish The Journal of Burma Studies in partnership with the Northern Illinois University, Center for Burma Studies

The University of Hawai‘i Press will publish and distribute The Journal of Burma Studies, one of the only scholarly peer-reviewed journals that focus exclusively on Burma/Myanmar. This new partnership with the Center for Burma Studies at Northern Illinois University begins with volume 23, 2019. The complete content of the journal is available online in Project MUSE.

UH Press Interim Director and Publisher, Joel Cosseboom, said: “We are pleased to partner with the NIU Center for Burma Studies on this important and unique journal.”

Edited by Catherine Raymond from Northern Illinois University, Center for Burma Studies and Jane M. Ferguson from Australian National University, The Journal of Burma Studies seeks to publish the best scholarly research focused on Burma/Myanmar and its minority and diasporic cultures from a variety of disciplines, ranging from art history and religious studies, to economics and law.

Dr. Ferguson looks forward to collaborating with UH Press to launch innovative and engaging issues of The Journal of Burma Studies. “University of Hawai‘i Press has consistently produced some of the most exciting publications on Southeast Asia as well as Burma/Myanmar Studies, so I am delighted that JBS will now work with them,” she said.

The journal is jointly sponsored by the Burma Studies Group and the Center for Burma Studies at Northern Illinois University. Published since 1997, the journal draws together research and critical reflection on Burma/Myanmar from scholars across Asia, North America and Europe.

Content is available on the Project MUSE platform.

Subscribe at: https://uhpress.hawaii.edu/title/jbs/

Submit your manuscript at: https://jbs.scholasticahq.com/for-authors

The Journal of Burma Studies joins UH Press’s extensive list of Asian and Southeast Asian studies journals including: Asian Perspectives, Korean Studies, Journal of the Southeast Asian Linguistics Society, Review of Japanese Culture and Society, and others.

About UH Press

 The University of Hawai‘i Press supports the mission of the university through the publication of books and journals of exceptional merit. It strives to advance knowledge through the dissemination of scholarship—new information, interpretations, methods of analysis—with a primary focus on Asian, Hawaiian, Pacific, Asian American and global studies. It also serves the public interest by providing high-quality books and resource materials of educational value on topics related to Hawai‘i’s people, culture, and natural environment. Through its publications the Press seeks to stimulate public debate and educate both within and outside the classroom.

About Northern Illinois University, Center for Burma Studies

 Founded in 1987, the Center collects and preserves information and artifacts of all kinds concerning the study of the peoples and cultures of Burma/Myanmar, and makes these materials broadly available for research and study.

The Center enjoys a unique relationship with the Burma Studies Foundation, which assures that all Burma/Myanmar-related items donated to the foundation will be offered to the center for inclusion and conservation within the university’s collections. Oversight by the foundation combines strong support of the center with lasting responsibility to the field of Burma/Myanmar studies.

The Center for Burma Studies is a non-political, non-degree granting, administrative and academic unit within Northern Illinois University. The Center has the following goals:

  • The maintenance and expansion of a comprehensive research library to sustain the field of Burma studies
  • The collection, care, and exhibition of the arts of Burma
  • The support and promotion of undergraduate and graduate teaching concerning Burma
  • The organization and hosting of self-supporting national and international conferences on Burma studies
  • The publication of relevant scholarship on Burma
  • The care and enhancement of archival resources such as photographs, music records, oral histories, personal papers, and field notes
  • The promotion of outreach activities to schools and communities
  • Encouraging the performance of Burmese arts
  • The securing of educational opportunities through scholarships, internships, and fellowships

Biography Vol. 42 No. 1 (2019)

From the front cover: He mau palapala aina, a me na niele e pili ana. Hookahi ke pai ana. Lahaina, 1840. Library of Congress, www.loc.gov/item/98687131/.

INTERNATIONAL YEAR IN REVIEW

The International Year in Review is a collection of short, site-specific essays on the year’s most influential publications in life writing. This year’s collection includes entries from Australia, Austria, Brazil, Canada, China, Colombia, Estonia, France, the Gulf Cooperation Council, India, Italy, Korea, Lebanon, Mexico, the Netherlands, Palestine, Poland, Portugal, Puerto Rico, Romania, South Africa, Spain, the UK, and two essays from the US, one on biography and one on memoir.

Contents

Editors’ Notes

Essays as Life Writing: The Year in Australia
Kylie Cardell

The Tercentenary of Maria Theresa (1717–1780): The Year in Austria and Germany
Tobias Heinrich

The Brazilian “I/Eye” at the IABA Global Conference: The Year in Brazil
Sergio da Silva Barcellos

Musicians’ Lives and National Identity: The Year in Canada
Alana Bell

Independent Biographical Documentaries: The Year in China
Chen Shen

Testigo de barbarie y resistencia: El año en Colombia
Gabriel Jaime Murillo-Arango

Life Writing’s Coming of Age: The Year in Estonia
Leena Kurvet-Käosaar and Maarja Hollo

The Ghosts of World War II: The Year in France
Joanny Moulin

Selves and Identities in the Arabian Gulf: The Year in the Gulf Cooperation Council
Szidonia Haragos

What the Stars Tell: The Year in India
Pramod K. Nayar

Biographies from the Alps to Capri: The Year in Italy
Ilaria Serra

Emergent Subjectivities: The Year in Korea
Heui-Yung Park

Archiving the Political, Narrating the Personal: The Year in Lebanon
Sleiman El Hajj

Politics and Violence: The Year in Mexico
Gerardo Necoechea Gracia

Mediators as the Subject of Dutch Biography: The Year in the Netherlands
Hans Renders and David Veltman

Voices against Erasure, Loss, and Dehumanization: The Year in Palestine
Adam Yaghi

A Time of Great Biographies—Gombrowicz and Herbert: The Year in Poland
Paweł Rodak

“No Coward Soul is Mine”: The Year in Portugal
Cláudia Faria

Auto/Biography After Disaster: The Year in Puerto Rico
Ricia Anne Chansky

Cultural Figures and the Biographical Turn: The Year in Romania
Ioana Luca

“Born-Frees” on South Africa’s Memory Traps: The Year in South Africa
Nick Mdika Tembo

Auto/Biography and Conflict: The Year in Spain
Ana Belén Martínez García

“The necessary disloyalty”: The Year in the UK
Tom Overton

#MeToo and the Memoir Boom: The Year in the US
Leigh Gilmore

American Biography: The Year in the US
Carl Rollyson

Annual Bibliography of Works about Life Writing, 2017–2018


About the Journal

For over forty years, Biography: An Interdisciplinary Quarterly has explored the theoretical, generic, historical, and cultural dimensions of life writing.

Subscriptions

Single issue sales and annual subscriptions for both individuals and institutions available here.

Submissions

Unsolicited manuscripts between 2,500 to 7,500 words are welcome. Email inquiries and editorial correspondence to biograph@hawaii.edu.

Celebrating Asian / Pacific American Heritage Month with Free Journal Content

We are proud to publish an extensive list of Pacific, Asian, and Southeast Asian studies journals. This Asian / Pacific American Heritage Month, explore and enjoy the following free journal content online:

Open Access Journals:

Asian/Pacific Island Nursing Journal

Journal of the Southeast Asian Linguistics Society

Language Documentation & Conservation

Palapala: a journal of Hawaiian language and literature

Free journal content online:

Asian Perspectives: The Journal of Archaeology for Asia and the Pacific (46#1, 2007)

Asian Theatre Journal: Official Journal of the Association for Asian Performance (23#1, 2006)

Azalea: Journal of Korean Literature and Culture (1, 2007)

Buddhist-Christian Studies: Official Journal of the Society for Buddhist-Christian Studies (27, 2007)

China Review International: Reviews of Scholarly Literature in Chinese Studies (15#1, 2008)

The Contemporary Pacific: A Journal of Island Affairs (15#1, 2003)

Cross-Currents: East Asian History and Culture Review (3#1, 2014)

The Hawaiian Journal of History (49, 2015)

Journal of Daoist Studies (8, 2015)

Journal of Korean Religions (6#1, 2015)

Korean Studies: A Multidisciplinary Journal on Korea and Koreans Abroad (29, 2005)

MĀNOA: A Pacific Journal of International Writing: New Writing from America, the Pacific, and Asia (19#1, 2007)

Oceanic Linguistics: Current Research on Languages of the Oceanic Area (50#2, 2011)

Pacific Science: Biological and Physical Sciences of the Pacific Region (71#4, 2017)

Philosophy East & West: A Quarterly of Comparative Philosophy (53#3, 2007)

Rapa Nui Journal: The journal of the Easter Island Foundation (30#2, 2016)

Review of Japanese Culture and Society (24, 2012)

U.S.–Japan Women’s Journal (45, 2013)

Asian Perspectives 58-1
Asian Theatre Journal 36-1 cover

Visit our website to learn more about our publications or to subscribe.

 

Dubious Gastronomy: The Cultural Politics of Eating Asian in the USA

Ku-Dubious GastronomyDubious Gastronomy is the inaugural title in the Food in Asia and the Pacific series—

California roll, Chinese take-out, American-made kimchi, dogmeat, monosodium glutamate, SPAM—all are examples of what Robert Ji-Song Ku calls “dubious” foods. Strongly associated with Asian and Asian American gastronomy, they are commonly understood as ersatz, depraved, or simply bad. In Dubious Gastronomy, Ku contends that these foods are viewed similarly to Asians in the United States, in that the Asian presence, be it culinary or corporeal, is often considered watered-down, counterfeit, or debased manifestations of the “real thing.” The American expression of Asianness is defined as doubly inauthentic—as insufficiently Asian and unreliably American when measured against a largely ideological if not entirely political standard of authentic Asia and America.

In critically considering the impure and hybridized with serious and often whimsical intent, he argues that while the notion of cultural authenticity is troubled, troubling, and troublesome, the apocryphal is not necessarily a bad thing: The dubious can be and is often quite delicious.

Exhibiting the Past Examines Exhibitionary Spaces in Postsocialist China

Denton-Exhibiting-the-PastIn Exhibiting the Past: Historical Memory and the Politics of Museums in Postsocialist China, Kirk Denton analyzes types of museums and exhibitionary spaces: from revolutionary history museums, military museums, and memorials to martyrs to museums dedicated to literature, ethnic minorities, and local history. He discusses red tourism—a state sponsored program developed in 2003 as a new form of patriotic education designed to make revolutionary history come alive—and urban planning exhibition halls, which project utopian visions of China’s future that are rooted in new conceptions of the past. Denton’s method is narratological in the sense that he analyzes the stories museums tell about the past and the political and ideological implications of those stories.

Focusing on “official” exhibitionary culture rather than alternative or counter memory, Denton reinserts the state back into the discussion of postsocialist culture because of its centrality to that culture and to show that state discourse in China is neither monolithic nor unchanging. The book considers the variety of ways state museums are responding to the dramatic social, technological, and cultural changes China has experienced over the past three decades.

Dilemmas of Adulthood: Japanese Women and the Nuances of Long-Term Resistance

Dilemmas of AdulthoodIn Dilemmas of Adulthood, Nancy Rosenberger investigates the nature of long-term resistance in a longitudinal study of more than fifty Japanese women over two decades. Between 25 and 35 years of age when first interviewed in 1993, the women represent a generation straddling the stable roles of post-war modernity and the risky but exciting possibilities of late modernity.

Rosenberger’s analysis establishes long-term resistance as a vital type of social change in late modernity where the sway of media, global ideas, and friends vies strongly with the influence of family, school, and work. Women are at the nexus of these contradictions, dissatisfied with post-war normative roles in family, work, and leisure and yet—in Japan as elsewhere—committed to a search for self that shifts uneasily between self-actualization and selfishness. The women’s rich narratives and conversations recount their ambivalent defiance of social norms and attempts to live diverse lives as acceptable adults. Dilemmas of Adulthood is essential for anyone wishing to understand how Japanese women have maneuvered their lives in the economic decline and pushed for individuation in the 1990s and 2000s.

November 2013, 224 pages, 2 illustrations
$24.00; ISBN: 978-0-8248-3696-2, Cloth
$50.00; ISBN: 978-0-8248-3887-4, Paper

Regionalizing Culture: The Political Economy of Japanese Popular Culture in Asia

Regionalizing CultureThis ambitious work provides a comprehensive, empirically grounded study of the production, circulation, and reception of Japanese popular culture in Asia. While many studies typically employ an interactive approach that focuses on the “meaning” of popular culture from an anthropological or cultural studies point of view, Regionalizing Culture emphasizes that the consumption side and contextual meaning of popular culture are not the only salient factors in accounting for its proliferation. The production side and organizational aspects are also important. In addition to presenting individual case studies, the book offers a big-picture view of the dramatic changes that have taken place in popular culture production and circulation in Asia over the past two decades.

“This highly informative book provides a comprehensive examination of the successful deployment of Japanese popular culture throughout East Asia. Surveying a broad spectrum of cultural products, including games, animation, and TV drama, it argues both that there is a Japanese model to popular cultural production and that that model of cultural commodification has contributed to the regionalization of East Asia. The use of extensive interviews with diverse stakeholders, including both industry personnel and audience, provides a fresh approach to the subject that will satisfy a growing interest in Japanese popular culture in university curriculum.” —Lisa Leung, Lingnan University, Hong Kong

October 2013, 256 pages, 13 illustrations
$42.00; ISBN: 978-0-8248-3694-8, Cloth

Upcoming Talk by L. Ayu Saraswati, 2013 NWSA Gloria Anzaldúa Book Prize Winner

Saraswati-SensingBeautyOn Friday, October 18, 12:30–2:00 pm, author L. Ayu Saraswati, assistant professor in women’s studies at UH-Manoa, will speak on the topic of her book, Seeing Beauty, Sensing Race in Transnational Indonesia. Dr. Saraswati recently received the 2013 National Women’s Studies Association Gloria Anzaldúa book prize for her work, which explores and analyzes Indonesia’s changing beauty ideals.

Sponsored by the UHM Women’s Studies Colloquium Series and the Center for Southeast Asian Studies, the free event will take place in Saunders Hall 244. University of Hawai‘i Bookstore will have books available for purchase. The public is invited to the talk, followed by a book signing and refreshments.

Colonialism, Maasina Rule, and the Origins of Malaitan Kastom

Colonialism, Maasina RuleColonialism, Maasina Rule, and the Origins of Malaitan Kastom is a political history of the island of Malaita in the British Solomon Islands Protectorate from 1927, when the last violent resistance to colonial rule was crushed, to 1953 and the inauguration of the island’s first representative political body, the Malaita Council. At the book’s heart is a political movement known as Maasina Rule, which dominated political affairs in the southeastern Solomons for many years after World War II. The movement’s ideology, kastom, was grounded in the determination that only Malaitans themselves could properly chart their future through application of Malaitan sensibilities and methods, free from British interference.

Kastom promoted a radical transformation of Malaitan lives by sweeping social engineering projects and alternative governing and legal structures. When the government tried to suppress Maasina Rule through force, its followers brought colonial administration on the island to a halt for several years through a labor strike and massive civil resistance actions that overflowed government prison camps. David Akin draws on extensive archival and field research to present a practice-based analysis of colonial officers’ interactions with Malaitans in the years leading up to and during Maasina Rule.

2013, 552 pages, 21 illustrations, 3 maps
$59.00; ISBN: 978-0-8248-3814-0, Cloth
Pacific Islands Monograph Series  (No. 26)

Sounding Out Heritage: Cultural Politics and the Social Practice of Quan Họ Folk Song in Northern Vietnam

Tang China in Multi-Polar Asia

Sounding Out Heritage explores the cultural politics that have shaped the recent history and practice of a unique style of folk song that originated in Bắc Ninh province, northern Vietnam. The book delves into the rich and complicated history of quan họ, showing the changes it has undergone over the last sixty years as it moved from village practice onto the professional stage. Interweaving an examination of folk music, cultural nationalism, and cultural heritage with an in-depth ethnographic account of the changing social practice of quan họ folk song, author Lauren Meeker presents a vivid and historically contextualized picture of the quan họ “soundscape.”

Village practitioners, ordinary people who love to sing quan họ, must now negotiate increased attention from those outside the village and their own designation as “living treasures.” Professional singers, with their different performance styles and representational practices, have been incorporated into the quan họ soundscape in an effort to highlight and popularize the culture of Bắc Ninh province in the national context. Sounding Out Heritage offers an in-depth account of the impact of cultural politics on the lives and practices of quan họ folk singers in Vietnam and shows compellingly how a tradition can mean many things to many people.

2013, 200 pages, 18 illustrations
$45.00 ISBN: 978-0-8248-3568-2, Cloth
Southeast Asia: Politics, Meaning, and Memory