Review: "Intended for students and non-specialists, this six-volume set does an outstanding job of covering all aspects of modern Asia (economics, religion, technology, politics, education, the arts, environmental issues, international relations, and scientific advances). Recognizing that there is not one Asian culture but many, the editors have been careful to stress both the interrelatedness and the tremendous variance of traditions. The set is equally useful for those researching common themes across Asian culture and those examining a particular country. Well illustrated and carefully indexed, the set is highly recommended for all public and academic libraries."--"The Best of the Best Reference Sources," American Libraries, May 2003

Volume one of a six-volume set in which alphabetically arranged entries provide information on every aspect of modern Asia, including its culture, people, economy, government, arts, geography, architecture, religion, and history.

The contributions to this volume apply and extend the techniques of corpus linguistics and diachronic linguistics to the challenge of describing and explaining grammatical change in varieties of English world-wide. The book is divided into two parts, with ten chapters on ‘Inner Circle’ varieties such as Australian, Canadian, and Irish English, and eight on ‘Outer Circle’ varieties such as Philippine, Indian, and Nigerian English. Contributors examine a range of topics including the progressive aspect, modal auxiliaries, do-support, verb morphology, and quotatives, using a wide variety of corpus resources. Overarching research questions addressed include the following: Do diachronic tendencies observed in a particular variety converge with, diverge from, or run in parallel with, those in the parent variety? What are the possible causes of changes observed (e.g. English teaching traditions, Americanisation, internal changes in registers)? This book will appeal to linguists, particularly those interested in grammatical description, corpus linguistics and World Englishes.

This landmark work provides a wide-ranging scholarly consideration of the traditional Asian martial arts. Most of the contributors to the volume are practitioners of the martial arts, and all are keenly aware that these traditions now exist in a transnational context. The book's cutting-edge research includes ethnography and approaches from film, literature, performance, and theater studies. Three central aspects emerge from this book: martial arts as embodied fantasy, as a culturally embedded form of self-cultivation, and as a continuous process of identity formation. Contributors explore several popular and highbrow cultural considerations, including the career of Bruce Lee, Chinese wuxia films, and Don DeLillo's novel Running Dog. Ethnographies explored describe how the social body trains in martial arts and how martial arts are constructed in transnational training. Ultimately, this academic study of martial arts offers a focal point for new understandings of cultural and social beliefs and of practice and agency.

Fighting arts are as old as man himself and as varied as his languages. In Asia they developed to a degree of effectiveness probably unsurpassed elsewhere in the world. This book explains the relationships between fighting arts, assesses their strengths and weaknesses, and presents new material about hitherto unknown fighting methods. Written by two of the best-known and most widely published authorities in the field, it covers fighting methods and techniques found in eleven Asian countries-fighting techniques that range from the artful Chinese tai-chi and Burmese bando to Japanese jujutsu and the lethal pentjak-silat of Indonesia. Documentation of these has been supplemented with a wealth of fascinating anecdotes. The reader learns of the daring exploits of the Japanese ninja, of Gama, perhaps the greatest of the great Indian wrestlers, of the Indonesian "trance" fighters-and hundreds of other tales that serve to illustrate some of the most deadly fighting systems that the world has known. The volume is illustrated with over two hundred photographs and drawings, many of them depicting combat styles and techniques that have never been seen in the West.

Volume four of a six-volume set in which alphabetically arranged entries provide information on every aspect of modern Asia, including its culture, people, economy, government, arts, geography, architecture, religion, and history.

A detailed and coherent account of the social significance and the politics underlying sports, Global Games demonstrates that sports are not a trivial pursuit but are deeply embedded in the way individuals and nations wish to be perceived. Book jacket.

This introduction to aikido aims to train the reader to sense theirpponent's intentions and turn his movements to your own advantage.

A Comprehensive Collection of Magical Wisdom in One Indispensable Book Llewellyn's Complete Book of Ceremonial Magick brings together the myriad occult philosophies and techniques necessary for a thorough understanding of the esoteric arts. This magnificent treasury is filled with fascinating insights from today's most esteemed working practitioners, developing the rich details of a dozen topics that together comprise the Western Mystery Tradition. Within these pages, you will explore the rituals and ideas that have shaped the history and modern practice of magick. Edited by virtuoso occultists Lon Milo DuQuette and David Shoemaker, this brilliant collection of new writings is the preeminent reference work on the occult arts and sciences. Foundations of Western Magic (Sam Webster) • Qabalah (Anita Kraft & Randall Bowyer) • Planetary Magic (David Rankine) • Alchemy (Dennis William Hauck) • Demonology & Spirit Evocation (Dr. Stephen Skinner) • The Magick of Abra-Melin (Marcus Katz) • Enochian Magick & Mysticism (Aaron Leitch) • The Golden Dawn (Chic and Sandra Tabatha Cicero) • Thelema & Aleister Crowley (David Shoemaker) • Polytheistic Ceremonial Magic (John Michael Greer) • Magician's Tables (David Allen Hulse) • The Future of Ceremonial Magick (Brandy Williams)