Kyoto Journal Issue 64

UNBOUND: GENDER IN ASIA

In this special issue of Kyoto Journal guest-edited by Sally McLaren, we have sought to bring together an updated and revelatory album of gender identities. Despite enduring traditions and a strongly ingrained patriarchy, here in Asia the concept of gender can be far more ambiguous and fluid than is often assumed. We named this issue ‘Unbound’ in the hope that it will unfetter fresh ideas and dispel assumptions, introducing perspectives on gender in many societies and leaving readers free to make up their own minds. It contains a unique and illuminating array of contributions from Asian and non-Asian writers, poets, translators, photographers and visual artists.

“Gender is a construction: at once social, cultural and only partly biological. Crucial to this mix is self-insight, as well as the freedom to express what that clear sight reveals — to be one’s truest self, in all its innate and possibly disturbing complexity. Yet media, too, construct gender, sometimes with jarring simplicity.”

Bali Ayu and the Transformation of Gender—John Ashburne

Questioning Gender: An interview with Japan-based psychotherapist Kim Oswalt—Stewart Wachs

Sir, your slip is showing: Cross-dressing Shamans in Korea —Lauren W. Deutsch

Women of Japan — Photographs by Laurie Toby Edison

Taking on the System: Sumitomo women’s victory for equality in the workplace —Catherine Whyte

Escape from oneself —Shimada Yoshiko

Butsudan Boys: Photography by Saito Hiroshi

Flaunting Gender —Deirdre May

Looking for Antigone in Modern Japanese Society —Kyoko Gardiner

Josephine Ho on Gender and Sexuality in Taiwan —David Frazer

They call me “Bunda”: An Interview with Indonesian Celebrity Dorce Gamalama —Justin Ellis

Only Widows and Daughters: Female Dynastic Political Power in Asia —Sally McLaren

Metrosexuals: Men Commercializing Themselves —Osada Hironori, trans. Sally McLaren

I Want to be Myself: Perspectives on Japan’s Transgender Community —Justin Ellis

Plastic Beauty —Fraser Newham

Takarazuka Revue — Lauren W. Deutsch

IN TRANSLATION
Nakedness is another sort of clothing — Yin Lichuan trans. Andrea Lingenfelter
Swimming the Darkness —A Poem by Elynia Mabanglo trans. Pia Arboleda and Jorge Andrada
A Japanese Feminist in Occupied Shanghai: Tamura Toshiko and the Magazine Nu Sheng — Tu Xiaohua, trans. Tan Ban Chong

FICTION:
Everything wrong with Japanese men —Kaori Shoji

REVIEWS
Gender and Power in the Japanese Visual World, ed. Joshua S. Moastow, Norman Bryson & Maribeth Graybill — Eric Luong
Embroideries, by Marjane Satrapi — Rebecca Dosch-Brown
What’s Queer about Queer Studies Now? Social Text 84-85, Ed. David L. Eng，& Jose Estaban Munez — Deidre May
Toms and Dees, by Megan J. Sinnot — Kim Munro
The Third Sex – Thailand’s Ladyboys, by Richard Totman — Catherine, Queen of the Night, and John Ashburne
(Un)tying the Knot: Ideal and Reality in Asian Marriage, by Ed Gavin Jones & Kamalini Ramdas — Jenny Hall
Under Confucian Eyes: Writings on Gender in Chinese History, by Ed Susan Mann & Yu-Yin Chang — Susan Pavloska
Mondays on the Dark Night of the Moon: Himalayan Foothill Folktales, by Kirin Narayan — Ken Rodgers
Selwa (music CD), by Choying Drolma & Steve Tibbets — Albie Sharpe
Constructing the Filipina: A History of Women’s Magazines (1891-2002), by Georgina Reyes Encanto — Anna Kim
Genders, Transgenders and Sexualities in Japan, by Mark McLelland & Romit Dasgupta — Justin Ellis
Bad Girls of Japan , by Ed. Laura Miller & Jan Bardsley — Rebecca Jennison

 

published 20 November, 2006
110 pages

 

¥980 (approx US$9) Need a currency converter? Use this one.

Shipping within Japan is free. But the price excludes Japanese sales tax.

Shipping to the North America/Europe/Oceania/Asia: ¥310 (about US$2.80), 5~10 days. We’re sorry to say that due to unreliable postal systems in Africa and South America we can only offer tracked mail by EMS, which is rather more expensive.

Please allow for 1-3 business days for processing prior to dispatch.