Hawaii Books

Its an amazing book which travel with me for the last few years.
I am an acupuncturist who practice, search and teaching Chinese Medicine for the last 20 years, As such I belive that the familarities with Chinese Thinking is the most important to my personal development as man and practitioner.
The book is written in clear, intresting and vivid way, so , it easy to follow despite the complexity of the material it comes to explore.

A good book, in my view, is one that provides new information about a worthy theme. A fine book is one that provides a new perspective from which to understand a significant body of information. A superb book is one that provides both new information about a worthy theme and a new, thought-provoking perspective from which to understand a significant body of information. This is a superb book. Mark Mullins, professor of sociology of religion and Christian studies at Meiji Gakuin University in Tokyo, has devoted years of research to pursuing an answer to the question of "what happens to a world religion when it is transplanted from one culture to another." More specifically, he focuses on "made in Japan" forms of Protestant Christianity-not its mainline forms but its indigenous movements. "My primary concern," he says, "has been to understand what Japanese Christians have done with Christianity, independent of the authority and control of the mission churches." ... And let it be said at once: he has done a magnificent job. -- David Reid, Former editor of the Japanese Journal of Religious Studies

Whether a history buff, someone interested in Pacific and/or church and state history, or simply out for a good read - this book is definitely for you. Church and State, takes the reader through the fascinating developments leading to the establishment of the current monarchy in Tonga and the role that tradition, politics, the missionary movement and other factors played in its history. At the same time the book (based on Rev Dr Latukefu's thesis) is an important document in analysing the different historical dynamics that were played out between church and state outside of European history. The late Rev Dr Sione Latukefu was not only a reknowned scholar and teacher, but a great story teller as well. The history leading up to the rise of Tupou I makes Macbeth seem like childs play...

During the Tang Dynasty, Chang'an (present day Xi'an, home of the terracotta warriors) was the largest city in the world. It was also laid out on a vast scale that dwarfed any other city at the time, with extremely broad avenues that divided the citiy into wards. The book explains the physical forms of the city as well as some of the social aspects of living in the city at the time and how they changed over the course of the dynasty. Comparisons are made between other cities nearby. This book is an engaging opportunity to understand urban planning history of a non-western city, something that is lacking in western planning education. I also have a deeper understanding of China's present-day urban layout after having read the book.

If you are interested in Chinese urban history and issues through the ages, I would suggest this book to start you of and then 'Remaking Chinese Urban Form' by Duanfang Lu for a look at the communist era and 'China's Urban Transition' by John Friedmann for a quick look at what is happening now. If you live in China, Professor Heng also has a book with enclosed dvd entitled 'A Digital Reconstruction of Tang Chang'an'--well worth it, in English and Chinese. Steinhardt's 'Chinese Imperial City Planning' is also good, covering more cities and throughout many more time periods, but the cities start to blur together and there is less of a three dimensional and social feel of what the cities were like.

The 1940s saw the outbreak of the Yili rebellion, which led to the collapse of Chinese state authority over a wide area of Xinjiang in the chaotic years of the later 1940s. In Clouds Over Tianshan: Essays On Social Disturbance In Xinjiang in the 1940s, David Wang looks not just at the ethnic and religious dimensions, both of which had many international ramifications. Politically, there were three external actors in the affair: the Chinese Nationalist government, the Chinese communists, and the Soviets. As World War II came to an end and the Chinese civil war gathered pace, the dynamics between these three actors altered and those alterations had a major impact on the course of events in Xinjiang between 1944 and 1949. Clouds Over Tianshan is an important and much appreciated contribution for students of Chinese history and help to explain the similarity of the events of the 1940s with those of today in the region.

my husband and I are planning our first trip to Honolulu, so I purchased 8 books to read and compare notes. I found this book to be the most helpful. It mentions places to visit none of the others did. A place called the Toilet bowl, is a local swimming hole hangout, that most people don't know about. This book is the only one that mentioned it of the 8. I know I will be taking only two books with me, this one and Oahu revealed. Don't waste your money on any others

This is a great guide, packed with info in a very usable format, that just opens up the island. The sections on beaches and hiking trails are especially useful, and that alone more than pays for the book. Also remarkable is the organization of the points of interest, that makes them easy to locate.

Frank Dikötter has put together an excellent collection of articles about the development of racial and national identities in China and Japan. Starting from where Western scholars fear to tread but need to go, he asserts in the introduction that dismissing the development of racial (or racist) attitudes in Asia as the mere extension of Western ethnocentrism is not only short-sighted, but dangerous.

Especially as we enter the 21st century as globalization brings nations and ideologies closer together, it is important to understand the historically specific formations of national and racial identity that determines individual identity formation. Splitting the book into two halves, with articles about China leading off the book, the varied articles and analyses are quite insighful and theoretically rigorous.

This is a good first introduction to the subject, and many of the authors in the book can be found elsewhere, some of them having written their own books based on their lines of research. Kosaku Yoshino, Frank Dikötter, Louise Young, and David Goodman have all written works worthy of buying outright.

Of particular interest are the Japan chapters, which outline the development of ideas of racial particularism as the nation reconstructed itself in its program of modernization, the place of the Ainu "other" in this process, the distancing and stigmatizing of Chinese kanbun throughout this process, as well as the turn Japanese ideology took after the forced annexation of Manchukuo. For a detailed exploration of the Chinese formation of national identity, this is a good book, but it goes without saying (although I clearly am) that one should own a copy of Dikötter's The Discourse of Race in Modern China.

Perfect accompanying works to be read alongside this one are the aforementioned book on China, the edited volume Making Majorities, by Dru Gladney, as well as Cultural Nationalism in East Asia, by Harumi Befu. The big man on campus, as it were, is Kosaku Yoshino, who wrote Cultural Nationalism in Contemporary Japan. If you are a scholar of nationalism in Asia, you cannot be without these books. Also of interest would be Michael Robinson's Cultural Nationalism in Korea, any and all works by John Dower, beginning with War Without Mercy, and the book Colonialism and Nationalism in Asian Cinema.

As a graduate student specializing in this area, and having just passed my qualifying exams in the area of Nationalism in East Asia, I can say that I have scoured bibliographies and booklists far and wide. This book, along with the others mentioned above, will provide a solid start for the interested scholar.

I am always amazed at what quilters can create with their artistic gifts. Design, color, stitches all are equisitly displayed in this beautiful "keepsake" calendar. Will make an excellent calendar for the coming year and a beautiful gift.

I have studied under this profesor for two years and he studied under one of the leaders in the field at Yale. And let me tell you he knows his stuff and this book is proof of that. All the knoweldge and expertise and time in the field pays off in this fasinating study of Chinese technology and how it applies to one of the major forces that has shaped Chinese history. If you are interested in Chinese history, engineering or the history of technology this book is a must have.