Two New Titles in the Spatial Habitus Series

Although modernization in Korea started more than a century later than in the West, it has worked as a prominent ideology throughout the past century—in particular it has brought radical changes in Korean architecture and cities. Traditional structures and ways of life have been thoroughly uprooted in modernity’s continuous negation of the past. Architecture and Urbanism in Modern Korea, by Inha Jung, presents a comprehensive overview of architectural development and urbanization in Korea within the broad framework of modernization.

“Inha Jung has written a fine volume, full of very well informed accounts of events, insightful analyses of projects, and nuanced ideas about the unique flow of architectural and urban modernization in Korea. Jung is a mature scholar who delivers a well-balanced and original account that is both ambitious in scope and delivered in unencumbered and economical prose, with lavish documentation should one want to go further into particular aspects. It is a book that can easily be read and appreciated by people outside the field, in, say, cultural or Korean studies, as well as by those without disciplinary affiliation who are simply interested in Korea.” —Peter G. Rowe, Raymond Garbe Professor of Architecture and Urban Design, Harvard University

July 2013
ISBN 978-0-8248-3585-9 / $42.00 (CLOTH)

When the Chinese Nationalist Party nominally reunified the country in 1928, Chiang Kai-shek and other party leaders insisted that Nanjing was better suited than Beijing to serve as its capital. For the next decade, until the Japanese invasion in 1937, Nanjing was the “model capital” of Nationalist China, the center of not just a new regime, but also a new modern outlook in a China destined to reclaim its place at the forefront of nations. Interesting parallels between China’s recent rise under the Post-Mao Chinese Communist Party and the Nationalist era have brought increasing scholarly attention to the Nanjing Decade (1927–1937); however, study of Nanjing itself has been neglected. In China’s Contested Capital: Architecture, Ritual, and Response in Nanjing, Charles Musgrove brings the city back into the discussion of China’s modern development, focusing on how it was transformed from a factional capital with only regional influence into a symbol of nationhood—a city where newly forming ideals of citizenship were celebrated and contested on its streets and at its monuments.

“China’s Contested Capital provides a nuanced, holistic view of the political, spatial, and social dimensions of Nanjing as the Guomindang capital. The grandiose plans for the governmental complex and the strikingly novel architecture of individual buildings aimed to promote Nanjing, Sun Yat-sen’s ‘Three Principles of the People,’ and the ROC’s governmental structure as modernist templates to the rest of the world. Musgrove’s chronicle of the optimism that propelled the city’s transformation and its eventual disappointment allows us to apprehend as never before the lively drama of Nanjing urban space.” —Peter J. Carroll, Wayne V. Jones Research Professor in History, Northwestern University

July 2013
ISBN 978-0-8248-3628-3 / $49.00 (CLOTH)

Spatial Habitus: Making and Meaning in Asia’s Architecture
Published in association with Hong Kong University Press

Francis Hezel to Speak on Cultural Dilemmas in Development

Noted Micronesia specialist Father Francis X. Hezel will be giving a brown bag seminar, “Cultural Dilemmas in Development,” on Monday, July 15, at 12 pm in Burns Hall, room 3012, East-West Center. The seminar will draw on Hezel’s nearly fifty years of experience living and working in the Federated States of Micronesia and on material from his recently published book, Making Sense of Micronesia: The Logic of Pacific Island Culture. The event is sponsored by the Pacific Islands Development Program and the Center for Pacific Islands Studies.

Father Hezel will appear next week Tuesday on KHPR’s The Conversation, which airs weekday mornings at 8 and is heard on HPR-2, KIPO 89.3 fm, KIPM 89.7 fm and KIPH 88.3 fm. Visit http://www.hawaiipublicradio.org/theconversation to listen live or for an archive of past shows. UPDATE: Listen to the archived show here.

July 18, 2013 UPDATE: Hawaii News Now interviewed Fr. Hezel on the subject of Micronesians in Hawai‘i, with a brief look at Making Sense of Micronesia , as well as a new East-West Center report “Micronesians on the Move,” which is due next week from EWC. Click here to view the archived show.

Photo courtesy of Chuuk Advisory Group on Education Reform

Revised and Expanded Guide to Hanauma Bay Now Available

This revised and expanded edition of the popular Exploring Hanauma Bay, by Susan Scott, is the only guidebook you will need for East O‘ahu’s spectacular nature preserve, a favorite of residents and visitors alike. Whether you plan to snorkel, dive, tour the park on foot, or take in the bay from the beach, this book will help you make the most of your visit. Veteran Hawai‘i columnist and marine enthusiast Susan Scott has devised six tours to accommodate a wide range of interests and abilities, while covering the geology, biology, and history of the bay. The book is fully illustrated with more than 250 color photos and includes safety tips, transportation advice, and a helpful list of park do’s and don’ts.

July 2013 / ISBN 978-0-8248-3748-8 / $16.99 (PAPER)

New in the Nanzan Library of Asian Religion and Culture

The six lectures that make up this book were delivered in March 2011 at London University’s School of Oriental and Asian Studies as the Jordan Lectures on Comparative Religion. They revolve around the intersection of two ideas, nothingness and desire, as they apply to a re-examination of the questions of self, God, morality, property, and the East-West philosophical divide.

“Many readers already know Jim Heisig through his ground-breaking critical studies and translations of Japanese philosophy. Others admire him for his efforts at interreligious dialogue and his personal activities related to global justice, education for the disenfranchised, and ecological sustainability. In this book, Heisig engages his extraordinary grasp of philosophical resources, eastern and western, Buddhist and Christian, to address the global crises we face today.” —Thomas P. Kasulis, The Ohio State University

Nanzan Library of Asian Religion and Culture
July 2013
ISBN 978-0-8248-3885-0 / $49.00 (CLOTH)
ISBN 978-0-8248-3886-7 / $25.00 (PAPER)

An Anthropologist Returns to Papua New Guinea

A Faraway, Familiar Place: An Anthropologist Returns to Papua New Guinea is for readers seeking an excursion deep into little-known terrain but allergic to the wide-eyed superficiality of ordinary travel literature. Author Michael French Smith savors the sometimes gritty romance of his travels to an island village far from roads, electricity, telephone service, and the Internet, but puts to rest the cliché of “Stone Age” Papua New Guinea. He also gives the lie to stereotypes of anthropologists as either machete-wielding swashbucklers or detached observers turning real people into abstractions. Smith uses his anthropological expertise subtly, to illuminate Papua New Guinean lives, to nudge readers to look more closely at ideas they take for granted, and to take a wry look at his own experiences as an anthropologist.

“Michael French Smith has written an engaging and accessible account of returning to the site of his longterm field research, Kragur Island in the Sepik area of Papua New Guinea. As he has done before in two earlier books (of which A Faraway Place is a worthy companion), Mike has spun a great yarn. He possesses the admirable ability to translate personal experiences meaningfully and explains complex social phenomena in ways that the anthropologically uninitiated will understand and appreciate. He relates experiences that most anthropologists have had, but that others—students, social developers, those curious about the region—need to hear about. . . . There is nothing quite like it on the market.” —Richard Scaglion, Department of Anthropology, University of Pittsburgh

July 2013 / ISBN 978-0-8248-3686-3 / $52.00 (CLOTH)

Stories of Time and Space in Japanese Modernist Fiction, 1911-1932

A 29th-century dystopian society seen through the eyes of a mutant-cum-romantic poet; a post-impressionist landscape of orbs and cubes experienced by a wandering underdog; an imaginary sick room generated entirely from sounds reaching the ears of an invalid: These and other haunting re-presentations of time and space constitute the Japanese modernist landscape depicted in Three-Dimensional Reading: Stories of Time and Space in Japanese Modernist Fiction, 1911-1932, edited by Angela Yiu.

“This book makes an important contribution to our understanding of Japanese modernism. The translations, each with a helpful and thought-provoking introduction, have been skillfully chosen to offer fresh insights on canonical writers or contribute to our understanding of lesser-known authors. All of the stories are interesting, and several are truly remarkable. I highly recommend the volume for both Asian and comparative literature programs.” —William Gardner, Swarthmore College

July 2013 / ISBN 978-0-8248-3801-0 / $25.00 (PAPER)