Category: Southeast Asia

Historical Dictionary of the Indochina War

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Historical Dictionary of the Indochina WarHistorical Dictionary of the Indochina War (1945-1954): An International and Interdisciplinary Approach, by Christopher E. Goscha, is the first in English to provide a comprehensive account to date of one of the most important conflicts of the twentieth century. Over 1,600 entries offer in-depth, expert coverage of the war in all its dimensions.

“This is the first dictionary about Vietnam in any language to mine French and Vietnamese sources in equal measure. It ranges beyond Vietnamese and French participants to provide equally incisive entries on British, Chinese, Lao, Cambodian, American, and Soviet actors in a war that took on important international dimensions. The prodigious amount of research that Goscha has put into this dictionary makes it a milestone in the field, a reference work that will be consulted for decades.” —David G. Marr, Australian National University

February 2012 / ISBN 978-0-8248-3604-7 / $175.00 (CLOTH)

Reflections on Vanishing Life in the Forests of Southeast Asia

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The Nature and Culture of RattanRattan is the common name for a diverse group of climbing palms found throughout Old World tropical forests. For centuries people have used them for binding, basketry, house construction, food, and numerous other non-market purposes; more recently the canes of some species have been gathered for the multi-billion-dollar furniture, handicraft, and mat-making industries. Thus rattan continues to be vital to the culture and economic well being of millions of cane collectors, laborers, and artisans throughout tropical Asia and Africa. The Nature and Culture of Rattan: Reflections on Vanishing Life in the Forests of Southeast Asia, by Stephen F. Siebert, explores this valuable forest product, the tropical forests on which it depends, and the societies that flourish by using and managing these remarkable plants.

A website (http://www.cfc.umt.edu/rattan/) includes additional photographs, suggested reading, and discussion topics.

January 2012 / ISBN 978-0-8248-3536-1 / $44.00 (CLOTH)

Forests and State Authority in Contemporary Laos

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Natural PotencyForests, as physical entities, have received considerable scholarly attention in political studies of Asia and beyond. Much less notice has been paid to the significance of forests as symbols that enable commentary on identity, aspirations, and authority. Natural Potency and Political Power: Forests and State Authority in Contemporary Laos, by Sarinda Singh, is an innovative exploration of the social and political importance of forests in contemporary Laos. It challenges common views of the rural countryside as isolated and disconnected from national social debates and politics under an authoritarian regime. The work offers instead a novel understanding of local perspectives under authoritarianism, demonstrating that Lao people make implicit political statements in their commentary on forests and wildlife; and showing that, in addition to being vital material resources, forests (and their natural potency) are linked in the minds of many Lao to the social and political power of the state.

Southeast Asia: Politics, Meaning, & Memory
January 2012 / ISBN 978-0-8248-3571-2 / $45.00 (CLOTH)

Spirits of the Place Now Available in Paperback

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spirits of the Place
Spirits of the Place: Buddhism and Lao Religious Culture, by John Clifford Holt, is now available in paperback.

“This work fills a very real need in Buddhist studies (introduction of Lao Buddhism in general), religious studies (investigation and theorization of the disciplinary problem of ‘syncretism’), and regional studies of Southeast Asia. . . . [The book] represents a genuine and thus far unique contribution to all of these fields, engages with issues of enough centrality and importance to be of great interest to experts, and is written and organized in a manner accessible enough to be used for many classes.” —Journal of Religion

October 2011 / ISBN 978-0-8248-3657-3 / $27.00 (PAPER)

Prahus, Timber, and Illegality on the Margins of the Indonesian State

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Madurese SeafarersThe Madurese are one of the great maritime and trading peoples of the Indonesian Archipelago. Madurese Seafarers: Prahus, Timber and Illegality on the Margins of the Indonesian State, by Kurt Stenross, takes readers into the trading villages of Madura, with their remarkable traditional vessels (perahu) that were powered by sail until the late twentieth century, and examines their informal-sector economic niches, notably the cattle, salt, and timber trades and the carriage of people. The book argues that the nature of village society, the physical characteristics of the island’s coast, cultural traditions of frugality and self-reliance, and an appetite for risk all contributed to the enduring success of Madurese traders.

ASAA Southeast Asia Publications
August 2011 / ISBN 978-0-8248-3555-2 / $32.00 (PAPER)
For sale only in the U.S., its dependencies, Canada, and Mexico

Indonesian Islam and the Temptations of Radicalism

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The End of InnocenceThe End of Innocence? Indonesian Islam and the Temptation of Radicalism, by Andree Feillard and Remy Madinier, is a translation of Le Fin de l’innocence? L’islam indonésien face à la tentation radicale de 1967 à nos jours, which was published to wide acclaim in 2006. It offers a unique overview of the role of Islam in Indonesian politics over the past few decades, paying close attention to the varying fortunes of key Islamist movements. The final chapter takes into account events that have taken place and publications that have appeared since 2006.

“There have been several books on Islam and politics in Indonesia in the post-Suharto period, but Feillard and Madinier’s work is by far the best. Engagingly written and comprehensive in its coverage, this brilliant book will be of interest to both specialists and the general reader interested in understanding the conundrum of politics in the world’s most populous Muslim-majority country.” —Robert Hefner, Director, Institute on Culture, Religion, and World Affairs, Boston University

August 2011 / ISBN 978-0-8248-3523-1 / $28.00 (PAPER)
For sale only in the U.S., its dependencies, Canada, and Mexico

Land Dilemmas in Southeast Asia

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Powers of ExclusionQuestions of who can access land and who is excluded from it underlie many recent social and political conflicts in Southeast Asia. Powers of Exclusion: Land Dilemmas in Southeast Asia, by Derek Hall, Philip Hirsch, and Tania Murray Li, examines the key processes through which shifts in land relations are taking place, notably state land allocation and provision of property rights, the dramatic expansion of areas zoned for conservation, booms in the production of export-oriented crops, the conversion of farmland to post-agrarian uses, “intimate” exclusions involving kin and co-villagers, and mobilizations around land framed in terms of identity and belonging. In case studies drawn from seven countries, the authors find that four “powers of exclusion”—regulation, the market, force and legitimation—have combined to shape land relations in new and often surprising ways.

August 2011 / ISBN 978-0-8248-3603-0 / $35.00 (PAPER)
For sale only in the U.S., its dependencies, Canada, and Mexico

Vietnamese American Literature in English

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My VietTwentieth-century America reduced Vietnam to “’Nam”: the surreal site of a military nightmare. The early twenty-first century has seen the revision of this image to recognize the people and culture of Vietnam itself. Vietnamese Americans, both immigrants and the American children of immigrants, have participated in changing this perception, consistently presenting their side of the story in memoirs published since the 1960s. My Viet: Vietnamese American Literature in English, 1962-Present, edited by Michele Janette, is the first anthology to provide a comprehensive overview of these memoirs and the historical picture they offer and to include Vietnamese writing that goes beyond memoir, revealing a new generation of Vietnamese American poetry, fiction, and drama.

“This book brings together, for the first time ever, work that showcases the depth and breadth of Vietnamese diaspora writers in English. It provides a very valuable resource for teaching, as well as for study, and makes a major contribution to the fields of American literature, Asian American literature, Viet Nam war studies, ethnic studies and Southeast Asian area studies.” —Renny Christopher, California State University

July 2011 / ISBN 978-0-8248-3550-7 / $25.00 (PAPER)

How to Behave Now Available in Paperback

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How to Behave

““In lucid prose accessible to specialists and non-specialists alike, [How to Behave: Buddhism and Modernity in Colonial Cambodia, 1860–1930, by Anne Ruth Hansen,] provides a sophisticated and multifaceted account of the early twentieth-century transformation of Buddhist discourse and pedagogical practices that should be of interest to any scholar or student of religious modernism.” —Journal of the American Academy of Religion

“Remarkable. . . . [Hansen’s] refreshing and provocative approach to the study of ethics in history will surely change the field in general. . . . As readers, we can only look forward to future studies that, if anything like this book, will change the way we understand ethics and its place in national memory and political and social reform.” —Journal of Religion


Southeast Asia: Politics, Meaning, and Memory
April 2011 / ISBN 978-0-8248-3600-9 / $27.00 (PAPER)

New Catalog Available: Asian Studies 2011

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Asian Studies 2011
The UH Press Asian Studies 2011 catalog is now available! To view the 2.3M PDF, click on the catalog cover image to the left.

Highlights include:
* A richly illustrated work that examines the coalescing of Chinese traditional architecture and the Beaux-Arts school (Chinese Architecture and the Beaux-Arts)
* The first sustained effort in English to discuss Japan’s post-Meiji visual revolution (Since Meiji: Perspectives on the Japanese Visual Arts, 1868-2000)
* A look at the shojo manga (girls’ comics) industry as a site of cultural storytelling (Straight from the Heart: Gender, Intimacy, and the Cultural Production of Shojo Manga)
* A new edition of a popular textbook on learning kanji (Remembering the Kanji 1: A Complete Course on How Not to Forget the Meaning and Writing of Japanese Characters, Sixth Edition)
* New titles in the series Dimensions of Asian Spirituality (Karma); (Sikhism); (Neo-Confucian Self-Cultivation)
* A nuanced study and English translation of the first written transcription of Ainu oral narratives by an ethnic Ainu (Ainu Spirits Singing: The Living World of Chiri Yukie’s Ainu Shin’yoshu)
* A compelling, firsthand account by a Japanese fisherman of the Bikini nuclear test and its aftermath (The Day the Sun Rose in the West: Bikini, the Lucky Dragon, and I)
* New titles in the series Southeast Asia: Politics, Meaning, and Memory (Refiguring Women, Colonialism, and Modernity in Burma); (Luc Xi: Prostitution and Venereal Disease in Colonial Hanoi)

New Title in the Oceanic Linguistics Special Publications Series

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Saek-EnglishSaek, a Northern Tai language spoken in villages in Nakhon Phanom province on the border of Northeast Thailand and Laos, is noted for its unique phonological features within the Tai language family. This lexicon, originally compiled by the late Tai linguist William J. Gedney in the 1970s and organized by rhyme, highlights those characteristics that identify the older generation of Saek speakers. Because of these features, linguists believe that Saek will play an important role in the reconstruction of the proto-language of the Tai family. To make the lexicon more accessible, an English-Saek section has been added, something that does not appear in other treatments of Saek.

February 2010 / ISBN 978-0-8248-3538-5 / $35.00 (PAPER)
Oceanic Linguistics Special Publication #37

New in Southeast Asia: Politics, Meaning, and Memory

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Refiguring Women Refiguring Women, Colonialism, and Modernity in Burma, by Chie Ikeya, presents the first study of one of the most prevalent and critical topics of public discourse in colonial Burma: the woman of the khit kala—“the woman of the times”—who burst onto the covers and pages of novels, newspapers, and advertisements in the 1920s. Educated and politicized, earner and consumer, “Burmese” and “Westernized,” she embodied the possibilities and challenges of the modern era, as well as the hopes and fears it evoked. In Refiguring Women, Ikeya interrogates what these shifting and competing images of the feminine reveal about the experience of modernity in colonial Burma. She marshals a wide range of hitherto unexamined Burmese language sources to analyze both the discursive figurations of the woman of the khit kala and the choices and actions of actual women who—whether pursuing higher education, becoming political, or adopting new clothes and hairstyles—unsettled existing norms and contributed to making the woman of the khit kala the privileged idiom for debating colonialism, modernization, and nationalism.

“Refiguring Women not only marks a milestone in Burmese historiography but makes a significant contribution to our appreciation of how ‘being modern‘ was understood in colonized societies. Deftly integrating visual and literary representations of Burmese women with the experiences of a people living under colonial control, this pioneering study explores previously untapped sources to provide new insights on the entangled relations between gender, colonialism, and modernity.” —Barbara Andaya, University of Hawai‘i, Manoa

Southeast Asia: Politics, Meaning, and Memory
January 2011 / ISBN 978-0-8248-3461-6 / $45.00 (CLOTH)

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