Monthly Archives: December 2018

Contents>> Vol. 7, No. 3 Making a Living between Crises and Ceremonies in Tana Toraja: The Practice of Everyday Life of a South Sulawesi Highland Community in Indonesia Edwin de Jong Leiden: Brill, 2013. Indonesia is well-known for its diversity of culture, languages, and 300 different ethnic groups (Geertz 1963). […]

Contents>> Vol. 7, No. 3 Moral Politics in the Philippines: Inequality, Democracy and the Urban Poor Wataru Kusaka Singapore: NUS Press in association with Kyoto University Press, 2017. In Moral Politics in the Philippines: Inequality, Democracy and the Urban Poor, author and Japanese scholar Wataru Kusaka eruditely examines Philippine politics […]

Contents>> Vol. 7, No. 3 Imperial Intoxication: Alcohol and the Making of Colonial Indochina Gerard Sasges Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press, 2017. Imperial Intoxication: Alcohol and the Making of Colonial Indochina traces political, economic, and scientific forces involved in the emergence of the alcohol regime in Indochina, its long lasting […]

Contents>> Vol. 7, No. 3 Cultural Politics of Gender and Sexuality in Contemporary Asia Tiantian Zheng, ed. Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press, 2016. Cultural Politics of Gender and Sexuality in Contemporary Asia is a provocative and timely publication which invites us to re-vision our understanding of sexuality, gender roles, and […]

Contents>> Vol. 7, No. 3 Southeast Asia’s Cold War: An Interpretive History Ang Cheng Guan Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press, 2018. Southeast Asia’s Cold War makes a significant contribution to understanding the Cold War’s long history in Southeast Asia. Its author, Ang Cheng Guan, takes on a mammoth task: writing […]

Contents>> Vol. 7, No. 3 Chinese Encounters in Southeast Asia: How People, Money, and Ideas from China Are Changing a Region Pál Nyíri and Danielle Tan, eds. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2016. Rising Chinese influences in Southeast Asia is an increasingly relevant and controversial issue in Southeast Asia. In […]

Contents>> Vol. 7, No. 3 Seeing Beauty, Sensing Race in Transnational Indonesia L. Ayu Saraswati Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press, 2013. In some Southeast Asian countries, there is a trend that promotes an aesthetic appreciation for lighter or whiter skin tones. This ideology of “colorism” is the theme of Saraswati’s […]

Contents>> Vol. 7, No. 3 The ASEAN Miracle: A Catalyst for Peace Kishore Mahbubani and Jeffery Sng Singapore: Ridge Books, an imprint of NUS Press, 2017. This book contains the best overall summary of ASEAN that this reviewer has seen in 40 years, and is great for related introductory or […]

Contents>> Vol. 7, No. 3 Performing Catholicism: Faith and Theater in a Philippine Province Sir Anril Pineda Tiatco Quezon City: The University of the Philippines Press, 2016. Exploring the intimate intertwining between the sacrosanct realm of Catholicism and the almost sacrilegious cultural practices-cum-performance spaces, Sir Anril Pineda Tiatco pushes readers […]

Contents>> Vol. 7, No. 3 BOOK REVIEWS The Palace Law of Ayutthaya and the Thammasat: Law and Kingship in Siam Chris Baker and Pasuk Phongpaichit, trans. and eds. Ithaca: Cornell Southeast Asia Program Publications, 2016. The Palace Law of Ayutthaya and the Thammasat is divided mainly into two parts: the […]