Contents>> Vol. 13, No. 3 Strangers in the Family: Gender, Patriliny, and the Chinese in Colonial Indonesia Guo-Quan Seng Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2023. Despite extensive scholarship on Indonesia’s Chinese minority, Strangers in the Family offers a wholly fresh perspective. Spanning from the latter days of the Dutch East India […]
SOUTHEAST ASIAN STUDIES: Book Review
Contents>> Vol. 13, No. 3 Innovation, Style and Spectacle in Wayang: Purbo Asmoro and the Evolution of an Indonesian Performing Art Kathryn Emerson Singapore: NUS Press, 2022. In the 1970s, an influential Indonesian arts administrator was trying to introduce serious reforms in the centuries-old Javanese shadow play (wayang) tradition. Humardani, […]
Contents>> Vol. 13, No. 3 Indigenizing the Cold War: The Border Patrol Police and Nation-Building in Thailand Sinae Hyun Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press, 2023. The massacre of leftist student protesters at Thammasat University on the morning of October 6, 1976 is one of the most infamous events in modern […]
Contents>> Vol. 13, No. 3 Anwar Ibrahim: Tenacious in Dissent, Hopeful in Power Khoo Boo Teik Petaling Jaya: Strategic Information and Research Development Centre, 2023. This book, as its title clearly states, focuses on Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim (2022–present). More precisely, it analyzes Anwar’s evolution ever since he first […]
Contents>> Vol. 13, No. 3 Global Anti-Asian Racism Jennifer Ho, ed. New York: Columbia University Press, 2024. Racism is a core problem of our times, yet we have only just started to tackle its different dimensions. While some progress has been made, not least due to some important academic contributions […]
Contents>> Vol. 13, No. 3 Electrifying Indonesia: Technology and Social Justice in National Development Anto Mohsin Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 2023. In his seminal article “The Idea of Power in Javanese Culture,” Benedict Anderson (1972, 22) likened the concept of Javanese power to a lamp radiating light outward with […]
Contents>> Vol. 13, No. 3 The Khmer Rouge Tribunal: Power, Politics, and Resistance in Transitional Justice Julie Bernath Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 2023. The Khmer Rouge genocide, a historical tragedy that continues to resonate in Cambodia’s politics, underscores the importance of understanding the country’s social and political dynamics. Julie […]
Contents>> Vol. 13, No. 3 BOOK REVIEWS Malaysiakini and the Power of Independent Media in Malaysia Janet Steele Singapore: NUS Press, 2023. Janet Steele’s Malaysiakini and the Power of Independent Media in Malaysia provides a timely chronicle of modern Malaysian history, seen through the eyes of Malaysiakini—“arguably Malaysia’s most important […]
Contents>> Vol. 13, No. 2 Postcolonial Configurations: Dictatorship, the Racial Cold War, and Filipino America Josen Masangkay Diaz Durham and London: Duke University Press, 2023. Josen Masangkay Diaz’s book is a timely intervention on issues of Filipino identity vis-à-vis the Philippine diaspora, postcolonial specificity, and authoritarian history. Indeed, Bongbong Marcos’s […]
Contents>> Vol. 13, No. 2 Infiltrating Society: The Thai Military’s Internal Security Affairs Puangthong Pawakapan Singapore: ISEAS – Yusof Ishak Institute, 2021. All of the Thai rulers’ traditional rivals—Burmese, Khmer, Lao, and Vietnamese—were demilitarized by being subjected to European colonialism. As a result, the “modern Thai” army (and navy) had […]
Contents>> Vol. 13, No. 2 Sea Nomads of Southeast Asia: From the Past to the Present Bérénice Bellina, Roger Blench, and Jean-Christophe Galipaud, eds. Singapore: NUS Press, 2021. Sea Nomads of Southeast Asia: From the Past to the Present offers a fresh perspective on sea nomad-related issues by presenting, linking, […]
Contents>> Vol. 13, No. 2 Just Another Crisis? The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Southeast Asia’s Rice Sector Jamie S. Davidson, ed. Singapore: ISEAS – Yusof Ishak Institute, 2023. Nearly all fields of social science have analyzed the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic. Just Another Crisis? focuses on the […]