Asiatisk historie

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • NATIONAL BOOK AWARD WINNER • NAMED ONE OF TIME'S TEN BEST NONFICTION BOOKS OF THE DECADE"Inspiring . . . extraordinary . . . [Katherine Boo] shows us how people in the most desperate circumstances can find the resilience to hang on to their humanity. Just as important, she makes us care."-PeopleNAMED ONE OF THE TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY The New York Times • The Washington Post • O: The Oprah Magazine • USA Today • New York • The Miami Herald • San Francisco Chronicle • NewsdayIn this brilliant, breathtaking book by Pulitzer Prize winner Katherine Boo, a bewildering age of global change and inequality is made human through the dramatic story of families striving toward a better life in Annawadi, a makeshift settlement in the shadow of luxury hotels near the Mumbai airport.As India starts to prosper, the residents of Annawadi are electric with hope. Abdul, an enterprising teenager, sees "a fortune beyond counting" in the recyclable garbage that richer people throw away. Meanwhile Asha, a woman of formidable ambition, has identified a shadier route to the middle class. With a little luck, her beautiful daughter, Annawadi's "most-everything girl," might become its first female college graduate. And even the poorest children, like the young thief Kalu, feel themselves inching closer to their dreams. But then Abdul is falsely accused in a shocking tragedy; terror and global recession rock the city; and suppressed tensions over religion, caste, sex, power, and economic envy turn brutal. With intelligence, humor, and deep insight into what connects people to one another in an era of tumultuous change, Behind the Beautiful Forevers, based on years of uncompromising reporting, carries the reader headlong into one of the twenty-first century's hidden worlds-and into the hearts of families impossible to forget. WINNER OF: The PEN/John Kenneth Galbraith Award • The Los Angeles Times Book Prize • The American Academy of Arts and Letters Award • The New York Public Library's Helen Bernstein Book AwardNAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY The New Yorker • People • Entertainment Weekly • The Wall Street Journal • The Boston Globe • The Economist • Financial Times • Newsweek/The Daily Beast • Foreign Policy • The Seattle Times • The Nation • St. Louis Post-Dispatch • The Denver Post • Minneapolis Star Tribune • Salon • The Plain Dealer • The Week • Kansas City Star • Slate • Time Out New York • Publishers Weekly

Det er en vigtig dag for Yang Fei, for han er død, og det er hans første dag i døden. Han skal kremeres kl. 9.00, men han mangler penge til en begravelsesplads, og han må derfor vandre formålsløst rundt i efterlivet.I løbet af de næste syv dage ser Yang Fei tilbage på sit 41-årige liv, efterhånden som han møder de sjæle, han tidligere har mistet. Det er blevet til et begivenhedsrigt liv – levet i ubemærkethed. Sådan som det er tilfældet med så mange andre levede liv.Fra sin plads i efterlivet er den døde i en unik position til at betragte det moderne Kinas mange ofre. Men der hersker også et håb blandt de døde. Forventningen om bedre liv, der skal leves i fremtiden.Det er en barsk og melankolsk bog, Yu Hua har skrevet. Den er på en gang vidt skuende og samfundskritisk, men samtidig poetisk og livsbekræftende. ’Den syvende dag’ cementerer Yu Huas position som en af de allervigtigste litterære stemmer i Kina.

De dansk-japanske kulturelle forbindelser 1873–1903 beskriver en periode, hvor Japan gennemgik en rivende udvikling, åbnede sig mod resten af verden og selv blev en verdensmagt. Samtidig voksede den danske interesse for Japan voldsomt. Gamle myter om Japan forsvandt og nye opstod i kulturmødet mellem japanere og danskere. Bogen er et omfattende kulturhistorisk værk, der er baseret på grundige studier af og citater fra samtidige kilder. Kilderne består især af rejsebeskrivelser og dagbøger skrevet af danskere, der opholdt sig i Japan i kortere eller længere perioder: Fra Store Nordiske Telegraf-Selskabs udsendte medarbejdere over sømænd, handelsfolk og de første danske turister i Japan til Johannes V. Jensen. Den spænder over vidt forskellige emneområder, såsom litteratur, teater, sprog, antropologi, handel og religion, men fokus er overalt på de enkelte menneskers oplevelse af kulturmøderne. Persongalleriet er omfattende, og historierne er ofte underholdende. Vi hører blandt andet om William Bramsen, der var udsendt som telegrafist af Store Nordiske Telegraf-Selskab og blev Danmarks første japanolog; om danske udsendtes tilfældige møder med den japanske kejser Meiji; om prins Valdemars besøg i Japan i 1899–1900; om Johanne Münter, der var gift med våbenhandleren Balthasar Münter og opholdt sig i Japan fra 1887–1898. Hun udgav flere bøger om Japan, engagerede sig i kvindesagen og fik et dybt og varmt venskab med Ishii Fudeko, en af de mest markante kvinder i Japan i perioden. Vi hører også om japaneres besøg i Danmark, fx om en gruppe japanere, der optrådte i Zoologisk Have i København i 1902. Bogens mange historier belyser og skildrer møder med en fremmed kultur med alle de umiddelbare indtryk og fordomme, den dybfølte fascination og den forståelige forvirring, der følger med. De dansk-japanske kulturelle forbindelser 1873–1903 er anden del af Yoichi Nagashimas store tobindsværk om dansk-japanske kulturelle forbindelser. Den fortsætter, hvor De dansk-japanske kulturelle forbindelser 1600–1873 slap, men kan læses uafhængigt af forgængeren. Yoichi Nagashima, dr.pfil., er professor mso i japansk ved Institut for Tværkulturelle og Regionale Studier, Københavns Universitet.

En sanse- og oplevelsesmættet erindrings/rejsebog af høj kvalitet om en rejse til en forfatterkongres i Nordkoreas hovedstad, Pyongyang, i 1986.

I europæisk oldtid nedtegnede græske og romerske historieskrivere fædrelandets historie fra fortidens mytiske helte frem til samtiden og grundlagde hermed en tradition, som fremover kom til at præge al europæisk historieskrivning. Det kinesiske modstykke hertil er Sima Qians Historiske optegnelser, der blev til omkring begyndelsen af det første århundrede f.v.t.Sima Qian var hofastrolog hos kejser Wu-di (140-87) af Han-dynastiet, men havde i tilknytning til sit embede med særlig interesse kastet sig over studiet af den kinesiske historie, som han fulgte fra sagntid til samtid. Han skabte i 130 kapitler af varierende længde det første og hidtil største samlede historiske værk i kinesisk tradition. Allerede som ung var Sima Qian særdeles belæst og var desuden vidt berejst inden for det Kinesiske Rige, der under Han-dynastiet nåede sin hidtil største udstrækning. Forgængernes historiske kilder, adgangen til de kejserlige arkiver samt personlige erindringer og indtryk for forudsætningerne for Sima Qians omfattende historieværk. I de Historiske optegnelser indgår halvfjerds Biografier, der portrætterer en langrække fremtrædende skikkelser fra forskellige samfundslag og forskellige perioder. Derudover finder man her nogle oversigter over fremmede folkeslag, som kineserne kom i berøring med under det tidlige Han. I modsætning til optegnelsernes øvrige kapitler er biografierne ofte mindre formelle og indeholder et blandet og broget materiale, der kunstfærdigt forener historiske kendsgerninger med legende, heroisk idealisering, mere eller mindre formaliserede anekdoter og beretninger, som synes hentede fra folkelige røverhistorier. Det er disse Biografier, som her forelægges i dansk oversættelse.Sima Qians strukturering af stoffet var ny i kinesisk historieskrivning. Så beundret var hans måde at præsentere stoffet på, at den dannede skole for al senere historieskrivning i Kina. De første samlede versioner af de Historiske optegnelser dateres til 8. århundrede, men siden er teksten genudsendt i talrige udgaver helt frem til vore dage og udgør trods den kritiske forsknings fortsatte landvindinger stadig et af den kinesiske historieskrivnings hovedværker. Talrige digtere og forfattere har i tidens løb hentet inspiration i Sima Qians beretninger; nutidens filmskabere henter stof derfra, og selv i populære tegneserier genfinder man episoder og anekdoter, som kan spores tilbage til den kejserlige hofastrolog.

Denne lille bog beskriver på en kort og præcis måde det afghanske samfund. Det er en øjenåbner, et lille stykke oplysningshistorie om et stammesamfund, som allerede englænderne indså, at de umuligt kunne besejre i krig, bl.a. fordi Afghanistan ikke er en sædvanlig stat, men et regulært stammesamfund. I Afghanistan og Taleban viser Fredrik Barth, der har lært sig pashtunernes sprog, pashto, hvordan den politiske udvikling har været gennem de sidste par generationer, og han beskriver den afghanske befolknings kultur og værdier - deres selvopfattelse og deres opfattelse af os, af Vesten. Ifølge Fredrik Barth misfortolker Vesten Talebanernes begrundelser for at tage kampen op mod de internationale styrker. Vesten ser ligheder mellem Taleban og Al-Qaida på trods af, at der er store og væsentlige forskelle. Fredrik Barth mener ikke, at den vestlige militære strategi kommer til at fungere.Bogen bliver givet til de norske soldater inden de bliver udstationeret i Afghanistan. Lasse Ellegaards forord knytter an til oplevelser han havde under den sovjetiske besættelse af Afghanistan. Dengang var Vesten med Talebanerne.Fredrik Barth (f. 1928) er professor i socialantropologi ved universitetet i Boston, han har modtaget en række akademiske udnævnelser og priser for banebrydende teoretisk udvikling og formidling af feltarbejde, som ung antropolog tog han til Afghanistan og levede sammen med den folkegruppe der, i dag udgør kernen i Taleban.

Korea har en lang og omtumlet historie – og er i dag en delt nation. Sydkorea er et levende demokrati, verdens 10. største økonomi og efterhånden også en kulturel magtfaktor. Nordkorea har det mest autoritære regime i verden, er et fattigt land i en rig region og er bedst kendt for den personlighedskult, der er opbygget omkring Kim-familien.Forfatterne kortlægger i denne bog det moderne Koreas historie fra slutningen af 1800-tallet, gennem den japanske besættelse, krig og koldkrigsspændinger til i dag. De ser også på nutidens markante forskelle mellem Nord og Syd – og på udsigten til genforening.Sjette bog i serien “Den korte historie”.

In Afghanistan's rich and often chaotic history, the period from 1973 to 1978 stands out as one of the most critical and transformative. Characterized by the demise of the monarchy and the birth of the first Republic, this era is characterized by initial relatively non-violent transition, followed by political unrest, societal evolution and eventual demise of the first Republic. Abdul Hamid Muhtat, an active figure in the military in the establishment of the first Republic under President Daud and an insider chronicler of the events, presents a narrative in "Second Collapse, First Republic" written in Persian language, that is deeply rooted in his personal experiences and of historical importance. Holding a brief portfolio as minister of tele-communications under president Daud's first Republic and subsequently forced to step aside, Muhtat explores the complex interplay of political dynamics, societal changes, and the challenging course taken by Afghanistan's first Republic.

This publication is the result of the colloquium held at the Ruhr University of Bochum in Germany 2022. The Proceedings are showing an exciting mixture of cultures and collaborations between different ethnicities and religions created complex and diverse monuments. The shared visual language together with the surrounding environment evolved in artistic innovations.Künstler und Handwerker - Georgische mittelalterliche Skulptur in der Architektur im Austausch mit byzantinischer, persischer, seljukischer und armenischer Kunst.Tagungsband zur interkulturellen Gestaltungsbandbreite islamischer und christlicher Bauten über die Grenzen hinweg - in englischer Sprache.Grundlage dieser Publikation ist das Kolloquium mit gleichnamigem Titel, das im Jahr 2022 an der Ruhr-Universität Bochum stattgefunden hat. Besonderer Fokus liegt hierbei auf der künstlerischen Innovation, die sich aus dem Teilen der visuellen Sprache und der Interaktion verschiedener religiöser und ethnischer Gruppen heraus entwickelt hat.

Why some of Asia's authoritarian regimes have democratized as they have grown richer-and why others haven'tOver the past century, Asia has been transformed by rapid economic growth, industrialization, and urbanization-a spectacular record of development that has turned one of the world's poorest regions into one of its richest. Yet Asia's record of democratization has been much more uneven, despite the global correlation between development and democracy. Why have some Asian countries become more democratic as they have grown richer, while others-most notably China-haven't? In From Development to Democracy, Dan Slater and Joseph Wong offer a sweeping and original answer to this crucial question.Slater and Wong demonstrate that Asia defies the conventional expectation that authoritarian regimes concede democratization only as a last resort, during times of weakness. Instead, Asian dictators have pursued democratic reforms as a proactive strategy to revitalize their power from a position of strength. Of central importance is whether authoritarians are confident of victory and stability. In Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan these factors fostered democracy through strength, while democratic experiments in Indonesia, Thailand, and Myanmar were less successful and more reversible. At the same time, resistance to democratic reforms has proven intractable in Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong, China, Vietnam, and Cambodia. Reconsidering China's 1989 crackdown, Slater and Wong argue that it was the action of a regime too weak to concede, not too strong to fail, and they explain why China can allow democracy without inviting instability.The result is a comprehensive regional history that offers important new insights about when and how democratic transitions happen-and what the future of Asia might be.

Indigo Giant is a gripping, haunting new drama inspired by Dinabandhu Mitra's trail-blazing Indigo Mirror, a play that shook colonial India.

A young pilot disappears on a routine mission, resulting in a rescue attempt on a remote and inhospitable island in the South Pacific.

This book explores the dissemination of knowledge around Chinese medicinal substances from the eighteenth to twentieth centuries in a global context. The author presents a microhistory of the caterpillar fungus, a natural, medicinal substance initially used by Tibetans no later than the fifteenth century and later assimilated into Chinese materia medica from the eighteenth century onwards. Tracing the transmission of the caterpillar fungus from China to France, Britain, Russia and Japan, the book investigates the tensions that existed between prevailing Chinese knowledge and new European ideas about the caterpillar fungus. Emerging in eighteenth and nineteenth-century Europe, these ideas eventually reached communities of scientists, physicians and other intellectuals in Japan and China. Seeking to examine why the caterpillar fungus engaged the attention of so many scientific communities across the globe, the author offers a transnational perspective on the making of modern Europeannatural history and Chinese materia medica.

"The book is an introduction to Japan and its social and national structures. It does this by offering brief summaries of Japan's history, its current Constitution, its primary national symbols, its common cultural experiences (especially national holidays), its political and civil processes (including elections and the process of passing laws), and its national economy. The primary purpose of the book is to provide cultural literacy and understanding of Japanese systems to foreigners who have decided to live in Japan, and also to tourists and others with a general interest in Japan"--

This book examines social transformation during the Tang-Song period by focusing on the emergence and development of the "society of moneyed elite" in ancient China. Specifically, the author tries to shed light on three important theoretical questions. First, how to understand social change from the perspective economic history; second, how to construct scientifically-informed causal explanations of historical processes and events; and third, how to remedy the shortcomings of previous studies that emphasize the contrasts between the two dynasties while overlooking the continuity between them.

As the first inter-disciplinary study of ethnic relationship and cultural changes in the westernmost section of the Tibetan-Yi Corridor, this book brings together a broad range of analyses from the anthropological, historical, and frontier studies perspectives. The author builds on a synthesis of Fei Xiaotong¿s Tibetan-Yi corridor theory and Wang Mingming¿s cultural theory and to present a rich historical narrative of the dynamic interactions among the Lisu, Nu, Dulong, Naxi, Bai, Tibetan and Pumi ethnic groups in this region from the Tang Dynasty to the Republic of China period. In addition to a vast body of existing literature, the study also draws on extensive fieldwork. Its findings not only enhance our knowledge of the historical development of particular ethnic groups in a specific region but also have implications for how we should understand the development of the Chinese nation as a whole.

The collection contains materials of archival documents and memoirs concerning the famine of 1931-1933 in Central Kazakhstan. Various documents from the archives reveal to the reader the most difficult period of the Soviet history of Kazakhstan, associated with the dispossession of the kulaks and debaiization of the Kazakh village and aul, Stalinist forced collectivization, forced sedentarization of nomadic Kazakh farms, large-scale cattle, meat and grain procurements, famine and epidemics in the republic. The publication introduces previously unpublished archival materials from the Central and regional archives of Kazakhstan into scientific circulation. In addition, the collection includes the memories of famine witnesses preserved by their descendants. The collection is addressed to researchers, students, as well as a wide range of readers interested in the history of Kazakhstan.

In this book, the beauty and design of Japanese tattoos are explored through ukiyo-e prints and explained in detailed bilingual Japanese and English text.In recent years, the number of ukiyo-e tattoo designs, or tattoo designs using ukiyo-e motifs, has increased, and ukiyo-e are becoming more popular among tattoo lovers.First, Chapter 1 presents the artworks by artist, beginning with Kuniyoshi Utagawa, to introduce the beauty and design of tattoos by artists such as Toyokuni Utagawa, Yoshitoshi Tsukioka, Yoshiiku Ochiai, Kunichika Toyohara, and Yoshitora Utagawa.In Chapter 2, tattoo designs based on ukiyo-e are presented and grouped by motif, specifically including examples such as Shinto and Buddhist deities (Fujin, Raijin...); animals (dogs, cats, wolves, lions, monkeys...); plants (peonies, cherry blossoms, chrysanthemums...); yokai monsters (Hannya, skulls, bakenekos...); caricatures (Otsu-e, Okame, Hyottoko...) and more.This book appeals not only to lovers of traditional Japanese culture, but also to tattoo-lovers and tattoo artists, who can use it as a reference for designs.

Considers what unearthed documents reveal about the creation and transmission of knowledge in ancient China.