When Peter Carey offered to take his son to Japan, 12-year-old Charley stipulated no temples or museums. He wanted to see manga, anime, and cool, weird stuff. His father said yes. Out of that bargain comes this enchanting tour of the mansion of Japanese culture, as entered through its garish, brightly lit back door. Guided-and at times judged-by an ineffably strange boy named Takashi, the Careys meet manga artists and anime directors, the meticulous impersonators called -visualists, - and solitary, nerdish otaku. Throughout, the Booker Prize-winning novelist makes...

The thesis presented here will not only change the way in which we understand contemporary Singaporean society and the relationship between the state and its citizens, but will also provoke a debate about the social costs of economic development in other parts of the world, and the future security of the island republic - increasingly a Chinese enclave in a Malay sea - in the twenty-first century.' - Peter Carey, Trinity College, Oxford This study examines the development of Singapore's complex system of social regulation in relation to the phases of its economic strategy and political...