Despite the existence of about a thousand ethnolinguistic groups in Southeast Asia, very few historians of the region have engaged the complex issue of ethnicity. Leaves of the Same Tree: Trade and Ethnicity in the Straits of Melaka, by Leonard Y. Andaya, takes on this concept and illustrates how historians can use it both as an analytical tool and as a subject of analysis to add further depth to our understanding of Southeast Asian pasts. Following a synthesis of some of the major issues in the complex world of ethnic theory, the author identifies two general principles of particular value for this study: the ideas that ethnic identity is an ongoing process and that the boundaries of a group undergo continual—if at times imperceptible—change based on perceived advantage.
“This is a marvelous book. In the widest sense it is a history not merely of ethnicity, but of economy, politics, and culture—as close to a total history of the western (and central) archipelago during two millennia as we are likely to have for some time. Andaya’s mastery of local geography, economic rhythms, commercial organization, political culture, elite family networks, literary production, and religious currents is apparent throughout the text and, together with his control of the diverse secondary literature and expertise in Dutch and Malay primary materials, gives his work a unique authority.” —Victor Lieberman, University of Michigan
We Are Ocean, is a collection of essays, fiction, and poetry by Epeli Hau‘ofa, whose writing over the past three decades has consistently challenged prevailing notions about Oceania and prescriptions for its development. He highlights major problems confronted by the region and suggests alternative perspectives and ways in which its people might reorganize to relate effectively to the changing world.
Hau‘ofa’s essays criss-cross Oceania, creating a navigator’s star chart of discussion and debate. Spurning the arcana of the intellectual establishments where he was schooled, Hau‘ofa has crafted a distinctive—often lyrical, at times angry—voice that speaks directly to the people of the region and the general reader. He conveys his thoughts from diverse standpoints: university-based analyst, essayist, satirist and humorist, and practical catalyst for creativity. According to Hau‘ofa, only through creative originality in all fields of endeavor can the people of Oceania hope to strengthen their capacity to engage the forces of globalization.
January 2008 / ISBN 978-0-8248-3173-8 / $22.00 (PAPER)
Nippon Modern: Japanese Cinema of the 1920s and 1930s, by Mitsuyo Wada-Marciano, is the first intensive study of Japanese cinema at a time when the country’s film industry was at its most prolific and when cinema played a singular role in shaping Japanese modernity. During the interwar period, the signs of modernity were ubiquitous in Japan’s urban architecture, literature, fashion, advertising, popular music, and cinema. The reconstruction of Tokyo following the disastrous earthquake of 1923 high lighted the extent of this cultural transformation, and the film industry embraced the reconfigured space as an expression of the modern. Shochiku Kamata Film Studios (1920–1936), the focus of this study, was the only studio that continued filmmaking in Tokyo following the city’s complete destruction. Mitsuyo Wada-Marciano points to the influence of the new urban culture in Shochiku’s interwar films, acclaimed as modan na eiga, or modern films, by and for Japanese.
“Devastated by the 1923 earthquake, Tokyo re-built itself in symbiosis with an image of modernity concocted by its own film studios. Nippon Modern renders that image, aspect after fascinating aspect, in sharp detail. Scores of films make up that image, a few resurrected in this volume for intense and delightful analysis. A sensitive viewer and an honest resourceful historian, Wada-Marciano lays out what she’s found in relation to other studies of this precious period, and she does so without hyperbole and without a glaring agenda. She makes you understand how, after Tokyo would again be devastated in 1945, these ‘modern’ films could become objects of nostalgia. Such is the care she gives her subject and such the fragility of that subject.” —Dudley Andrew, Yale University
January 2008 / ISBN 978-0-8248-3182-0 / $50.00 (CLOTH)
Popular Hawai‘i children’s author Stephanie Feeney will be signing copies of her recently published book, Sun and Rain: Exploring Seasons in Hawai‘i, at:
Borders Waikele, Sunday, February 10, 12:00 noon
Borders Pearlridge, Sunday, February 10, 2:00 pm
Barnes & Noble Kahala Mall, Sunday, February 17, 12:00 noon
University of Hawai‘i law professor Jon Van Dyke will be discussing his recently published book, Who Owns the Crown Lands of Hawai‘i?, at the Ward Warehouse Native Books/Na Mea Hawai‘i on Sunday, January 27, 2008, from 3 to 5 pm. This free, public event will bring together interested persons in the community to focus on the complex legal history of Hawai‘i public lands and the questions raised by the book, such as: Could the Crown Lands form the core of a land base for an emerging Native Hawaiian nation? What about the lands in the private Ali‘i trusts? A book signing, light refreshments, and informal discussion will follow.
Following James W. Heisig’s Remembering the Kanji 1, the second volume,
Remembering the Kanji 2: A Systematic Guide to Reading the Japanese Characters, takes up the pronunciation of characters and provides students with helpful tools for memorizing them. Behind the notorious inconsistencies in the way the Japanese language has come to pronounce the characters it received from China lie several coherent patterns. Identifying these patterns and arranging them in logical order can reduce dramatically the amount of time spent in the brute memorization of sounds unrelated to written forms.
January 2008 / ISBN 978-0-8248-3166-0 / $25.00 (PAPER)
Students who have learned to read and write the basic 2,000 characters run into the same difficulty that university students in Japan face: The government-approved list of basic educational kanji is not sufficient for advanced reading and writing. Although each academic specialization requires supplementary kanji of its own, a large number of these kanji overlap. With that in mind, the same methods employed in volumes 1 and 2 have been applied to 1,000 additional characters determined as useful for upper-level proficiency, and the results published as the third volume in the series, Remembering the Kanji 3: Writing and Reading Japanese Characters for Upper-Level Proficiency, by James W. Heisig and Tanya Sienko.