In this significant scholarly contribution to the study of ethnic minorities, Chalsa Loo documents a distinctive American community--Chinatown, San Francisco. Based on an interview survey of residents of Chinatown, Loo's study tests prevailing psychological and sociological theories, and ultimately dispels stereotypes about Asian Americans, replacing them with empirically derived realities of American life. "Chinatown: Most Time, Hard Time" comprehensively covers a range of significant areas of life, integrating several disciplines and combining the rigor of scientific analysis with the richness of individual experience through the use of photographs and personal vignettes.

This valuable analysis serves as a model of comprehensive, quantitative multidomain interview sample survey research. It provides data on the major domains of life for all Americans, but particularly for ethnic Americans: neighborhood, crowding, health, mental health, employment, language and cultural barriers, quality of life, and differences between men and women. This book is scholarly yet readable, and will be particularly useful to social scientists, educators, researchers, human service professionals, and policy planners.

"Kawaii" is a Japanese word that denotes "cute," "lovable," or "charming" although it does not have exactly the same meaning as those adjectives. This book proposes engineering methodologies for systematic measurement of the affective perception of kawaii, by using virtual reality and biological signals, and discusses the effectiveness of kawaii engineering for designing industrial products and services. Kawaii can draw sympathy from people and can embody a special kind of cute design, which reduces fear and makes dull information more acceptable and appealing. Following the introduction of the background of kawaii engineering in Chapter 1, Chapters 2 and 3 describe experiments on the systematic measurement and evaluation methods for kawaii products and affective evaluation experiments. Chapter 4 proposes a mathematical model to identify the physical attributes that determine kawaii in motion. Chapters 5 and 6 explain research that uses biological signals and eye-tracking. After a brief survey of psychological research on kawaii and cuteness in Chapter 7, Chapters 8 and 9 introduce the use of spoons designed to stimulate the appetite of the elderly and the practical implementation of an emotion-driven camera. Chapters 10-14 explain experimental research that examines kawaii perception of people from various cultural backgrounds. Kawaii Engineering will appeal to those who work on affective computing, product design, user experience design, virtual reality, and biological signals.

The American Left has produced a rich and varied cultural tradition that was largely suppressed during the Cold War but whose influence on the larger society has always been significant. Much of this tradition found its expression in film and despite the suppression of overtly leftist content in most Hollywood films, there is still a substantial amount of leftist material in American movies. Booker's study gives the attention to the films of the American Left that they have long deserved by examining the full range of their history. Such well known directors as Charlie Chaplin, Orson Welles, William Wellman, Fritz Lang, John Huston, Stanley Kubrick, Oliver Stone, and John Sayles often showed leftist inclinations in their work. Other films associated with the American Left have been produced in a number of modes and subgenres, including war films, historical films, detective films, and science fiction. Some of these directors have offered overt criticisms of capitalism in films dealing with labor and business. This reference book thoroughly explores leftist elements in American films.

The book begins with a brief historical survey of the development of this important cultural phenomenon. It then provides detailed entries for more than 260 films associated with the American Left. The entries are arranged chronologically, so that the reader may trace the cinematic representation of the American Left across time. The entries include not only plot summaries, but also critical examinations of the political content and implications of the films. Included are discussions of such classic works as "Citizen Kane" and "The Grapes of Wrath, " along with considerations of more recent films, such as "Apocalypse Now, Taxi Driver, " and "Men with Guns." Two appendixes and index provide alphabetical access to the entries. The individual entries provide brief bibliographical citations, while the volume closes with a bibliography.

Mention the word Europe in today's society and you are greeted with a range of responses, from impassioned debate, to scepticism and outright hostility. Yet long before the emergence of the modern European Union, the concept of Europe played a vital role in the creation of national identity. This book considers the wealth of contemporary and historical attitudes towards Europe and how these vary both within and between nation-states. Why are some countries 'Europhiles' whilst others are 'Europhobic'? How has Europe alternately been perceived as a threat to local culture and identity or as the core of nation-building? Why are individual responses to Europe so diverse? Comparing and contrasting experiences from twelve very different countries, the authors explore the multitude of ways in which established national discourses are reconciled with an emerging identity within the EU. In doing so, this book makes an important contribution to what has proved to be one of the most controversial and heated debates of our time.

This set gathers together a collection of previously out-of-print titles that examine China's great heritage in literature, poetry, theatre and performance, painting and crafts. This reference resource spans Chinese traditions and artforms to provide in-depth analysis of some of China's great cultural treasures from many different periods in the country's long history.

In this groundbreaking collection, Dr. Jenna Ng brings together academics and award-winning artists and machinima makers to explore the fascinating combination of cinema, animation and games in machinima (the use of computer game engines to produce animated films in cost- and time-efficient ways). Book-ended by a preface by Henry Lowood (curator for history of science and technology collections at Stanford University) and an interview with Isabelle Arvers (machinima artist, trainer, critic, and curator), the collection features wide-ranging discussions addressing machinima not only from diverse theoretical perspectives, but also in its many dimensions as game art, First Nations media art, documentary, and pedagogical tool. Making use of interactive multimedia to enhance the text, each chapter features a QR code which leads to a mobile website cross-referencing with its print text, integrating digital and print content while also taking into account the portability of digital devices in resonance with machinima's mobile digital forms. Exploring the many dimensions of machinima production and reception, Understanding Machinima extends machinima's critical scholarship and debate, underscoring the exciting potential of this emerging media form.

At the cusp of literary and cultural studies, this wide-ranging critical anthology reevaluates Victorian culture in the light of the literature of the period and vice versa. Also, essays by eminent and emerging Victorianists offer a reassessment, explicit and implicit, of Victorian studies and its methodologies.

All CEOs, managers, supervisors, training professionals, and educators must be able to effectively recruit, train, manage, and promote a culturally diverse work force. Unfortunately, few of them have been adequately trained to do so. Effective management of diversity is good business. It takes effective communication, conflict resolution, and the creation of an inclusive organizational culture to succeed. This comprehensive book helps administrators better understand the problems they face and how to deal with them by dispelling the myths and facing the realities of cultural diversity.

Drawing on numerous examples of successful diversity initiatives, the book gives the reader a balanced view of distinct diversity interventions. Cross-cultural training programs are critiqued, along with specific methods for assuring quality in-service training activities. Self-administered quizzes, surveys, and critical incidents are included to allow the reader to gain self-insight and self-improvement. African Americans, Hispanics, Native Americans, Asians, women, older workers, employees with disabilities, foreign workers, and majority cultural groups are discussed in great detail. Theories and laws, as well as behavioral, cognitive, and affective strategies are among the topics presented.

Talking Politics presents the opinions of some of America's leading broadcasters and political commentators on the tension-fraught relationship between politics and the media. In a series of personal, frank, and in-depth interviews, Tom Brokaw, Larry King, Robert MacNeil, Linda Ellerbee, Bernard Shaw, and others talk about the extraordinarily influential, sometimes volatile, relationship between journalists and political figures. Providing a window onto political campaigns and governance, political analysts, journalists, and media figures address issues such as: * When does a tabloid story become news, worthy of the attention of the serious media * Can a talk show really give us a closer look at a candidate or is that closeness an illusion? * When can voters trust candidate images presented on TV-network news, talk shows, or otherwise? In an age when the media has become as much a topic as the politicians it covers. Talking Politics will be fascinating reading for all who follow politics. Talking Politics gives us an inside view of the relationship between journalists and candidates, one that shapes the way most Americans choose their president. In a series of personal and in-depth interviews, some of America's top broadcasters and political commentators talk about the extraordinarily influential relationship between the nation's most powerful journalists and political figures. Tom Brokaw, Larry King, Robert MacNeil, Linda Ellerbee, Bernard Shaw, and other media figures address issues such as: o When does a tabloid story become worthy of the attention of the serious media? o Can a talk show really give us a closer look at a candidate or is that closeness an illusion? o When can voters trust candidate images presented on television-network news, talk shows, or otherwise? Each chapter in Talking Politics features a frank, revealing interview with one of the nation's most influential broadcasters or political commentators. The result is a unique, behind-the-scenes look at the tension-fraught relationship between TV news and political candidates. In an age when the media has become as much a topic as the politicians it covers, Talking Politics will be fascinating reading for all who follow politics.

In the White Mutiny of 1859-61--the largest revolt the British army ever faced--European troops operating on behalf of the East India Company rebelled against their transfer to the service of the Queen of England. Through an analysis of the White Mutiny, Peter Stanley provides a portrait of emerging working-class consciousness among the troops and reveals how the British army, the preeminent icon of English imperialism, first maintained, then lost, control over a vast and generally hostile sub-continent.

In cantonment offices in Meerut and Calcutta, we find unimpaired the class distinctions and aspirations of contemporary Britain. Penetrating the hidden worlds of the barrack room and the officers' mess, White Mutiny demonstrates the intimate relationship between the military and the social history of British culture in India, and how awareness of each can enrich the other.

From Charlie Chaplin's The Gold Rush to Quentin Tarantino's Pulp Fiction, Gehring presents a compelling theory of the black comedy film genre. Placing the movies he discusses in a historical and literary context, Gehring explores the genre's obession with death and the characters' failure to be shocked by it. Movies discussed include: Slaughterhouse Five, Catch-22, Clockwork Orange, Harold and Maude, Heathers, and Natural Born Killers.

This book includes papers presented at the 6th Arte-Polis International Conference. The theme of the conference was "Imagining Experiences: Creative Tourism and the Making of Place", and the book brings together studies based on lessons-learned, research and critical reviews related to creative tourism and reflections on placemaking. Covering a broad range of topics, including cultural and experiential perceptions of landscape, sustainable design, urban and rural planning, traditional and vernacular environment, public realm, thematic tourism, as well as heritage preservation and management, it discusses how issues of tourism shape our understanding of and discourse on architecture and landscapes. The book serves as an invitation to more participatory and polyphonic dialogues in the field of architecture, art and planning.

The Vietnam War was one of the most painful and divisive events in American history. The conflict, which ultimately took the lives of 58,000 Americans and more than three million Vietnamese, became a subject of bitter and impassioned debate. The most dramatic--and frequently the most enduring--efforts to define and articulate America's ill-fated involvement in Vietnam emerged from popular culture. American journalists, novelists, playwrights, poets, songwriters, and filmmakers--many of them eyewitnesses--have created powerful, heartfelt works documenting their thoughts and beliefs about the war. By examining those works, this book provides readers with a fascinating resource that explores America's ongoing struggle to assess the war and its legacies.

This encyclopedia includes 44 essays, each providing detailed information on an important film, song, or literary work about Vietnam. Each essay provides insights into the Vietnam-era experiences and views of the work's primary creative force, historical background on issues or events addressed in the work, discussion of the circumstances surrounding the creation of the work, and sources for further information. This book also includes an appendix listing of more than 275 films, songs, and literary works dealing with the war.

In the last half century, ways of thinking about the Holocaust have changed somewhat dramatically. In this volume, noted scholars reflect on how their own thinking about the Holocaust has changed over the years. In their personal stories they confront the questions that the Holocaust has raised for them and explore how these questions have been evolving. Contributors include John T. Pawlikowski, Richard L. Rubenstein, Michael Berenbaum, and Eva Fleischner.

This book starts with four aspects - subject's cognition, way of thinking, political value and ideology, conducts comparative studies on political culture. Amid using the concept of political culture in western academic circles, it makes comprehensive supplement for this concept, and put forward an updated concept of political culture which is more localized. This new concept, on the grounds of the comparison with political system, takes political culture as the subjective side of political system and incorporates ideology into political culture, thus undoubtedly enriching our knowledge of political culture. On the basis of clarifying the concept of political culture and establishing the comparative dimension of it, this book widely refers to the outlooks of individuals, nations, society and power of political cognition; the modes of objectives, directions and methods of political ideas; democratic awareness, legal concept and system selection of political value; as well as liberalism and republicanism, etc. All these bring substantial benefits to promoting and deepening the comparative studies on political culture. This book can not only be used for the teaching undergraduate and graduates who major in Politics, but also used as the reference book for politics academic research.

Anthropologist and social critic Ghassan Hage explores one of the most complex and troubling of modern phenomena: the desire for a white nation.

In this book the late Jeffrey Clark subjects the history of colonialism among the Wiru of Papua New Guinea to a fresh and subtle examination. Colonized and colonizers alike are the focus of an analysis that draws upon theories of culture, temporality, discursive representation, and anthropology in the postcolonial era.

'A beautiful meditation on the writer's relocation from bustling London to bucolic Florence. It reminded me why I cherish slow living in southern Europe' (Taiye Selasi, Guardian)

Chosen as Book of the Year by Random Jottings

Made redundant from her job, Kamin Mohammadi flees the bleak streets of London for a friend's sun-dappled apartment in Florence. There, among the cobbled streets, the bustling, vibrant markets and the majestic palazzos, she finds a new lease of life, and a new way to live it.

At once lyrical and practical, Bella Figura shows us how to make every aspect of life as beautiful as it can be. From how to choose the perfectly ripe tomato to how to walk down the street in style, Kamin Mohammadi explores the intricate nuances of Italian culture, and sets down a simple guide to a better, more elegant - and ultimately more satisfying - life.

With great care and judicious inclusion of noteworthy material, Gunde has provided a one-stop reference on the contributions of the Chinese and their way of life. In one volume, the essence of China--past and present--is brilliantly captured. The extensive coverage includes chapters on the land, history, and people; thought and religion; literature and art; music and dance; food and clothing; architecture and housing; family and gender; and holidays and leisure activities. The volume is further enhanced by a chronology, guide to pronunciation, glossary, suggested readings, numerous photos, and volume map.

China is ever-important on the global stage as the world's second-largest and most populous country. Up-to-date and written with warmth, eloquence, and authority, "Culture and Customs of China" will be a popular source for students and the interested reader seeking to understand the modern people and culture in the context of an ancient history.

This work looks at cross-cultural lives and identities in the multicultural landscape. It covers such topics as: lives in China along the Yangtze River and the Yellow River before, during and after the cultural revolution; cross-cultural lives in China and Canada; and more.

This interdisciplinary book responds to the explosion of gay and lesbian creativity on modern-day France. Rather than attempting to formalize a specifically 'gay' or 'lesbian' style or identity, the authors seek to open up new 'homotextualities, ' understood here as ongoing constructions and deconstructions of both homosexuality and its environments. They investigate the work of (among others) Violette Leduc, Tony Duvert, Renaud Camus, and Guy Hocquenghem; the cinema of Josiane Balasko and Cyril Collard; the theoretical writings of Leo Bersani, Luce Irigaray, and Monique Wittig. Employing a range of methods, authors re-evaluate and contest both the literary and theoretical canon and establish new convergences between French and Gay Studies, in particular, queer theory. This book provides the first proper assessment of the usefulness of this approach when dealing with a literary and cultural tradition notoriously discreet about the very concept of a gay writer.

This book explores the aesthetic and ethical ways in which history and daily life are filmically represented and witnessed in Taiwanese director Hou Hsiao-hsien's movies. From the era of the Japanese Occupation to the White Horror and then to the lifting of martial law, the author shows how Hou Hsiao-hsien uses visual media to evoke the rhythms of daily life through the emotional memory of the characters and communities he explores. In particular, the book focuses on the ways in which Hou Hsiao-hsien seeks to reflect the strong dilemmas of identity and the traumatic emotions associated with witnessing history. Taking an interdisciplinary approach, it investigates the concepts of daily life, representation and historical trauma in order to focus on how these films represent history and political trauma through the nature of daily life and personal memories, and the resulting historical responsibility and ethics. This is the first academic monography about Hou Hsiao-hsien's films.

Internationalism is generally considered to be a major feature of the labour movement, and to hold a far more powerful appeal for workers' organizations than national identity. However, this revisionist book argues that, in fact, it is the national dimension which is of utmost importance to workers' organizations, and that national questions have often compelled workers to engage in struggles on different levels. Through detailed case studies of trade union involvement in Northern Ireland, Italy, Spain, Belgium, Austria and Europe generally, contributors tackle subjects long neglected by labour historians and overturn the accepted wisdom that nationalism and the labour movement are irreconcilably opposed. This analysis of how international agendas are influenced by nationalist politics is unique, and the case-studies offer a dynamic description of the different ways in which nationalist values meet with trade union ideas and practices.The high standard of scholarship and the combination of historical and contemporary material make this book essential reading for students and researchers of labour history, politics, political theory and area studies.