Teachers' selection of the literature they use in instruction frequently depends on how they interpret, in other words whether or not they accurately take in the authors' perspectives. This point presents a particular challenge in the selection of international literature. International literature reflects a country's and a region's unique cultural values and practices and is usually not written for people outside the country of origin. Therefore, it is possible that readers in other countries may not understand/be aware of those values and misinterpret the stories. Since Asian and the Western countries, including the U.S., hold maximum sociocultural differences and the perceived cultural distance has remained significantly wide, reading and interpreting literature from Asia can present tremendous challenges to Americans. The book addresses the challenges teachers face when interpreting and teaching with international children's literature from Asia. The book engages readers with comprehensive coverage on theories, concepts, pitfalls, and applications when endeavoring to use international children's literature from Asia in classrooms. The book should be used to teach how interpretations/worldviews vary by cultures, and how power influences such interpretations/worldviews. Strategies and frameworks will be provided relating to how teachers can be more culturally conscious of their own biases and develop culturally authentic interpretations.

This new volume, Children's Literature from Asia in Today's Classrooms: Towards Culturally Authentic Interpretations, aims to provide readers with interpretation guides and practical ideas when they endeavor to make use of Asian international children's literature in the classroom. It attempts to help readers interpret stories from Asia more authentically, and focuses both on international children's literature and also on international literature read by young adults. In an increasingly interconnected world, understanding Asian international children's literature and effectively using it are worthy goals for PK-16 classrooms and teacher education programs. The book is divided into two parts. Part I discusses how to authentically read children's literature from four countries: India, Thailand, China, and Japan. These chapters provide guides for meaningful interpretations of cultural aspects of children's stories from these countries. Part II consists of annotated bibliographies of international children's literature from selected Asian societies: China, Taiwan, Indonesia, Japan, Philippines, South Korea, and Thailand. The editors believe that readers will find each author's cultural insights fascinating and useful as they attempt to read with cultural authenticity.

This imaginative and innovative study by Daniel M. Amos, a longtime scholar of Cantonese culture, examines Chinese martial arts and martial artists in Hong Kong over the span of four decades, from 1976 to 2019. One of his earlier studies, based on ethnographic research completed between 1976 and 1981, compared Chinese martial artists in the British Crown Colony of Hong Kong with martial artists in neighboring Guangzhou, China, then emerging from the Cultural Revolution after the death of Mao Zedong. Over the past forty years Hong Kong has experienced the last two decades of British colonial rule and the first twenty years of governance by mainland China. Compared to the mid-1970s, Hong Kong is now much wealthier, while sports and leisure activities have become more closely tied to a world system where play and recreation have become increasingly internationalized. No longer are most Hong Kong Chinese martial artists who belong to private martial arts brotherhoods socially marginal people as they were in 1976. However, Chinese martial arts in Hong Kong has itself become marginalized in the sense that it is greatly reduced in popularity, with competition for the leisure time of children and youth coming from electronic media and games, a variety of sports, including mixed martial arts, boxing and other Asian martial arts.

The gigantic barns built by the major landowners of medieval England are among our most important historic monuments. Impressive structurally and architecturally, they have much to tell us about the technology of the time and its development, and are buildings of great and simple beauty. But, unlike houses, castles and churches, barns were centres of production, where grain crops were stored and threshed, and allow us to glimpse a very different side of medieval life - the ceaseless round of the farming year on which the lives of rich and poor depended. The Great Barn at Harmondsworth, built in 1425-7 for Winchester College, rescued and restored by English Heritage and Historic England in the last decade, is one of the most impressive and interesting of them all. Prefaced by an exploration of the ancient estate to which it belonged and of its precursor buildings, this book explores why, how and when the barn was built, the ingenuity and oddities of its construction, and the trades, materials and people involved. Aided by an exceptionally full series of medieval accounts, it then examines the way the barn was actually used, and the equipment, personnel, processes and accounting procedures involved - specifically relating to Harmondsworth, but largely common to all great barns. Finally, it covers its later history, uses and ownership, and the development of scholarly and antiquarian interest in this remarkable building.

Capitalism is in crisis! People are suffering, and the natural world is going to hell in a handcart. So long as they can get what they want, the richest 1% seems prepared to trash the environment and make others sacrifice anything. The whole purpose of civilisation has been bent to serve the interests of their Profit Machine, and we, the 99%, are pressed into service like slaves to keep their Profit Machine working. With increasing virulence, the capitalist system hunts down and demonises its scapegoats, blaming its victims for the horrors that it heaps upon them - the unemployed, the sick and disabled, the single parent - none are safe from its vile attacks. With unrestrained furious indignation, Daniel Miles, philosopher and activist, and Karl Gruber, maverick Christian minister, join in a quest to challenge the bad ideas that have led to the present global economic and social crises. From one key evil, the exploitation of the individual, all the other evils of our time flow forth in a sickening torrent.

Kale was an ordinary teenager until an encounter with an alien lifeform changes his life forever. Now he and his friends must battle the Manta-Tava to protect the Earth from mass destruction...even if it means they give their lives.

This new volume, Children's Literature from Asia in Today's Classrooms: Towards Culturally Authentic Interpretations, aims to provide readers with interpretation guides and practical ideas when they endeavor to make use of Asian international children's literature in the classroom. It attempts to help readers interpret stories from Asia more authentically, and focuses both on international children's literature and also on international literature read by young adults. In an increasingly interconnected world, understanding Asian international children's literature and effectively using it are worthy goals for PK-16 classrooms and teacher education programs. The book is divided into two parts. Part I discusses how to authentically read children's literature from four countries: India, Thailand, China, and Japan. These chapters provide guides for meaningful interpretations of cultural aspects of children's stories from these countries. Part II consists of annotated bibliographies of international children's literature from selected Asian societies: China, Taiwan, Indonesia, Japan, Philippines, South Korea, and Thailand. The editors believe that readers will find each author's cultural insights fascinating and useful as they attempt to read with cultural authenticity.

Teachers' selection of the literature they use in instruction frequently depends on how they interpret, in other words whether or not they accurately take in the authors' perspectives. This point presents a particular challenge in the selection of international literature. International literature reflects a country's and a region's unique cultural values and practices and is usually not written for people outside the country of origin. Therefore, it is possible that readers in other countries may not understand/be aware of those values and misinterpret the stories. Since Asian and the Western countries, including the U.S., hold maximum sociocultural differences and the perceived cultural distance has remained significantly wide, reading and interpreting literature from Asia can present tremendous challenges to Americans. The book addresses the challenges teachers face when interpreting and teaching with international children's literature from Asia. The book engages readers with comprehensive coverage on theories, concepts, pitfalls, and applications when endeavoring to use international children's literature from Asia in classrooms. The book should be used to teach how interpretations/worldviews vary by cultures, and how power influences such interpretations/worldviews. Strategies and frameworks will be provided relating to how teachers can be more culturally conscious of their own biases and develop culturally authentic interpretations.