Books published by University of Washington Press

Klallam is the language of the Lower Elwha Klallam, Port Gamble S¿Klallam, and Jamestown S¿Klallam Tribes. It is spoken on the north shore of Washington¿s Olympic Peninsula from the Strait of Juan de Fuca inland into the mountains, Vancouver Island¿s Becher Bay, and other small adjacent islands. An endangered language, Klallam is being revived through the Klallam Language Program. Together with the comprehensive Klallam Dictionary, this pedagogically oriented reference grammar thoroughly documents the Klallam language, providing a resource to linguistic scholars as well as to the Klallam people that will ensure their language survives. A multi-decade collaboration between linguist Timothy Montler and elders, educators, and tribal councils, the grammar progressively covers all the major grammatical constructions and processes of word formation. The Klallam Grammar significantly enriches our understanding of the Klallam language and culture.

"This pioneering study examines art objects and texts excavated from tombs in what was once the state of Chu, in south China, dating from the Warring States period (ca. 480-221 BCE) to the beginning of the imperial era (3rd century BCE to 1st century CE) to explore critical changes in religious beliefs and practices concerning the dead and the afterlife."

Documents the language of the Umatilla people east of the Cascade Mountains in Oregon and Washington.

Uses oral history to show how South Asian immigrant experiences were shaped by the region and how they differed over time and across generations. This book includes the stories of immigrants from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka who arrived from the end of World War II through the 1980s.

In imperial China, intellectuals devoted years of their lives to passing rigorous examinations in order to obtain a civil service position in the state bureaucracy. This book deals with this topic.

Scholar-officials of late medieval China were not only enthusiastic in amateur storytelling, but also showed unprecedented interest in recording stories on different aspects of literati life. This book shows how these writings that offer crucial insights into the reconfiguration of the Chinese elite.

Describing the developments in science and philosophy in the sacred language of Hebrew, the author argued that an intellectual understanding of the cosmos was not at odds with but actually key to achieving spiritual attainment.

Introduces readers to developers, homeowners, and government regulators, all of whom have faced unexpected environmental problems in designing and building wilderburb communities, including unpredictable water supplies, threats from wildfires, and encounters with wildlife.

From burning draft cards to staging nude protests, much left-wing political activism in 1960s America was distinguished by deliberate outrageousness. This book argues that these over-the-top antics were far more than just the spontaneous actions of a self-indulgent radical impulse.

Examines all known surviving examples of the Qing court phenomenon of "scenic illusion paintings" ( tongjinghua), which today remain inaccessible inside the Forbidden City.

Investigates that trend, drawing on fieldwork in a rural high school in Zhejiang where students, teachers, and officials of different generations, genders, and social backgrounds form what is essentially a miniature version of Chinese society.

Asian American literature abounds with complex depictions of American cities as spaces that reinforce racial segregation and prevent interactions across boundaries of race, culture, class, and gender. This book provides the comprehensive examination to date of how Asian American writers - both celebrated and overlooked - depict urban settings.

One of the most violent episodes of China's Boxer Uprising was the Taiyuan Massacre of 1900, in which rebels killed foreign missionaries and thousands of Chinese Christians. This book focuses on Shanxi Province that illuminates the religious and cultural beliefs on both sides of the conflict and shows how they came to clash.

Offers an overview of painting in China's last dynasty, the Qing (1644-1911), fills a need in the field of East Asian art history and will be welcomed by students and collectors.

In the 1950s, the city of Seattle began a transformation from an insular, provincial outpost to a vibrant and cosmopolitan cultural center. This book deals with this topic.

Deftly weaving these two strands together as the unifying theme of Searching for Modernity, the author expands on her pioneering work on true-view landscape painting to reveal even more of the depth and complexity of this mature and fully Korean form of artistic expression.

Roving from the old Confederacy of Biespiel's native South to Portland, Oregon, this book explores the wildness of the Northwest, the avenues of Washington, DC, the coal fields of West Virginia, and an endless stretch of airplanes and hotel rooms from New York to Texas to California.

An historical investigation describes the Qing imperial authorities' attempts to consolidate control over the Zhongjia, a non-Han population, in eighteenth-century Guizhou, a poor, remote, and environmentally harsh province in Southwest China. It shows how these seemingly subordinate populations challenged state power.