This book studies the various representations of Asia in Bengali literary periodicals between the 1860s and 1940s. It looks at how these periodicals tried to analyse the political situation in Asia in the context of world politics and how Indian nationalistic ideas and associations impacted their vision. The volume highlights the influences of cosmopolitanism, universalism and nationalism which contributed towards a common vision of a united and powerful Asia and how these ideas were put into practice. It analyses travel accounts by men and women and examines how women became the focus of the didactic efforts of all writers for a horizontal dissemination of Asian consciousness. The author also provides a discussion on Asian art and culture, past and present connections between Asian countries and the resurgence of 19th-century Buddhism in the consciousness of the Bengalis. Rich in archival material, Knowing Asia, Being Asian will be useful for scholars and researchers of history, Asian studies, modern India, cultural studies, media studies, journalism, publishing, post-colonial studies, travel writings, women and gender studies, political studies and social anthropology.

Globalization, migration, transnational movements and the development of the tiger economies of Asia have led education leaders and policy makers around the world but particularly in Australia, the USA, Canada, and New Zealand to view schools as key sites for developing ‘globally competent’, ‘Asia literate’ citizens who have the capabilities to live, work and interact with the peoples, cultures and societies of Asia. In what has been dubbed the ‘Asian Century’, nations are increasingly seeking to transform their schooling policies, curricula, and teaching workforces to engage with the growing influence of the peoples, cultures and societies both within and beyond Asia. This is the first book to subject to critical scrutiny and analysis the concepts, policies and practices of schooling involved in building intercultural relations with the diverse contemporary manifestations of ‘Asia’. It brings into dialogue scholars who are at the forefront of current thinking, policy and practice on Asia-related schooling, and contributes to a broader, international debate about the future shape of intercultural schooling in a global world. Asia Literate Schooling in the Asian Century offers chapters on: • Learning Asia: In search of a new narrative • Asia Literacy as Experiential Learning • Professional Standards and Ethics in Teaching Asia Literacy • The Feasibility of Implementing Cross-Curricular Studies of Asia • Deparochialising Education and the Asian Priority: A Curriculum (Re)Imagination This book will appeal to scholars and practitioners in Education, and is suitable as a reference for teacher education courses. It will also interest scholars specialising in Asian Studies.

The essays in Knowing Southeast Asian Subjects ask how the rising preponderance of scholarship from Southeast Asia is de-centering Southeast Asian area studies in the United States. The contributions address recent transformations within the field and new directions for research, pedagogy, and institutional cooperation. Contributions from the perspectives of history, anthropology, cultural studies, political theory, and libraries pose questions ranging from how a concern with postcolonial and feminist questions of identity might reorient the field to how anthropological work on civil society and Islam in Southeast Asia provides an opportunity for comparative political theorists to develop more sophisticated analytic approaches. A vision common to all the contributors is the potential of area studies to produce knowledge outside a global academic framework that presumes the privilege and even hegemony of Euro-American academic trends and scholars.

A concise new history of a century of struggles to define Asian identity and express alternatives to European forms of universalism. The balance of global power changed profoundly over the course of the twentieth century, above all with the economic and political rise of Asia. Asia after Europe is a bold new interpretation of the period, focusing on the conflicting and overlapping ways in which Asians have conceived their bonds and their roles in the world. Tracking the circulation of ideas and people across colonial and national borders, Sugata Bose explores developments in Asian thought, art, and politics that defied Euro-American models and defined Asianness as a locus of solidarity for all humanity. Impressive in scale, yet driven by the stories of fascinating and influential individuals, Asia after Europe examines early intimations of Asian solidarity and universalism preceding Japan’s victory over Russia in 1905; the revolutionary collaborations of the First World War and its aftermath, when Asian universalism took shape alongside Wilsonian internationalism and Bolshevism; the impact of the Great Depression and Second World War on the idea of Asia; and the persistence of forms of Asian universalism in the postwar period, despite the consolidation of postcolonial nation-states on a European model. Diverse Asian universalisms were forged and fractured through phases of poverty and prosperity, among elites and common people, throughout the span of the twentieth century. Noting the endurance of nationalist rivalries, often tied to religious exclusion and violence, Bose concludes with reflections on the continuing potential of political thought beyond European definitions of reason, nation, and identity.

Weaving outwards from a centripetal force of biographical stances, this book presents the collective perspectives of literacy researchers from Brunei, China, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore, the Philippines and Taiwan. It represents the first all-Asian initiative to showcase the region’s post-colonial, multilingual and multicultural narratives of literacy education. This book provides a much-needed platform that initiates important conversations about literacy as a sociocultural practice in a region that is both challenged and shaped by sociocultural influence unique to Asia’s historical and geopolitical trajectory. Driven by the authors’ lived experiences of becoming literate as well as their empirical research work in later years, each chapter brings decades of biographical narratives and collective empirical research findings to bear. Within the book are negotiations about literacy across and within home and school contexts; transactions of literature, text and reader; and considerations of the literacy policy-practice nexus. These trajectories, while divergent in their issues, come together as shared lived experience located in local contexts considered through global perspectives. As Asia looks set to become the 21st century’s new economic and labour force, the need to understand the sociocultural milieu of this region cannot be understated. This book on literacy education in Asia contributes to the larger narrative.

This book is particularly timely in light of continuing international efforts to integrate Asia literacy into a national educational system where understanding of Asia – its languages, cultures, histories, and beliefs – is still at an emergent stage for a nation that is evolving into what George Megalogenis refers as ‘an Eurasian society’ (2015). The contributors to this collection range from the pioneers who created and developed the Asia literacy research space, to those who bring additional new theoretical insights through disciplines such as linguistics and ethnography. Their analysis has resulted in recommendations to develop a deeper understanding of working and living in diverse communities. The book also brings together theoretical perspectives on the current Australian socio-cultural and political context and how that can impact on pedagogical advancement in Asia literacy. The book argues for a broadening focus on what the outcomes Asia literacy in a global world can be for all Australians and offers counter narratives to the myth of a homogenous ‘White Australian culture’, to provide new ways of engaging with curriculum and pedagogy that transcend superficial awareness of multiculturalism to embrace realistic and reflective principles of global education.

This captivating ethnography explores Vietnam’s sex industry as the country ascends the global and regional stage. Over the course of five years, author Kimberly Kay Hoang worked at four exclusive Saigon hostess bars catering to diverse clientele: wealthy local Vietnamese and Asian businessmen, Viet Kieus (ethnic Vietnamese living abroad), Western businessmen, and Western budget-tourists. Dealing in Desire takes an in-depth and often personal look at both the sex workers and their clients to show how Vietnamese high finance and benevolent giving are connected to the intimate spheres of the informal economy. For the domestic super-elite who use the levers of political power to channel foreign capital into real estate and manufacturing projects, conspicuous consumption is a means of projecting an image of Asian ascendancy to potential investors. For Viet Kieus and Westerners who bring remittances into the local economy, personal relationships with local sex workers reinforce their ideas of Asia’s rise and Western decline, while simultaneously bolstering their diminished masculinity. Dealing in Desire illuminates Ho Chi Minh City’s sex industry as not just a microcosm of the global economy, but a critical space where dreams and deals are traded.

This unique work presents an extraordinary breadth of contemporary and historical views on Asian America and Pacific Islanders, conveyed through the voices of the men and women who lived these experiences over more than 150 years. In 1848, the "First Wave" of Asian immigration arrived in the United States. By the first decade of the 21st century, Asian Americans were the nation's fastest growing racial group. Through a far-ranging array of primary source documents, Voices of the Asian American and Pacific Islander Experience shares what it was like for these diverse peoples to live and work in the United States, for better and for worse. Organized chronologically by ethnicity, the book covers a panoply of ethnic groups, including recent Asian immigrants and mixed race/mixed heritage Asian Americans. There is also a topical section that showcases views on everything from politics to class to gender dynamics, underscoring that the Asian American population is not—nor has it ever been—monolithic. In choosing material, the editors strove to make the volume as comprehensive as possible. Thus, readers will discover documents written by transnational, adopted, and homosexual Asian Americans, as well as documents written from particular religious positions.

“I have no doubt this will end up being the best fantasy debut of the year [...] I have absolutely no doubt that [Kuang’s] name will be up there with the likes of Robin Hobb and N.K. Jemisin.” -- Booknest A Library Journal, Paste Magazine, Vulture, BookBub, and ENTROPY Best Books pick! Washington Post "5 Best Science Fiction and Fantasy Novel" pick! A Bustle "30 Best Fiction Books" pick! A brilliantly imaginative talent makes her exciting debut with this epic historical military fantasy, inspired by the bloody history of China’s twentieth century and filled with treachery and magic, in the tradition of Ken Liu’s Grace of Kings and N.K. Jemisin’s Inheritance Trilogy. When Rin aced the Keju—the Empire-wide test to find the most talented youth to learn at the Academies—it was a shock to everyone: to the test officials, who couldn’t believe a war orphan from Rooster Province could pass without cheating; to Rin’s guardians, who believed they’d finally be able to marry her off and further their criminal enterprise; and to Rin herself, who realized she was finally free of the servitude and despair that had made up her daily existence. That she got into Sinegard—the most elite military school in Nikan—was even more surprising. But surprises aren’t always good. Because being a dark-skinned peasant girl from the south is not an easy thing at Sinegard. Targeted from the outset by rival classmates for her color, poverty, and gender, Rin discovers she possesses a lethal, unearthly power—an aptitude for the nearly-mythical art of shamanism. Exploring the depths of her gift with the help of a seemingly insane teacher and psychoactive substances, Rin learns that gods long thought dead are very much alive—and that mastering control over those powers could mean more than just surviving school. For while the Nikara Empire is at peace, the Federation of Mugen still lurks across a narrow sea. The militarily advanced Federation occupied Nikan for decades after the First Poppy War, and only barely lost the continent in the Second. And while most of the people are complacent to go about their lives, a few are aware that a Third Poppy War is just a spark away . . . Rin’s shamanic powers may be the only way to save her people. But as she finds out more about the god that has chosen her, the vengeful Phoenix, she fears that winning the war may cost her humanity . . . and that it may already be too late.

How does an economist meet Borat in London and Tony Blair in Kazakhstan? Or meet Sachin Tendulkar in the morning and Miss Universe in the afternoon in Mumbai? Or ride camels in Abu Dhabi and Alpaca in Peru? The Airport Economist Tim Harcourt has done all this and many more in his travels and discoveries on what makes the global economy tick. With a clever turn of phrase, witty observations and links to a wealth of supporting data, The Airport Economist Flies Again! proves that there is an export dimension to everything and that not all economics writing has to leave you high and dry! This book demystifies the global economy to make economics and international trade both accessible and entertaining to the general reader. In addition to providing some general lessons and insights on economics and international trade, it offers practical business tips for travellers doing business from Mongolia to Mexico and South Korea to Kazakhstan.