Awards and Reviews

Reading Surimono
The Interplay of Text and Image in Japanese Prints
Edited by John Carpenter

Quotes from review of Reading Surimono by Joshua Mostow in Impressions, no. 31, 2010, pp. 180-184

“If you actually want to learn how to read surimono (deluxe, privately printed woodblock print) – their images, their texts and contents – this is the book for you. (…) Carpenter and his collaborators tell the reader just about everything one could possibly wish to know (…) The scholarship required for the kind of treatment presented in the catalogue is staggering. (…) All in all, this is a magisterial production. As suggested by the picture on the dustjacket , as though allowing the reader to peer through a moon window and gaze on the young woman at her ease, this book provides an exceptional glimpse into the art, culture, politics and everyday life of early nineteenth century Japan. One can imagine no more charming tutorial.”

Life in a Kam Village in southwest China, 1930-1949
Edited by Chaoquan Ou
Translated by D. Norman Geary

Ou is a veteran ethnologist and a member of the Kam people of Guizhou province, whom he writes about in this book. Most of the text describes life as it was in the author's childhood in the 1930s and 1940s, a time of hardship and conflict in China. As a vulnerable minority, the Kam had more than their share of problems. However, they survived, and enjoyed life in spite of poverty and isolation. The Kam (also called, or considered, a branch of the Dong) speak a language distantly related to Thai (in spite of inaccurate information on several Web sites that their language is Sino-Tibetan).

This is by far the longest of the very few accounts of them available in English. It is particularly good on daily life--food, clothing, marriage, family. Superbly detailed photographs greatly enhance the thorough text. As an insider, Ou can provide data on the darker side of life: irregular marriages, rapes, minor thefts, military actions, ethnic rivalry. This provides a valuable counterpoint to the more theory-drenched but too aseptic accounts of Chinese minorities by outsider ethnologists. Summing Up: Recommended. Specialists and general readers interested in south China's minorities. -- E. N. Anderson, emeritus, University of California, Riverside (This review appeared in the August 2008 issue of CHOICE)

Transcending Boundaries
Zhejiangcun: the Story of a Migrant Village in Beijing
Edited by Biao Xiang

"This wonderful ethnography … traces the fascinating history of Zhejiangcun’s survival and rise to prominence against all odds. This lively tale sheds much light on the tensions between state and society and the sources of economic dynamism in China today. An especially rich ethnography, which could only have been produced by someone who has spent many years on the scene." - Susan Greenhalgh University of California, Irvine (Population and Development Review 2008. 34(1): 182)

"The Chinese version of the book has become one of the best acclaimed recent anthropological publications in China. Apart from being an excellent exemplar of ethnographic study of migrant communities and state-society relations, the theoretical insights of the book also make it extremely valuable for scholars in the fields of anthropology, sociology, politics and Asian studies." - Na Liu University of Manchester, (Asian Journal of Social Science. 2008. 36(1): 142-143)

"A truly significant contribution to the field of Chinese migration studies. When 'Transcending Boundaries' is compared with existing works on overseas Chinese migration, readers will face some unavoidable and creative questions concerning the issue of migration generally, and the conflicts that surround it." - Wasana Wongsurawat (National University of Singapore,Population, Space and Place. 2008. 14:161–162)

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