This, the most up-to-date survey of contemporary art in the Asia Pacific, richly illustrated with new and original works by some of the most dynamic art practitioners working today, brings together a range of scholars with international reputations, unique perspectives and unparalleled insight into their region of expertise. It's engaging, clearly written and informative survey essays introduce the reader to the influences on and state of contemporary art in the region, with the aim of mapping the dynamic developments in contemporary Asian and Pacific art. Art in the region has mirrored and reflected social and political events as they have occurred in the past decades, and the majority of the writers therefore address the issue of art and social change through specific local and regional perspectives. Includes essays on India, China, New Zealand, Korea, Japan, Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, Australia, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Phillipines, Singapore, Vietnam, and Taiwan.
Krishna explains differing views of nationalism and ethnic identity, as expressed in India and Sri Lanka. For India, some of this arises out of religious differences with Pakistan. And for both India and Sri Lanka, the issues came out of the British decolonisation. Each had severe problems making a national identity. The bloody separation between India and Pakistan is briefly gone into.
• COVER:Why Pakistan Matters - Benazir Bhutto's assassination has plunged the Muslim nuclear power into chaos. Now the Bush Administration must help undo decades of flawed U.S. policy to save Pakistan
• Martyr Without a Cause - Bhutto was a brave, gutsy, secular and liberal woman. But she was a central part of Pakistan's problems, not a solution to them
• NATION: Death Penalty Walking - The Supreme Court prepares to hear a case on lethal injections that could cause us to rethink our haphazard system of capital punishment
• SOCIETY: Bringing Babies to Work - More businesses are allowing parents to take their infants to the office. Is having a cooing baby in the cubicle next door too much of a workplace distraction?
