This volume brings a critical lens to dance and culture within North East India. Through case studies, first-hand accounts, and interviews, it explores unique folk dances of Indigenous communities of North East India that reflect diverse journeys, lifestyles, and connections within their ethnic groups, marking almost every ritual and festival. Dance for people of North East India, as elsewhere, is also a way of declaring, establishing, celebrating, and asserting humans' relationship with n...

This pivot offers an innovative approach to dance education, bringing a creative and inclusive dance education pedagogy into Chinese dance classrooms. Associate Professor Ralph Buck’s experiences of teaching dance at the Beijing Dance Academy and the possible implications for dance education in China lie at the heart of this text. Through a critical examination of personal teaching practice, pedagogical issues, trends and rationales for dance education in the curriculum are highlighted. In...

The South China Sea has a rich and turbulent history. Today territorial disputes in the region including China, Taiwan, Vietnam, Philippines and Indonesia make it potentially one of the most dangerous points of conflict in Asia and millions of people have crossed its waters in search of safer shores. This new book reveals the ways in which the peoples of the South China Sea region have used dance as a means of contending with the immense political, economic and cultural rifts that have aff...

Celebrating the diversity of dance across the South Pacific, this volume studies the various experiences, motivations and aims for dance, emerging from the voices of dance professionals in the islands. In particular, it focuses on the interplay of cultures and pathways of migration as people move across the region discovering new routes and connections.

How Should We Live? explores twelve universal topics-including love, family, and empathy; work, time, and money-and shows what history can teach us about the art of living.

Beyond Folktales, Legends, and Myths: A Rediscovery of Children's Literature in Asia is a collection of different voices, narratives, and texts highlighting the richly-textured and diverse content coming from Asia. The book includes personal recollections of and conversations with children's literature expert and historian Leonard Marcus, award-winning author and illustrator Suzy Lee, prolific Singaporean author Jessie Wee and respected Australian author Dr Ken Spillman. It al...

This VSI offers readers something no other introduction to folk music does: a cross-cultural, comparative approach, a survey of the basic issues as they have unfolded over time, and specific examples from widely differing sites of how folk musicians themselves, as well as corporations, non-governmental organizations, and governments have made full use of the available resources, older and newer strategies, and multiple agendas that keep the folk music process alive in an increasingly inter...

Balinese Art is the first comprehensive survey of Balinese painting from its origins in the traditional Balinese village to its present position at the forefront of the high-priced Asian art scene.Balinese art has been popular and widely collected around the world for many decades. In fact, the contemporary painter who commands the highest prices in Southeast Asia's hot art market is Bali-born Nyoman Masriadi (1973-). This book demonstrates that his work d...

Before the 1970s, Maori existed in New Zealand literature as figures created by Pakeha writers. The Maori renaissance of the 1970s changed all that. Fiction writers led by Ihimaera and Grace challenged earlier stereotypes and inherited literary forms, creating a new body of writing that has redefined the Maori in literature. Until now no single comprehensive critical work has followed this evolution. Paola Della Valle’s landmark book sets that to right. From Silence to Voice portrays the e...

A concise introduction to the study of dance ranging from the practical aspects such as technique and choreography to more theoretical considerations such as aesthetic appreciation and the place of dance in different cultures. This book answers questions such as:Exactly how do we define dance?What kinds of people dance and what kind of training is necessary?How are dances made?What do we know about dance history?Featuring a glossar...

Filling a significant gap in the cross-cultural and cross-disciplinary literature within the field of Pasifika (Polynesian) and Maori identities and mental health, this volume focuses on bridging mental health related research and practice within the indigenous communities of the South Pacific. Much of the content reflects both differences from and relationships with the dominant Western theories and practices so often unsuccessfully applied with these groups. The contributors represent bo...

The author wrote:'The Western mind is liberal and the Chinese and Eastern, contemplative, and both cultures invite me into their infinitely rich and splendid worlds. From either garden, I can pick the most beautiful flowers….' and ' The fountain of wisdom is never dry and, from it, I drink the purest water to my heart’s content…'.The author grew up in the then Malaya which had been under British control as a crown colony since 1867 before it gained its independence in 1957.