Nus Press New Books

NUS PRESS NEW BOOKS JANUARY–JUNE 2021 Cat NUS Cover Jan_June 2021_LD final.indd 3 9/2/21 11:23 AM Visit nuspress.nus.edu.sg for our full catalogue Award Winners Unmarked Graves: Death and Survival in the Anti-Communist Violence in East Java, Indonesia Vannessa Hearman Winner, Early Career Book Prize 2020, Asian Studies Association of Australia (ASAA) Tales of Southeast Asia’s Jazz Age: Filipinos, Indonesians and Popular Culture, 1920–1936 Peter Keppy Honorable Mention, 2020 Bruno Nettl Prize, Society for Ethnomusicology Hard at Work: Life in Singapore Gerard Sasges and Ng Shi Wen Finalist, Singapore Literature Prize 2020 Finalist, Singapore Book Awards (Best Non-fiction Title) 2020, Singapore Book Publishers Association Imperial Creatures: Humans and Other Animals in Colonial Singapore, 1819–1942 Timothy P. Barnard Finalist, Singapore Book Awards (Best Non-fiction Title) 2020, Singapore Book Publishers Association Wanderlust: The Amazing Ida Pfeiffer, the First Female Tourist John van Wyhe Finalist, Singapore Book Awards (Best Digital Marketing Campaign) 2020, Singapore Book Publishers Association Cosmopolitan Intimacies: Malay Film Music of the Independence Era Adil Johan Finalist, Singapore Book Awards Best Non-Fiction Title, 2019 Shortlisted, Penang Book Prize 2019 Liberalism and the Postcolony: Thinking the State in 20th-century Philippines Lisandro E. Claudio Winner, 2019 George McT. Kahin Prize of the Association for Asian Studies The Japanese Occupation of Malaya and Singapore, 1941–45: A Social and Economic History Paul H. Kratoska Shortlisted, Penang Book Prize 2019 Rock Solid: How the Philippines Won Its Maritime Case against China (published by Ateneo de Manila University Press and distributed by NUS Press in the rest of Southeast Asia) Marites Danguilan Vitug Winner, Best Book in Journalism at the 38th National Book Awards 2019 in the Philippines Cat NUS Cover Jan_June 2021_LD final.indd 4 9/2/21 11:23 AM 1 Shashi Jayakumar A History of the People’s Action Party, 1985–2015 The People’s Action Party (or PAP) of Singapore is among the longest-ruling democratically-elected political parties in the world, in power continuously since Singapore gained self-rule in 1959. Such longevity is the hallmark of an institution that is itself dynamic and responsive. But remarkably, the story of the party as an institution has not received the sustained study it deserves, from historians or political scientists. This narrative history of the PAP follows the decisions made by party leaders as they have sought to respond to the changing demands and expectations of the Singapore electorate, over a 30-year period that saw Singapore enter the ranks of developed nations. The focus is on change in four dimensions: in the communications methods and styles the party adopted, in the mechanisms it developed for managing institutional change, the sometimes vexed question of leader- ship renewal, and the evolution of economic and social policy. Drawing on internal party documents and multiple interviews with key leaders over a 10-year period, this work provides a detailed portrait of a robust political institution and establishes a distinctive new narrative of Singapore politics. Shashi Jayakumar is head of the Centre of Excellence for National Security (CENS) at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS), Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore. June 2021 Hardback • US$38 / S$46 ISBN: 978-981-325-128-1 632pp / 254 x 178mm 24 b/w images Cat NUSP layouts Jan_Jun 2021_LD final.indd 1 9/2/21 11:23 AM 2 Justin Thomas McDaniel Wayward Distractions: Ornament, Emotion, Zombies and the Study of Buddhism in Thailand When more than 93 per cent of the citizens of one country profess a single religion, as Thais do Buddhism, and when that religion is deeply integrated into national institutions and ideologies, it becomes tempting to think of the religion as a textual, institutional, cultural and conceptual whole. But at the same time it is obvious that expressions of Buddhism in Thailand reflect anything but a single order: they are often gaudy, cacophonous, variegated, and jumbled: almost technicolor. Diversity and contradiction are everywhere. A more open engagement with Buddhism in Thailand will require a willingness to be distracted, to step away from received hierarchies and follow the intriguing detail in the ornate design, the odd textual reference, to prefer “thin description” over a search for meaning. Justin Thomas McDaniel’s book-length writings in Buddhist and Theravada Studies are well known and widely cited, but his approach cannot be understood without taking into account his shorter writings, what he calls his wayward distractions. Collected together for the first time, and set in place by a compelling introduction that argues for a strongly materialist approach, these essays cover subjects ranging from ornamental art to marriage and emotion, the role of Hinduism, neglected gender and ethnic diversity, Buddhist inflections in contemporary art practice, and the boundaries between the living, the dead and the undead. These writings will be of importance to students of Theravada and Thailand, of religion in Southeast Asia and more generally, of the materialist turn in studies of religion. Justin Thomas McDaniel is Edmund J. and Louise W. Kahn Endowed Professor of x JAPAN the Humanities at the University of Pennsylvania. His first book, Gathering Leaves and Lifting Words, won the Harry Benda Prize. His second book, The Lovelorn KYOTO-CSEAS SERIES Ghost and the Magic Monk, won the Kahin Prize. ON ASIAN STUDIES June 2021 Paperback • US$32 / S$36 ISBN: 978-981-325-150-2 360pp / 229 x 152mm 24 b/w images Cat NUSP layouts Jan_Jun 2021_4 final.indd 2 16/2/21 10:52 AM 3 Takashi Shiraishi The Phantom World of Digul: Policing as Politics in Colonial Indonesia, 1926–1941 Digul was an internment colony for political prisoners established in 1926 in West Papua. It is key to understanding Indonesia’s colonial rule between the failed communist rebellion in 1926 and the fall of the Indies to the Japanese in 1942, a time when the Dutch regime attempted to impose “rust en orde”, or peace and order, on the Indonesian people via the suppression of politics by the police. The political policing regime the Dutch Indies state created was both a success and a failure. The native terrain was never completely pacified. Activists linked up with each other in fluid networks that cut across spatial and ideational boundaries. How did the government deploy political policing to achieve its policy objectives? What were the consequences and challenges for Indonesian activists? How was the government able to fashion its policing apparatus as the most potent instrument to achieve peace and order when the Great Depression hit the Indies, nationalist and communist forces were gaining strength in other places of the world and war was coming both in Europe and Asia? This long-awaited sequel to Takashi Shiraishi’s acclaimed An Age in Motion: Popular Radicalism in Java, 1912–1926, attempts to answer these questions. Takashi Shiraishi has taught at Tokyo University, Cornell University, Kyoto University, and National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies (GRIPS). He currently serves as chancellor at the Prefectural University of Kumamoto. x JAPAN KYOTO-CSEAS SERIES ON ASIAN STUDIES “A life-long project comes to its magnificent May 2021 culmination with Shiraishi’s new book, a worthy Paperback • US$32 / S$36 sequel to his Age in Motion.” ISBN: 978-981-325-141-0 360pp / 229 x 152mm – Rudolf Mrázek 8 b/w images Cat NUSP layouts Jan_Jun 2021_LD final.indd 3 9/2/21 11:23 AM 4 Yeo Kang Shua Divine Custody: A History of Singapore’s Oldest Teochew Temple Teochew-speaking gambier and pepper farmers were early settlers of Singapore at the turn of the 19th century. The Wak Hai Cheng Bio, now surrounded by the skyscrapers of Singa pore’s central business district, traces its history back to the earliest days of the colony. Its two deities—the Emperor of Heaven and Mazu, the Goddess of the Seas, tutelary deities of the Teochew people and travellers by sea respectively, long accompanied the sojourns of Teochew-speakers in the region. No written sources or inscriptions commemorate the founding of the temple, but the author’s research in the history of land tenure of Singapore and old maps and title deeds provides new evidence for the temple’s foundation. Just as eloquent as these forms of textual evidence, and the many poetic and commemorative inscriptions that enliven the temple and charge its spaces with meaning, is the testimony of the building itself, its siting, materials, its ornamentation and artworks. The author led the UNESCO award-winning effort to restore the temple from 2010 to 2014, and so is uniquely placed to understand what its architecture can tell us of the legacies and histories of the communities that formed and were formed by the temple. The book is an exemplary in the way it uses material culture and architectural history as historical sources, and so will be of interest to heritage studies, history and those seeking to understand the experience of Chinese communities in Southeast Asia. Yeo Kang Shua teaches at the Singapore University of Technology and Design and is an architectural restoration specialist. PUBLISHED WITH THE SUPPORT OF THE NATIONAL HERITAGE BOARD, SINGAPORE June 2021 Hardback • US$48 / S$56 ISBN: 978-981-325-144-1 288pp / 235 x 187mm 74 colour images, 43 b/w images Cat NUSP layouts Jan_Jun 2021_LD final.indd 4 9/2/21 11:23 AM 5 Bérénice Bellina, Roger Blench and Jean-Christophe Galipaud editors Sea Nomads of Southeast Asia: From the Past to the Present Sea nomads have been part of the economic and political landscape of Southeast Asia for millennia. They have played many roles over the longue-durée: in certain periods proving central to the ability of land-based polities to generate wealth, by providing valuable maritime commodities, facilitating trade, forming a naval force to secure and protect vital sea lanes and providing crucial connectivity.

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