South-East Asia

The Philippine-American War (c.1899 – 1913), which led to the colonial subjugation of the Philippines by the United States for over forty years and the suppression of the first independent republic in South-East Asia, is one of America’s forgotten wars. The historical amnesia surrounding this conflict is no accident. It is an enduring legacy of US government and military propaganda, widely disseminated by a largely supportive corporate press, which contributed in no small way to the American victory both at home and abroad. Propaganda is understood here as the deliberate falsification, distortion or tendentious portrayal of events to justify a political cause to the wider public. What I want to argue about this case, is that successful propaganda does not occur in the context of an otherwise rational and empirically verifiable public discourse. Successful war propaganda has to be reconciled with the self-respecting, symbolic self-interpretations of a national community. In the case of the United States, founded in part on a revolutionary republican imaginary but also a racialised and expansionist missionary vision of “Manifest Destiny”, this was not a simple or uncontested matter back in 1899.

This article provides a brief account of the American conquest of the Philippines and the attendant atrocities that accompanied the invasion. It will also explain how these brutal events were justified to the American public as hard but necessary acts of “Benevolent Assimilation”, for the benign tutelage of the Filipino. In particular, attention is paid to how propaganda was used to justify a colonial war, dehumanize the Filipino “other”, rationalize atrocities and erase alternative interpretations of events from the official record.

La regione del Belūcistān è, dopo anni di dominazioni straniere, suddivisa all’interno di tre Stati: Iran, Afghanistan e Pakistan. La sua posizione è notevolmente strategica in quanto situata sul lato occidentale del Medio Oriente, possibile punto di sbocco sul mare Arabico e sull’Oceano Indiano per gli stati dell'Asia Centrale e Orientale, area di mare cardine delle tratte delle petroliere che dal Golfo Persico si dirigono verso est. Le popolazioni presenti nella regione subiscono costantemente, da parte dei governi centrali, le violazioni dei propri diritti umani, economici e culturali subendo continue discriminazioni, particolarmente per ciò che concerne la partecipazione alla vita politica e al mercato del lavoro. Tensioni, scontri e guerre, che proseguono a fasi alterne da anni, sono legate principalmente alle richieste, di partiti e movimenti del Belūcistān spesso non uniti e rivali tra loro, di maggiore autonomia economica e politica. La regione, ricca di gas, petrolio e minerali, è da alcuni anni al centro di interessi geostrategici ed economici. Di particolare importanza gli accordi sino-pakistani per la costruzione del megaporto di Gwadar e del China–Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), che ha acutizzato le proteste e le rivolte delle popolazioni locali, accrescendo l’aspirazione indipendentista.

The twilight of Second World War has seen a change in the global political relations among the global big powers which also shaped the international political alliances and relations. Using the secondary method of data collection, findings show that Japan has come to see the United States as untouchable and a must befriend nation in order to remain safe in international politics. China, due to its rising nature in economic power, military might and its global influence, it is becoming a threat not just to Japan, but even to the United States. On the other hand, the DPRK is struggling to survive on its own against US and South Korean aggression. The paper concludes that, for peace to reign in the region, the United States must pursue peaceful diplomatic solutions and cease provocative military drills with South Korea. The paper recommends a clear intervention of the international court of justice in solving the problems of south and east china seas.

Assessments of Singapore’s history invariably revolve around Sir Stamford Raffles’ arrival in 1819. Before this date – we’ve been earlier told – “nothing very much appears to have happened in Singapore”. Pre-1819 Singapore was a sleepy, historically insignificant fishing village, little more than the “occasional resort of pirates”.
This ambitious book, co-written by four of Singapore’s foremost historians, offers an assertive re-evaluation of that view, firmly situating Singapore’s starting point seven hundred years ago. Drawing on a multi-disciplinary range of archival, textual and cartographical records, as well as the latest archaeological discoveries, the authors cast a singular historical trajectory for Singapore over the past seven centuries, animating its history like never before.
Written in a compelling and accessible manner, and richly illustrated with more than 200 artefacts, photographs, maps, art works and ephemera, this volume builds upon the foundations of an earlier book, Singapore: A 700-Year History. Extensively rewritten to incorporate ground-breaking research findings, Seven Hundred Years: A History of Singapore widens the historical lens and offers a vital new perspective on the story of Singapore.

The paper focuses on the (re)emergence in the late twentieth century of a specific form of cross-border labour migration--viz. guest-work or circular/managed migration--that is designed to keep migrants from settling in receiving countries. The paper is part of a larger project that situates this form of transnational work-mobility regimes within the larger historical debates over the slippery line between free labour and forced labour. Specifically, it traces the genealogy of guest-work, and makes some preliminary observations about the specificity of contemporary circular / managed migration as it becomes incrementally normalized as a desirable policy tool across the world.

This essay looks at Singapore-based company, Theatreworks, directed by Ong Keng Sen1. My focus is the intercultural productions of Theatreworks of the 1990s and 2000s, which have been highly criticised internationally. In researching this work, the aim was to find the issue underlying all of Ong’s intercultural works. Peterson identifies the problem: ‘apart from the fact that one is able to create such theatre, what is the point of creating it?’ (216, Peterson’s emphasis) Ong is often criticised for using the power of Singaporean “New Asia” to colonise the Other of “Old Asia.” I argue that Ong’s works are not focussed on the Other, but on the Self, particularly in relation to Ong’s identity as Singaporean Chinese. First I consider the contextual framework of multiculturalism, identity and language in Singapore. Next I outline the criticisms of Ong’s approach to interculturalism. Finally I investigate identity, the Self and the Other through close analysis of Diaspora.

Using extant data, this paper describes and compares trackable variations in the imprisonment of women over the last couple of decades across eight Southeast Asian countries including the following: Cambodia, Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand, Singapore, the Philippines, Malaysia and Myanmar. Aside from Myanmar, preliminary observations suggest increases in women's prisoner numbers, rates and share of those incarcerated with growth corresponding but generally outstripping that found for men. Comparatively speaking, Thailand, Vietnam and Singapore ranked highly on measures of women's incarceration and growth while Malaysia scored at the lower end of the scale. Growth in the imprisonment of women is especially high in Indonesia and Cambodia whereas Myanmar is characterised by the high use of imprisonment for women but minimal growth. Elucidating these results was complicated by a distinct dearth of reliable data and/or regionally specific research pertaining to the imprisonment of women in the relevant nation-states. Limited information available in three jurisdictions (Thailand, Cambodia and Malaysia) suggests that policy changes, alongside shifting criminal justice system responses to particular types of crime, could be driving upward trends and disproportionately impacting on the imprisonment of women. In conclusion, it is argued that there is a pressing need for both country-specific and cross-regional research on the incarcer-ation of women in Southeast Asia.

Crises of Empire offers a comprehensive and uniquely comparative analysis of the history of decolonization in the British, French and Dutch empires. By comparing the processes of decolonization across three of the major modern empires, from the aftermath of the First World War to the late 20th century, the authors are able to analyse decolonization as a long-term process. They explore significant changes to the international system, shifting popular attitudes to colonialism and the economics of empire. This new edition incorporates the latest developments in the historiography, as well as:- Increased coverage of the Belgian and Portuguese empires- New introductions to each of the three main parts, offering some background and context to British, French and Dutch decolonization- More coverage of cultural aspects of decolonization, exploring empire 'from below'- A new glossary, explaining key terms This new edition of Crises of Empire is essential reading for all students of imperial history and decolonization. In particular, it will be welcomed by those who are interested in taking a comparative approach, putting the history of decolonization in a pan-European framework.

Reviews:-

'In this book, Thomas, Butler and Moore admirably accomplish the goal of combining intellectual and historiographical rigour with the breadth of discussion necessary for a textbook. As one of the few treatments of its kind, it connects the disintegration of various empires. Juxtaposing the fates of the British, French and Dutch empires, supplemented with some comparative observations about the Belgian and Portuguese experiences, the authors show that decolonization cannot be fully understood if treated within the isolation of any one of these cases. The careful balance in this volume between conceptual discussion of current historiographical debates and thorough empirical treatment of the various decolonizations makes this volume an invaluable resource for students and researchers alike.' Bart Luttikhuis, Researcher at the Royal Netherlands Institute of Southeast Asian and Caribbean Studies, The Netherlands

'An outstanding collection of essays dealing with the decolonization of the Dutch, Belgian, and Portuguese empires as well as those of the French and British. With a range from the 1940s to the 1970s and beyond, the authors guide the reader through complex conceptual issues in a way that is consistently clear and compelling. This is a book that will be mandatory reading for students and scholars of the dissolution of the European colonial empires.' Wm. Roger Louis, Kerr Professor, University of Texas

'This second edition of Thomas's, Moore's and Butler's incisive, thought-provoking and generally deeply impressive synthesis is very welcome. Like the first edition, it is written in an engaging style by three experts in their respective decolonisation fields and it will prove a key launch pad for further research into the expansive literature and ever-evolving debates on the causes and consequences of European decolonisation. The sections relating to the different empires and case-studies of particular territories can be read alone. But the beauty of this book lies in its high level of comparative analysis, with commonalities and contrasts skilfully brought out in the masterful introduction and conclusion. The focus remains on the three largest empires of Britain, France and The Netherlands but the excellent section on the Portuguese and Belgian end-of-empire experiences has been significantly expanded. Throughout, the text has been updated to take account of new historiographical developments since the first edition's publication in 2008. It pulls no punches in its exploration of the often fraught and violent ending of the European empires, and the ongoing legacies and unresolved contestations of the decolonisation moment.'  Nick White, Professor of History at Liverpool John Moores University, UK


Table Of Contents
Preface
Introduction: Constructions of decolonization
Part I: British Decolonization
Introduction to Part I
1. The British Empire, 1918-1945: Interwar Change and Wartime Pressures
2. The First Wave of British Decolonization: Commonwealth Territories, South Asia and the Gold Coast, 1945-1951
3. British Decolonization, Insurgency and Strategic Reverse: The Middle East, Africa and Malaya, 1951-1957
4. Winds of Change: The Final Waves of British Decolonization in Africa and Asia after 1957
Part II: French Decolonization
Introduction to Part II
5. The Roots of French Decolonization: Ideas, Economics and Reform, 1900-1946
6. Decolonizing the French African Federations after 1945
7. People's War and the Collapse of French Indochina, 1945-1954
8. From French North Africa to Maghreb Independence: Decolonization in Morocco, Tunisia and Algeria, 1945-1956
9. Algeria's Violent Struggle for Independence
10. Territories Apart: Madagascar, the Togo Trusteeship and French Island Territories
Part III: Dutch Decolonization
Introduction to Part III
11. An 'Ethical Imperialism'? The Dutch Colonial Empire Before 1945
12. Indonesia: The Politics of Delusion, 1940-1947
13. Indonesia: The Realities of Diplomacy
14. Unfinished Business: New Guinea as a Last Outpost of Empire
15. Decolonization by Default: Dutch Disengagement in Suriname
Part IV: Contrasting Patterns of Decolonization
16. Contrasting Patterns of Decolonization: Belgian and Portuguese Africa
Conclusion: Changing Attitudes to the End of Empire
Glossary
Bibliography
Index
- See more at: http://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/crises-of-empire-9781472530257/#sthash.bJ1Pq70A.dpuf

The concept of hidden curriculum has become well established. It addresses the contexts of learning, the actions of students’ peers and teachers, and other domains which shape learning but are not part of official syllabuses. The concept of a hidden marketplace for private tutoring, widely known as shadow education, is less established but also becoming part of general understanding of the complementarities of regular and supplementary instruction. This paper brings the two literatures together to examine the values transmitted, mostly unintentionally, by shadow education in Cambodia. Most of this shadow education is delivered by regular teachers, commonly to their existing students and in their existing schools. The paper considers the impact of shadow education not only on the students who do receive it but also on those who do not. Patterns in Cambodia differ from those in more prosperous countries, but have parallels with other low-income countries. The authors suggest that much more attention is needed to the dynamics and impact of shadow education, including relationships between actors and the values that shadow education transmits as part of the hidden curriculum.

New Delhi is carefully following developments in the South China Sea as part of her “Looking East” policy and helping Vietnam exploit offshore oil and build her maritime capacities. However, Indian policy is cautious and aptly described as “multialigned”, rather than bent on building a coalition to resist China.

Tom Chiny i Azja Wschodnia. Dziedzictwo w obliczu przemian powstał z okazji 80. rocznicy urodzin profesora Krzysztofa Gawlikowskiego (1940–2021), badacza Chin i Azji Wschodniej, orędownika dialogu międzykulturowego, twórcy Centrum Badań Azji i Pacyfiku w Instytucie Studiów Politycznych PAN, Zakładu Studiów Azjatyckich na Uniwersytecie SWPS oraz współzałożyciela i wieloletniego redaktora czasopisma naukowego „Azja–Pacyfik”.

W księdze znalazły się teksty stworzone przez dwudziestoosobowe grono uznanych badaczy Chin i Azji Wschodniej z ośrodków naukowych w Polsce i za granicą, m.in. prof. Bogdana Góralczyka, prof. Adama Jelonka, prof. Kamila Zeidlera i in. Tom zawiera teksty dotyczące szeregu zagadnień mniej znanych i niemających szerszego odzwierciedlenia w literaturze przedmiotu; umożliwia tym samym polskiemu czytelnikowi zapoznanie się z unikalnymi i nieprezentowanymi do tej pory zagadnieniami odnoszącymi się do polityki, kultury, zagadnień społecznych i historycznych państw Azji Wschodniej. Oprócz prac omawiających wybrane aspekty dawnych i współczesnych Chin oraz ich polityki międzynarodowej, znalazły się tu teksty na temat Japonii, Tajlandii, Birmy czy Wietnamu.


Publikacja powstała przy wsparciu finansowym SWPS Uniwersytetu Humanistycznospołecznego, Towarzystwa Przyjaźni Polsko-Chińskiej oraz firm Tan Viet, Pure Solar i Diijia Poland

From the sixteenth to the nineteenth century Cambodia’s coinage consisted of small  silver uniface coins with animal or vegetal designs. These coins continue to defy detailed attribution as their designs are without inscriptions and the images on them cannot be interpreted to indicate the time or place of issue. This study sets out to analyse the information available from Cambodian royal chronicles and from foreign accounts of Cambodian money to create a background for the early history of the coinage and to collect data from the coins themselves, such as variations in design and weight standards towards creating a framework for further study.

This study investigated what competencies are crucial for culturally competent practice for mental health practitioners with LGBTIQ clients in Thailand. The study used two-round Delphi methodology to aggregate views of mental health practitioners with expertise on LGBTIQ issues (n = 14), and of LGBTIQ individuals who had used mental health services (n = 13). Participants proposed competencies in Round 1 through interviews or an online questionnaire, and rated these competencies' importance in another online questionnaire in Round 2. Various competencies were rated: 41 knowledge competencies, 35 awareness/attitude/belief competencies, 14 skill competencies, and 35 action competencies. Among key themes were understanding gender/sexual diversity and issues affecting LGBTIQ people and their families, and being able to assist on these issues; accepting gender/sexual diversity, respecting clients' self-determination, and communicating this to clients; being aware of the impact of one's beliefs, attitudes, identities, and values; recognizing and rejecting stereotypes; being open, humble, and willing to learn more; knowing how to use feminist counseling techniques and other specific techniques; refraining from offending actions; social justice action; and obtaining information sensitively. Developing these competencies is likely to improve the appropriateness of mental health services for LGBTIQ clients and should be included in mental health practitioners' training in Thailand.

The tiger Panthera tigris (L.) has a fragmented modern biogeographic range, much contracted by recent extinctions, covering continental Asia from India, Nepal and Bhutan east through China and south to Peninsular Malaysia and the island of Sumatra in Indonesia. In Southeast Asia, the historic range of tiger included Java and Bali, and archaeozoological research has shown that it was also present on Borneo in the terminal Pleistocene and Holocene, possibly until fairly recently. Here we report on the first evidence of the former presence of tiger on the south-western Philippine island of Palawan. This new record confirms that the tiger was once distributed throughout the Sundaic biogeographic region and all the large islands of Southeast Asia west of Wallace's Line of Huxley. The disappearance of the tiger from Palawan probably resulted from climatic and palaeogeographic changes at the end of the last glaciation as the landmass greatly decreased and open woodland environments were replaced by closed tropical rainforests. Reduction in prey availability could also have played a role, as local deer populations diminished and eventually disappeared.

Malacca Strait, a waterway located in South East Asia between the Malay Peninsula and the island of Sumatra, is undoubtedly one of the most important strait in the world with more than one third of world’s goods transported through it. The traffic of international vessels in the strait is also larger compared to the well known Panama Canal in Central America and Suez Canal in Egypt. The security of Malacca Strait, therefore, is of a great importance for the world economy and for almost all the countries in the world.
Nevertheless, various types of threats exist in the Malacca Strait. With huge traffic of vessels, the strait is an interesting field for pirates. The number of piracy in the strait reached a level that was so high compared to other waterways in the world that the strait was once categorized as an area with the risk of a war zone. The lack of capacity of the littoral states to secure the strait coupled with their unwillingness to share the burden of patrolling the straits with other countries due to the issue of sovereignty are frequently mentioned as the main cause of the problem. Indonesia and Malaysia are very firm in their position to reject foreign military’s presence in the strait, while Singapore advocates it due to its lack of trust in the two countries’ capacity.
Instead of a direct involvement, Indonesia and Malaysia urge more contribution in the form of aids and capacity building from the user states. The two countries think that the user states frequently hide behind the status of the Strait as the strait used for international navigation under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the SEA (UNCLOS), which implicates that the littoral states could not oblige the vessels that pass through the strait to pay some fees to maintain the security in the strait since they have the right of transit passage in such strait.
The geographical topology of the strait poses a different kind of challenge. The climate and water current in the strait is unpredicted, strong wind and rain that could come up anytime frequently endanger the safety of navigation in the strait. Some parts of the strait are very narrow and shallow, causing some accidents such as collision, grounding, and foundering to happen. These accidents have ecological consequences, mainly related to oil spills, and endanger the ecosystem and economic resources of the coastal communities.
Although different countries have different perspectives on the approach that should be taken, all shares the similarity of perspective that the Strait of Malacca is of a great importance and the question of security management in the strait should be solved. In line with this, various approaches in various levels were taken by the littoral and user states.
This writing will explain the geographical topology of the strait, its status under international law, and its strategic importance to gain a deeper understanding about the strait as the object of the discourse. After that, it will discuss more about the security threats and challenges in the straits and the approaches taken by countries to resolve these challenges and their effectiveness. The approaches would be categorized into three levels: unilateral, trilateral, and multilateral level.

Approximately forty contemporary hunter-gatherer societies survive in the increasingly deforested region of South East Asia. Despite the important place of hunter-gatherers in anthropological theory-making, detailed ethnographic information about contemporary South East Asian foraging societies can be difficult to locate. This article reviews key issues surrounding the cultural identity of South East Asian hunter-gatherers, including ethnolinguistic group identities and Eurocentric ideas of ‘pure’ foragers. The recent debates over whether ‘pure’ foragers were able to live in tropical forests is reviewed, finding that the debate’s aftermath provoked scholars to further explore the nature of prehistoric environments and to appreciate of the diversity of forager cultural adaptations to different ecological conditions. One outcome of the debates has been a shift towards exploring contemporary hunter-gatherers as ‘bricoleurs’ who flexibly shift their economic practices to accommodate changing, resource-depleted environments.

In most south-east Asian countries, the members of the Chinese Diaspora have secured important position in the fields of administration, education and religion. Thanks to their capacity to work and to adapt as well as their frugality, their cultural influence continues to grow. Clans and factions form the essential structure of the ancient Chinese society. If Imperial China never developed a Civil Law, it’s probably because the ancient Chinese society never really saw the need for it. This structure of relations could also explain why the Chinese civilisation didn’t develop a real territorial reference. The Chinese Diaspora today covers different political and economical realities which could be conflicting.

What primarily characterises the Diaspora is apparently its great capacity to organise itself in any economical, political, social or cultural environment. The capacity if its economic and administrative elites had been the determining factor of their development. However, the existence of informal and trans-national networks can also help the development of criminal activities. The presence of mafia groups and gangs of Chinese origin and their collusion with the world of finance and politics are historical facts in the region and could represent today a real threat for its stability. These criminal networks tend to forge business link with their Japanese, Russian, Korea, Italian or South American counterparts and sometimes could interfere with the process of political decision making.

Introduction by Arnaud LEVEAU (Irasec)

The Ang-yi or Chinese Secret Societies of Thailand. Understanding a Total Social Phenomenon by Jean Baffie (CNRS-University of Provence)

The Triads: Past and Present by T. A. Bancroft, BSc (Hons), MSc

Political influences of the Chinese communities in Thailand and Myanmar by Ratanaporn Dhammakosol, Politic Counscellor

Grey Side of Chinese Community in Indonesia by Frans Hendra Winarta, S.H., M.H.

Triad Involvement in the Sex Service Industry in Hong Kong and Its Impacts on Southeast Asia by Dr CHU Yiu Kong, Assistant Professor, Department of Sociology, The University of Hong Kong

The Chinese diaspora and prostitution at the Thai-Malay frontier (Hat Yai, Sadao-Dannok, Betong and Sungai Kolok) byDr. Emmanuel DIALMA, Jurist, AFESIP Campaign Director and Dr. Pierre LE ROUX, Ethnologist, AFESIP Research Unit Director

Triads : From street level to transnational crime by Peter Michael, Journalist

Notes on the Chinese communities in Burma and Thailand by Guy Lubeigt (CNRS-PRODIG)

Notes on the foreign mafias in Thailand by Jean Baffie (CRNS University of Provence)

Historical note on the Chinese communities in South-East Asia by Alain Forest (University of Paris VII, CNRS)

Links between Organized Crime and terrorist networks by Philippe Migaux, Chief police superintendent, French Embassy in Malaysia

In tourism studies globalization and localization are often conceived of as a binary opposition. The ethnography of an Indonesian group of tour guides presented here illustrates how the global and the local are intimately intertwined through what has been described as the process of “glocalization”. The guides studied are remarkable front-runners of glocalization. They fully participate in global popular culture and use new technologies in their private lives. While guiding, however, they skillfully represent the glocalized life around them as a distinctive “local”, adapted to the tastes of different groups of international tourists. It is concluded that tourism offers excellent opportunities to study glocalization, but that more grounded research is needed.

There is hardly any country in the world, which does not have an Indian element in its
population. So wide is its spread that it could rightly be said that the Sun never sets on the
Indian population.
Among the Indian Diaspora, Tamils form a substantial minority – 8 million out of 35 million.
They constitute the overwhelming majority of the Indian population in Sri Lanka, Malaysia,
Singapore and Reunion. They are in good numbers in Myanmar, Indonesia, South Africa,
Mauritius, Seychelles, Fiji, Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana, Suriname, Australia, New
Zealand, Gulf countries, England, United States, Canada and European Union.
The most amazing of these were the Tamilians... ancient traders who conquered the far and  Near  East and South East Asia

This paper identifies the right meaning of the vedic terms
Dasa and Dasyu.It shows that  the popular notion
of Dasa  and Dasyu as native settlers of ancient India, is not correct.The allusion that the Iranian Ahura and the  Vedic Asura have opposite meaning indicating enmity of vedic people and the Iranian people is also not correct.Vedic Harappan's link to Ancient Anatolia is further opened up.

"This book offers annotated translations of documents touching on Dutch admiral Cornelis Matelieff de Jonge and his voyage to Asia between 1605 and 1608. These translations are aimed at a contemporary English-speaking Asian readership interested in the early modern history of European trade, warfare and expansion in Southeast Asia with a focus on Malaysia, Singapore, and Indonesia. Researchers specialising in early European colonialism, international law, international relations, security studies, and diplomatic history will also find that the documents translated in this volume offer new and unfamiliar perspectives. Materlieff’s business acumen, military and diplomataic prowess as well as his vision of empire all have implications for examining not only European expansion into Southeast Asia, but also into other regions at large, including especially south Asia, Africa and the Americas.
Admiral Matelieff was a director of the Rotterdam Chamber of the Dutch East India Company (VOC) formed in 1602. He was appointed fleet commander on one of the company’s first voyages to Asia. Matelieff’s mission was both commercial and military: he launched a major sea-borne attack on the Portuguese colony of Melaka, arranged for the signing of treaties with the rulers of Johor, Aceh and Ternate, and founded the first Dutch fort on the island of Ternate. His endeavours, however, to open the Chinese market for the Dutch company proved unsuccessful.
Following his return to the Dutch Republic in September 1608, Matelieff penned a series of memorials and letters. In these he advanced recommendations for changing the way the company organized its fleets and conducted business. More importantly he offered  his Dutch contemporaries a vision of empire in Asia. The materials contained in this volume offer important observations of a perceptive analyst who was also determined to grasp the political and economic structures of Asia, and also of inter-state relations in across this vast region. At a time of Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, Danish, French and English engagement in Southeast Asia, Matelieff sought to critically assess and strategize on the ways in which Europeans were increasingly engaging with Asian polities and their rulers.

This book will be released for sale in Australasia and Europe in June 2014 and available in the Americas after September 2014
""""

In 2015, approximately 1.8 billion young people will be living in the Asia-Pacific region according to the UN.

This is a diverse and dynamic group of citizens who will be occupying the frontlines of our societies in the years to come in all sectors. Our governments and our societies need to be cognisant of ensuring their meaningful participation and their rights within all spectrums. Of particular interest is ensuring the health and rights of young people in all contexts especially their sexual and reproductive rights.

As a women’s health and rights advocacy organisation, ARROW has invested in the development of young people’s sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) through its Women’s Health and Rights Advocacy Partnership-South East Asia (WHRAP-SEA) project. Initiated in 2009 the project aims to mobilise young people especially young women to promote intergenerational leadership, movement building, as well as to address the challenges faced by young people in terms of restrictions placed on them when accessing information and services for sexual and reproductive health (SRH) from a rights based perspective. The project focuses on the issues of young people, HIV and education. It has enabled grassroots youth activists from marginalised communities in Burma, Cambodia, China, Indonesia, Lao PDR, the Philippines and Vietnam to advocate for young people’s access to comprehensive sexuality education (CSE) to fully inform them of their rights and further mobilise groups to demand better access to youth friendly health services.

Modern genetics, ecology and archaeology are combined to reconstruct the domestication and diversification of rice. Early rice cultivation followed two pathways towards domestication in India and China, with selection for domestication traits in early Yangtze japonica and a non-domestication feedback system inferred for ‘proto-indica’. The protracted domestication process finished around 6,500–6,000 years ago in China and about two millennia later in India, when hybridization with Chinese rice took place. Subsequently farming populations grew and expanded by migration and incorporation of pre-existing populations. These expansions can be linked to hypothetical language family dispersal models, including dispersal from China southwards by the Sino-Tibetan and Austronesian groups. In South Asia much dispersal of rice took place after Indo-Aryan and Dravidian speakers adopted rice from speakers of lost languages of northern India.

Kajian arkeologi di Lembah Mansuli, Lahad Datu, Sabah Ielah menemukan
dua tapak Paleolitik, iaitu Gua Samang Buat dan tapak terbuka Mansuli. Isu utama
di Gua Samang Buat ialah berapakah kedalaman sedimen di dalamgua ini selepas
ekskavasi empat meter masih belum menemui lantai gua. Manakala isu utama di
tapak terbuka Mansuli ialah interpretasi paleoalamnya yang dikatakan bersekitaran
tasik kuno. Maka, kaedah geoftzik telah digunakan untuk cuba menjawab isu ini.
Penggunaan kaedah geofizik di Lembah Mansuli telah berjaya membantu
mengenalpasti ketebalan sedimen di Gua Samang Buat dan membantu membina
paleoalam untuk Lembah Mammli. Ketebalan sedimen gua di Gua Samang Buat
yang boleh di' ekskavasi ialah 12 m di Gua 1 dan 5 m di Gua 2. Data ini
mencadangkan secara relatifberkemungkinan kita boleh menemui lapisan berusia
138,000 tahun dahulu di Gua Samang Buat berdq~rkan usia 46,000 untuk
kedalaman 4 m. Kajian gwifizik di Lembah Mansuli pula mendedahkan wujud
tasik kuno dan sa/iran sungai kuno di Lembah Mansuli. Malah daripada survei
tersebut, ianya juga mendedahkan kemungkinan wujud dua teres tasik kuno. Modelanomali graviti dan magnet juga turut menghasilkan hentuk tasik.

In 1965 New Zealand was an active member of alliances designed to contain the People’s Republic of China in South East Asia. Late the previous year, the Defence Council had warned Cabinet that New Zealand could be at war with China and/or Indonesia in six months. Less than seven years later New Zealand recognised China, as Britain and the US military presences were exiting from South East Asia. These events bookend a radical reshaping of New Zealand’s defence policies and its attitude towards China.
The existing scholarship on New Zealand’s Cold War defence policies has underemphasised the role of China in New Zealand’s grand strategy and the scholarship on Sino-New Zealand relations has also largely ignored defence policy. This thesis uses recently released files from the Ministry of Defence to provide new insight into the construction of China as a threat during the mid-1960s and the challenges faced in meeting that perceived threat. New Zealand’s Forward Defence policy was one designed to contain China and Beijing-supported revolutionary groups in South East Asia. This strategy was predicated on active British or American support for containment. SEATO and ANZAM provided the basis of New Zealand war planning and day-to-day operations in Asia respectively. With the British decision to withdraw from South East Asia and the American quagmire in Vietnam, New Zealand had to reassess its position in South East Asia as containment of China was no longer thought possible.
The need for a containment strategy was based upon a conceptualisation of China as a growing and hostile power. This view saw China as eventually developing the means to dominate South East Asia and threaten Australasia directly as Japan had done in 1942. This perception of China changed with the emergence of the Cultural Revolution. New Zealand officials watched from Hong Kong as violence and mass political disorder challenged established sources of authority. They took the view that Mao was in direct command of the revolution and was placing limits on it. The revolution destroyed the notion that China was a growing power bent on external expansion. As Mao moved to dampen the revolution, Beijing moved to re-establish its foreign policy and improve its links with the outside world.
Both the means and ends of New Zealand’s grand strategy changed at the same time. New Zealand and its great power allies abandoned the containment project just as views on China shifted. From the end of the 1960s, New Zealand’s Forward Defence efforts ceased to be focused on the containment of China and moved to achieving much more limited goals. New security arrangements were developed to replace the AMDA, ANZAM, and SEATO pacts. The Five Power Defence Arrangements would provide the basis of New Zealand’s defence commitment to South East Asia with only limited assistance from Britain and without China as a significant threat.
It is in this context that New Zealand made the decision to recognise China. New Zealand Prime Minister Keith Holyoake long maintained the view that the PRC should enter the United Nations and be recognised by New Zealand, provided the position of Taiwan was preserved. Once the effort to keep Taiwan in the UN was lost, New Zealand moved slowly toward recognition. However, it would take the election of the Third Labour Government for recognition to occur. This move was part of an international trend towards official relations with Beijing, but for New Zealand, the shift was greater as Wellington had moved from seeing China as a growing military threat to a state with which New Zealand could have an official dialogue.

This article examines Song-to-Ming printed illustrations celebrating the power of the Diamond Sutra, one of the most widely copied Buddhist scriptures in East Asia. An integral part of printed copies of the Diamond Sutra, these illustrations reflect a strong popular taste appealing to common folks, connecting modern readers to a wider realm of vernacular Buddhism and popular Buddhist visual culture in traditional Chinese society, where indigenous beliefs, popular images, and various religious practices are freely borrowed, converged, and re-packaged. The first part of the study, “Buddhist Records of Magical Efficacy,” identifies the round-trip of protagonists to the underworld, and the efficacy of prolonging life in Tang-to-Northern Song miracle tales of the Diamond Sutra as two recurring features carried on in the Southern Song-Ming illustrated versions. The second part, “Illustrations of Miracle Tales,” examines illustrated miracle stories of the Diamond Sutra highlighting the underworld court, messengers from the underground, miraculous fungi, and magical writing. The third part, “Women in Vernacular Buddhist and Folklore Visual Cultures,” turns to good and evil stereotypes of women pictured in selected miracle tales. The author then also explores the half-animal, half-woman demons subjugated by Buddhist guardians, whose images are juxtaposed with the illustrated miracle stories in the Ming versions. Finally, the fourth part, “Publishers and Donors,” shifts to the social and religious context of the illustrated books of the Diamond Sutra. The extant Southern Song-Yuan woodcuts were likely printed by Hangzhou’s commercial publishers. A donor’s colophon and a hybrid Esoteric Buddhist pantheon in an early fifteenth-century version points to a multicultural community in early Ming Beijing.
《通俗佛教版畫所見的金剛經靈驗力》 【中文提要】
金剛經乃東亞文化圈中流傳最廣的佛經之一。本文旨在探討南宋至明初金剛經版畫所描繪的金剛經靈驗故事。這些插圖反映了吸引大眾的民間品味，使吾人一窺傳統中國社會中，在吸納了本土信仰、通俗圖像、以及多元宗教習俗後所融匯而成的通俗佛教及視覺文化。全文共分為四大部分。第一部分「佛教靈驗記」指出，往返冥府、續命延壽的故事主題，乃源自唐宋金剛經靈驗記書寫，並流傳到南宋至明木刻插圖版金剛經靈驗記的二大主題。第二部分「靈驗記插圖」，探討金剛經靈驗記版畫中的冥府、冥使來訪，以及與書經功德有關的芝草等靈驗表現。第三部分「通俗佛教及民俗視覺文化中的女性」，關注靈驗記版畫所見的女性善、惡面，以及明代金剛經版畫中，與靈驗記插圖併列的金剛圖像所添加的半人半獸女性鬼怪形象。第四部分「出版者與施主」，將重點轉移到金剛經木刻插圖出版的社會、宗教網絡。現存南宋、元版木刻版畫，可能都產自當時杭州的坊間印書店。一套帶有漢、梵合名之施主題記，以及混雜了密教與道教神群像的明初金剛經木刻版畫，則指向宣德年間北京城中的多元文化社群。

This is an open access book available at: https://library.oapen.org/handle/20.500.12657/51045

In 1603, Dutch Admiral Jacob van Heemskerk plundered a Portuguese merchantman, the Santa Catarina, travelling from Macao to Melaka. The sale of the cargo at a public auction made traders across Northern Europe aware of the riches to be reaped from Asian trade. However, the episode raised legal questions and the United Dutch East India Company (VOC) commissioned the young Hugo Grotius to defend Heemskerk's actions. Grotius produced two classic legal texts, The Law of Price and Booty and its spin-off, The Free Sea, among the greatest works in the history of international legal and political thought. His observations dealt with free trade in the East Indies, the Dutch Republic's military conflict with the Portuguese and Spanish in Asia, and the legal and moral grounds for attacking and plundering Portuguese and Spanish mercantile shipping.

This book considers the background to the treaties then content and significances, and what Grotius actually knew about Southeast Asian politics and Portuguese institutions of trade and diplomacy when he wrote them.

Grotius' work on the freedom of the sea was a cornerstone in his enduring reputation as one of the founders of modern international law. The present book provides a valuable resource for historians of Southeast Asia and for students of international relations, political theory, maritime history and public law.
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Warning! This file was written in WordPerfect long ago. In the conversion to pdf the cross-references haven't worked as expected. Most of them now point at page numbers, not item numbers. The page numbers may be correct, and the hotlinks may take you to the right page, but I don't guarantee it.

The descriptions of each item are as accurate as ever, and the file can be downloaded and searched.

The Singapore and Melaka Straits are a place where regional and long-distance maritime trading networks converge, linking Europe, the Mediterranean, eastern Africa, the Arabian Peninsula and the Indian subcontinent with key centres of trade in Thailand, Indochina, insular Southeast Asia, China, Korea and Japan. The first half of the seventeenth century brought heightened political, commercial and diplomatic activity to this region. It has long been clear to both the Portuguese and the Dutch that whoever controlled the waters off modern Singapore gained a firm grip on regional as well as long-distance intra-Asian trade. By the early 1600s Portuguese power and prestige were waning and the arrival of the Dutch East India Company constituted a major threat. Moreover, the rapid expansion and growing power of the Acehnese Empire, and rivalry between Johor and Aceh, was creating a new context for European trade in Asia.

Drawing on maps, rare printed works, and unpublished manuscripts written in Portuguese, Spanish, Dutch and Latin, Peter Borschberg provides new information on the diplomatic activities of Asian powers, and shows how the Portuguese and Spanish attempted to restore their political fortunes by containing the rapid rise of Dutch Power in the region. Key documents, transcribed and translated into English for the first time, make up a series of appendices.

The product of more than two decades of research in European libraries, archives, The Singapore and Melaka Straits will be of great interest to readers in Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia, where little is known about this pivotal pre-colonial period. It is also an invaluable resource for historians and other students of early modern Europe and of the European presence in Asia.
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