Long ago in the far-off Northern Lands ... An egg is laid ... A chick is hatched ... And the adventure of a lifetime ... Begins. Abel was the son of the loon chieftain. He was bigger, stronger, and faster than any other chick in the colony. But there was one thing he couldn't do ... Abel could not sing. Rejecting his father and his teachings, Abel sets out on the lake to prove his independence. But a danger awaits that will soon test the prodigal loon chick in ways that he could never imagine. A story of rebellion, redemption, and the love of a father that defies all understanding ...

Starting with Salman Rushdie's assertion that even though something is always lost in translation, something can always be gained, Martha Cutter examines the trope of translation in twenty English-language novels and autobiographies by contemporary ethnic American writers. She argues that these works advocate a politics of language diversity--a literary and social agenda that validates the multiplicity of ethnic cultures and tongues in the United States. Cutter studies works by Asian American, Native American, African American, and Mexican American authors. She argues that translation between cultures, languages, and dialects creates a new language that, in its diversity, constitutes the true heritage of the United States. Through the metaphor of translation, Cutter demonstrates, writers such as Maxine Hong Kingston, Sherman Alexie, Toni Morrison, and Richard Rodriguez establish a place within American society for the many languages spoken by multiethnic and multicultural individuals. Cutter concludes with an analysis of contemporary debates over language policy, such as English-only legislation, the recognition of Ebonics, and the growing acceptance of bilingualism. The focus on translation by so many multiethnic writers, she contends, offers hope in our postmodern culture for a new condition in which creatively fused languages renovate the communications of the dominant society and create new kinds of identity for multicultural individuals.

Performing arts in most parts of Maritime Southeast Asia are seen as an entity, where music and dance, sound and movement, acoustic and tactile elements intermingle and complement each other. Although this fact is widely known and referenced, most scholarly works in the performing arts so far have either focused on "music" or "dance" rather than treating the two in combination. The authors in this book look at both aspects in performance, moreover, they focus explicitly on the interrelation between the two, on both descriptive-analytical and metaphorical levels. The book includes diverse examples of regional performing art genres from Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines. All case studies are composed from the perspective of the relatively new approach and field of ethno-choreomusicology. This particular compilation gives an exemplary overview of various phenomena in movement-sound relations, and offers for the first time a thorough study of the phenomenon that is considered essential for the performing arts in Maritime Southeast Asia - the inseparability of movement and sound.