Offering insights into racial and cultural stereotyping and popular notions of imperialism, Asia in Western Fiction traces how Asia and Asians have been depicted in novels and other works of Western fiction, with an emphasis on works available in English. The eleven scholarly essays examine Western literary treatment of South, Southeast, and East Asia, as well as Muslim culture in general. Useful lists of novels and short stories either written in or translated into English are included.

Opium smoking was a widespread social custom in nineteenth-century Java, and commercial trade in opium had far-reaching economic and political implications. As in many of the Dutch territories in the Indonesian archipelago, the drug was imported from elsewhere and sold throughout the island under a government monopoly - a system of revenue "farms". These monopoly franchises were regulated by the government and operated by members of Javas Chinese elite, who were frequently also local officials appointed by the Dutch. The farms thus helped support large Chinese patronage networks that vied for...

Hamka s Great Story presents Indonesia through the eyes of an impassioned, popular thinker who believed that Indonesians and Muslims everywhere should embrace the thrilling promises of modern life, and navigate its dangers, with Islam as their compass.
Hamka (Haji Abdul Malik Karim Amrullah) was born when Indonesia was still a Dutch colony and came of age as the nation itself was emerging through tumultuous periods of Japanese occupation, revolution, and early independence. He became a prominent author and controversial public figure. In his lifetime of prodigious writing, Hamka...