Update: Manoa, vol. 26, no. 1, Starry Island: New Writing from Singapore NY Launch Recap

It was a wet night, but the drizzle did not keep the crowd away from St. Mark’s Bookshop, now in hip new digs in the East Village. Organized by the team behind Singapore Literature Festival, the event was the New York launch of Starry Island: New Writing from Singapore. The launch, held under the auspices of Manhattan Lit Crawl, attracted many crawlers. … There was standing room only in the stylish space.

The anthology Starry Island features poetry, fiction and essays by 30 Singaporean writers and translators. It is edited by Frank Stewart and Fiona Sze-Lorrain, and published by the University of Hawai’i Press as part of Manoa’s series of international literature. Contributors include such bright lights as Philip Jeyaretnam, Ng Yi-sheng, Wena Poon, Alfian Sa’at, O Thiam Chin, Cyril Wong, Toh Hsien Min and Boey Kim Cheng. Wena Poon and Cyril Wong are also featured authors at the upcoming Singapore Literature Festival.

Complete archive for the Yearbook of the APCG now available in Project Muse

The Association of Pacific Coast Geographers and the University of Hawai’i Press are pleased to announce the complete archive of the journal is now available in Project Muse.

Yearbook of the Association of Pacific Coast Geographers: Vol. 1 (1935) – Vol. 76 (2014)

Founded in 1935, the APCG has a rich history of promoting geographical education and research. Its Yearbook includes abstracts of papers from its annual meetings, a selection of full-length peer-reviewed articles, and book reviews. Since 1952 the APCG has also been the Pacific Coast Regional Division (including Hawai‘i) of the Association of American Geographers. Individual subscription is by membership in the APCG.

The Yearbook has been published annually except for the years 1944-46; indexes appear in volumes 27, 35, 40, 49, 54, and 66.

Continue reading “Complete archive for the Yearbook of the APCG now available in Project Muse”

U.S.–Japan Women's Journal, no. 46 (2014)

Distributed for Jōsai International Center for the Promotion of Art and Science, Jōsai University

“Female Students Ruining the Nation”: The Debate over Coeducation in Postwar Japan
Julia C. Bullock, 3

On the Enunciative Boundary of Decolonizing Language: The Imagined Camaraderie of Poets Itō Hiromi and Theresa Hak Kyung Cha
Lee Friederich, 24

Reading the Bodies and Voices of Naichi Women in Japanese-Ruled Taiwan
Anne Sokolsky, 51

The Unprecedented Views of Wada Yoshiko: Reconfiguring Pleasure Work in Yūjo monogatari (1913)
Ann Marie L. Davis, 79

The Recollections of Tetsu: A Translation of Her Testimonial Narrative with Commentary
Tanya S. Maus, 101

Review of Japanese Culture and Society, vol. 25 (2013)

Distributed for Jōsai International Center for the Promotion of Art and Science, Jōsai University

Working Words: New Approaches to Japanese Studies

From the editors
Mizuta Noriko, Miya Elise Mizuta, Haga Kōichi, Natta Phisphumvidhi, v

ARTICLES

Working Words: New Approaches to Japanese Studies
Jordan Sand, Alan Tansman, Dennis Washburn, 1

Continue reading “Review of Japanese Culture and Society, vol. 25 (2013)”

Asian Theatre Journal, vol. 31, no. 2 (2014)

31_2_article_plate07f
The scholar Wang Shen (Huang Jun Cheng) is seduced by a nasty ghost disguised as a woman in Painted Face, a Cantonese opera scripted by Chua Soo Pong and performed by the Nanning Theatre Academy, China

Special Issue on Global Encounters in Southeast Asian Performing Arts

Guest Editor: Matthew Isaac Cohen with the assistance of Kirsten Brockman, Chua Soo Pong, Catherine Diamond, and William Peterson

 From the Editor, iii

Color Insert

ARTICLES

Introduction: Global Encounters in Southeast Asian Performing Arts
Matthew Isaac Cohen, 353

Long considered an isolated backwater of global cultural flows, a proud possessor of artistic traditions seemingly immune to international fashions, Southeast Asia is now coming into its own as a cultural powerhouse, refashioning old traditions and taking on new forms and ideas, with connections being rapidly formed between ASEAN member states in anticipation of the region’s Economic Community in 2015. This introduction positions this volume’s articles and the World Symposium on Global Encounters in Southeast Asian Performing Arts, where they were presented, in relation to the region’s cultural shifts. It argues that the critique and subversion of tradition is a sign of its vitality and future viability. A new paradigm is emerging in which Southeast Asian theatre and performance are not being treated as the West’s exotic “Other” or in relation to nation building but as a site drawing interested parties into a conversation regarding both local and global issues..
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The Contemporary Pacific, vol. 26, no. 2 (2014)

Global Sport in the Pacific

Guest edited by Fa’anofo Lisaclaire (Lisa) Uperesa and Tom Mountjoy

The Pacific Islands,  iv00_26.2covs1&4.pdf

About the Artist: Greg Semu, viii-553

ARTICLES

Global Sport in the Pacific: A Brief Overview
Fa‘anofo Lisaclaire (Lisa) Uperesa and Tom Mountjoy, 263

Abstract: In recent decades, sport has become an increasingly important path of mobility for Pacific Islander men, positioning them within interlinked local, state, regional, and global sporting economies. Players from the Pacific (particularly in rugby, rugby league, soccer, and gridiron football) have become icons through their sporting prowess, not only within Oceania but in Japan, the United States, and throughout Europe as well, as new markets have opened up through professional and semi-professional sport. Yet this movement continues to take place within the fragile context of the spread of globalized media, transnational capital investment, and development initiatives throughout the region. This introduction to global sport in the Pacific considers the complicated realities of and links between modern, highly commercialized team sports that have facilitated both the rise of global sport in the Pacific and the rise of the Pacific in global sport. Focused on key themes of agency and mobility; development and discipline; indigenization, embodiment, and ethno-nationalism; and polyvalent imaginaries, the contributions to this special issue explore how and why sporting practices have become closely linked to various economic, political, and social processes that shape possibilities for everyday life across the Pacific and beyond.
Keywords: sport, mobility, globalization, commoditization, ethnography

Continue reading “The Contemporary Pacific, vol. 26, no. 2 (2014)”

Asian Perspectives, vol. 52, no. 1 (2013)

Special Topic Articles: New Research on Old Museum Collections

ARTICLES

New Research on an Old Collection: Studies of the Philippine Expedition (“Guthe”) Collection of the Museum of Anthropology, University of Michigan
Carla M. Sinopoli, 1

This article introduces recent studies on an important collection of Southeast Asian archaeological materials curated by the Asian Division of the University of Michigan Museum of Anthropology. The Philippine Expedition or Guthe Collection derives from archaeological research conducted at more than 500 sites in the southern and central Philippines in the early part of the last century—from 1922 to 1925. The collection consists of some 13,000 objects from some of the earliest systematic archaeological research in Southeast Asia. For more than 80 years, scholars from the Philippines, China, Japan, Europe, and North America have visited the collection to study the materials and ask new questions about the Southeast Asian past. The articles here continue this trajectory by presenting recent research on early modern trade in blue-on-white porcelains; technological style and the classification of large stoneware dragon jars; the cultural context of cranial deformation; and a sourcing study of indigenous earthenware ceramics using instrumental neutron activation. In this article, I provide some background on the Philippine Expedition and the remarkable museum collection that it generated, as well as some of this research, which continues to mine new knowledge from this nearly century-old museum collection.
Keywords: Philippines, colonial archaeology, museum collections, Carl Guthe, Chinese porcelain, dragon jars, earthenware, cranial deformation, colonialism
Continue reading “Asian Perspectives, vol. 52, no. 1 (2013)”

Asian Perspectives, vol. 51, no. 2 (2012)

ARTICLES

Landscapes of Inequality?: A Critique of Monumental Hierarchy in the Mongolian Bronze Age
Joshua Wright, 139

Khirigsuurs are stone monuments of variable scale and complexity that dominate the archaeological landscape of the Mongolian Bronze Age. Though there are countless typical-sized monuments, there are a few very large structures suggesting that a chiefly hierarchy directed their construction. Using measurements of size and formal complexity to compare these mega-monuments and khirigsuurs within fully surveyed areas this article argues that these monuments are not primarily tombs built to represent the social hierarchy of early nomadic pastoralists. Instead, they are monumental places created for living communities to communicate their organization and enduring nature to others and themselves. This communication was essential for early pastoralist communities to become established and survive.
Keywords: Mongolia, Bronze Age, monuments, pastoralism, heterarchy, collective action
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Pacific Science, vol. 68, no. 2 (2014)

PS 68-2 coverBiology and Impacts of Pacific Island Invasive Species. 11. Rattus rattus, the Black Rat (Rodentia: Muridae)
Aaron B. Shiels, William C. Pitt, Robert T. Sugihara, and Gary W. Witmer, 145

Abstract: The black rat, roof rat, or ship rat (Rattus rattus L.) is among the most widespread invasive vertebrates on islands and continents, and it is nearly ubiquitous on Pacific islands from the equatorial tropics to approximately 55 degrees latitude north and south. Continue reading “Pacific Science, vol. 68, no. 2 (2014)”

A Starry Island Evening: Readings from Manoa, vol. 26, no. 1: New Writing from Singapore

Come join us for the New York launch of Starry Island: New Writing from Singapore. Published by the University of Hawai‘i Press, as part of the Manoa series of international literature, Starry Island features poetry, fiction and essays by 30 Singaporean writers and translators. Come hear an evening of dazzling work, featuring Jeremy Tiang, Amanda Lee Koe and Jee Leong Koh. The reading will be followed by a Q&A moderated by Paul Rozario-Falcone.

Details:

Saturday, September 13, 8:15–9:00 pm
St. Mark’s Bookshop, 136 E 3rd Street (between Ave 1 and A)

Language Documentation & Conservation, vol. 8 (2014)

Contributions to LD&C are now published upon acceptance. Below are all the contributions accepted for volume 8 (January–December 2014).

ARTICLES

Using TEI for an Endangered Language Lexical Resource: The Nxaʔamxcín Database-Dictionary Project
Ewa Czaykowska-Higgins, Martin D. Holmes, and Sarah M. Kell, pp. 1–37

This paper describes the evolution of a lexical resource project for Nxaʔamxcín, an endangered Salish language, from the project’s inception in the 1990s, based on legacy materials recorded in the 1960s and 1970s, to its current form as an online database that is transformable into various print and web-based formats for varying uses. We illustrate how we are using TEI P5 for data-encoding and archiving and show that TEI is a mature, reliable, flexible standard which is a valuable tool for lexical and morphological markup and for the production of lexical resources. Lexical resource creation, as is the case with language documentation and description more generally, benefits from portability and thus from conformance to standards (Bird and Simons 2003, Thieberger 2011). This paper therefore also discusses standards harmonization, focusing on our attempt to achieve interoperability in format and terminology between our database and standards proposed for LMF, RELISH and GOLD. We show that, while it is possible to achieve interoperability, ultimately it is difficult to do so convincingly, thus raising questions about what conformance to standards means in practice.
Continue reading “Language Documentation & Conservation, vol. 8 (2014)”