Selections from three of the four main lines of collecting Japanese folk literature in Japan are reviewed. Four volumes are by Mizusawa Ken'ichi, the foremost collector: Robata no tonto mukashi, Ojiya no mukashibanashi (1971); Mukashi attatte, Aramachi no mukashibanashi (1969); Miruna no hanazashiki, Haha to ko no mukashibanashi (1969); and Mukashibanashi nōto Saishū to kenkyū (1969). Mizusawa collects talcs in Niigata. The last mentioned book gathers together his reports, articles, and notes published between 1958 and 1969. He records in dialect with standard Japanese in parallel where necessary, preserving the musical flow of the tale. The next three volumes are in the Mukashibanashi kenkyū shiryō sōsho series published by a committee of university men: Daisen hokuroku no mukashibanashi (1970), Sado kininaka no mukashibanashi (1970), and Kogane no uma (1971). The first follows the format of the series, including recordings by narrators on 33⅓ rpm discs. Mukashibanashi wa ikite iru by Inada Koji, a member of the series committee, gives a hopeful view of the survival of folk tales. Hagino Saihei mukashibanshi shū (1970), a collection by Nomura Jun'ichi of Kokugakuin University and Nomura Keiko is a one-narrator volume showing the folk tale rooted in family legends

A review article on two books, each of which proposes to apply standard economic anlaysis to an aspect of economic life (labor markets) and a society (Japan) where years of conventional wisdom has suggested that such analysis may be out of place. Robert Evans, Jr.'s Labor Economies of Japan and the United States compares numerous aspects of the allegedly impersonal labor market of the United States; he finds the differences surprisingly small and the parallels surprisingly large. Koji Taira's Economic Development and the Labor Market in Japan is primarily a series of studies in the quantitative economic history of Japan, concentrating upon the labor market. The two books overlap to a great extent, and combine to question if not overthrow the anti-economic notion that standard analysis is out of place in dealing with labor problems even in a country with the anti-economic traditions of pre-Meiji Japan.

The New Year Ceremony at Basak (South Laos) by Charles Archaimbault, which is the subject of this review article, provides a superb illustration of the way in which ritual and mythical symbols express historical alterations in social structure and social experience. While there has been continuity in the symbols of the New Year ceremony, the ritual context which invests these symbols with meaning has changed. This change reflects the diminution of the power of the putative ruler of Campasak who plays the crucial role in the ceremony.

The present is a suitable moment to reconsider the 1947 partition of the Indian sub-continent: on the one hand South Asia has experienced a fresh partition with the creation of Bangladesh; on the other, there is a pause before the recent opening of the London war-time records leads to a series of studies drawing out the significance of the documents on the Transfer of Power currently appearing. For this interim review two volumes are selected: The Partition of India edited by C. H. Philips and Mary Wainwright and H. V. Hodson's The Great Divide. The former book contains several useful studies along with other pieces which are disappointingly thin; the latter is especially true of some written by men intimately associated with the events. There is also an interesting unevenness in the editorial introduction: while the British role is treated rather blandly and diat of the League is approached in quizzical vein, that of Congress is handled severely. Hodson's work is an elegant and rounded composition. If it is centered on Mountbatten—to whose archive he had access—t is yet not uncritical. It presents a coherent and consistent picture. It probably shows the British more continuously helpless than they were. It at least conveys something of the tragic quality of the political triangle.

Even as recently as a dozen years ago, one learned basic Sinological methods rather much the way one learned about sex: by osmosis and “from the gutter.” One puzzled over the remarks of his professors, looked up the strange words in the dictionary, and listened to the older boys in the hall. “I got it from the Kanshi taikan,” some graduate student would say, and you made a mental note to ask a friend about the Kanshi taikan the next time you could be alone together. For all the limitations, it was a pleasant and reasonably effective way to learn Sinology. The atmosphere was clubby, the pace was slow, and there was usually time for patient professional attention.

Involving the efforts of over one hundred scholars for over fifteen years, the dictionary is now wrapped up in four giant volumes of more than one million printed words. Its publication not only fills a major void on the reference shelf of modern Chinese history but also thrusts upon scholarly attention many compelling issues by the collective presentation of the biographies of some six hundred Chinese leaders who were active in 1911–1949 in the fields of politics and the military as well as in business and banking, literature, the arts, the press and publishing, education, medicine, and religion. In response to the urgent need for Chinese Communist studies in mid-20th century America, the work covers the prominent figures in the People's Republic who appeared during the Republican (1912–49) period. The concern for contemporary development is also reflected in the omission of many important figures whose career had little relevance to the rise of the Chinese Communist state and in the emphasis on the military and politics. Many native Chinese writers contribute to the dictionary their intimate knowledge of the period as well as their biases, taboos, and myths. Since there is much room for improvement in terms of historical perceptiveness and scholarly balance, three proposals are given, aimed at adding the finishing touch to this monumental work.

The South Asian historian, often unaccustomed to the tools of other disciplines, has largely neglected his most massive primary source—the newspaper. A newspaper file is massive enough to distract researcher and librarian alike, but they should not be distracted. A newspaper by its very nature cannot exist in an ivory tower. Whether subsidized or self-supporting, it is a part of its society. It reflects that society and influences it—sometimes both—in an intellectual ricochet. This article will consider, first, the availability and identification of South Asian newspapers; second, what might be learned from them, and third, how it might be learned.

Recently this author found an original source for the study of the revolutionary movement in India prior to 1917. It is a Government of India publication: “No. 372,” Confidential, “Political Trouble in India 1907–1917” by James Campbell Ker.