Issue 3: Nations and Other Stories - Kyoto Review of Southeast Asia

Kyoto Review of Southeast Asia. Issue 3 (March 2003). Nations and Other Stories

EDITORIAL

We live our lives within many overlapping stories – of families, political commitments, careers, friendships, and, of course, nations. In Southeast Asia’s recent past, the nation’s story has had particular strength in shaping, dominating, and even eclipsing other narratives of peoples’ lives. This issue of the Kyoto Review examines efforts to define national stories, some alternative narratives that have been marginalized in the process, and glimpses into the ways national narratives intersect with others – from those of citizens’ personal lives to those of neighboring nations.

At the core of the issue are four essays reviewing recent developments in nationalist historiography. (Please see the sidebar in each article for summaries in five languages.) Articles on Thailand and Indonesia survey political, methodological, and technological challenges to dominant historiographies, while those on Malaysia and the Philippines examine particular attempts to open new ways of discussing the past. Related features, reprints, and short reviews looking at intertwining individual and national histories – in Malaysia, the Philippines, Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand, Cambodia, Burma, and India – raise questions about violence, love, ideology, aspirations, ethnicity, exclusion, universalism, and how we remember.

A feature focus on Research and Documentation includes articles on Southeast Asian studies in China, Philippine holdings in the Osaka Museum of Ethnology, Japanese scholarship on communism, Chinese heritage centers in Singapore and Malaysia, and an introduction to diplomatic documents of the Ryukyu Kingdom and its regional network.

Finally, many authors touch on the under-addressed question of the gap between academic historiography and popular historical perception. At issue is the way we write, our methodological and ideological concerns, and differential access to new technologies of research and dissemination. It is part of a larger question – the role of academic production – to which we will surely return in the future.

Donna Amoroso
Editor, Kyoto Review of Southeast Asia

ISSUE 3 — REVIEW ESSAYS
Towards Reinventing Indonesian Nationalist Historiography Short abstract in English	By Rommel Curaming
Making Sense of Malaysia Short abstract in English	ByDonna J. Amoroso
Exposition, Critique and New Directions for Pantayong Pananaw Short abstract in English	By Ramon Guillermo
Problems in Contemporary Thai Nationalist Historiography Short abstract in English	By Patrick Jory

ISSUE 3 — REPRINTS
Thailand and Cambodia: A Love-Hate Relationship	By Charnvit Kasetsiri
The Thai Cultural Constitution	By Nidhi Eoseewong
The Chinese in the Collective Memory of the Indonesian Nation	By Asvi Warman Adam
ISSUE 3 — FEATURES
Said Zahari’s Long Nights	By Abdul Rahman Haji Embong
On Knowledge, the Nation, and Universals	By Kasian Tejapira
To Suffer Thy Comrades	Robert Francis Garcia
IT and the Study of History	By Chalong Soontravanich
Ryukyu Networks in Maritime Asia	By Hamashita Takeshi
The Rekidai Hoan: Documents of the Ryukyu Kingdom	Kyoto Review
Liu Hong on Southeast Asian Studies in Greater China	By Liu Hong
Japanese Scholarship on Communism in East and Southeast Asia	By Onimaru Takeshi
The Osaka Museum of Ethnology: A Treasure Trove of Philippine Holdings	Kyoto Review
Wu Xiao An on Centers for Chinese Studies in Southeast Asia	By Wu Xiao An

ISSUE 3— BOOK REVIEWS
Rusli Amran and the Rewriting of Minangkabau History	By Jeffrey Hadler
Postcolonial Vietnam: New Histories of the National Past Patricia M. Pelley Durham and London / Duke University Press / 2002	By Haydon L. Cherry
Confucianism in Vietnam Hồ Chí Minh City / Vietnam National University and Hồ Chí Minh City Publishing House / 2002	By Bruce Lockhart
Diem’s Final Failure: Prelude to America’s War in Vietnam Philip E. Catton Lawrence, Kansas / University Press of Kansas / 2003	By Edward Miller
Clash of Spirits: The History of Power and Sugar Planter Hegemony on a Visayan Island Filomeno V. Aguilar, Jr. Honolulu / University of Hawai’i Press / 1998	By Kenneth Paul Andrew Sze-Sian Tan
Armando J. Malay: A Guardian of Memory (The Life and Times of a Filipino Journalist and Activist) Marites N. Sison and Yvonne T. Chua Pasig City / Anvil Publishing / 2002	By Patricio N. Abinales
The Glass Palace Amitav Ghosh New York / Random House / 2002 (paper) London / HarperCollins UK / 2000 (cloth)	By Sumit K. Mandal