by Wimal Dissanayake
Indiana University Press, 1994

As political barriers crumble, Asian cinema is increasingly attracting the attention of film critics, film scholars, and specialists in cultural studies. The relationship among cinema, nationhood, and history is as complex as it is fascinating, bringing us face to face with questions of power, ideology, truth, coloniality, post-coloniality, and representation. “Colonialism and Nationalism in Asian Cinema” deals with film traditions in nine Asian countries Japan, China, Taiwan, Korea, Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia, India, Sri Lanka and Australia. This book should be particularly relevant to Asianists, anthropologists, film scholars, students of cultural studies and historians.

Indiana University Press | Goodreads | Amazon | Google Books

by Nir Avieli
Indiana University Press, 2012

Rice Talks explores the importance of cooking and eating in the everyday social life of Hoi An, a properous market town in central Vietnam known for its exceptionally elaborate and sophisticated local cuisine. In a vivid and highly personal account, Nir Avieli takes the reader from the private setting of the extended family meal into the public realm of the festive, extraordinary, and unique. He shows how foodways relate to class relations, gender roles, religious practices, cosmology, ethnicity, and even local and national politics. This evocative study departs from conventional anthropological research on food by stressing the rich meanings, generative capacities, and potential subversion embedded in foodways and eating.

Indiana University Press | Goodreads | Google Books

Edited by Kathleen M. Adams and Kathleen A. Gillogly
Indiana University Press, 2011

This lively survey of the peoples, cultures, and societies of Southeast Asia introduces a region of tremendous geographic, linguistic, historical, and religious diversity. Encompassing both mainland and insular countries, these engaging essays describe personhood and identity; family and household organization; nation-states; religion; popular culture and the arts; the legacies of war and recovery; globalization; and the environment. Throughout, the focus is on the daily lives and experiences of ordinary people. Most of the essays are original to this volume, while a few are widely taught classics. All were chosen for their timeliness and interest, and are ideally suited for the classroom.

Indiana University Press| Goodreads | Amazon | Google Books

by Nora M. Alter
Indiana University Press, 1996

The escalation of the war in Vietnam in the mid-1960s unleashed worldwide protest. Playwrights grappled with the complexities of post-imperialist politics and with the problems of creating effective political theatre in the television age. The ephemeral theatre these writers created, today little-known and rarely studied, provides an important window on a complex moment in culture and history.

Indiana University Press | Goodreads | Amazon | Google Books

by Barbara N. Ramusack and Sharon Sievers
Indiana University Press, 1999

Writing on southern and southeastern Asia, Barbara Ramusack surveys the prescriptive roles and lived experiences of women as well as the construction of gender from early states to the 1990s. Although both regions are home to the Hindu, Buddhist, and Muslim religious traditions and have extended trade relations, they reveal striking differences in the status and roles of women and the processes of cultural adaptation.

Sharon Sievers presents an overview of women’s participation in the histories of China, Japan, and Korea from prehistory to the modern period, providing a framework for incorporating women’s roles into world history courses. She offers analyses on major issues derived from recent research and discusses such stereotypical cultural practices as footbinding (long seen as “exotic” in the West) in the context of women’s lives.

Indiana University Press | Goodreads | Google Books

Return to Top

by Vu Trong Phung, translated by Thuy Tranviet
Cornell University Southeast Asia Program Publications, 2006

This work by Vu Trong Phung, written in the 1930s, reports and expands on the author’s meetings with North Vietnamese women who had made an “industry” of marrying European men. The Industry of Marrying Europeans is notable for its sharp observations, pointed humor, and unconventional mix of nonfictional and fictional narration, as well as its attention to voice: Vu Trong Phung records the French-Vietnamese pidgin dialect spoken by these couples. This prolific writer died at age twenty-seven, leaving behind one of the most impressive bodies of work in modern Vietnamese literature.

Cornell Press | Goodreads | Amazon | Google Books

Edited by Gavin W. Jones, Chee Heng Leng and Maznah Mohamad
Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 2009

“This is an excellent and rare exploration of a sensitive religious issue from many perspectives legal, cultural and political. The case studies from Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand portray the important and exciting, yet very difficult, negotiation of Islamic teachings in the changing realities of Southeast Asia, home to the majority of Muslims in the world. Interreligious marriage is an important indicator of good relations between communities in religiously diverse countries. This book will also be of great interest to students and scholars of religious pluralism in a Southeast Asian context, which has not been studied adequately.” – Zainal Abidin Bagir, Executive Director, Center for Religious and Cross-cultural Studies (CRCS), Gadjah Mada University, Indonesia

“The issue of Muslim-non-Muslim marriages has different connotations in the different Southeast Asian states. For example, in Thailand it is more a fluid cultural issue but in Malaysia it reflects great racial schisms with severe legal implications. This book is a welcome one as it examines the issue not only from the perspectives of various Southeast Asian nations but also from so many angles; the legal, historical, social, cultural, anthropological and philosophical. The work is scholarly, yet accessible. Underlying it, there is a vital streak of humanism.” – Azmi Sharom, Associate Professor, Faculty of Law, University of Malaya

ISEAS Books | Goodreads | Google Books

Edited by Nicole Constable
University of Pennsylvania Press, 2004

Illuminating how international marriages are negotiated, arranged, and experienced, Cross-Border Marriages is the first book to chart marital migrations involving women and men of diverse national, ethnic, and class backgrounds. The migrations studied here cross geographical borders of provinces, rural-urban borders within nation-states, and international boundaries, including those of China, Japan, South Korea, India, Vietnam, the Philippines, the United States, and Canada. Looking at assumptions about the connection between international marriages and poverty, opportunism, and women’s mobility, the book draws attention to ideas about global patterns of inequality that are thought to pressure poor women to emigrate to richer countries, while simultaneously suggesting the limitations of such views.

Breaking from studies that regard the international bride as a victim of circumstance and the mechanisms of international marriage as traffic in commodified women, these essays challenge any simple idea of global hypergamy and present a nuanced understanding where a variety of factors, not the least of which is desire, come into play. Indeed, most contemporary marriage-scapes involve women who relocate in order to marry; rarely is it the men. But Nicole Constable and the volume contributors demonstrate that, contrary to popular belief, these brides are not necessarily poor, nor do they categorically marry men who are above them on the socioeconomic ladder.

Although often women may appear to be moving “up” from a less developed country to a more developed one, they do not necessarily move higher on the chain of economic resources. Complicating these and other assumptions about international marriages, the essays in this volume draw from interviews and rich ethnographic materials to examine women’s and men’s agency, their motivations for marriage, and the importance of familial pressures and obligations, cultural imaginings, fantasies, and desires, in addition to personal and economic factors.

Border-crossing marriages are significant for what they reveal about the intersection of local and global processes in the everyday lives of women and men whose marital opportunities variably yield both rich possibilities and bitter disappointments.

University of Pennsylvania Press| Goodreads | Amazon | Google Books

By Cheo Kim Ban
Marshall Cavendish Editions, 2009

The text takes the reader systematically through the wedding of Babas to Nyonyas in full traditional style. Beginning with the matchmaking process and ending with post-nuptial parties, Cheo Kim Ban discusses the significance and beauty of each ritual, highlighting the symbolism behind the paraphernalia used. The author also traces, wherever relevant, the ‘local’ influences which colour the original Chinese beliefs to make the unique cultural heritage of a wedding in the Baba community. Well researched and containing a stunning collection of photographs taken at an actual Malaccan Baba wedding, this volume is a tribute to his heritage from a true son of Malacca.

Goodreads | Amazon | Reader Store

Edited by Gavin W. Jones, Terence H. Hull and Maznah Mohamad
Routledge, 2011

Various forms of partnering – such as officially registered marriages, cohabiting relationships, and other kinds of relatively stable relationships – are crucial in the formation of families throughout the world. Although, today, forms of partnering in the region are not restricted to formal marriage, the norm remains for couples to marry – to establish a new family, and to accept the cultural requirement to have children.

This book provides a comprehensive and up-to-date picture of partnerships and marriage in the Southeast Asian region using quantitative data alongside qualitative approaches.Through the research of demographers, sociologists and anthropologists, it examines the way trends in the formation and dissolution of marriages are related to changes in the region’s economy and society; illuminating both the broad forces affecting marriage patterns and the way these forces work out at the individual and family level.

Presenting the variety of contemporary marriage patterns in the region, with an emphasis on the ways in which marriage issues impinge on the welfare of those concerned, this book will be essential reading for students and scholars of Southeast Asia and the sociology of the family.

Goodreads | Amazon | Google Books | New Asia Books

Return to Top

by Monica Lindberg Falk
NIAS Press, 2007

Religion plays a central role in Thai society with Buddhism intertwined in the daily lives of the people. Religion also plays an important role in establishing gender boundaries. The growth in recent decades of self-governing nunneries (samnak chii) and the increasing interest of Thai women in a Buddhist monastic life are notable changes in the religion–gender dynamic.

This anthropological study addresses religion and gender relations through the lens of the lives, actions and role in Thai society of an order of Buddhist nuns (mae chii). It presents an unique ethnography of these Thai Buddhist nuns, examines what it implies to be a female ascetic in contemporary Thailand and analyses how the ordained state for women fits into the wider gender patterns found in Thai society. The study also deals with the nuns’ agency in creating religious space and authority for women. In addition, it raises questions about how the position of Thai Buddhist nuns outside the Buddhist sangha affects their religious legitimacy and describes recent moves to restore a Theravada order of female monks.

NIAS Press | Goodreads | University of Washington Press Review | Amazon

Translated and edited by Chris Baker and Pasuk Phongpaichit
Illustrated by Muangsing Janchai
Silkworm Books, 2010

The Tale of Khun Chang Khun Phaen is the most outstanding classic in the Thai language. The plot is a love story, set against a background of war, ending in high tragedy. This folk epic was first developed in oral form for popular performance with a fast-paced blend of romance, tragedy, and farce spiced with sex, warring, adventure, and the supernatural. It was later adopted by the Siamese court and written down, with two kings contributing. This first-ever translation is based on Prince Damrong’s standard edition of 1917–18, with over a hundred passages recovered from earlier versions.

This English translation is written in lively prose, fully annotated, with over four hundred original line drawings and an essay on the history and background of the tale. The main volume presents the entire tale in translation. The companion volume contains alternative chapters and extensions, Prince Damrong’s prefaces, and reference lists of flora, fauna, costume, arms, and food. The volumes are available separately or as a slipcased set.

According to the leading Thai linguist William Gedney, “if all other information on traditional Thai culture were to be lost, the whole complex could be reconstructed from this marvellous text.”

Silkworm Books | Khun Chang Khun Phaen Blog | Goodreads | Amazon

by P. Lim Pui Huen
Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 2009

This book takes the reader to old Malaya as seen through the eyes of King Chulalongkorn of Siam. The King was probably the most travelled monarch of his time. He went to Java three times, India and Burma once, and Europe twice. In all these journeys, he had to pass through Singapore, and when he went westwards, he had to pass through Penang.

The King travelled to Malaya more than ten times – mainly to Singapore but also to Johor, Penang, Malacca, Taiping and Kulim. The narrative is told through historical photos and notes on the places he visited and pen sketches of the people he met.

Since King Chulalongkorn’s travels cover nearly the whole period of his reign, they reflect the different stages of his life and reign. We see him first as a young man eager to see the world and preparing himself to rule. Then we see him in middle age, in poor health and taking a respite from the cares of state. Lastly, we see him as a statesman withstanding severe pressures from aggressive British officials.

The context of each journey is discussed in the light of Siam’s relations with Britain and the northern Malay states that were still under Siamese suzerainty. Malaya was both holiday destination and confrontational space.

ISEAS Publishing| Goodreads | Silkworm Books | International Convention of Asia Scholars

By Caron Eastgate Dann
Monash Institute, 2009

Thailand has been systematically transformed into a classic neocolonial object of Western desire, an easily penetrated erotic zone that caters to the appetites of Western interlopers. In the first comprehensive critical study of Western literature about Thailand, Imagining Siam provides a thorough analysis, using Edward Said’s concepts, of English language travelogues and travel literature. It offers a broad view, covering literary attempts to describe Siam in the 13th century, through the formative phase of Western engagement in the 16th century, the various competing European imperialisms in the 19th century, to today’s era of mass tourism and the global reach of mobile, economically and culturally powerful “First World” populations. This will appeal to those interested in Thailand, critiques of travel writing and the Anna Leonowens legacy.

Goodreads | Amazon | Google Books

By Justin Thomas McDaniel
University of Washington Press, 2008

Gathering Leaves and Lifting Words examines modern and premodern Buddhist monastic education traditions in Laos and Thailand. Through five centuries of adaptation and reinterpretation of sacred texts and commentaries, Justin McDaniel traces curricular variations in Buddhist oral and written education that reflect a wide array of community goals and values. He depicts Buddhism as a series of overlapping processes, bringing fresh attention to the continuities of Theravada monastic communities that have endured despite regional and linguistic variations. Incorporating both primary and secondary sources from Thailand and Laos, he examines premodern inscriptional, codicological, anthropological, art historical, ecclesiastical, royal, and French colonial records. By looking at modern sermons, and even television programs and websites, he traces how pedagogical techniques found in premodern palm-leaf manuscripts are pervasive in modern education.

Goodreads | University of Washington Press | Social Science Research Council | H-Net Review

Return to Top

by Ian Holliday
Hong Kong University Press, 2011

Contemporary Myanmar faces immense political challenges, and the role outsiders might play in dealing with them is highly contentious. Drawing on views expressed by local citizens, Burma Redux argues for committed strategies of grassroots involvement that engage international aid agencies, global corporations and foreign states. The wide-ranging discussion positions Myanmar’s history, contemporary politics and social circumstances within broader discussions of global justice, democratic transitions, the aid business, corporate social responsibility and international sanctions.

Hong Kong U. Press

by Donald M. Seekins
Routledge, 2010

While most of Asia’s major cities are increasingly homogenized by rapid economic growth and cultural globalization, Rangoon, which is Burma’s former capital and largest city, still bears the imprint of a unique and often turbulent history. It is the site of the Shwedagon Pagoda, a focus of Buddhist pilgrimage and devotion since the early second millennium C.E. that continues to play a major role in national life. In 1852, the British occupied Rangoon and made it their colonial capital, building a modern port and administrative center based on western designs. It became the capital of independent Burma in 1948, but in 2005 the State Peace and Development Council military junta established a new, heavily fortified capital at Naypyidaw, 320 kilometers north of the old capital. A major motive for the capital relocation was the regime’s desire to put distance between itself and Rangoon’s historically restive population. Reacting to the huge anti-government demonstrations of “Democracy Summer” in 1988, the new military regime used massive violence to pacify the city and sought to transform it in line with its supreme goal of state security. However, the “Saffron Revolution” of September 2007 showed that Rangoon’s traditions of resistance reaching back to the colonial era are still very much alive.

Return to Top

Return to Top

Return to Top