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Calligraphy and Power in Contemporary Chinese Society
This unusual and interesting book is a fascinating account of the world of Chinese writing. It examines Chinese space and the political and social use of writing as propaganda, a publicity booster and as a ladder for social climbing.
Chinese Death Rituals in Singapore
Through a cultural analysis of the symbols of death - flesh, blood, bones, souls, time numbers, food and money - Chinese Death Rituals in Singapore throws light upon the Chinese perception of death and how they cope with its eventuality. In the seeming mass of religious rituals and beliefs, it suggests that there is an underlying logic to the rituals. This in turn leads Kiong to examine the interrelationship between death and the socioeconomic value system of China as a whole.
A Philosophy of Chinese Architecture
A Philosophy of Chinese Architecture: Past, Present, Future examines the impact of Chinese philosophy on China’s historic structures, as well as on modern Chinese urban aesthetics and architectural forms. For architecture in China moving forward, author David Wang posits a theory, the New Virtualism, which links current trends in computational design with long-standing Chinese philosophical themes. The book also assesses twentieth-century Chinese architecture through the lenses of positivism, consciousness (phenomenology), and linguistics (structuralism and poststructuralism). Illustrated with over 70 black-and-white images, this book establishes philosophical baselines for assessing architectural developments in China, past, present and future.
Buddhism Observed
How do contemporary Westerners and Tibetans understand not only what it means to be 'Buddhist', but what it means to be hailed as one from 'the West' or from 'Tibet'? This anthropological study examines the encounter between Western travellers and Tibetan exiles in Bodhanath, on the outskirts of Kathmandu, Nepal and analyses the importance of Buddhism in discussions of political, cultural and religious identity. Based on extensive field research in Nepal, Buddhism Observed questions traditional assumptions about Buddhism and examines the rarely considered phenomenon of Western conversions to a non-Western religion. Scholars of Anthropology, Religion and Cultural Studies will find here a refreshing insight into how to approach 'other' societies, religions and cultures.
Speaking of Profit
"In the first half of the nineteenth century the Qing Empire faced a crisis. It was broadly perceived both inside and outside of government that the “prosperous age” of the eighteenth century was over. Bureaucratic corruption and malaise, population pressure and food shortages, ecological and infrastructural decay, domestic and frontier rebellion, adverse balances of trade, and, eventually, a previously inconceivable foreign threat from the West seemed to present hopelessly daunting challenges. This study uses the literati reformer Bao Shichen as a prism to understand contemporary perceptions of and proposed solutions to this general crisis. Though Bao only briefly and inconsequentially ...
Governing Educational Desire
Parents in China greatly value higher education for their children, but the intensity and effects of their desire to achieve this goal have largely gone unexamined—until now. Governing Educational Desire explores the cultural, political, and economic origins of Chinese desire for a college education as well as its vast consequences, which include household and national economic priorities, birthrates, ethnic relations, and patterns of governance. Where does this desire come from? Andrew B. Kipnis approaches this question in four different ways. First, he investigates the role of local context by focusing on family and community dynamics in one Chinese county, Zouping. Then, he widens his s...
Food and Foodways in Asia
Food is an important cultural marker of identity in contemporary Asian societies, and can provide a medium for the understanding of social relations, family and kinship, class and consumption, gender ideology, and cultural symbolism. However, a truly comprehensive view of food cannot neglect the politics of food production, in particular, how, when, from where and even why different kinds of food are produced, prepared and supplied. Food and Foodways in Asia is an anthropological inquiry providing rich ethnographic description and analysis of food production as it interacts with social and political complexities in Asia’s diverse cultures. Prominent anthropologists examine how food is related to ethnic identity and boundary formation, consumerism and global food distribution, and the invention of local cuisine in the context of increasing cultural contact. With chapters ranging from the invention of 'local food' for tourism development, to Asia's contribution to ‘world cuisine,’ Food and Foodways in Asia will be a fascinating read for anyone interested in the anthropology of food and/or Asian studies.
Love in Modern Japan
This book places love and sex in Japan in social and historical context and includes four case studies A lot of Ryang's claims are potentially very controversial so the book is guaranteed to stir up debate It will be of interest to those in Japanese and East Asian studies, as well as anthropology, gender studies and feminist anthropology
Japanese Calligraphy as a Way to Make the Invisible Visible
The book is an academic work addressed to beginners in the study of the Japanese language, literature and art, as well as to those fascinated by Japanese culture or by the secrets of Japanese calligraphy in particular. The book combines, in an exciting and unique way, a theoretical analysis with the practice of calligraphy. In short, the book highlights the ‘process of becoming’ on the path of Japanese calligraphy, harmoniously reuniting the perspective of an external, distant, abstract view, with a subjective, practical, internal one. Because the author studied this art under the guidance of Japanese masters, the book also contains the author’s Japanese calligraphy works. Today, in th...
