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

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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..
Continue reading “Asian Theatre Journal, vol. 31, no. 2 (2014)”

The Contemporary Pacific, vol. 26, no. 2 (2014)

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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)

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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)

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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
Continue reading “Asian Perspectives, vol. 51, no. 2 (2012)”

Pacific Science, vol. 68, no. 2 (2014)

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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

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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)

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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)”

Korean Studies, vol. 37 (2013): Urban Cultural Landscapes of Colonial Korea, 1920s–1930s

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SPECIAL ISSUE: URBAN CULTURAL LANDSCAPES OF COLONIAL KOREA, 1920s–1930s

Guest Editor: Yung-Hee Kim

Guest Editor’s Introduction
Yung-Hee Kim, 1

This special issue of Korean Studies includes selected articles originally presented as papers at the ‘‘Tapestry of Modernity: Urban Cultural Landscapes of Colonial Korea, 1920s–1930s: An International Interdisciplinary Conference’’ held at the Center for Korean Studies, University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa, February 16–17, 2012. The conference was part of the Center’s project to commemorate its fortieth anniversary.
Continue reading “Korean Studies, vol. 37 (2013): Urban Cultural Landscapes of Colonial Korea, 1920s–1930s”

Asian Theatre Journal, vol. 31, no. 1 (2014)

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The character of Tokio, the son in Yakiniku Dragon, acts as narrator.
The character of Tokio, the son in Yakiniku Dragon, acts as narrator. (Photo: Courtesy the Japan National Theatre)

From the Editor, v

Color Insert follows page 152

IN MEMORIAM

Beate Sirota Gordon: Producing Performance at the Asia Society
Kathy Foley, 1

Beate Sirota Gordon (1923–2012) of the Asia Society became a major producer, promoting Japanese and Asian performance in New York and across the United States from the 1950s through the 1990s. Her work contributed to education about Asia in the United States, garnered support for Asian artists both in their home country and in global venues, contributed to intercultural explorations in avant garde circles, and was a contributor to cultural diplomacy through performance in the Cold War era.
Continue reading “Asian Theatre Journal, vol. 31, no. 1 (2014)”

Cross-Currents: East Asian History and Culture Review, vol. 3, no. 1 (2014)

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ARTICLES

The Globalization of K-pop: Local and Transnational Articulations of South Korean Popular Music

Editor’s Introduction
Guest Editor John Lie (University of California, Berkeley), 1

The global pop-music sensation of 2012 was Psy’s “Gangnam Style.” I am not sure if imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, but the sheer proliferation of downloads and impersonations, copycat videos and parodic performances—the very constitution of virality—established K-pop (South Korean popular music) as a global pop culture phenomenon. … It is one thing to acknowledge the immense popularity of “Gangnam Style,” but would it be wise to see this as a harbinger of a larger phenomenon—namely, the globalization of South Korean popular culture?
Continue reading “Cross-Currents: East Asian History and Culture Review, vol. 3, no. 1 (2014)”

Coming Summer 2014: Manoa, vol. 26, no. 1, Starry Island: New Writing from Singapore

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MA 26-1 cover art_for blogThe summer 2014 issue of Manoa, Starry Island: New Writing from Singapore, features work by over two dozen writers and translators. Images in the issue come from several sources: the British Library, National Archives of Singapore, National Gallery of Australia, National Library of Singapore, and contemporary photographers Nina Papiorek, Salvador Manaois III, Peter Marlow, and Stuart Franklin. Fiona Sze-Lorrain serves as guest editor.

Kuaaina Kahiko: Life and Land in Ancient Kahikinui, Maui

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In early Hawai‘i, kua‘āina were the hinterlands inhabited by nā kua‘āina, or country folk. Often these were dry, less desirable areas where much skill and hard work were required to wrest a living from the lava landscapes. The ancient district of Kahikinui in southeast Maui is such a kua‘āina and remains one of the largest tracts of undeveloped land in the islands. Named after Tahiti Nui in the Polynesian homeland, its thousands of pristine acres house a treasure trove of archaeological ruins—witnesses to the generations of Hawaiians who made this land their home before it was abandoned in the late nineteenth century.

Kua‘āina Kahiko follows kama‘āina archaeologist Patrick Vinton Kirch on a seventeen-year-long research odyssey to rediscover the ancient patterns of life and land in Kahikinui. Through painstaking archaeological survey and detailed excavations, Kirch and his students uncovered thousands of previously undocumented ruins of houses, trails, agricultural fields, shrines, and temples. Kirch describes how, beginning in the early fifteenth century, Native Hawaiians began to permanently inhabit the rocky lands along the vast southern slope of Haleakalā. Eventually these planters transformed Kahikinui into what has been called the greatest continuous zone of dryland planting in the Hawaiian Islands. He relates other fascinating aspects of life in ancient Kahikinui, such as the capture and use of winter rains to create small wet-farming zones, and decodes the complex system of heiau, showing how the orientations of different temple sites provide clues to the gods to whom they were dedicated. 

Kirch examines the sweeping changes that transformed Kahikinui after European contact, including how some maka’āinana families fell victim to unscrupulous land agents. But also woven throughout the book is the saga of Ka ‘Ohana o Kahikinui, a grass-roots group of Native Hawaiians who successfully struggled to regain access to these Hawaiian lands. Rich with ancedotes of Kirch’s personal experiences over years of field research, Kua’āina Kahiko takes the reader into the little-known world of the ancient kua‘āina.

Written by Patrick Vinton Kirch

2014 | 336 pages | 80 illustrations, 5 maps
ISBN: 978-0-8248-3955-0 | $49.00 | Cloth

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