Everyday, or common, forms of technology, such as radios, televisions, and sewing machines have had an enormous impact on human societies. Examining Southeast Asian history by looking at how various everyday technologies have been adopted and utilized can lead to fascinating insights.
This is the topic we covered in this week of the seminar. The reading list is below.
Henk Schulte Nordholt, “Modernity and Cultural Citizenship in the Netherlands Indies: An Illustrated Hypothesis,” Journal of Southeast Asian Studies Vol. 42, No. 3 (2011): 435-457.
David Arnold and Erich DeWald, “Everyday Technology in South and Southeast Asia: An Introduction,” Modern Asian Studies Vol. 46, No. 1 (2012): 1-17.
Michitake Aso, “Profits or People? Rubber Plantations and Everyday Technology in Rural Indochina,” Modern Asian Studies Vol. 46, No. 1 (2012): 19-45.
David Biggs, “Small Machines in the Garden: Everyday Technology and Revolution in the Mekong Delta,” Modern Asian Studies Vol. 46, No. 1 (2012): 47-70.
Jean Gelman Taylor, “The Sewing-Machine in Colonial-Era Photographs: A Record from Dutch Indonesia,” Modern Asian Studies Vol. 46, No. 1 (2012): 71-95.
Tilman Frasch, “Tracks in the City: Technology, Mobility and Society in Colonial Rangoon and Singapore,” Modern Asian Studies Vol. 46, No. 1 (2012): 97-118.
Erich DeWald, “Taking to the Waves: Vietnamese Society around the Radio in the 1930s,” Modern Asian Studies Vol. 46, No. 1 (2012): 143-165.
Chua Ai Lin, “‘The Modern Magic Carpet’: Wireless Radio in Interwar Colonial Singapore,” Modern Asian Studies Vol. 46, No. 1 (2012): 167-191.
Raquel A. G. Reyes, “Modernizing the Manileña: Technologies of Conspicuous Consumption for the Well-to-Do Woman, circa 1880s-1930s,” Modern Asian Studies Vol. 46, No. 1 (2012): 193-220.
Michael D. Pante, “Mobility and Modernity in the Urban Transport Systems of Colonial Manila and Singapore,” Journal of Social History Vol. 47, No. 4 (2014): 855-877.