Ronald A. Morse - Böcker

Five years after Beijing's pragmatic new leadership embarked on its Four Modernizations program, the obstacles to change in China are becoming apparent, agree the contributors to this book. Focusing on developments since Mao's death and pointing to the negative effects of China's massive bureaucracy, the regime's reluctance to give up Soviet-style

Five years after Beijing's pragmatic new leadership embarked on its Four Modernizations program, the obstacles to change in China are becoming apparent, agree the contributors to this book. Focusing on developments since Mao's death and pointing to the negative effects of China's massive bureaucracy, the regime's reluctance to give up Soviet-style

Co-published with the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, this volume is a report of a conference held in March, 1984 on fundamental issues and an assessment of the field of Southeast Asian studies. Contributions include a practitioner's perspective on Southeast Asian studies; assessing U.S. scholarly resources on Southeast Asia; politics and their study; adapting the area study center concept to new needs; ensuring quality in language skills; ethnic diversity and social change; Indochinese refugees; Southeast Asia and ASEAN as regional concepts; Southeast Asia, the humanities and the question of relevance.

Co-published with the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, this volume is a report of a conference held in March, 1984 on fundamental issues and an assessment of the field of Southeast Asian studies. Contributions include a practitioner's perspective on Southeast Asian studies; assessing U.S. scholarly resources on Southeast Asia; politics and their study; adapting the area study center concept to new needs; ensuring quality in language skills; ethnic diversity and social change; Indochinese refugees; Southeast Asia and ASEAN as regional concepts; Southeast Asia, the humanities and the question of relevance.

This book examines the increasingly close Japan-Middle East relationship and places it in a cultural and political setting. This volume is the result of a conference held in 1984 at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, at which participants from many fields met to discuss and broaden the understanding of Japan-Middle East ties. A strong dependence on Middle East oil has taught the Japanese that politics follow economics. Conference participants agreed that Japan's pro-Arab policies have raised important questions regarding relations with the U.S. Co-published with The Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.

The result of a conference jointly sponsored by the Asia Program of the Wilson Center and the MIT-Japan Science and Technology Program, these papers suggest that America must better understand its major high-tech competitor, Japan, if it wishes to balance our bilateral relationship. The challenge of overcoming America's technical illiteracy about Japanese science and technology requires awareness of the importance of training scientists and engineers in the Japanese language, increased funding for applied Japanese language studies, and a commitment by U.S. corporations to employ Americans that acquire foreign language and area expertise. Co-published with the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.

Boldly illustrated and superbly translated, Folk Legends from Tono captures the spirit of Japanese peasant culture undergoing rapid transformation into the modern era. This is the first time these 299 tales have been published in English. Morse’s insightful interpretation of the tales, his rich cultural annotations, and the evocative original illustrations make this book unforgettable.In 2008, a companion volume of 118 tales was published by Rowman & Littlefield as the The Legends of Tono. Taken together, these two books have the same content (417 tales) as the Japanese language book Tono monogatari.Reminiscent of Japanese woodblocks, the ink illustrations commissioned for the Folk Legends from Tono, mirror the imagery that Japanese villagers envisioned as they listened to a storyteller recite the tales.The stories capture the extraordinary experiences of real people in a singular folk community. The tales read like fiction but touch the core of human emotion and social psychology. Thus, the reader is taken on a magical tour through the psychic landscape of the Japanese “spirit world” that was a part of its oral folk tradition for hundreds of years. All of this is made possible by the translator’s insightful interpretation of the tales, his sensitive cultural annotations, and the visual charm of the book’s illustrations. The cast of characters is rich and varied, as we encounter yokai monsters, shape-shifting foxes, witches, grave robbers, ghosts, heavenly princesses, roaming priests, shamans, quasi-human mountain spirits, murderers, and much more.