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      • December 2017

        Sounds from 1922

        Tanabe Hisao’s Fieldwork in Colonial Taiwan and Amoy

        by Tanabe Hisao

        This book assembles the related literature on Japanese musicologist Tanabe Hisao’s reconnaissance in Taiwan and Xiamen in April of 1922, including historical materials such as the Taiwan and Xiaman sections in Nanyang, Taiwan, Okinawa Musical Notes, essays on Taiwanese music before and after his trips to Taiwan, the transcripts of his speeches in Taiwan, the sleeve notes of recordings on Taiwanese aboriginal music released in 1978, etc.. This book also contains an appendix of 17 pieces of Taiwanese aboriginal music recorded by Tanabe Hisao so that readers can be transported to the Taiwan a hundred years back through sound.

      • Off the Wall – How We Fell for China

        by William N. Brown

        With nearly 50 of William N. Brown’s original letters to family and close friends written between 1988 and 2017, this book is a unique window into the past 40 years’ transformation of not only Xiamen but the whole of China. William’s father initially strongly objected his move to China, but over time he came to support his choice as he read his son’s letters about the sweeping changes from the late 1980s’ muddy pathways to today’s modernized urban infrastructure. This book reveals not only China’s changes but also the author and his family’s strong fondness for China and its people.

      • March 2022

        Searching for Sweetness

        Women’s Mobile Lives in China and Lesotho

        by Sarah Hanisch

        Traversing from the rapidly urbanising county-level city of Fuqing to the remote mountainous kingdom of Lesotho in Southern Africa, Searching for Sweetness is one of the first and most extensive ethnographies linking rural-to-urban migration in China with Chinese migration to Africa. Against the backdrop of China’s national struggle for modernity and globalisation, Sarah Hanisch examines Chinese migrant women’s complex and ever-shifting struggles for upward social mobility across different generations and localities in China and Lesotho. Embedding the women’s individual portraits into larger historical contexts, Hanisch illustrates how these women interpret and narrate their migratory and everyday experiences through and beyond powerful state metanarratives on ‘sweetness’ and ‘bitterness’. In her exploration of migratory identities and projects that have been overlooked by previous studies, Hanisch brings uniquely gendered, multi-sited, and intergenerational perspectives to existing scholarship on Chinese internal and international migration.

      • Memoirs
        December 2014

        VESSEL

        by Cai Chongda

        A heart-wrenching memoir about coming-of-age, leaving home, losing family and friends, and finding one's place in the world. Growing up in an underprivileged family, Cai Chongda’s childhood is nevertheless one of quiet happiness. Things change when his father had a stroke – Cai was still in high school. In the next eight years, Cai's only goal is to make money to pay for Dad's medical bill. Like millions of young people in China, he left home for university in Beijing, hoping to eventually find a well-paid job in the capital. He became one of the most successful young journalists in the country, yet none of the fame or money could save his father. After his father’s death, Cai checked into a hotel room and began writing furiously. The result is VESSEL, in which he writes about his almost witch-doctor-like Nana, his mother's obsession of building her own house, and the long and tragicomic passing of his father. He also writes about childhood friends, most of which left their hometown like he did and struggled to find a place for themselves in big cities. In Cai’s own words, it’s a book about losers and survivors, generations of Chinese men and women caught in the whirlwind of manic economic growth from the 1980s to the present. VESSEL is Cai's story, but also theirs.

      • Agriculture & farming
        June 2008

        Organic Spices

        by V.A.Parthasarathy, K. Kandinnan &  V. Srinivasan

        The global changes warranted fastness in food production system and fast foods. In tune with demand, crop production also oriented accordingly. However, the proverb ‘Health is a Wealth is reminded us to keep vigil on system and method of food production and food safety. The ill-effect of conventional chemical based farming well documented and public realized the importance organically produced food and efforts are being made to popularize the organic production. India is a Land of Spices, each state or union territory in India cultivates one or other spice. Since spices form a part of many medicines the demand for organically produced spices is increasing considerably. Assuming a market growth of 10% in Europe, USA and Japan for organic spice products the world demand for organic spices may grow to 57000 tonnes in the next 10 yeaLarge scale use of high analysis fertilizers and pesticides result environmental hazards and imbalances in soil nutrients. Since spices are high valued and export oriented in nature it is imperative to keep the levels of pesticide residues below tolerance limits in view of the standards set by the importing countries. Hence the book on Organic Spices is timely and covers all aspects of organic spice production. The topic includes historical spice trade and importance of spices in food chain. Brief account on organic agriculture movement in the world and its present status and opportunity for organic spices in the world market are given. The chemistry and different methods of composting are included in the organic manures will be informative. Microbes play a greater role in agriculture, a separate devoted on microbes and plant growth promoting rhizobacteria would definitely enrich the reader not only that, the topics on biological control of insect pests, nematodes, fungus and bacteria of spices highlighted in separate chapters would be of interest in organic production system. The importance, composition, uses, botany and varieties, organic way of production of spices like black pepper, cardamom, ginger, turmeric, chillies and paprika, nutmeg, vanilla, seed spices like cumin, fennel, fenugreek, coriander and their harvest and post harvest processing are enumerated. The chapters on good agricultural practices (GAP) and organic certification procedures outlined for adoption. This would serve as a reference book for researchers, teachers and students besides farmers, traders and consumers.

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