June Sale on Cornell East Asia Series Titles

University of Hawai‘i Press is a worldwide distributor of the Cornell East Asia Series (CEAS), published by the Cornell East Asia Program. For the entire month of June, order a CEAS book at full price and receive a second CEAS book (excluding series volumes 144-158) of equal or lesser value free!

Click here to view all CEAS titles distributed by UH Press.

**We are not accepting CEAS sale orders at our website, so please email, call (toll-free 1-888-847-7377), or fax (toll-free 1-800-650-7811) the UH Press Business Department with your order.

E-Books from Three Pines Press

University of Hawai‘i Press is a worldwide distributor for Three Pines Press, a publisher of Daoist studies headed by Dr. Livia Kohn. Digital editions of select Three Pines Press titles are now available for purchase through Tao Library: http://tao-library.com/store/

The site is currently offering visitors a free e-book valued at $12.00; go to Tao Library to claim your gift.

Confucian Role Ethics

Confucian Role Ethics: A Vocabulary, by Roger T. Ames, is an exploration of what constitutes and how one becomes an authentic, moral human being as conceived in the Confucian tradition. The book establishes an interpretive context by exploring some of the cosmological foundations of Confucian philosophy through discussion of commentary on the Yijing (The Book of Changes), Traditional Chinese Medicine, and Chinese cosmology. The author proceeds to delineate the morals and ideals of a Confucian life and its foundation in feelings of familial intimacy and its human-centered religiousness. These ideas are contrasted with the principle and virtue based traditions of the Abrahamic religions as well as of the individualistic tradition beginning in ancient Greece. Lastly, Ames attempts to critically assess the strengths and weaknesses of Confucian role ethics as articulated in the early canonical texts, discussing both its return to prominence and feasibility as a system of ethical conduct for the present day.

April 2011 / ISBN 978-0-8248-3576-7 / $31.00 (PAPER)

Masterpieces from the Papua New Guinea National Museum

On the eve of Papua New Guinea’s attainment of independence from Australia, Chief Minister Michael Somare referred to the new nation’s cultural treasures as “living spirits with fixed abodes.” He was referring to the prevailing belief of Papua New Guineans that everything is invested with spirit, not least the objects carved, modeled, or constructed for ceremonial, and often everyday, use. The Masterpieces Exhibition includes the most significant cultural treasures on display at the Papua New Guinea’s national museum. Living Spirits with Fixed Abodes, edited by Barry Craig, gives the reader a thorough account of each of the exhibition’s 209 pieces.

April 2011 / ISBN 978-0-8248-3151-6 / $80.00 (CLOTH)

The Evolution of Culture and Ethnicity in Hawaii

People and Cultures of Hawaii: The Evolution of Culture and Ethnicity, edited by John F. McDermott and Naleen Naupaka Andrade, is a significant update to the highly influential text People and Cultures of Hawaii: A Psychocultural Profile. Since its publication in 1980, the immigrant groups it discusses in depth have matured and new ones have been added to the mix. The present work tracks the course of these changes over the past twenty years, constructing a historical understanding of each group as it evolved from race to ethnicity to culture.

Individual chapters begin with an overview of one of fifteen groups. Following the development of its unique ethnocultural identity, distinctive character traits such as temperament and emotional expression are explored—as well as ethnic stereotypes. Also discussed are modifications to the group’s ethnocultural identity over time and generational change—which traits may have changed over generations and which are more hardwired or enduring. An important feature of each chapter is the focus on the group’s family social structure, generational and gender roles, power distribution, and central values and life goals. Readers will also find a description of the group’s own internal social class structure, social and political strategies, and occupational and educational patterns. Finally, contributors consider how a particular ethnic group has blended into Hawai‘i’s culturally sensitive society.

May 2011 / ISBN 978-0-8248-3580-4 / $23.00 (PAPER)

The Art and Identity Crisis of Yasuo Kuniyoshi

On December 8, 1941, artist Yasuo Kuniyoshi (1889-1953) awoke to find himself branded an “enemy alien” by the U.S. government in the aftermath of Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor. The historical crisis forced Kuniyoshi, an émigré Japanese with a distinguished career in American art, to rethink his pictorial strategies and to confront questions of loyalty, assimilation, national and racial identity that he had carefully avoided in his prewar art. As an immigrant who had proclaimed himself to be as “American as the next fellow,” the realization of his now fractured and precarious status catalyzed the development of an emphatic and conscious identity construct that would underlie Kuniyoshi’s art and public image for the remainder of his life.

Drawing on previously unexamined primary sources, Becoming American? The Art and Identity Crisis of Yasuo Kuniyoshi, by ShiPu Wang, is the first scholarly book in over two decades to offer an in-depth and critical analysis of Yasuo Kuniyoshi’s pivotal works, including his “anti-Japan” posters and radio broadcasts for U.S. propaganda, and his coded and increasingly enigmatic paintings, within their historical contexts.

May 2011 / ISBN 978-0-8248-3418-0 / $56.00 (CLOTH)