Dear readers,

This year, the EXPLORATIONS editorial staff is happy to announce a Philippine focus as a sign of our gratitude to the two departing directors of the Center for Philippine Studies, Drs. Belinda Aquino and Ricardo Trimillos. In addition, we have a wide variety of topics in this issue ranging from Cam manuscripts to Bay-of-Bengal connectivities to Indonesian chic lit. Coupled with our Philippine focus, we are proud to say that nearly the entire geography of Southeast Asia, in one way or another, is included within the covers of our journal. We are pleased to provide this intellectual forum and look forward to supporting graduate scholarship in dynamic and innovative ways.

Editor,
Anthony Medrano

New Research in Philippine Studies

• What Really Made the World Go Around?: Indio Contributions to the Manila-Acapulco Galleon Trade by Andrew Peterson
• Jose E. Marco’s Kalantiaw Code: Implications for Philippine Historiography and Filipino’s Historical Consciousness by Maureen Cristin S. Justiniano
• Dansuer Bantugen: Gendering of the Filipino Hero by Desiree Quintero
• Toward the Intellectualization of Ilokano: Practices and Philosophies by Abraham R. Flores, Jr.

Articles

• Magh Marauders, Portuguese Pirates, White Elephants and Persian Poets: Arakan and Its Bay-of-Bengal Connectivities in the Early Modern Era by Richard Forster
• The “History of Nation-Building” Series and Southeast Asian Historiography by Chi Tim Ho
• Paper Money in Phnom Penh: Beyond the Sino-Khmer Tradition by Sovatha Ann
• The New Generation of Women Writers from the Pesantren Tradition in Indonesia by Nor Ismah

Research Notes and Travel Essays

• Ilimo Campa: Historical Memory in Ariya Cam-Bini and Ariya Bini-Cam by William Noseworthy
• Theravada Buddhism among the Shan:Transformations in the Shan Monastic Lifecycle & Shan Community by Takashi Hashimoto
• Of Cyclones and Constitutions: Notes from the Field by Dominic J. Nardi, Jr.
• The Unkindest Cut by John Grennan
• Crossing Borders, Crossing Cultures: Reminiscences of my Fieldwork Experiences in Cambodia and Vietnam by Thien-Huong Ninh

Book Reviews

• Thơ Kể: Tuyển Tập Thơ Tân Hình Thức Ẫn Bản Song Ngữ. By Tho Ke. Review by William Noseworthy
• For Better or For Worse: Vietnamese International Marriages in the New Global Economy. By Hung Cam Thai. Review by Thien-Huong Ninh

Download Explorations 11

The aim of this introductory course on Contemporary Asian Cinema is to acquaint students with significant films from the major countries in Asia and how these films reflect and comment on profound social, political, and historical changes that have occurred in recent decades. The course will investigate recent films from China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Taiwan, and a Vietnam, including those made by the diaspora. These films will be approached through a variety of critical perspectives, including formalism, auteurism, and genre theory, watching art films, mainstream commercial films, and films that fall between these two categories. While examining universal themes embodying roles, customs, culture, relationships, identity, and such critical concerns as diaspora, hybridity, transnationalism, an attempt will be made to discern the effects of globalization on the Asian film industry and its changing relationship with Hollywood.

Course information: Summer Session II: 6 July – 13 Aug 2010, MWF 2:00-4:15pm, 3 credits

For information/override permission contact Asian Studies Office 956-6085

Nationwide
16 – 20 November 2009

International Education Week is a joint initiative of the U.S. Department of State and the U.S. Department of Education to celebrate the benefits of international education and exchange worldwide. In honor of International Education Week, CSEAS will be screening a special movie as part of its SEA Film Series on Wednesday, 18 November 2009 at 6:30 PM in the Center for Korean Studies Auditorium.

more info

Wednesday, November 18
Korean Studies Auditorium 6:30 PM

Laskar Pelangi, is a film adaptation of Andrea Hirata’s best-selling literary work based on his childhood memories that first appeared on shelves in 2004. Set on the Sumatran island of Belitong, the film opens with the adult Ikal returning to his birthplace after a number of years away. From there it flashes back his first day at school, with two teachers — Muslimah and Harfan — who have been eagerly waiting for students to enroll at their decrepit Islamic primary school. Since the district school board has already declared that their little school must close if it doesn’t meet the ten-student minimum, this particular day is obviously a nervous affair for both teachers. Fortunately, ten students (mostly children of poor laborers) do sign up, forming a small enclave of first-graders christened by Muslimah as “The Rainbow Troops.” Besides Ikal, the eclectic group comprises an assortment of characters — mainly Lintang, a fisherman’s son who turns out to be a genius and Mahar, a musically obsessed dreamer who is never without a radio by his side.

Five years pass, and the majority of the film takes place in the student’s fateful fifth grade, chronicling the ups and downs of the Rainbow Troops through the eyes of young Ikal. The film’s sensitivity captures the struggles of marginalized citizens to achieve their dreams and the beauty of friendship and its ability to save humanity, all set against the background of what was once one of Indonesia’s richest islands.

A fave at the Asian Film Awards and the Berlin International Film Festival, 2009.

-Miles Films

IMDB Website | Independent Blog Review | Download Poster

Thursday, 9 February 2006, 12:00 PM
Presented by Dr. Chet-Yeng Loong, University of Hawaii at Manoa

Dr. Chet-Yeng Loong has completed all levels in Kodaly and Orff-Schulwerk and is certified in both of these methods. Before coming to the University of Hawaii, Dr. Loong taught music in the public schools of Malaysia; and at Baldwin-Wallace College, OH. She has presented at local (Cleveland Orff-Chapter, New York City Orff-Chapter, NOCKA, Baldwin-Wallace College, Cleveland State University, Kent State University, The University of Akron), state (HAEYC, HMEA, LCCC, MMEA, OAEYC, OMEA, Peak-Arts Association, Boulder, CO, WMEA), regional (MENC, MKMEA), national (Suzuki National Conference, MENC, OAKE, AOSA), and international (ISME) conferences. Dr. Loong has also presented internationally, in a series of Early Childhood Music workshops in China (Chang Sa, Guiyang, Inner Mongolia, Nanjing, Shandong, Shanghai, Suzhou, Xian, Xinjiang, Yiwu and Yunnan).

As a researcher, Dr. Loong has presented at the MENC poster session, the Early Childhood Music Conference at Michigan State University, the Desert Sky Research Symposium at Arizona State and the Symposium for Music Teacher Education, Greensboro, NC. Her research on early childhood and elementary music has been published in several leading journals (Bulletin of the International Kodaly Society, Early Childhood Connections, Early Childhood Spotlight – MENC, Kodaly Envoy, Perspectives – ECMMA, Triad and Orff Echo).

Currently, Dr. Loong serves as the Chair of the Music Education Department, conference chair of Hawai’i Music Education Conference. She also serves on a steering committee of the Alliance for Active Music Making in General Music Teacher Education (Society for Music Teacher Education, MENC); the AOSA Research Advisory Panel (RAP), an advisory role related to academic research in Orff Schulwerk. Dr. Loong is the Director of the Bambini & Stellini Ensembles for Hawaiian Youth Opera Chorus.