Win Min Than as a Hapa Actress
Today someone posted a picture on facebook of an Anglo-Burmese actress by the name of Win Min Than who made a movie in the 1950s called The Purple Plain. A…
Staying Dreamflower-Fresh in 1954 Burma
I came across these images in some 1954 issues of The New Light of Burma newspaper. They are for Pond’s products, such as talcum powder, lipstick and “dreamflower powder.” Sprinkling…
Willoughby Wallace Hooper’s Photographs from the time of the Third Anglo-Burmese War (1885-86)
I was looking through the British Library’s online gallery of images from its Asia, Pacific & Africa Collections when I came across some amazing pictures of Burma in the late…
King Mindon’s 1856 Letter to the US President
The US National Archives has digitized a letter that was sent by Burmese king, Mindon Min, to the US president in 1856. In that year, Franklin Pierce was the president,…
Prince Maung Maung Gyi, Emperor Bảo Đại, and the Women They Loved
I came across a wonderful picture on Facebook today. This is Prince Maung Maung Gyi, a member of the (deposed) royal family of Burma. Not knowing anything about this man,…
Carlyle Seppings, Decolonization and the Skeletons in U Saw’s Backyard
As is very well known, on July 19, 1947, Burmese nationalist leader, Aung San, and six other members of his transitional government were assassinated. A rival politician, U Saw, was…
The Kachin Rangers on Film
During World War II, a group known as “Detachment 101” of the Office of Strategic Services (the precursor of the CIA) started to work inside Burma to gain intelligence about…
Embarrassment and the Writing of Southeast Asian History
Buddhist-Muslim violence is taking place in Burma right now. I haven’t followed this issue closely, but at first it looked to me like a localized issue in the Rakhine State.…
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…
Serving the Japanese in Southeast Asia during WW II
The National Archives of Australia has quite a few materials on the activities of Japanese in Southeast Asia during World War II as the Australians were involved in the effort…