Self As Image in Asian Theory and Practice

This is the third in a series dealing with the concept of self and its importance in understanding Chinese, Japanese, and Indian cultures. The authors examine the relationship between self and image and its significance in attaining a deeper knowledge of Chinese, Japanese, and Indian cultures.

The relationship between self and image is as complex as it is fascinating. It takes on different meanings and significances in diverse cultures. In this volume, the focus of attention is largely on representational practices and symbolic media, such as literature, cinema, art, and dance. By examining both classical and contemporary works associated with China, India, and Japan, the authors seek, on the one hand, to demonstrate the intricate relationship between self and image and, on the other, to make use of that relationship to further our understanding of these cultures.

Roger T. Ames is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Hawaii. In addition to co-editing all three volumes in this series, his major publications include The Art of Rulership: A Study of Ancient Chinese Political Thought; Thinking from the Han: Self, Truth, and Transcendence in Chinese and Western Culture (with David L. Hall); Anticipating China: Thinking through the Narratives of Chinese and Western Culture (with David L. Hall); Thinking Through Confucius (with David L. Hall); all published by SUNY Press. He is also the co-editor of the SUNY series in Chinese Philosophy and Culture. Thomas P. Kasulis teaches in the Department of Comparative Studies at Ohio State University. In addition to co-editing all three of these volumes, he annotated and translated The Body: Toward an Eastern Mind-Body Theory by Yasuo Yuasa and co-edited The Recovery of Philosophy in America: Essays in Honor of John Edwin Smith (with Robert Cummings Neville), also published by SUNY Press. Wimal Dissanayake has been a Senior Fellow at the East-West Center in Honolulu, Hawaii and is a Visiting Professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. He co-edited, with Thomas P. Kasulis and Roger T. Ames, both Self as Body in Asian Theory and Practice and Self as Person in Asian Theory and Practice, also published by SUNY Press.