For forty-four months during World War II, the Japanese occupied Singapore, renaming it Syonan and setting out to drastically change life on the island. As part of the occupation, the Japanese created a research bureau, the Chosabu, to study occupied Singapore. The bureau's detailed reports on the economy covered prices, wages, currency, ......
What new framings emerge when we revisit the vibrant world of Malay-Indonesian manuscripts, looking beyond the boundaries imposed by colonial and nationalist scholarship? This volume revitalises manuscript studies by using texts in entirely fresh ways, situating them as dynamic instruments of knowledge and meaning-making and cultural ......
NGOs, Trade Unions and the Indonesian Labour Movement
After decades of repression, Indonesia's independent labour movement re-emerged in the 1990s, led by the NGO activists and students who organised industrial workers and spoke on their behalf. Worker-led trade unions returned to centre stage in 1998 when Suharto's authoritarian regime crumbled, and labour NGO activists and their organisations ......
This book is a study of workers activism and labour unions in the eight years between the recognition of Indonesian sovereignty by the Netherlands at the end of December 1949 and the nationalisation of Dutch assets in December 1957. It contributes to a re-evaluation of the era of liberal parliamentary democracy in Indonesia. The focus is on the ......
Books on Southeast Asian nationalist movements make very little - if any - mention of women in their ranks. Biographical studies of politically active women in Southeast Asia are also rare. Women in Southeast Asian Nationalist Movements makes a strong case for the significance of women's involvement in nationalist movements and for the diverse ......
Ornament, Emotion, Zombies and the Study of Buddhism in Thailand
A collection of essays engaging with Buddhism in Thailand and the virtues of distraction and variety within the materialist turn in studies of religion. In Thailand, Buddhism is deeply integrated into national institutions and ideologies, making it tempting to think of Buddhism in Thailand as a textual, institutional, cultural, and conceptual ......
How do Asian states navigate the complex terrain between international legal obligations and strategic national interests in matters of war and peace? What justifications are invoked to wage war, and what are the legal frameworks used to restore peace? Do bilateral settlements comply with and support the development of international law, or do ......
This collection of essays on the music of migrant minorities in and from Japan examines the central role music plays in the ongoing adjustment, conciliation and transformation of newcomers and "hosts" alike. It is the first academic text to address music activities across a range of migrant groups in Japan-particularly those of Tokyo and its ......
Progress, Retrenchment and Ambiguity Amidst Liberalization
The optimism provoked by Myanmar's political reforms in 2011-2012 has now given way to a sense that the uneven nature of change in this nation of 54 million has lead to instability and uncertainty. The liberalization of critical sectors and expansion of certain freedoms - such as political and legal opportunities for expression and mobilization ......
