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Architecture The temples of Cambodia are among the most complex and imposing architectural creations in the world, offering nothing less than the embodiment of Khmer culture. Over a period of five hundred years, from the seventh to the twelfth centuries, successive rulers sought to build sacred spaces that bore witness to the presence of the gods and the legitimacy of the kings. This volume invites the reader to experience that remarkable architectural and spiritual achievement through extraordinary photographs and a text by a leading Khmer cultural historian.
Organised chronologically, the book opens with the modestly scaled brick structures of the seventh and eighth centuries and goes on to explore the first monumental temple mountains of the ninth century, the technical advances enabling the fulfillment of a unique Khmer architectural vision in the tenth, and the erection of the ambitious Baphuon temple mountain, among others, in the eleventh, all setting the stage for the apogee of the Khmer empire in the twelfth century, and with it, the construction of three massive temple complexes: Beng Mealea, Bakan, and the supreme architectural creation of Cambodia, Angkor Wat.  This volume brings together comprehensive excerpts from the catalogues documenting the design practice research of eighteen architects who were invited to participate in the 'invitational' research program at RMIT. The research here presented offers a wealth of evidence about the design practices of architects and practitioner academics. This is the Fifth edition of RMIT University's Postgraduate Masters work and features contributions from some of Australia's leading architecture practices, including Scott Balmforth, Gerard Reinmuth, Sara Cole, Riet Eeckhout, Ephraim Joris, Brian Donovan, Timothy Hill, Nikki Kalms, Michael Patroni, m3Architecture, Robert Simeoni, Leigh Wolley, Adrian Iredale, Finn Pedersen, Robert Morris Nunn, Dale Jones Evans, Roger Wood & Randal Marsh.  In this guide to the city's architecture, vista photographs introduce the shape of the built area of Tokyo. Text and photo insets describe some 200 post-1945 buildings. Location details are set out with sketch plains which include subway route maps. Index of buildings.  This album presents rich photographs with commentaries on Singapore's historic waterfront and the precinct of buildings which have been reborn under the Fullerton umbrella: the 1928 Palladian General Post Office now the super-luxury Fullerton Hotel; the 1854 Johnston Pier, later Clifford Pier, now an elegant walkway; the 1960s' Custom House now offers fine dining; the 1964 Merlion since 2002 sited next to the Waterboat House.; One Fullerton, a waterside commercial and leisure hub; and the new Fullerton Bay Hotel entered through the historic gateway of Clifford Pier.  The notion of impermanence underlies the urban design language of Hong Kong to a significant extent. The city's intensely urban environment has long reflected embedded patterns of change and temporality in both physical and cultural dimensions - a forever reconstructed city of dislocation, adaptation and imagination. These characteristics are intrinsically interwoven with street and spatial patterns, producing a sense of immediacy and transience, ingrained within the fabric and memory of the city. This might stem, on the one hand, from a philosophy of change inherent in cultural traditions, but it also reflects more tangible issues accumulated from historical imprints, regimes of displacement, and constant transformation of the urban environment. This collection of sketches, illustrations and essays seeks to reflect the evolving character and personality of Hong Kong - an informality in the way its older streets, urban places and spaces are used, and how this encodes the 'everyday' experience of the city through a profusion of visual incident, expression, and an intensity of fragmented features that exude Hong Kong's high density urban values.  Scholarly articles with archival and recent photographs make this a comprehensive account of Java's Borobudur monuments. Built in the 8th to 10th centuries, the temple complex still has 1460 reliefs depicting interaction between the human and the divine in the lives of the Buddha and his followers. It was substantially reinforced and restored in the 20th century and is now one of UNESCO's most visited World Heritage Sites. The chapters are on: Borobudur in the Beginning; Buddhism in 10th century Java; the Path to Enlightenment, and the beliefs which underlie the monument and its bas-reliefs; Javanese life in the 9th century; Borobudur and the Modern World; and Borobudur Inspires, including works by Indonesian and foreign artists. Bibliography, index and many photographs and photo fold-outs.
Art This volume is an excellent reference guide to the historical and cultural significance of Chinese toggles or zhuizi - carved pieces of jade, ivory, bone, wood, shell and semi-precious stones used by the Chinese in ancient times as counterweights to secure personal effects like tobacco pipes and money pouches to their belts. Over time, toggles became treasured objects of identity and expression, believed to bring the bearer good luck, happiness, fertility, longevity and health. The book explains how toggles were used in daily and ceremonial life, and interprets the designs that are fundamental to understanding these artefacts. Accompanied by stunning photography and detailed descriptions, Traditional Chinese Toggles: Counterweights and Charms will be the definitive illustrative guide to this little-known Chinese art form.  Ethnic Jewellery from Indonesia: Continuity and Evolution is a compelling introduction to the little-known and visually-powerful body adornments of the ethnic peoples of Indonesia's outer islands, including Sumatra, Borneo, Sulawesi, Sumba and Maluku. The history of the jewellery is told from the perspective of the materials used, including gold, silver, brass, ivory, shell and animal teeth.
Illustrated with nearly 600 photographs of rare jewellery amassed over 30 years by collector Manfred Giehmann, this book explores the depth and breadth of an ancient and magnificent tradition of the Indonesian people. It will provide information on the origin, meaning and purpose of the jewellery, as well as unique insights into the people who crafted and wore the jewellery for ritual or ceremonial functions. Ethnic Jewellery: Continuity and Evolution is a definitive work on the subject and a testimony to the living traditions of cultures usually shrouded in mystery.  This richly illustrated volume brings together products of Malaysia's creative and revived batik industry. Examples of varied artefacts are illustrated and discussed. They show the history of Malay batik and its forerunners, regional variations, materials, methods and also the new stylus batik which since the 1970s has enabled new ways of production and design. Developments in batik fashion for men and women, formal wear, furnishing and art of recent years are discussed and trends in design and production are noted. With reading list and directory of designers, entrepreneurs and batik schools. Index.  This dazzling array of exquisite and intimate art from one of the world's most renowned collectors covers more than three centuries of Chinese erotic art. This opulently illustrated volume offers a wide-ranging examination of erotic artifacts from the end of the Ming Dynasty, around 1600, to the heyday of Shanghai in the 1920s. It includes luxurious reproductions of prints, watercolors, oil paintings, ivory carvings, pottery, fans, and screens, among other items. The author gives a careful analysis of the history of erotic art in China and includes rare photographs on subjects such as foot binding and prostitution. Examining these works as artifacts of Chinese culture, this book gives a uniquely comprehensive perspective on eroticism, romantic love, religious belief, and gender roles in Chinese history. With bibliography and index.  Sanyu (1901-1966) was a Chinese artist from Sichuan province who lived and died in Paris. Integrating traditional Chinese aesthetics with Western modernist tenets, Sanyu has created a unique painterly language that is all his own.
Dedicated to discovering as much as possible about Sanyu, the author has interviewed Sanyu's friends and gathered records pertaining to Sanyu's life. This is the second volume of her catalogue, which in addition to listing Sanyu's works, attempts to construct Sanyu's life in the form of an extended chronology.  Sanyu (1901-1966) was a Chinese artist from Sichuan province who lived and died in Paris. Integrating traditional Chinese aesthetics with Western modernist tenets, Sanyu has created a unique painterly language that is all his own.
Dedicated to discovering as much as possible about Sanyu, the author has interviewed Sanyu's friends and gathered records pertaining to Sanyu's life. This is the second volume of her catalogue, which in addition to listing Sanyu's works, attempts to construct Sanyu's life in the form of an extended chronology.  This is a magisterial survey by a leading authority on the artistic achievements of the Kashmiri culture. Published in conjunction with the Asia Society's major international loan exhibition Arts of Kashmir, this comprehensive catalogue by leading academics in the visual culture of Kashmir explores Kashmir's rich artistic and intellectual ferment between the 4th and 19th centuries. The catalogue, featuring 125 objects of exemplary quality, includes both religious and secular arts, providing a holistic view of the cultural achievements of the people of Kashmir. Examples of Kashmir's little-known works of Hindu, Buddhist, and Islamic art are presented along with famed crafts works, ranging from furniture and papier-maché work to carpets and embroidery, to provide a sense of the broad artistic contributions of this region. The essays discuss early painting, textile, sculptural and literary traditions in Kashmir, with a particular focus on the intersection of these traditions with artistic, religious and cultural practices in the local and wider regions. With bibliography and index.  In the 1980s, enigmatic wood masks, similar to those worn by Siberian and Eskimo shamans, began to appear in Parisian galleries that specialized in exotic art. Only the customary red wax affixed to the objects indicated that their origin was in fact Nepal. Art lovers, fascinated by the masks' expressions and the thickness of patina, enthusiastically began to collect them, though they were still shrouded in mystery. In this beautifully photographed book, Bertrand Goy and Max Itzikovitz set out to uncover the history of the masks and to determine their place in Nepalese culture. The authors also investigate western Nepal's unsophisticated, anthropomorphic wood sculptures, which can be seen today in temples, on bridges, and on the outskirts of villages. No one knows if these are protective effigies or tribute to divinities from an antiquated religion. With an insightful text and striking imagery, this book attempts to pull back the veil on one of the world's most cryptic art forms. With bibliography.  This gorgeously produced book reveals the hidden meaning behind motifs in Chinese decorative arts. When any Westerner looks at Chinese art, it is immediately apparent how much the depiction of animal and plant life differs from its American or European equivalent. This exceptional world teems with flowers, trees, birds, fish, shellfish, and insects, mixed with fantastic creatures or figures taken from legend and mythology. Various motifs can appear together in one scene, and if the viewer understands the language, the images are charged with symbolism. This absorbing study explores the rich symbolic language of exquisite works in ceramic, jade, lacquer, glass, and silk from the world-renowned Baur Collection. With bibliography.  This substantial volume examines a crucial turning point in the development of Chinese ink painting in the twentieth century, a change represented by the beautiful and innovative work of four artists, Wu Changshuo (1844-1927), Qi Baishi (1863-1957), Huang Binhong (1864-1955), and Pan Tianshou (1897-1971). With careers spanning over a century of radical change in China, these artists were instrumental in propelling the ancient tradition of Chinese ink painting into the modern era in the face of compelling Western influences. As a group, their work represents an alternative approach to questions of relevance and modernity. This lavish book illuminates the context in which these artists worked, describes their overall contribution to the history of Chinese art, and highlights their individual ideas and achievements. In his introductory essay, Xiaoneng Yang offers a brief historical background for the evolution of modern Chinese painting. Richard E. Vinograd analyzes the "alternative modernism" represented by these artists, each of whom worked in the brush-and-ink idiom, confronted the shift toward practices of the West, and gave new life through this confrontation to cherished traditions. Essays devoted to each artist are followed by individual entries discussing their works. Featuring more than one hundred works of both painting and calligraphy by the four artists, the book, which is published to accompany a traveling exhibition, also includes a glossary, an index and detailed bibliography.  Superstring documents a series of single-continuous line drawings done by artist Joshua Yang during his 6-month artist reidency at the Marina Mandarin in 2007. The book contains conversations between the artist and curator Eugene Tan on topics such as the correlation between art and science, specifically the Superstring Theory, the process of memorizing an image to be reproduced, the validity of memory, the relevance of theories to art practices and other related conversations. The book also catalogues the drawings produced during the 6-month residency as well as a proposal for a work that was produced during a 48-hour drawing marathon at the opening of the exhibition in December 2007. The drawing performance subsequently was recorded by the Singapore Book of Records as the longest continuous drawing made by an individual and the event was publicised on television and newspapers.  Superstring documents a series of single-continuous line drawings done by artist Joshua Yang during his 6-month artist reidency at the Marina Mandarin in 2007. The book contains conversations between the artist and curator Eugene Tan on topics such as the correlation between art and science, specifically the Superstring Theory, the process of memorizing an image to be reproduced, the validity of memory, the relevance of theories to art practices and other related conversations. The book also catalogues the drawings produced during the 6-month residency as well as a proposal for a work that was produced during a 48-hour drawing marathon at the opening of the exhibition in December 2007. The drawing performance subsequently was recorded by the Singapore Book of Records as the longest continuous drawing made by an individual and the event was publicised on television and newspapers.  This monograph positions Liu Kang, one of Singapore's first generation artists, as observer, commentator, and visionary of modernity in Singapore art history. The contexts in which his works were created consist of a colourful map of diverse cultures, places, influences, from China, Europe and Southeast Asia. The cross-cultural richness in Liu Kang's way of seeing and art making are explored in four essays by curators and art researchers. These essays present fresh insights about the artist's engagement with European and Chinese modernisms in a Singaporean context. The book also contains close to 200 colour illustrations and archival photographs as well as an index and a glossary.  This major illustrated volume complements the 2010-2011 Los Angeles exhibition "Gifts of the Sultan" which brings together 250 artefacts from 42 lenders in 13 countries to demonstrate the diversity and exquisite quality of artefacts used as gifts at Islamic courts over the centuries. Commentary with provenance details and full colour illustrations are given for each exhibit. Ten specialist essays explore the nature, place, and significance of gift giving in Islamic courts worldwide over the course of Islamic history to the 19th century. With bibliography, glossary and index.  Assembling over 70 works from Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam, this exhibition showcases the visual brilliance and conceptual purpose of recent Southeast Asian practice. Providing regional comparisons, it illuminates the common themes, aesthetic approaches, and conceptual tendencies that have surfaced since the early 1990s. Commonalities coming to the fore include story-telling, the meshing of idea and visual seduction, and a belief in art-as-social-voice. Arguing for a view of the region's visual production on the region's terms, the curatorial references used to contextuatise the pieces are mined in Southeast Asian history, geography, and culture. The exhibition proposes the confluence of recent political history, profound social shifts, and artists' confidence vis-à -vis their deep-rooted cultural baggage as significant to the creation of the visually potent and conceptually original art of the last two decades.  With its fifteen chapters and more than 380 full-color illustrations, this book offers the first comprehensive look at Indonesia's writing traditions. It is a publishing milestone, recording many rare and precious manuscripts and preserving them for posterity. With bibliography and index.  Women Artists in Singapore showcases Singapore's women artists and their contributions. Bridget Tracy Tan's selection of 37 artists and artworks offer interesting and much-needed insights about the role women have played, and continue to play, in Singapore's art history. The styles and mediums of artists from different generations are creatively juxtaposed to highlight the sheer diversity of their output and influences, as well as their international character. The question of what it means to be both an artist and a woman lies at the heart of Women Artists in Singapore. Enlivened by colourful artwork images from the national collection as well as private and artist collections, this book presents a visual feast, attractive to art lover and lay person alike.  While ancient Javanese bronze and ironwork have long elicited interest, there is a lesser-known yet equally fascinating aspect of the Indonesian island's history: gold artefacts, including jewellery, clothing accessories, statues, coins, and containers. Not only do these objects display exceptional craftsmanship, they also provide a significant source of information on Javanese society, culture, religion, economy, technology, and art from the 1st century BCE to 1500.
This revised and expanded edition of the 1990 publication Old Javanese Gold celebrates Valerie and Hunter Thompson's 2007 gift of Javanese gold objects to the Yale University Art Gallery and the subsequent founding of the Department of Indo-Pacific Art. Along with entirely new photography and a fresh design, the book's essays have been updated to incorporate recent discoveries-including the Wonoboyo hoard, one of the most important gold hoards ever excavated in Southeast Asia.  Bold, sophisticated, engaging, and startlingly modern, Buncheong ceramics emerged as a distinct Korean art form in the 15th and 16th centuries, only to be eclipsed on its native ground for more than 400 years by the overwhelming demand for porcelain. Elements from the Buncheong idiom were later revived in Japan, where its spare yet sensual aesthetic was much admired and where descendants of Korean potters lived and worked.
This innovative study features 60 masterpieces from the renowned Leeum, Samsung Museum of Art in Seoul, as well as objects from The Metropolitan Museum of Art, and presents current scholarship on Buncheong's history, manufacture, use, and overall significance. The book illustrates why this historical art form continues to resonate with Korean and Japanese ceramists working today and with contemporary viewers worldwide.  According to sacred texts, the historical Buddha encouraged his disciples to make pilgrimages to sites associated with his life. As sacred images of the Buddha proliferated over time, it is said that his relics were divided among 84,000 South Asian sites of Buddhist worship, or stupas. This abundance of sacred sites in turn rendered pilgrimage and worship increasingly prominent influences on Asian culture and daily life.
Pilgrimage and Buddhist Art employs sacred objects, textiles, sculpture, manuscripts, and paintings to discuss the relationship between Buddhist pilgrimage and Asia's artistic production. Accompanying an exhibition of approximately 90 extraordinary objects, many of which have never before been displayed publicly, this book addresses the process of the sacred journey in its entirety, including discussion of pilgrimage motivation, ritual preparation, and worship at the sacred destination. Exceptional and visually stunning examples of painted mandalas, reliquaries, prayer wheels, and travelling shrines demonstrate that pilgrims and pilgrimage inspired centuries of artistic production and shaped the development of visual culture in Asia.
Through insightful essays by a team of scholars, Pilgrimage and Buddhist Art illuminates artwork's complex role in Buddhist culture, in which art serves as a form of memory and a bridge to the spiritual world as well as a functional tool with temporal purposes.  In recent decades Japanese art has achieved immense popularity in the West while being little understood. Critics have focused on the superficiality and infantilism they find prevalent in much of the work, while many Westerners are familiar with the country's artistic side solely through manga and anime. Bye Bye Kitty!!! offers a more incisive and wide-ranging view of the contemporary Japanese art scene, depicted through the works of 15 artists, ranging in age from 27 to 45 and working in painting, sculpture, installation, photography, and video.
The book's title invokes the subtle irony and subversive techniques adopted by this new generation of artists in their rebellion against the kawaii, or "cute," aesthetic of mainstream Japanese culture. An essay by David Elliott provides an overview of the artists and explores many of the societal questions, such as the role of feminism, the rise of the "salaryman," and reflections on the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, featured in their works. A contribution by Tetsuya Ozaki illuminates the history and culture of Japan's current Heisei era, which began in January 1989 after the death of Emperor Hirohito.
The artists featured in Bye Bye Kitty!!! demonstrate that they have the power not only to reconfigure international stereotypes about the current state of Japanese art but also to shape the very landscape of contemporary Japanese art itself.  The technique of applying brilliant enamel ornament to metalwork, known as cloisonné, reached its peak in China from the 14th century on. This sumptuously illustrated survey, which accompanies an exhibition at the Bard Graduate Center, situates these remarkable pieces in their context with a survey of the historical, political and sociological milieu in China during the period. Research recently undertaken in China and published here for the first time has resulted in the redating of a number of objects with significant implications for the overview of Chinese cloisonné production. Shapes, functions, pattern, and symbolism in cloisonné objects are all examined and explored. And the final section of the book reviews the impact of developments in China on later production in Europe, as well as the acquisition of cloisonné pieces by the major American museums and private collectors at the beginning of the 20th century.  This study of the oeuvre of Lim Yew Kuan (b. 1928) complements the retrospective Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts (NAFA), Singapore exhibition. Lim Yew Kuan was the second (1963-1979) Principal of NAFA and son of the founding Principal Lim Hak Tai. Trained in Chelsea and Paris and working in different media including woodcuts and sculpture. An illustrated essay by Bridget Tan overviews the diversity of his artistic achievement. Some 60 of his paintings and other works are illustrated. With biographical chronology. Bilingual in Chinese.  This catalogue and discussion of the work of China-born Chen Chong Swee (1910-85), one of Singapore's Nanyang School artists, celebrates the 2010-2011 Singapore Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts exhibition and the centenary of his birth. The account of Chen's beliefs, life and ways of work by Bridget Tan is enriched with family and archival photographs. Seventy-five of Chen's paintings in Chinese ink, watercolour, oil or charcoal are illustrated. With chronology. Bilingual in Chinese.  Working in collaboration with a team of Indian artists, Waswo playfully recreates and examines the tradition of vintage studio portraiture. Waswo's chief accomplice in this endeavour is Rajesh Soni, a third generation Rajasthani hand-colourist whose grandfather was once court photographer to the Maharana Bhopal Singh of Mewar. Soni's careful and highly talented painting of each photograph adds a vintage feel to work that hovers enigmatically between the retro and the contemporary. Men of Rajasthan contains fifty images annotated with delightful commentary by the photographer himself and further uncovers the male-centric universe of a uniquely mysterious place.  In 1969 Howard Taylor, brother of Elizabeth, bailed out a rag-tag band of thirteen young Mainlanders jailed on Kauai for vagrancy and invited them to camp on his oceanfront land. Soon waves of hippies, surfers and troubled Vietnam vets found their way to Taylor Camp and built a clothing-optional, pot-friendly tree house village at the end of the road on the island's North Shore. In 1977, after condemning the village to make way for a 'State Park', government officials torched the camp - leaving little but ashes and memories of the 'best days of our lives'. Powerfully evocative photographs from the Seventies reveal a community that rejected consumerism for the healing power of Nature, while the story of Taylor Camp's seven-year existence is documented through interviews made thirty years later with the campers, their neighbours and the Kauai officials who finally evicted them.  In 1930, the celebrated American photographer Richard Gordon Matzene made a unique series of portraits of the ruling families of Nepal. The handsome aristocrats and sumptuously adorned women in his immaculate portraits are here identified and their biographies fitted into the panoply of Nepalese court drama and intrigue. Local and regional conquests, two world wars, a devastating earthquake, and the rampant malaria that challenged the regime are all part of this story. With index.  This softback presents work and ideas of 12 contemporary artists of Vietnam. A biographical summary and a few colour plates accompany summary and a few colour plates accompany the essay on the oeuvre and ideas of each artist. Diversity and new vigorously-expressed ideas and convictions are clearly very active in Vietnam's art world. Bilingual in Vietnamese.  The first volume of a series of ten books that discuss the collections of the Tropenmuseum and the histories and stories that accompany them. The books elucidate the often hidden backgrounds of a museum collection, discussing objects within their original context, social histories and their contemporary meaning. The main emphasis lies on the history of the specific museum collection, with its different collecting and presentation practices placed in a particular time and place. Each volume is richly illustrated with objects and photographs from the Tropenmuseum collection.
In The Netherlands East Indies at the Tropenmuseum, specific sections of the well-known ethnographic collections from Indonesia are interpreted as colonial collections. As such, these objects and images express a specific culture of colonialism and colonial society in which ethnography, art, applied art and crafts from Europe and from South-East Asia merge. For more than a century, these objects and images have played a dynamic role in creating coherence in the ethnographic collections as a whole. Through this new interpretation of such objects as colonial collections, the contours of the many diverging and contradictory social relationships that existed within colonial society become visible. In eight essays, invited authors elaborate on this approach and challenge the Tropenmuseum to extend its policies on the interpretation and presentation of ethnographic collections in a national and international dialogue on art, cultural heritage and the legacies of colonial culture.  This is the second volume of a series of ten books that discuss the collections of the Tropenmuseum and the histories and stories that accompany them. The books elucidate the often hidden backgrounds of a museum collection, discussing objects within their original context, social histories and their contemporary meaning. The main emphasis lies on the history of the specific museum collection, with its different collecting and presentation practices placed in a particular time and place. Each volume is richly illustrated with objects and photographs from the Tropenmuseum collection.
Oceania at the Tropenmuseum is not a book on art from Oceania, but rather a treatise on the coming into existence and growth of a well-known Oceanic collection, which started at the beginning of the 20th century with the bringing together of the collections of the Colonial Museum in the Dutch provincial town of Haarlem and the ethnographic collection of Artis, the Amsterdam Zoo. The objects were, then and later on, brought together by early explorers, travellers, scientific expeditions, missionaries, Dutch government officials, ethnologists and collectors, most of them within the context of Dutch colonial presence in New Guinea, from where the majority of objects originate. During the last hundred years the intellectual approach to the collection changed from evidences of cultures in far-away places to the cultural heritage of world citizens, whose objects of art and material culture has been amassed during the colonial period of Western history. This richly illustrated book emphasises this historical context and the way the objects were collected and presented to the public till this day.  The Danar Hadi collection of Javanese batik housed in the Surakarta Palace in Solo, Central Java consists of some 10,000 pieces made between the mid-19th century and 1975. It is one of the most comprehensive batik collections in existence. This volume discusses the history and aims of the collectors, and using archival black-and-white photographs explains the processes of batik manufacture. Some 300 pieces are illustrated in colour with provenance and explanatory notes.  The Hoffmeister Collection is one of the best and most extensive private collections of antique and historic Turkmen knotted carpets in western Europe and America. It competes alongside important collections from Western museums as well as those in Russia and Turkmenistan. With almost 170 objects - among which are distinguished carpets and bags - artistic excellence and historical significance, in particular, come together. Both the cultural significance of the collection and the scientific and artistic value of its pieces are discussed in this book. Brilliant illustrations and well-informed texts demonstrate the cultural significance of the collection and also the highly scientific and artistic value of its pieces.  The Naxi people are an ethnic minority living in south-western China, who at the intersection of the Tibetan civilization in the west and the Chinese in the east, developed not only their own language but also their own pictographic script (the only living pictographic script in the world today), a rich mythology, and their own religion complete with complex rituals. This book offers a comprehensive introduction to Naxi art and culture through rare artefacts: funeral scrolls, ceremonial banners, paintings, musical instruments, crowns, swords, and sceptres, as well as pictographic manuscripts. It provides articles on the art of the Dongba, their calligraphy and language, and essays on Naxi history, culture, and society, as well as an essay on Quentin Roosevelt and his travels to the land of the Naxi. This is a comprehensive introduction to centuries of Naxi culture, art, and religion, which presents outstanding objects from public and private collections, including those collected by Quentin Roosevelt in China. Essays by specialists and scholars in the field of Naxi studies and Chinese and Tibetan art history offer a highly academic standard that is also attractive and accessible. With bibliography and index.  This volume presents for the first time in book form important and largely unknown treasures of Indo-Kashmiri Buddhism. From the first century BCE to the thirteenth century, Kashmir was a thriving center of Buddhist culture and art. The rise of Islamic peoples led to the destruction of all temples constructed there during the Buddhist era. Yet in the remote Himalayas of Ladakh and other neighboring locations, a few of these archaeological and artistic treasures are exquisitely preserved and are reproduced here for the first time. This volume takes readers on a journey through these remote sites, focusing especially on the amazing temple complex of Mangyu. The chapels, shrines, and dazzling murals presented here not only reveal much about late Mahayana Buddhism in India-its art, culture, and history-but also help fill a gap in our knowledge of the development of early Tibetan Vajrayana Buddhism. With bibliography.  Much has transformed our understanding of Southeast Asian prehistory in the last 40 years. The history and ties that bind the Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia, Madagascar, the Pacific islands, and mainland Southeast Asia can now be traced to the big bang out of a homeland in Taiwan some 4,500 years ago. While archaeology had previously established irrefutable connections among peoples of these regions, more recent advances in historical linguistics and molecular genetics have provided an approximate timeline for the rapid dispersion of what archaeologists describe as colonizing farmers. This publication will focus on art and artefacts, features that stand witness to these peoples' relatedness today. With bibliography and index.  This book presents an exquisite compilation of over one thousand Chinese traditional designs found in weaving and embroidery. Known as zhiwen or wen in ancient China, these traditional patterns are the products of brilliant artistic skills that have been passed down from one generation to the next. Available in a beautiful slipcase, this book presents a wide and comprehensive range of classical design motifs that include: dragons, phoenix, birds, auspicious animals, floral patterns, insects and fish, figures, religious, and allegorical motifs.
BusinessFounded with one shop in Gopeng, Perak in 1879, the Eu Yan Sang traditional Chinese medicine business is now widely known throughout Asia. This book analyses and examines the company's structure and the strategies which since the 1990s have enabled a traditionally structured family firm to advance and grow into the expanding listed company of today. With graphics, tables and bibliography.  While General Motors was hurtling towards bankruptcy in 2009, GM's subsidiary in China was setting new sales and profit records. This book reveals how extraordinary people, remarkable decisions and surprising breaks made triumph in China possible for General Motors. It also shows just how vulnerable that winning track record remains.
No small part of GM's success in China springs from its management of shifting business and political relationships. In China, the government makes the rules for-and competes in-the auto industry. GM's business partner, the City of Shanghai, is both an ally and a competitor. How does such an unnatural relationship work on a day-to-day basis? Where will it go on the future?
General Motors also engages in constant battles with other global and Chinese car makers for the hearts of demanding Chinese consumers. Dunne gives us rare glimpses into the mindsets and behaviour of this new moneyed set, the world's newest class of wealthy consumers.
China is already the number one car market in the world. During the next ten years, China will export millions of cars and trucks globally, including to the United States. American Wheels, Chinese Roads presents readers with fascinating illustrations of what to expect when Chinese cars, companies, and business people arrive on American shores.  During the last decade, many changes have taken place in the Singapore financial marketplace. The Monetary Authority of Singapore has implemented numerous reforms to liberalise the financial services sector. Since 2002, two new laws have come into effect. The Securities and Futures Act and the Financial Advisors Act have important impact on the financial community. Institutions must hold the Capital Market Services (CMS) licence and the Financial Advisors licence and their representatives must pass the CMFAS examinations. This book discusses the changes in detail. Part A provides details of the reforms and discusses the impact of the new laws and regulations. Part B highlights the wide range of financial services and products provided by the institutions. In this edition, two new chapters have been added. They focus on issues related to wealth management which has become the recent focus of many banks that provide services to high net worth individuals or HNWIs.  This book is a macro-study of Indian business communities in Singapore through different phases of their growth since colonial times. It goes beyond the conventional labour-history approach to study Indian immigrants to Southeast Asia, both in terms of themselves and their connections with the peoples' movements. It looks at how Indian business communities negotiated with others in the environments in which they found themselves and adapted to them in novel ways. It especially brings into focus the patterns and integration of the Indian networks in the large-scale transnational flows of capital, one of the least-studied aspects of the diaspora history in this part of the world. The complexities and overlapping interests of different groups of traders and businessmen form an interesting study of various aspects of these trading bodies, their methods of operation and their trade links, both within and outside Singapore. The book also charts their mobility and progress, in terms of both business and social status. The research aims to construct linear threads of linkages through generations and situate them in the larger framework and broader paradigms of business networks in Singapore.
In shedding light on aspects of Indian connectivities to Southeast Asia, the narrative is particularly relevant in the context of India's economic rise. This study raises economic, social and cultural issues regarding the transition.  This book is a macro-study of Indian business communities in Singapore through different phases of their growth since colonial times. It goes beyond the conventional labour-history approach to study Indian immigrants to Southeast Asia, both in terms of themselves and their connections with the peoples' movements. It looks at how Indian business communities negotiated with others in the environments in which they found themselves and adapted to them in novel ways. It especially brings into focus the patterns and integration of the Indian networks in the large-scale transnational flows of capital, one of the least-studied aspects of the diaspora history in this part of the world. The complexities and overlapping interests of different groups of traders and businessmen form an interesting study of various aspects of these trading bodies, their methods of operation and their trade links, both within and outside Singapore. The book also charts their mobility and progress, in terms of both business and social status. The research aims to construct linear threads of linkages through generations and situate them in the larger framework and broader paradigms of business networks in Singapore.
In shedding light on aspects of Indian connectivities to Southeast Asia, the narrative is particularly relevant in the context of India's economic rise. This study raises economic, social and cultural issues regarding the transition.  How did 12 women with no previous experience as entrepreneurs go on to create million-dollar businesses in Hong Kong? Ladies Who Launch in Hong Kong captures their journey to success - from start-up challenges to lessons learned - and shows how you, too, can create a hugely successful business of your own.  Many of Singapore's current problems and talk-talk relate to issues of housing purchase, investment and availability. These are here discussed by a leading figure on the real estate scene. Graphics, tables, up-to-date experience, and discussion of locally hot issues and locations are related to the contemporary Singapore market. A brief look is also directed to overseas estate investment.  A fast-moving discussion of today's Indian market and the changing mindsets and wealth distribution which are governing Indian consumers. Dealing mainly with the growing urban middle class, the discussion, which often undermines established stereotyping, ranges widely. It explores consumer patterns in: the forces underlying cultural change; brands in finance; beauty promotion; entertainment; technological products; changed retailing; youth brand promotion; marketing to women; small town and rural markets; and in India society's new segmentations. Index.  Buy Right Property is Getty Goh's second book to help property buyers better understand the complexities of the Singapore property market. Besides sharing his approach to finding value-for-money properties, Getty also addresses some of the common questions that property investors have about HDB flats, residential and commercial properties, interest rates, the relationship between property and stock markets, and others.  This the 16th 2010 edition of Indonesian Business: the Year in Review covers twelve key sectors of the country's operating business environment. The monthly "Castle Asia Business Alerts" 2010 are set out and followed by chronological summaries of the state of business in twelve sectors which together cover the whole range of the country's business activities. Index.
Children Big art for little hands, these enchanting activity books allow young artists to explore the world's masterpieces on their own terms and with plenty of space to color outside the lines. In this book, you'll find wonderful calligraphy, fantastic ornaments, book illustrations, decorative objects, and architecture. The pictures to colour and draw are as varied as the development of Islamic art since the seventh century.  Koko is a small boy who lives in a kampong by the river. Life is quiet and peaceful until one day a tree comes to life as the menacing Green Giant! Can Koko the Great save the day? Koko The Great is the second title in the Dreaming Art Series where important works by Asian artists are the inspiration for original and new children's illustrated stories. Koko's story was inspired by first generation Singaporean artist Liu Kang's oil painting Life By The River. The work is in the national collection. Featured artworks, beyond serving as inspiration, come to life through fresh new interpretation and response. The series aims to provide fun and engaging avenues of introducing art to children.  A wise and straightforward story of school children in a poverty-struck village in Cambodia and how they came together to save the work of the school teacher. Illustrated. For children aged 8 to 10 years.  This richly illustrated book introduces children to many of the special days and festivals celebrated in the Philippines by people of all backgrounds. These are shown to involve a multitude of rituals, costumes, special foods, games, toys, dances, and decorations. Instructions are given for sharing in some of these so the reader too can join in the fun.  Vivid illustrations and concise text retell stories from the Ramayana Hindu saga for today's children.
Culture & People King Bhumibol Adulyadej of Thailand is the world's longest reigning monarch. Indeed, his 65-year reign is one of the longest in world history, an achievement few would have predicted when the Thai king acceded the throne after the mysterious death of his brother in 1946. How did King Bhumibol revive the sinking fortunes of the Thai monarchy? Why has he become arguably the most revered king in Thai history? This illustrated biography tells that remarkable story. Beginning with an introduction explaining the unique history and traditions of the Thai monarchy, King Bhumibol Adulyadej: A Life's Work offers a fresh and insightful account of his life, from his birth in America and education in Europe to his unexpected accession to the throne. Following him through the Cold War and Indochina War periods, the book shows how the king has used his position to help develop the country and its people while at the same time securing the status of the monarchy itself. King Bhumibol Adulyadej: A Life's Work also includes insightful chapters on the often-misunderstood institutions that support the crown - the Crown Property Bureau and Privy Council - as well as essays on the controversial lèse-majesté law and the issue of succession.  In telling Singapore's bilingualism story, this book breaks new ground with never before published revelations about education matters in Singapore. It is also a comprehensive resource for all who are interested in the interplay between language and politics in Singapore. We learn of the many policy adjustments and the challenges Lee Kuan Yew encountered - from Chinese language chauvinists who wanted Chinese to be the preeminent language in Singapore, from Malay and Tamil community groups fearing that Chinese was being given too much emphasis, from parents of all races wanting an easier time for their school-going children, from his own Cabinet colleagues questioning his assumptions about language. We learn of the pain of teachers forced to switch from teaching in Chinese to teaching in English almost overnight, and of students who were caught in the transition from a Chinese medium of instruction to an English one.
My Lifelong Challenge is also the story of Lee's own struggle to learn the Chinese language. This book describes vividly his steely determination to improve his Chinese and reclaim his Chinese heritage, right up to the present when he is well into his 80s. Lee distils his experiences of 50 years into eight precepts that he spells out at the end of his narrative.
Part 2 of the book is a compilation of essays by 22 Singaporeans, including Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and pop star Stephanie Sun, who recount their own language journeys. Readers will be able to empathise with the anguish of some of these writers who experienced the drastic changes in Singapore's language education policies, and perhaps rejoice with others who have prevailed and succeeded, or come to terms with their own language-learning challenges. Also included is a DVD containing rare footage of Lee's speeches in Hokkien, Mandarin, Malay and English from the 1960s onwards.  Chinese cuisine has had a deep impact on culinary traditions in Southeast Asia, where the lack of certain ingredients and access to new ingredients along with the culinary knowledge of local people led Chinese migrants to modify traditional dishes and to invent new foods. This process brought the cuisine of southern China, considered by some writers to be "the finest in the world," into contact with a wide range of local and global cuisines and ingredients. When Chinese from Southeast Asia moved on to other parts of the world, they brought these variants of Chinese food with them, completing a cycle of culinary reproduction, localization and invention, and globalisation. The process does not end there, for the new context offers yet another set of ingredients and culinary traditions, and the "embedding and fusing of foods" continues, creating additional hybrid forms.
Written by scholars whose deep familiarity with Chinese cuisine is both personal and academic, Chinese Food and Foodways in Southeast Asia and Beyond is a book that anyone who has been fortunate enough to encounter Southeast Asian food will savour.  Reading Bangkok presents stories and meanings derived from the built fabric and spaces of Thailand's capital city. The narrative shifts from King Taksin's mostly forgotten but wondrous Thonburi to the tourist spectacle of Rattanakosin, Dusit and Ratchadamnoen (King Rama V's superficial emulation of an admired, imperialist Europe), Sukhumvit "Road" (consumer land), and the slums that are an integral part of the modern city.
The author structures the book around external intrusions and local resistance. Geographically, this process is seen in movement from centre to periphery (Thonburi, Rattanakosin, Ratchadamnoen, Sukhumvit, Ratchadapisek, Khlong Toei, the universities). Chronologically, the city underwent various forms of colonization: incorporation of the periphery, which in turn colonized Bangkok; the economic colonization of the 19th and 20th centuries; colonisation by consumption brought on in large part by globalised tourism; colonization by the "better" ideas of others (typically from the West); and finally colonisation by "better" ways of thinking - notably the intrusions of the universities and of popular democracy.
This exceptionally innovative study draws on urban planning and development, history, anthropology, and political economy, and a rich body of empirical data to provide insights into the maze of power relations, inequalities and global influences that is normally hidden from view. Reading Bangkok is that rare thing, a study that genuinely changes the way its subject is seen and understood.  Singapore at Random has been researched and compiled by a dedicated team of writers, researchers and editors at Editions Didier Millet. Having unearthed an abundance of Singaporean trivia, the team has discerningly selected thousands of interesting nuggets of information into separate entries, producing an entertaining and revealing guide to the island. From taboos to outstanding individuals and the unique Singaporean linguistic (i.e. Singlish) landscape, the entries covered in Singapore at Random are as varied and boundless as the diversity that makes Singapore unique.  Born in the post-war baby boom years in Malaya, Choo Heng Thong rose from his humble beginnings in Johor Bahru to become an entrepreneur in the heady days of Singapore's industrialisation in the 1970s. In a very personable style, he has encapsulated his thoughts and experiences, giving a real - and at times whimsical - account of the last six decades of development in Malaysia and Singapore.  People within the Malay world hold strong but diverse opinions about the meaning of the word Melayu, which can be loosely translated as Malayness. Questions over whether Filipinos or Mon-Khmer speaking Orang Asli in Malaysia are to be properly called "Malay" can generate controversy and heated debate. So too can the question of whether it is appropriate to speak of a kebangsaan Melayu (Malay as nationality) as the basis of membership within an aspiring postcolonial nation-state - as a political rather than a cultural community embracing all residents of the Malay states, including the immigrant Chinese and Indian population. In Melayu: The Politics, Poetics and Paradoxes of Malayness, the contributors examine the checkered, wavering and changeable understanding of the word Melayu by considering hitherto unexplored case studies dealing with use of the term in connection with origins, nations, minority-majority politics, Filipino Malays, Riau Malays, Orang Asli, Straits Chinese literature, women's veiling, vernacular television, social dissent, literary women, and modern Sufism. Taken as a whole, this volume offers a creative approach to the study of Malayness while providing new perspectives to the studies of identity formation and politics of ethnicity that have wider implications beyond the Southeast Asian region.  In their earliest encounters with Asia, Europeans almost uniformly characterized the people of China and Japan as white. This was a means of describing their wealth and sophistication, their willingness to trade with the West, and their presumed capacity to become Christianized. But by the end of the seventeenth century the category of whiteness was reserved for Europeans only. When and how did Asians become "yellow" in the Western imagination? Looking at the history of racial thinking, Becoming Yellow explores the notion of yellowness and shows that this label originated not in early travel texts or objective descriptions, but in the eighteenth- and nineteenth-century scientific discourses on race.
From the walls of an ancient Egyptian tomb, which depicted people of varying skin tones including yellow, to the phrase "yellow peril" at the beginning of the 20th century in Europe and America, Michael Keevak follows the development of perceptions about race and human difference. He indicates that the conceptual relationship between East Asians and yellow skin did not begin in Chinese culture or Western readings of East Asian cultural symbols, but in anthropological and medical records that described variations in skin color. Eighteenth-century taxonomers such as Carl Linnaeus, as well as Victorian scientists and early anthropologists, assigned colors to all racial groups, and once East Asians were lumped with members of the Mongolian race, they began to be considered yellow.
Demonstrating how a racial distinction took root in Europe and travelled internationally, Becoming Yellow weaves together multiple narratives to tell the complex history of a problematic term.  The Cliff Richard and the Shadows concert in November 1961 opened the floodgates for Singapore pop music. It and subsequent pop music developments made for a very exciting pop scene in Singapore as there were releases to look forward to every week from EMI, Philips, Decca and other record companies, including local labels. With shows almost nightly and tea dances to welcome the week it was pop heaven. This book examines why it was so. Individual profiles of the bigger acts study their careers in details and trends like rhythm and blues, the blues movement and pyschedelia are examined. The attitudes of officialdom to this phenomenon in Singapore as well as other factors like the infrastructure that helped the sixties pop music movement are also discussed.  This multidimensional study of Sikhs in Southeast Asia is based on work done at the 2008 Singapore ISEAS conference. The Sikh diaspora of the last 150 years which developed in British-held areas, has developed into a settled Sikh presence in much of Southeast Asia. These 14 specialist papers explore: Sikh migration and settlement 1870s-1950s; global, comparative, and Southeast Asian perspectives on Sikh identity and presence; separate studies of Sikhs in Brunei Darussalam, Myanmar, Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand, and Singapore, also on Malaysia (using the cartoon presentations of the redoubtable Lat); on war memories and representations; and a final paper on Sikh women's absence from community leadership in Malaysia. With photographs, glossary, and index.  This multidimensional study of Sikhs in Southeast Asia is based on work done at the 2008 Singapore ISEAS conference. The Sikh diaspora of the last 150 years which developed in British-held areas, has developed into a settled Sikh presence in much of Southeast Asia. These 14 specialist papers explore: Sikh migration and settlement 1870s-1950s; global, comparative, and Southeast Asian perspectives on Sikh identity and presence; separate studies of Sikhs in Brunei Darussalam, Myanmar, Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand, and Singapore, also on Malaysia (using the cartoon presentations of the redoubtable Lat); on war memories and representations; and a final paper on Sikh women's absence from community leadership in Malaysia. With photographs, glossary, and index.  This collection represents a new approach to minority ethnicity in Vietnam. Drawing on ethnographic and historical research in the highlands and lowlands, eight essays provide rich descriptions of a wide variety of ethnic minority experiences. They offer provocative analyses that challenge stereotypes about minority groups in scholarship and official development policy. While powerful forces such as warring armies, the socialist state, or the market economy often are said to have undermined the livelihoods and identities of once-autonomous peoples, these studies reveal how peoples at the periphery of the modern nation-state nonetheless have been active in the transformation and redefinition of their worlds. The chapters situate contemporary minority transnational networks in the context of older translocal affiliations, identities, and livelihood strategies. In contrast with the attention devoted in previous studies to the state ethnic classification project, the studies shed light on popular identifications in circulation, and transition, among ethnic minorities themselves.  Two Malaysians, ethnic Chinese Jane and Sikh-born Surinder, a teacher, married with family disapproval in 1967. Surinder died in a drowning accident in 1973. In this unusual family saga, Bernice uses letters and archival material to tell often-tragic stories from the lives of her forebears. After becoming aware of apparent connections with a family curse involving snakes and their deities, she traces an aged Sikh relative who knows the family's traditions. She tells of her 2009 visit to him near Amritsar and her action at his snake shrine which breaks the curse.
With archival documents, family photographs and glossary.  In this engrossing and heartwarming autobiography, Jock Oehlers brings readers with him on his life's journey, from a carefree young boy growing up in Colonial Singapore, through the terror and hardship of the Japanese Occupation, to becoming a respected Professor of Oral Surgery and successful oral surgeon in modern-day Singapore. His recollections are a timely reminder that an honest, decent and kind man can have a successful and happy life and be a valued member of the community. This is a moving and inspiring account of the life of a Singapore Eurasian. This second edition includes additional details as well as a complete Part II covering his life in Australia after he emigrated there. Includes an attached CD featuring his song "That's How It Goes" performed by his grandson Jamie Oehlers, an internationally known and award-winning jazz performer.  One of Singapore's celebrated chefs and the author of 18 cookbooks writes here of the ups and downs of her 1960s childhood in a Singapore village, and of the eating delights which punctuated it. One of seven siblings in a very low income family, she tells of her mother's kitchen strategies, and the informal sharing of both traditional delicacies and food basics with neighbours of several ethnicities. The wood-fired stoves, Belling cookers and stone grinders then used are vividly described, as a few recipes for remembered dishes are incorporated in the informally written text. Here is savoury nostalgia at its most delectable best.  These 35 papers and summaries are from the First Symposium of the 2010 International Study Group on Performing Arts in Southeast Asia, Singapore. Seventeen papers address aspects of hybridity in performing arts, traditions found in Bali, various other areas of Indonesia, in Northern Philippines, in Southwest Thailand, in Straits Chinese music, in Malaysian wayang kulit, and in contemporary electronic keyboard music in Sabah and Sulu, and in the "red" accordions of post-WWII Singapore. Five papers on silat and martial arts in Southeast Asia are followed by 6 on the challenges of archiving and documentation. Two papers explore aspects of gamelan music and dance and new research prospects are raised in the last 9 papers presented. With tables, music, scores, photo insets, conference photographs, and abstracts of relevant studies.  A memoir by the local Police OCPD of the area, about the Memali Incident of 19/11/85, when four policemen and 14 civilians were killed at Kampong Memali, Kedah during police attempts to arrest PAS and religious leader Ibrahim Mahmood (who was one of those killed). The author relates his experience of the events and shows how politicians' intervention, ignorance of local situation by those in authority, and confused goals contributed to the disaster and left and leaves unanswered questions.
With the 1986 White Paper on the Memali Incident, a commentary on the Special Branch's video recording of 19/11/85, and an Afterword by Tengku Abdul Aziz, Special Adviser to the UN Secretary General.  Singapore's Yellow Ribbon project has, with the support of a range of employers, since 2004 been enabling many ex-offenders to have a second chance for employment and normal living. Here are accounts of their post-prison experience by eleven men who, often after many failures or setbacks, are now following stable and positive ways of life.  Here Singapore's President S R Nathan tells his own story, taking the reader back with him to his childhood, to modest beginnings and life as a runaway in Singapore and Malaya, and then the experience of renewed hope during the Japanese occupation. After a belated and limited university education, as well as a short spell as a social worker dealing with seafarers, he witnessed from inside the Labour Research Unit the birth of Singapore's modern trade union movement. Shortly after Singapore achieved full independence, he joined the staff of the newly established Ministry of Foreign Affairs, retiring - as he thought - as Permanent Secretary.
However, he did not retire. After being asked to run the Straits Times newspaper for a time, he served as High Commissioner in Malaysia and Ambassador in the United States.
Few people have packed so much into a life. And then, at an age when most people are well beyond the end of their working lives, he was elected President of Singapore, in which role he has won the hearts of many people in Singapore and abroad.
S R Nathan describes vividly and frankly the momentous events he witnessed and the people he has known, casting new light on many of the decisive moments in the Singapore story.  Routes 1940-75 is both a personal and public memoir; it is personal as it records part of Robert Yeo's life for the first thirty-five years, and it is public as it follows his response to some of the tumultuous events of the period at the local, regional and international levels. In revealing skeletons in the cupboard through letters, diaries, extracts from his poems, plays and fiction, Yeo presents an unvarnished account of one person's story of his country's emergence from third to first world. The inclusion of more than a hundred illustrations enhances the intriguing prose.  This is a wide-ranging study of "dangdut", Indonesia's most popular music, and some of its interrelationships with Indonesian people and policy. In the 1970s dangdut was the musical expression of disenfranchised urban youth and now has widely spread cultural and musicological significance. This discussion of its styles, performance, place in media propaganda and public life, and impacts in the Islamic public sphere and even in international relations, shows how dangdut has more significance than just being a source of fashionable tunes. With black-and-white photographs, score graphics, glossary, bibliography and index.  Eleven international scholars and their ethno-musical field studies contribute to this substantial innovative study of religion and performance in Indonesia. It is shown how Islamic religion, local adat, dramas, dance, instrumental music and singing combine in Indonesian culture, in daily life, and in performance. There are discussions of: ongoing controversies caused by some contemporary performance trends and international media; politically oriented music; the widespread participation of women in performance; on religious ecstasy; on Arab influence; on music groups of different kinds. With black-and-white photographs, maps, bibliography and index.  Thailand's notable forensic pathologist Dr Porntip Rojanasunan (b. 1954) writes of her remarkable career and how her ideas, abilities and unshakeable determination and principles have gained her unique international recognition and national esteem. She writes of the personal and physical demands her work involves including the disequilibrating chaos which surround much of her life and work following the 2004 Tsunami. The never-ending demands in dealing with pressures of the police and politicians are discussed. Ways in which she has dealt with family, health, and Buddhist influences as well as professional demands are noted and the wealth of black-and-white photos complete this short account of a memorable, controversy-marked life.  Tam Ki, born in 1953 in a remote tribal village in the Chin Hills of southern Myanmar tells how, with no missionary of outside contact, he gave up K'cho spirit worship for Christian faith. He tells of his present work as a now notable healing evangelist and leader in Church development throughout Myanmar, and beyond. With black-and-white and colour photographs, glossary and index.  Seen primarily as final resting places, cemeteries are increasingly under threat from urban redevelopment in land-scarce Singapore. Regarded as 'excess space' by state planners, and as 'taboo places' by the local populace, the rich historical and cultural heritage of our cemeteries have remained largely unappreciated and hidden.
Today, there are about less than a dozen cemeteries left in Singapore. With the recent exhumation of major cemeteries like Bidadari Cemetery and Kong How Shua Cemetery, concerns have been raised about the status of cemeteries in Singapore.
Spaces of the Dead: A Case from the Living brings together various authors concerned with the need for conservation of cemeteries in Singapore. This book showcases cemeteries as spaces of historical, architectural and social merit through the writings and photo-journals of the authors, who hope it will serve as an initial step in generating greater interest in and awareness of Singapore's cemeteries.  The Thai capital Bangkok is the unrivalled centre of the country's gay, lesbian, and transgender communities. These communities are among the largest in Southeast Asia, and indeed in the world, and have a diversity, social presence, and historical depth that set them apart from the queer cultures of many neighbouring societies.
The first years of the 21st century have marked a significant transition moment for all of Thailand's LGBT cultures, with a multidimensional expansion in the geographical extent, media presence, economic importance, political impact, social standing, and cultural relevance of Thai queer communities. This book analyses the roles of the market and media - especially cinema and the Internet - in these transformations, and considers the ambiguous consequences that the growing commodification and mediatization of queer lives have had for LGBT rights in Thailand. A key finding is that the early 21st century processes of global queering are leading to a growing Asianization of Bangkok's queer cultures.
This book traces Bangkok's emergence as a central focus of an expanding regional network linking gay, lesbian, and transgender communities in Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan, Indonesia, the Philippines, and other rapidly developing East and Southeast Asian societies.  Once headhunters under the rule of White Rajahs and briefly colonised before independence within Malaysia, the Iban Dayaks of Borneo are one of the world's most extraordinary indigenous tribes, possessing ancient traditions and a unique way of life. As a young man Erik Jensen settled in Sarawak where he lived with the Iban for seven years, learning their language and the varied rites and practices of their lives. In this compelling and beautifully-wrought memoir, Erik Jensen reveals the challenges facing the Iban as they adapt to another century, whilst fighting to preserve their identity and singular place in the world. Haunting, yet hopeful, Where Hornbills Fly opens a window onto a vanishing world and paints a remarkable portrait of this fragile tribe, which continues to survive deep in the heart of Borneo.  This is a true story of 1930s Malaysia, of jungle operations, submarines and spies in WWII, and of the postwar Malayan Emergency, as experienced by an extraordinary man. Boris Hembry went out to Malaya as a rubber planter in 1930 to work on estates in Malaya and Sumatra. Following the Japanese invasion in December 1941 he volunteered for Freddy Spencer Chapman's covert Stay Behind Party and spent a month in the jungle behind enemy lines before escaping by sampan across the Malacca Strait to Sumatra. Hembry returned to Singapore shortly before its surrender then escaped to Java and subsequently to India, where he joined V Force, a clandestine intelligence unit operating in Burma.
In 1943 Hembry was recruited into the Secret Intelligence Service - given the bland cover name Inter-Services Liaison Department (ISLD) - and returned to Sumatra and Malaya several times by submarine on intelligence-gathering missions. He became Head of Malayan Country Section ISLD in 1944, liaised with Force 136, and was responsible for the most successful intelligence coup of the Malayan war.
After WWII, Hembry returned to planting at Sungei Siput, Perak, where the murder of three colleagues on 16 June 1948 signalled the start of the Malayan Emergency. Assuming the leadership of the local planting community, he formed the first Home Guard unit in Malaya, was an early proponent of squatter control (later incorporated into the Briggs Plan), served on district, state and federal security committees, and survived several attempts on his life.  The Madurese are one of the great maritime and trading peoples of the Indonesian Archipelago. This remarkable study takes readers into the trading villages of Madura, with their remarkable traditional vessels (perahu) that were powered by sail until the late 20th 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.
During Suharto's New Order, Madurese seafarers prospered through their central role in the booming timber trade between Kalimantan and Java, using great ingenuity and quasi-legal means to negotiate state laws and regulations. Based on data collected during visits to remote ports and unlicensed sawmills in Kalimantan, perahu harbours in Java, and 'wild' beach ports in Madura, the book explores the inner workings of Madurese maritime trade during a critical period that brought this village-based transport industry into a modern and increasingly regulated economic environment.  Finding Santana tells of journalist Jill Jollife's clandestine 1994 journey across the Indonesian archipelago pursued by the Suharto dictatorship's notorious secret police to interview East Timorese guerilla commander Nino Konis Santana. Part memoir, part adventure story, it is written from the diaries of the journey and interwoven with those of intrepid nineteenth-century traveller Anna Forbes, who also narrowly escaped death in the East Timor mountains.  This second collection of memories and personal anecdotes about his early years in Trenggannu is by a Malay writer now London-based. Lively tales of kampung and school life in the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s are illustrated with line drawings and black-and-white photo insets. There are many sidelights on the profound social changes of the mid-20th century. Glossary.  This informal memoir by an English Anglican missionary offers a very personal slant on some social and religious changes which have taken place in Singapore and Sarawak between 1955 and the 1990s. Miss Carter's very varied experience and creative ideas took her to schools, welfare projects, drug rehab centres, the women's prison and welfare church programmes of many kinds. Her memories shed light on human situations which are often unnoticed in modern fast-changing society. Black-and-white photographs.  This third edition of the established 1989 study of gamelan music in Bali includes an audio CD. Chapters discuss: the nature of Balinese and gamelan music; the instruments involved and their construction; basic musical principles of gamelan music; the Baris dance; the place of music in Balinese society; the author's experiences and contacts; and a final chapter on Bali's post-1990 music. With scores, black-and-white illustrations, colour photographs, glossary, list of recordings, bibliography and index.  Using ethnographic data, this study reveals the way in which state-initiated development projects and the process of islamization influence the life world of the Orang Asli, the indigenous group in Malaysia. Areas examined include social relationship, economic relationship, the taboo of incest, conversion and resistance, and Islamic mission. With bibliography and index.  Black-and-white comic cartoons give a lively introduction to today's Singapore. Firstly views of Singapore's history, then possible activities for visitors, a look at local neighbourhood life and at local habits and etiquette, and a brief Singlish phrasebook. Yes, Singaporeans can laugh at themselves sometimes.
Education These 12 reflective papers by Southeast Asian social scientists in different fields of study are related to the preliminary work done at the 2002 Singapore workshop of the Social Science Research Council of New York. Each paper contains autobiographical material and discussion of some of the challenging issues raised by colonial and post-colonial academic analyses in areas of social scientific study in Southeast Asia. With bibliography and index.  These 12 reflective papers by Southeast Asian social scientists in different fields of study are related to the preliminary work done at the 2002 Singapore workshop of the Social Science Research Council of New York. Each paper contains autobiographical material and discussion of some of the challenging issues raised by colonial and post-colonial academic analyses in areas of social scientific study in Southeast Asia. With bibliography and index.  This book shares the personal stories of nine newly qualified teachers and two pre-service teachers at the National Institute of Education (NIE) in Singapore.
Teaching Is Heartwork showcases these individuals' reflections on their first forays into the classroom. At times candid, wavering and tongue-in-cheek, this highly personal collection gives readers a rare peek into the passions, uncertainties and small victories of teachers as they take those first steps on a very long journey in being educators.
History & Geography Utilizing rare pictures and offering detailed explanations of the heritage of traditional Korean science from the Bronze Age to the Joseon Dynasty, this book takes a fresh and unique look at the history of Korean science. The author covers a wide range of topics, including astronomy, meteorology, metals and glass, printing, geography and cartography, and also discusses the accomplishments of eminent Korean scientists.  This coffee-table album, produced jointly by the National Archives of Malaysia and Singapore, illuminates the background, construction and roles played by the Singapore-Johore Causeway since its 1924 opening. Maps, plans, records, memories and photographs from personal and archival sources trace the long planning and negotiations which preceded the Causeway's construction and its 1924 official opening of the rail and road interchange. Highlighted are the Causeway's impact on the area's multilateral development and its role in WWII when it formed a route for the withdrawal of British troops who then blew it up on 31 January 1942. Photographs show the Causeway's reestablishment following WWII and the vast constructions and extensions of the checkpoints built at both ends following the 1965 Separation of Malaysia and Singapore and the 1967 introduction of separate Immigration Controls. With illustrations, glossary and index.  The author, a Former Assistant Director of Education, Singapore, writes informally of Dr. Goh Keng Swee (1919-2010) under whom he worked for 11 years in the Staff College when Dr. Goh was Minister of Defence and as a Senior Inspector in the Ministry of Education when he was Minister there. These anecdotes highlight many of the methods, aims and attitudes which enabled Dr. Goh's vast range of achievements on which so much of Singapores life economy and defence has been and is still built upon. With archival photographs, personal photographs and amended documents.  In view of the 100th anniversary of the 1911 Revolution and Sun Yat-sen's relations with the Nanyang communities, the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies and the Chinese Heritage Centre came together to host a two-day bilingual conference on the three-way relationships between Sun Yat-sen, Nanyang and the 1911 Revolution in October 2010 in Singapore. This volume is a collection of papers in English presented at the conference. While there are extensive research and voluminous publications on Sun Yat-sen and the 1911 Revolution, it was felt that less had been done on the Southeast Asian connections. Thus this volume tries to chip in some original and at times provocative analysis on not only Sun Yat-sen and the 1911 Revolution but also contributions from selected Southeast Asian countries.  In view of the 100th anniversary of the 1911 Revolution and Sun Yat-sen's relations with the Nanyang communities, the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies and the Chinese Heritage Centre came together to host a two-day bilingual conference on the three-way relationships between Sun Yat-sen, Nanyang and the 1911 Revolution in October 2010 in Singapore. This volume is a collection of papers in English presented at the conference. While there are extensive research and voluminous publications on Sun Yat-sen and the 1911 Revolution, it was felt that less had been done on the Southeast Asian connections. Thus this volume tries to chip in some original and at times provocative analysis on not only Sun Yat-sen and the 1911 Revolution but also contributions from selected Southeast Asian countries.  Based on recently declassified government documents, this book reveals the shocking true story of what happened after the Chinese Nationalists lost the revolution. Supported by Taiwan, the CIA, and the Thai government, the Kuomintang reinvented itself as an anti-communist mercenary army fighting into the 1980s, before eventually becoming the drug lords who would make the Golden Triangle a household name.  Buddhism originated as an antinomial system, facing the opposition of both vaidika and theistic Brahmans, who socially identified themselves with the agrarian world. The two models of society generated in early historical India never merged, and Buddhism was gradually and often violently reduced to impotence. It was Gupta rule that first checkmated the antinomial model of the Buddhists. Whereas in the open society traders, landowners and tribals coexisted, from Gupta times onwards pressure on kings and direct Brahmanical rule led to the requisition of land and the imposition of a varna state society. Doctrinal debates, which soon turned into ordeals, were instrumental in the suppression of the Buddhist elite, mainly formed by intellectuals of Brahmanical descent, this being proof of a dramatic rift in the brahmanavarna. The Vajrayana, which was the Buddhist response to this state of affairs, originated and grew under Pala rule and expansionism, and was characterised by a decisive opening towards the outcast and the theorisation of violence. This set off a conflict whose scope and significance are still poorly understood. It was eventually the compromise between the orthodox powers and the Muslims that caused the final downfall of Buddhism. The former were obliged to transfer political power to the latter but had a free hand in social repression. The book draws mainly on Brahmanical sources, both literary and iconographic, which are abundant and insufficiently exploited, as well as on archaelogical evidence, hardly ever resorted to.  These 23 specialist papers set out and discuss the results of much recent archaeological and other scholarship which enables a clearer view of the South-Southeast Asia interchange which took place between 500 BCE and 1500 CE. Ten papers look at evidence indicating cross-Bay of Bengal influences in trade, ceramics, boat building, language and inscriptions. The 12 papers in Part 2 concern South Asia influences which became localised in Southeast Asia including Buddhist and Hindu buildings and ritual, sculpture, music, jewellery and decoration and in contested interpretations of history, for example in Laos and Cambodia. Separate bibliographies, and index.  Indonesian Islam is often portrayed as being intrinsically moderate by virtue of the role that mystical Sufism played in shaping its traditions. According to Western observers - from Dutch colonial administrators and orientalist scholars to modern anthropologists such as the late Clifford Geertz - Indonesia's peaceful interpretation of Islam has been perpetually under threat from outside by more violent, intolerant Islamic traditions that were originally imposed by conquering Arab armies.
The Makings of Indonesian Islam challenges this widely accepted narrative, offering a more balanced assessment of the intellectual and cultural history of the most populous Muslim nation on Earth. Michael Laffan traces how the popular image of Indonesian Islam was shaped by encounters between colonial Dutch scholars and reformist Islamic thinkers. He shows how Dutch religious preoccupations sometimes echoed Muslim concerns about the relationship between faith and the state, and how Dutch-Islamic discourse throughout the long centuries of European colonialism helped give rise to Indonesia's distinctive national and religious culture.
The Makings of Indonesian Islam presents Islamic and colonial history as an integrated whole, revealing the ways our understanding of Indonesian Islam, both past and present, came to be.  This collection of twenty-one essays in honour of Professor Barend Jan Terwiel deals with a wide range of issues spanning various periods of time, both modern and pre-modern, in countries throughout Southeast Asia. The contributors have been inspired to challenge and unravel established paradigms of this diverse region's history and in doing so propose new insights and interpretations.
The volume first focuses on Thailand and Laos and includes contributions by distinguished historians such as Thongchai Winichakul and Barend Terwiel himself. It covers topics such as the rise of Thai nationalism, concepts of gender and ethnicity and the role of magic and religion in contemporary society. The second part widens the perspective looking at issues such as the relationship between myth and nation in Vietnam, Buddhism and political legitimisation in Burma and the role of Europeans in the shaping of the region's history.  Situated north of the Himalayas, Tibet is famous for its unique culture and its controversial assimilation into modern China. Yet Tibet in the 21st century can only be properly understood in the context of its extraordinary history.
Sam van Schaik brings the history of Tibet to life by telling the stories of the people involved, from the glory days of the Tibetan empire in the 7th century through to the present day. He explores the emergence of Tibetan Buddhism and the rise of the Dalai Lamas, Tibet's entanglement in the "Great Game" in the early 20th century, its submission to Chinese Communist rule in the 1950s, and the troubled times of recent decades.
Tibet sheds light on the country's complex relationship with China and explains often-misunderstood aspects of its culture, such as reborn lamas, monasteries and hermits, The Tibetan Book of the Dead, and the role of the Dalai Lama. Van Schaik works through the layers of history and myth to create a compelling narrative, one that offers readers a greater understanding of this important and controversial corner of the world.  This publication highlights major milestones in Singapore-China relations since 1965 and complements the exhibition that was jointly organised by the National Archives of Singapore and State Archives Administration of China in 2010 to mark the 20th anniversary of diplomatic ties between the two countries. Tracing the growing and multi-faceted ties between Singapore and China, this publication hopes to contribute to a better understanding of Singapore-China relations from a historical perspective.  1939 - the Sino-Japanese War was at a critical stage. Most of China's port cities including Shanghai and Amoy had fallen into the hands of the invading Japanese forces. When Canton was captured in October 1938, China found its shipping routes almost completely cut off. Essential supplies that were badly needed at the war front were piling up in Hong Kong, a British colony then. China's last hope was the treacherous 1,146-kilometre Yunnan-Burma Road, which ran from Lashio town in Burma to Kunming city in Yunnan, China. Lacking experienced drivers and mechanics to keep this lifeline open, China looked towards Nanyang (Southeast Asia) for help. There, the overseas Chinese were already actively contributing to war efforts through massive donation drives and they also responded overwhelmingly to this call. Within days of the enlistment notice, some 2,300 volunteers came forward. Between February and August 1939, some 3,200 volunteers from various parts of Southeast Asia returned to China. One-third of them eventually died in the line of duty.  This extensively illustrated volume complements the ongoing Asian Civilisations Museum Singapore exhibition, Terracotta Warriors: the First Emperor's Legacy. The 1974 discoveries near Xi'an and the original context of the vast array of the 3rd century BCE terracotta objects, and animal and human figurines are described and discussed. Exhibited jewellery and artefacts from the First Emperor's tomb complex are discussed, illustrated and related to the later Qin and Han Dynasties. With reading list, sketch plans and a wealth of high quality photographs.  The East India Company grew from an Elizabethan trading venture to control half of global trade, leading directly to the British Raj in India and establishing British commercial and imperial interests in China and South East Asia. Monsoon Traders tells the story of the Company over three centuries, covering its origins, the maritime experience, encounters with indigenous peoples, goods traded, wealth created, technology, shipbuilding, conflict and conquest, piracy, rebellion and empire. The book is illustrated throughout with images from the National Maritime Museum in London, which has an important but hitherto under-researched collection of objects relating to the Company, including fine art, objets d'art, maps, charts, navigational instruments, ship models and weapons. Together with expert texts by three leading historians in the field, these combine to tell the story of the East India Company's encounter with the Indian Ocean and the effects this had on both Asian and British societies, people and politics. Monsoon Traders is published to coincide with the opening of a new permanent Asian gallery at the National Maritime Museum.  2011 reissue of the 1992 guide to World War II battlefield sites in Singapore. After background accounts of the political scene, the Malayan Campaign 1941-1942, the Japanese Occupation and Allied Victory of 1945, three tours of relevant sites and buildings are suggested for the North-West, Central and Eastern areas of the island. Other memorial sites are noted and directions given to Singapore's Naval and Air Force Museums.
With archival photographs, sketch maps, bibliography and also fold-in map of the Malayan battlefields and the course of the 1942 fighting within Singapore.  In this volume 300 postcards with summary commentaries show Selangor between the late 19th century and 1974 when Kuala Lumpur became a Federal Territory. Profound changes in lifestyles, buildings, flora and fauna, leisure activities, and dress are of course evident. It is also interesting to be shown what travellers and others chose to send to friends or family. With notes on the early history of picture postcards and on deltiology and philately in Selangor. Bibliography.  Religious ideas and actors have shaped Asian cultural practices for millennia and have played a decisive role in charting the course of its history. In this engaging and informative book, Thomas David DuBois sets out to explain how religion has influenced the political, social, and economic transformation of Asia from the fourteenth century to the present. Crossing a broad terrain from Tokyo to Tibet, the book highlights long-term trends and key moments, such as the expulsion of Catholic missionaries from Japan, or the Taiping Rebellion in China, when religion dramatically transformed the political fate of a nation. Contemporary chapters reflect on the wartime deification of the Japanese emperor, Marxism as religion, the persecution of the Dalai Lama, and the fate of Asian religion in a globalised world.  The impact of the nationalist, poet and novelist Jose Rizal (1861-1896) was of course a major force in the emergent anti-colonial movement in the Philippines. Many tales surround his memory and the iconic poem written before his 1896 execution in Manila. This book explores Rizal's even now ongoing impact in the nationalism in Southeast Asia particularly in Indonesia and Malaysia. The author finds the ideas of present-day scholars and activists such as Syed Hussein Alatas, Pramoedya Ananta Toer are influenced by Rizal's life and ideas. Bibliography and index.  The impact of the nationalist, poet and novelist Jose Rizal (1861-1896) was of course a major force in the emergent anti-colonial movement in the Philippines. Many tales surround his memory and the iconic poem written before his 1896 execution in Manila. This book explores Rizal's even now ongoing impact in the nationalism in Southeast Asia particularly in Indonesia and Malaysia. The author finds the ideas of present-day scholars and activists such as Syed Hussein Alatas, Pramoedya Ananta Toer are influenced by Rizal's life and ideas. Bibliography and index.  Aceh has become best known in our times for its twin disasters - the worst earthquake and tsunami of modern times in December 2004, and a long-running separatist conflict that rent Indonesia for most of its independent history. Although this book emerged from the process of recovery from those traumas, it turns the spotlight on a more positive and neglected claim Aceh has on our attention, as the Southeast Asian maritime state that most successfully and creatively maintained its in independent place in the world since 1874. Like Burma, Siam and Vietnam, all better protected by geography, Aceh has its own story to tell of a unique culture struggling for survival through the European colonial era.
Unfortunately the sources for this story are scattered, since Aceh's own records have not well survived the ravages of climate, civil war and eventual foreign conquest. To recover its cosmopolitan history an unparalleled range of sources and skills had to be brought together. Aceh's central role in the creation of Malay literature out of Arabic, Persian, Indian and Indonesian elements had to be explored with reference to texts surviving in a dozen world libraries. The rich archeological record, neglected through the long years of conflict, had again to be brought into play, and the extensive relations of the Aceh sultanate with the Ottoman Empire, Portugal, England, and the Netherlands had to be explored, chiefly in European archives by experts in these respective fields. The result of this combined work in this volume is the most comprehensive picture so far of sources for the history of Aceh.  British Policy and the Chinese in Singapore, 1939 to 1955 examines the policies and methods employed by the British in their administration of the colony of Singapore during a period when dramatic changes were happening there. The transformations were brought about by events which included a worldwide economic depression, the Second World War, a tumultuous postwar recovery and the birth of a Chinese Communist nation. The Chinese constituted the most populous ethnic group on the island. Before the war, Chinese, who were members of the British empire because they were locally-born, were a minority. To bring both the local-born and China-born Chinese within
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