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      • Trusted Partner
        The Arts
        February 2019

        Contemporary Korean cinema

        Culture, identity and politics

        by Hyangjin Lee

        The first in-depth, comprehensive study of Korean cinema offering original insight into the relationships between ideology and the art of cinema from East Asian perspectives. Combines issues of contemporary Korean culture and cinematic representation of the society and people in both North and South Korea. Covers the introduction of motion pictures in 1903, Korean cinema during the Japanese colonial period (1910-45) and the development of North and South Korean cinema up to the 1990s. Introduces the works of Korea's major directors, and analyses the Korean film industry in terms of film production, distribution and reception. Based on this historical analysis, the study investigates ideological constructs in seventeen films, eight from North Korea and nine from South Korea.

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        Contemporary Interpretations of Confucianism

        by Zeng Zhenyu

        The book has a total of 22 chapters and 1.5 million words. It was written by more than 20 experts and scholars in the field of Confucianism. The book has two main lines: Confucianism of famous thinkers in the past and Confucianism of folk beliefs. It integrates and interprets Confucianism of more than two thousand years in a clear way, including thoughts of benevolence, righteousness, etiquette, wisdom, integrity, filial piety, friendship, shame, courage, forgiveness, happiness, natural principles, conscience and etc.

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        Literature & Literary Studies
        April 2020

        Incest in contemporary literature

        by Miles Leeson

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        Science & Mathematics
        September 2024

        The elephant and the dragon in contemporary life sciences

        A call for decolonising global governance

        by Joy Y. Zhang, Saheli Datta Burton

        This book provides a powerful diagnosis of why the global governance of science struggles in the face of emerging powers. Through unpacking critical events in China and India over the past twenty years, it demonstrates that the 'subversiveness' assumed in the two countries' rise in the life sciences reflects many of the regulatory challenges that are shared worldwide. It points to a decolonial imperative for science governance to be responsive and effective in a cosmopolitan world. By highlighting epistemic injustice within contemporary science, the book extends theories of decolonisation.

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        How to understand contemporary art

        by Su Ye

        Focusing on specific artists and vivid works of art, this book aims to assist in the narration of the important artistic movements and trends that have formed the current state of contemporary art. Starting from the major creative media of image, sound, color, body, digital technology and the Internet, it discusses and introduces a number of new works, new issues and new approaches in contemporary art. Through the author's detailed elaboration of the creation of artworks, artists' personal stories and the evolution of aesthetic concepts, readers will see the vitality, thinking and creativity of contemporary art, experience the concrete connection between contemporary art and our daily life, dispel myths and prejudices about contemporary art, and truly feel the infinite power of art.

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        Humanities & Social Sciences
        April 2022

        Chinese religion in contemporary Singapore, Malaysia and Taiwan

        The cult of the Two Grand Elders

        by Fabian Graham

        In Singapore and Malaysia, the inversion of Chinese Underworld traditions has meant that Underworld demons are now amongst the most commonly venerated deities in statue form, channelled through their spirit mediums, tang-ki. The Chinese Underworld and its sub-hells are populated by a bureaucracy drawn from the Buddhist, Taoist and vernacular pantheons. Under the watchful eye of Hell's 'enforcers', the lower echelons of demon soldiers impose post-mortal punishments on the souls of the recently deceased for moral transgressions committed during their prior incarnations. Chinese religion in contemporary Singapore, Malaysia and Taiwan offers an ethnography of contemporary Chinese Underworld traditions, where night-time cemetery rituals assist the souls of the dead, exorcised spirits are imprisoned in Guinness bottles, and malicious foetus ghosts are enlisted to strengthen a temple's spirit army. Understanding the religious divergences between Singapore and Malaysia (and their counterparts in Taiwan) through an analysis of socio-political and historical events, Fabian Graham challenges common assumptions about the nature and scope of Chinese vernacular religious beliefs and practices. Graham's innovative approach to alterity allows the reader to listen to first-person dialogues between the author and channelled Underworld deities. Through its alternative methodological and narrative stance, the book intervenes in debates on the interrelation between sociocultural and spiritual worlds, and promotes the destigmatisation of spirit possession and discarnate phenomena in the future study of mystical and religious traditions.

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        February 2021

        The Stage and the Story

        by Djawad Rostom Touati

        ‘‘So he thought of writing a play inspired by the residents' strike, which was in full swing. He was in his fifth year of medical school and his future was directly affected by the outcome of this movement, for which he was enthusiastic. However, when he wanted to take an interest in the nuts and bolts, the details he could incorporate into his art, an indefinable discomfort overcame him, and he couldn't quite grasp the cause. The project remained at half-mast in a corner of his mind, and the end of the strike finished by gathering the dust of oblivion on it.’’ Dj. R. Touati The one is multiple, and that which unites, after the moment of egregore, becomes that which divides; irreconcilably. At a time when the failure of the intuition of diversity has never been so prevalent, so widespread, it seemed salubrious to the author to show - without seeking to demonstrate - through the painting of an aesthetic reality, that if a historical moment has given rise to debate and division within the same class, then nothing is more absurd - or more specious - than the claim to unanimity within an entire people. Against the schizophrenic false identification, attempting to grasp the totality appears to be the only way to confront totalitarianism, which is, as those who denounce it pretend to ignore in order to exonerate themselves, THE PART THAT TAKES ITSELF FOR THE WHOLE. On stage, Molière, Brecht, Kateb, Alloula and others play out history... against a backdrop of burgundy-red curtains, where a dialogue of the deaf imposes blindness on the actors in action. Far from the imposing “noise” of movement, La scène et l'histoire, like a “socio-temporal” filter, sets the historical record straight: curtain up. Theater teacher Nadji, on the lookout for the old days, Rahim and Lamia, the pretenders of a politically better future, and all the others... followers of culture, that's us..., (are) beating the floor of the present.

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        Business, Economics & Law
        January 2024

        Capitalism in contemporary Iran

        Capital accumulation, state formation and geopolitics

        by Kayhan Valadbaygi

        By situating Iran within the neoliberal global capitalism and resulting geopolitics, this book traces the patterns of capital accumulation and transformations in class and state formation emanating from it. It shows that Iranian neoliberalisation has brought about two capital fractions, namely the internationally-oriented capital fraction and the military-bonyad complex. It substantiates that the co-existence of these competing class fractions with different accumulation strategies has generated hybrid neoliberalism. The book further demonstrates how this new class formation has reorganised the function and operation of state institutions and transformed state ideology. By documenting the ways in which Iranian neoliberalisation has reshaped the subaltern classes and formed Iran's volatile foreign policy, it also provides a novel account of major events and processes in contemporary Iran, such as the post-2017 wave of uprisings, the nuclear programme and international sanctions.

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        Literature & Literary Studies
        January 2023

        The gift of narrative in medieval England

        by Nicholas Perkins

        This invigorating study places medieval romance narrative in dialogue with theories and practices of gift and exchange, opening new approaches to questions of storytelling, agency, gender and materiality in some of the most engaging literature from the Middle Ages. It argues that the dynamics of the gift are powerfully at work in romances: through exchanges of objects and people; repeated patterns of love, loyalty and revenge; promises made or broken; and the complex effects that time works on such objects, exchanges and promises. Ranging from the twelfth century to the fifteenth, and including close discussions of poetry by Chaucer, the Gawain-Poet and romances in the Auchinleck Manuscript, this book will prompt new ideas and debate amongst students and scholars of medieval literature, as well as anyone curious about the pleasures that romance narratives bring.

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        Humanities & Social Sciences
        May 2019

        History of Textbooks in Modern and Contemporary China (I and II)

        by SHI Ou

        This Book focuses on the history of textbooks in modern and contemporary China and divides it into the Volume I and II by textbooks in modern China and contemporary China. This Book not only lists textbooks in modern and contemporary China based on historical periods, but also analyzes the various phenomena in the history of textbooks and their causes in combination with the social and historical conditions at that time. This Book is the precious historical data, and also provides useful insights into the editing and production of our textbooks today.

      • Trusted Partner
        October 2023

        From India to Germany:What My Father's Journey Tells Usabout Migration and the Kindness ofStrangers

        by Sunita Sukhana

        — An extraordinary story of migration — Contemporary history of the 70s and backgrounds to India, Afghanistan, Iran, Turkey, Bulgaria, the former Yugoslavia, the GDR and the Federal Republic of Germany He was the son of the Sikh priest, a successful 400-meter runner and, eventually, a migrant. In 1979, Bagicha Singh turned his back on his homeland and set off with a head full of dreams on the long, turbulent overland journey from India to Germany. It was the year the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan and the Islamic Revolution raged in Iran. A year whose aftermath continues to shape the world to this day. More than 40 years later, his daughter tells the story of Bagicha's adventurous journey. The result is a touching document on origin, contemporary history, and the meaning of migration.

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      • Trusted Partner
        February 2023

        Ode to Youth

        by Shi Zhongshan is a writer, scriptwriter, and television producer. He has written novels such as The New Generation in the Military Compound and Hailing from All Corners of the Country and novelettes such as Years of Passion Burning, Resonance of Military Songs,and Happiness as Flowers, of which over thirty have been adapted for over one thousand episodes of TV plays.

        Dong Hongmei's father died of disability after the war, and her mother mysteriously “disappeared” when she was three years old. The tragic life experience indicates that her growth will be bumpy. However, her life turned a corner as she became the so-called "child of high-ranking officials," and she managed to drag herself out of the morass of despair. By virtue of the identity of "the child of high-ranking officials," all kinds of good things, such as awards, promotion, and the opportunity of going to Beijing, followed close on one another, while all these actually resulted from a huge misunderstanding... Dong Hongmei's life is full of affecting friendship, thereby making Ode to Youth a rare masterpiece full of romantic feelings in contemporary literary circles.

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        Literature & Literary Studies
        June 2023

        The politics of male friendship in contemporary American fiction

        by Michael Kalisch

        How might our friendships shape our politics? This book examines how contemporary American fiction has rediscovered the concept of civic friendship and revived a long tradition of imagining male friendship as interlinked with the promises and paradoxes of democracy in the United States. Bringing into dialogue the work of a wide range of authors - including Philip Roth, Paul Auster, Michael Chabon, Jonathan Lethem, Dinaw Mengestu, and Teju Cole - this innovative study advances a compelling new account of the political and intellectual fabric of the American novel today.

      • Trusted Partner
        The Arts
        October 2024

        Queer cinema in contemporary France

        Five directors

        by Todd Reeser

        Jacques Martineau, Olivier Ducastel, Alain Guiraudie, Sébastien Lifshitz and Céline Sciamma. The films of these five major French directors exemplify queer cinema in the twenty-first century. Comprehensive in scope, Queer cinema in contemporary France traces the development of the meaning of queer across these directors' careers, from their earliest, often unknown films to their later, major films with wide international release. Whether having sex on the beach or kissing in the high school swimming pool, these cinematic characters create or embody forward-looking, open-ended and optimistic forms of queerness and modes of living, loving and desiring. Whether they are white, beur or black, whether they are lesbian, gay, trans* or queer, they open up hetero- and cisnormativity to new ways of being a gendered subject.

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