Multiple Modernities: Cinemas and Popular Media in Transcultural East Asia edited by Jenny Kwok Wah Lau [in AsianWeek]
28 Feb, by in Adult Readers, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Nonfiction, Repost, Taiwanese
The concept of “Western modernity” traveling east throughout Asia, as it is reflected in the contemporary cinemas of Japan, Korea, China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan.
Review: "New and Notable Books," AsianWeek, February 28,...
From Commodore Perry’s “opening” of Japanese ports to the 1964 Tokyo Olympics when the Japanese shocked the world by winning 16 gold medals, a lively look at the rise of modern Japan.
Review: <a href="http://bookdragonreviews.wordpress.com/files/2009/06/asianweek-2003-02-28-new-and-notable-books.pdf"...
An undeniably superb, even breathtaking short story collection about life spent in the “in-between” by the Japanese-born, German-domiciled, multi-dimensioned Tawada.
Review: 
A slim introduction to Yasunari Kawabata, Yukio Mishima, Jun’ichiro Tanizaki, Ryotaro Shiba, and Kobo Abe by the much-recognized Japanese literature scholar who knows (or knew) them all.
Review: 
First trade paperback release that captures the 24 hours leading up to noon on August 15, 1945, the fateful day that the Japanese Emperor announced the country’s defeat in World War II....
Brand new edition of the classic collection of almost 300-year-old tidbits on how to live the life of the proper samurai. Historically, its followers have been many and notable, including the legendary writer Yukio Mishima and...
While Mishima’s fiction (not to mention his flamboyant life) is internationally renowned, his dramas are virtually unknown in the West, although he published more than 60 plays. This collection includes five of...
Lush, gorgeous collection of garden photos. The Asian answer to all those house books on too many coffee tables.
Review: 
It’s no surprise that Hollywood has apparently snapped up film rights to this sweeping historical saga, filled with all the exotica you ever tried to avoid – the geisha, the samurai, the...
Get out of the way, Arthur Golden. Here’s the genuine voice who wants to set the story straight after Golden betrayed her confidence in his tawry, overexoticized rip-off, Memoirs of a Geisha. Oh, do NOT get...
A collection of haunting, surreal, signature-Murakami stories that have at their core a tenuous, frightening connection to the devastating 1995 earthquake in Kobe, Japan.
Review: 
First published more than 35 years ago, Pillow follows the story of Shokichi Hamada, who escapes military service during World War II by fleeing to the countryside – and by...
A semi-autobiographical novel about a famous writer obsessed with literature, William Blake, and dealing with parenting a mentally disabled child.
Review: 
Letters from Ogura to his young wife, who survived the actual bombing of Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, only to die of radiation sickness...
Early 20th-century Japanese feminist poet's memorable road trip east. You go, girl!
Review: 
Richie, one of Japan’s most famous ex-patriots, points out in his introduction that some 90% of all Japanese films made before 1945 were destroyed, whether during the 1923...
We’re talking major tome – more than 800 pages devoted to a “joint biography” of two of the most famous names is film history. Because no single biography about either...
The ultimate guidebook to anime, set up just like an encyclopedia (hence the name), with detailed entries in alphabetical order. Quite an impressive, amazing feat.
Review: 
The most difficult of the titles, although its premise is interesting – that the history of Japanese film is inextricably linked to the history of Japanese capitalism, both of which are approximately...
Anthology of writings by Japan’s favorite American gaijin, credited with introducing Japanese film to the West.
Review: