UH Press

Language Documentation & Conservation, vol. 8 (2014)

Posted on July 17, 2014 by alphabex

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

Posted on July 17, 2014 by alphabex

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

Posted on July 15, 2014 by alphabex

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)

Posted on July 10, 2014 by alphabex

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

Posted on June 10, 2014 by alphabex

The 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

Posted on May 8, 2014 by uhpressnews

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

From Fu Manchu to Kung Fu Panda: Images of China in American Film

Posted on May 7, 2014 by uhpressnews

Throughout the twentieth century, American filmmakers have embraced cinematic representations of China. Beginning with D.W. Griffith’s silent classic Broken Blossoms (1919) and ending with the computer-animated Kung Fu Panda (2008), author Naomi Greene explores China’s changing role in the American imagination. Taking viewers into zones that frequently resist logical expression or more orthodox historical investigation, the films suggest the welter of intense and conflicting impulses that have surrounded China. They make clear that China has often served as the very embodiment of “otherness”—a kind of yardstick or cloudy mirror of America itself. It is a mirror that reflects not only how Americans see the racial “other” but also a larger landscape of racial, sexual, and political perceptions that touch on the ways in which the nation envisions itself and its role in the world.

In the United States, the exceptional emotional charge that imbues images of China has tended to swing violently from positive to negative and back again: China has been loved and—as is generally the case today—feared. Using film to trace these dramatic fluctuations, From Fu Manchu to Kung Fu Panda relates them to the larger arc of historical and political change. Suggesting that filmic images both reflect and fuel broader social and cultural impulses, the author argues that they reveal a constant tension or dialectic between the “self” and the “other.” Significantly, with the important exception of films made by Chinese or Chinese American directors, the Chinese other is almost invariably portrayed in terms of the American self. Placed in a broader context, this ethnocentrism is related both to an ever-present sense of American exceptionalism and to a Manichean world view that perceives other countries as friends or enemies.

Greene analyzes a series of influential films, including classics like Shanghai Express (1932), The Bitter Tea of General Yen (1933), The Good Earth (1936), and Shanghai Gesture (1941); important cold war films such as The Manchurian Candidate (1962) and The Sand Pebbles (1966); and a range of contemporary films, including Chan is Missing (1982), The Wedding Banquet (1993), Kundun (1997), Mulan (1998), and Shanghai Noon (2000). The author’s consideration makes clear that while many stereotypes and racist images of the past have been largely banished from the screen, the political, cultural, and social impulses they embodied are still alive and well.

Written by Naomi Greene

2014 | 280 pages | 31 illustrations
Paper ISBN: 978-0-8248-3836-2 | $25.00
Cloth ISBN: 978-0-8248-3835-5 | $65.00

Critical Interventions Series

In Transit: The Formation of a Colonial East Asian Cultural Sphere

Posted on April 30, 2014 by uhpressnews

This work examines the creation of an East Asian cultural sphere by the Japanese imperial project in the first half of the twentieth century. It seeks to re-read the “Greater East Asian Co-prosperity Sphere” not as a mere political and ideological concept but as the potential site of a vibrant and productive space that accommodated transcultural interaction and transformation. By reorienting the focus of (post) colonial studies from the macro-narrative of political economy, military institutions, and socio-political dynamics, it uncovers a cultural and personal understanding of life within the Japanese imperial enterprise.

The negative impact of Japanese imperialism on both nations and societies has been amply demonstrated and cannot be denied, but In Transit focuses on the opportunities and unique experiences it afforded a number of extraordinary individuals to provide a fuller picture of Japanese colonial culture. By observing the empire—from Tokyo to remote Mongolia and colonial Taiwan, from the turn of the twentieth century to the postwar era—through the diverse perspectives of gender, the arts, and popular culture, it explores an area of colonial experience that straddles the public and the private, the national and the personal, thereby revealing a new aspect of the colonial condition and its postcolonial implications.

Written by Faye Yuan Kleeman

2014 | 320 pages | 10 illustrations
ISBN: 978-0-8248-3860-7 | $52.00 | Cloth

The World of East Asia Series

2014 Hawaii Book & Music Festival: UH Press Tent & Author Events

Posted on April 30, 2014 by UH Press

University of Hawai‘i Press will once again be among the local publishers and vendors exhibiting at the Hawai‘i Book and Music Festival taking place this weekend, May 3–4 on the Frank F. Fasi Civic Grounds next to Honolulu Hale. Admission and parking are free. Go to the festival website to download a detailed schedule of events and PDF of the map shown here, as well as the HBMF app.

Presentations with UH Press authors and events to look for:

• A series of panels with the editors and contributors to The Value of Hawai‘i 2: Ancestral Roots, Oceanic Visions (Saturday, 10am to 2pm)
• UC-Berkeley professor Patrick Kirch on his newest title, Kua‘āina Kahiko: Life and Land in Ancient Kahikinui, Maui (Saturday, 2pm). Dr. Kirch will also speak on his archaeological work at Kahikinui at Bishop Museum’s “Traditions of the Pacific” lecture series on Friday, May 2, 6:00–7:30pm.
• Anthropologist Carol MacLennan shares her book, Sovereign Sugar: Industry and Environment in Hawai‘i (Saturday, 2pm)
• Australians Andrew Warren and Chris Gibson launch their book, Surfing Places, Surfboard Makers, with a panel of board shapers (Saturday, 3pm). On Tuesday, May 6, noon to 1pm, they’ll be at UHM Saunders Hall 443 to present as part of the Spring Geography Lecture series.
• Maenette Ah Nee-Benham, Puakea Nogelmeier, and Jon Osorio from Hawai‘inuiākea School of Hawaiian Knowledge talk about the Hawai‘inuiākea series of books (Saturday, 3pm)
• Selected readings from MĀNOA: A Pacific Journal of International Writing, as it celebrates its 25th anniversary (Sunday, 1 pm)
• UHM English professor Gary Pak discusses and reads from his latest novel, Brothers under a Same Sky (Sunday 3pm)
• UHM history professor John Rosa examines the social issues in his book, Local Story: The Massie-Kahahawai Case and the Culture of History (Sunday, 4pm)
• Award-winning writer Tom Coffman (I Respectfully Dissent; The Island Edge of America) speaks on the panel, “How Hawai‘i Changed America” (Sunday, 3pm).

Featured distributed titles:

• North Kohala resident William S. Chillingworth presents his book of awe-inspiring photographs, ‘Io Lani: The Hawaiian Hawk, accompanied by chant by Nathan Napoka, whose essays appear in the book (Saturday, 12 noon). A book launch celebration takes place Thursday, May 1, 6:00–8:30pm at Native Books/Nā Mea Hawai‘i—everyone welcome.
• Veteran journalist Denby Fawcett unveils the story of an iconic landmark in Secrets of Diamond Head: A History and Trail Guide (Sunday, 12 noon). This is the first time copies of this hot-off-the-press book will be available for sale.
• Three Hawaiian culture kūpuna, Corinne Chun, Manu Boyd, and Thomas Boyd, will share appreciation of the newly annotated edition of Queen Lili‘uokalani‘s classic memoir, Hawaii’s Story by Hawaii’s Queen (Sunday, 1pm).
• A distinguished panel will discuss the themes in volume three of Japanese Eyes, American Heart (Sunday 4pm).

Authors will stop by after their presentations throughout the day, so follow them to the UH Press tent, located in the row of publishers along Honolulu Hale (left side of the map). We’ll have event-only discounts and will offer free shipping on orders placed at the booth for titles not available onsite.

See you there!

2014 Hawaii Book & Music Festival: UH Press Tent & Author Events

Posted on April 30, 2014 by UH Press

Presentations with UH Press authors and events to look for:

Featured distributed titles:

See you there!

Gender on the Edge: Transgender, Gay, and Other Pacific Islanders

Posted on April 29, 2014 by uhpressnews

Transgender identities and other forms of gender and sexuality that transcend the normative pose important questions about society, culture, politics, and history. They force us to question, for example, the forces that divide humanity into two gender categories and render them necessary, inevitable, and natural. The transgender also exposes a host of dynamics that, at first glance, have little to do with gender or sex, such as processes of power and domination; the complex relationship among agency, subjectivity, and structure; and the mutual constitution of the global and the local.

Particularly intriguing is the fact that gender and sexual diversity appear to be more prevalent in some regions of the world than in others. Gender on the Edge is an exploration of the ways in which non-normative gendering and sexuality in one such region, the Pacific Islands, are implicated in a wide range of socio-cultural dynamics that are at once local and global, historical, and contemporary. The authors recognize that different social configurations, cultural contexts, and historical trajectories generate diverse ways of being transgender across the societies of the region, but they also acknowledge that these differences are overlaid with commonalities and predictabilities.

Edited by Niko Besnier and Kalissa Alexeyeff

Not for sale in East and Southeast Asia, Australia, and New Zealand

Sovereign Sugar: Industry and Environment in Hawaii

Posted on April 28, 2014 by uhpressnews

Although little remains of Hawai`i’s plantation economy, the sugar industry’s past dominance has created the Hawai`i we see today. Many of the most pressing and controversial issues—urban and resort development, water rights, expansion of suburbs into agriculturally rich lands, pollution from herbicides, invasive species in native forests, an unsustainable economy—can be tied to Hawai`i’s industrial sugar history.

In Sovereign Sugar, Carol MacLennan unravels the tangled relationship between the sugar industry and Hawai`i’s cultural and natural landscapes. It is the first work to fully examine the complex tapestry of socioeconomic, political, and environmental forces that shaped sugar’s role in Hawai`i. While early Polynesian and European influences on island ecosystems started the process of biological change, plantation agriculture, with its voracious need for land and water, profoundly altered Hawai`i’s landscape.