Court dance in Java has changed from a colonial ceremonial tradition into a national artistic classicism. Central to this general transformation has been dance’s role in personal transformation, developing appropriate forms of everyday behaviour and strengthening the powers of persuasion that come from the skillful manipulation of both physical and verbal forms of politeness. This account of dance’s significance in performance and in everyday life draws on extensive research, including dance training in Java, and builds on how practitioners interpret and explain the repertoire. The Javanese case is contextualized in relation to social values, religion, philosophy, and commoditization arising from tourism. It also raises fundamental questions about the theorization of culture, society and the body during a period of radical change.

A far-reaching examination of exoticism, cultural internationalism and modernism's encounters with Indonesian tradition, Performing Otherness examines how Indonesia entered world stages through imperialism as an antimodern phantasm and through nationalism became a means of intercultural communication and cultural diplomacy.

Preface I have been teaching the history of performing arts and Javanese dance, Yogyakarta style, for twenty years, and there have always been two features of this history that made me think and rethink: (1) wayang wong was never performed outside the palace’s walls until the first quarter of the twentieth century, becase it was considered a pusaka (sacred heiloom): and (2) wayang wong performances were always put on the Tratag Bangsal Kĕncana stage and started at dawn. Numerous ex-wayang wong dancers of the Yogyakarta court gave me the same answers to my questions about hese facts. They said that: (1) wayang wong was a pusaka because it was created by Sultan Hamĕngkubuwana I; and (2) wayang wong performances we put on stage at the dawn of the day because it was karsa-Dalĕm, the Sultan’s will. In my opinion, there must be something particularly significant behind the creation of wayang wong, because the Surakarta court never performed this dance genre, and I realized that to obtain satisfactory answers to these questions I would have to do extensive research on this subject. In August, 1977, when I participated in the World Music Congress at Berkeley, I met Professor Judith Becker. On onve occasion I taled with her concerning the possibility of my pursuin a Ph.D. degree at the University of Michigan with a dissertation topic, “Wayang Wong”. She responded wholeheartedly and, without any delay, made a long distance call to her husband, Professor Alton L. Becker. Both of them became my teachers, advisors and co-chairmen. After my return from Berkeley I started to do research on some aspects of wayang wong. In 1980 I began my course work in Southeast Asian Studies at the University of Michigan emphasizing three areas of study: (1) Southeast Asian Performance Traditions; (2) Southeast Asian History; and (3) Southeast Asian Literature. With the assistance of the Asian Cultural Council I continued my research at the Asia Society and the Library of Performing Arts in New York. There I scrutinized wayang wong films, especially the one of the lakon Mintaraga made by Mr. Tassilo Adam in 1926. Although the film is very choppy, it gave me priceless information about he magnificent production and also about the large audience of kawula-Dalĕm, the Sultan’s subjects. Who witnessed the perfor-mance. With the assistance of the Asian Cultural Council, the Ford Foundation and the University of Michigan I returned to Java during the summer of 1981 to continue by research at the Yogya-karta court libraries. The Sanabudaya Museum, and to interview numerous ex-wayang wong dancers. From these activities the first evidence for my hypothesis emerged, i.e., that wayang wong was a state ritual and not just a mere entertainment in the Yogyakarta court. By reading numerous wayang wong texts –Sĕrat Kandha and Sĕrat Pocapan, all in Javanese handwriting--, manuscripts about he Yogyakarta’s pusakas, and by analysing the conception of kingship of Mataram, I obtainded enough data to confirm my hypothesis further. It became apparent to me that wayang wong was created by Sultan Hamĕngkubuwana I in the late 1970’s as a revival of the Old javanese wayang wang. Photographs play a significant role in this work, since visual information about this dance drama gives us a clear image of numerous scenes. With the exception of figures nos. 1317, 69 and 84 all the photographs and pictures are from my own collection and drawing. Photographs are, nevertheless, motionless shots of dance movement and, therefore, cannot distinguish the movements of one character from another. Hence I have felt it necessary to put the basic movements of the twenty-one wayang wong types of character in Labanotation.

This provocative book seeks to redress inaccuracies in Western perceptions of gender relations in Southeast Asia by bringing to the fore the area's ethnic and cultural variance and showing how women and men explain the informal and psychological dimensions of relationships as vital in holding family, neighbourhood and kinship ties together. Although there are differences between male and female perceptions of sex roles in society, women perceive their situation as disadvantaged rather than less significant. Male-female interpretations of power and status tend to converge usually towards the understanding that the contributions of men and women are equally important in the formation of family and society.

Indonesia, with its mix of ethnic cultures, cosmopolitan ethos, and strong national ideology, offers a useful lens for examining the intertwining of tradition and modernity in globalized Asia. In Inventing the Performing Arts, Matthew Isaac Cohen explores the profound change in diverse arts practices from the nineteenth century until 1949. He demonstrates that modern modes of transportation and communication not only brought the Dutch colony of Indonesia into the world economy, but also stimulated the emergence of new art forms and modern attitudes to art, disembedded and remoored traditions, and hybridized foreign and local. In the nineteenth century, access to novel forms of entertainment, such as the circus, and newspapers, which offered a new language of representation and criticism, wrought fundamental changes in theatrical, musical, and choreographic practices. Musical drama disseminated print literature to largely illiterate audiences starting in the 1870s, and spoken drama in the 1920s became a vehicle for exploring social issues. Twentieth-century institutions—including night fairs, the recording industry, schools, itinerant theatre, churches, cabarets, round-the-world cruises, and amusement parks—generated new ways of making, consuming, and comprehending the performing arts. Concerned over the loss of tradition and "Eastern" values, elites codified folk arts, established cultural preservation associations, and experimented in modern stagings of ancient stories. Urban nationalists excavated the past and amalgamated ethnic cultures in dramatic productions that imagined the Indonesian nation. The Japanese occupation (1942–1945) was brief but significant in cultural impact: plays, songs, and dances promoting anti-imperialism, Asian values, and war-time austerity measures were created by Indonesian intellectuals and artists in collaboration with Japanese and Korean civilian and military personnel. Artists were registered, playscripts censored, training programs developed, and a Cultural Center established. Based on more than two decades of archival study in Indonesia, Europe, and the United States, this richly detailed, meticulously researched book demonstrates that traditional and modern artistic forms were created and conceived, that is "invented," in tandem. Intended as a general historical introduction to the performing arts in Indonesia, it will be of great interest to students and scholars of Indonesian performance, Asian traditions and modernities, global arts and culture, and local heritage.

This volume brings together new scholarship by Indonesian and non-Indonesian scholars on Indonesia’s cultural history from 1950-1965. During the new nation’s first decade and a half, Indonesia’s links with the world and its sense of nationhood were vigorously negotiated on the cultural front. Indonesia used cultural networks of the time, including those of the Cold War, to announce itself on the world stage. International links, post-colonial aspirations and nationalistic fervour interacted to produce a thriving cultural and intellectual life at home. Essays discuss the exchange of artists, intellectuals, writing and ideas between Indonesia and various countries; the development of cultural networks; and ways these networks interacted with and influenced cultural expression and discourse in Indonesia. With contributions by Keith Foulcher, Liesbeth Dolk, Hairus Salim HS, Tony Day, Budiawan, Maya H.T. Liem, Jennifer Lindsay, Els Bogaerts, Melani Budianta, Choirotun Chisaan, I Nyoman Darma Putra, Barbara Hatley, Marije Plomp, Irawati Durban Ardjo, Rhoma Dwi Aria Yuliantri and Michael Bodden.

In this full biography of Gopal Krishna Gokhale reassesses the Indian political scene during the last decades of the nineteenth century and the first decade of the twentieth. In focusing on the career of the preeminent leader of his time, B. R. Nanda surveys the Indian Nationalist movement during the years 1885-1915 and especially the developments within the Indian National Congress. The author's clear account of Indo-British relations spans the administrations of Lords Curzon, Minto, and Hardinge. Through vignettes of eminent Indian contemporaries, insights into attitudes of officials, and vividly described popular reactions to British policies, he captures the spirit of India's political life at the turn of the century. B. R. Nanda interweaves his discussion of Gokhale's ideas and actions with analysis of major events of the day. He considers the ferment in Maharashtra, the social reform movement, the conflict between Moderates and Extremists in the Indian National Congress, the crisis in the Punjab in 1907, and many other important topics. His book gives rare glimpses of two great friends of India, A. O. Hume and William Wedderburn. Materials from Indian as well as British sources illuminate the pre-Gandhian phase of the conflict between British imperialism and Indian nationalism. Originally published in 1977. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.