Familial Properties is the first full-length history of Vietnamese gender relations in the precolonial period. Author Nhung Tuyet Tran shows how, despite the bias in law and practice of a patrilineal society based on primogeniture, some women were able to manipulate the system to their own advantage. Women succeeded in taking pragmatic advantage of socioeconomic turmoil during a time of war and chaos to acquire wealth and, to some extent, control what happened to their property. Drawing from legal, literary, and religious sources written in the demotic script, classical Chinese, and European languages, Tran argues that beginning in the fifteenth century, state and local communities produced laws and morality codes limiting women’s participation in social life. Then in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, economic and political turmoil led the three competing states—the Mac, Trinh, and Nguyen—to increase their military service demands, producing labor shortages in the fields and markets of the countryside. Women filled the vacuum left by their brothers, husbands, and fathers, and as they worked the lands and tended the markets, they accumulated monetary capital. To protect that capital, they circumvented local practice and state law guaranteeing patrilineal inheritance rights by soliciting the cooperation of male leaders. In exchange for monetary and landed donations to the local community, these women were elected to become spiritual patrons of the community whose souls would be forever preserved by collective offering. By tracing how the women, local leaders, and court elites negotiated gender models to demarcate their authority, Tran demonstrates that despite the Confucian ethos of the times, survival strategies were able to subvert gender norms and create new cultural models. Gender, thus, as a signifier of power relations, was central to the relationship between state and local communities in early modern Vietnam. Rich and detailed in its use of documentary evidence from a range of archives, this work will be of great interest to scholars of Southeast Asian history and the comparative study of gender.

Why has China grown so fast for so long despite vast corruption? In China's Gilded Age, Yuen Yuen Ang maintains that all corruption is harmful, but not all types of corruption hurt growth. Ang unbundles corruption into four varieties: petty theft, grand theft, speed money, and access money. While the first three types impede growth, access money - elite exchanges of power and profit - cuts both ways: it stimulates investment and growth but produces serious risks for the economy and political system. Since market opening, corruption in China has evolved toward access money. Using a range of data sources, the author explains the evolution of Chinese corruption, how it differs from the West and other developing countries, and how Xi's anti-corruption campaign could affect growth and governance. In this formidable yet accessible book, Ang challenges one-dimensional measures of corruption. By unbundling the problem and adopting a comparative-historical lens, she reveals that the rise of capitalism was not accompanied by the eradication of corruption, but rather by its evolution from thuggery and theft to access money. In doing so, she changes the way we think about corruption and capitalism, not only in China but around the world.

"Quite simply the most serious early intermediate textbook currently available for thoughtful American students at the university level."--Professor Stephen O'Harrow, Director, Center for Southeast Asian Studies, University of Hawai'i at Manoa This is a second-year, intermediate Vietnamese language course designed for high school, college or self-study. Continuing Vietnamese is your next step toward master; it follows the best-selling, linguistically-based Elementary Vietnamese, and helps you progress to an intermediate level of communicating in Vietnamese. Invaluable for anyone planning to travel, study or work in Vietnam, this complete language course has been extensively tested at Harvard University. The accompanying native-speaker audio helps to develop listening comprehension and ensure correct pronunciation. The book contains ten lessons, each composed of two parts. Part 1, the dialogue part, introduces the learner to conversational Vietnamese as it's currently spoken in Hanoi so that the learner will be able to participate in engaging conversation on a variety of topics. Part 2, the narrative part, includes written materials that are characteristic of formal Vietnamese. It aims to develop the learner's reading and writing skills as well as speaking skills. The lessons focuse on various aspects of life in present-day Vietnam, including topics such as culture, history, geography, economy, theater, music, tourism, literature, poetry, cinema and sports. Each lesson helps you to learn Vietnamese by building your Vietnamese proficiency using several complementary elements to thoroughly develop your skills in reading, writing, listening and speaking. Key features of Continuing Vietnamese include: Online audio recordings offering native speakers' renditions of all the dialogues and narratives, vocabulary, grammar and usage explanations, everyday Vietnamese expressions, pronunciation drills and exercises, and even some popular Vietnamese proverbs. Exercises and practice activities which hone your skills throughout the learning process. Cultural notes that help bring Vietnam to life. A contemporary focus on today's Vietnamese speech patterns. A format that sharpens all four language skills: listening, speaking, writing and reading. All media content is alternatively accessible on the Tuttle Publishing website.

When Deng Xiaoping’s efforts to “open up” China took root in the late 1980s, Xinran recognized an invaluable opportunity. As an employee for the state radio system, she had long wanted to help improve the lives of Chinese women. But when she was given clearance to host a radio call-in show, she barely anticipated the enthusiasm it would quickly generate. Operating within the constraints imposed by government censors, “Words on the Night Breeze” sparked a tremendous outpouring, and the hours of tape on her answering machines were soon filled every night. Whether angry or muted, posing questions or simply relating experiences, these anonymous women bore witness to decades of civil strife, and of halting attempts at self-understanding in a painfully restrictive society. In this collection, by turns heartrending and inspiring, Xinran brings us the stories that affected her most, and offers a graphically detailed, altogether unprecedented work of oral history.