Ethno-Symbolism and the Vietnamese Nation
The study of nations and nationalism is a massive and complex field of study, but it’s possible to point to three main approaches that have been employed in the study…
Trưng Trắc’s Husband Thi [Sách]
I read an article that South Vietnamese historian Nguyễn Phương wrote in the 1960s on the Trưng sisters. I had never looked closely at the sources of information for their…
Beautiful Saigon, Cambodian Girls and Cathay Pacific Airlines
There is a very famous Vietnamese song from the 1960s written by Y Vân called “Saigon is Beautiful” (Sài Gòn đẹp lắm). I remember being in Bangkok a few years…
Orientalism and Postage Stamps in French Indochina
A Vietnamese translation of Edward Said’s Orientalism has apparently just been published. That book became very influential after it first appeared in 1978, becoming a foundational text for the field…
Where History and Sovereignty Intersect
For years I’ve been avoiding the topic of the islands in the Southeast Asian Sea, in part because I’ve been turned off by the way that many people have approached…
The Dog of the Paracels
The other day I came across some materials in the National Archives of Australia that talked about an American submarine attack on Japanese forces on Woody Island in the Paracels…
Behind Each Great French Scholar in Indochina. . .
I have long known that the Yale University Library holds materials from the private collection of French scholar Maurice Durand, however I just realized today that some of these materials…
Vietnamese, Japanese, Formosan Coolies and the U.S.S. Pargo in the Paracel Islands in World War II
Given that things are heating up now that the PRC is attempting to set up an oil rig in an area of the sea that is claimed by Vietnam, I…
Darkness and Javanese Soldiers in Australia during World War II
On 5 September 1945 the acting premier of New South Wales, J. M. Baddeley, sent a letter to the prime minister of the Commonwealth of Australia to report about complaints…
Shit People Say About [Country Name] History – or, History in the Age of YouTube
A decade or so ago, whenever I was preparing to teach a class in a course that I had already taught a few times, I would always spend time on…