Making a Moral Society: Ethics and the State in Meiji Japan, an innovative study of ethics in Meiji Japan (1868–1912), explores the intense struggle to define a common morality for the emerging nation-state.

“Richard Reitan argues that modern Japanese ethics—and particularly the creation of an ethics of a ‘Japanese spirit’ or ‘Japanese national character’—arose in the context of the Meiji movement for civilization, as Japan attempted to become more like Europe in order to recover its sovereignty and equality with western states. His is a thoughtful and original contribution to the historiography of Japan and valuable account of the rise of ‘national morality.’ The book demonstrates an admirable command of the material, great clarity with which Japanese concepts are explained, and an argument of nuance and subtlety. Making a Moral Society will not only be of interest to scholars of Japanese history, religion, and culture, and scholars of ethics, nationalism, and modernization generally, but will also be useful in graduate seminars and advanced undergraduate courses.” —Douglas Howland, University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee

November 2009 / ISBN 978-0-8248-3294-0 / $48.00 (CLOTH)

Available for the first time in English, the ten short stories by modern Korean women collected in Questioning Minds: Short Stories by Modern Korean Women, translated by Yung-Hee Kim, touch in one way or another on issues related to gender and kinship politics. All of the protagonists are women who face personal crises or defining moments in their lives as gender-marked beings in a Confucian, patriarchal Korean society. Their personal dreams and values have been compromised by gender expectations or their own illusions about female existence. They are compelled to ask themselves “Who am I?” “Where am I going?” “What are my choices?” Each story bears colorful and compelling testimony to the life of the heroine. Some of the stories celebrate the central character’s breakaway from the patriarchal order; others expose sexual inequality and highlight the struggle for personal autonomy and dignity. Still others reveal the abrupt awakening to mid-life crises and the seasoned wisdom that comes with accepting the limits of old age.

Hawai‘i Studies on Korea
November 2009 / ISBN 978-0-8248-3409-8 / $24.00 (PAPER)

Tuesday, November 10, 11:30-1:00, UH-Manoa Bookstore
UH Bookstore will host a multi-author book signing event, which will include UH Press authors Carlos Andrade (Ha‘ena), Ann Shea Bayer (Going Against the Grain), James Brandon (Kabuki’s Forgotten War), and Michi Kodama-Nishimoto, Warren Nishimoto, and Cynthia Oshiro (Talking Hawai‘i’s Story).

Wednesday, November 11, 2:00-3:30, Hawai‘i Okinawa Center
Readings from Uchinanchu: A History of Okinawans in Hawaii. Light refreshments will be served, free parking available. This event is co-sponsored by the Hawai‘i United Okinawa Association and UH’s Center for Oral History, Center for Okinawan Studies, and Center for Japanese Studies. For more information, contact the Center for Oral History (phone: 956-6165; email: kodamani@hawaii.edu).

Saturday, November 14, 9:00-12 noon, Oahu Urban Garden Center
“Second Saturday at the Garden” will feature landscape architect and horticultural expert Paul Weissich, who will answer questions and sign copies of Small Trees for the Tropical Landscape (also available for purchase).

And don’t forget… also this month:
—UH Press authors signing at the Daughters of Hawai‘i Annual Book Day
—book launch for Chinese Pioneer Families of Maui, Molokai, and Lanai
—talks, signings, and performances celebrating novelist and playwright Jon Shirota

University of Hawai`i Press is pleased to announce it is now a North American distributor for Shanghai Press and Publishing Development Company, a mainland China publisher of fine books in English for general readers. Highlights include:

–full-color photo essays on Tibet, the Great Wall, the Yangtze, Shaoxing (hometown of Lu Xun, the father of modern Chinese literature), the legendary 20th-century Beijing opera star Mei Lanfang;

–full-color guides to Shanghai’s colonial Western architecture, Qufu (Confucius’ birthplace), China’s most famous cultural and natural sites;

–full-color introductions to Chinese civilization, tea, popular customs, classical furniture and home decor, architecture, calligraphy, brush painting, Beijing opera;

–the Cultural China Chinese-English Reader series, featuring abridged, bilingual editions of Chinese fiction and nonfiction for language students;

–colorful children’s books illustrating Chinese fables and idioms.

For a complete list of titles, please click here.

Children of Marx and Coca-Cola: Chinese Avant-garde Art and Independent Cinema, by Xiaping Lin, affords a deep study of Chinese avant-garde art and independent cinema from the mid-1990s to the beginning of the twenty-first century. Informed by the author’s experience in Beijing and New York—global cities with extensive access to an emergent transnational Chinese visual culture—this work situates selected artworks and films in the context of Chinese nationalism and post-socialism and against the background of the capitalist globalization that has so radically affected contemporary China. It juxtaposes and compares artists and independent filmmakers from a number of intertwined perspectives, particularly in their shared avant-garde postures and perceptions.

This book is the second volume in the Critical Interventions series.

November 2009 / ISBN 978-0-8248-3336-7 / $47.00 (CLOTH)

The Japonic (Japanese and Ryukyuan) portmanteau language family and the Korean language have long been considered isolates on the fringe of northeast Asia. Although in the last fifty years many specialists in Japonic and Korean historical linguistics have voiced their support for a genetic relationship between the two, this concept has not been endorsed by general historical linguists and no significant attempts have been made to advance beyond the status quo. Alexander Vovin, a longtime advocate of the genetic relationship view, engaged in a reanalysis of the known data in the hope of finding evidence in support of this position. In the process of his work, however, he became convinced that the multiple similarities between Japonic and Korean are the result of several centuries of contact and do not descend from a hypothetical common ancestor.

Hawai‘i Studies on Korea
November 2009 / ISBN 978-0-8248-3278-0 / $55.00 (CLOTH)

University of Hawai‘i Press authors Gavan Daws, Eleanor Nordyke, Art Whistler, and Bob Dye will be among the writers attending the Daughters of Hawai‘i 4th Annual Book Day, Friday, November 6, 3:00-6:00 pm, at Queen Emma Summer Palace. Purchase books at a discount and get your copies signed in time for the holidays! All proceeds from the event will go to the Daughters of Hawai‘i, in support of their mission to preserve Queen Emma Summer Palace and Hulihe‘e Palace in Kailua-Kona.

Refreshments will be served. There will be a special performance by the Queen Emma Summer Palace Ukulele Club and free tours of the Summer Palace will take place from 3:00-4:00 pm, so be sure to come early!

More than 300 species of seabirds range across the world’s oceans. In excess of 14 million birds, representing nearly two dozen species, make their home in the Hawaiian islands. These are na manu kai, the birds of the sea.

More than 135 color photographs illustrate Hawaiian Birds of the Sea: Na Manu Kai, by Robert J. Shallenberger. This beautiful book showcases the seabirds of Hawai‘i—from the far eastern tip of the Big Island to the recently created Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument.

A Latitude 20 Book
November 2009 / ISBN 978-0-8248-3403-6 / $21.99 (PAPER)

Hawai‘i is home to some of the most beautiful and sought after birds in the world. From the offshore waters, where graceful seabirds glide on the cool, refreshing trade winds, to the lush ancient forests of the mountains, where colorful endemic honeycreepers reside, Hawai‘i’s birds are wonderfully diverse. Introduced species and long-distance migrants contribute to the splendid assortment. Some island bird species are extremely abundant and instantly familiar since we encounter them daily in our outdoor activities. Others are so rare they are glimpsed only once in a lifetime. In these magnificent islands there is something for birders of every sort. Superbly illustrated in color by author Jim Denny and Jack Jeffrey, two of Hawai‘i’s best nature photographers, A Photographic Guide to the Birds of Hawai‘i includes nearly every species of bird on land and at sea in the main Hawaiian Islands.

A Latitude 20 Book
November 2009 / ISBN 978-0-8248-3383-1 / $19.99 (PAPER)

Jim Denny is also the author of The Birds of Kauai.