Eastwards / Westwards: Which Direction for Gender Studies in the 21st Century?

Eastwards / Westwards: Which Direction for Gender Studies in the XXIst Century? is a collection of essays which focus on themes and methods that characterize the current research on gender in Asian countries in general, under a comparative approach that tries to cut across the boundaries of time and space. In this collection, ideas derived from Gender Studies as they are practised all over the world have been subjected to scrutiny for their utility in helping to describe and understand regional phenomena. But the concepts of local and global with their discoursive productions have not functioned here as a binary opposition: localism and globalism are mutually constitutive and the authors have interrogated those spaces of interaction between the self and the other , bearing in mind their own embeddedness in social and cultural structures and their own historical memory. Eastwards / Westwards: Which Direction for Gender Studies in the XXIst Century? provides a critical transnational perspective on some of the complex effects of the dynamics of cultural globalization, by exploring the relation between gender and education, politics, economics, anthropology, linguistics, historiography, sociology, literature, and popular culture, as agents of the (re)invention of old and new, male and female identities, their conversion into concepts and their circulation through time and space. 'In this rapidly changing world, the publication of Eastwards / Westwards: Which Direction for Gender Studies in the XXIst Century? is especially timely. Contextualized by the editor s thoughtful introduction, these seven essays will provoke new questions regarding the interplay between current issues and the heritage of the past, especially in Asia. Writing in clear and accessible prose, an international group of scholars offers a range of interdisciplinary expertise and experience that provides a fund of fresh material and contemporary data. The geographical extent of the societies discussed (including new countries that have emerged from older entities, like the Ukraine and Kazakhstan, or Bangladesh) are a testimony to the insightful approaches and methodologies that are helping to open a new chapter in the study of women and gender relationships. A strength of the book is the attention given to common themes that thread through the volume. Insisting that the past is intertwined with the present, the authors remind us that in all societies the local specifics shaping the female condition are infused by global dynamics. Although young women today may be better educated and more ambitious than their mothers, they still carry with them the inherited expectations of their society, and the gender stereotypes so often encountered in novels and films are not easily displaced. Governments can institute regulations and reforms, but such measures do not necessarily lead to changes in cultural perceptions about appropriate behavior and language for women. Individually and collectively, the contributions to Eastwards / Westwards graphically show that the painful effects of Western influence, so evident in the colonial environment, can still be tracked as Asian societies respond to the often adverse exposure to a globalized economy. Taking us on an intellectual journey that is simultaneously exciting and disturbing, the editor and authors should be congratulated on producing a book that will undoubtedly be a most welcome addition to the field of women and gender studies.' Professor Barbara Watson Andaya, Asian Studies Program, University of Hawai'i 'In a volume that is penetrating, straightforward and polemic, the editor collects seven essays on Asian cultural issues, mainly concerning women. What strikes the reader at first is probably the fact that the matters discussed here are, generally speaking, unknown (and thus consider