Two Cakes Fit for a King
Two Cakes Fit for a King

Author: Nguyet Cam Nguyen

Publisher: University of Hawaii Press

Published: 2003-07-31

Total Pages: 128

ISBN-13: 0824840488

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For centuries, Vietnamese have sustained the history of their nation, both actual and mythic, through their folklore. These stories, passed from generation to generation, contain not only the national saga, but also fundamental cultural values that Vietnamese hold dear. Some stories, like "A Daughter's Love," are imaginative accounts of early Vietnamese history. Others, like "The Anger of the Waters" and the title story, "Two Cakes Fit for a King," provide colorful explanations of the world and how it works. "The Story of Watermelon Island" offers readers a glimpse of the traditional agrarian values and way of life that are the foundation of Vietnamese society. Imaginative and captivating, funny and sometimes tragic, these tales have remained popular and culturally significant for Vietnamese, young and old, for hundreds of years. The intricate illustrations draw on centuries-old painting styles and on natural imagery and everyday life in Vietnam.

Textual Transformations in Children's Literature
Textual Transformations in Children's Literature

Author: Benjamin Lefebvre

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2013

Total Pages: 230

ISBN-13: 0415509718

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This book offers new critical approaches for the study of adaptations, abridgments, translations, parodies, and mash-ups that occur internationally in contemporary children's culture. It follows recent shifts in adaptation studies that call for a move beyond fidelity criticism, a paradigm that measures the success of an adaptation by the level of fidelity to the "original" text, toward a methodology that considers the adaptation to be always already in conversation with the adapted text. This book visits children's literature and culture in order to consider the generic, pedagogical, and ideological underpinnings that drive both the process and the product. Focusing on novels as well as folktales, films, graphic novels, and anime, the authors consider the challenges inherent in transforming the work of authors such as William Shakespeare, Charles Perrault, L.M. Montgomery, Laura Ingalls Wilder, and A.A. Milne into new forms that are palatable for later audiences particularly when--for perceived ideological or political reasons--the textual transformation is not only unavoidable but entirely necessary. Contributors consider the challenges inherent in transforming stories and characters from one type of text to another, across genres, languages, and time, offering a range of new models that will inform future scholarship.

From Word to Canvas
From Word to Canvas

Author: V.G. Julie Rajan

Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing

Published: 2009-03-26

Total Pages: 180

ISBN-13: 1443809349

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From Word to Canvas: Appropriations of Myth in Women’s Aesthetic Production is an innovative collection of essays on female aesthetic production and myth, examining the ways in which women artists and writers utilize myth to negotiate their perceptions of feminine identity and feminine representation in an increasingly complex and culturally hybrid world. The featured essays and artistic contributions address a variety of contemporary female productions, including literature, performance, and visual art, in a markedly global scope. Representing a wide range of cultures, languages, geographic locales, and social contexts—from Jewish-Hindu and Kenyan-German, through Irish, Italian, American, to Vietnamese folktales—this diversified selection underscores the agency of “the feminine gaze” across a historical and geopolitical span, a gaze through which myths from various cultures and different cultural amalgams speak to us with force and with significance. The potency of this gaze is linked to the potential of myth simultaneously to encompass and compress history, and to offer the result as a backdrop against which the move from word to canvas—or from a mythic tale to its aesthetic appropriation—is performed in female aesthetic production.

All the Broken Things
All the Broken Things

Author: Kathryn Kuitenbrouwer

Publisher: Random House Canada

Published: 2014-01-14

Total Pages: 354

ISBN-13: 0345813529

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A novel of exceptional heart and imagination about the ties that bind us to each other, broken and whole, from one of the most exciting voices in Canadian fiction. September, 1983. Fourteen-year-old Bo, a boat person from Vietnam, lives in a small house in the Junction neighbourhood of Toronto with his mother, Thao, and his four-year-old sister, who was born severely disfigured from the effects of Agent Orange. Named Orange, she is the family secret; Thao keeps her hidden away, and when Bo's not at school or getting into fights on the street, he cares for her. One day a carnival worker and bear trainer, Gerry, sees Bo in a streetfight, and recruits him for the bear wrestling circuit, eventually giving him his own cub to train. This opens up a new world for Bo--but then Gerry's boss, Max, begins pursuing Thao with an eye on Orange for his travelling freak show. When Bo wakes up one night to find the house empty, he knows he and his cub, Bear, are truly alone. Together they set off on an extraordinary journey through the streets of Toronto and High Park. Awake at night, boy and bear form a unique and powerful bond. When Bo emerges from the park to search for his sister, he discovers a new way of seeing Orange, himself and the world around them. All the Broken Things is a spellbinding novel, at once melancholy and hopeful, about the peculiarities that divide us and bring us together, and the human capacity for love and acceptance.

Legends of Vietnam
Legends of Vietnam

Author: Nghia M. Vo

Publisher: McFarland

Published: 2014-01-10

Total Pages: 277

ISBN-13: 0786490608

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Legends are a mirror of the culture that creates them, a revealing lens through which to observe society, religion, history, and traditions. This volume explores Vietnamese legends from 1321 to today--tales of gods, spirits, ghosts, giants, extraordinary individuals, heroes, common people, and animals. It explains the mores, thought processes, and religions that formed the genesis of Vietnamese legends, traces the development of legends through time and space, and highlights the historical and social differences between northern and southern legends. Over time, this work shows, Vietnamese legends have evolved from a 14th century means of government propaganda to become a form of news, entertainment, and thought for the masses.

To Vietnam with Love
To Vietnam with Love

Author: Kim Fay

Publisher: ThingsAsian Press

Published: 2008

Total Pages: 308

ISBN-13: 9781934159040

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From endangered langurs on Cat Ba Island to sidecar journeys in the Central Highlands, discover the secrets of savvy expatriates, seasoned travelers, and inspired locals. With its unique insights into dining, shopping, sightseeing, and culture, this personal collection of essays is a one-of-a-kind guide for the passionate traveler.

To Asia with Love
To Asia with Love

Author: Kim Fay

Publisher: ThingsAsian Press

Published: 2004

Total Pages: 254

ISBN-13: 9780971594036

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Imagine that on the eve of your upcoming trip to Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, and Vietnam, you are invited to a party. At this party are fifty guests, all of whom live in or have traveled extensively through these countries. Among this eclectic and well-versed group of connoisseurs are authors of acclaimed guidebooks, popular newspaper columnists and pioneering adventurers. As the evening passes, they tell you tales from their lives in these exotic places. They whisper the names of their favorite shops and restaurants; they divulge the secret hideaways where they sneak off to for an afternoon (or a weekend) to unwind. Some make you laugh out loud, and others mesmerize you with their poetry and lyricism. Some are intent on educating, while others just want to entertain. Their attitudes are as unique as their personalities, but they are united in one thing ... their love of the region. If you can envision being welcomed at such a party, then you can envision the experience that this guidebook aspires to give you. Within these pages you will find tips for adventuring, eating, shopping, and sightseeing from savvy expatriates, seasoned travelers, and inspired locals. Unlike the typical guidebook, To Asia With Love does not offer a comprehensive overview, but instead presents selected recommendations in the form of personal essays and tidbits, each of which is paired with a practical fact file. Discover the benefits of carrying a baseball glove in Laos, go bird watching in the Thai everglades, take a motorbike into the Cardamom Mountains of Cambodia, and immerse yourself in modern art in Vietnam. In addition, one chapter focuses solely on opportunities for giving back to the countries you visit.

Saigon's Edge
Saigon's Edge

Author: Erik Harms

Publisher: U of Minnesota Press

Published: 2011

Total Pages: 311

ISBN-13: 0816656053

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Exploring the places where the rural and urban intersect, where many of the world’s people live.

Dimensions of International Migration
Dimensions of International Migration

Author: Paivi Hoikkala

Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing

Published: 2011-01-18

Total Pages: 290

ISBN-13: 144382769X

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International Dimensions of Migration follows migrants from challenging situations in their homelands into even more challenging new worlds. Spanning historical periods from the aftermath of the American Civil War to the Third Reich to the modern era, the essays in this book use post-colonial literature, ethnographic research, primary sources, interviews, and a variety of other approaches to reveal the experiences of immigrants and their hosts. The critical method and broad, cross-cultural context of the volume provide a fresh perspective on the immigration issues we are encountering today.

Rice Talks
Rice Talks

Author: Nir Avieli

Publisher: Indiana University Press

Published: 2012-04-30

Total Pages: 346

ISBN-13: 0253005302

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An anthropological study of the culture surrounding food in a thriving Vietnamese town. Rice Talks explores the importance of cooking and eating in the everyday social life of Hoi An, a prosperous market town in central Vietnam known for its exceptionally elaborate and sophisticated local cuisine. In a vivid and highly personal account, Nir Avieli takes the reader from the private setting of the extended family meal into the public realm of the festive, extraordinary, and unique. He shows how foodways relate to class relations, gender roles, religious practices, cosmology, ethnicity, and even local and national politics. This evocative study departs from conventional anthropological research on food by stressing the rich meanings, generative capacities, and potential subversion embedded in foodways and eating. “In this very engaging narrative Avieli captures the flavor and richness of everyday lowland Vietnamese life, as well as the trials and tribulations of attempting to eke out a livelihood, fit within family hierarchical structures, and correctly pay homage to the necessary deities and ancestors.” —Sarah Turner, McGill University “Readers with an interest in Vietnamese, Southeast Asian, and Asian cuisines and/or the influences of colonialism on local foodways will find the work useful. . . . Filled with descriptions of meals and dishes likely to get the culinarily-minded reader drooling. And almost any non-academic writer planning to do food-related research anywhere in the world could take something away from the final chapter, which discusses the practicalities of this type of research.” —Robyn Eckhardt, author of EatingAsia