"Suksma," or "Thank you," in the traditional Balinese language and script. Photo and carving by the author. Fairly often I get asked: what does it take to revive a traditional script that has been unused, or largely unused, for years? Decades? Centuries? Much less often, I actually have a clear, detailed answer. In this case, … Continue reading #EndangeredAlphabets: How Do You Go About Reviving a Traditional Script? Case Study: Bali
International Mother (Written) Language Day
International Mother Language Day, February 21st, is a kind of well-intentioned bureaucratic expansion of the Bangladesh observance of National Martyrs Day, a remembrance of the day in 1952 when five people were killed for protesting their right to speak Bengali (Bangla) rather than Urdu, the official language of the new state of Pakistan. What came … Continue reading International Mother (Written) Language Day
#EndangeredAlphabets: The Saddest Scripts
"Thank you all" written in the Nüshu syllabary. Photo and carving by the author. Over the past decade, my research for the Endangered Alphabets project has found scripts that are exclusively sacred or spiritual, others used only for magic and divination, some employed solely for accounting and bookkeeping, some even for notating songs. Writing, then, … Continue reading #EndangeredAlphabets: The Saddest Scripts
The Booktrekker: Indonesia
READ Many of the books I read for this blog are tedious and take me forever to get through. That was not the case for the book I chose for Indonesia. Pramoedya Ananta Toer’s The Girl from the Coast, translated by Willem Samuels, arrived in the mail Friday morning, and I was finished with it by … Continue reading The Booktrekker: Indonesia
Review: When It Rains by Rassi Narika
Oh no, its raining! Again. Why does it have to rain everyday? I wanna go outside. When will it stop?If you have a young one complaining incessantly about a downpour, you’ll enjoy reading Rassi Narika’s picture book When It Rains. It follows the Dora-esque* journey of Kira and her friends through a rainy day, showing … Continue reading Review: When It Rains by Rassi Narika
Translator Showdown: Where Manga Meets the Novel — by publisher Bruce Rutledge
May GLLI Blog Series: Japan in Translation, No. 21 Two of Japan’s all-time best-selling writers, the late Shigeru Mizuki of Gegege no Kitaro fame and contemporary writer Haruki Murakami, have translators who live about seven miles apart from each other in the Seattle area. My company, Chin Music Press, decided to get those translators together … Continue reading Translator Showdown: Where Manga Meets the Novel — by publisher Bruce Rutledge
International Banned Book: The Fugitive by Pramoedya Ananta Toer (Indonesia)
Plot: In the twilight days of Japanese power in his country, an Indonesian army officer sparks an insurrection against the occupation army but is forced to flee into the jungle when he is betrayed by one of his own comrades. Challenge: Banned in Indonesia in 1950, for containing "subversive" material, including an attempt to promote Marxist–Leninist … Continue reading International Banned Book: The Fugitive by Pramoedya Ananta Toer (Indonesia)
Global Literature in Libraries Initiative 