Human Rights and the Arts Perspectives on Global Asia approaches human rights issues from the perspective of artists and writers in global Asia. By focusing on the interventions of writers artists filmmakers and dramatists the book moves toward a new understanding of human rights that shifts the discussion of contexts and subjects away from the binaries of cultural relativism and political sovereignty. From Ai Wei Wei and Michael Ondaatje to Umar Kayam Saryang Kim Lia Zixin and Noor Zaheer among others this volume takes its lead from global Asian artists powerfully reorienting thinking about human rights subjects and contexts to include the physical spiritual social ecological cultural and the transnational. Looking at a range of work from Tibet Indonesia Sri Lanka India China Bangladesh Japan Korea Vietnam and Macau as well as Asian diasporic communities this book puts forward an understanding of global Asia that underscores Asia as a global site. It also highlights the continuing importance of nationstates and specific geographical entities while stressing the ways that the human rights subject breaks out of these boundaries. Many of these works are included in the companion volume Human Rights and the Arts in Global Asia An Anthology also published by Lexington Books. show more