Book reviews

CHINA

CHIU‐YEE CHEUNG. Lu Xun: the Chinese “Gentle” Nietzsche. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang, 2001. xviii, 197 pp. SFR 56.00, paper.

PAMELA KYLE CROSSLEY. The Manchus. Oxford and Maiden, MA: Blackwell Publishing, 1997; 2002. xvi, 239 pp. 26 plates, 2 maps. £30.00, hardcover; £16.99, paper.

GLORIA DAVIES (ed). Voicing Concerns: contemporary Chinese Critical Inquiry. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield Publishing Group, 2001. xii, 270 pp. US$75.00, hardcover; US$26.95, paper.

ANDREW F. JONES. Yellow Music—media Culture and Colonial Modernity in the Chinese Jazz Age. Durham and London: Duke University Press, 2001. ix, 213 pp. Glossary, notes, bibliography, index. US$49.95 hardcover, $17.95 paper.

KAM LOUIE. Theorising Chinese Masculinity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002. 239 pp. Bibliography, index. A$80.00, hardcover.

LUNG‐KEE SUN. The Chinese National Character: from Nationhood to Individuality. New York: M. E. Sharpe, 2002. xx, 299 pp. US$65.95, hardcover.

JAPAN, KOREA

MICHAEL LEWIS. Becoming Apart: national Power and Local Politics in Toyama, 1868–1945. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2000. Harvard East Asian Monographs, no. 192. $US45.00, hardcover.

KATO SHUICHI. A Sheep's Song: a Writer's Reminiscences of Japan and the World. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1999. 470 pp. Translated and annotated by Chia‐ning Chang. Index. US$24.95, paper.

SUSAN FISHER (ed). Nostalgic Journeys: literary Pilgrimages between Japan and the West. Proceedings of a conference held in Vancouver, British Columbia, September 1999. Vancouver: University of British Columbia, Institute of Asian Research, 2001. 194 pp. Notes on contributors. No price given, paper.

MICHAEL MOLASKY and STEVE RABSON (eds). Southern Exposure: modern Japanese Literature from Okinawa. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 2000. 362 pp. Introduction, Notes on translators. US$27.95, paper.

RAJYASHREE PANDEY. Writing and Renunciation in Medieval Japan: the Works of the Poet‐Priest Kamo no Chōmei. Michigan Monograph Series in Japanese Studies No. 21, Center for Japanese Studies, The University of Michigan. Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press, 1998. xi, 197 pp. US$32.95/£24.50, hardcover.

TAKAMIZAWA JUNKO. My Brother Hideo Kobayashi. Translated by James Wada, introduction by Leith Morton. Sydney: Wild Peony, 2001. x, 166 pp. Photographs. A$30.00, paper.

SOUTH, WEST & CENTRAL ASIA

I. QADEER, K. SEN and K. NAYAR. Public Health and the Poverty of Reform. New Delhi: Sage Publications, 2001. Rs 700, hardcover.

JAVED AHMAD KHAN. India and West Asia: emerging Markets in the Liberalisation Era. New Delhi/Thousand Oaks/London: Sage Publications, 1999. 263 pp. Rs. 395, hardcover.

SOUTHEAST ASIA

PHILIP J. ELDRIDGE. The Politics of Human Rights in Southeast Asia. London: Routledge, 2001. 256 pp. £55.00, hardcover.

KASIAN TEJAPIRA. Commodifying Marxism. The Formation of Modern Thai Radical Culture, 1927–1958. (Kyoto Area Studies on Asia, Centre for Asian Studies, Kyoto University, Volume 3). Kyoto: Kyoto University Press; Melbourne: Trans Pacific Press, 2001. xiv, 390 pp. Index. No price given, paper.

NICHOLAS TARLING. A Sudden Rampage: the Japanese Occupation of Southeast Asia, 1941–1945. London: C. Hurst & Company, 2001. xvi, 286 pp. £12.95, paper.     

Rain Making Ceremonies in Iran

Pre-Islamic beliefs and practices abound in Iran, albeit with an Islamic veneer, have been entirely islamicized. One kind of such surviving practices is that of rain making ceremonies. In this article, seven major rain-making ceremonies are categorized, described, and interpreted, including some regional variants thereof. Attention is paid to the fact that these ceremonies are not limited to Iran, but are also found in neighboring countries (Iraq, Turkey, India, Central Asia), thus showing that these are all survivors of common ancient religious archetypes.     

国民革命时期的店员工会

店员工会是国民革命时期店员的主要组织形式。作为政府批准成立的垄断性社团,店员工会的政治职能较为凸显,有与国家政权合作的明显倾向。但职业职能较为模糊,其团体行为与店员个体及行业诉求存在着一定的差异。店员工会应否存在及其隶属关系,国民党内部有着长久的争论,直至国民党中央训令店员工会解散、店员加入工商同业公会。     

Rendering responsible,provoking desire: women and home in squatter/slum renewal projects in the Turkish context

This article is situated at the intersection of urban restructuring, cultural conservatism and neoliberalism in the Turkish context to understand the new subject formations of poor women as they are relocated to high-rise apartment blocks in slum/squatter renewal projects by the prospect of homeownership via long-term mortgage loans. It contributes by showing the gendered effects of urban transformation on poor women as neoliberalism and conservatism interact. It draws upon two ethnographic studies that reveal women’s experiences embedded both in neoliberalism and patriarchy. In neoliberalism, women’s participation in the informal job market was promoted as they were made responsible for contributing to mortgage payments, and they were brought into consumption as they were provoked the desire for good homes via furnishing, and in patriarchy, women’s traditional roles in social reproduction were demanded in spite of their new roles and responsibilities. The study ponders women’s differentiated negotiations with patriarchy which resisted radical challenges when the family and the home framed women’s new responsibilities and desires. The rising conservatism rooted in Islam in Turkey, which prioritizes the family over individual women, created the conditions for it.     

Gender Education Gaps among Indigenous and Non‐Indigenous Groups in Bolivia

This article studies gender education gaps among indigenous and non‐indigenous groups in Bolivia. Using the National Census of Population and Housing 2012 and an estimation method analogous to difference‐in‐differences, the study finds that the intersection of gender and indigenous identity confers cumulative disadvantage for indigenous women in literacy, years of schooling and primary and secondary school completion. While gender education gaps have become narrower across generations, there remain significant differences within indigenous groups. The Aymara have the largest gender gap in all outcomes, despite having high overall attainment rates and mostly residing in urban centres with greater physical access to schools. The Quechua have relatively smaller gender gaps, but these are accompanied by lower attainment levels. The article discusses the possible sources of these differentials and highlights the importance of taking gender dynamics within each indigenous group into greater consideration.     

17-19世纪中叶中日书籍交流史的经济学分析:以地方志为例

17-19世纪中叶是中日书籍交流最为频繁的时期之一,书籍交流的方式较以往已发生了很大变化.汉籍除了传统的文化交流物品属性外,又增加了贸易商品的特性.本文以地方志为例,从经济学的角度,分析了17-19世纪中叶中国输日方志的数量、渠道、价格与利润,探索了中日方志贸易的特性以及日本重视方志收集的原因,进而从一侧面加深了人们对地方志在中日书籍交流史上意义的认识.     

The Regulatory State and Turkish Banking Reforms in the Age of Post‐Washington Consensus

The new era of the Post‐Washington Consensus (PWC), promoted under the auspices of International Financial Institutions such as the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, centres on the need to develop sound financial regulation and strong regulatory institutions, especially in the realm of banking and finance in post‐financial crisis developing countries. This article uses an examination of the Turkish banking sector experience with the PWC in the aftermath of the 2001 financial crisis to show its considerable strengths and weaknesses. The authors argue that the emergent regulatory state in the bank‐based financial system has a narrow focus on strengthening prudential regulation, whilst ignoring the increased ‘financialization’ of the Turkish economy. They identify the positive features of the new era of the PWC in terms of prudential regulation, which has become much more robust in its ability to withstand external shocks. At the same time, however, the article highlights some of the limitations of the new era which resemble the limitations of the PWC. These include the distributional impact of the regulatory reforms within the banking sector, and notably the emergence of foreign banks as the major beneficiaries of this process; weaknesses in promoting productive bank intermediation that finance the real economy and economic growth, leading to poverty reduction via growth of employment whilst stimulating financialization within the economy; and finally, the exclusive focus on prudential regulation, whilst ignoring regulatory costs, consumer protection and competition regulation.