UH Press Welcomes a New Director

University of Hawai‘i Press is pleased to announce that Michael Duckworth will start as its new director on June 3.

Michael was director and publisher for four years at Hong Kong University Press, a bilingual press at one of East Asia’s leading universities. From 1995 to 2008, he served as acquisitions editor and later executive editor at University of Washington Press, where he was responsible for a diverse list that included Asian studies, American ethnic studies, architecture, and regional trade books in natural history. He has been a member of the Association for Asian Studies editorial board since 2000.

Before his career in scholarly publishing, Michael worked at the Wall Street Journal in New York and as a reporter for the Asian Wall Street Journal in Hong Kong, where he wrote business and cultural features on Hong Kong and China.

Joseph Cali on NHK’s Journeys in Japan

Joseph Cali, coauthor of Shinto Shrines: A Guide to the Sacred Sites of Japan’s Ancient Religion, was recently featured on the NHK program “Journeys in Japan” to talk about a recent trip to Takamatsu’s famous Ritsurin Garden, one of the largest and most beautiful historical gardens in Japan.

Photo courtesy of NHK

New in the Society for Asian and Comparative Philosophy Series

Schopenhauer is widely recognized as the Western philosopher who has shown the greatest openness to Indian thought and whose own ideas approach most closely to it. This book examines his encounter with important schools of Hindu and Buddhist philosophy and subjects the principal apparent affinities to a careful analysis. Initial chapters describe Schopenhauer’s encounter with Indian thought in the context of the intellectual climate of early nineteenth-century Europe.

Principal sections of the book consider the two main pillars of Schopenhauer’s system in relation to broadly comparable ideas found, in the case of Hindu thought, in Advaita Vedānta, and within Buddhism in the Mādhyamika and Yogācāra schools. Schopenhauer’s doctrine of the world as representation, or a flow of impressions appearing in the consciousness of living beings, is first considered. The second main pillar of Schopenhauer’s system, the doctrine of the world as will, is then examined and its relationship to Indian thought explored. This section of the work breaks new ground in the study of Schopenhauer, for although the similarity of his ethical and soteriological teaching to that of Indian religions (particularly Buddhism) has long been noted the underlying reasons for this have not been grasped. It is demonstrated that they are to be found in hitherto unrecognized affinities, of which Schopenhauer himself was largely unaware, between the metaphysics of the will and Indian ideas relating to karmic impressions (vāsanās), the store-consciousness, the causal body, and śakti as the “force” or “energy” that maintains the existence of the world.

Final chapters discuss the controversial and difficult question of the relation of the will to final reality in Schopenhauer’s thought in the light of Indian conceptions, and suggest that the two central pillars of his philosophy may be seen, to a greater extent than previously supposed, as a bridge by which the Eastern and Western traditions of philosophical thought may be brought into a closer and more creative relationship.

Society for Asian and Comparative Monographs, No. 24
May 2013 / ISBN 978-0-8248-3735-8 / $50.00 (CLOTH)

Revised Edition of The Pacific Islands: Environment and Society Now Available

The Pacific is the last major world region to be discovered by humans. Although small in total land area, its numerous islands and archipelagoes with their startlingly diverse habitats and biotas, extend across a third of the globe. This revised edition of the popular text The Pacific Islands: Environment and Society, edited by Moshe Rapaport, explores the diverse landforms, climates, and ecosystems of the Pacific island region. Multiple chapters, written by leading specialists, cover the environment, history, culture, population, and economy. The work includes new or completely revised chapters on gender, music, logging, development, education, urbanization, health, ocean resources, and tourism. Throughout two key issues are addressed: the exceptional environmental challenges and the demographic/economic/political challenges facing the region. Although modern technology and media and waves of continental tourists are fast eroding island cultures, the continuing resilience of Pacific island populations is apparent.

May 2013 / ISBN 978-0-8248-3586-6 / $48.00 (PAPER)

In Memoriam — Barbara J. Brooks (1953-2013)

Barbara J. Brooks died last month after a long and courageous battle with cancer. She was an associate professor of East Asian history at the City College and Graduate Center, City University of New York.

Barbara was the author of many articles on the history of imperial Japan in China and Northeast Asia, as well as Japan’s Imperial Diplomacy: Consuls, Treaty Ports and War in China, 1895–1938, published by UH Press in 2000. Her forthcoming book with Susan L. Burns, Gender and Law in the Japanese Imperium, will be published by the Press later this year.

We extend our sincere condolences to Barbara’s husband, David Jaffee, and their family.

2013 Hawaii Book & Music Festival: Visit the UH Press Tent

University of Hawai‘i Press will be among the local publishers and vendors exhibiting at this weekend’s Hawai‘i Book and Music Festival, May 18-19, 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, as well the new HBMF app.

Be sure to come by the UH Press tent, located near the Hawai‘i Council for the Humanities Pavilion (left side of the map). We’ll have event-only specials, including 15-25% discounts and will offer free shipping on orders taken onsite. Slightly damaged (“hurt”) stock and a few titles in new condition will have even lower bargain prices. While at our booth, pick up a recipe for braised prawns from Mary Sia’s Classic Chinese Cookbook.

More than a dozen UH Press authors are presenters at the festival: Sandra Bonura, Anwei Law, Kerri Inglis, Leilani Holmes, Jim Tranquada, Mark Panek, Tom Coffman, Willa Tanabe, Victoria Kneubuhl, Malcolm Chun, Gary Pak, Randall Roth, Leslie Hayashi, Warren Nishimoto, Craig Howes, among others. Although we’ll have no set times for signings, authors will stop by throughout the day before and after their presentations, as well as be available to sign books brought along to the tents where they appear.

See you there!