South-East Asia Research Papers - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

This is the first of two articles that examines how knowledge about Singapore and its Straits circulated within European literary circles between 1511 and 1819. The present exposé surveys close to three centuries worth of references to Singapore and its adjacent straits in European printed materials in order to make the case for its visibility and significance in readership. Besides offering a categorization of the references at hand, it argues that several thematic impressions emerge: of danger, division, antiquity and concentration which would be reached by an interested and resourceful reader. These references point to public familiarity with Singapore which was dismissed by British colonial scholarship after 1819.

- by and +1
- •
- History, Intellectual History, Asian Studies, Southeast Asian Studies

In the transition to a multipolar international system, the literature has focused on great power competition while little attention has been given to the strategic possibilities of smaller states. However, as a result of globalization, states are so closely interconnected that the primary strategies of even major powers are not to achieve zero-sum solutions but to create asymmetric dependency through which they can influence the behavior of other states and non-state actors. States are assisted in this effort by a variety of tools, including setting up institutions, direct economic influence and through building different forms of infrastructure connectivity networks. By discussing asymmetric dependency situations from the perspective of the great powers, the literature presents smaller states primarily as passive actors, paralyzed by their dependence on great powers. Our paper argues that interdependence allows smaller states to effectively influence larger actors and examines strategies from which smaller states can choose in order to influence the behavior of larger states. Despite an extremely asymmetric relationship between Myanmar and China, actors in Myanmar have sought to influence China’s Myanmar policy. We examine a case study of the Myitsone Dam, including Myanmar’s strategic aims, chosen strategy and limitations in maneuvering space. Semi-structured interviews with local decision-makers and stakeholders are conducted in order to portray the full picture. Our study concludes that further research on the influencing strategies of small states in response to asymmetric dependence can contribute to a better understanding of the interdependence of states.

- by Viktor Eszterhai and +1
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- South-East Asia, Chinese foreign policy, Small States, Myanmar

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

- by Daniele Garofalo
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- East Asia, South-East Asia, Pakistan, East Asian Studies
- by sheriff Ghali Ibrahim
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- International Relations, Chinese Studies, Sinology, South-East Asia

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

- by Peter Borschberg
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- History, Economic History, Archaeology, Maritime Archaeology

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

- by Mahua Sarkar
- •
- History, Sociology, Historical Sociology, Social Sciences

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

- by Cas Sutherland
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- Anthropology, South-East Asia, Singapore, Diaspora Studies
- by Nyker Matthew C King
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- South-East Asia, Indonesia, Philippines, Business Start-Up

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

- by Samantha Jeffries
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- South-East Asia, Gender, Women, Imprisonment
- by Keith W. Taylor
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- Southeast Asian Studies, South-East Asia, Southeast Asia, Vietnamese History

University faculty in Southeast Asia (SEA) is
being required to take on new roles and responsibilities
resulting from rapid changes in higher education. To date, a
range of faculty development (FD) initiatives has been
implemented, but little has been uncovered concerning the
effectiveness of these FD activities. Using a predetermined
review protocol, we conducted a systematic literature
review to identify the current foci and trends of faculty
development in SEA higher education. We found that
Vietnam, Singapore, and Malaysia were the leading providers
of empirical evidence about FD activities. Teacher
education and training were found to rank first among the
disciplines that performed FD. This aligns with results of
the focus and type of FD which primarily concerned
improvement of pedagogical competence and self-directed
learning. In addition, the findings suggested that most FD
outcomes were found to be predominantly at levels 1 and 2
of Kirkpatrick’s taxonomy (adapted from Hendricson et al.
in J Dent Educ 71(12):1513–1533, 2007). Based on this
review, we offered relevant recommendations for FD
practice and research in this region.

- by Bich-Hang Duong and +1
- •
- Higher Education, South-East Asia, Faculty Development, Teachers' professional development

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

- by Karl James
- •
- Military History, Pacific Island Studies, South-East Asia, Asia Pacific Region
- by Jim Meyer
- •
- War Studies, South-East Asia, War Crimes, Vietnam War
- by Peter Borschberg
- •
- History, Cartography, Southeast Asian Studies, Early Modern History
- by Anthony Welch
- •
- South-East Asia

New Delhi is carefully following developments in the South China Sea as part of her “Looking East” policy and helping Vietnam exploit offshore oil and build her maritime capacities. However, Indian policy is cautious and aptly described... more

- by Bradley Camp Davis
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- History, Southeast Asian Studies, Chinese Studies, Historiography

This study tests the differences in the shared understanding of the backpacker cultural domain between two groups: backpackers from Australasia and backpackers from Asian countries. A total of 256 backpackers responded to a questionnaire administered in Kuala Lumpur, Bangkok and Krabi Province (Thailand). Cultural consensus analysis (CCA) guided the data analysis, to identify the shared values and the differences in the backpacker culture of the two groups. The findings revealed that while the two groups share some of the backpacker cultural values, some other values are distinctively different from one another. The study provides the first empirical evidence of the differences in backpacking culture between the two groups using CCA. Based on the study findings, we propose some marketing and managerial implications.

- by Cody Paris and +1
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- Cultural Studies, Asian Studies, Anthropology, Tourism Studies
- by Didem Yazici
- •
- South-East Asia, Asia Pacific Trienniale, Curating contemporary art

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

- by Joe Cribb
- •
- Southeast Asian Studies, South-East Asia, Southeast Asia, Cambodia

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

- by Timo Ojanen
- •
- Psychology, Psychiatry, Mental Health, Delphi Methodology
- by Christian Garland
- •
- Critical Theory, Business, Industrial And Labor Relations, Information Systems

Mount Meru and SE asian art

- by Dr. Uday Dokras
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- Art History, South-East Asia, South Asian Security Dynamics, Mount Meru
- by Helen Lewis
- •
- Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Archaeology, Prehistoric Archaeology

In Singapore, digital humanities (DH) is inclusive of the larger spectrum of the humanities, including not only its traditional disciplines (e.g., languages and literature, philosophy, law, geography, history, art history, musicology) but also anthropology, heritage studies, museum studies, performing arts, and visual arts. Multilingual, interdisciplinary, and audiovisual projects are particularly prominent. A community is growing around an emergent concept of DH, and it is developing results mainly in society-driven research projects. Although the DH label is relatively new, and DH dialogue across Singapore institutions is at its early stages, Singapore-based researchers have carried out digital research for decades. An increasing number of projects are home-grown, but several projects have also migrated to Singapore recently due to the high degree of mobility at Singaporean institutions. Current trends suggest that the next stage of DH history in Singapore will include the development of more formal institutions and more participation in global DH conversations.

- by Miguel Escobar Varela and +1
- •
- Humanities Computing (Digital Humanities), Digital Humanities, Cultural Heritage, Heritage Studies

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

Engaging with the idea of a gurukulam in the 21st century

- by Balakrishnan Raghavan
- •
- Music, Music Education, South-East Asia, India

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

- by Jana Fortier
- •
- Anthropology, Human Behavioral Ecology, Human Evolution, Indigenous Studies

Job satisfaction explains individuals’ reactions towards their jobs. Many studies find that job satisfaction is a well-known construct that is widely used to study work-related well-being; and contributes significantly to employees’ overall quality of life. The current paper examines job satisfaction among Malaysian employees using the Job Satisfaction Survey (JSS). In particular, the present study compares the job satisfaction levels of Malaysian samples with those of a previously reported study involving samples from Singapore and the United States. Results of one sample t-test reveals statistically significant differences in pay, promotion, fringe benefits, contingent rewards, supervision, co-workers and nature of work subscales. No cultural influence exists between Malaysian and Singapore samples in terms of perceived operating conditions satisfaction. Similarly, no statistically significant difference exists between Malaysian and the United States perception towards the communication facet. Furthermore, the results of factor analysis support the previous study, suggesting possible cultural differences in the understanding of, and consensus regarding, the structure of the job satisfaction scale.

- by Keis Ohtsuka and +2
- •
- South-East Asia, Job Satisfaction

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

- by Noel B. Salazar
- •
- Critical Theory, Discourse Analysis, Languages, Geography
- by Arif Dwi Jatmiko
- •
- International Relations, Political Science, South-East Asia, Indonesian Politics

The various forms of Asian drag, their reception in Asia and elsewhere, and their cultural impact.

- by Kareem Khubchandani
- •
- Asian Studies, Gender Studies, Popular Culture, South Asian Studies

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

- by Dr. Uday Dokras
- •
- South-East Asia, Tamil Literature, Tamil, Tamil Nadu

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

- by vijaya bhaarati
- •
- Religion, Ancient History, Sociology of Religion, Comparative Literature

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

- by Dorian Q Fuller
- •
- Archaeology, Historical Linguistics, Archaeobotany, South-East Asia

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

- by Jeffrey Abdullah
- •
- Palaeogeography, Archaeology, Maritime Archaeology, Earth Sciences

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

- by David Belgrave
- •
- International Relations, Intelligence, Cold War, South-East Asia

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

- by Shih-shan Susan Huang 黃士珊
- •
- Buddhism, History, Archaeology, Print Culture
- by Peter Borschberg
- •
- International Relations, Political Theory, Sovereignty, Just War
- by Ragıp Kutay Karaca
- •
- East Asia, South-East Asia, Southeast Asia, Post-Soviet Politics