Taiwan, Vietnam, Lim Giong and Life at the Edge of Empire
If you want to understand the past, you have to engage in comparative history. If you just study about one place, then you cannot possibly gain an accurate understanding of…
Malaya’s Multiethnic Military?
I came across these images today by using the Online Public Access page of the US National Archives. Apparently the US Information Agency created these posters in 1953. Written in…
Predicting Apathy in 1950 Indochina
In looking around in the Online Public Access page of the US National Archives, I came across a declassified CIA report from 1950 that was speculating about whether or not…
Sappy Love Songs and the Meaning of Mainland Southeast Asian History During the Cold War
In 1966 John Denver wrote the song “Leaving on a Jet Plane.” When I was growing up, I didn't like that song. The version I heard the most when I…
Morality Books, Libraries and the Limits of Our Knowledge of the Vietnamese Past
As the post below indicates, there were many different morality books (thiện thư/shanshu 善書) that were produced in the past, but ultimately there was one that was the most popular,…
Printing Morality Books at Ngọc Sơn Temple
Before nationalism pushed him into the back room around 1950, Wenchang Dijun/Văn Xương Đế Quân 文昌帝君 was the main spirit honored at Ngọc Sơn Temple in Hanoi. Guansheng Dijun/Quan Thánh…
Selling Buicks in 1907 British North Borneo
The US set up a consulate in Sandakan, British North Borneo in the early twentieth century. Lester Maynard was (I think) the first American consul to serve there (prior to…
Cause and Effect and Forgotten Books in Vietnam
There are numerous old books (dating from before the twentieth century) that one can find in Vietnam that originally came from China. In some cases, these books were brought from…
The Manhood Creator in Colonial Singapore
It’s amazing what you can find in old newspapers. I was looking at a Chinese-language newspaper from Singapore called the Union Times, and in an issue from 1912, I found…
George Carlin on Vietnamese History
No, the late American comedian George Carlin never talked about Vietnamese history, as far as I know, but I wish he had. Today I got distracted (it happens a lot)…
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