ASIA UNIQUE
Visionary World Ltd, US$13.22 each
More often than not, we stumble across facets of other people’s culture that we were not previously aware of.
Through photography, complemented by pithy quotes and proverbs, the Asia Unique series (Doors, Catch, Hands) portrays the region’s myriad cultures in a new light.
A definitely intriguing read, the three books not only provide us a fresh approach to seeing mundane, everyday elements, but also allow us to expand beyond our first impression to capture a deeper meaning.
Doors
In different Asian societies, the entrance of a house or structure has always been regarded as having great significance. What leads into a dwelling is akin to entering a person’s soul. Doors brings its audience up close to a number of architectural gems around the region, giving them the opportunity to study and appreciate intricate design and detailing that create a visual feast for the onlooker.
Hands
Hands play an extremely important role in our lives as they can express feelings, which sometimes words cannot describe. The appendages also help us communicate with others through touch. To our mind, this is the most intriguing title of the series, wherein each pair of hands represents a story waiting to unfold. A picture paints a thousand words and inspires imagination to soar. A picture is really a view of the world, according to a photographer, so watch out for the captions at the end of the book that reveal the true context of each photograph. You will be surprised and delighted by what is revealed.
Catch
Highlighting a range of fishing implements and the age-old techniques of attracting bait, Catch focuses attention on an occupation that rarely makes the headlines, and yet provides an important source of livelihood and sustenance for communities across the Asian continent.
Sandy Goh
SAMURAI WISDOM: LESSONS FROM JAPAN’S WARRIOR CULTURE
Thomas Cleary, Tuttle Publishing, US$24.95
This is a collection of five texts on the Samurai culture of Bushido (the way of the warrior) by Japanese philosopher and strategist Yamaga Sogo (1622-1685), whose Confucian beliefs helped mould this unique philosophy.
Focus is placed on developing one’s integrity, discipline and conduct in all things, rather than just on the battlefield, indicating the beautiful belief and social superiority of the Samurais, who were Japan’s pre-industrial military nobility. Put together more than 300 years after his death, the book adds a practical and functional dimension to the Samurai code, long portrayed by Hollywood as a philosophy of warfare.
Joshua Tan
THE BOAT
Nam Le, Canongate Books, US$16
Short stories, often termed harder to write than novels, are an endangered species, though literary magazines cultivate them. This 270-page book shows the genre is a thriving organism.
A child of immigrant parents, Le grew up and was educated in Australia. He hadn’t set out to write strictly “ethnic” stories, in line with that theory about the need to write only what one knows.
So the gems in Le’s collection range from the US and Colombia to Japan, Iran, Australia and Vietnam – testimony to his US and UK sojourns where he’s won awards and fellowships. During the recent Hongkong literary festival, he admitted that Google Earth is a writer’s handy tool.
The stories in The Boat reveal the varieties of the human mind and behaviour as Le inhabits (depicts?) several nationalities and genders of all ages. An American woman’s impressions of Iran, a evacuated Japanese child’s emotions just before the A-bomb falls on Hiroshima, Australian teenagers’ coming of age, Vietnamese refugees’ ordeals on the high seas – each tale is a piece of art. My favourite is called “Love and Honor and Pity and Pride and Compassion and Sacrifice” about a westernised son’s feelings towards his Vietnamese elder.
One awaits Le’s future novel.
Isabel T Escoda
ETIQUETTE GUIDE TO THE PHILIPPINES: KNOW THE RULES THAT MAKE THE DIFFERENCE
Dennis and Joy Posadas, Tuttle Publishing, US$12.95
Understanding the culture, traditions and etiquette of a country can be difficult, and as much as we try, the danger of stepping over a cultural or social boundary is ever present. Etiquette Guide to the Philippines covers wide-ranging topics that make up over 32 chapters, including the Filipino language, the process of dating, courtship and engagement, how to bid farewell and the importance of saving face.
This book is a result of the authors’ love for their country, which shows in the details the book goes into, albeit in a bite-sized 128-page package.
Joshua Tan
RAGE!
Alfredo Roces, Solidaridad Publishing House, US$13
Juan Luna, one the Philippines’ greatest art legends, is best known for his masterpiece, Spoliarum, which won a gold medal at Madrid’s Exposicion Nacional de Bellas Artes in 1884.
Eight years later, in 1892, he would again make headlines but for less positive reasons. In a fit of jealous rage, he shot and killed his wife Paz Pardo de Tavera, along with her mother Juliana, at their Villa Dupont residence in Paris.
His sensational story – juxtaposed with the lives of his brother Antonio (later recognised as one the heroes of the Philippines’ fight for independence) and his brother-in-law Trinidad Pardo de Tavera, who were both there at the time – provides the rich basis for a narrative that keeps one feverishly turning the pages, especially those covering the episodes involving the painter and his doomed spouse.
Using the first-person technique, author and former journalist Alfredo Roces allows each man to tell his side of the tragedy and the events that followed, creating a sense of immediacy and suspense that readers easily forget the sensational incident happened two centuries ago.
Roces explained: “A historian’s approach seemed too cold for a story full of passion, so I devised the novelist’s device of a first-person account. I was confident I could do this because I felt that being an artist, I could put myself in Luna’s shoes.”
Like Akira Kurosawa’s memorable 1950s film Rashomon, that presented entirely different sides of the truth, Rage! confounds and ultimately leaves one hoping to see this novel translated into cinematic dramatisation.
Dexter R Matilla
