Vietnam Mapped
I have absolutely no desire to get involved in the Trường Sa/Hoàng Sa debate. Why? Because I’m an historian and as an historian I can't stand listening to the historians…
The Absence of Historical Memory in Early “Vietnam”
When medieval Việt scholars wrote the first histories of the Red River Delta region, they structured their histories around the political principle of an “orthodox line of succession” (正統, chính…
The Evils of Quốc Ngữ #4 continued again
Blogger Quach Hien has a nice response to this issue of how modern Vietnamese translations of the [Đại] Việt sử lược do not note that the original has the character…
Evils of Quốc Ngữ #6
Yet another problem with Vietnamese translations of classical Chinese writings is that translators have left out parts of old texts which they do not like. Take, for instance, the case…
Going to the Movies in 1954 Burma
Can a trip to the movies in Rangoon in 1954 tell us anything about Burma at the time? I think it can. In fact, I think it sheds a good…
Enslaved Madrasi Girls in Colonial Burma
I was reading the Rangoon Gazette for 10 January 1890 where I found an article on “Slavery in Rangoon.” It is an article about Indian girls, from Madras in particular,…
Announcements in the Indigenous Language in Colonial Vietnam
I recently came across a journal that was published in colonial Vietnam called the Official Bulletin in the Indigenous Language. It was an official publication for Tonkin (Bắc Kỳ) which…
The “Blank Space” in Vietnamese Historical Scholarship
In the 1950s, historical scholarship in the DRV was part of an international world of scholarship. First and foremost, Vietnamese historians in the DRV were in dialog with their Communist…
Getting Strength from the Life Glands of Monkeys in 1950s Burma
I was looking at this Chinese newspaper from Burma in the early 1950s and came across this advertisement below. It is an advertisement for a product which claims to be…
Felling Lizards in Medieval Vietnam
Aren’t Buddhists not supposed to harm living things? Isn’t that one of the most basic concepts of Buddhism? That’s what I thought anyway. Then I read the following passage about…
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