Exploring Asian Voices explores literary and media texts suitable for Asian Studies within the secondary English Curriculum. Texts about Asian places, people, events and traditions give historical information as well as how their culture has been represented over time. Asian poets, writers and film makers often examine issues of migration, exile or the refugee experience and the traumatic emotional impact it can have on those who experience it first-hand. Similarly, Asian memoirs, autobiographies and diaries frequently deal with the hardships of coping with war, poverty and social injustice. The voices that are heard can be confronting but are often also inspirational in their desire to promote social and cultural reform and freedom.

Cultural adjustment and assimilation problems are other recurring themes in many Asian texts. This is not surprising with estimates that as many as twenty million Asian migrants have left their homelands to settle elsewhere. Studying such texts deepens historical and cultural familiarity and builds empathy through identification with often youthful protagonists. They can also increase student appreciation for virtues such as resilience, courage and determination in overcoming physical, cultural and language barriers. The rich literary history and diversity of Asian texts offer students many opportunities to broaden their learning and communication skills.

Contents:

Introduction

Social Reformers
- Mahatma Gandhi
- Aung San Suu Kyi
- Benazir Bhutto
- Malala Yousafzai

Poetry
- Writing a Poetry Analysis
- Japan
- India
- Vietnam
- China
- Life Writing

Autobiography and Memoir
- Chinese Cinderella —Autobiography
- Little Daughter-Memoir
- Hiroshima Hibakusha Stories
- Picture Books and Fairy Tales

Exploring Picture Books
- My Hiroshima
- Folk and Fairy Tales
- Ye Xian
- Japanese Folk Tales
- The Grateful Crane
- The White Crane

Prose
- Little Brother
- The China Coin

Film
- Film Study Skills
- Bend It Like Beckham
- Bride and Prejudice
- Responding and Composing

Life-writing and Non-fiction Texts
- True Blue
- My China

Bind: paperback

Publication Date: 23-08-2013

With less than 2 per cent of the total Māori population holding a doctorate, the need for Māori leadership planning in academia has never been greater. The purpose of this book is to present the experiences of new and emerging Māori academics as a guide for others aspiring to follow.

In 2010 Professor Sir Mason Durie oversaw the creation of the Te Manu Ao Academy at Massey University, designed to advance Māori academic leadership. In partnership with Ngā Pae o te Māramatanga, the course looked to develop participants' thinking around effective leadership principles, values and ideas.

This book grew from that programme, in response to the need to create the space for new and emerging Māori academic leaders to speak openly about what leadership means both personally and professionally.

Bind: paperback

Pages: 174

Dimensions: 150 x 230 mm

Publication Date: 20-11-2013

This is a new translation by Justin Fleming of Molière’s The School for Wives, first staged in Paris in 1662.



Arnolde, a wealthy business man, reveals that he confined a young girl, Agnes, in a convent as a child so that some day she may be his innocent, ignorant and therefore dutiful wife. Now that Agnes is of marrying age, Arnolde hides her in a house and plans their wedding.



Horace, the handsome son of Arnolde’s friend, catches a glimpse of Agnes, and falls in love with her. By boldly gaining access to the house, he learns from Agnes how her master keeps her a prisoner from the world.



Incensed at Horace’s secret advances, Arnolde forbids Agnes from seeing Horace and sends for a lawyer to prepare the marriage contract.



But in an hilarious sequence of events, Fate reveals that it has a very different plan in mind.



“Moliere would surely have approved of Justin Fleming's daring new version, a taut, biting and extremely funny masterpiece of translation. In some ways, Fleming's words are the stars of this show, which zings along in rhyming couplets, true to Moliere's original, but also detours effortlessly into the realm of alternate rhyme to provide contrast for a modern audience's ears.”

Bind: paperback

Publication Date: 18-07-2014