Anh Hùng Dân Tộc and Repetitive Participatory Nationalism
I can remember watching a game show on Vietnamese television maybe a decade or so ago. It was around the time that TV programming in Vietnam was starting to change,…
The Textbook-ification of the Vietnamese Past
For a long time now I have felt that the first decade or so of the twentieth century is the most important period for anyone who studies Vietnamese history to…
Lương Trúc Đàm, Education, and the Knowledge of the West and the Center
The words that we use have a tremendous influence on how we see and understand the world, and this is particularly the case with the names of nations. As soon…
The Death and Afterlife of the Public Phone in Southeast Asia
I was in the Rangoon airport a while ago when I came across this scene here. It is a space for some kind of public phone, but there is no…
Wanted for Murder in 1900 Sarawak
I came across this “wanted” poster in the January 2, 1900 edition of the Sarawak Gazette. Eight (possibly) Teochew Chinese were wanted for the murder of pepper planter Liong Ten…
From Bridge to Bridge with Lê Quang Định in Early Nineteenth-Century Vietnam
In the early nineteenth century, Nguyễn Dynasty official Lê Quang Định compiled a kind of geographical text called the Hoàng Việt nhất thống dư địa chí. Essentially what this work…
Nguyễn Phương’s Lost History
I’ve written briefly about the work of the historian Nguyễn Phương on this blog before. Nguyễn Phương published a book in Vietnamese in Huế in the 1960s called Việt Nam…
On (Not) Dealing with the Past in Southeast Asia
In 1965 there was a coup in Indonesia. Sukarno was overthrown, and the coup was blamed on Communists. A purge of suspected Communists then ensued, and some half a million…
A Letter from Lord of Thailand Tengku Abdullah Osman
On 21 October 1945, Lord of Thailand Tengku Abdullah Osman sent a letter to “Mr. D. Headley, Lieutnent (sic) Colonel & Chief Commander Civil Affairs, Trengganu Government.” Headley probably found…
Mapping Military Posts in French Indochina
Following on the post below, here is an attempt at making a map of military posts in French Indochina in World War II. On the map page you can switch…
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