Time to Take a Break
Summer is here. It's time for a vacation. I'm going to take a break from posting here for several weeks. In early August I will be back, and will do…
A Review of “A Thousand Years of Caps and Robes”
I’ve been meaning to write a more formal review of Trần Quang Đức’s A Thousand Years of Caps and Robes (Ngàn năm áo mũ). The customary manner to write such…
The Three Teachings (Tam Giáo) and Anxiety
I often read and hear people say that the intermixture of, and equal respect for, the “three teachings” (tam giáo 三教) is something that defined Vietnamese society in the past.…
Embarrassment and the Writing of Southeast Asian History
Buddhist-Muslim violence is taking place in Burma right now. I haven’t followed this issue closely, but at first it looked to me like a localized issue in the Rakhine State.…
Chasing Down Chinamen in Early-Twentieth-Century Southeast Asia
I was looking at records from the American consulate in Sandakan, on the island of Borneo, from the early twentieth century, and found an interesting letter to the consul general…
Visualizing Daoism in Trần Dynasty Vietnam
I’m reading a book called Computers, Visualization, and History: How New Technology Will Transform Our Understanding of the Past by David J. Staley. This is how the book is summarized…
Senkesin Art from 1930s Singapore
To continue looking at advertisements for Senkesin. . . I have to admit that the artwork in a lot of these advertisements was really good. A long time ago on…
The Great Monkeys of Mercy in 1930s Singapore
I’ve written a few times on this blog about Senkesin (here, here and here) a kind of medicine that was sold in Southeast Asia that offered a cure for many…
Creating “Living Translations” for Vietnamese History
I’ve written quite a lot on this blog about the problem with using modern Vietnamese translations of historical materials that were originally written in classical Chinese (Hán). Recently in reading…
Thai and Chinese Attitudes Towards Administering Laxative Tablets in 1930s Southeast Asia
I came across this advertisement a few years ago in a Thai newspaper from the 1930s. It shows a woman “administering help” to her child. The child is unable to…