Rice, Slaves and Văn Lang
I went to a talk last night by a very famous scholar who was talking about the Neolithic Revolution. This guy made the point that all of the early states…
A Cantonese Prostitute, an American Marine Engineer, and an Annamite Policeman in 1919 Shanghai
Today I gained access to a database that contains historical English-language newspapers from China. These papers of course contain information about China, but they also contain reports on conditions and…
Eating and Drinking in Style in the American-Occupied Philippines
As is well known, the US military began its conquest of the Philippines in 1898. Not long after the first soldiers landed, the supplies that they needed to survive in…
The “Semantic Slide” in the Early History of the Red River Delta
I have been reading accounts of the early history of the Red River Delta and am trying to see how historians (both Vietnamese and non-Vietnamese) deal with the fact that…
Down-and-Out Americans in 1902 Batavia
I came across a letter that the American consul in Batavia (now Jakarta) sent to the US secretary of state in 1902 to seek approval for spending $16.06 to pay…
The Logic of Historians and the 28 Yin Dynasty Female Generals
I recently wrote about a spirit in Phù Đổng village known as Saint Gióng (Thánh Gióng) or the Soaring-to-Heaven King (冲天神王) or Heavenly King of Phù Đổng (扶董天王). This is…
Mud on Our Wheels in Cambodia
Several years ago I spent a few years studying Khmer. I eventually started to do some research in Khmer, but then I got distracted by other things. A few years…
Slow Telegrams and a Riffle-and-Opium Shopper in 1907 Sandakan
I need to learn more about how telegraph systems worked. I came across a couple of telegrams that were sent from Zamboanga in the Philippines to Sandakan on Borneo in…
Henry Chong – Cosmopolitan Clerk Extraordinaire
Beaufort is a nice provincial town on the western side Borneo in what is now Sabah, Malaysia. In 1912 it was part of British North Borneo, and in that year…
The Spirit of Phù Đổng and Anti-Folk Stories
I’ve been engaged in a long discussion on Facebook about, among other things, the story of a Vietnamese spirit in Phù Đổng village known in as Saint Gióng (Thánh Gióng)…
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