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March 2003 | the IIAS newsletter is published by the IIAS and is available free of charge ¶ p.33 From Aristocrats to Primitives An Interview with Gananath Obeyesekere Gananath Obeyesekere lives on a mountaintop in Kandy. From his eyrie he has a sweeping panorama of the Interview > eastern hills of Sri Lanka, and it is in those hills where the wild Veddas were once supposed to have lived, 7 South Asia according to Sri Lankan histories and stories. These Veddas are the focus of his present research.
By Han ten Brummelhuis happened to the Veddas who once lived in this part of the country? he genealogy of Obeyesekere’s research project can be ‘Then, as my fieldwork and thinking progressed, I asked Ttraced back to a classic work, The Veddas, written by myself: if the Veddas were in this vast region north of the area
The connection between algebra and Asia is laid bare laid is Asia and algebra between connection The Charles and Brenda Seligmann in 1911. The Veddas were first in which the Seligmanns did their fieldwork, let me figure ¶ recognized in anthropological terms as a classic hunting and out whether they existed in other parts of the country, too. So Roald Maliangkay reviews the first English language book language English first the reviews Maliangkay Roald
p. 14 p. gathering society. Edward Tylor, in his textbook on anthro- I probed the sixteenth-century classic literature and poetry
Both Jemma Purdey and Bernard Adeney-Risakotta examine the examine Adeney-Risakotta Bernard and Purdey Jemma Both pology (1881), refers to them as ‘shy wild men’, or primitives, written by Buddhist monks and other erudite scholars. And ¶
In A Martyr’s Tale [2], IIAS fellow Ken Hammond tells the story of a of story the tells Hammond Ken fellow IIAS [2], Tale Martyr’s A In living by hunting and gathering. The Seligmanns, however, some of their texts refer to Veddas in other parts of the coun-
¶ pioneered with one of the first field studies of any group from try, for example, roughly around Sri Pada – sometimes known p. 17 p. Koen De Ceuster wonders whether Korean historians are shedding light shedding are historians Korean whether wonders Ceuster De Koen p.3 the British side of our discipline. C.G. Seligmann and W.H.R. as Adam’s Peak – where the sacred footprint of the Buddha Rivers were the first systematic fieldworkers who, in turn, is embedded. Other texts speak of Veddas in the very south taught the two great anthropologists Radcliffe-Brown and of Sri Lanka which is now entirely – and passionately – Sin- ¶ Malinowski, the founding fathers of British Social Anthro- hala Buddhist. Another text refers to Veddas living about
> Publications > pology. twenty miles south of the main city of Colombo which is p 24-25 p ‘What I found puzzling about the Seligmanns’ study is that unthinkable as a Vedda habitat nowadays, except symboli- Eurasians in India are the living proof of a blurry divide between colonizer and colonized. [3]. colonized. and colonizer between divide blurry a of proof living the are India in Eurasians
¶ the Veddas were confined by them to a small area in the cally, I suppose, if one were to designate capitalism as a form Debra Diamond visited the traveling exhibition of Chola Bronzes [5] and places these statues in statues these places and [5] Bronzes Chola of exhibition traveling the visited Diamond Debra northern and eastern part of the country called Bintanna, ‘the of hunting and gathering.’ p.15 flat lands.’ Unfortunately, given that their work was still root- Obeyesekere also re-examined some of the ritual texts Nina Cichocki shows the connection between the work of Irans leading sculptor, Parviz Tanavoli and Tanavoli Parviz sculptor, leading Irans of work the between connection the shows Cichocki Nina
> In this edition this In > ed in the nineteenth-century preoccupation with the primi- which he had worked on some twenty or thirty years ago. ¶ Freek Colombijn and Peter Nas attend us to the intentions and planning beyond largely unchecked mega- unchecked largely beyond planning and intentions the to us attend Nas Peter and Colombijn Freek tive, the two Seligmanns were out to find the ‘pure’ Veddas; These texts also referred to Veddas as living in different ¶ p.41 and of course they didn’t find any. This was a kind of futile parts of the country. In one fascinating post-harvest ritual p.42 quest, because ultimately only four families, who were living the priest (never the monk) recites an invocation known as in utterly desperate economic and social conditions, were ‘the roll-call of the Veddas’ in which he lists about ninety found to approximate their ideal. Looking from my balcony Vedda villages in a fairly large area north and south of With his review of Moral Tales Nile Green provides a valuable insight in the rich universe of Indian storytelling [4], storytelling Indian of universe rich the in insight valuable a provides Green Nile Tales Moral of review his With ¶
¶ up on my hilltop, I know that the mountainous area north of Kandy, and some settlements in the heart of the city of
p.49 the Seligmanns’ field site was known in ancient Sinhala texts Kandy itself. Further enquiries led Obeyesekere to believe p.30 of nearly three hundred years ago as ‘the Vedda country,’ or that when the city of Kandy was founded in the fifteenth 123456 as ‘the great [maha] Vedda country’, a huge expanse of well century it was a Vedda village named Katupulle, the chief The essence of being good in Tantric Buddhism, lies in being bad. being in lies Buddhism, Tantric in good being of essence The
> Asian art & cultures & art Asian > over a thousand square miles. But in my wanderings and of that village being known as Katupulle Vedda. Very much ¶ meanderings in that latter region I found that there are no later, Kandyan texts mention a group of police officers called urbanization [7]. urbanization on Korean film Korean on connection between power and violence in Indonesia. in violence and power between connection on the nations recent history or are merely adding to the confusion [1]. confusion the to adding merely are or history recent nations the on China. post-communist in rehabilitation his and official dynasty Ming willed strong p 16 p a tradition of worship and beauty. beauty. and worship of tradition a traditional Persian writing. [6]. writing. Persian traditional in Frits Staal’s article on Artificial Languages. Artificial on article Staal’s Frits in Veddas today; all who live there claim to be Sinhala Bud- katupulle; the same term. dhists. So the question that posed itself to me was: whatever continued on page 3 > > Editorial > Burmese heritage ver to ver rease of rease g to dis- to g vidence’, terface of terface es such as such es some of the of some s. Director’s Note on ASEM gap between gap y – to accept to – y ence towards ence oach towards oach Since its inception in 1996 the Asia-Europe Meeting has made real progress. The main Waltraud Ernst, Waltraud prospective stu- prospective Director’s components of ASEM, which has thus far been organized on an informal basis, are economic field is best deter- best is field note > cooperation, political dialogue, and education and culture (the so-called three pillars). Certain progress can be said to have been made in all three of these domains, in particular in the economic domain (on trade and investment issues) and in the cultural field, in which the Asia- . The existence of (outside) of existence The . Europe Foundation is very active. The political pillar, however, has delivered fewer results. The parties involved consider the ASEM process as a way to deepen relations between Asia and Europe and as such it is a time-consuming, sensitive exercise in building mutual confidence. Progress on second domain themes, such as good governance, human rights, sustainable par excellence par environment, and the rule of law, can only be made on the basis of trust still today. Yet, there are undeniable signs indicating an increasing readiness, on both sides, to discuss these topics, thus I believe the investment in time to have been worthwhile.
By Wim Stokhof sion will probably be taken at the sixth ASEM summit in Hanoi. Meanwhile, he slowly growing process of rap- given the additional EC proposal to T prochement between Asia and enlarge ASEM by accepting India, Aus- Europe is, however, being endangered tralia, and New Zealand, we may won- by recent developments. As we all der in all seriousness what kind of know, the current fifteen EU member organization the EC and its partners states have invited ten countries from have in mind. Central and Eastern Europe to join the Of course, such a proliferation of union. This EU enlargement will members will confront this relatively undoubtedly have far-reaching conse- young configuration of countries with quences for the ASEM process. It can all sorts of practical problems. In fact, be expected that these countries will, in I fear that the often praised interactivi- due time, express their interest in par- ty and informality of the ASEM process ticipating in the Asia-Europe dialogue. will eventually prove an obstacle to a On several occasions and informally, clear and focused exchange of ideas. too reactive responses to external cir- the ASEAN members of ASEM have on Yet even much more crucial, to my cumstances even in its present set up, In the relationship between science and politics, in large parts of Europe, the former seems to have found a spe- a found have to seems former the Europe, of parts large in politics, and science between relationship the In their part indicated to expect that sev- mind, is the fact that the ASEM is still the enlargement of ASEM seems to be eral new members, namely Laos, Cam- in need of a long-term internally driv- pointless, if such a strategic vision is Maurice Sistermans Maurice bodia, and Myanmar/Burma, will even- en strategic vision, which can be trans- lacking.
< < tually be given the green light to lated into clear and concrete objectives, become ASEM members. Most likely, and relevant effective instruments – Professor Wim Stokhof is director of the newly independent East Timor will such as a professional secretariat – to International Institute for Asian Studies in soon also aspire to ASEAN and, conse- reach those objectives. As ASEM Leiden/Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Editorial threats, whether valid or not, should push the scientific community to involve itself more in public discussion, surely not les not surely discussion, public in more itself involve to community scientific the push should not, or valid whether threats, inc continuous and rapid the as well as field international the in Asia of importance increased the aside, warmongering Current e than important more it make prominently, feature connections Asian-European which amongst general, in relations international the closing in lies necessity The societies. and economies, politics, cultures, its present, and past Asia’s about informed be part. vital a is it which of society, and academia between and students, and researchers between researchers, international interest to hopes it which with year, this May 16–17 on festival a hold will IIAS the anniversary, tenth its of celebration In close perhaps and Asia in interest general a increasing towards work to hopes IIAS the run long the In Studies. Asian in dents nothin done has issue thirtieth the reaching many, for signifies thirty what of regardless and Meanwhile, gaps. above-mentioned in the at operate to aims IIAS the As research. of topics uncharted and new towards attitude open our from newsletter the tance by edited guest Asia’, in ‘Psychiatry on theme issue’s this that hope we sciences, social and sciences, life studies, technical suggestions. and comments your welcome warmly we always As approach. an such towards step promising a constitute will reading. Enjoy cial niche, further and further away from its role as critical examiner of politics and power. To my mind a new scientific appr scientific new a mind my To power. and politics of examiner critical as role its from away further and further niche, cial concept scientific the ‘evidence’, of concept the challenge even they politics, thus and society politics is urgently called for. Stating it simply, this lamentable development requires science – ranging from technical studi technical from ranging – science requires development lamentable this simply, it Stating for. called urgently is politics archaeolog or literature classical to history art or cultural and anthropology, studies, urban from sciences, social to physics political the in role vital Science’s cultural). as well as (political sphere public the in society towards responsibility its for. called is it when critique vociferous offering while makers, policy and public the informing of means a as mined e ‘compelling words the of depreciation another yet with presented been have well may we published, are words these time the By sci of responsibility the underline only not affairs international Current prices. market stock of decrease a by followed be to quently, ASEM membership. A deci- threatens to be overwhelmed by its all [email protected] Letter to the Editor Forum > t was interesting to read Shalini Sharma’s report regard- that finally some kind of concern is raised for Britain’s Hindu estingly though, Sharma does not mention the large num- Iing ‘The Life of Hindus in Britain’ published in the IIAS minority community – in a country where many different bers of Nepalese living in Britain. Her report gave the impres- General Newsletter (IIASN 27, p. 23). Apart from its higher philoso- ethnicities or religious groups live. Seeking to identify long sion that she was emphasizing Hinduism more than the phies, there is not much interest in the West for Hinduism under-represented peoples through research, building tem- Hindu minority in Britain. If this is so, I am afraid the title (cf. Buddhism). The important part of the article was the fact ples, and more such things are indeed positive steps. Inter- does not fit the context. I would like to ask whether a simple interview research on Hindus (or any other minority group for that matter) can bring positive input to people’s lives? Or is it just that studying minorities has become today an aca- Reply from the Author demic buzzword that has attracted research on Hindus? I believe for actual change there should be a grassroots aware- I welcome Mr Giri’s response to my research report on ‘The Life of Hindus in Britain’ (IIASN 27, p.23) for a dual reason. First- ness campaign that can influence the policy makers. Just ly the initial motive behind writing the report – to introduce the research to interested individuals and consequently encourage building a gathering place or writing an academic report that the generation of more contacts – could be better facilitated. Mr Giri is correct; I am yet to interview Nepalese Hindus. In this no one sees, except those involved in the research, will not regard I hope he will be willing to introduce me to individuals he thinks should be interviewed. More generally, his reaction pres- make a difference. Even though the existence of the class sys- ents me with an opportunity to clarify aspects of the research that have perhaps been misunderstood. tem is officially denied, it is clear that in practice British soci- The agenda of the research is not to ‘bring positive input into people’s lives’ or to ‘simply end up as another unread academic ety is still divided into various social ladders. In this light, I report’ (Mr Giri’s inferences). Neither is ‘actual change for the Hindu community’ a driving force behind this work. Such policy- find it highly remarkable that ‘Westerners’ view the ‘caste driven agendas make too many assumptions about the existence of a homogeneous Hindu community and a distinct identity of system’ in South Asia so negatively while class arrangements interests amongst such a group. and discrimination often based on race are prevalent in their The research is merely a first step in recording the life stories of first generation migrants who call themselves Hindu. The archive own society. I think the article would have been much more that will hold the interviews could be a database from which research, whether journalistic or academic, can spring. The archive insightful if it had illustrated what the position of Hindus in will also be taken back into various community groups in order to teach the significance and practical application of oral history. British society is and showed whether the current research The theoretical basis of oral history, of capturing the voices of ‘ordinary’ men and women as opposed to political or cultural ‘rep- is aimed at finding a ‘social space’ for minorities rather than resentatives’ is itself an attempt to counter charges of academicism. It is also an attempt to engage with the voices and thoughts just a place for academic talk or community prayer. < of individuals about their faith and their notions of community rather than assuming their consciousness from their class, caste or social positions. While the agency of individuals is philosophically questionable, at least a few aging voices will be recorded and Birenda Raj Giri, MA (University of Amsterdam) preserved for posterity; voices that quietly challenge sweeping generalizations. [email protected] So far, the interviews conducted indicate that there is no such thing as British Hinduism as an all-encompassing aegis. Rather, what is apparent is a very strong and vibrant, numerically dominant Gujarati community which generates much of the temple Editors’ note > building and community activity in specific areas of Britain such as Leicester and Neasden. However, smaller centres of concen- tration constituting more recently immigrated groups such as the Sri Lankan Tamils have also developed in the inner cities. Each The original article can be found on group, be it Bengali, West Indian or Swami Narayan, brings with it different practices of worship and religious spaces. www.iias.nl/iiasn/27/23_IIASNewsletter27.pdf Organizations such as the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, the Hindu Swayamsevak Sangh, and the more innocuous Council of Hindu Temples, have been attempting to draw the various Hindu communities together, but members of each organization complain of the disunity and diversity amongst practitioners of the religion. Thus the research extends our knowledge of the lack of homo- Subscriptions geneity amongst Hindus in Britain but also draws out what Hinduism means for each disparate believer. The focal question is: The IIAS Newsletter is published by the IIAS and is avail- What do these people mean when they call themselves Hindu? This is perhaps far more basic than the points raised by Mr Giri, able free of charge. If you wish to subscribe to the newslet- and yet the responses so far have contributed to a more complicated and nuanced understanding of the practice of faith, and the ter, please return a completed subscription form to the IIAS richness of ‘ordinary’ life. < secretariat. Subscription forms can be obtained from either the secretariat or the website. Shalini Sharma, MA works as a Research Facilitator and is presently completing her doctoral thesis on the politics of pre-Partition Punjab at [email protected] the School of Oriental and African Studies, London University. www.iias.nl/iiasn/subscribe.html [email protected]
2 IIAS Newsletter | #30 | March 2003 > BurmeseGeneral news heritage Settling the Past and the Distribution of Justice in Post-Authoritarian South Korea More than just an academic endeavour, history in South Korea has been a contested territory where ideological Despite shaming a former president into a public confes- Forum > battles were fought, and political legitimacy founded. Colonization, national division, and nearly four decades sion of remorse, public calls for legal justice continued until Korea of authoritarian rule twisted the official historical narrative into explicit distortions, and odd silences. 1995, ultimately forcing President Kim Young Sam to have both Chun Doo Hwan and Roh Tae Woo stand trial for their By Koen De Ceuster involvement in the 12 December 1979 coup d’état and the suppression of the subsequent Kwangju Uprising. In a world s part of the political struggle against the authoritarian premiere, two former presidents were sentenced in April Astate, some historians challenged the official narrative, 1997, only to be followed by a grand gesture of national rec- constructing an alternative national history. The genealogy onciliation by outgoing President Kim Young Sam and Pres- of the post-liberation power elites was traced back to pro- ident-Elect Kim Dae Jung, who pardoned them in December Japanese collaboration, leading to the conclusion that the 1997. nation’s history had been kidnapped by a tainted elite. Accord- By inviting both disgraced former presidents to his inau- ingly, this alternative narrative credits the successful democ- guration, Kim Dae Jung, himself a former victim of state vio- ratization movement with rendering the nation its history, lence, showed a remarkable commitment to personal and and making Korean citizens, once again, its subject. political reconciliation in an attempt to wipe South Korea’s ‘Settling the past’ (kwagò ch’òngsan) is one aspect of this political slate clean, and put the endless cycle of recrimina- effort at rewriting the nation’s history, and an attempt at tions to rest. With a token of political and legal justice bringing some form of justice to the victims of the authori- achieved, and with a commitment to have the state make tarian state. A timely reminder of the complexity of the mat- amends for individual cases of blatant injustice, Kim Dae ter was the autumn 2002 theme number of Korea Journal Jung hoped for a new era of national harmony. (42:3), a publication of the Korean National Commission for The magnanimity of the president may have succeeded in UNESCO, dedicated to ‘The Issue of Settling the Past in Mod- removing the past from the political agenda; it is beyond his ern Korean History’. Reactions to the journal’s demand for power to impose a settlement to the smouldering feeling of help on translating the term ‘kwagò ch’òngsan’ bear proof of injustice in some affected quarters of Korean society. The the fact that ‘settling the past’ no ordinary academic venture. administration and acceptance of justice is too tightly inter- The question was addressed to the Korean Studies’ List, an woven with the politics of memory. email discussion group, in September 2002, and triggered Raison d’état inevitably fails to administer sufficient legal, a lively debate on what ‘kwagò ch’òngsan’ should amount to. political, or social justice. It is then up to historians to help
The general trend of the argument, hardly surprising for an 1989. Ceuster, De Koen society come to grips with an unsavoury past by addressing academic discussion list, was to question the feasibility of these remnant feelings of injustice. However, when history ‘settling the past’. There is no such thing as ‘a settled past’, A familiar sight dur- sion on Suspicious Deaths was very limited in scope, taking is moralized, and historians, under the guise of administer- since history is always the subject of re-examination. New ing the late 1980s: on only eighty-five cases of suspicious deaths connected to ing ‘historical’ justice, mount ‘a struggle over memory,’ more questions arise, bringing new answers. To settle the past South Korea’s riot the pro-democracy struggle since 1969, and lacked inves- disharmony results. would be tantamount to interdicting historical debate. How- police in full combat tigative powers. Limited as it may be, it represents a victory Despite paying lip service to the importance of national ever, missing from this academic debate, were the all too real gear, a faceless pha- for South Korea’s fledgling civil society over the institution- reconciliation, the contributors to the Korea Journal volume social and political demands for ‘settling the past’. What the lanx in defense of the al inertia of the state. Pressured by relatives, the state admit- follow a confrontational agenda of moral righteousness. Con- Korea Journal theme number proved, and what most aca- authoritarian state. ted unlawful behaviour and committed itself to make cerned with the future course of Korea’s history, they pro- demics contributing to the discussion on the email list large- amends. claim that ‘the future starts with correct memories’ (p.189). ly failed to see, was that much more than an abstract aca- The pursuit of justice was not limited to attempts at restor- As activist historians rooted in the democratization move- demic question, this issue is part of a multi-layered process ing the honour of the victims of state injustice. Political ment, they ‘correct’ national history by imposing a different of a nation coming to terms with traumatic events and responsibility for unjustified state violence was to be settled ideological reading based on a ‘people’s’ point of view. Link- episodes of its recent past. Coming to grips with that past through calls for political and legal justice. However, as a con- ing the failure of the legal justice system to thoroughly pros- through a grand, national cleansing of mutual distrust and sequence of the peaceful and gradual handover of power from ecute pro-Japanese collaborators to the excesses of the post- built-up anger opens the way to a future of national recon- an authoritarian regime to a truly democratic government liberation authoritarian regimes, they expose the old ruling ciliation, both within South Korea and across the demilita- from 1987 onwards, institutional and political constraints elites as anti-national, ostracizing them from the mainstream rized zone with the North Korean brethren. Despite such lofty seriously hampered this effort. Korea never witnessed the cli- of the nation’s history. Strongly nationalistic, even nativistic, ideals, there are reservations in place as to the ulterior mactic settling of old scores through some form of ‘summary they conceive national reconciliation and harmony on the motives and the hidden agenda that motivate the different justice’. implicit condition that these tainted elites are removed not actors in this quest for ‘liquidating the past’ or ‘rectifying the Following direct presidential elections in 1987, ruling party only from the nation’s history, but also from any future role wrongs of the past,’ as some alternative renderings of ‘kwagò candidate Roh Tae Woo succeeded Chun Doo Hwan as pres- in society (pp.15-6). For a political struggle this may be a ch’òngsan’ read. ident of the Republic of Korea. Although these elections had worthwhile cause; in terms of historiography it is hardly inno- been a formal victory for the democratization movement, vative. To replace one exclusive nationalist reading of Korea’s A just settlement? they failed to dislodge the established political, military, and modern history with another unqualified nationalist reading ‘Settling the past’ is a belated answer to the expectation of bureaucratic elites. Their hold on power prevented a clear- stifles debate and is hardly helpful to the democratic devel- justice voiced on various levels by various actors. Relatives of cut break with the authoritarian past and stymied the call for opment of Korean society. More importantly, it dehumanizes the victims of state terror, be it Kwangju citizens killed by legal justice. When in 1993 Kim Young Sam became the first national history. As an abstract concept, ‘the people’ become South Korean troops during the suppression of the May 1980 democratically elected president without a military back- willing clay in the moulding hands of historians. These his- Kwangju Uprising, students killed by South Korean police ground – the first ‘civilian’ president – he was bound hand torians mistake themselves for judges taking the moral high during the April 1960 Student Uprising that toppled the Syn- and feet, having won the presidency as candidate of the ground on behalf of the people, forsaking their social duty of gman Rhee regime, civilians indiscriminately executed before revamped ruling party. Even the election in 1997 of opposi- critically analyzing and demystifying the past. Rather than and during the Korean War by South Korean or US/UN- tion candidate Kim Dae Jung, earning him the sobriquet of bringing historical justice, they are administering moral jus- troops, or ‘suspicious deaths’ of either soldiers during their ‘the People’s President,’ failed to uproot all remnants of the tice. Instead of turning over a page, and moving on, they keep term of duty in the South Korean Army, or of citizens in old elites. Institutionally well entrenched, they prevented an on returning to the past to fight future political struggles. police custody, seem the obvious, but hardly the most vocif- over the board admission of state responsibility for the unlaw- Korea has admittedly known a very bitter and bloody mod- erous seekers of retribution. ful deaths of countless citizens. The state had tried to assuage ern history. Korean citizens deserve to know their history, Under an authoritarian regime that strictly controlled the the pain by offering compensation at various times, but failed and historians have a duty to help their fellow citizens know freedom of speech and exercised state power with great to establish legal responsibility. Instead, in the process of and understand. To bring light where darkness was, is a wor- vigour, their pleas for some form of justice had hardly been democratization, and ushered on by a broad-based opposi- thy cause, but are the historians in the forefront of ‘settling heard, and were quickly suppressed. Not until the authori- tion movement, political accounts were settled through the past’ really bringing light, or merely adding to the con- tarian regime of Chun Doo Hwan succumbed under the pres- successive National Assembly special parliamentary investi- fusion? < sure of popular demonstrations in the summer of 1987, did gations. these bereaved citizens raise their voices again. The Korean No incident has left such a deep and festering wound in References Association of Bereaved Families for Democracy, established Korean society as the suppression of the 1988 Kwangju - Korea Journal, Vol.42 No.3, Autumn 2002 in August 1986, opened the way for the administration of Uprising. With a National Assembly controlled by the oppo- - Koreman, Megan. The Expectation of Justice. France 1944-1946, honorary justice after fourteen years of sustained efforts cul- sition parties, Roh Tae Woo’s camp was unable to stop Durham and London: Duke University Press (1999). minating in a 422-day sit-in in front of the National Assem- National Assembly hearings into the Kwangju Uprising and bly, when the democratically elected representatives of the the 12 December coup d’état that preceded it. These hearings Dr Koen De Ceuster is assistant professor at the Centre for Korean people voted for a Special Act to Find the Truth on Suspicious resulted in the public disgrace of former President Chun Doo Studies, Leiden University, and Korea editor of the IIAS Newsletter. Deaths (December 1999). This Special Act led to the estab- Hwan, who in December 1988 was forced to publicly ask the On the same subject he wrote ‘The Nation Exorcised: The Historio- lishment in October 2001 of a Korean version of South Korean people for forgiveness for the pain he had caused. graphy of Collaboration in South Korea’ (in Korean Studies, Vol. 25, Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Unlike its Following this confession, he retired to a remote Buddhist No. 2 (2001), pp. 207-42). South African counterpart, this Presidential Truth Commis- temple for a period of repentance and contemplation. [email protected]
IIAS Newsletter | #30 | March 2003 3 > BurmeseGeneral news heritage continued from page 1 > Boundary books Professor Gananath ‘Now what we have at this point, is a very intriguing propo- sition; Veddas were not just confined to Kandy and its outly- Obeyesekere ing regions but they were also, at least three hundred years ago, living in every part of the nation. Though their numbers Professor Gananath Obeyesekere is Professor Emeritus are indeterminate their physical presence is extremely sig- of Anthropology at Princeton University. From 1 July – 30 nificant. Thus I became very much excited in the possibili- November 2002 he was a senior visiting fellow at the IIAS. ties of the project, both from an historical and also from an He is the author of, among other works, Medusa’s Hair: An ethnographic point of view. I put several research assistants Essay on Personal Symbols and Religious Experience (1984), to tackle certain kinds of texts which were different from the The Cult of the Goddess Pattini (1984), and The Work of Cul- ones that Sri Lankan historians normally look at, that is Bud- ture: Symbolic Transformation in Psychoanalysis and Anthro- dhist and ‘canonical’ literary texts. In the University of Per- pology (1990) – three studies remarkable for their attention adeniya there is a cupboard containing virtually unread palm to both psychological and cultural reality. His The Apothe- leaf manuscripts; not monks’ writings, but that of ordinary osis of Captain Cook: European Mythmaking in the Pacific people, some of them local elites, scribes, and village lead- (1992) led to a polemical controversy with Marshall Sahlins ers. These texts provide a fabulous source of information on about the Western representation of ‘primitive thinking’. contemporary Kandyan social organization, including the At present he seems more productive than ever. He has position of the Veddas.’ almost finished a first draft of a book tentatively entitled One genre among these multiple texts is called ‘boundary Cannibal Talk: Dialogical Misunderstandings in the South books’. One particular type gives the boundaries for all of Sri Seas, contents of which he expounded in a seminar at the Lanka, the main provinces demarcated by named rivers, well University of Amsterdam. His comparative study Imagin- known landmarks, or, even, rocks and trees. Often, carved ing Karma: Ethical Transformation in Amerindian, Buddhist, stone boundary markers are used. and Greek Rebirth has just arrived in the bookshops. In this ‘One nice example of such a boundary book is the ‘Matale book Gananath Obeyesekere shows the wide dispersal of boundary book’ (Matale being a district north of Kandy). In rebirth theories outside the orbit of Indic religions. He this text the local king Vijayapala summons a chief and asks: demonstrates how the kind of ‘rebirth eschatology’ found who are the respectable families in this vast region of Matale? in small-scale societies developed into the more complex The chief then recounts and says that there are such and such forms associated, in India, with its karma doctrine and, in named aristocrats and then proceeds to say there are also ancient Greece, without karma. We asked him about his such and such Vedda chiefs guarding such and such named present fieldwork in Sri Lanka, which connects reflections villages. And there is another Vedda leader a little bit further, on the beginning of anthropology, historical research, the guarding such and such a village. And the king asks: beyond Western concept of the ‘wild man’, and contemporary glob- that territory who are the residents? And the chief names a al activism. list of about fifteen Vedda chiefs guarding various parts of [email protected]
the remoter frontier. Interestingly, these chiefs have a mul- Brummelhuis ten Han tiplicity of names; some of them have Sinhala ones, while others possess aristocratic names and titles, indicating that Thus, when we examine current beliefs among Buddhists in Gananath part of the British. I think the dispersal of populations dur- they have been ‘knighted’ by the Kandyan kings. And what my region of fieldwork and elsewhere, one can ‘excavate’ prior Obeyesekere, ing this period resulted in large parts of the “Vedda coun- is especially fascinating is the reference to five women chiefs beliefs, using the wonderful accounts of Vedda ancestor wor- November 2002 try”being converted into tea plantations. Whatever happened also guarding the frontiers. Vedda women in the Seligmanns’ ship provided by the Seligmanns, and data from the shrines to the Veddas who lived there is anyone’s guess.’ account and in other accounts by colonial authorities were which are permeated with Vedda ideation. sort of shy creatures, hiding from the foreign gaze and refus- In 1815, the British captured the Kandyan kingdom and the Wild man ing to emerge when people came to visit their communities. Kandyan chiefs made a treaty with the British, the so-called The first part of the book Obeyesekere has in mind would By contrast a different type of Vedda female erupts from our Kandyan Convention. But in 1818 the first rebellion against deal with the colonial representation of the Vedda. This has texts.’ the British commenced. When, in 1818, a claimant to the some similarity to the argument in his Captain Cook book The confrontation with such texts spurred Obeyesekere to throne came forward and declared himself a relation of the about European myth-making regarding Hawaii. want to understand the historical complexity of these people, last king of Kandy, he and his entourage went to the great ‘There is no question that the first step towards this form the so-called primitives. Now it becomes clear that they were shrine of the Murugan, (who is a Hindu god, a Buddhist god, of colonial representation was taken by the famous British not only scattered everywhere in the country, but there were and a Vedda god) at Kataragama, in the south of Sri Lanka. prisoner held in the kingdom of Kandy, Robert Knox, who also different kinds of Veddas. ‘The priest of the shrine gave the claimant a sword and wrote his book The Historical Relation of the Island of Ceylon ‘There are aristocratic Veddas who were given the prefix other paraphernalia of the god. There he was met by one of in 1681. Knox, and others in his ship, were captured and bandara which is how Kandyan aristocrats were designated. the aristocratic Bandara Veddas, whose name was Kivuleged- taken to Kandy with several other European prisoners. They One was called kadukara, meaning ‘swordsman’, a military era Mohottala, the latter term indicating a distinguished married, they produced children, they traded, hunted, did all role. One was called raja (petty king) and their descendants Kandyan chief. He, with two hundred other Veddas, led the sorts of things, except that Knox, a good Scottish Calvinist, intermarried with Buddhist rajas. It is therefore not surpris- resistance. And the claimant to the throne hid in the Vedda resisted most of that. He stayed for about twenty years, went ing that they were employed by the Kandyan kings to guard country and was guarded by Veddas. When the claimant was back to England and wrote this wonderful book, one of the the frontiers, leading from Kandy into Matale, thence into formally crowned as king, it was, again, the Veddas who par- most interesting early ethnographies ever written. Like every- Bintanna (or Mahiyangana as it is now popularly called), and ticipated in the rituals of kingship along with some Buddhist thing else he sees Sri Lanka through the prism of his Calvin- from there, I suspect, into the east coast ports in Trincoma- Kandyan chiefs. This event is pretty much forgotten in “nor- ist persona. Knox was one of the first Europeans to mention lee and Batticaloa. We are beginning to understand that Ved- mal” history except by one important historian, Paul E. Pieris, the Veddas and in his book he has a section describing what das were as internally differentiated as the Sinhalas, though who, in 1950, wrote a fine account of the resistance in his he calls the ‘wild men’ and making the conventional Euro- without their loose and un-Indian caste system. And far from Sinhale and the Patriots. Of course both Veddas and Sinhalas pean distinction between nature and culture. He said that being nude or wearing leaves, branches, and so forth, which were totally crushed in an extremely brutal reaction on the just as you have wild and tame animals, so you have wild and is the colonial view of the Veddas, some of these people were well-dressed bodyguards of the king.’ [advertisement] A Buddhist nation? Independent European sources can also enhance our understanding of the Veddas. A Dutch account of 1602 by Joris van Spilbergen and others describes the same place, Bintanna, as Bintanna-Alutnuvara, meaning ‘new city’. When the main city, the old city of Kandy, was abandoned tem- porarily during times of war the kings used to send their fam- ilies to this ‘new city’ in the charge of the Veddas. The Dutch accounts say Bintanna-Alutnuvara was one of the most pros- perous towns in the nation, a bustling metropolis. Something happened to bring it into ruin, a course of events which requires further investigation. In the light of this data the common prejudice that Sri Lanka has always been a Buddhist nation has also to be revised. As people subscribing to an ‘ancestor cult’, the Veddas were also non-Buddhist for the most part. ‘In my current fieldwork I am studying shrines in differ- ent parts of the former Vedda country to show how Vedda ideation of dead ancestors and so forth still exists in some way, but has been given Buddhist meaning and significance.
4 IIAS Newsletter | #30 | March 2003 > BurmeseGeneral news heritage tame human beings. Tame Veddas are fairly civilized and are mostly farmers; they are the Veddas Knox was familiar with. He admits he never saw the wild ones but says that they live in the area known as Bintanna, which he could see from the Asia and Europe hill country, just as I can from my own perch in Kandy. Nev- ertheless, Knox provides a detailed account of these wild Ved- das through hearsay.’ Knox, and those who followed him, incorporated those wild Should Cooperate Anew Veddas into the medieval European frame of the ‘wild man’. There is an urgent need and a real opportunity for closer Asian-European cooperation in international That image of the Veddas was later absorbed into Portuguese Report > affairs in the light of the Bush administration’s aggressive unilateralism since the 11 September attacks. and Dutch accounts. Colonial writers of the time totally General Yet, importantly, such cooperation must not be based on one-time colonialism but, rather, on its ignored the multiplicity and complexity of Vedda society. rejection. That was the timely and important message given by professor Jomo Kwame Sundaram from When the Seligmanns arrived, most of the Veddas had been 14 November 2002 the University of Malaya in Kuala Lumpur at the recent IIAS public lecture ‘Asian-European relations assimilated or dispersed. The Europeans, however, had a fas- Amsterdam, after September 11’. cination for the primitive. In this conception the Australian the Netherlands aborigines were the ideal type. The Veddas, along with some By J. Thomas Lindblad of the hill-tribes in South India, were seen as part of a large diaspora of primitive people who once had an affinity with omo, arguably the foremost econo- those aborigines. Jmist in Malaysia today, is an outspo- Professor Jomo ‘So what is happening, then, is a European obsession with ken personality with a critical mind, ‘primitive watching’; though it was difficult to watch the Aus- which on more than one occasion has Kwame Sundaram tralian aborigine in desert habitats, you could see their brought him into open conflict with the cousins, the Veddas, from the convenience of the govern- Mahathir government. A key theme in Professor Jomo Kwame Sundaram was born in Penang ment rest house in Bintanna-Alutnuvara.’ his Amsterdam lecture was the fate of in 1952 and educated as a political scientist at Yale and the Asian values debate, which demon- Harvard. He received his PhD from Harvard University in Self-primitivization strates how seemingly academic or 1978 and joined the staff of economists at the Universiti Both colonial officers and visitors arriving by ship came in intellectual arguments and concepts Kebangsaan in Kuala Lumpur. In 1982 he moved to the Uni- person to see the Veddas living in primitive conditions. The may – willingly or not – serve political versity of Malaya where he was appointed full professor Sinhala village headmen of the area would dress these peo- agendas in a changing world. It is twice, in 1986 in Human Development and in 1992 in the ple up in a wild garb and present them to the curious (in more instructive to see how the very same Faculty of Economics and Administration. He worked inter- than one sense) Europeans. Asian values, in particular the virtues mittently as an expert consultant for numerous interna- ‘The Seligmanns have a very insightful description of what of Confucianism, may be twisted tional organizations, including the ILO and the World Bank. they labelled “show-Veddas”. Gradually, the “show-Veddas” around and used as explanations of His list of publications embraces numerous monographs, became the dominant image of the Veddas both for Europeans widely different historical develop- Professor Jomo including several Malay-language textbooks in economics, and, later on, the Sinhalas. Thus, even when I was doing field- ments. Kwame Sundaram, scores of edited works and countless academic articles. work in this area in the late 1950s and I drove towards Slow economic growth in China was 14 November 2002. A major monograph, first published in 1986, is entitled A Mahiyangana where the Buddha shrine is located, I could see once attributed to Confucianism. The Question of Class: Capital, the State and Veddas lining the roads dressed as primitives with an axe on East Asian Miracle, so uncritically Uneven Development in Malaya, which their bare shoulders, some with antediluvian bows and arrows applauded by World Bank observers, encapsulates the juxtaposition of social (which, in reality, they had long given up for shot guns).’ was also ascribed to the unique Asian history, economic growth and state poli- Here Obeyesekere observes an interesting phenomenon. values of hard work and the prevalence cies that is characteristic of his aca- It is not just a matter of ‘show-Veddas’; what is happening of collective as opposed to individual demic work. The monograph Growth here is what he calls ‘self-primitivization’. To this very day interests. In the region itself, allegedly and Structural Change in the Malaysian such self-primitivizaton takes place when former primi- superior Asian values, as opposed to Economy, dating from 1990, serves as tives put on shows for the benefit of foreigners and wealthy Western ones, were frequently applied the standard assessment of the New local tourists. But self-primitivization is not necessarily to to legitimize why democracy was lag- Economic Policy in Malaysia. A more be deprecated, because it gave people a sense of dignity and ging behind economic growth. Jomo recent monograph, Malaysia’s Political a cash income even though they went along, sometimes wryly remarked that such reasoning is Economy: Politics, Patronage and Profits with self-deprecatory cynicism, with the European idea that hardly convincing even when applied (1997) offers a critical examination of they were aborigines and therefore the original inhabitants to relatively prosperous countries such the nexus between politics and eco- of the land. as Singapore and Malaysia. Then came nomics in Mahathir’s fast-growing ‘In the case of the Veddas, they can say “we are the adivasi, the Asian crisis. Asian values were then Malaysia. In cooperation with col- or ancient residents”, and I will admit that this historical fic- associated with corruption and crony- leagues in adjacent countries, Jomo has tion does give them some dignity and a sense of self-worth. ism and earmarked as the underlying also contributed to strengthening a This newer notion of adivasi has, in turn, been taken over by cause of the collapse of several South- regional perspective on economic devel- European liberals and romantic primitivists searching for east and East Asian economies. opments in Southeast Asia. The co- the noble savage and hell bent on wanting to liberate the Ved- The economic recovery was hardly authored Southeast Asia’s Misunderstood das from Sinhala-Buddhist hegemony (which, historically underway in most crisis-hit countries Miracle: Industrial Policy and Economic speaking, hardly occurred), highlighting their current plight when the wider context changed Photopoint Development in Thailand, Malaysia and (which no one denies because the whole nation is in a fright- abruptly in the wake of the 11 Septem- Indonesia (1997) is an especially impor- ful plight). But this means that the Veddas have become an ber attacks. According to Jomo, Hunt- tant work in this vein. Another important edited volume is endangered community and an “indigenous people”, though ington’s clash of civilizations thesis pro- Tigers in Trouble: Financial Governance, Liberalisation and their endangerment was a product of the colonial enterprise vides a useful antidote to the Crises in East Asia, which already appeared within one year and they are no more “indigenous” than I am myself. Vedda ‘potentially complacent triumphalism’ after the eruption of the Asian crisis. Jomo’s introduction to chiefs have gone to Geneva to the UN conferences on indige- of Fukuyama’s ‘end of history’. Howev- the volume anticipated much of the subsequent literature nous and endangered peoples, something any jet-age trav- er, the Huntington thesis has above all on the causes of the Asian crisis. eller would surely applaud. The whole picture becomes com- offered ‘some intellectual pretence at [email protected] pletely fascinating from the “Captain Cook” angle, you might sophistication’ for Western mobiliza- say, when colonial and post colonial definitions of “primi- tion against its enemies. Polarization is tive”, “aborigine”, “native”, “indigene”, and other such terms furthered by the implied coalition immediate interest to recent and cur- of the use and abuse of a concept such have become reified, reformulated, and introjected as a new between political Islamism and an eco- rent economic and political develop- as ‘Asian values’ for political purposes, “truth” of an old past by the new ancient residents.’ < nomically strong East Asia and it is pre- ments in Southeast and East Asia. Top- and his emphasis on the interaction cisely against that background that a ics included the various explanations between politics and economics in Bibliography closer and redefined cooperation of the Asian crisis, IMF policies dur- understanding both the causes of the - Knox, Robert, An Historical Relation of the Island of Ceylon, Glas- between Asia and Europe is urgently ing the crisis, and even internal devel- Asian crisis and the policies adopted to gow: James MacLehose and Sons (1911) [1681]. needed. At this point, Jomo also men- opments in Mahathir’s Malaysia. overcome it. < - Pieris, Paul E., Sinhale and the Patriots, New Delhi: Nawrang tioned the complicating factor of Jomo’s approach to these issues was (1995)[1950] resurging racism in Europe in response one of political economy, and was not Dr J. Thomas Lindblad teaches economic - Seligmann, C.G. and Brenda Z., The Veddas, Cambridge: Univer- to recent immigration. confined to the realms of political sci- history at Leiden University and is an IIAS sity Press (1911). The lecture and subsequent discus- ence or economics alone. This was, in fellow presently working on the transition of - Tylor, E. B., Anthropology: An Introduction to the Study of Man and sion covered a wide range of topics of particular, illustrated by his examples the Indonesian economy between the 1930s Civilization, London: Macmillan and Co. (1881). and 1960s. He is also Insular Southeast Asia Info > editor for the IIAS Newsletter. Dr Han ten Brummelhuis works at the Department of Sociology [email protected] and Cultural Anthropology of the University of Amsterdam. His The lecture by Jomo was organized by the IIAS at the International Institute for Social History (IISG) research interest is focused on mainland Southeast Asia, especially and chaired by Patricia Spyer, newly appointed Professor in the Anthropology of Indonesia at Leiden Thailand and Burma. University. Two commentators, the financial journalist Tjabel Daling and economic historian J. [email protected] Thomas Lindblad, sparked off the discussion. [email protected]
IIAS Newsletter | #30 | March 2003 5 > Theme Psychiatry in Asia Academic interest in the history of psychiatry and a general fascination with how ‘madness’ fared during the modern period were suggested in the orthodox Western psychological tradition), particularly prominent in Western countries during the 1970s and 1980s in the wake of Foucault’s ground-breaking work on than as part of normal life and manifestation of human suf- Madness and Civilization and the high-profile campaigns of the anti-psychiatry movement. More recently, problems arising from fering, requiring re-adjustment and re-direction. the de-institutionalization of the mentally ill and the search for safe and financially and socially viable community care options The potential for Western mental health professionals to and preventative mental health care measures have rekindled this earlier interest. gain from the practical insights and sophisticated conceptu- al models developed by their colleagues in the East is high- lighted also in the articles on psychoanalysis in China, Japan, and British India (by Zhang, Alvis, and Hartnack respec- tively). Here we learn that Freudian psychoanalysis travelled easily to Asia at around the same time it became popular in Europe and the United States. However, it soon adopted local garbs and idioms. It was adapted by its Asia-based practi- tioners to their particular patient bases and the socio-cultur- al circumstances in the different countries, and was cleared of some of the ideological preconceptions of its traditional- ist, fin-de-siècle European legacy. A number of highly sophis- ticated theoretical models that deviate from or even contra- dict Freud’s original formulations have been developed and employed with great success, showing that Western ortho- doxies are not always followed to the letter. Some of these models, like the mother-centred Ajase complex suggested by Kosawa Heisaku in Japan in the 1930s (in contrast to Freud’s father/son-centred Oedipus complex), for example, could be employed well in discussing Freudian psychoanalysis’ patri- archal blinkers and the questionable transcultural univer- sality of some of its concepts. As Hartnack shows in her article on the fate of psycho- analysis within the context of British India, judgement on the alleged validity of some Freudian models depended very much on which side of the colonial divide its practitioners were placed. For example, in the 1920s the renowned colo- nial psychiatrist Berkeley-Hill proclaimed, in the well-docu- mented tradition of Western colonial arrogance, that Indians lacked a psychological disposition to leadership, implying that British rule was therefore justified. The eminent Indian psychiatrist Bose, in contrast, not only criticized Freud for
Courtesy of Anupam Sud Anupam of Courtesy his autocratic way of leading the International Psychoana- lytical Movement, but also suggested that mental health was By Waltraud Ernst as a means of social control, torture, and punishment in the achieved when the father’s authority was challenged, fought, Introduction > style familiar from Nazi-Germany and the Soviet Gulag peri- and overcome, not by submitting to it. General esearch on the development of psychiatry and mental od. As Chen argues in her article on China, in regard to In relation to the chequered career of psychoanalysis in Rillness in non-Western countries has, with only a few health care provision for the general public, patients and their China, Zhang too shows that national politics exerted an ‘Dialogue’, 1984. exceptions, been less prodigious. After all, any engagement families have benefited from the wider availability of servic- important influence. Prior to the Revolution Freud’s ideas Etching by Anupam with psychiatry in Asia poses wide-ranging methodological es. Although Western biomedically-focused approaches have were received by the intelligentsia as a new liberating influ- Sud. Part of a series and conceptual challenges. Not only should such research been introduced, these are set alongside traditional Chinese ence on traditional society, whilst afterwards they came to be of etchings defining concern itself with the complex array of interactions and practices and have been adapted to the particular needs of exposed as a manifestation of bourgeois consciousness and subtle shades of exchanges between Western science-based psychological Chinese communities by putting emphasis on family and decadence. Since the 1980s psychoanalysis has been incor- communication medicine and Asian medical systems and community (‘folk’) community provision and outreach education programmes. porated into psychiatric practice as one alongside other meth- between human care practices, it also requires an adequate understanding of In contrast to Chen’s account of the current expansive ods in mainland China: if the trends emerging in Taiwan and beings. the economics and cultural politics of colonialism and glob- impact of Western-style mental health services on patients Hong Kong give an indication of things to come in mainland alization. in China, Pickering explores how the benefits of an Eastern China, here, too, culture-specific modifications like the ones The articles presented here fill the existing gap. Impor- tradition can inform Western psychological models and prac- that occurred earlier in Japan are likely to become more tantly, their authors are cognisant of the specific political and tices. While being well aware of the Orientalist distortions prominent. cultural context of Western psychiatry as well as being of Eastern health practices in the West and their commercial The article by Speziale draws attention away from East- attuned to the wider colonial and post-colonial political set- exploitation – often referred to as the ‘McDonaldization’ of West and West-East interactions, emphasizing the pluralist tings of specific indigenous modes of healing. traditional Asian medicine – he focuses on the potential for nature of health care on the Indian Subcontinent. Although They have also steered clear of the legacy of high-profile fruitful and enriching cross-fertilization. Buddhism encour- British colonial rule constituted a rupture and turning point yet unduly limiting and simplistic notions, such as Fanon’s ages the assessment of mental problems less as ‘abnormal- in the modern history of India, setting the stage for west- assumption of a ‘colonial condition’ and the hackneyed Fou- ities’ that need to be treated, cured, and done away with (as ernization and globalization, it was not the first such rupture caultian suggestion of an all-pervasive and subjugating West- during the course of the last millennium, nor did it lead to ern psychiatric ‘gaze’. Writing in the tradition of the latter the disappearance of the wide variety of traditional healing tended to focus on Western hegemonic discourse and approaches that existed in South Asia. Contemporary Indi- assumed that colonial subjects were at best able to ‘respond an mental health care embraces a variety of provisions that to’ and ‘resist’ Western discourses of colonial or medical are accessible to patients in different localities: Ayurveda power. Those treading in Fanon’s footsteps emphasized that (Hindu traditional medicine), Unani (Islamic medicine), Sid- the colonized and their post-colonial brethrens had so inter- dha (South Indian medicine), and a variety of ‘folk’ and local nalized their colonizers’ derogatory perspective that they fell traditions, alongside biomedical Western psychiatry. As into a state of quasi-pathological, lethargic passivity. Both Speziale shows in regard to Islamic psychiatry, it is impor- approaches led to all too sweeping generalizations and tant to keep in mind that traditions don’t remain static, but remained largely Eurocentric in orientation, implicitly tak- are subject to changes, some of which lead to further refine- ing Western colonial and post-colonial discourses as their ment (as in the case of Unani pharmaco-therapy) whilst oth- major point of reference. ers suffer from commercialization (as in the case of medico- The articles presented here put emphasis on interactions religious tourism). < and exchanges. They challenge preconceived notions, such (Middle) Lalu Prasad as that the westernization of mental health services in the Dr Waltraud Ernst is a Reader at the Department of History at Shaw ‘Untitled’, East need always be the first step towards cultural hegemo- Southampton University. She is currently working on a comparative 1996. ny and is necessarily bad news for the mentally ill and their history of psychiatry, focusing on colonial South Asia and British set- Tempara and wash. families. National political reform and ongoing market tler colonies, and an edited collection on The Normal and the Private collection. changes that have opened China to the West have recently Abnormal (together with C. Sengoopta). She is author of Mad Tales led to accounts examining the abuse of psychiatric practice from the Raj (1991), and editor of Race, Science and Medicine Editors note > (1999, with B. Harris) and Plural Medicine, Tradition and Moder- nity (2002). She is President of the International Association for the The editors thank Waltraud Ernst for guest editing the articles in this issue’s Study of Traditional Asian Medicine (IASTAM). theme section ‘Psychiatry in Asia’. www.iastam.org
Courtesy of Lalu Prasad Shaw Prasad Lalu of Courtesy [email protected]
6 IIAS Newsletter | #30 | March 2003 > Theme Buddhism, Psychology, and Geopolitics Asian traditions have too often been distorted by being caught up in Western debates over the supposedly necessary opposition of difficulties. With the vigorous growth of Western psycholo- religion and science. Those who find the Western scientific worldview uncongenial treat Eastern philosophies with exaggerated gy and with the more informed interactions with Buddhism reverence. Scientists with a distaste for New Age superficialities dismiss them as primitive superstitions. Neither position is of recent times, the synthesis of new meaning from the two helpful. A more informed engagement between Buddhism and Western psychology has emerged over recent decades. It indicates traditions is well underway. The consequences are unpre- a more productive way forward, helped by recent changes in psychology. dictable, but they are likely to be useful and timely.
By John Pickering some changes in Western psychology, and conclude with a Suffering Research > short comparison of Buddhist and Western attitudes to suf- Part of the Enlightenment legacy was the belief and the General nteraction between Asian and Western traditions reflects fering. New meaning is synthesized from cultural forms that expectation that life would be made better. Science and tech- Ithe geopolitical context. In modern times, this context was would previously have been considered too distant in time nology would replace religious dogma and lead society on to colonial expansion. For the colonizers, it meant discovery and space. Thus, the postmodern geopolitical context pro- rational justice and plenty. In many respects this has proved and esoteric encounters. For the colonized, it largely meant motes a more productive and even-handed interaction to be true. In westernized cultures, disease, pain, and want exploitation. As colonialism peaked, exploitation was dis- between Buddhism and psychology. are controllable as never before. The life span is increasing guised as ‘bringing civilization’. Now, cyber-colonization does and there is an abundance of goods and pleasures. much the same thing. With the explosive growth of the Inter- Changes in psychology Yet dissatisfaction and suffering are as much a part of life net, texts, images, and sounds from any part of the global vil- From the late 1950s until the early 1990s psychology’s pre- as ever they were.In some ways they are made worse by the lage may be discovered, blended, and marketed in a recom- dominant paradigm was cognitivism, whose metaphor for media and advertising technology, perhaps the most signif- binant culture of global commodification. mental life was information processing or, more formally, icant technology of recent times, which manufactures desire Deconstruction, the postmodern insight into the discur- computation. Although richer than the behaviourism it dis- by manipulating minds. It spreads images of rich lifestyles sive production of knowledge, demonstrates that what we placed, it was just as scientistic in its denial of subjectivity. over the globe, increasing the desire to consume and to pos- know is more culture-bound than the rhetoric of modernity Feelings, intentions, and experience, ‘what it’s like to be’ a sess. But these lifestyles are unobtainable for the majority of had led us to believe. It has produced the ‘skepticism towards mental subject, were effectively excluded from the discipline. the world’s population and in any case they are unsustain- Sheba Chhachhi meta-narratives’ identified by Lyotard as the essence of the It was assumed that once sufficient data had been gathered, able. The environmental and political costs of this situation ‘Raktpushp I’ postmodern condition. It means the end of scientific, reli- these would prove to be reducible to information processing, are already producing violence and further suffering. A sense (detail), 1997 Poly- gious, or political claims to predominance. This is not to computation or even to physics. of unease is growing, but this gets little attention in most psy- carbonsheet, black retreat into relativism but to move towards pluralism and a This was a distant legacy of the Enlightenment: the belief chology. Computational models of consumer choice are more and white photos more even-handed treatment of what different ways of that formal laws could be discovered beneath all aspects of valued than examination of the consequences of con- (bromides and film encountering the world might have to offer, both alone and reality, from the movements of the planets to the operations sumerism. positives), text on in combination. This is the postmodern condition. It is the of the human mind. This belief influenced the nineteenth- The psychology of mental illness is perhaps an exception acrylic, red cord, geopolitical context in which interaction between Buddhism century union of philosophy and experimental science that here. Over the past couple of decades a few psychiatrists and miscellaneous and Western psychology now proceeds. produced modern psychology. Then, as the scientific revo- psychotherapists, advocates of what is called ecopsychology, objects, light. Here we look briefly at the history of interaction, review lution seemed to be reaching some sort of culmination, it have suggested that individual disorder may reflect a wider seemed possible that nature, including mental life and con- sense of a disordered world. Part of the suffering felt by the sciousness, might be completely reducible to physical laws. mentally ill may be an awareness that technology is running This enthusiasm touched the founders of modern psychol- out of control and doing violent damage. ogy, who were confident that as the science of mental life pro- Ecopsychology aims at: ‘Healing the mind, restoring the gressed, pre-scientific traditions such as religions would be earth’. Its advocates know that this requires a deeper, inter- discarded as oppressive superstitions. nalized, appreciation of the interdependence of human men- The twentieth century has brought such confidence to an tal life and the life of other beings. Here, there is a signifi- end. Although science and technology have become more cant contrast between East and West. The modern Western powerful than even the enthusiasts of the late nineteenth cen- image of the human condition is that it stands apart from a tury could have imagined, the belief that the world might be world, which thus becomes the object of manipulation. A reducible to physics has vanished. Ironically, this is due to contrasting Eastern image is that of Indira’s net, from the scientific discoveries showing that given the right conditions, avatamsaka sutra. It symbolizes a world of organic intercon- the material world self-organizes into complex systems that nectivity in which the life of every part, including that of have emergent properties not pre-figured in any particular human beings, reflects the life of every other. part of the system. Hence reductionism fails: no inventory Healers informed by these different images may approach of parts taken at a particular instant can predict how a sys- suffering differently. Western medicine has had great suc- tem will behave as a whole. cess in identifying physical illness with single causes. Accord- Postmodernism is in part a response to discovering such ingly, suffering will tend to be treated as if it meant the pres- limitations of the Enlightenment legacy. It has created a more ence of something alien. Buddhism, by contrast, takes eclectic cultural condition in which the scientism that has suffering to be part of normal existence. Hence its treatment limited psychology is being overcome. The mechanistic will tend to be sought in better adjustment to the conditions worldview of nineteenth-century science is being replaced of life. by an organic view of the mind’s place in nature. Psycholo- Cyber-colonization dominates contemporary geopolitics. gists are re-discovering William James’ insight that mental In the short term, this may commodify Asian traditions into life cannot be reduced to physical laws or formal rules. Feel- mere spiritual fashion accessories. But in the longer term, ing, rather than information processing, is now taken as the their depth and resilience will maintain their authenticity. primordial character of mental life. After decades of neglect, The postmodern turn promotes a richer interaction, beyond consciousness has regained its position as the most impor- the opposition of religion and science, in which no one way tant topic in psychology. Experience is no longer approached of encountering the world predominates. In this pluralist as something to be explained away, but as something intrin- framework, new meaning is synthesized in constructive, sic to living systems. informed discourse between traditions. Hence Buddhism In short, Western psychology is regaining consciousness. and psychology can recognize each other as two of many As it does so, it comes face to face with the facts of subjec- approaches to the universal condition of exercising human tivity and selfhood. But since science achieved its predomi- consciousness within in a world not of our making. < nance by treating the world in strictly objective terms, this produces a creative tension. It exposes the need to broaden Bibliography scientific methods. - Goleman, D. and Thurman, R. (eds.), Mind Science: An East West Here, postmodernism helps; in its constructive form by Dialogue, Boston: Wisdom Publications (1991). promoting the synthesis of diverse traditions, in its decon- - Harvey, D., The Condition of Postmodernity, Oxford: Blackwell structive form by showing that scientific discoveries and (1990). methods are more historically contingent than had been sup- - Kvale, S. (ed.), Psychology and Postmodernism, London: Sage posed. Rather than dogmatically claiming that science finds (1992). out what is ‘really real’, it now takes its place among many - Roszak, T. et al. (eds.), Ecopsychology: Restoring the Earth, Healing modes of discourse through which people make a worldview. the Mind, California: Sierra Book Club (1995). To paraphrase the contemporary philosopher Richard Rorty: - Shear, J. (eds.), Explaining Consciousness - The ‘Hard Problem’, Lon- ‘Truth is made, not found.’ don: MIT Press (1999). In psychology this means a return to including lived expe- rience as primary data, as William James, Henri Bergson, Dr John Pickering is affiliated to the Psychology Department at War- and Edmund Husserl proposed. This opens the way to a deep- wick University. His research interests include the topics conscious- er interaction with Buddhism which, from its inception, has ness; ecopsychology; Buddhism; postmodernism; and the cultural done just that. Over two and a half thousand years of critical significance of technology. refinement and assimilation has made it one of the most [email protected]
Courtesy of Sheba Chhachhi Sheba of Courtesy enduring efforts to understand the human condition and its http://warwick.ac.uk/~psrev
IIAS Newsletter | #30 | March 2003 7 > Theme Why Psychiatry Matters in China The psychiatric profession in China has undergone vast changes over the past decade. Practices In sum, research in China has been of Research > Transformations in training, classifications, and institutional spaces characterize the post- Chinese psychiatrists have adopted interest for its emphasis on family and China Mao period and Deng reform era. Some longstanding issues, such as the stigma of mental international diagnostic categories and community programmes. In an era of illness and differences between rural and urban mental health care, remain. Yet, community classifications such as the Diagnostic de-institutionalization and managed programmes and ongoing professionalization and research have enabled practitioners to and Statistical Manual of Mental Dis- care, which characterizes psychiatric reach a broader constituency. orders (DSM-IV) of the American Psy- care in most post-industrial nations, sus- chiatric Association and the Interna- tainable alternative forms of mental By Nancy N. Chen weekly events in which all doctors and care, continues in the reform era. Larg- tional Classification of Diseases health care are of great significance. < nurses were required to participate; the er research hospitals and the majority (ICD-9) of the World Health Organiza- his article addresses these shifts in medical library had subscriptions to of professionals are mainly located in tion. The Chinese professional com- Bibliography Tthe context of overall economic and Chinese and foreign journals special- cities. It is important to note however munity has also engaged in active trans- - Kleinman, Arthur, Social Origins of Distress social reform. How have people, places, izing in psychiatry and mental health. that, by contrast to the early twentieth lation of the latest Western psychiatric and Disease: Depression, Neurasthenia, and and practices in the Chinese psychiatric In addition, psychiatrists from other century when psychiatric hospitals articles and international classification Pain in Modern China, New Haven: Yale community accommodated national countries frequently visited to observe were private, mental health wards are categories into Chinese, categories in University Press (1986). reforms and global forms of care? While and carry out joint research projects. now public and state owned. The num- the Chinese Classification of Mental - Lee, Sing, ‘Diagnosis Postponed: Shen- mainly addressing biomedical psychia- Today, early models of mental health ber of beds for mentally ill clients has Disorders (CCDM) being crucial sites jing Shuairuo and the Transformation of try rather than alternative or folk prac- care exist concurrently with recently also increased. In 1948 there were only of cultural translation (Lee 1996). Psychiatry in Post Mao China’, Culture tices of psychiatry, I characterize gener- imported models of biomedicine, in 1,100 beds for 500 million people (a Parallel to psychiatry in Western, Medicine and Psychiatry, Sep. 1999, Vol. 23 al practices as opposed to the which scientific research and psy- ratio of 0.22 beds per 10,000 people), post-industrial nations, there is an No. 3, pp. 349-380. specialization of forensic psychiatry. chotropic drugs are increasingly empha- with 50 to 70 trained physicians and increased usage of psychopharmacolo- - Lee, Sing, ‘Cultures in Psychiatric Nosol- Recent allegations concerning the abuse sized in treatment. Post-Mao reforms even fewer nurses. By 1995 the number gy. During the mid to late 1990s, the ogy: The CCMD-2-R and International of criminals and political detainees in allowed Chinese psychiatrists to partici- of beds significantly increased to pharmaceutical industry introduced Classification of Mental Disorders,’ Cul- China within forensic psychiatry have pate in exchange programmes abroad. By 120,000-130,000 beds or about 1.1 beds new drugs to the Chinese market, and ture Medicine and Psychiatry, Dec. 1996, raised the spectre of Soviet psychiatric the time I started field research the first per 10,000 people. multinational as well as local firms have Vol. 20 No.4, pp. 421-472. abuse (Munro 2002). Such practices are wave of senior cadres had been visiting In larger psychiatric hospitals with been active in making psychotropic - Munro, Robin, ‘Political psychiatry in currently being investigated by the the US and Europe for over a decade; several hundred inpatients, 80 to 90 per drugs available and an integral part of post-Mao China and its origins in the Cul- World Psychiatry Association. My focus early on in their career, in the 1980s, the cent of the patient population consisted consumer life. Such practices raise key tural Revolution’, Journal of the American on general psychiatry offers a picture of most recent generation of scholars had of chronic schizophrenic patients for questions about the dark side of glob- Academy of Psychiatry and the Law, 2002, contemporary programmes providing left China to receive graduate degrees and whom family care was no longer viable. alization, which enable swift introduc- Vol. 30 (1) pp. 97-106. services to mentally ill clients and their postdoctoral training abroad. Interna- While the majority of patients were tion of material goods and symbolic - Phillips, M.R., S.H. Lu, and R.W. Wang, families. It is crucial to examine the tional health organizations such as the schizophrenic, there were also clinical meanings that undermine local and ‘Economic Reforms and the Acute Inpa- everyday experiences of those in this WHO have also opened collaborative cen- cases of depression, neurological disor- alternative healing systems. tient Care of Patients with Schizophrenia: health care system in order to under- tres for joint research and training. Thus ders, neurasthenia, and psychosomatic In recent years other means for fam- The Chinese Experience’, American Jour- stand how the majority is treated and different training periods and philoso- disorders. Regional differences in hos- ilies to seek advice and help outside of nal of Psychiatry, Sep. 1997, Vol. 154 No.9, why it matters immensely to ordinary phies of mental health have led to distinct pital stays between rural patients and the psychiatric unit, with regard to pp. 1228-1234. persons living in extraordinary times. generations of psychiatrists. The oldest urban patients also persist, due to work mental health, have arisen. One note- - Phillips, Michael R., Veronica Pearson and group, now mostly retired, trained dur- unit health packages and insurance in worthy trend has been hotlines, which Ruiwen Wang (eds.), Psychiatric Rehabili- People ing the 1950s in the Soviet Union. The urban regions. To name an example, in people can call anonymously for help, tation in China: Models for Change in a During the early 1990s, I conducted second group first trained as general terms of percentage there are more and the Chinese popular press and Changing Society, London: Royal College ethnographic research on mental medical doctors during the Cultural Rev- severe cases among mentally ill patients magazines have, in recent years, taken of Psychiatrists (1994). health care in Chinese psychiatric insti- olution in the mid to late 1960s, and only due to relatively late diagnosis in rural on stories that deal with social issues tutions. Visiting three urban hospitals, later specialized in psychiatry, with expo- regions (Phillips, Lu, and Wang 1997). such as mental illness. Besides seeking Professor Nancy N. Chen is associate pro- one rural hospital, and one industrial sure to Western theories at mid career. The number of beds is still quite low in a range of clinical practitioners, such as fessor of anthropology at the University of clinic, I was allowed to observe and The youngest group has recently been comparison to other countries with Traditional Chinese Medicine or bio- California, Santa Cruz. A medical anthro- interview practitioners, family mem- trained under the auspices of WHO smaller populations, and there is a medical, family members can write to pologist, she focuses on transglobal healing bers, and patients as they sought men- financing or in Western research uni- heavy reliance on family and commu- newspapers or journals seeking advice, practices and health institutions. Chen is tal health care services. versities. nity managed care, especially for out- and a number of private mental health author of Breathing Spaces: Qigong, Professionalization of practitioners patient beds. Economic restructuring of clinics have opened. In addition, out- Psychiatry, and Healing in China (Colum- was a key component of training at the Places hospital financing in the past decade has reach education programmes in men- bia 2003). urban research unit where I was affili- The rural-urban difference in access resulted in new structures being built tal health have been introduced to the [email protected] ated. Staff meetings and lectures were to medical care, especially psychiatric in the urban areas. school curriculum. Psychoanalysis in the Chinese Context Psychoanalysis is no stranger in contemporary China, though discussion and practice were suppressed during the first decades of ing Freudian and other schools. Compared to the Republi- the People’s Republic. Today it is once again established, both as a therapeutic speciality and as an approach to human nature and can period, there is today a greater focus on therapeutic prac- culture. Although ‘psychoanalysis’ is often listed under ‘abnormal psychology’ in the Chinese library system, the concepts of the tice, partly due to the growing general interest in psy- unconscious, infantile sexuality, libido, and ego have gradually become part of the interpretive vocabulary of the educated public. chotherapy in a rapidly changing society that puts increasing strain on individuals, and to the now regular exchanges By Jingyuan Zhang and discussed psychoanalytic concepts in their works. Appli- between Chinese and Western psychologists. Conferences, cation of Freud’s ideas extended even to the critical exami- training workshops, and treatment clinics have flourished. Research > he rise and fall and rise of psychoanalysis in China have nation of ancient Chinese texts, for example in Wen Yiduo’s Medical schools regularly offer training classes and work- China Tbeen closely tied to political events. Freudianism (Fulu- discussion of sexual symbolism in the Shi Jing (Book of shops on psychotherapy and psychiatry run by Westerners. oyide zhuyi) attracted attention in China at about the same Songs). But as understanding of psychoanalysis was matur- All major universities now offer therapeutic services for stu- time that it was becoming popular in Europe, hard on the ing, the attention of the nation was drawn to more immedi- dents, and there are telephone helplines such as the heels of Darwinism and Marxism, as part of a general explo- ately pressing issues: the Japanese invasion and the civil war. ‘Women’s Hotline’, with varying reliance on psychoanalytic sion of Western ideas in China at the end of the Imperial peri- After the founding of the People’s Republic of China in approaches (Gerlach 1999). od and the beginning of the new Republic in the first decades 1949, psychoanalysis was criticized as an element of bour- In China, as elsewhere in today’s intercultural world, it is of the twentieth century. Chinese intellectuals wrote many geois ideology. It understood problems on an individual scale; hard to find ‘strict’ Freudian clinical practice: a patient lying introductory books and essays on psychoanalysis and trans- it seemed to indulge petty weaknesses. The Soviet-approved on a couch and free-associating for a largely silent doctor. lated half a dozen of Freud’s main works, one even into ele- Pavlovian experimental psychology was a better fit for the sci- Psychoanalysis itself has grown and changed, branching into gant classical Chinese. entistic tone of official social doctrine, and became the lead- many schools and becoming less dogmatic. The ‘talking cure’ Before the 1949 revolution, Chinese writers and thinkers ing model for the discipline of psychology in China. Only is indeed emphasized, but in the form of conversations in puzzling over the weaknesses of traditional society and strug- with the intellectual re-opening in the 1980s did psycho- which psychological theories tend to suggest ideas rather gling to remake culture in new ways found many fertile ideas analysis begin its revival. Especially the young found Freudi- than dictate procedures and conclusions. Qian Mingyi, Pro- in Freud’s work. But Freud’s most widespread and conspic- an theory an exciting alternative to stale Marxist orthodoxy, fessor of Psychology at Beijing University, says that she looks uous influence was in literary criticism and in literature itself, though its focus on sex made psychoanalysis an easy target to all theories and uses whatever works, when she sees and especially the literature of individualism and romance. for the occasional campaigns against Western ‘spiritual pol- patients in the school clinic. Wang Haowei, a well-known psy- Several leading writers such as Shen Congwen and Qian lution’, by which the old guard attempted to reassert some chotherapist in Taipei, says that he usually tells his patients Zhongshu have acknowledged their debt to Freud. Almost control over culture and thought. a little more than what they are ready to accept, but not so all the leading intellectuals of the day, most notably the Zhou Interest in psychoanalysis had revived by the mid-1980s, much that they do not return. brothers (Lu Xun and Zhou Zuoren) and Guo Moruo, used and many more works have now been translated, represent- The psychoanalytic scene in Taiwan is even more vibrant
8 IIAS Newsletter | #30 | March 2003 > Theme Psychoanalysis in Japan As a psychoanalytically oriented critic in the field of Japanese literature, I find that my work Kosawa derived his theory from two ing. When the hero eventually breaks Research > often meets with resistance from other Asianists who view psychoanalysis as a Buddhist sources: the Daihatsu this ‘Don’t look’ prohibition (miru na Japan fundamentally Western theory that cannot be ‘applied’ in an Asian context. Most of these Nehangyó (Nirvana Sutra) and the Kan- no kinshi), he discovers his mate in her sceptics are taken aback to discover that psychoanalysis has a venerable history in Japan muryójukyó (Sutra of the Contemplation ‘true’ animal form. The animal/wife and that Japanese analysts have presented a number of highly original theories to the of Infinite Life). Both stories describe then departs, never to return. international psychoanalytic community. how the Prince Ajatasatru (‘Ajase’ in Situating his ideas in an object-rela- Japanese) seeks redemption from the tions context of child development, By Andra Alvis dents trained by Kosawa Heisaku, Amae Buddha for murderous impulses Kitayama understands the ‘Don’t look’ became the core of psychoanalytic activ- The most well-known theory of the towards his parents: not only has he prohibition as a taboo that warns n my own experience, it is these ity after World War II. A student of Kosawa School is that of amae, formu- imprisoned his father Binbashara in against the child’s too-early discovery Iinnovative models that attract the Marui, Kosawa left to study at the Vien- lated by Doi Takeo. Doi defines the con- order to accede to the throne, he has of maternal (re)productive functions – most interest from non-Japanese. na Psychoanalytic Institute from cept of amae as ‘the feelings that all nor- also drawn his sword on his mother, and their damaging capacity in relation Therefore, following a brief introduc- 1932–33, and established a psychoana- mal infants at the breast harbour Idaike, when he discovered her secret- to the mother’s body. Several of the tales tion to the history of psychoanalysis in lytic practice in Tokyo upon returning towards the mother – dependence, the ly supplying Binbashara with food. he examines show the non-human Japan, the core of my article is devoted to Japan. In 1953, after Marui’s death, desire to be passively loved, the unwill- However, the two sutras emphasize wife/mother wounded by the task she to three of the most interesting theories Kosawa became head of the Japanese ingness to be separated from the warm very different aspects of the legend. performs in secrecy. For example, in from Japanese analysts: Kosawa branch of the IPA and moved its head- mother-child circle and cast into a While the Nehangyó version centres on one story, a crane wife plucks feathers Heisaku’s Ajase complex, Doi Takeo’s quarters to Tokyo. Students trained by world of objective “reality”.’ (1973:7). father-son hostility, the Kanmuryójukyó from her body to weave cloth for the ideas on amae, and Kitayama Osamu’s Kosawa form the core of the present While recognizing similarities between focuses on conflict in the mother-son hero. Kitayama argues that a child’s study of the ‘Don’t Look’ prohibition. Japanese branch of the IPA, known the concept of amae and Michael bond. Kosawa’s theory of the Ajase recognition of the physical nature of his The mainstream Kosawa School and familiarly as the ‘Japan Psychoanalyti- Balint’s ideas of ‘passive object love’, complex was inspired by the Kan- or her mother’s nurturing capacities its members aside, there are many cal Association’. These psychoanalyti- Doi’s early work links the idea of amae muryójukyó’s maternally focused story- and their potential depleting of her other prominent analysts in Japan, who cally oriented psychiatrists include two to a number of other words/concepts line. body may give rise to fantasies of hav- – owing to their lack of a medical theorists I will discuss below: Doi Takeo in Japanese culture, such as enryo Kosawa’s writings on the Ajase com- ing harmed the mother through birth, degree and/or classical Freudian and Okonogi Keigo. As members of the (restraint), and giri vs. ninjó (social obli- plex stress conflict deriving from a sub- nursing, etc. Whereas the Oedipal orientation – have been excluded from Japan Psychoanalytical Association, gation vs. human feeling). ject’s primary endeavour to work taboo against incest is, according to the Japan branch of the International students trained by Kosawa (and their Doi, as noted above, finds the proto- through oral, ambivalent impulses in Kitayama, the ‘taboo to be kept’, the pre- Psychoanalytical Association. Among own trainees) form the mainstream of type for amae in the nursing infant’s the context of the mother-child bond. Oedipal taboo against realizing the these are Konda Akihisa, and Sorai psychoanalysis in Japan. relation to the mother and her breast. Firstly, he underscores the non-genital physicality of motherhood should be Kenzó, who was a clinician who found- In this sense, amae could be viewed as nature of mother-child relationships – gradually broken over time (presum- ed the eclectic, psychoanalytically ori- Psychoanalytic theories from an ‘attempt to deny the fact of separa- specifically, their oral aspects (Kosawa, ably, as the child develops the intellec- ented Sannó Institute in Tokyo. Japan tion that is such an inseparable part of similar to Melanie Klein, apparently tual and emotional capacities to accept The history of psychoanalysis proper Three members of the Japan Psy- human existence and to obliterate the interprets Ajase’s sword as a tooth the physicality of maternal (re)produc- in Japan began with psychiatrist Marui choanalytic Association have present- pain of separation.’ However, as Doi rather than a penis.) Secondly, he places tive functions). Kiyoyasu and the so-called Tóhoku ed original theories to the internation- goes on to say, ‘ [A]mae plays an indis- strong emphasis on the ambivalence of Japan represents an unusual chapter School, which flourished in the 1920s al psychoanalytic community: Kosawa pensable role in a healthy spiritual life. the relationship with the mother, com- in the transnational spread of psycho- and 1930s. Marui’s early attraction to Heisaku, Doi Takeo, and Kitayama If it is unrealistic to close one’s eyes posed of both loving and hostile analysis. Not only does psychoanalytic psychoanalysis is evident from a course Osamu (trained by Okonogi Keigo). completely to the fact of separation, it impulses. In the legend, it should be thinking in Japan have a nearly one- on psychoanalytic psychiatry he taught Taking their cue from Kosawa, who for- is equally unrealistic to be over- noted, Ajatasatru attempts to murder hundred year history; in addition, at Tóhoku University, Sendai, in 1918. mulated his model of a mother-centred whelmed by it and isolate oneself in his mother, but is dissuaded by a min- Japanese analysts have offered a num- This interest deepened in the 1920s, Ajase complex in the 1930s, all three despair over the possibility of human ister. Thirdly, Kosawa views the (re-) ber of innovative theories to the inter- during the course of several years of paradigms focus on the mother (rather relationships’ (1973:75). Thus amae establishing of a positive mother-child national community. Japan thus offers study with Adolf Meyer at Johns Hop- than the Oedipal father) as the centre involves a constellation of feelings that dyad as essential to psychic health. a unique contribution to the project of kins University in Baltimore, Maryland. of psychic life. In the interest of the- emphasize a positive sense of connec- Beginning in the 1970s, Kosawa’s culturally inflecting psychoanalysis – In 1933, as the head of a group of psy- matic unity, I will discuss the three the- tion to the mother over (a presumably student Okonogi Keigo revised and one that should attract further attention choanalytically oriented psychiatrists, ories out of chronological order, begin- painful) separation from her. developed the Ajase theory. Okonogi’s as Asianists, and other non-Western Marui received approval from Freud to ning with Doi’s validation of positive writings on the Ajase complex also scholars, continue the work of trans- establish the first Japanese branch of mother-child interaction and proceed- The Ajase complex emphasize the subject’s endeavour to forming psychoanalytic thought into a the International Psychoanalytic Asso- ing to Kosawa’s and Kitayama’s discus- By contrast, Kosawa’s Ajase model, work through ambivalent impulses in truly multicultural discipline. < ciation (IPA) in Sendai. sions of more ambivalent mother-child based on Buddhist legend, delineates a the mother-child bond; however, he The ‘Kosawa School’, centred on stu- bonds. more ambivalent mother-child bond. locates the origin of mother-child con- References flict in maternal sexuality. For Okono- - Doi Takeo, The Anatomy of Dependence, gi, Ajase’s matricidal rage stems from Tokyo: Kodansha (1973). the discovery of Idaike’s exclusive, and - Kitayama Osamu, ‘“Pre-Oedipal” taboo in excluding relationship with Binbasa- Japanese folk tragedies’, The Internation- hara. Okonogi terms this anger at the al Journal of Psychoanalysis 12, (1985), child’s discovery of his or her origin in pp.173–186. than on the mainland, as the island has moved rapidly into Does psychoanalysis have a future in the Chinese envi- the parent’s sexual relationship mishóon - Okonogi Keigo, ‘Japan,’ in Psychoanalysis the modern world of high-tech democracy, putting a strain ronment? Psychoanalytic investigation of cultural differences or ‘prenatal resentment.’ In his most International: A Guide to Psychoanalysis on family and bringing new vulnerabilities to everyday life. is still in its earliest stages in the Mainland, Hong Kong, and recent work, Okonogi discusses the throughout the World, Vol. 2, Stuttgart-Bad Mental health jobs are on the rise, and there is more aca- Taiwan, though such inquiries began almost as soon as Ajase complex as an interpsychic model Canstatt: Frommann-Holzboog (1995), demic interest in psychoanalytic approaches across a range Freud’s ideas first reached China’s shores. As Chinese fam- for understanding not only children’s pp. 123–141. of disciplines, especially literary criticism and gender stud- ily structures and support networks undergo increasing trans- ambivalence towards their mothers but - Roland, Alan, In Search of Self in India and ies. Commercial bookstores are full of pop psychology books, formation, individuals feeling squeezed out are more likely also women’s ambivalent experience of Japan, Princeton, NJ: Princeton Universi- many with an analytic slant. Crowds follow self-help gurus to seek professional help for mental health. And psychoan- maternity. ty Press (1988). who ask people to seek answers in greater self-knowledge. alytic approaches will have to adapt as the social environment During a recent trip to Taiwan, I was fortunate to meet some changes. Psychoanalysis is therefore likely to have a similar The ‘pre-Oedipal’ taboo Professor Andra Alvis is an assistant pro- academicians interested in psychoanalysis, and psychother- fate in China as in the West: it will be studied and practised, Kitayama’s theory of the ‘pre-Oedi- fessor of Japanese literature at Indiana Uni- apists from the Taiwan Institute of Psychotherapy it will grow and divide, and it will find innovators. < pal’ taboo, like the Ajase complex, versity, Bloomington. Her research interests (www.tip.org.tw) and the Sinin Center of Psychotherapy, two focuses on guilt and anxiety toward the include autobiography, gender theory, and private non-profit organizations. I was deeply impressed by Bibliography mother. In this model, however, guilt psychoanalysis. the energy and innovation with which the members are build- - Blowers, Geoffrey H., ‘Freud in China: the Variable Reception of Psy- concerns fears that reproductive func- [email protected] ing up these organizations for research, training, and com- choanalysis’, China Perspectives, No. 10, March / April (1997), pp. 32-46. tions such as birth and nursing have munity service. Responding to charges that psychoanalysis - Gerlach, Alf, ‘Psychoanalysis in China – The Current State of the Recep- irreparably damaged the maternal body. may reflect psychological problems specific to the West or tion of Our Discipline’, International Psychoanalysis, Vol. 8, Issue 1 (1999). Kitayama draws on several Japanese even to Freud’s Vienna, some Taiwan professionals have - Zhang, Jingyuan, Psychoanalysis in China: Literary Transformations folktales that portray relations between begun research projects exploring the idea that there may be 1919-194, Ithaca: Cornell East Asia Series (1992). a human husband and non-human specifically Chinese or Taiwanese psychological patterns. The wife. These stories begin with an ani- Department of Psychology of the National Taiwan Universi- Jingyuan Zhang is Associate Professor of Chinese Literature and Com- mal transforming itself into a woman ty now has a programme on indigenous psychology and pub- parative Literature at Georgetown University, Washington, D.C. She and marrying a human male. The ani- lishes a very valuable journal entitled Bentu xinlixue yanjiu is currently working on a website ‘East Asia Psychoanalysis Database mal/wife proves to be a productive (Indigenous Psychological Research in Chinese Societies, Network’, and hopes to take professional training in psychoanalysis. homemaker and loving spouse; how- 1993–), exploring such cultural and psychological topics as [email protected] ever, she forbids her husband to watch ‘face,’ ‘favour and reciprocation’, and ‘filial piety’ as demon- http://eap.georgetown.edu her as she performs a specific task, strated in clinical case studies. www.georgetown.edu/faculty/zhangj1 such as nursing, giving birth or weav-
IIAS Newsletter | #30 | March 2003 9 > Theme Freud on Garuda’s Wings Psychoanalysis in Colonial India The Indian Psychoanalytical Society was founded in 1921 by Girindrasekhar Bose, a Bengali Hindu physician. Bose and the other but also British members. For example, Lieutenant Owen twelve Indian founding members of the Society belonged to the urbanized Western educated Bengali elite, the Bhadralok. These Berkeley-Hill, a psychiatrist in the British army, used psy- men had access to the latest intellectual trends in Europe, but could at the same time draw on a rich fund of indigenous knowledge. choanalysis to help British patients in the European Men- The members of the Indian Psychoanalytical Society concurred with Freud’s technique of free association and his notion of the tal Hospital in Ranchi to adjust – or re-adjust – to life in a unconscious. Like him, they were convinced of the importance of dreams and of traumatic events. They did, however, question colony. In his cultural-theoretical writings, he also drew on several of Freud’s core concepts and methods. This contribution presents some of the culture-specific elements of psychoanalysis psychoanalysis to legitimize British colonial rule. In an that did not travel from Vienna to India, and those that were altered or were specific to conditions of colonialism. essay published in the International Journal of Psychoanaly- sis in 1921, he attributed to Hindus an anal-erotic person- their correspondence, which spans the period from 1921 to ality structure, and ascribed highly positive characteristics 1937. In a letter dated 1 January 1933, Freud, for example, to his English countrymen. Berkeley-Hill concluded that expressed his view on one of Bose’s revisions: ‘the theory of Hindus do not have a psychological disposition for leader- opposite wishes strikes me as something less dynamic than ship and thus need to be ruled. In addition to being obses- morphological.’ …”. (Sinha 1966:431) sive-compulsive, they were also infantile, since ‘their gen- eral level of thought partakes of the variety usually peculiar ‘The man Moses’ facing Hindu gods and to children.’ (Hartnack 2001: 52) goddesses Another officer in the Indian army, Claud Dangar Daly, Freud took an androcentric monotheism for granted. He also left no doubt about his value judgements on Hindus. was more than puzzled by the Hindu pantheon, and In an essay published in Imago in 1927, he asserts that the expressed openly how bored he was by Indian visitors, such character traits of the Hindus ‘are in many respects the as the author Rabindranath Tagore, the philosopher Suren- same as we are accustomed to observe among European dranath Dasgupta, and the linguist Suniti Kumar Chatterji. obsessive neurotics). Furthermore, in an article published In a letter to Romain Rolland, written in 1930, Freud com- in 1930 in the International Journal of Psychoanalysis, Daly mented on this writer’s enchantment with Indian culture: wrote that ‘the Hindu people would have to make an effort ‘I shall now try with your guidance to penetrate into the Indi- to overcome their infantile and feminine tendencies …. The an jungle from which until now an uncertain blending of role of the British Government should be that of wise par- Hellenic love of proportion, Jewish sobriety, and philistine ents’. (Hartnack 2001: 67) timidity have kept me away.’ (Hartnack 2001:138) Perhaps as a result of such writings by fellow members In his correspondence with Freud, Bose explicitly point- of the Indian Psychoanalytical Society, Bose was critical of ed to the importance of the maternal deities in his culture. psychoanalytic generalizations. In his essay ‘On the Relia- Other Indian psychoanalysts even criticized classical Freudi- bility of Psychoanalytic Findings’, for example, he cautioned an psychoanalysis for being a product of a ‘Father religion against psychoanalysts who ‘do not hesitate to dogmatise or Son religion’. This is especially ironic, since Freud had on their findings and regard them as “settled facts” even Psychoanalysis in Colonial India Colonial in Psychoanalysis deconstructed the role of religion, and was – unlike his Indi- when the analysis has been of a very cursory nature.’ (Hart- an colleagues – rather secular. nack 2001:149) Freud derived his insights primarily from his therapies Bose and other Indian psychoanalysts had personal con- with highly educated upper middle-class Viennese women tact with members of the Indian independence movement, patients who lived in patriarchically structured nuclear fam- and several of their writings contain an explicitly anti-colo- ilies. These women often envied their brothers and other nial stance. Bose’s view of the resolution of the Oedipus
Taken from: Hartnack, Christiane, Hartnack, from: Taken men for being able to make use of their education and for complex indirectly indicates this, and his definition of men- enjoying social freedoms. Freud’s notion of penis envy thus tal disease specifically exempted martyrs and patriots: ‘The By Christiane Hartnack also reflects the social situation of his women patients in sense of morality and duty often leads us to self-destructive Research > early twentieth century Vienna. actions, e.g. the feeling of the patriot or martyr.’ South Asia reud experienced life in two cultures: the one that he Bose, on the other hand, treated mostly upper-caste west- Freud’s envisaged ‘conquest’ in India remained confined Fcame from as a Moravian Jew, and the one into which ernized Bengali Hindu men. Among them he had discov- to his imagination. The psychoanalytical ‘Internationale’ he assimilated as an urban Viennese intellectual. Through ered ‘a wish to be female’. He wrote to Freud in 1929: ‘The of which he had dreamed was not realized, and the ‘Freudi- his formulation of transculturally valid laws and universal- desire to be a female is more easily unearthed in Indian male an Orient’, namely the wholesale reception of psycho- ly applicable truths, Freud could, at least ideologically, over- patients than in European.’ (Sinha 1966:430) In analogy to analysis in India, was not what Freud had thought it was. come the feeling of belonging to a minority. Freud’s women patients in Vienna, these Bengali men were Not even in their public statements did the Indian mem- The Bhadralok also lived under conditions of cultural also hindered in their development – in their case by the bers of the Indian Psychoanalytical Society turn out to be hybridity. They functioned in a British colonial world dur- realities of colonialism. It is likely that they envied Bengali loyal to Freud. ing the workday, and were Bengali the rest of the time. women who were only indirectly affected by British domi- Freud intuitively sensed all this. On the occasion of his Unlike Freud, they belonged to a majority. Bose never gave nation. Moreover, femininity was represented by powerful seventy-fifth birthday, the Indian Psychoanalytical Society up wearing traditional Bengali clothes or following Hindu goddesses and therefore associated with desirable traits. had sent him a statuette of Vishnu. When the sandalwood Bengali customs and proudly wrote in Bengali asserting that In Bengali joint families in the early part of the twentieth stand and the ivory of his ‘trophy of conquest’, as he had his British colleagues should learn Bengali if they were century, the biological father was only one of several patri- called it in his letter of thanks to Bose, developed cracks, interested in these texts. In addition, he openly criticized archal figures, and the biological mother just one of sever- he made an entry in his diary: ‘Can the god, being used to Freud for running the International Psychoanalytical Move- al maternal authorities, resulting in multiple sources of Calcutta, not stand the climate in Vienna?’ (The Diary of Sig- ment ‘like a church’, and emphasized that his Bengali affections and emotional bonds as well as ‘hydra-like’ (Kakar mund Freud 1992: 115) Perhaps Freud, in the privacy of his patients differed from Europeans. 1982: 420) confrontations with authorities. The direction of diary, expressed a premonition that, like the statuette of Bose replaced Freud’s emblematic couch with a deck aggression, too, differed in European and Indian texts and Vishnu, psychoanalysis would not travel easily. < chair. I assume that he did this because an upholstered folkloric traditions. As A.K. Ramanujan (1983, p.252) point- chaise-longue would not have stood the humidity in Bengal. ed out, in Indian literature the aggressor is often the father References There is a certain irony in this choice though. By choosing and not the son, as in the classical Oedipus tale, because the - Hartnack, Christiane, Psychoanalysis in Colonial India, New Delhi: a colonial piece of furniture, Bose ‘went West’. By covering father is jealous of his wife’s devotion to her son. Oxford University Press (2001). his couch with an oriental rug, Freud, on the other hand, It is therefore not surprising that Bose rejected Freud’s - Kakar, Sudhir, ‘Fathers and Sons: An Indian Experience’ in: Cath, ‘went East’. view of the transcultural universality of the Oedipus com- Stanley H., Alan R. Gurwitt, and John Munder Ross (eds.), Father Shaped by the intellectual currents of the late nineteenth plex. In 1929, he sent him thirteen of his psychoanalytical and Child: Developmental and Clinical Perspectives, Boston: Little, century, Freud – like Karl Marx and Charles Darwin – articles, noting: ‘I would draw your particular attention to Brown and Company (1982), pp.417-23. adhered to chronological-, causal-, and progress-oriented my paper on the Oedipus wish where I have ventured to dif- - The Diary of Sigmund Freud, 1929-1939. A Record of the Final Decade concepts. Freud emphasized the importance of individual fer from you in some respects.’ Bose claimed, for example, (translated, annotated, with an introduction by Michael Molnar), history, and compared his psychoanalytic work with that of that its resolution is achieved by fighting and overcoming London: The Freud Museum (1992). an archaeologist who uncovers hidden layers. the father’s authority, and not by a submission to it: ‘I do not - Ramanujan, A.K., ‘The Indian Oedipus’ in: Edmunds, Lowell, and Bose, on the other hand, identified himself with an engi- agree with Freud when he says that the Oedipus wishes ulti- Alan Dundas (eds.), Oedipus: A Folklore Casebook, New York: Gar- neer who fixes circuits. His ‘theory of opposite wishes’ and mately to succumb to the authority of the super-ego. Quite land (1983), pp.234–66. the application of a ‘see-saw-mechanism’ reveal that his the- the reverse is the case. The super-ego must be conquered - Sinha, Tarun Chandra (1966) ‘Development of Psychoanalysis in oretical and practical work was based on the assumption of ...The Oedipus [conflict] is resolved not by the threat of cas- India’, International Journal of Psychoanalysis (1966), pp.427–39. an essential bipolarity. However, in opposition to the sub- tration, but by the ability to castrate.’ (Hartnack 2001:148) ject-object dichotomies that play an important role in Euro- Dr Christiane Hartnack is Deputy Head of the Department of Cul- pean cultures, his philosophical understanding was that of The politics of psychoanalysis: imperial tural Studies at the Donau Universität Krems (Austria). She was also principal unity. versus colonial conditions Lecturer in Psychology at the Freie Universität Berlin, and has taught Both men realized that their philosophical views and psy- Until 1947, India was a British colony. This implied that at the Universities of Iowa and Vienna and at Wellesley College. choanalytic methods differed considerably, as is evident in the Indian Psychoanalytical Society had not only Indian, [email protected]
10 IIAS Newsletter | #30 | March 2003 > Theme Tradition & Modernization of Islamic Psychiatric Care in the Subcontinent Islamic medicine and psychiatric care were introduced to the Indian subcontinent in the twelfth and thirteenth century, during the in general, during critical phases of Muslim invasion of the region. Today Muslim medicine offers a psychiatric care system alternative to that of biomedicine and is life. Even today, sufi shrines working used by Muslims and non-Muslims alike. The inclusion of the secular branch of Islamic medicine (see below) in the state public as psychiatric in- and out-patient cen- health systems of the region has lead to increased modernization of the traditional and, consequently, to important changes in its tres are common in many urban and scientific identity and to the decline of particular treatments. rural areas, and are visited by patients from all social classes and religious By Fabrizio Speziale Yunani Tibb, lit. backgrounds. Research > Greek medicine, is Some dargahs provide tens of rooms, South Asia n Muslim medical sciences the inter- an old form of which are rented to patients and their Ipretation and treatment of psychi- medicine that has relatives. Those possessed by danger- atric disorders is based on at least two combined Greek and ous devils are put in chains and some different schools (although some sci- Islamic elements and of them might reside in a dargah for entific concepts are common to them is still practised in months or years. Not uncommonly, both). A secular, and medically ground- India and Pakistan. most of the patients in dargahs in the ed, theory and clinical practice, based cities have previously been treated on Greek-Arab science (called unani, lit. unsuccessfully with drugs in a public Ionic or Greek, in India), can be differ- psychiatric facility. With the help of entiated from a religious-spiritual set donations from wealthy pilgrims, of interpretations. The latter has been many dargahs also offer meals for the moulded by several roots: the tibb-i poor. nabawi (prophetic medicine), that is the collections and commentaries of the Tradition and modernization sayings of the prophet Muhammad (d. The two branches of Islamic psychi- 632) on hygiene and medicine, sufi rit- atry have responded in their own dif- uals and the cult of sufi saints, and ferent ways to the colonial and post- other elements derived from esoteric colonial processes of globalization, and sciences and folk beliefs. the confrontation with biomedicine. Both traditions have ably adapted their Unani medicine and identity and role to accommodate con- psychiatry temporary social, political, and eco- In unani theory the interpretation of nomical changes. The unani school and psychiatric disorders is based on the its hospitals have lost important tradi-
doctrines of Galen (d. 200 ca.) and Avi- J.J.Witkam by designed poster Exhibition tional features, but have also retained a cenna (Ibn Sina, d. 1037), and the phys- refined pharmaco-therapy that, through iology of the four humours (blood, sive disorders. Excess of yellow bile Masters of the sufi orders are tradi- mass advertising in the cities, can today phlegm, yellow, and black bile) that cir- (hot and dry) leads to hysteria and tional religious healers who treat compete with modern drugs and has A complete medical cle the body. Humours are a combina- maniacal disorders. instances of possession and other ail- found a definite place in the Indian plu- system, based on tion of the four universal elements The aim of the physician is to restore ments by recitations of the Quran, tal- ralist and globalized pharmaceutical Greek medical (fire, air, water, earth) and have four the normal mizaj of the person, by dif- ismans, and prescription of behav- market. science and further basic qualities (hot, cold, dry, and ferent means. Pharmaco-therapy is ioural and ritual instructions. A Conversely, the popularity of sufi developed in an moist). Individual health is a state of today the most common. University cardinal element of these healing ritu- shrines to treat psychiatric patients has Islamic context is relative equilibrium of the humours, pharmaceutical laboratories (such as als is the pilgrimage to shrines and not been affected by modern institu- contained in the characterized by the dominance of one Hamdard in Delhi and the Tibbiya Col- tombs of sufi saints, where healers tions. However, important aspects of al-Qanun fil-Tibb, by humour, which determinates mizaj, lege of Aligarh), as well as private ones, usually reside and where incubation of the sufi tradition in particular have Ibn Sina (972-1036). the individual temperament (for exam- offer traditional compound drugs and healing dreams is a common practice. been subject to considerable change. The first book of ple, the dominance of phlegm or black electuaries for disorders such as While previously sufis were among the these works, which bile determines the phlegmatic or mania, hysteria, epilepsy, melancholia, Muslim medical institutions main practitioners of unani medicine, came to be known in melancholic characters respectively). and sleep and sexual disorders. In the A main contribution to Muslim med- they lost their double role as doctor and Europe Avicenna’s Alteration and excess of humours pro- past, treatments such as phlebotomy, icine in India was the introduction of instructor in the post-independence Canon, is shown duces diseases, in particular black bile cupping, Turkish baths, aroma-thera- the Arab model of the hospital, where period, when the teaching of unani here. (cold and dry), which induces depres- py, poetry reading, and music-therapy, patients of all backgrounds (regardless medicine (which had previously been were used, and clinical cases of Mus- of caste and religion) were treated free based on family transmission) was lim physicians using suggestion and of charge. It facilitated the diffusion of institutionalized in universities. The cognitive therapies are well docu- Islamic medicine among non-Muslims. large influx of pilgrims to many of the mented in literature. Due to the impact Hospitals were often provided with dargahs nowadays feeds a prolific mar- of modernization, however, these are wards for the insane, where drugs, as ket of medico-religious tourism that is rarely practised today. well as music-therapy and Turkish profoundly changing the ethics of the baths, amongst other things, were profession. The result is that sufis, who Religious medicine applied. The first known psychiatric traditionally did not accept money, are In religious medicine the interpre- wards of Muslim India were founded increasingly being replaced by a new tation of human suffering is part of a in Delhi and Mandu, during the four- type of smart and business-minded wider spiritual and ethical framework. teenth and fifteenth centuries. In the spiritual healer, who may not have any According to Islamic psychology, post-colonial epoch, surviving unani relation to sufi orders. < human personality has two funda- hospitals were incorporated into the mental components, the nafs (pl. nufus) state health system and new ones were Bibliography or individual ego, and the ruh (pl. created. The role of traditional asylum - Bürgel, Christoph, ‘Psychosomatic meth- arwah), or soul, conceived as aggre- wings, however, was taken over by mod- ods of cures in the Islamic Middle Ages’, gates of different nufus and arwah. On ern psychiatric hospitals. Humaniora Islamica I (1973), pp.157–172. account of its relation to desires, sin, Since medieval times some sufi - Fârûqî, Rahbar, Islâmî tibb shâhânah and the ‘whispers’ of Satan, the lower shrines have specialized in the treat- sarparstiyûn men, Hyderabad (1937). nafs is the origin of psychological suf- ment of psychiatric disorders. These - Speziale, Fabrizio, ‘La medicina greco- fering. Thus, the nufus are hierarchi- institutions, called dargahs, are archi- araba in India’, Storia della Scienza Vol. II, cally ordered - from the lower nafs tectural compounds which can include Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana, (‘prone to evil’), to the ‘perfect’ or ‘sat- tombs, a monastery, houses, a mosque, pp.921–926. isfied’ nafs. Psychiatric disorders are and even rooms for patients. Tradi- commonly interpreted as possession tionally, both unani hospitals and dar- Dr Fabrizio Speziale teaches social anthro- by the (devil) and (spirits were endowed with donations and pology at the II° Faculty of Medicine and
by Ibn Sina, Or.63, f.2a, Leiden University Library (UB), Legatum Warnerianum. Arabic writing, not dated. not writing, Arabic Warnerianum. Legatum (UB), Library University Leiden f.2a, Or.63, Sina, Ibn by shaytan jinns gahs mentioned in the Quran as created properties (waqf) by Muslim kings. Surgery of the University La Sapienza of from fire, who inhabit a subtle world Muslim saints could provide protec- Rome. He received his PhD from the Ecole in which mankind is immersed, as into tion, quite specifically against illness des hautes études en sciences socials in Paris.
Al-Qanun fi ‘t-Tibb fi Al-Qanun a liquid). and possession by devils, but also more [email protected]
IIAS Newsletter | #30 | March 2003 11 > Research & Reports Bidesia: Migration, Change, and Folk Culture
The ‘Bidesia: Migration, Change, and Folk Culture’ project deals with the memory of migration, which flows in videsh – referring to overseas migration – instead of pardes – Research > various cultural forms in the homeland as well as in destinations of migrants. The historical reality of referring to internal migration: South Asia international migration provides a basis of common cultural heritage for people of Indian descent in the various regions in the world, though each region has an interesting cultural story in itself. The joint Bhave naahin mohe bhavanvan experiences of these migrants, however, make it clear that common cultural heritage is not only fixed in places Ho Ram, videsh gavanvan and things, like fortresses, shipwrecks, archives, and arts, but also travels around the world in the minds of (I don’t care for palaces, men and women who, as migrants with their own culture as baggage, are either obliged, or choose, to face new Hey Ram, my beloved has gone to a foreign land) futures in foreign countries. In 1884, Pandit Beni Madhav Ram, a resident of Kashi, By Badri Narayan Tiwari Photograph taken composed a folk song in which the word bidesia was used for from the exhibition the first time to address a person who had departed: n the nineteenth century and into the early twentieth cen- Van Vrouwenleven. I tury, as the abolition of slavery progressed around the Collection of photos Kahe mori sudhi bisaraye re bidesia world, European colonies found themselves in great need of of women in Suri- Tarhpi tarhpi din rain gavayo re manpower for their plantations. India, meanwhile, was suf- name. Kahe mose nehiya lagae re bidesia. fering from an economic depression, due to both the decline (Why did you make me lose my consciousness, O bidesia? of the weaving industry caused by the Industrial Revolution I am suffering constantly day and night. in England, and the extreme population pressure on agri- Why did you lock your eyes with mine, O bidesia?) culture and cultivable lands. This pressure on the resources of the country, combined with the colonial masters’ demand The composition of bidesia folk songs also began in this for cheap and abundant labour, led to the migration of a large time period, and later formed the basis for the bidesia folk number of migrant labourers from the Bhojpuri region. culture. In these songs as well, as can be seen in the previ- The Bhojpuri region is a cultural entity that transcends ous stanza, the word bidesia was used for the first time as a political borders. This area comprises the eastern part of Uttar tek, or repetitive ending to a song line. Scholars believe that Pradesh and the western part of Bihar in India. In the north, this was the special feature of bidesia folk tradition. it reaches across the river Ganges and past the Nepal fron- In this time period, a form of folk theatre also called bidesia tier, up to the lower ranges of the Himalayas, from Cham- emerged in the Bhojpuri region. Bidesia theatre drew huge paran to Basti. In the south, it crosses the Sone River and cov- audiences, especially when performed by Bhikhari Thakur ers the great plateau of Chotanagpur, where it finds itself in and his acting troupe – Bhikhari Thakur himself composed contact with the Bengali of Manbhum, the Oriya of Singhb- many popular bidesia plays. Each play was filled with bidesia hum, and the scattered tribal languages of the Chotanagpur songs, which were based on such folk tunes as lorikayan, plateau. The area covered by Bhojpur is some fifty thousand jantsari, sorthi, birha, barahmasa, poorvi, alha, pachra, kunvar square miles; more than 15 per cent of the total Indian pop- bijai, nirgun, chaupai, kavita, chaubisa, and others. The pop- ulation speaks Bhojpuri. ularity of the plays was due to their narrating common events
Bhojpuri culture can boast national and even international Amsterdam (KIT), Tropics the of Institute Royal the of Collection photos: Both and experiences related to the pain of migration, a theme that spread, due to the large-scale migration from this region. The touched a common chord in the hearts of the Bhojpuri audi- descendants of those migrants, who have now integrated into Railiya na bairi se jaha jawa no bairi se paisawa bairi na ence. The interspersion of comic relief and satire on the exist- the societies of the countries to which their ancestors were mor saiyan ke bilmawe se paiswa bairi na ing system also established bidesia theatre as an extremely originally taken, also use this language. Bhojpuri is mainly (It is neither the train nor the ship that is our enemy but popular form of folk art and culture. These plays were also a spoken in Mauritius, Fiji, Suriname, British Guyana, and rather the money that compels our husbands to migrate to statement on the existing social dichotomies and the process Uganda, as well as in some parts of Burma and Nepal. The other lands) of displacement of the Bhojpuri migrants. people of Indian descent in various regions across the world can thus claim a common cultural heritage based on the his- In spite of the best efforts of the Bhojpuri people, the Documenting oral memories of migration torical reality of the migration from the Bhojpuri region. migration did not stop. As a result, both externally and inter- Sadly, bidesia folk culture, which is mainly an oral tradition, nally, the pain of loss and separation became an important is in danger of extinction today. It is thus of paramount impor- Culture, change, and migration aspect of Bhojpuri society. This pain gave birth to a distinct tance to collect, document, and analyse these traditions, as one Migration is usually considered an economic phenome- folklore, which emerged as an expression of the pain and could then develop the story of Bhojpuri overseas migration non, but it also creates a cultural phenomenon in both the anguish of the migrants’ separation from their families. by relating the traditions to other archival and secondary homeland and the land of destination. For the Bhojpuri peo- sources. Notably, this folk tradition is popular not only in the ple, this migration was first and foremost a heavy emotion- Bidesia folk tradition homeland of the migrants, but also in their destinations like al loss. Many relationships were torn apart – wives torn from Bidesia was the affectionate form of address given to the Mauritius, Suriname, Trinidad, Fiji, and the Netherlands, husbands, sisters torn from brothers, fathers from their old- migrants by loved ones who were left behind in the home- where the present generations in search of their cultural iden- age support, and mothers from the ‘apples of their eyes’. All land, and so lends its name to the new folk culture that tity are trying to reconstruct the history of their ancestors. were leaving for foreign shores and there was no way to hold emerged out of this migration, bidesia folk culture. This folk These oral folk traditions were an important component of the them back. The social, economic, political, and historical culture is represented in many forms, such as nautanki cultural baggage of those ancestors, which helped them recov- manifestations of colonial imperialism were drawing them (musical theatre), dramas, folk songs, and folk paintings. It er from the pain caused by the separation from loved ones in to this migration, which was more of a forced migration for is a complete folk culture, or holistic folklore tradition, which their homeland. A study of these cultural traditions will not the Bhojpuris. This economic compulsion is expressed in the developed as an outcome of the vacuum caused by the depar- only help present-day, non-resident Bhojpuris discover their folk tradition of the people of the Bhojpuri region of India, ture of the migrant Bhojpuris. In this project, the term bidesia roots, but it will also help them strengthen their common cul- and the following folk song clearly expresses the pain and will be studied, not only in its nautanki form only but also in tural heritage and folk traditions. The preservation of oral folk suffering that they feel: its role as a metaphor for cultural tradition that emerged in traditions in all cultures is important, as it preserves the intan- and around the migration of Bhojpuri people. gible cultural heritage of humanity. < In bidesia folk culture, the migrants are referred to as bidesia, pardesi, batohia, and other terms, which contain ele- Dr Badri Narayan Tiwari obtained his PhD from the Department ments of both affection and complaint for leaving the loved of History at the University of Allahabad and is lecturer at the G.B. ones behind. These three terms of address represent three Pant Social Science Institute in Allahabad. From 1 April 2002 until different kinds of folk tradition: firstly, in bidesia culture, the 1 July 2002 he was a Gonda Fellow at the IIAS in Leiden. His chances of return of these migrants were slim. When leav- research focuses on ‘Migration, Change, and Diasporic Culture in ing his an muluk, or native place, the migrant broke all ties the Bhojpuri Region of Bihar, Suriname, and the Netherlands’. with his loved ones. Secondly, in the pardesi culture, the [email protected] migrant is forced to leave his native place in order to earn a living, but still maintains communication ties with his fam- Info > ily. The pain of this semi-permanent migration still remains however, and comes through in the Bhojpuri folk songs. A Supported by the Gonda fund I researched and tran- pardesi may be called bidesia in complaining tones, but a scribed various Suriname Hindustani folk songs, bearing bidesia is very seldom called pardesi. Finally, in batohia cul- the memory of migration, collected and recorded by U. ture, the bidesia comes back as a traveller to his native place Arya and preserved in Kern Institute Library, Leiden Uni- and resumes normal communication ties. versity. This project is the outcome of the collaborative It seems that the use of the word bidesia for migrant labour- effort of the G.B. Pant Social Science Institute (Muse- ers in Bhojpuri folk songs began after the year 1837, when um), Allahabad. For her extensive help, I am thankful to migration from the region began. Since very little folk tradi- Susan Legêne, head of the Curatorial Department of the tion was written or published, it is difficult to fix the exact Royal Tropical Institute (KIT) in Amsterdam, who held Portrait of a Hindu- time period. From what is documented, little as it may be, it the project’s identification mission and with whom I will stani woman, Suri- can be said that in 1850 Kesodas, a Sadhu following Kabir’s continue in a joint research project. name c. 1890 ideology in one of his nirgun compositions, used the term
12 IIAS Newsletter | #30 | March 2003 > Research & Reports A Thousand and One Identities A Meeting with Shauna Singh Baldwin, Shashi Tharoor, and Krishna Baldev Vaid Identity in South Asia is a complex and multi- Mahabharat, followed by the novels His work has developed over the course tialist tone and turned into uncertainty Report > dimensional concept; it comprises ethnic or religious Show Business (1992) and Riot (2001) of the years as he explored the possi- with regards to cultural and personal South Asia background, gender, social and economic status, and and a volume of essays, India, from Mid- bilities of various styles. Whereas Vaid’s identity. His later stories and novels, more distinctions that have developed in the modern night to the Millenium (1997). Tharoor early work is highly realist, his later such as Bimal Urf Jay~e To Jay~e Kahã 26–27 November history of the South Asian nations. History has put believes in India’s cultural diversity and novels and stories explore the realm of (1974, translated by the author as Bimal 2002, Amsterdam people apart in separate nation states, but also its democratic rule, although both magic realism. For the festival Les in Bog), Mayalok (The World of Illusion, and Leiden, brought them together under a national identity and attributes put a heavy burden on Indi- Belles Étrangères, the French Hindi 1999), or Dusra na koi (There is no other, the Netherlands varieties of modern and traditional lifestyles. an politics and society. specialist and translator Annie Montaut 1978), express this breakdown of iden- In the Great Indian Novel, the reader published a volume of Vaid’s stories, tity in a style in which the influence of By Thomas de Bruijn division of land for the Sikh villagers. is immediately confronted with the translated into French with the Hindi Beckett and Joyce can be observed. This His struggles are futile and when the issue of identity in an author’s note at text alongside the translations. The sto- was a novel feature for Hindi writing n 26 and 27 November last year, riots start, he sends Rup and her chil- the beginning of the novel, in which the ries and Montaut’s introduction offer a and was discussed ardently by literary Othree Indian authors presented dren away to Delhi. He follows later on author wonders openly whether his tale wonderful insight into Vaid’s way of critics. their work in sessions in Amsterdam the infamous trains from Pakistan on is great and authentically Indian. The looking at India and the notions of An intriguing feature of Vaid’s work and Leiden. These sessions were part which many refugees are killed. characters in his novels take this conun- identity one can find in his work.* is the description of ubiquitous scenes of the annual French literary festival Les The story of the novel follows Rup’s drum one step further as they depict Identity is a complex concept in of poverty, hunger, and misery in Belles Étrangères which invited twenty childhood in the village, where she the conflicts between various shades of Vaid’s work and can only be summa- India’s public life, which seem to Indian authors to present their work in develops into a self-conscious and inde- cultural identity, tradition and moder- rized in this short space. The Partition remain outside the observer’s identity France. The festival organizer, the Cen- pendent child, and her later life, as she nity, westernization and ‘Indianness’. of India and Pakistan in 1947 and its as if they are not part of his reality. tre National du Livre in Paris, gladly learns to survive in the traditional world It is characteristic of the novels that the violent aftermath are prominent in his Vaid’s literary work shows the many supported the IIAS initiative to invite of her husband’s household. Identity characters are determined mainly by work; Vaid was born in the Punjab, an dimensions of modern Indian identity, three of their guests to the Netherlands. plays an important part in the story but roles put upon them by the nation, area that was divided between the two combining an almost mystical urge for All three authors – Shauna Singh is never depicted as a singular notion. caste, or family, but that this dharma is nations and which saw the worst of the transcending definitions with a deep Baldwin, Shashi Tharoor, and Krishna The characters are developed from the not enough to stay put in a confusing killings and a mass exodus of refugees commitment to the reality of Indian Baldev Vaid – acknowledge their shared point of view of their struggle to cope and tempting world. Identities, and the from both sides. In two lengthy novels society and culture. Indian identity as part of, and not in with different roles and identities which duties they impose, cannot fulfil the – Uska Bacpan (1958, translated by the It would not do justice to the richness exclusive opposition to, a complex of are cast upon them by tradition and lives of the characters if they are not author as Steps in Darkness) and Guzara of each authors’ works to draw far- identities. Notwithstanding the authors’ modernity. Baldwin shows, in Rup, to complemented by personal conviction Hua Zamana (Times Gone By, 1981) – reaching conclusions from this very different backgrounds and the fact that what extent gender and economic and a place for the relishing of cultures he describes this period from the per- brief summary of their representation their writing falls into separate cate- dependency define identity in both the other than that of the traditional world. spective of a young man who witness- of identity. It seems, however, that the gories, it proved worthwhile to bring traditional village and in her husband’s Tharoor’s most endearing characters es the rising tensions between the two protagonists in the works have in com- them together to discuss their work and family. Although social constraints and mon the fact that they progress on tra- their opinions on the problems that the political situation determine the jectories towards personal realization arise with the political and cultural con- events in this novel, the author also sug- and growth that are influenced, if not struction of identity in modern South gests that there is a deeper sense of defined, to a large extent by the social Asian society. Identity is a prominent individual identity. It is expressed in the and cultural context. These trajectories element in their work, but in many dif- way Rup and her husband’s first wife originate in the preoccupation with ferent forms and guises. The authors Satya deal with the role they are given. inner conflict and subconscious trau- share the notion that social, cultural, or They develop a form of inner determi- ma which is the stock element of psy- religious identities interfere and clash nation and will for freedom and sur- chological development in Western fic- with the perception of individuality. In vival that gives them the strength to tion. We have seen this in other the case of Baldwin and Vaid, political endure all kinds of hardship. Again, postmodern and post-colonial authors events interrupt the trajectories of their identity appears as complex and with who write in English, but the authors protagonists and change the contours many dimensions. The same goes for that are presented here seem to add of their role in the social context. Vaid the perspective from which the book something new to the familiar per- adds an existential aspect to this change was written; Baldwin was born in India spective. Baldwin places the growth by emphasizing the inherent fluidity of but has lived in Canada almost her towards identity of her protagonists identity. In Tharoor’s work, this conflict whole life. She paints a very detailed against a historical background which is partially the ‘classical’ post-colonial and historically accurate picture of the enriches the description of the cultural rift between westernized acculturation cultural traditions and modern history and economic reality of their protago- and traditional cultural identities, but of the Sikh community. The historical nists. Tharoor adds a carnavalesque also shows a deep involvement with detail enriches the novel, but it also tone to the development of identity, but Indian society. adds to a dialogic quality to the repre- also emphasizes involvement with Indi- The encounter with these authors sentation, reflecting different aspects an social and cultural plight. Vaid’s provides an excellent opportunity to of the author’s own identity. approach is different; he adds much to explore the presentation of identity in Shashi Tharoor has published a sub- Indian writing by exploring a post- their work a little further and also to stantial number of stories, novels, and modern perspective in Hindi writing
introduce their work to that part of the essays in which he presents India’s lit- Krishna Baldev Vaid Photopoint and stretching the expressive possibil- readership of the newsletter that is not erary heritage and modern history from ities of the language. acquainted with modern Indian writ- a critical, comical, but above all, per- have learned a different set of identities communities in his own village. He In this respect, the representation of ing. sonal perspective. He grew up in vari- and new horizons in a westernized gradually sees the old world, in which identity in the work of the three authors Shauna Singh Baldwin lives and ous places in India and Europe and upbringing, but have to reconcile these the division between religious identi- opens up another layer of detail and works in Canada and made a spectacu- presently lives and works as an UN offi- with the confined situation of their tra- ties was present in every day life in a diversity in the perception of identity in lar debut as a novelist with What the cial in New York. Although English ditional role. His novels view the fluid way, fall apart into one of rigid and South Asian culture and society. < Body Remembers (1999). This novel became his first language through edu- dynamics of Indian society where roles opposing factions. The notion of the describes the changes and personal cation and upbringing, he never lost and trajectories are constantly chang- indefinite nature of identity is a central Dr Thomas de Bruijn is a specialist in early growth of a Sikh woman against the contact with India and that is apparent ing and new identities are created theme in Vaid’s work. In his view, the and modern Hindi and Urdu literature. He backdrop of the horrors of the Partition in his work. In his essays he is very through a humorous optimism, play- realization of identity can never take the was the Guest Editor for the special theme of Pakistan and India. The Sikh com- open about his own multiple cultural ing with the semantics of the English form of a rigid, separate religious con- issue on South Asian Literature in IIAS munity was more or less crushed identities and analyses the complex language in the Indian context. viction or cultural affiliation; true iden- Newsletter 21, and was an affiliated fellow between the interest of the Hindu and new identities that arose with the for- Krishna Baldev Vaid is a writer of tity lies in remaining undefined, being with the IIAS. the Muslim communities. Many fled mation of the nation state India, the Hindi and English fiction who has been all opposites, all identities at once. [email protected] the Punjab or were killed in the violent political system, the positive discrimi- publishing from the 1950s onwards Descending into singularity is a loss; aftermath of the Partition. Rup is a Pun- nation of lower castes, and the diaspo- and has produced an impressive oeu- the loss which Vaid describes in the jabi girl from a village who is married ra of Indians to all regions of the world. vre of short stories, novels, and theatre novels on the Partition period. Note > to a wealthy Punjabi landowner so as to His literary and essayistic works con- plays. He has spent a long time teach- His later work continues this theme produce the offspring his first wife verge on this point, as they depict the ing English literature at universities in but, then, in an avant-garde, magic real- * Histoire de renaissances : Pichale could not deliver. Her husband has conflicts between various cultural or the United States and has also pub- ist setting, exploring the boundaries of janma ki bata hai / Nouvelle pres- been educated in England but is still social allegiances in the lives of con- lished English versions of his own narrative style and language in a way entation et traduction du hindi par wrapped up in the traditional respon- temporary Indians. His first success work. The career of Vaid spans the that was unprecedented in Hindi fic- Annie Montaut, Paris: Langues et sibilities of Punjabi landownership. He came with The Great Indian Novel entire period in which post-Indepen- tion. The undefined nature of identity Mondes (2002). attempts at all costs to establish a just (1989), a caricatured retelling of the dence Hindi writing came into its own. of his earlier work acquired an existen-
IIAS Newsletter | #30 | March 2003 13 > Research & Reports A Martyr’s Tale The Life, Death, and Posthumous Career of Yang Jisheng Yang Jisheng was beheaded in Beijing in 1555. His crime was criticizing the leading political figure of his day, Research > Yan Song. But when Yan fell from power seven years later, Yang became a posthumous hero, a Confucian China martyr. Over the ensuing 450 years his image has been used by emperors, members of the literati elite, and his own descendants to promote various interests and agendas. Today his memory is again being revived to serve new interests in post-communist China.
By Kenneth J. Hammond the school, and the local gazetteers record the continuing flow of revenues from these fields for its support. Local men orn in 1516 in a village about 120 km south of Beijing, who were educated there wrote poems and essays about it, BYang Jisheng led a hard life as a young man. He man- and about their martyred patron Yang, which both glorified aged to acquire a Confucian education in the village school, his memory and enhanced their own cultural status by asso- passed the entry level Confucian examinations and attended ciation with so noble a figure. This school, the Chaoran Ter- the National University in the capital. In 1547 he passed the race Academy, also survived into the twentieth century. highest examination and began his official career. After a Another way in which Yang’s image was deployed was promising start at the secondary capital in Nanjing, he was through drama. In the 1570s a play called The Cry of the called to Beijing in 1551. However, he then submitted a Phoenix appeared which dealt with the rise and fall of Yan memorial criticizing the policy of trading with Mongol raiders Song. The story of Yang Jisheng filled three of the forty-two on the northern frontier supported by the chief grand secre- scenes in the play, and provided the moral pivot for the cri- tary Yan Song. Because of this he was arrested, beaten in tique of Yan as an evil official. The play was attributed to prison, demoted, and banished to a remote posting on the Wang Shizhen, but in fact was written by one of his follow- frontier of the Ming empire, in what is today Gansu province. ers, with Wang lending his name to enhance sales and pro- Woodblock print of
He served there for one year, during which time he became mote interest. Clearly the portrayal of Yan and Yang in the Yang Jisheng. 1896. wenji’, gong Jiaoshan ‘Yang from Taken popular with both the local elite and the commoners. He play accords with Wang’s political and cultural views. This founded a school for local children with funds raised by sell- play became quite popular, and gave rise to others, such as at his grave. One of his seventeenth generation grandsons is ing his horse and his wife’s jewels. Ding Yaokang’s The Python’s Gall which appeared in the the village Party chief. A new county gazetteer published in By the beginning of 1552 the political tide in Beijing had 1650s. 1999 gives extensive coverage to Yang’s biography, and repro- turned against trade with the Mongols, and Yang’s career got duces the imperial edicts of 1567 bestowing posthumous a fresh start. Yan Song sought to recruit Yang to his own ranks honours on him. The family hopes to expand the shrine in of followers. Yang received a series of promotions, and was the years ahead, and to attract tourists as a way of boosting finally recalled to the capital. But when he arrived in January their local economy. 1553 he immediately submitted a new memorial, attacking In Lintao Yang Jisheng has something of a modern fan Yan Song directly for ten crimes and five kinds of corruption. club. Local history enthusiasts gather to visit the site of his Three days later he was arrested again. This time he was beat- school, and a pagoda with some of his calligraphy inscribed en much more severely, and kept in prison for over two years. was rebuilt in the late 1990s. A modern, simplified charac- Finally, despite the efforts of friends like the rising scholar ter version of his collected writings was published in 1999. Wang Shizhen to aid him, he was executed in November 1555. And in June 2002, to honour the 450th anniversary of the Wang and other junior officials retrieved Yang’s body from establishment of the school, local Party and government rep- the execution ground and paid for his burial. resentatives convened an official commemorative gathering to honour Yang, which ended with a groundbreaking cere- A posthumous career mony for the restoration of the Chaoran Terrace Academy. Yang’s story might well have ended here, as just another In Beijing Yang’s former home continues to languish, casualty in the factional battles which plagued the imperial marked by a plaque from the Cultural Relics Bureau, but in political system. But in 1562 Yan Song fell from power, and sad repair. From time to time reports appear in the Beijing
officials like Xu Jie, who took over dominance at the Ming Hammond Ken by Photo Evening News lamenting this state of affairs, but nothing yet court, called for the rehabilitation of Yan’s political victims. seems to have resulted from this. Yang Jisheng was posthumously restored to office, promot- Through the late Ming and on through the Qing dynasty, Descendents of Yang Perhaps the most intriguing aspect of this current phase ed, given honorary titles, and in 1567 the new Longqing then, Yang’s legacy was developed, appropriated, and Jisheng, Beihezhao, in Yang’s posthumous career can be seen in the preface to emperor ordered shrines to be built to praise his loyalty. deployed by diverse interest groups within Chinese society Hebei, 1999. the new edition of his writings. There he is portrayed as a By this time Wang Shizhen had become one of the most and political culture to promote a range of agendas. Emper- fighter against official corruption. And his spirit is invoked influential literary and cultural figures in China. He wrote a ors praised his loyalty and devotion to the throne. Literati with the explicit end of contributing to the building today of biography of Yang which drew the portrait of a righteous mar- held him up as a hero of Confucian morality, and a model for a new China of law, order, and public morality. < tyr, a Confucian hero who sacrificed his life to oppose Yan emulation. By extension they sought to enhance their own Song’s corruption and abuse of power. The new chief grand moral status by a process of ‘virtue by association’. His fam- Prof. Kenneth J. Hammond is Associate Professor and Department secretary, Xu Jie, wrote a funeral epitaph for Yang praising ily built on his fame as a fund of cultural capital in their rural Head in History at New Mexico State University. He is currently an his righteous spirit, artfully neglecting to note his own fail- society. In Lintao the local elite kept his educational founda- affiliated fellow at IIAS. Past President of the Society for Ming Stud- ure to defend Yang while serving as Yan Song’s subordinate. tion alive as a means of disseminating Confucian values and ies, he is the editor of The Human Tradition in Premodern China. Even the often iconoclastic writer Li Zhi articulated the story of promoting their own virtuous reputations. His research deals with the culture and politics of Ming dynasty and of Yang Jisheng in its essential heroic dimensions. Yang’s late imperial China. former residence in Beijing had a small shrine built in his Yang in the twentieth century Statue of Yang honour, and his memory came to be associated with the City The twentieth century saw the collapse of the Confucian Jisheng in his shrine God’s cult. In the late eighteenth century his memory was system in China, and in the course of revolution Yang Jisheng in Beihezhao, Hebei, revived when his home became a focal point for literati was consigned, temporarily it now appears, to the dustbin of 1999. activism, with a series of political groups using the space for history. By the 1960s his home in Beijing was subdivided for gatherings. Qing reformers from Zeng Guofan to Kang urban housing, his shrines were dismantled, even in his natal Youwei invoked Yang’s name in their own causes. village, and the Chaoran Terrace Academy became a ‘Peo- While these major literati figures established the ortho- ple’s Cultural Palace’. Confucian political martyrs were no dox treatment of Yang as martyr, his family was using his longer desirable figures for emulation in the age of Lei Feng. fame to build their own prestige in rural Hebei province. But that age has passed. In the years since the death of Mao When the Longqing emperor granted funds for shrines in Zedong in 1976, China has turned away from the path of Yang’s honour, the family undertook to build one in the vil- socialist revolution and embraced a new quest for wealth and lage of Beihezhao, with a copy of the imperial rescript power. In the process the ideals of Marxism and Maoism have carved on a stele for all to see. This shrine was carefully faded away. China today is in search of new ways to under- maintained and repeatedly restored, as was one in the coun- stand the world, and new moral guidelines for living in it. ty seat of Rongcheng, and the district capital in Baoding. One place in which at least some are searching for guidance Yang’s grave was in another village, about 25 km away and is in the legacy of Confucianism. It is in this context that we here, too, a shrine was built and sacrifices to his spirit were can understand the current revival of the cult of Yang Jisheng. maintained. Yang’s family endured, and kept the memory This revival is taking place in at least two of the traditional of their heroic ancestor alive through the end of the Ming, venues associated with his life, and may eventually involve throughout the Qing dynasty, and into the tumultuous years the third as well. of the twentieth century. In his native village his descendants, who now account for Meanwhile in Lintao, in Gansu province, the school Yang some 75 per cent of the local population, rebuilt his shrine
had established flourished. He had bought land to sustain in 1997. They have resumed the annual Qingming sacrifices Hammond Ken by Photo
14 IIAS Newsletter | #30 | March 2003 > Research & Reports Artificial Languages: Asian Backgrounds or Influences? The growth of European science in the Renaissance and afterwards was influenced by contributions from the a century before Newton’s work was made fully intelligible Research > Islamic world and from India and China. This well established fact refutes three common prejudices: (1) and others could do science without being a genius.’ For- General Modern science originated from ancient Greece with the Arabs acting as translators; (2) Arabs, Chinese, Euro- mulas could trigger a scientific revolution because they were Americans, and Indians inhabit separate cognitive worlds; and (3), the most preposterous: Science is easy to understand and soon became intelligible to large 20–21 September ‘Western’. The first prejudice is held by those whose history of science is outdated. The second is based upon numbers of people all over the world. But that simple hypoth- 2002 an idea of political correctness, not upon facts. The third is the favourite of groups with a special agenda, esis seems to have drowned in a flood of historical, eco- Leiden, sometimes hidden, for example, the superiority of ‘Occidental Reason’ or ‘Oriental Spirituality’. nomical, sociological, and political explanations that rarely the Netherlands touch the heart of science, which is knowledge. India provides a telling contrast: infinite power series that By Frits Staal may be uniquely human. The apparent paradox about artifi- are expansions of and the trigonometric functions of sine, cial languages is that they are, in their ideal form, inde- cosine, and so forth were discovered by Madhava in the late articipants in the workshop on ‘Asian contributions to pendent of natural language; but their origins and historical fourteenth century, almost three centuries before they were Pthe formation of modern science: the emergence of arti- development have been inspired by it. Linguistics, logic, and discovered in Europe by Gregory, Newton, and Leibniz. In ficial languages’ did not take any of these prejudices as their mathematics provide examples. Europe, infinite series were a powerful ingredient of the sci- vantage point. As specialists in the history of ancient and The earliest known artificial language is the metalanguage entific revolution. Indian mathematics was equally strong in medieval science, they knew that this crucial period of human of Panini’s grammar of Sanskrit (fifth century BCE). A meta- this respect and strong enough in any case to have similar history can only be adequately understood if the Eurasian language is a language in which an object language is consequences. But it was formulated in a complex form of continent is treated as an undivided unit. That insight evolved described and analysed. A grammar of Sanskrit – the object Sanskrit, more obscure than Newton’s Latin, and so nothing over more than half a century, roughly speaking from Otto language – may be composed in English, French or Japan- happened. I concluded in a 1995 article that the Sanskrit of Neugebauer to Joseph Needham (who died in 1995), and is ese – the metalanguages. Panini’s metalanguage makes tech- science was formal, but not formal enough to trigger a revo- based upon the textual and historical study of source mate- nical use of the sounds and case endings of Sanskrit. It results lution. It adds fuel to the idea that the so-called scientific rev- rials in the classical languages of science that include Ara- in artificial expressions such as: // na lingi // indre ca // aatah olution was really a mathematical revolution; and that math- bic, Old-Babylonian, Chinese, Greek, Latin, and Sanskrit. // iko yan aci // a a //. These formulas are not intelligible to ematical revolution was really a revolution in language. Much scientific content in these sources remains undis- Sanskrit speakers or scholars unless they are Panini special- Galileo had an inkling of it when he said that mathematics covered but a few generalities appear to be valid. Mesopotami- ists. Their explanation would fill a good part of an IIAS is the language of the universe. an science is earlier than any other and influenced China, Newsletter. The workshop confirmed that similar developments may Greece, and India, especially in astronomy. Chinese science have taken place elsewhere in Asia though there is no textu- reflects an organic philosophy of nature which manifests al evidence for historical connections. However, at least since itself in her chemistry and life sciences. India’s strength lies the Bronze Age, the traditional knowledge of practical pro- in abstract theory, as is evident from her mathematics and fessionals such as surveyors or ‘reckoners’, spread orally over linguistics, and the Arabs stand at the geographical and his- ‘It took a century before wide areas, not unlike languages. Ibn Sina (Avicenna) learned torical centre of pre-modern science. Modern science devel- Indian numerals not from books but from his grocer. Such oped when the classical languages were replaced by modern Newton’s work was made fully facts strengthen the idea of the Eurasian continent as an undi- languages and the artificial language of algebra (Arabic al- vided unit as well as the hypothesis that formalization is an jabr). The workshop looked for Asian backgrounds and influ- advance in cognition, rooted in human nature, shown halt- ences with regard to the latter development. ingly by the classical languages of science and, more fully, by Among the key speakers, Jens Høyrup (Roskilde) showed intelligible and others could do artificial languages. that Old-Babylonian ideograms do not constitute an algebraic Let us return to imaginary numbers which illustrate the symbolism (as had been suggested, with reservations, by science without being a genius.’ most mysterious power of artificial language; its inherent Neugebauer), but are mnemonic abbreviations of geometric knowledge. Imaginary numbers are puzzling not just because operations. Michio Yano (Kyoto) studied oral and written we cannot understand them, but because they solve prob- methods of transmission of expressions for numerals and Formalized logic and mathematics use variables (such as lems in mathematics and physics. It holds for other artificial numerical tables in Sanskrit. Kim Plofker (Providence) x, y), similar to pronouns which enable us to say: ‘If anyone expressions and seems to show that we are increasingly analysed al-Biruni’s comparison of Indian and Islamic math- wants food, he should go to the kitchen; if he wants a drink, unable to understand the universe (which includes human ematical techniques and notations. Karine Chemla (Paris) he should ask Johnny.’ Christoph Harsbsmeier observed that, language and the brain; in short, ourselves). It led to a slo- demonstrated how permutations of characters in a Chinese neither Plato, nor early Sanskrit or Chinese knew variables. gan; our goal is intelligibility not of the world, but of theories. mathematical text of the thirteenth century performed the They may use ‘such-and-such’ for an unnamed entity, but if Quantum theory put an end to even that. Heisenberg had function of brackets as used in modern notations. Charles they use it twice, it may refer to different entities. Aristotle already written that we should free ourselves from ‘intuitive Burnett (London) described the slow penetration of Indian discovered variables a little later and they occur in a roughly pictures’. Richard Feynman declared: ‘Nobody understands numerals into Arabic, Greek, and Latin, which, by the time contemporary Chinese legal text: ‘X (chia) and Y (i) do not quantum theory.’ Understanding seems to be a feeling gen- of Fibonacci in the thirteenth century, had led to a new way originally know each other. X goes on to rob Z (ping). As he erated by visual associations and/or natural language. Equa- of using numerals. Frits Staal (Berkeley), convener of the arrives, Y also goes along to rob Z, speaks with X’, etc. tions may convey knowledge and, as Stephen Hawking put workshop, argued that modern science is not a product of Aristotle and the Indian philosophers of the Nyaya-Vaise- it, ‘Even if there is only one possible unified theory, it is just Europe or world history but the result of a major advance in shika evolved a logic of subject and predicate, based upon a set of rules and equations.’ human cognition through language. This topic – more spec- natural language and artificial in its European forms. Both Artificial language has been slow in freeing itself from its ulative than any of the others – sheds light on the background erected on that slender foundation a metaphysics of sub- natural language background. It seems likely that it still has of the workshop and I shall return to it. stance and quality which is totally inappropriate to the study a long way to go. < The presentations were followed by lively discussions in of the universe (horse or water are not substances and neither which a crucial role was played by the chairs of the sessions; are white or weight qualities). It shows that artificial expres- References Kamaleswar Bhattacharya (Paris), Christoph Harbsmeier sions may be as misleading as the natural. - Feynman, Richard, The character of physical law, Cambridge: MIT (Oslo and Peking), Jan P. Hogendijk (Utrecht), and Dominik When negative numbers were discovered (by Babylonians, Press, (1964). Wujastyk (London). Chinese, Indians, ...), there was fierce opposition. Even in - Harbsmeier, Christoph, Language and Logic = Needham, Joseph, The workshop was a resounding success with its high level the seventeenth century, John Wallis declared that it is impos- Science and Civilisation in China, Vol. 7, Part I, Cambridge: Cam- of discussion and a fruitful exchange of ideas on fundamental sible for a quantity to be less than nothing or a number less bridge University Press (1998). issues. The proceedings will be edited by Staal and Yano and than zero. But we got used to them. Imaginary numbers are - Hawking, Stephen, The Illustrated Brief History of Time, New York published in the Journal of Indian Philosophy and, perhaps, a still puzzling. If we multiply any number by itself, the result etc.: Bantam Books (1996). volume of the Synthese Library. is a positive number: 2 times 2 is 4 but so is -2 times -2. We - Park, David, The How and the Why. An Essay on the Origins and may accordingly extract the roots of positive numbers only. Development of Physical Theory, Princeton: Princeton University Background of the workshop I: However, an enterprising mathematician proposed to give Press (1988). The history of artificial a name to the impossible -1 and call it i. We now know - Staal, Frits, ‘The Sanskrit of Science’, Journal of Indian Philosophy language i2= -1, but do we understand it? 23(1995), pp.73-127. I have been asked why I should have convened such a - Truesdell, C., Essays in the History of Mechanics, New York: Springer workshop with specialists in the history of ancient and Background of the workshop II: Verlag (1968). medieval science. Its ultimate source lies in my interest in The power of artificial the origin of language and in its natural and artificial forms, language Prof. Frits Staal is Professor Emeritus of Philosophy and of South perhaps the defining feature of human animals. Compared Historians of science agree that Newton’s Latin was often and Southeast Asian Studies, University of California at Berkeley, to natural language, the artificial variety is recent; its origins unclear. All the formulas that are referred to as ‘Newton’s California. He will be teaching a course on the History of Buddhism lie in antiquity. Is the artificial a mere extension of (part of) equations’ were introduced later by Euler, Daniel Bernouilli at Leiden University in the fall of 2003. His interests include San- the natural? Or is it something entirely different? Natural and other mathematicians. C. Truesdell wrote in 1968: ‘It is skrit, logic, linguistics, ritual, and the history of science. language is constrained by the mouth and ears we share with true that we, today, can easily read them into Newton’s words, See http://philosophy.berkeley.edu/staal other animals, and a computational system in the brain that but we do so by hindsight.’ David Park added in 1988: ‘It took [email protected]
IIAS Newsletter | #30 | March 2003 15 > Research & Reports Colonial and Post-Colonial Hybridities: Eurasians in India Among the enduring legacies of the colonial encounter are any number of contemporary ‘mixed-race’ Research > populations, descendants of the offspring of sexual unions involving European men (colonial officials, South Asia soldiers, traders, and so forth) and local women. This research concerns one such group, the Eurasians, or Anglo-Indians. Despite the withdrawal of the British from India, the community has persisted, shaped indelibly by its colonial heritage, yet also transformed by post-colonial circumstances.
By Lionel Caplan with perhaps 10-15,000 resident in were seen by their British rulers, at Madras. As in the past, they tend to be times, as potential enemies and, at oth- uring the centuries of Britain’s concentrated in particular neighbour- ers, as allies in their imperial adven- Dimperial rule a substantial num- hoods, generally in central areas of the ture, alternately preferred and promot- ber of officers, soldiers, and civilians city where their churches and schools ed or thwarted and victimized. This served the East India Company and, are to be found. Recently, however, ris- kind of oscillation was especially evi- later, the Government of India. Men of ing land costs and house rentals have dent in the occupational realm; in the diverse European nationalities – main- propelled many into outlying suburbs, ‘early’ colonial period, Anglo-Indian Eurasians, or Anglo- ly British, but others as well – also came and led to greater dispersal of the com- males were relatively free to follow a Indians as they were to trade or seek employment in various munity. range of activities. For a time from the subsequently to be sectors of the colonial economy. Many ‘Hybrid’ groups, however demo- end of the eighteenth century they were designated, settled established domestic relationships with graphically insignificant, invite serious excluded from many civil and most mil- mostly in and around Indian women, resulting in the birth of scholarly attention because, among itary services under the government, urban centres like children and the emergence of a other things, they blur the divide but by the middle of the nineteenth Madras. ‘mixed-race’ or ‘hybrid’ population. between colonizer and colonized, ques- century they were allowed favoured if Eurasians, or Anglo-Indians as they tioning the very efficacy of these labels restricted access to positions of inter- ridicule, and were seen as combining dynamic – a remarkable degree of self- were subsequently to be designated, (Stoler 1989). Moreover, they not only mediate responsibility in central gov- the worst qualities of both ‘founding awareness and group consciousness settled mostly in and around urban cen- underline the impossibility of viewing ernment sectors (railways, telegraphs, races’. These attitudes were reflected in from at least the early nineteenth cen- tres like Madras (recently renamed rulers and ruled as universal and undif- customs, etc.) and, from the early years English-language fiction about India, tury. In spite of their disparate origins Chennai), the locus of the present ferentiated categories, but question the of the twentieth century, in the wake of much of it written by colonial Euro- they came to regard themselves as pos- research. While we know that they analyst’s treatment of Europeans and nationalist pressures, they were peans (Nabar and Bharucha 1994). In sessing a distinct identity of their own descended from a medley of different colonizers as synonymous. Such popu- increasingly exposed to competition both life and fiction they were fre- (Hawes 1996). national groups on the paternal side, it lations also beg a host of queries about from members of the wider society in quently portrayed in disparaging stereo- From the end of the first quarter of is virtually impossible to say more continuities and transformations in the virtually all areas of their ‘traditional’ types, many of which focused on the twentieth century, however, when it about the initial maternal progenitors post-colonial world. How does a employment spheres. These last devel- women, who were regarded as the prin- became apparent that British rule in other than that they were of disparate ‘hybrid’ community imagine and opments exacerbated the extent of cipal mimics of European mores and India was drawing to a close, increas- caste and religious origins. In time, describe itself to others and to itself? poverty within the Anglo-Indian fold seducers of their men. ingly voices were heard within the com- their progeny intermarried and became How does it understand its past, con- but, at the same time, as women munity urging alliance with the nation- aware of themselves as distinct from template its future, and live in the pres- increasingly entered the workplace, this Self-identification alist project. In the contemporary the surrounding Indian population, ent? What practices does it posit as hardship was somewhat mitigated; for Notwithstanding the Euro-colonial setting, Anglo-Indian elites, who share with a common language (English) and marking its ‘culture’ and so, its dis- some decades now many households at social practices and attitudes which dis- the multi-ethnic, multi-religious, and religion (Christianity), as well as other tinctiveness? What are the ingredients the lower end of the class hierarchy tanced and demeaned this ‘mixed-race’ cosmopolitan ambience of India’s afflu- shared cultural attributes. The colonial of this culture given the diverse origins have relied on women as the main ent, insist on a strong local connection. government’s fluctuating policies of its population, and what changes in providers, a factor which has profound At the other end of the spectrum, towards this group contributed to the these cultural habits have occurred with implications for gender roles and rela- among the most disadvantaged, economic distress of the majority, while the withdrawal of the colonial power? tions within the community. enveloped in the surroundings of the recent developments have driven many We cannot hope to attend to all of these Thus, in the post-independence peri- poor, a variety of credentials are enun- further into poverty; only some have questions here, although I have tried to od Anglo-Indians have gradually lost ciated, as alternative forms of associa- benefited from new opportunities in do so elsewhere (see Caplan 2001). For the protected status they enjoyed in cer- tion become possible. It is principally the post-colonial economy. Since the present it is important to inquire tain occupational niches, and have had within the middle ranks of Anglo-India, India’s independence, a significant about the attitudes of the British to this to survive in an unsteady economic cli- where economic uncertainties and proportion of Anglo-Indians – as many ‘mixed-race’ population. mate, increasingly subject to global ‘downward mobility’ have been most as half – have left India to settle in the influences which have, if anything, acutely felt, that claims to a European West, chiefly Britain and Australia. Colonial attitudes adversely affected those least educated pedigree continue to be declared in con- Today, the Anglo-Indian population in Like similar ‘mixed-race’ groups in and skilled. Without the protection temporary Madras. These claims, how- India totals approximately 125,000, the colonized world, Anglo-Indians afforded to ‘scheduled castes’ or ‘back- ever, either meet derision or fall on deaf ward classes’ – who comprise the bulk ears both within the now dominant of the disadvantaged in contemporary groups in Indian society, including the Indian society – the Anglo-Indian poor elites of their own community, and out- feel themselves to be suffering dispro- side it, where they are meant to be portionately. At the same time, the colo- heard by governments in the ‘first nial ceiling which confined Anglo-Indi- world’ assumed to be in search of cul-
All photos by Lionel Caplan Lionel by photos All ans within certain work spaces lifted turally westernized immigrant popula- with the withdrawal of the British, and population, those who spoke for and tions. today there is a small but growing elite about Anglo-India – with only some – highly educated, cosmopolitan, pro- exceptions – insisted, until very near Boundaries, identities, fessional, and comfortably-off – which the end of the colonial period, on cultures has become part of the larger upper unequivocal association with the dom- The post-colonial condition is fre- middle class in India, and benefited inant European group. Encouraged, no quently represented by its theorists as from new liberalization and structural doubt, by their special privileges in being characterized by, among other adjustment policies. employment and education (in com- things, fluid boundaries, multiple iden- There is a wide consensus among parison to other Indians), their com- tities, and creolized cultures. The impli- scholars of colonialism in India that, mon language of English and adher- cation is that contemporary ambigui- from the end of the eighteenth centu- ence to the Christian faith, and their ties contrast with the clear-cut identities ry, a transformation occurred in the inadvertent alignment with the politi- of the colonial period. This research relationship between British rulers and cal project of colonial rule, they identi- questions the validity of such a distinc- those over whom they exercised domin- fied themselves – in the idioms of blood tion, insisting that these ambiguities ion. The growth of ‘scientific racism’ in and culture – to themselves and to oth- have been a part of the colonial past as early nineteenth-century Europe saw ers as unequivocally British, employing well. The efforts of European coloniz- the ‘hybrid’ become a trope for moral essentialist discourses which denied ers to demarcate subject populations failure and degeneration, and led to the hybridity and proclaimed purity. At the were frequently undermined by the increasingly negative evaluation and same time, alongside colonial dis- very people on whom they sought to status abasement of Anglo-Indians by courses associating themselves with impose their classifications, giving rise British elites in India. Branded with a their British rulers, Anglo-Indians par- to porous boundaries and permeable Two portraits of number of degrading epithets, they adoxically exhibited – a result of both groupings. For one thing, British cen- Anglo-Indians. became figures of contempt and external compulsion and internal sus officials and the Anglo-Indian lead-
16 IIAS Newsletter | #30 | March 2003 > Research & Reports ership were equally perplexed not only by the tendency for Anglo-Indians to declare themselves Europeans, but by When It Is Good To Be Bad the significant numbers of those appar- ently not deserving of an Anglo-Indian label who proclaimed themselves as such to the census takers. For another, Medieval Indo-Tibetan Tantric Buddhist Apologetics marriage outside the group, especially When do you think it could be good to be bad? Had you met Hitler in a dark alley in Vienna It happens to be in immediate conflict at both extremes of the class spectrum, Research > in the 1920’s, and been armed with infallible foresight, would it have been good to kill him, with monastic celibacy as well as, in the led to ‘evaporation’ out of and ‘infiltra- South Asia even though killing is otherwise bad? component of oral insemination, with tion’ into its ranks, resulting in wider Indian norms of purity. The fact extremely porous boundaries and fluid By Isabelle Onians institutional acceptance, who was package, with its provision of physical that it figures at such an early stage in identities. The greater frequency of shocked? What were the mores of Bud- accoutrements, having purified the initiation is unlikely to be pure chance. these external unions since independ- his question is as apposite today as dhists? Were they different from the body. Abhayåkaragupta explains the impor- ence has undoubtedly created new Tever. By the time these words are ethics of proponents of other religions, The third is the wisdom-knowledge tance of the union when he asserts that hybridities, increased the complexity of published the concept of a pre-emptive and those in the secular world? initiation (prajñåjñånåbhiäeka). In it the the third initiation must be taken for identity claims, and enhanced the pos- strike may well have been pushed to its Before revealing one or two explicit student himself has intercourse with full entitlement to higher Tantric prac- sibilities for and range of such choices. illogical limit as justification for inva- examples of the normalized antinomi- the consort. It is said in turn to purify tice. He appeals to the standard author- Anglo-Indian women – mainly but not sion of a country which happens to anism we have so far only alluded to, the mind. The fourth is different, sim- ities, scripture and reason, to prove that exclusively from better-off families – encompass Mesopotamia, the cradle of the counter-intuitive data should be ply called the fourth (caturtha-), and without having experienced the innate have continued to make marriages out- civilization. Not to mention that launch- noted: the sheer volume of Victorian consists of an explanation by the reality which is the bliss of non-duality side the Anglo-Indian fold, while many ing such an attack must rank highly as and modern vilification swamps the teacher of the nature of reality (tattva). one cannot go on to discuss it in the males from the least well-off families, a cause for being attacked oneself. scarce evidence for attacks found in Evidently these two erotic events fourth initiation. If we were to follow denied connubium within the com- Perhaps violence, for example, is contemporary medieval sources. would be out of bounds for a monk, through his unspoken argument, it munity, have been compelled to seek more normal or normalized in some Besides this remarkable imbalance, whether as candidate for initiation or would thus be impossible to direct post- partners among the poor outside it. traditions than others. Yet to call an act the tradition itself offers few deliber- teacher. One can cast monastics in initiatory practice towards the goal of Such fluidity is echoed in the cul- normal is different from formulating ately theoretical apologetics. Given that these roles because of the second sense realizing that reality. tural domain. Most Anglo-Indians the paradox that the abnormal is nor- Tantric Buddhists presented their sys- in which this antinomianism is as a However, in Tantric Buddhism we insist that certain cultural habits – mal. Discussing various aspects of rules tem in powerfully paradoxical terms, norm. find that a whole plethora of antisocial related especially to their kinship, reli- is not the same as envisaging a system this implies that they were conscious of Early Tantric practitioners appear to practices, including killing and vio- gion, language, dress, food, and mar- which makes it the rule to break the the apparently bizarre nature of their have rejected general morality. Howev- lence, are the natural complement to riage regimes – are distinctive of their rules: antinomianism as a norm. practices. Were they not driven to make er, the method definitely became insti- sex. way of life, and differentiate them Antinomianism comes in at least two a reasoned defence against charges of tutionalized. By the tenth and eleventh Already in Mahåyåna Buddhism, in from other groups in the society. How- forms: strong or weak. Weak antino- moral delinquency, from within their centuries eminent abbots of great the centuries before the rise of Tantric ever, as we might expect, class location mianism is permissive: one may do own religion and without? monastic universities in India and Tibet Buddhism, such activities were, in cer- has an important impact on the prac- what is bad and nevertheless somehow Tantric Buddhist authors were not were high-ranked proponents of the tain circumstances, permitted for the tice of culture; people in the middle remain not guilty. Strong antinomian- overly concerned with apologetics, nei- Tantric Buddhist way. Ratn åkaraçånti, bodhisattva, because he was a new type ranks clothe and feed themselves and ism is normative: one is compelled to ther in the sense of regretfully excusing Abhayåkaragupta, and Atiça Dïpam.- whose motivation was broadened to celebrate their marriages in somewhat commit an offence, with the same an offence or failure (to apologize), nor karaçrïjñåna are well-known exponents include the spiritual well-being of different ways from those at either end impunity. Antinomianism as a norm is even in the paradigmatic sense of Euro- of this phenomenon of the normaliza- everyone alive. If we meditate again on of the social order. Further, though strong antinomianism: one is obliged pean texts offering ideological justifi- tion of antinomianism, and sophisti- a hypothetical meeting with a young widely perceived and even celebrated to transgress. cation (apologias). Perhaps what was cated advocates for, even, the contra- Hitler, the threefold question is as unfailingly – and stereotypically – From the beginnings of Buddhism, later labelled disgusting did not arouse vention of the rules of monastic whether a bodhisattva: 1) could get away Western, Anglo-Indian ways of life action has famously been defined as such emotions at that time. Or, was the discipline. with murder; 2) would carry out the have clearly been much influenced by intention. It is not what you do, but the silence due to the absolute esotericism In the writings of these men are deed, because that is the kind of man cultural practices in their local sur- way that you do it, or why. That sounds of the system? answers to our flurry of questions: what he is; or finally 3) should do so since to roundings, and increasingly so since like weak antinomianism. Provided one Moreover, the obscure nature of this happens when candidate or initiating do otherwise would be wrong. This last India’s independence, notwithstand- has the correct intention, slapping a religion is, it should be noted, a real master is a monk? From where did the is our strong antinomianism: not only ing the impacts of westernization and child or ostracising an adult may be the obstacle to any enquiry, including this. female partners come, and could they is it good to be bad; it would be bad to globalization. The urban cultural best medicine. The corollary and, per- I have been threatened with what one be initiated on their own behalves? be good. milieu in which Anglo-Indians were haps, the point is that coveting one’s might call the Valley of the Kings syn- And, perhaps most crucial of all, what In Tantric Buddhism a different, and continue to be situated is there- brother’s wife is a crime, whether or not drome. In parallel to the torments earthly function are these sensual rela- homeopathic principle is at stake. fore best viewed as creolized. Such an the seduction succeeds. When one has explorers of Egyptian monumental tions supposed to serve on the path to Homeopathy refers to a treatment of approach stresses the notion of a con- no choice but to be cruel, for someone’s tombs suffered last century, the study enlightenment? What kind of causal disease which should produce the dis- tinuum, thereby acknowledging not own good and that of others, then that of Tantric texts is said to be potentially relationship can one imagine between ease’s symptoms. However, unlike the only diversity within the group, but is strong antinomianism. fatal, or lead, at the very least, to oral insemination and sexual inter- twentieth century medical tradition, mutual influence and overlap between For a Buddhist monk or a nun, how- madness. course on the one hand, and transcen- Tantric Buddhism does not distil its cultural groups, and hence Anglo- ever, rules and regulations are non-pro- That is because their medicine is dent liberation on the other? drugs until there is nothing but shad- India’s constant negotiation with visory. Their five fundamental precepts strong stuff, strong enough to be able While illicit pleasures need not be ows remaining in the medicine. ‘mainstream’ society and culture. In are equally binding for the laity: to to swiftly heal the entrenched ailment sufficient conditions for spiritual The disease in Buddhism is ‘igno- this sense, Anglo-Indians serve as refrain absolutely from killing, theft, which is human suffering. Without the release, if they are not necessary con- rance without beginning’, in tandem both a factor in and a potent reminder sexual misbehaviour, lying, and intoxi- personality to withstand the treatment, ditions then why ever take the risk of with the other afflictions, passion and of the fluidity of the urban social envi- cation by liquor. The single amendment disaster is inevitable. Only a teacher’s indulging them? Some claimed that aversion, and their subsidiaries, pride ronment during the colonial no less for a monastic individual, or, tem- consummate professional judgement this was a specialised strategy for and jealousy. The central triad can be than the post-colonial periods. < porarily, for a householder, is that the can determine one’s suitability. With- pulling the attainment of enlighten- reformulated as ‘yes, no, and don’t third is, effectively, the vow of sexual out the guidance of a teacher, even read- ment into the time-frame of one’s pres- know’. The overwhelming symptom of References abstinence, brahmacarya. ing the texts is firmly disallowed. ent life, for instance, instead of leaving the sickness is suffering (duh. kha). Dis- - Caplan, Lionel, Children of Colonialism: Such are the rules which it must be Accordingly, we will start where an nirvåña, the remote if not unattainable satisfaction may be a better translation, Anglo-Indians in a Postcolonial World, the rule to break for us to have found aspirant to the religion would begin, goal on offer in many traditions. because it is caused by our ‘ignorance Oxford: Berg (2001). our paradox. Logically impossible with initiation, the point of transfor- This is not the place to analyse the without beginning’ of the one - Hawes, Christopher J., Poor Relations: the maybe, but that is precisely what mation from being an outsider to apologetic details found in the writings inescapable fact of life: impermanence. Making of a Eurasian Community in British Tantric Buddhism uses as self-defini- belonging. The paradoxical employ- of establishment commentators: name- Scriptural verses from the Heva- India, 1773-1833, London: Curzon (1996). tion. One scriptural verse is quoted ment of the afflictions (kleças) is ritual- ly, whether the initiations are sine qua jratantra insist that fitting similes for - Nabar, Vrinda and Nilofer E. Bharucha countless times: what is a bond for fools ized in the second and third of the non for a Tantric enlightenment; if so, the mysterious workings of Tantric (eds.), Postcolonial Perspectives on the Raj – non-Tantrics – is the means to free- developed set of four initiations whether monks can properly enact Buddhism are that it is like someone and its Literature, Bombay: University of dom from bondage for the wise – (abhiäekas), found first in the eighth- them with a substitute mind-made, vir- with flatulence eating beans, or the Bombay (1994). Tantric adepts. century Guhyasamåja Yoga Tantra and tual, and hence virtuous, consort, rather fuller who uses clay (‘dirt’) to clean - Stoler, Ann Laura, ‘Rethinking Colonial Tantric Buddhism is notorious for then in all the Yoginï Tantras (Heva- than with an incriminating woman of cloth. Thus, passion, aversion, and Categories: European Communities and this claim. The shock of first acquain- jratantra et al.). The first initiation is a flesh and blood; how exactly, in that ignorance have become their own anti- the Boundaries of Rule’, Comparative tance with its practices has repeatedly group of innocuous rites of prepara- case, it is that the initiations are neces- dote. < Studies in Society and History, 31: 134–161 discouraged modern inquirers, while tion. sary; the connection between ontology (1989). the lure of forbidden pleasures has led The second of the four is called the and ethics such that if the phenomenal Dr Isabelle Onians is currently teaching many contemporary seekers to the reli- secret initiation (guhyåbhiäeka). This world is the illusion Mahåyåna Bud- Tibetan at School of Oriental and African Professor Lionel Caplan is Emeritus Profes- gion, albeit in its radically bowdlerized involves the teacher having sexual inter- dhist philosophy demonstrates it to be, Studies (SOAS), University of London, and sor of South Asian Anthropology and Pro- present forms. course with a female consort. He places then no harm is really done; but then is a full-time translator of Sanskrit literature fessorial Research Associate, School of Ori- However, in medieval India and some of his semen on the student’s again, if so, why perform the passion- for a new series, the Clay Sanskrit Library ental and African Studies (SOAS), Tibet, between the eighth and eleventh tongue. The sources agree that the ate charade in the first place; and so on. www.claysanskritlibrary.com (launch 2003). University of London. centuries, when the ideas under con- purification of speech is brought about Sex is not the only or main manifes- [email protected] [email protected] sideration were undeniably gaining by this act, the previous preliminary tation of the religion’s antinomianism.
IIAS Newsletter | #30 | March 2003 17 > Research & Reports Sanskrit Manuals on Dance It is amazing how some performers in India believe that Bharatanatyam and other styles of modern classical down as inseparable parts of ‘classical dance’ in Sanskrit man- - - Research > dance are several thousands years old and have been described in the Nat.ya´sastra. This opinion is usually uals on performing arts. Nearly one hundred Sanskrit texts South Asia based on a vague reference to ‘some old texts’. Historical documents aside, even a comparative study of the dealing with dance technique, in at least one chapter, have Sanskrit manuals on dance reveals great differences between the performing traditions of various times. One been discovered either as (in)complete manuscripts or as of the most interesting aspects of such a study is tracing back the development of technical terminology used being mentioned or quoted in subsequent works. Unfortu- by the dance practitioners to codify the nuances of their art. nately, most of them have been irretrievable until now. The technical vocabulary of instructors and performers of By Marina V. Orelskaya mistaking such compilations for original sources. The lacon- modern classical Indian dance contains a comparatively small ic references to various historical and mythological charac- part of the terminology used in old Sanskrit manuals. Even ery few Sanskrit works on dance are extant today. The ters and events in these treatises added even more compli- then, the interpretation of many terms varies significantly Vmain textual material comes from medieval treatises on cations. Should we be able to trace back these textual portions, from school to school and very often is far from correct. The dramatic art and musicology, which occasionally provide a however, such borrowings could play an important role in lack of collaboration between practising dancers and schol- separate chapter on dance technique. As a rule, those chap- the reconstruction of actual texts as well as the paths of devel- ars of Sanskrit does not help the situation. In fact, major (Våcanåcårya Sudhåkalaça) (Våcanåcårya ters on dance are dealt with by the scholars with another main opment of dance theory and practice. establishments of classical dance training in India do not field of research. Indeed, there was hardly any demand for a Having studied technical Sanskrit works on Indian dance seem to encourage dancers to study Sanskrit treatises on the detailed investigation of long lost visual art forms. A detailed for over a decade, and being familiar with the practical danc- technique of their art, giving the reason that young dancers catalogue of Sanskrit works describing dance has never been ing, I have come to realize that, in contemporary Indological ‘become confused’ over the discrepancies between many the- compiled. Few such treatises have ever been published or and cultural studies, there is a considerable lacuna caused ories and the practice they learn. The vast gap between schol- translated. by the absence of a complete etymological and encyclopaedic ars and dancers had already been registered in the middle of The current situation exists for several reasons. The San- dictionary of the authentic terminology used by the ancient the fourteenth century AD, when Våcanåcårya Sudhåkalaça skrit terminology used in the dance manuals is extremely dance experts. wrote in his San.gïtopaniäatsaroddhåra (VI.129): ‘These days, complicated and was not taken into consideration at the time Although there are some special glossaries of the Indian the dancers are stupid, and the scholars are not practition- of preparation of the Sanskrit dictionaries in use. It often hap- performing arts, including modern classical dance, none of ers. There is no practice without dancers, there is no success pens that the terminology found in different manuals from those works provides either the etymology or the history of through theory without this [practice].’ Apparently, the com- the same region and time period will differ significantly in development of the terms. Moreover, most of these works are plex and highly codified system in which the dance technique their usage, due to the multiplicity of contemporary dance written in Indian languages, and that considerably narrows has gradually developed was not easily understood by the schools in existence, even within a single dance tradition. the availability of information. practical dancers even at that time. Generally speaking, their Moreover, those very terms can have one meaning in the con- The original Sanskrit sources allow for tracing back the reluctance to go through the additional burden of learning text of drama or music and a completely different meaning development of some dance terminology to the Vedic times. the extensive collection of various terms and their interpre- in the context of dance. As a result, it is quite difficult to inter- Dance is mentioned in the Rgveda, and although there are no tations in Sanskrit, on one side, and the impossibility or pret the technical nuances of a dance chapter in a treatise on special terms found in this text, investigation of later literary unwillingness of the competent Sanskrit scholars to under- music or dramatic art. Most of the modern classical Indian sources reflects the existence and development of a dance- go the actual training in dance, on the other, unmistakably dance styles are simplified and modified versions of territo- related vocabulary with a considerably narrowed sphere of resulted in a gradual division of the dance experts into theo- rially limited schools and are not of much help in the study usage. Some of the words had been later dropped, while oth- reticians, who described the dance technique in their schol- of codification systems of Sanskrit works on dance. ers were fixed into terminological groups used by profes- arly treatises on performing arts, and practitioners, who pre- Much information has also disappeared with the loss of sional dance instructors. Sometimes, with the rise of new served the knowledge of dance by passing it in oral and visual numerous texts due to suppression of this art in certain peri- performing traditions and the fall of old ones, the original forms to the next generation of professional performers. The ods of Indian history; on the other hand, several spurs for meaning and etymology of such terms were lost and later on scarcity of the original texts being edited and translated, the temporal flourishing of dance had caused a number of substituted by medieval authors and commentators on the absence of dictionaries of ancient Indian dance terminolo- medieval authors to produce manuals that were influenced Sanskrit treatises. Also, a number of terms were replaced by gy, and the aversion of the majority of modern practical by short-lived local traditions. Ultimately, the remains of once equivalents from the Dravidian languages. With the course dancers to study the past of their art have all combined, in rich literary sources are slowly disintegrating in present-day of time, the dance manuals were becoming more and more the end, to restrict the number of competent specialists in manuscript collections, with almost nothing being done to intricate, because almost every author tended to complicate the field. The situation can be clearly observed even at the improve the situation. the subject by cramming all possible information known to present time. Professional dancers today usually lack sufficient knowl- him under a single title. In view of these circumstances, I have undertaken the proj- edge of Sanskrit and are not required to analyse the manu- The special works on histrionics had already existed at the ect of compiling an encyclopaedic dictionary of the technical als that they learn by heart during their dance training. The time of Panini (fifth or fourth century BC), who calls them terms used in the original Sanskrit texts on dance technique, secrets of the performing arts in India have always been con- naõasútra-s, and were apparently quite common by the time with the etymological references whenever possible. The data veyed personally from teacher to pupil, and questions aris- of the Nåõyaçåstra (circa 200 BC to AD 200). Although this is being collected from all the available manuals, starting with ing during the learning process were answered in accordance treatise is regarded as the oldest available manual in the field the Nåõyaçåstra and including those of the eighteenth cen- with the competence of the teacher. Quite often, the old man- of Indian histrionics, there could be a number of fragments tury AD. The passages of some lost works, quoted in later uals were altered to fit a later, more familiar dance tradition. of older works kept in the manuscript collections of South treatises and commentaries, are also being taken into In this way, the original concepts were misinterpreted and India. The Nåõyaçåstra demonstrates, apart from other things, account. occasionally changed. As a result, any attempt to work with the existence of fairly developed forms of canonical (classi- Preparation of the dictionary is proceeding in consecutive Sanskrit manuals on dance technique becomes a difficult cal) dance, which are distinguished from the regional (pop- steps. Various editions and the available manuscripts of the task, which is further impeded by innumerable textual inter- ular) dances. Being constantly in progress, the ancient canon- Sanskrit texts are being compared word by word. The terms, polations, substitutions, and anonymous quotations. Authors ical choreography was gradually blending with various their definitions, and usage are analysed to trace back their and compilers of manuals have tended to include large tex- aspects of the regional dances, thus producing various dance origin and the possible ways of development. Often, refer- tual portions of previous major works into their own, with- styles that began to prevail in certain geographical areas. In ences to non-technical sources of Sanskrit literature are out naming the original sources. This leads to further con- time, the innovations were regarded as the ones canonized required in order to determine the meaning of certain dance
‘These days, the dancers are stupid, and the scholars are not practitioners’ not are scholars the and stupid, are dancers the days, ‘These fusion amongst scholars, wrong interpretations, and even to by some competent preceptors and were gradually noted terms in various periods of time. One of the significant fea- tures of the dictionary is that the extensive lists of the uses [advertisement] prescribed for postures and movements of bodily limbs in dance and drama (viniyoga) are being included and compared as well. I sincerely believe that, upon completion, the dictionary will be able to be used by scholars from various fields, as well as by the practising dancers of various styles. The comparative meth- ods developed in the course of my research can be employed to study other manuals on Indian performing arts, including their popular forms. The dictionary will be of great help in the preparation of translations and critical editions of unpublished Sanskrit treatises on dance and, perhaps, even in reconstruct- ing the actual technique of old Indian dances. <
Dr Marina Orelskaya is a postgraduate in Indian philology from the Saint Petersburg State University (Russia). In India, she completed two PhD dissertations on various aspects of Sanskrit treatises on per- forming arts, while also studying modern classical Indian dance. Her research interests include editing and studying of literary sources on dance technique, and the relations between Indian dance, mythol- ogy, religion, and psychology. She lectures at the Department of Per- forming Arts, University of Pune, India and was a Gonda postdoc- toral fellow at the IIAS, Leiden (1 March 2002 – 31 July 2002) [email protected]
18 IIAS Newsletter | #30 | March 2003 > Research & Reports Global Performances in Jaipur The International Federation for Theatre Research (IFTR) held its annual Hobby-horse danc- Report > conference in Jaipur under the joint sponsorship of the Jawahar Kala ing in the inner South Asia Kendra and the University of Rajasthan, with the theme ‘Ethnicity and courtyard of the identity: global performance’. This was the first time that the IFTR Jawahar Kala Kendra, 4–9 January 2003 (founded in 1955) has held its annual conference in an Asian nation, Jaipur. Jaipur, Rajasthan, signalling a new recognition for the importance of Asian theatre India scholarship and practice in the field of world theatre.
By Matthew Isaac Cohen getic Ravi Chaturvedi managed to duction of Jean Genet’s The Maids in attract the IFTR’s annual conference to Manila that he rehearsed in September heatre studies is, in many Euro- the pink city of Jaipur. 2001. Christina Nygren sited itinerant Tpean and non-European countries, commercial theatres in Japan, China, a subsidiary field of literature and, con- Asian theatre and the IFTR India, and Bangladesh, sketching por- sequently, is oriented toward the study The IFTR, despite its ‘international’ traits of numerous popular theatres and of dramatic texts. Theatre studies in nomenclature, has been in historical their audiences. Tim Prentki related his Britain, for example, emerged in the practice centred on Europe. African version of Theatre for Development, argu- 1950s from the field of English litera- conference delegates are predomi- ing for the necessity of community-ori-
ture, and the concerns of scholars were nantly white South Africans, Latin ented art as an antidote to the mono- Cohen Matthew photos: All largely historical and textual well into Americans are few and far between, culture of McDonald’s and Microsoft. the 1980s. Theatrical practitioners in and North Americans participate pref- Jung Soon Shim discussed the purging tional delegates. The same could not of historical links and contemporary European nations have in contrast been erentially at the annual Association for of Han historical trauma in Park Jo-yol’s have been said of two impromptu per- commonalities across Asian theatre fascinated with the traditional theatres Theatre in Higher Education confer- The Toenails of General Oh, while Ran- formances, organized at the last minute and shared methodological issues that of Japan, China, India, and Indonesia ences. The organization has recognized bir Singh related the significance of at the craft village adjoining the Jawa- engage scholars of all ‘ethnic’ and non- since the eighteenth century. The influ- Asia, and has had Asian members Parsi theatre in India’s nationalist har Kala Kendra. Rajasthan folk per- Western performance. Many questions ence of Asian theatres on playwrights since its inception, but it was only in the movement. formance is renowned for its variety emerge in such encounters. How does as diverse as Goethe, Brecht, and Yeats, last years that a significant concentra- A definite highpoint of the confer- and vitality and it was a great treat to see one introduce a complex theatre of an and most of the major directors of the tion of delegates coalesced to rally for ence was a plenary panel of three these performances enacted in a more- ethnic other to a ‘lay audience’ while past century, is undeniable. The aca- an Asian conference. British scholars discussing the current or-less appropriate context, with the attending to both artistic richness and West End musical hit, Bombay Dreams. conference’s student volunteers socio-cultural location? What is the This rags-to-riches tale of a child of the response-singing. A Shekhawati Khay- responsibility of the scholar to explicate Mumbai slums who makes good in the al group performed a folk version of non-local influences and origins, and if Bombay film world is essentially a stage The Killing of Kichaka, in a style clearly one does study such matters does this version of a Bollywood movie. This influenced by Parsi theatre, and a Kath- then deprive a theatre of its appearance panel discussion of a recycled version putli group presented a new play with of originality? Does any academic study of an Asian cinematic form tailored for string puppets and music entitled of an unfamiliar theatre run the risk of a South Asian diasporic audience and Bhutraj, which I devised together with being appropriated by agents of a state ‘Backstage’ at a the globalized cultural market garnered the Jaipur-based puppeteer-musician or cultural actors as a validation or cel- Shekhawati Khyal considerable attention from the local Gajadhar Bharat. At the same time that ebration of their activities, even if not folk drama perform- media. The musical’s commercial tra- the conference was taking place in the intended by the author? Does a scholar ance at the craft vil- jectory was described as disrupting Jawahar Kala Kendra, this same arts have the moral ground to stand on to be lage adjoining the national dichotomies, offering multi- centre was being used to audition and critical of a non-Western theatre in the Jawahar Kala Kendra, culturalism as consumer brand. rehearse a troupe of Rajasthani folk per- same sense that one can be critical of Jaipur. The play per- Most of the panels featured Indian formers for a tour of the Middle East. one’s own theatre? All of these ques- formed was an scholars of theatre, history, political sci- Partially as a result of this, other per- tions (and more) could be engaged episode from the ence, literature, and folklore speaking formances and workshops (including among the very special confluence of Mahabharata, ‘The about a large range of Indian and non- hobby-horse dancing and social danc- scholars gathered in Jaipur. Killing of Kichaka’. Indian theatres. Such was the degree ing) blended into the conference in less At the conference’s closing session, a that Asian performance was embraced formal modalities and spaces. number of possibilities were discussed demic discipline of theatre studies has Concerns about health and safety in in the conference that a newly estab- Many scholars attending the IFTR for channelling the energy and inertia been slower than practitioners to rec- India were manifest at the 2003 IFTR lished working group in Asian and had never previously been to India and generated in this Asian theatre focussed ognize the significance of the theatrical meeting in Jaipur. Numerous delegates Pacific Theatre that was scheduled to gained for the first time an in-depth conference. The IFTR conference, as practices of Asia, and other parts of the (including many American scholars) meet parallel to the papers failed to gar- exposure and appreciation of Asia’s rich well as the international conference on world, in its disciplinary organization. elected not to attend in response to the ner sufficient interest as the papers in theatrical past and present. Robyn ‘Audiences, patrons and performers in Few European-language academic pro- threatening war between India and Pak- the general conference were of so much Marie Campbell, a young dance schol- the performing arts of Asia’ held in Lei- grammes or research clusters current- istan. Yet this did not prevent this con- relevance to Asian theatre scholars. ar, came to the IFTR to speak of her den in 2000, demonstrated that schol- ly address non-European theatrical ference from being a highly memorable Evening performances also gave research on Ballet Frankfurt at the New ars of Asian theatre and performance practise as a central focus. (The Uni- event, and a watershed in the academ- insights into Indian theatre forms and Researcher’s Forum, but left with a fas- have special concerns and interests that versity of Hawaii’s Asian performance ic study of theatre. processes. The conference organizers cination for Korean dance. Numerous are not addressed in existing organiza- master’s programme is a rare excep- IFTR conferences are organized to had programmed a series of art theatre, contacts were established between tions. Asian theatre has its own internal tion.) The Asian Theatre Journal, pub- accommodate a combination of panels including adaptations of Medea and scholars based in Europe, the United dynamics that do not have precise equiv- lished by the University of Hawaii for the presentation of academic Goethe’s Iphigenie in Tauris. These pro- States, Israel, and Australia with aca- alents in the theatres of Europe or other Press, remains the sole English-lan- papers, working groups and plenary ductions, though well-intended, were demics from India and elsewhere in continents. In Europe and North Amer- guage journal devoted exclusively to addresses. Working groups at this of uneven quality, and did not by-and- Asia. This fruitful interchange allowed ica, Asian performance is too often rel- Asian theatre. Academic positions in year’s conference remained European- large excite the imagination of interna- many of us to recognize the existence egated to a cabinet of curiosities. Rather non-Western theatre in the United focused, but the predominance of than taking Asian performance on its States, Australia, Europe, and New papers presented elsewhere focussed own terms, Asian scholarship is judged Zealand have increased over the last on types of theatre rarely mentioned in in terms of what it can contribute to decade, but there is also a tendency for mainstream academia. The daily ple- understanding the West’s own history these same positions to be defined in nary addresses are a good index of the of interculturalism. This in effect con- terms of minority and immigrant catholic and eclectic approach to world demns scholars of Asian performance groups. A faculty member appointment theatre that the conference as a whole to the status of clerks and documental- in Asian theatre in the United States, embraced. Mrinalini Sarabhai present- ists in the service of imperialism. It is to for example, will typically be expected ed a personal account of her post-Par- be hoped that there will be more oppor- to teach Asian-American theatre, and tition innovations in the classical Indi- tunities where scholars of Asian and reverse discrimination policy often an dance field, dwelling fondly on her non-Western performance can meet for pressures universities to appoint eth- bharatanatyam-based social dance-dra- discussion and investigation of our nic minority representatives to fill such mas and her studies with Yogyakarta mutual interests. < slots over non-minority candidates dance-master Teja Kusuma. David more qualified to teach about theatres Roman analysed a one-man Broadway Dr Matthew Isaac Cohen is a lecturer in outside the West. The IFTR has reflect- show written and performed by the theatre studies at the University of Glasgow. ed these general tendencies in the field: comedian John Leguizamo as a cele- His current research interests include despite its ‘international’ designation, bration of Latino identity. Rustam Indonesian theatre, puppetry, intercultural- it has been slow to recognize the impor- Bharucha described his intracultural ism, and theatre ethnography. He is also a tance of Asian theatre scholarship. interventions in Indian theatre, and Musical prelude to a kathputli (string puppet) performance by Gajadhar Bharat and company at the practising Javanese shadow puppeteer. Until this year, when the endlessly ener- reflected on terrorism through a pro- craft village adjoining the Jawahar Kala Kendra, Jaipur. [email protected]
IIAS Newsletter | #30 | March 2003 19 > Research & Reports Exoticism and Nostalgia Consuming Southeast Asian Handicrafts in Japan Textiles and other handmade items from Southeast Asia, have gained unprecedented popularity in recent years. The Japanese loss of tradition, the past times when their own daily life was consumers, predominantly women, crave stories and ‘biographical’ details about these goods; they then turn them into their filled with such handmade crafts? It is here that the rhetoric personalized possessions and display them in an effort to express their individuality. The following article explores the language of nostalgia, one of the most frequently used terms to char- used in Japanese women’s magazines depicting these items. acterize Asian crafts, comes into play.
By Ayami Nakatani cles and shop owners are willing to provide some ideas about Ambivalent positioning of ‘Asia’ Research > the context of production in highly romanticized tones. ‘The term “Oriental” (orientaru) somehow sounds formal Japan ne of the latest consumer trends in Japan can be In many cases, the actual situation surrounding the pro- or distant. How about “Asia” (ajia), then? Instantly the latter Oglossed as the ‘Asian boom’ (ajia-buum): a social phe- ducers does not correspond with the idyllic description of gives a sense of comfort, for perhaps our instinct tells us it nomenon in which the consumption of various material artisans as appears in commercial discourse, as partially is the place where Japan is included, where we belong’ (Belle objects, mostly textiles and other craft items from ‘Asia’, has exemplified in my earlier research on Balinese hand-weavers Maison mail-order catalogue, Spring 2001). become a craze. Japan is indeed known for its excessive con- (Nakatani 1999). ‘European tableware, imbued with Orientalism, renews sumerism, yet this latest trend offers a prime example of From the viewpoint of Japanese consumers, however, such our appreciation of Eastern aesthetics. “Japanese” materials, ‘cross-cultural consumption’ – a phenomenon that has been background knowledge of particular objects matters, because including lacquer, fit well with that kind of Western table- subject to increasing analysis in consumer culture studies. ‘the imagination works on objects to turn commodities ... ware. Let’s try a sophisticated coordination with an image of Towards the end of the 1990s, glossy magazines directed into sometimes very significant possessions, which draw “the East viewed from the West”’ (Fujin Gaho, June 2000). at middle-aged, married women started featuring a variety their power from biographical experiences and the stories These two quotations illustrate particular formulations sur- of textiles, basketry, furniture, and tableware from various [about them]’ (Hoskins 1998:196). Their differentiated and rounding the tripartite relationship of Japan, Asia, and the countries in Southeast Asia, such as Indonesia, Thailand, personalized possessions will, in turn, be incorporated into West. Both of them, in fact, express some uneasiness towards and Vietnam. Other magazines, targeting a younger reader- their own stories. The narratives are generally expressed by the term ‘Oriental’ or ‘Orientalism’, for it is essentially the ship, soon followed this trend. Such editorial trends corre- means of a tasteful display of carefully selected objects on Western view of Asia, not theirs. spond to a more general tendency in which increasing atten- one’s central stage: the home. The first passage in particular stresses the ‘Asianess’ of tion is paid to various goods from these countries. Japan – Japan as firmly merged with Asia, though geo- While a number of shops offering so-called ‘ethnic’ mer- Home as feminized space graphical specificity is never given. According to Belle Mai- chandize (meaning the cheap range of garments and acces- One of the major characteristics of the recent Asian boom son, the sense of nostalgia evoked by Asian handicrafts can sories directly imported from India, Indonesia, or China) in Japan is its emphasis on the effective use of goods of var- be justified by the existence of an ancestral connection. Thus already existed, a large number of retail shops, trade fairs, ious origins in home furnishing. In this vein, the lifestyle the shared memory is there, and is only waiting to be called and websites have started to deal in furniture and miscella- magazines and books specializing in interior decoration back. It is equally noted that Asia, including Japan, is the neous household goods made of natural materials, such as bring two inter-related themes to the fore: the significance ‘other’ to the West. rattan, bamboo, or teak, since the mid-1990s. of individuality, and the crucial role of one’s taste in express- Yet the Japanese tend to appreciate such an Orientalist ing individuality. gaze; they internalize the West’s exotic image of themselves. The magazines contain reports of model cases, taken from The second quotation comes from an article on table-setting the homes of selected readers as well as some celebrities. The entitled ‘A Table of Asian Taste’, which depicts Western table- reports include a summary of the essential traits of a given ware using Oriental motifs and bamboo trays or Japanese room/house, detailed depictions of the individual items on lacquer ware. As the text affirms, an Orientalist view of Asia, display, and the owner’s comments. Interestingly, many indi- Japan included, is seen as providing a refreshing apprecia- viduals (predominantly women) stress the fact that their home tion of their own culture and tradition. should be the medium of expressing their sense of style and, However, the Japanese would be equally ready to distance by extension, individuality (watashi-rashisa). themselves from the category of Asia and, thus, objectify it. For example, a woman who skilfully coordinates furniture The otherness of Asia comes from the difference in ways of and decorative items of varied style and origin declares: ‘The life, and its exotic attractiveness as tourist destination; Asia entire interior of my house is an aggregate of the things that is distanced from Japan both temporally and culturally. From have attracted me’. Her successful arrangement is attributed the consumer’s perspective, therefore, the Japanese cast the to her ‘discerning eye’, selecting only high-quality items (Plus same gaze upon Asia as their Western counterparts. One Living 2000:35). Another woman describes her home as In this light, a peculiar juxtaposition of seemingly con- ‘a stage for my favourite things’: the space that ‘becomes more flicting sentiments such as nostalgia and exoticism in the and more like herself as she decorates it’ (Plus One Living magazine’s texts can be explained by Japan’s ambivalent posi- 2000:33). tion vis-à-vis the rest of the Asian region and the West. Either In the words of Featherstone (1987, p.59), these people seem including or excluding Japan, ‘Asia’ is a cultural as well as to represent ‘the new heroes of consumer culture’, who ‘make historical construct, largely informed by the Western view
Ayami Nakatani Ayami lifestyle a life project and display their individuality and sense that, subsequently, has been internalized by the Japanese con- of style in the particularity of the assemblage of goods’. As a sumers. They exoticize themselves as Asian/Oriental, in An example of a dis- Given the segmented market structure, both the style and number of critics of contemporary consumer culture have which case they are merged with the rest of Asia but, at the play of Indonesian content of women’s magazines generally vary according to pointed out, individuality, self-expression, lifestyle, and choice same time, they objectify and present the latter as their cul- handicrafts, Tenmaya their narrowly defined readership. Nevertheless, they prove are all essential key terms in understanding the consumers in tural other. < Department Store, to be somewhat similar in their feature articles related to this the postmodern era. And perfect expression of individuality Okayama, Japan ‘Asian boom’. The language of the articles is highly eloquent, can only be achieved by a discerning judgement – which, in References even verbose. The captions for graphic images also contain itself, is an important cultural construction. – Featherstone, M., ‘Lifestyle and Consumer Culture’, Theory, Cul- a certain set of key terms that appear over and over again. By feeling somehow connected with unknown producers ture and Society 4 (1987), pp.55–70. Typical terms for representing Asian-made textiles and hand- through social imagery, and by successfully incorporating – HILL (Hakuhodo Institute of Life and Living), ‘Bunshu’ no Tanjo, icrafts are ‘warmth’ (nukumori), ‘calmness’ (yasuragi), ‘sim- their products into their own lifestyle, Japanese consumers Nikkei (1985). plicity’ (soboku-sa), and ‘nostalgia’ (natsukashisa). An uncrit- try to demonstrate their integrated, not fragmented, self and – Hoskins, J., Biographical Objects, London: Routledge (1998). ical juxtaposition of seemingly incompatible adjectives also individuality. But it should also be noted that this space for – Nakatani, A., ‘“Eating Threads”: Brocades as Cash Crop for Weav- prevails: ‘Simple, generous, and elegant cloths of Asia’; ‘We the display of individuality is gendered: the home, in this ing Mothers and Daughters in Bali’, in: R. Rubinstein and L. Con- feel nostalgia though we see them for the first time; above sense, represents the lone, if not empty, self of women. nor (eds), Staying local in the global village, Honolulu: University all, they are refreshing’. In an analysis of new marketing strategies, it is said that of Hawai’i Press (1999). The special qualities of these handicrafts are strongly asso- the Japanese home has lost its centrality as a symbol of fam- – Plus One Living, Special edition, Tokyo: Shufunotomosha (2000). ciated with their being the product of attentive and devoted ily bonding. Now the home is just a container in which the handwork. In other words, it is the time and labour invested family members, who lack united concerns, remain, express- Dr Ayami Nakatani is an associate profes- that make them special. Most often, therefore, what inspires ing ‘their individuated selves’ (HILL 1985:64–65). At the sor of anthropology at Okayama University, and attracts consumers are not simply the patterns, colours, same time, the home has been increasingly deemed a Japan, and was formerly an affiliated or texture of the given items, but the ‘context’ of their making. women’s (that is, wife’s) space, as men’s absence from it has research fellow at the IIAS. Her current become the norm, owing to the long hours of work involved research interests include the production and Cravings for narratives in the process of post-Second World War industrialization. consumption of Indonesian textiles, and The general wish of prospective buyers to have detailed We also find popular novels or TV dramas characterizing the fatherhood in Japan. knowledge of the sites of production or even of the personal young, faithful wife who gradually overshadows her husband [email protected] circumstances of producers is clearly voiced in the pages of by decorating their home entirely to her own taste. There are these magazines. Obviously, however, it is unrealistic for other begging questions to be raised: Why should these most consumers to have a direct encounter with producers women desire the objects of cultural others? Do they want to from other cultures. Unlike ‘art’ objects, even acquiring compensate for the lack of unselfish, unlimited motherly love knowledge of the exact maker of an item of their interest may in their own lives, as expressed through the painstaking prove impossible. To compensate for this, the magazine arti- labour of producing intricate handwork? Do they mourn the
20 IIAS Newsletter | #30 | March 2003 > Research & Reports Burma-Myanma(r) Research and Its Future Implications for Scholars and Policymakers Within Asian Studies, Burma/Myanmar Studies has occupied a somewhat marginal position east Asia. And finally at the close of the Burma Studies events in at least four Report > since 1962, when General Ne Win established his ‘Burmese Road to Socialism’. Fearful of conference, a discussion panel on ‘Diplo- ways. Firstly, rather than being centred Southeast Asia foreign influences, the government denied overseas-based scholars opportunities to macy: The nature of dialogue and rec- at a single location, different venues conduct fieldwork, or in-country archival research. With few exceptions, indigenous onciliation’, chaired by David Steinberg, should be sought for the biannual 21–25 September scholarship was neglected, or even systematically repressed. Once a flourishing field, was especially interesting in light of the Burma Studies Group meetings, chosen 2002 Burma Studies languished, despite the efforts of an older generation of specialists who had May 2002 release of Aung San Suu Kyi on the basis of their overall attractive- Gothenburg, Sweden worked in the country before 1962 and continued to make important contributions. from house arrest and hopes that she ness and accessibility to the widest range and the SPDC can begin negotiations to of participants. Secondly, people with By Donald M. Seekins tres, however, they are usually isolated, diversity, health and HIV, economic tran- achieve political transition. diverse Burma-related interests and with few opportunities (apart from sitions, Buddhism, nat cults, pictorial art, The Gothenburg conference brought experiences should be proactively he end of Ne Win socialism and the online communications) to exchange nineteenth- and twentieth-century histo- together a larger and more diverse group included, not only academics. Thirdly, Temergence of Daw Aung San Suu ideas or collaborate on research proj- ry, and Burma-China relations, among of people than had attended previous the four-day format should be main- Kyi as the leader of the democratic ects. Burma scholars in Europe or the others. There were also ‘open panels’ for Burma Studies events. They included tained, so that participants can get to movement in 1988 attracted a younger United States often have little idea of papers that were high quality, but not eas- not only academics and independent know each other and their viewpoints. generation of researchers. However, an the work done by their counterparts in ily categorized. Some papers were given scholars but also non-government Finally, political neutrality should be pre- atmosphere of crisis and uncertainty Southeast Asia, Japan, or China. Also, in a confidential context, with most organization representatives, many with served and financial support thus continues to afflict Burma today. the contributions of a post-1988 gener- papers accessible online to participants. extensive experience on the ground in accepted from reputable sources only. Among scholars, controversies over ation of overseas Burmese scholars are Among the many highlights were: a Burma, journalists, and researchers Gothenburg was an excellent venue, a whether or not to engage academically often unappreciated. discussion panel led by representatives based at governmental and non-govern- city with a pleasant physical environ- with the military regime (now known Given this background, the conference of the pre-1962 generation of scholars; mental think tanks. Attendees repre- ment and a truly ‘civil’ society. < as the State Peace and Development on ‘Burma-Myanma(r) research and its a keynote discussion panel featuring sented practically every region of Asia, Council, or SPDC) have become future: implications for scholars and pol- Chao-Tzang Yawnghwe and F.K. Europe, and North America. Asian par- Dr Donald M. Seekins is Professor of South- intense and often bitter. Thus, Burma icymakers’ represents an important turn- Lehman on the connection between ticipants presented sixty-two papers, east Asian Studies at Meio University, Oki- Studies faces serious obstacles com- ing point. Held at the Great Hall of scholarship and activism; the screening almost half the total, and the younger nawa, Japan.Last year he published a book on pared with other country-specific fields, Gothenburg University in Gothenburg, of a recent Burmese film on the Anglo- generation of overseas Burmese schol- Burma’s recent history, The Disorder in such as Thai or Indonesian Studies. Sweden over a period of four days, it Burmese Wars, Never we shall be enslaved, ars was particularly well represented. Order: The Army-State in Burma Since 1962. Its non-mainstream and highly con- drew some 200 participants, represent- and excerpts of two Thai films, Bang The conference organizers, based at [email protected] tested nature is not without advantages. ing both older and younger generations Rajan and Suriyothai, showing popular Gothenburg University, worked hard to Old and young, Burma scholars tend to of Burma experts. There were twenty Thai perceptions of Thai-Burma rela- promote an atmosphere of inclusiveness be hardy survivors who have a strong subject-specific panels, dealing with a tions; and an address by Thet Tun, for- and political neutrality, where all kinds Info > personal commitment to their subject wide range of areas: librarians and library mer Burmese ambassador to France and of opinions could be represented. The area. Many are ‘renaissance people’ and resources, education, human resource a United Nations’ official, on ‘economic lively and sometimes contentious Full details of the conference are independent scholars whose interests management, sustainable development, lessons from the past’. James C. Scott atmosphere provided ample evidence available at: www.therai.org.uk/ are strongly interdisciplinary. Outside law and the constitution, state and soci- spoke on the formation of highland com- that they succeeded. The 2002 meeting anthcal/myanmarburma2002.html of major academic or metropolitan cen- ety, Burmese migrants abroad, ethnic munities as ‘non-state spaces’ in South- should serve as a model for future
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IIAS Newsletter | #30 | March 2003 21 > Research & Reports Ethnic Nationalism in Nepal Ethnic nationalism is on the rise in Nepal. With only 23.2 million inhabitants and measuring only 147,181 square kilometres, Nepal instability caused by the corrupt lead- Research > is host to 62 ‘nationalities’ (janajati). None of these nationalities, including the predominant Khas population – consisting of ership of constitutional parties. The South Asia Brahmin-Ksetri castes, speaking Nepali (Khas) and practising Hinduism – can be considered a single majority group. The Khas, ‘palace massacre’ of 1 June 2001, in however, remain determined to propagate their language, culture, and religion through their control of state institutions. While which practically the entire royal fami- ethnic mobilization in Nepal has largely, to date, avoided bloodshed, the frustration of minority nationalities, ethnicities, castes, ly was murdered, has exacerbated ten- and tribes (janajati) is an important factor behind the growing popularity of the Maoists’ ‘people’s war’. sions and instability in the country. The only surviving brother of the slain king, By Bal Gopal Shrestha Fierce ethnic agita- Gyanendra, has now become king. tions in the capital Unfortunately, in contrast to the great n the wake of political reforms insti- Kathmandu against respect shown to his slain brother and Ituted in 1990, non-Khas nationali- the 1999 decision of his family, people do not trust the pres- ties began asserting their own national the Supreme Court of ent king. Images of deified kings of the identities within the boundaries of the Nepal, which prohib- past have been destroyed. The Maoists, current state. A new constitution was ited the use of local forming the most powerful extra-con- introduced that year, confirming Nepal languages in munici- stitutional political party, represent as a multinational (bahujati) and even palities and District recent developments as the ‘death of multilingual (bahubhasika) country. Development monarchy’ in Nepal and urge the coun- The constitution, however, retained the Committees. try to declare itself a republic. This is an Nepali (Khas) language as the official (left and below) unprecedented situation for the entire ‘national language’ and Hinduism as nation. While nationalities remain sus- the sole ‘state religion’. Although the picious of the present developments, constitution provides liberty for ethnic they are speculating about possibilities non-Khas and non-Hindu religious for favourable change. communities to express themselves – The most recent trend in Nepalese against the domination of the ‘one ethnic mobilization is the active nation, one language, and one religion’ involvement of Maoists; their populist policy of the government – minority appeals are attracting adherents. The languages and religions remain with- majority of ethnic nationalities, includ- out legal protection. ing a large section of Magars, Tamangs,
The major demands of the non-Khas Sundar K. Malla photos: both for Courtesy and Newars in Kathmandu Valley, are nationalities in Nepal are: the right to sympathetic towards the Maoists. autonomy; political representation in expansionary policy, which came to an Nepalese law. Few were surprised when Nepal infuriated non-Nepali speakers Despite its cultural richness, Nepal is the central government; equal rights for end only after their defeat in a war with Hindu fundamentalists announced with its 1999 decision prohibiting the one of the poorest and most underde- their languages in the courts, in educa- the British East India Company (1814- substantial cash rewards to anyone cut- use of local languages in municipalities veloped countries of South Asia. Its tion, and in local and central adminis- 1816). It was only in the 1930s that the ting off the head of Padma Ratna Tulad- and District Development Committees. people are facing various problems, tration; and an end to the domination Nepalese government began to adopt har, then Minister of Health and a At present, all ethnic groups in Nepal including ethnic nationalism and a vio- of Hindu religion and culture. The ‘All the name ‘Nepal’ in an attempt to make champion for human rights, when he feel they are overshadowed by Khas lin- lent Maoist people’s war. A small coun- Nepal Nationalities’ Organisation’ it a modern nation state (Burghart spoke on behalf of the beef-eating com- guistic and cultural chauvinism. This try with many nationalities, the gov- (Akhil Nepal Janajati Samgha), a Maoist 1996: 255). In general, people of dif- munities of Nepal. situation can only lead to undesirable ernment is unable to effectively address sister organization to the Communist ferent origins within the country’s bor- hostilities. A number of bloody inci- ethnic conflict. If ethnic uprisings are Party of Nepal, has presented the most ders continued to live together in peace Undercurrents of insurgency dents have recently taken place in east- not handled with great care, Nepal may radical demands, including the right of over the centuries. However, this ended With the downfall of the former ern Nepal, in which local people killed face trouble in the near future, as has secession for all nationalities in Nepal. when groups began to feel discrimi- Communist regimes in Eastern Brahmins, burnt down their houses, been experienced by the Balkan states, The influence of the Maoist Party, nated against by the state. Europe, many small nations have and chased them away from their vil- by Southeast Asian countries, or by engaged in a violent ‘people’s war’ for Soon after the Gorkha conquest of emerged, while others remain incipi- lages. Up until now, however, ethnic neighbouring India, Sri Lanka, and more than six years, is increasing 1769, the Gorkhali king Prithivinarayan ent. Tamil insurgents in Sri Lanka can uprisings in Nepal have been peaceful Pakistan. As indicated above, ethnic throughout the country and threaten- Shah proclaimed his country to be the be seen as one of the most destructive in nature and, except in a few cases, vio- insurgency in Nepal has been prevent- ing its stability. ‘True Land of Hindus’ (Asali Hindu- examples of national uprisings in the lence has been avoided. The most inter- ed thus far because of the people’s war As the ruling class manipulating stan). In 1854, Jangabahadur, the first South Asian region. In Southeast Asia, esting aspect of the present ethnic launched by the Maoists. The involve- state institutions, Brahmin-Kshetris are Rana prime minister, introduced writ- Indonesia is experiencing equally vio- mobilization is that the nationalities are ment of ethnic nationalities in this the target of other nationalities’ criti- ten laws based on Hinduism, dividing lent uprisings. For decades, India has united through the Nepal Federation of bloody war, however, has become cism. The latter find it insulting to be the country hierarchically and subordi- been witness to Assamese, Naga, Jhark- Nationalities in their fight against the painfully apparent. < categorized alongside low-caste Hin- nating all other nationalities to the hand, and Gorkhaland national move- ruling Khas. dus. Mainstream scholars also define Brahmin and Ksetris (Khas) ruling ments, whose grievances remain unre- The failure of parliamentary parties References these groups as ‘tribes’. Most groups in class. In 1960, King Mahendra, the solved. In many respects, present-day in Nepal to address the grievances of - Bhattachan, Krishna B, ‘Possible Ethnic Nepal including the Newars, Tamangs, father of the present king, introduced ethnic nationalist movements in Nepal these nationalities has caused the latter Revolution or Insurgency in a Predatory Magars, Gurung, Sherpa, Limbu, Rai, the party-less political system called are heavily influenced by events else- to turn towards the Maoists for support. Unitary Hindu State, Nepal’, in Dhruba and Tharu, do not accept the labels ‘eth- ‘Panchayat’, which proclaimed Nepal where, though they are unusual in It has been noted that the Maoists Kumar (ed.), Domestic Conflict and Crisis nic groups’ or ‘minorities’. They prefer the only ‘Hindu Kingdom’ and ‘Nepali their, by-and-large, non-violent record. receive active support from non-Hindu of Governability in Nepal, Kathmandu: to be called ‘nations’ and believe they or Khas the only official language’, thus The Nepalese government has taken ethnic groups and oppressed low castes CNAS (2000), pp. 135-162. fulfil all the criteria of nationhood: lan- ignoring its multi-religious, multina- few steps to fulfil ethnic demands. The (dalit) (Bhattachan 2000:146-50). The - Burghart, Richard, The Conditions of Lis- guage, religion, culture, territory and a tional, multicultural, and multilingual news is now broadcast in several lan- majority of people killed by the police, tening. Essays on Religion, History and Pol- history of independent statehood, character. guages, but the Supreme Court of on the suspicion of Maoist activity, itics in South Asia, edited by C.J. Fuller and which would be achieved again if rights The ruling Hindu population of come from ethnic nationalities and J. Spencer, Delhi: Oxford University Press to secession were granted. All these Nepal articulates its nationalism by imi- oppressed castes. Yet Nepal’s ethnic (1996). groups now accept the Nepali word tating Indian Hindu nationalists, nationalities are aware of the reality - Jaffrelot, C., The Hindu Nationalist Move- janajati, translated as ‘nationality’ in whose vivid forms have been discussed across their northern border, where the ment in India, New Delhi: Viking Penguin English. In 1990, when eighteen of by several scholars (Van der Veer 1994; Tibetan minority population has been India (1996). these groups gathered to create a forum Jaffrelot 1996). Thirty years of Pan- subjected to great distress under the - Van der Veer, Peter, Religious Nationalism: called Nepal Janajati Mahasamgha, they chayat politics (1960-90) channelled rule of Maoist China. Bhattachan spec- Hindus and Muslims in India, Berkeley: translated it as the ‘Nepal Federation of support to Hindu religious organisa- ulates that the Maoists’ war has played University of California Press (1994). Nationalities’. tions such as the ‘World Hindu Coun- a crucial role in preventing ethnic The search for ‘national identities’ in cil’ (Visva Hindu Parisad) while ignor- insurgency in Nepal. Dr Bal Gopal Shrestha is lecturer at the Nepal may be a recent phenomenon, ing the issues of minorities and their To develop mutual understanding Centre for Nepal and Asian Studies, Tribhu- but has deep roots in the past. Until rights. Encouraged by Hindu funda- among the different groups in a multi- van University, Kathmandu. He completed 1769, present-day Nepal was composed mentalists in India, Nepalese Hindu ethnic country like Nepal is a difficult his PhD on ‘The Ritual Composition of of small independent states and prin- extremists are gaining momentum. task. Until recently, the king has served Sankhu: The Socio-Religious Anthropology cipalities of different ‘nationalities’. The They have taken inspiration from Indi- as the ‘unifying symbol’ of all national- of a Newar Town in Nepal’ at CNWS, Lei- Gorkhali king Prithivi Naryanan Shah, an organizations like the ‘Hindu god ities in Nepal, even as the political den (1996-2002) and was affiliated to the forefather of the present ruling dynasty Siva’s Army’ (Siva Sena) to form groups reforms of 1990 curtailed the king’s IIAS as a Gonda fellow (2001-2002). His in Nepal, embarked on an expansionist like the ‘Cows Welfare Association, power by introducing parliamentary current research focuses on culture, ritual, campaign, bringing several small states Nepal’. It is notable that, even today, a democracy. Over the last decade, King religion, ethnicity, and nationalism in South and principalities under the control of person found guilty of killing a cow is Birendra regained considerable popu- Asia, particularly in Nepal and India. Gorkha. His successors continued the condemned to capital punishment by larity, largely as a result of the political [email protected]
22 IIAS Newsletter | #30 | March 2003 > Research & Reports Cultural Landscape in Change During the last one hundred years, the region around Lore Lindu National Park in Central Sulawesi has Research > represented an area in slow transition. A couple of years ago this development changed significantly. Thus, the Southeast Asia Park offers an interesting field for scientific research on stability and destabilisation of the margins of one of the few remaining tropical primary forests in Indonesia. As presented below, one field of study which is important for the understanding of present dynamics in the region is the reconstruction of the historical development of cultural landscape since the beginning of the twentieth century.
By Robert Weber Dutch, however, promoted the cultivation of paddy rice instead of the dry land rice that was traditionally planted in uring fifteen months of fieldwork, I used mainly qual- slash-and-burn shifting cultivation. For that reason, a huge Ditative research methods such as participant observa- irrigation project was established that still guaranties suffi- tion and semi-structured interviews with families and key cient paddy rice production in the naturally dry Palu valley. persons in nine selected villages. These villages are located In upland areas like the Kulawi valley coffee was introduced in four different valleys surrounding Lore Lindu National to the locals and created the base for cash-crop economy in Park (LLNP) (see map). The villages were selected by a strat- the area. Following the Dutch, Arab, Chinese, and Bugis ified random sampling, including the following three char- (South Sulawesi) traders entered the remote upland valleys acteristics; population density, ethnic composition, and dis- and supported the development of a more vital market struc- tance to the national park. The results of the interviews will ture. Road construction programmes to connect the hinter- provide information on the village history, migration pat- land with Palu were realized using compulsory local labour. terns, historical, spatial, and functional development of the The short period of Japanese rule (1942-45) burdened the
settlement, internal and external influences and their impacts local population more than the Dutch influence had. Cotton Our research area draft Author’s on settlement and population structure, as well as on land production and longer working hours on the fields became use. Further information gathered at the sub-district, district obligatory for every household. Action against the will of the from Java and Bali raised the number of population, mostly and province level will allow us to connect the data on the Japanese was quickly answered with physical punishment. in Napu valley. Land sales led to new forms of economic rela- micro (village) level with developments on the macro level, During the first two decades since the independence of tionships like wage-labour. Furthermore, locals started to and thus lead to a differentiation of endogenous and exoge- Indonesia, the Lore Lindu area remained in a relatively stat- encroach on the national park area in order to substitute the nous processes that shaped the villages’ status quo. ic situation. However, the rebellion of Kahar Musakar in land that they had sold before. South Sulawesi and the Permesta rebellion in North Sulawe- The Lore Lindu region still can be regarded as an area in The fieldwork in Lore Lindu region si in the 1950s led to changes in terms of migration when fast transition. The present results of the research on cultural The Lore Lindu region consists of a national park area of refugees of the rebellions moved to Central Sulawesi. This landscape and the projections for future development (e.g. around 231 km2 that provides habitat for a wide range of time can be regarded as the first period of a greater immi- effects of modernization, revitalization of a conservative endemic flora and fauna. The national park is surrounded by gration from other parts of the island. As land was still abun- regionalism, local conflicts in neighbouring Poso district) of five valleys. The most densely populated Palu valley offers the dant at that time, these people could easily settle and there this region serve as a base for further research in cultural and Adat dress of Kulawi best infrastructure of the region and was frequented by Arab were no problems with land distribution. social geography. < nobles and Chinese traders long before the Dutch conquest in the early With the change to Suharto’s New Order era, the econom- twentieth century. The other valleys, Kulawi, Palolo, Napu, and ic production of food and cash crops was enforced and new Dipl.-Geogr. Robert Weber is researcher of Bada, remained relatively untouched by external influences local resettlement programmes from remote hillside loca- the STORMA programme and PhD student and thus were able to conserve their traditional believes, cus- tions to the plains were implemented. While Napu valley in at the University of Göttingen (Germany), toms, and lifestyle to a certain extent. Up until today, their pop- the East was still lacking sufficient transport infrastructure Dept. of Geography, Division of Cultural and ulation has been diverse in terms of local languages. and thus remained quite scarcely populated, starting in the Social Geography. He deals with research on A first breaking point of the development of cultural land- 1960s Palolo valley was the main area of local immigration, migration and ethnicity in Southeast Asia. scape was the Dutch incursion into various upland valleys mainly from Kulawi and overpopulated areas along the Palu [email protected] between 1905 and 1908. The colonial rulers introduced main bay. None of the five valleys surrounding the today’s nation- changes in terms of settlement structures, beliefs and econ- al park developed as fast as Palolo valley where more than omy. However, the Ethical Policy that influenced Dutch colo- half of the villages were founded between 1960 and 1980. nial policy since 1900 led to a more considerate implemen- The most far-reaching changes to the cultural landscape tation of colonial changes. People were resettled from the took place during the last decade of the twentieth century. mountains down to the valleys, where new settlements with Immigration from South Sulawesi, where land scarcity village structures were established. After the area was ‘paci- became a major problem, had already begun on a consider- fied’, missionaries of the Salvation Army respective of the able scale during the 1980s. The main impact of this immi-
Dutch protestant church entered the valleys and tried to con- gration was the introduction of cacao and the beginning of Weber Robert vert the people from their animist believes to Christian reli- land sales from locals to the mostly financially better-off Bugis Info > gion. In terms of economy, the Dutch influenced local agri- migrants. Due to the boom of cacao prices during the 1990s, culture less intensively than in Java or Sumatra. Large-scale immigration from the south of Sulawesi reached a peak. This My fieldwork is part of the Indonesian-German interdisciplinary research pro- plantations and compulsory labour in agriculture, two attrib- was mainly the case in Palolo and Napu valley where settle- gramme STORMA (Stability Of Rainforest Margin Areas). For detailed informa- utes of the so-called Cultuurstelsel, were not practiced in Cen- ment, population, and climatic conditions offered better tion on our sub-project A1, supervised by Prof. Werner Kreisel and Dr Heiko tral Sulawesi. In fact, the Lore Lindu region has remained an opportunities for cacao farmers than in other areas of the Faust visit www.geogr.uni-goettingen.de/kus/sfb552/A1.htm economic smallholder system up to the present day. The region. Besides, inter-island transmigration programmes The Seven-Word Controversy Amendments to several crucial articles of the 1945 constitution topped the agenda at the most recent session of the Indonesian tion to defend the original text). The par- Research > People’s Consultative Assembly (MPR, Majelis Permusyawaratan Rakyat). Following upon lesser amendments (in 1999, 2000, ticipation of the PKB in the meetings Southeast Asia and 2001), the 2002 annual session, held 1–10 August, tackled such vital issues as the authority of the MPR and the president; illustrated the split of the ‘old friendship’ education; and religion. Particularly sensitive were proposals to amend Article 29, which would redefine the relationship between between the ‘traditional’ Muslims (NU- religion and state. Controversy raged over inclusion of the so-called ‘seven words’ of the 1945 Jakarta Charter (‘dengan kewajiban PKB) and the nationalists (PDIP), due menjalankan syari’at Islam bagi para pemeluknya’ [with the obligation for adherents of the faith to carry out Islamic sharia]), to the latter’s participation in the advocated by some Islamic parties, organizations and movements.1 impeachment of Abdurrahman Wahid from the presidency. Anticipating the By Moch Nur Ichwan Article 29 on the grounds that it was the that the religion article should not be tion were held before the annual session deterioration of relations, Megawati’s creation of the founding fathers of the amended. A poll by Tempo Interaktif, of the MPR. Initiated by Islamic parties, husband, Taufik Kiemas, visited Wahid, hree Islamic political factions2 and Indonesian nation state. Echoing the conducted 17–24 May 2002, found 52 participants at these meetings were the head of the consultative body of the Tone ultra-reformist Islamic organi- 1945 statement of his father Wahid per cent of respondents opposed to any accused of creating an ‘Islamic caucus’, PKB, stressing the compatibility of zation3 alone advocated the enshrine- Hasyim, he argued that the most impor- amendments to the religion article. a charge they denied. Participants sup- ‘nationalism and Islam’. ment of Islamic sharia in the constitu- tant question was not ‘what ... shall be While 44 per cent were found to be in ported amending Article 29 but did not Meetings were then widened to tion. In this they were opposed by the the place of Islam [in the state]’, but favour, they were divided as to its for- agree on a formulation. The PPP, PBB, include non-Islamic parties, such as ‘secular’ factions.4 Rejection of the rather, ‘By what means shall we assure mulation. PNU (Nahdatul Ummah Party), and PK PDIP and Golkar, defusing the issue of ‘seven words’ also came from the largest the place of all religions in independent (Justice Party) proposed the inclusion of the so-called ‘Islamic caucus’. As in the Islamic organizations, Nahdlatul Ulama Indonesia? What we need most of all at Debating the religion article the seven words of the Jakarta Charter, earlier meetings, the parties discussed and Muhammadiyah. Former President this time is the indissoluble unity of the Anticipating deadlock, meetings to while the PAN and PKB had their own Abdurrahman Wahid opposed altering nation.’5 Later, Amien Rais suggested discuss ‘crucial articles’ of the constitu- versions (later, the PKB changed its posi- continued on page 24 >
IIAS Newsletter | #30 | March 2003 23 > Research & Reports continued from page 23 > resulting in the preservation of the orig- the crucial articles, including, of course, inal Article 29. The PBB and PDU fac- Power, Religion and Terror in Indonesia the religion article. No agreement was tions and some Islamic parties and reached except that, as far as possible, movements vowed to continue their Why has there been so much conflict and violence in Indonesia over the past few years? A deadlock should be avoided at the annu- struggle into the future. Research > deceptively simple answer is that Indonesia has been experiencing intense power struggles al session. Both Islamic and secular This was not the first taste of failure Southeast Asia since the demise of former President Suharto. Conflict in Indonesia is often related to parties formulated alternative amend- for the proponents of Islamic sharia in power. Just as conflict is extremely diverse, power, too, has many meanings and many ments to the religion article before the Indonesia. The seven words of the Jakar- manifestations in Indonesian society. Conflict over power does not necessarily result in annual session. ta Charter, issued on 22 June 1945, were violence, let alone in an epidemic of bloodshed. Moreover, power conflicts are not the cause then ‘amended’ because of the protest of all violence. However, this study explores the hypothesis that particular conceptions, Article 29: 1 of the ‘people of the Eastern Part of symbols, institutionalizations, and concrete practices of power, play a major role in the Alternative one: The state is based upon Indonesia’. In the Constituent Assem- generation and suppression of violence in Indonesia. the belief in one God (original text). bly between 1956 and 1959, the debate Alternative two: The state is based upon about Islamic sharia reoccurred. By Bernard Adeney-Risakotta defined as: modernity, religion, and the culture of the ances- the belief in one God with the obligation Sukarno, however, issued a presidential tors. Through my work I investigate how each of these sym- to implement Islamic sharia for the decree in 1959 declaring, inter alia, the ince the Bali terrorist bombs of 12 October 2002, a great bol systems generates or controls power, and how they adherents of the religion. re-establishment of Pancasila and the Sdeal of attention has been focused on the connection become enmeshed in violence. Alternative three: The state is based 1945 Constitution. The discussion on between religion and violence. Religion is a powerful force in Indonesians cannot be divided into three groups: those upon the belief in one God with the Islamic sharia and the Jakarta Charter Indonesia and has played a part in much of the violence, as who are modern, religious, or traditional. All Indonesians obligation to implement religious was then officially closed. Finally, dur- well as in attempts to stop it. Over the past four years, terror are modern in the sense that they are shaped by modern insti- teachings for the adherents of each reli- ing the New Order, Suharto issued Law has become ubiquitous in Indonesian society and frequently tutions, ideas, and practices. The remotest farmer knows the gion. No. 8 of 1985 on mass organizations, linked to religious communities. However, religion is never exchange rate of the dollar and depends on globally deter- The proponents of the Jakarta Char- disallowing Islamic sharia and other an autonomous force that acts independently from other fac- mined prices, modern transportation, and modern ideals of ter supported the second alternative. non-Pancasila ideologies. tors. Religion is integral to power in Indonesia, both in its pos- progress, education, and rights. Similarly, all Indonesians The reformation faction supported the itive and negative manifestations. Violent conflict in Indone- are religious. Religious institutions, ideas, and practices third alternative. Along with PDIP and sia is usually precipitated by political, economic, and social shape the identities and practices of all, not least of which Golkar, the PKB supported the original changes that are influenced by volatile tensions between tra- includes those who resist the dominant trends in religion. version. In the midst of the annual ses- ditional power structures, religious world views, and modern Equally, all Indonesians are shaped by the culture of their sion, anti- and pro-amendment move- institutions. Since virtually all Indonesians are religious, vio- ancestors. Culture is not a static, ancient set of ideas, prac- ments emerged inside and outside the lence often appeals to religion for justification. However, vio- tices, and institutions, but rather an evolving, dynamic power MPR. Anti-amendment forces outside lence also includes profound cultural elements that are embed- that determines the life style and perspective of all Indone- the MPR were spearheaded by retired ded in the traditions, stories, rituals, and adat (traditional law) sians. For example, of the three main institutions of law in military elites and PDIP members; institutions that are part of the identity of the people. Indonesia, secular, religious, and adat, the most powerful of inside the MPR, by PDIP legislators. It In so far as violence is connected with power (as opposed to the three is adat. I explore the thesis that the relationship appeared that the PDIP was conducting psychosis, rage, frustration, hatred, ideology, misunder- between these three distinct webs of meaning is a useful key
a ‘politics of double faces’ with official 2002 August 7 , standing, principles, or more generalized social pathologies) for understanding how power operates in the society and how statements supporting amendment this study is motivated by the desire to understand how power violence is generated out of the tensions between all three. alongside unofficial pronouncements is generated and utilized in Indonesia. My theory suggests that Violence is not primarily caused by evil people, but rather by
suggesting otherwise. Post Jakarta The a fundamental form of power lies within the people, as dis- conflict within and between three different kinds of struc- Outside the MPR, supporters of the ‘Rejecting the amendment = traitor of the tinct from the elite. Recent events demonstrate that great cre- tures of power. amendment demanded the inclusion nation.’ The pro-amendment movements out- ative and destructive potential is located within the people, During my past eleven years of teaching and research in of the seven words of the Jakarta Char- side the MPR building. whereas their leaders are generally impotent. Violence destroys Indonesia, I have also been formed by these three worlds of ter. Opposition to the idea also came power. ‘Violence can always destroy power; out of the barrel discourse. Most social scientific studies of Indonesian soci- from moderate Muslims, nationalists, The 2002 annual session of the MPR, of a gun grows the most effective command, resulting in the ety assume a fundamentally modern, Western epistemology and adherents of other religions. The which, it is expected, witnessed the last most instant and perfect obedience. What never can grow out in which the cultures, religions, politics, and history of latter argued that the religion article is of the constitutional amendments, of it is power’ (Arendt 1970:53). State use of violence in cer- Indonesia are viewed as objects to be studied that are fun- a national consensus that should not be showed the religion article to be the tain areas of Indonesia is always both an indication and cause damentally different, or even alien from the researcher. dominated by any particular religion. most controversial and sensitive in the of the weakness of the government in those same areas. The Anthropologists try to see the world ‘from the native’s point Nurcholish Madjid, a prominent Mus- Indonesian constitution. Any effort at more the state uses violence, the weaker the government. of view’, but that world remains eternally distant (Geertz lim thinker, said the inclusion of the Islamization (or ‘religionization’) of Arti- State violence may also destroy the power that lies in the 1976). Social science assumes a modern understanding of Jakarta Charter would allow the state to cle 29 would affect relations between people, especially if they respond with violence, as in Aceh, scientific knowledge, which takes culture and religion as intervene into religious space. For the religion and state, and between religions and for many years in East Timor. Yet, state violence can also objects of research. Even Indonesians are taught to radical- same reason, Nahdlatul Ulama and in the country. The adoption of the arti- galvanize the people’s power, especially if the people are uni- ly separate their culture and religion from modern modes of Muhammadiyah demanded the origi- cle would be deadly expensive, as the fied in non-violent resistance, as finally occurred in many scientific investigation. nal version of the religion article be plurality of Indonesian society and of parts of Indonesia, including East Timor. Governmental In contrast, this research project is written from within the maintained. Muslims themselves, many of whom power is dependent on the power that lies within the people. epistemological assumptions and perspectives of all three of Support for the amendment of Arti- rejected sectarianism and anti-plural- This approach distinguishes power from domination. I these different worlds of discourse. It is a modern analysis of cle 29 inside the MPR weakened before ism, would be at stake. The mainte- understand power as the ability of the people to achieve their Indonesian identity, power, and violence, which adopts many its discussion in Commission A, which nance of the religion article is, indeed, own goals (for better or worse). Government is a powerful Indonesian, religious, and cultural assumptions about the was responsible for the amendment of not the failure of Muslims in the coun- modern institution through which the people hope to achieve nature of reality. I argue for a new theory of power, which oper- this article. The head of the MPR, try, but rather their great success in their goals. However, power in Indonesian society is also gen- ates within these three different worlds of Indonesian dis- Amien Rais, advocated ‘going back to maintaining their identity as adherents erated and channelled by other modern, religious, and cul- course. Perhaps as many as 100,000 people have died during the original text’. The PPP, moreover, of a moderate, tolerant Islam. < tural practices and institutions. the past four years through violence related to ethnic, religious, began to waver in its support. This My research explores the thesis that we need a new theo- economic, and political conflicts in Indonesia. In a country weakening was condemned by propo- Moch Nur Ichwan, MA is a PhD candidate retical framework for understanding power and violence in known for its gentle culture, high level of tolerance, and warm nents of Islamic sharia inside and out- at the IIAS within the framework of the Indonesia that moves beyond simple categories of antago- hospitality, what triggered such an orgy of death? < side the MPR. Strong support came, in research project ‘Islam in Indonesia’. He nistic groups. Different patterns of meaning, practice, and the end, only from the PBB and PDU concentrates on Indonesian state discourse discourse provide a more useful analytic tool for under- References factions. When Commission A failed to on Islam both during and beyond the Suhar- standing power and violence than the now classic tradition - Arendt, Hannah, On Violence, London: Allen Lane, The Penguin reach agreement on amending the reli- to years. of dividing Indonesia (or Java) into religious, social, or polit- Press (1970) gion article, the issue was brought into [email protected] ical groupings. Power and violence in Indonesia cannot be - Geertz, Clifford, ‘On the Natives’ Point of View’ in Paul Rabinow the plenary session on 10 August, [email protected] understood within a Weberian framework of social evolution and William M. Sullivan, (eds.), Interpretive Social Science, Berke- from traditional to modern, nor through an ideal-type ley: University of California Press (1979). Notes > dichotomy between Java and the West. There are three major sets of symbol systems, institutions, Dr Bernard Adeney-Risakotta was a fellow at IIAS Amsterdam from 1 The present article is based on the observations of a number of newspapers, and practices in Indonesia that interpenetrate each other and October 2001-August 2002. He has now returned to Yogyakarta, magazines, and online media, particularly Kompas, Republika, Media Indone- form the conscious and unconscious identity of all Indone- Indonesia where he is Assistant Director of the Graduate Program sia, The Jakarta Post, Tempo, Tempo Interaktif, and Gatra, published between sians. All three are so powerful and all-pervasive that none and Professor of Social Ethics at Duta Wacana Christian Universi- 20 May and 20 August 2002. of them can overthrow the other two or claim the exclusive ty. His current research is in the study of religion and society in 2 The United Development Party (PPP), the Crescent Star Party (PBB), and the allegiance of any particular group. These three networks of Indonesia. Daulatul Ummah faction (PDU) meaning are not necessarily incompatible with each other, [email protected] 3 The Dewan Dakwah Islam Indonesia (DDII). but they contain many elements of incommensurability such 4 The Golkar Party (PG), Indonesian Democratic Struggle Party (PDIP), as to generate distinctive and competing worlds of discourse. Note > National Awakening Party (PKB), Loving Nation Democratic Party (PDKP), Virtually all Indonesians live, think, feel, and participate in Indonesian Nationhood Coalition faction (FKKI), Regional Representatives three different conceptual worlds, which are often synthe- I wish to thank IIAS for providing the facilities, space and (FUD), and the Military-Police faction (FTNI/Polri) sized or integrated with each other, but just as often sepa- time which enabled me to work for almost a year in Ams- 5 Cited in Harry J. Benda, The Crescent and the Rising Sun: Indonesian Islam rated and dichotomized. Each of these frameworks of mean- terdam, without which this research would not have been under the Japanese Occupation, The Hague: Van Hoeve [etc.] (1958), p. 189. ing has generated their own institutions, practices, and possible. structures of power. These three Indonesian worlds can be
24 IIAS Newsletter | #30 | March 2003 > Research & Reports Describing Kekerasan Reconciling the Local and the National Since the fall of the Suharto government in May 1998, Indonesia has experienced an forget so that they can return to their face multiple dilemmas when con- Research > increase in the frequency and intensity of violence. This has included communal violence, normal, everyday lives.’ fronting their subject. Like historians Southeast Asia terrorism, lynchings, criminal violence, and state terrorism. The increase in both gruesome This urges us to ponder, then, what and social scientists in any field, theirs violence and everyday instances of deadly criminal violence has made many Indonesians precisely is ‘normal, everyday life’ in is a responsibility to weigh the evi- feel increasingly unsafe in their own nation. Some have even begun to reflect on the ‘good Indonesia today and at the time of the dence and produce that version of ‘his- old days’ of the New Order when violence, although pervasive, was controlled. violent events we record. An article by tory’ which they see as best. More than Ariel Heryanto, written in response to that though, when writing about vio- By Jemma Purdey tural dimensions of violence is now matic of the sickness within Indonesian the statements of outrage from experts lence morality, emotion, and notions vast. In most recent writing about vio- society, and its moral depravity and lack in Indonesia and the international of responsibility and seeking justice umerous scholars, historians, lence in Indonesia, sources of conflict of humanity as the consequence of an media about the way in which one of weigh just as heavily as the pursuit for Nsocial scientists, and anthropolo- are sought in the processes of the state oppressive past.3 In an interview with the suspects in the Bali bombing, factual truth. Scholars writing about gists, from Gellner to Pandey and Fried- and its Jakarta-centred authority. This The Jakarta Post at around that time Amrozi, was interviewed by police, violence in Indonesia, a nation state in lander, have contemplated the question is the predominant form of analysis, Franz Magnis Suseno, a professor at addresses this issue directly. The smiles transition to democracy, do their work of how exactly we can write about vio- regardless of whether it is led by a belief Jakarta’s Driyarkara School of Philoso- of both the Bali police and Amrozi, dis- within circumstances in which the lence, particularly mass violence. It is a that the prevalence of New Order struc- phy, described the current state of the played before the world’s media, were search for truth about violence as a highly contested discursive space: How tures supported conflict after 1998, or ‘body of the nation’ as being scarred by interpreted by many, particularly in means to justice is an elusive one for do you locate the truth about an event by a profounder historical analysis look- its past. ‘The people are sick. They are Australia, as being insensitive. Heryan- victims and their supporters. This is which, in its re-telling by perpetrators, ing back to colonial or pre-colonial confused and lack vision after years of to, on the other hand, remarked ‘what perhaps a heavy burden for scholars to victims, and bystanders, defies a single times. Yet questions still remain about having been oppressed. There are no most angry commentators …have failed bear but, nonetheless, it is one they narrative? In post-New Order Indone- the agency and responsibility of indi- exemplary figures who are able to help to understand is the extent to which must take on in the absence of state sia do we need an understanding of vio- viduals or members of the crowd them escape this problem.’ The view similar gestures, and smiling in partic- institutions and international regimes lence that is less focused on the centre? involved in carrying out violence in presented is of a nation or a people, ular, has been embedded in social lives willing to carry it out. < Scholars of recent violence in Indonesia. Together with the historical which, not unlike Pandey’s ‘passive vic- of most Indonesians with diverse Indonesia have constructed narratives and political context, local sources of tim(s)’, 4 is a product of colonialism or meanings’.6 He describes this gesture Dr Jemma Purdey recently completed her and histories of violent events by step- agency for violence need to become part some other system of institutional as cultural, as something done uncon- thesis on ‘Anti-Chinese Violence in Indone- ping back and observing the ways in of the explanation. Paul Brass put it oppression and therefore takes no sciously and without political motive. sia, 1996-1999’ at the University of Mel- which Indonesian society responds to simply, ‘If the state is responsible for responsibility for the violence it now Like Pandey’s insistence of acknowl- bourne. She is currently an affiliated fellow violence, and have closely examined riots and pogroms then the people are inflicts upon itself. The source of the edging the work of ‘regular citizens’ in at the IIAS, sponsored by an Australian political and military contexts and struc- relieved of responsibility…But the state violence is external. At a point in time the violence of Partition, in its new ver- Research Council Grant. tures to understand how they con- does not operate independently of its when many scholars within and outside sion the history of violence in Indone- [email protected] tribute to violence. The sheer number citizens and subjects, who are them- Indonesia are working to rediscover its sia needs to incorporate the local, indi- of articles and papers written by selves implicated in these conflict-gen- histories of violence and Indonesia’s vidual, and cultural when analysing the Indonesianists from all disciplines on erating processes…’.1 We need to know institutions of transitional democracy political conditions leading to violence. this subject reflects the range of vio- more about the perpetrators of violence: are barely standing, comments like Explanations of the pervasive vio- Notes > lence in Indonesia but, also, our fasci- as Veena Das suggests, we need to these from Suseno, and others, are dis- lence in Indonesia as an illness experi- nation with it. This interest is particu- understand ‘the moral and ethical turbing. Quoted in an another recent enced by the nation as a whole presents 1 Brass, Paul R. (ed.), Riots and larly remarkable when compared to the processes and judgments of those who news article, Azyumardi Azra, Rector a normative and generalized view Pogroms, London: Macmillan still relatively small amount of research participated’.2 But how do we get at the of the Universitas Islam Negeri (UIN) which excludes, once again, the indi- (1996), pp.34 and 42. and writing about the killings in 1965- world view of perpetrators of violence, Syarif Hidayatullah Jakarta [the State vidual from this history. Victim, perpe- 2 Das, Veena et al (eds.), Violence 1966, in which it is estimated up to especially mass violence, given the Islamic University], asked himself the trator, bystander are rolled into one. and Subjectivity, Berkeley: Uni- 500,000 people died: why this ‘sudden’ anonymity and impunity accorded to so question, ‘A man suspected of stealing The assessment of individuals and their versity of California Press interest in violence? Furthermore, what much violence in Indonesia? a chicken is set ablaze. How can that actions is medical rather than political, (2000), pp.16–17. approaches are scholars taking towards be?’ His response was, ‘Our society is judicial, or social. Therefore, instead of 3 ‘Corruption, lawlessness: The this subject? The problem of describing suffering schizophrenia and hypo- seeking a solution through the law or root of all problems’, The Jakarta In his volume The Indonesian Killings, violence as cultural crisy.’5 This comment was made along- through social policy, a medical solu- Post, 18 November 2002. 1965-1966, published in 1990, Robert Some scholars, although their num- side those of others that Indonesia was tion is sought. Thus, language used to 4 Pandey, Gyanendra, Remembering Cribb concludes his introduction by bers remain limited, have brought us mentally ill. Such a dialogue is disturb- refer to violence has major implications Partition: Violence, Nationalism reflecting on what had, at that time, closer to understanding violence in ing in the context of reading Pandey’s for the manner in which it is resolved, and History in India, Cambridge: been written about the killings. Cribb Indonesia. One of the reasons for a lack critique of approaches to remembering and for the level of responsibility taken Cambridge University Press found that, on the one hand, analysis of significant research focused on local, the Partition in India, which censor the by the perpetrators. Narratives of the (2001), p.62. lacked understanding of the pervasive and personal, sources for violence is the recovery of memory. The descriptions victim and perpetrator are essential in 5 Nafik, Muhammad and Sri structural nature of the ‘national’, that reluctance among scholars to enter into used by scholars of Partition, and those any process which attempts to block the Wahyuni, ‘Indonesia Mentally Ill: is, the political, in relation to the a discourse which labels violence as cul- cited above which refer to Indonesia, notion of violence – in whatever form Experts’, The Jakarta Post, 16 killings and, on the other, that ‘local’, tural, arguing that to do so would fur- hark back to the past. The ‘people’ or, – becoming ‘normal’ or everyday in November 2002. that is to say personal or cultural, expla- ther absolve the agents, individuals, alternatively, the massa, are portrayed Indonesian society. By adding human- 6 Heryanto, Ariel, ‘Politically Incor- nations were also absent or overlooked. and groups of responsibility. However, once more as ‘innocent masses’ who, ity and the individual to this story it rect Smiles: Bali incident’, The This difficulty in reconciling the nation- the fact in Indonesia is that the cycle of Pandey comments, ‘have no will of necessarily denies normalization. Jakarta Post, 25 November 2002. al and the local persists in writing about impunity for violence is made possible their own’ and ‘who must be allowed to Writers on violence in Indonesia violence, in all its forms, in Indonesia by the existence of the opportunity to today. The difference today is that the blame the state, the colonial powers, [advertisement] area of analysis focused on the struc- and the social structures they put in place. The consequence of this view is [advertisement] that responsibility is rarely taken by anyone. However, if we understand ‘culture’, with respect to violence, not as being primitive or primordial but, rather, a way of feeling and acting which is historically and socially con- stituted and constantly reinvented and learned, our understanding of it demands consideration of both the local conditions and the conditions at the centre which facilitate violence. The prominent discourse within Indonesia about violence, however, con- tinues to exclude the agency of the indi- vidual or community member. Follow- ing the bomb attacks in Bali on a busy tourist-strip in October 2002, which killed up to 185 people, mostly foreign- ers, prominent Indonesian commen- tators described these acts as sympto-
IIAS Newsletter | #30 | March 2003 25 > Research & Reports Infrastructure of the Imagination Patrica Spyer Examines Rumours, Graffiti, and Banners in the Ambonese Conflict Muslims and Christians on Ambon refer to the dividing line between them as the ‘Gaza Strip’, analogous to the combatant religious groups in Ambon. It featured two young Interview > disputed lands in the Middle East. Ordinary people under exceptional circumstances often place their own boys, the Muslim Acang and his Christian bosom friend Obet, Southeast Asia situation in a much wider context, says Patricia Spyer, Professor of Anthropology and Sociology of who are discussing the tense situation in their city. Contemporary Indonesia at Leiden University since February 2001. Trying to understand why Ambon fell apart like this, they come to the conclusion that they do not understand. ‘It is a By Jasper van de Kerkhof rently working on the project ‘Indonesian Mediations’, which problem of adults, and we kids are the victims’, Acang says. examines the role of the media in the final years of the Suhar- The camera zooms in on the two friends, who are posed with atricia Spyer challenges what she calls ‘the taken-for- to regime and the subsequent period of Reformasi. ‘The their arms around each other, while they voice the hope and Pgranted but hopelessly impoverished’ anthropological media form a well-researched topic’, she says. ‘But most mutual promise that ‘even if Ambon is destroyed like this, notion of ‘ethnographic context’. ‘Anthropologists construct scholars focus exclusively on the Internet, while it is partic- our bond of brotherhood should not be broken’. a close-up of a community; it’s what they are good at. But ularly “small media” like illegal radio, banners, and graffiti Spyer: ‘All the Ambonese took from the spot was a name because of that they often lose sight of the entire picture. I which are important in conflict situations.’ and a face for the enemy’. The many interviews she held with want to know how people experience situations, precisely by Spyer explores these issues in the conflict-ridden Moluccan refugees are replete with phrases like ‘Acang attacked’ or placing them in a broader framework. Context is the thread Islands in Indonesia, specifically in the province’s capital. ‘Obet’s territory’ and so on. ‘Inversely, the local population of my work.’ Communal violence broke out in Ambon city in January 1999 actively borrowed examples from other places held close to Last November Spyer held her inaugural lecture at Leiden and lasted until a fragile peace agreement was signed in Feb- their own fraught world. For example, Ambon city’s main University. In cooperation with the faculty of arts, she is cur- ruary 2002. Over time, the conflict consolidated two polarized dividing line between its Muslim and Christian parts has religious groups – one Christian and one Muslim – which the been known colloquially as the Gaza Strip.’ Biography > outside world came to see as the war’s main opponents. At Comparisons with the Middle East have also been made least five thousand and possibly as many as ten thousand peo- by the people in conflict-ridden Venezuela, Spyer knows. ‘But Prof. Patricia Spyer (b. 1957), daugh- ple were killed during the three years of hostilities, and an esti- in the Indonesian case, where the conflict is often simplified ter of a Dutch father and an Ameri- mated 700,000 people fled from their homes. as one between Christians and Muslims, people attach even can mother, was born and raised in ‘I was troubled by the sense that something was missing more weight to the analogy. The people of Ambon and the New York. Early in the 1970s, she in the accepted explanations of the conflict’. Spyer does not Gaza Strip have never met, so Ambons Gaza Strip is only pos- and her parents moved to Amster- dismiss the view that the Asian financial crisis, the step-down sible when substantial groups of Ambonese were thinking dam, where she attended secondary of Suharto, and the subsequent period of Reformasi, as well of themselves as living lives parallel to those of substantial education. She returned to the Unit- as the intrigues of Jakarta’s political elite and the military, all groups of people in the Middle East.’ ed States, where she double- played an important role. ‘But some of these analyses are just Her interviews with Ambonese refugees showed her majored in history and anthropology too abstract, too far removed from the everyday lives of ordi- that the local population feels neglected by the political at Tufts University, near Boston, nary people.’ elites in Jakarta. She thinks that the borrowing of names Massachusetts. In 1992, after a peri- Too little attention is given to the work of the imagination and terms from other conflict grounds may thus serve a od of intensive field research, she and the construction of knowledge in all of this and, specif- specific purpose. ‘Twinning these war-torn places may be
obtained her PhD from the Universi- Photopoint ically, how imagination propels particular actions and shapes one way of lending local suffering in Ambon larger than ty of Chicago on trade networks in those who carry them out. In conflict situations, the bound- local meaning.’ < remote areas of Indonesia (The memory of trade: circulation, autochtony, and the aries blur between fact and fiction, fear and fantasy, knowl- past in the Aru Islands). After completion of her dissertation, she worked for edge and suspicion. Spyer: ‘This, I believe, is what is meant Jasper van de Kerkhof, MA is junior research fellow at the IIAS and several years at the University of Amsterdam. Currently, she is Professor of by climate, which is no mere backdrop.’ freelance journalist. Together with Dr Thomas Lindblad he is work- Anthropology and Sociology of Contemporary Indonesia at Leiden University Spyer cites the examples of Voice of the Heart – Acang and ing on the joint NIOD/IIAS research programme ‘Indonesianisasi (the Netherlands). Obet, a public service announcement broadcast on national TV and Nationalisation: The Emancipation and Reorientation of the [email protected] and several commercial channels some months after the break- Economy and the World of Industry and Commerce’. out of violence. The spot was meant to foster peace among the [email protected]
Publication Trends in International Indonesian Studies: The Asia-Pacific Region as New Gravitation Centre It is the fate of almost every Indonesianist who carries out historical research that he introduction typically includes gener- nial power itself. In other words, Research > or she must possess some modicum of skill in reading Dutch-language material. The al statistics indicating the numbers of increasingly more Indonesians are Southeast Asia reason is simple: until the 1940s/1950s, almost all publications concerning the former contributions on Indonesia listed writing their own story, on their own Dutch colony were published in the language of the colonizer. It may even be said that according to country of publication. terms, thus forcing the international the Netherlands enjoyed a factual research monopoly in Indonesian Studies. Such Such a helpful indication suggests community of scholars to shift not power over the production of knowledge and ‘knowing the world’, as postcolonial what the net balance of publications only their assumptions concerning studies has witnessed, enabled and, in many ways, determined the colonial endeavour. in journals, readers, and so on, would what is or is not a viable ‘primary It is, therefore, not surprising that foreign research concerning Indonesia has always be. Since the production of these pub- source’, but also its requirements been a matter of strategic importance, not only for Indonesian scholars, but also for lications is usually linked to centres of concerning language acquisition. It the political elite of the Republic of Indonesia. Over the last fifty years, how has the Indonesian Studies, this also tells us is no longer possible to carry out situation changed? Does the Netherlands (here read, intellectualism and academic something about the international viable research concerning Indone- institutions) still dominate in the field of research on Indonesia? Or has their position drawing power and importance of the sia without possessing the ability to shifted from centre? various national centres of Indonesian read, write, and speak in Bahasa Studies. On the other hand, it also Indonesia. By Arndt Graf ‘almost all’* research contributions since they naturally find their way betrays a certain bias, disfavouring In this context, it is interesting to see (mostly articles) in journals and read- more easily into the holdings of the small countries with few researchers that the Netherlands, as the former his analysis surveys some basic ers published on Indonesia. The dis- KITLV library, which constitutes the as well as less publicized publication colonial power, has lost most of its over- Tquantitative trends in interna- ciplines covered are mainly from the material basis for Excerpta Indonesi- opportunities for an international whelming global predominance in tional Indonesian Studies in the humanities and social sciences, ca. The inclusion/exclusion policy of audience. Indonesian Studies that lasted at least 1990s. The source material is taken although certain other disciplines Excerpta Indonesica is often prob- The analysis of the aggregate num- up until the 1950s. If we only count the from Excerpta Indonesica, the biblio- also appear (geography, medicine, lematized in the field, since this bib- bers of the 1990s shows in which statistics available for the 1990’s via graphical periodical published twice etc.). The claimed scope is worldwide, liographical journal exerts an impor- regions and countries the most pub- Excerpta Indonesica, less than 20 per a year at the KITLV in Leiden (the although certain countries and jour- tant gatekeeping function in the lications on Indonesia appeared. cent of all published articles now Netherlands). Excerpta Indonesica nals are more favoured than are oth- dissemination and, hence, the pro- Some interesting results should be appear in the Netherlands. Given the provides a unique source in that it ers. This is traditionally true for arti- duction of knowledge in Indonesian highlighted. The ranking of Indone- ongoing cuts in Indonesian Studies in renders annotated citations of cles published in the Netherlands, Studies. This makes it all the more sia in first place (representing about the Netherlands, this percentage will interesting to look at the representa- a third of world publications) demon- probably further shrink. On the other Note > tion of international Indonesian strates that the enormous invest- hand, the Netherlands is still the most Studies in this influential journal. ments in the education sector since important place for Indonesianist pub- * For a more detailed discussion cf. A. Graf, ‘Der deutsche Beitrag zur interna- Excerpta Indonesica has rendered an independence (1945) have drastical- lications in Europe (about 50 per cent). tionalen Indonesistik in den 1990er Jahren: ein Blick auf die Repräsentation additional service, important for the ly shifted the balance in the produc- This regional prominence might con- in Excerpta Indonesica’, Asien, January 2003. purpose of the present study, in every tion of knowledge concerning tinue for quite some time, even if other edition since the early 1990s: the Indonesia to the former Dutch colo- less well-represented European coun-
26 IIAS Newsletter | #30 | March 2003 > Research & Reports The Collection of Ceramics Excavated by Olov Janse During his work in Vietnam, the Swedish archaeologist Olov Janse excavated of Tam Tho or, as I suspect, are indica- colouration indicates irregular firing. Research > numerous brick-built Han-style tombs and kilns in Thanh Hoa province, and the tive of vessels being imported from out- The fabrics compare well to the ones Southeast Asia remains of the Dong Son settlement in North Vietnam. With the support of the École side Tam Tho. I analysed from the Tam Tho kilns, Français d’Extrème Orient in Hanoi, Janse carried out three series of excavations in Firstly there is a group of high-fired marking them as products of Tam Vietnam between 1934 and 1939. During his third expedition he also excavated at the cream wares, frequently glazed, often Tho. They seem to suggest vessels Sa Huynh sites in the province of Quang Nai, central Vietnam. The ceramics he well formed, and evenly fired. Some of made either by careless potters, or excavated were deposited in numerous museums throughout the world, one of these these wares have Chinese characters on more likely, potters who were begin- being the Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities (MFEA) in Stockholm, Sweden. their bases. It would seem unlikely that ning to adapt to a new technology and these inscriptions were made by Viet- new vessel forms. These potters were By Ruth Prior nance or date. Obviously, these facts vessel, including: measurements, sur- namese potters, who were most proba- eager to imitate Chinese forms and needed to be established through care- face decoration and glazing, the bly illiterate and who would not have motifs but were as yet unable to he purpose of my visit to the MFEA ful research. method of production, references, and been familiar with the Chinese script. obtain the greater degree of skill in Twas to study a largely ignored col- Janse published detailed volumes, a photograph. It also includes the esti- Such inscriptions are often interpreted their production, as shown by the lection of ceramics from the province each reporting on one of the three peri- mated date based on associated grave as ‘makers’ marks’ and would have to cream wares. < of Thanh Hoa, North Vietnam, which ods during which he undertook exca- goods within the tomb. be made on the unfired vessel, sug- Olov Janse had excavated. Originally all vation in Vietnam (Janse 1947, 1951, The Janse collection in the MFEA gesting that they were produced by References of the ceramics from Janse’s excava- 1958). It turned out that the materials includes thirty-five individual ceramic Chinese potters. – Janse, O.R.T., Archaeological Research in tions were deposited either in the which had been stored in the Musée vessels as well as over fifty broken pot- The vessels appear to be made from Indo-China Vols. 1–2, Cambridge, Mass.: Musée Guimet, Paris, or in the Peabody Guimet, and thus the MFEA, were the sherds, glass beads, and bronzes. The kaolin-based clays, deposits of which Harvard University Press (1947; 1951). Museum in Boston, USA. However, in result of his first two excavations. ceramic vessels include a range of jars, can be found in the Ma and Red River – Janse, O.R.T., Archaeological Research in recognition of King Gustavus Adol- The majority of the vessels at the basins, dishes, cups, and vases. These valleys, but not within the vicinity of Indo-China Vol. 3, Bruges: St Catherine’s phus’ interest in archaeology, and per- MFEA were marked with a code – usu- were primarily undecorated, though the Tam Tho kilns. Therefore this Press (1958). haps as a gesture of patriotism, Janse ally on the bottom of the vessel base – some were glazed, and some were cov- group of wares may have been brought arranged for a selection of objects to be which appeared to be a site code, for ered with stamped motifs. Of particu- into the area for depositing within the Dr Ruth Prior is a specialist in Vietnamese given to King Gustavus Adolphus. example ‘LTII’. I believed this could be lar interest were two tripod vessels in tombs. ceramics. She completed her PhD on early Later, these same artefacts were trans- interpreted as Lach Truong, tomb two. the form of birds, which Janse sug- The second group of vessels are historic ceramics from Tra Kieu in central ferred to the MFEA. Since then the ves- Upon testing this hypothesis by exam- gested to represent either cockerels or much lower fired earthenwares. They Vietnam in 2000. sels have largely remained unstudied ining the photographs in Janse’s vol- pheasants. The majority of the vessels are commonly unglazed but with [email protected] and un-displayed. umes, I found one of the vessels in the can be dated to between the first and stamped decoration, often using The original aims of my research MFEA collection illustrated, with its third centuries AD, corresponding to some wheel technology. Their uneven were to establish a chronology of the site code visible. This code related exact- the period of Han occupation in North vessels found in the tombs and at the ly to the name of the site and the tomb Vietnam. Info > kilns of Thanh Hoa, examine methods number, confirming the belief that the The vessels in the Stockholm collec- used in their production, study the dis- markings represented site codes. tion demonstrate that there were two This research trip was made possible by an ESF Asia Committee research travel tribution of the vessels made at the Tam Using this, in conjunction with the distinct production traditions used in grant. Although the work of the Committee was concluded in 2001, information Tho kilns, and if possible, sample mate- list of objects sent by the Musée Guimet the forming of the vessels found on previous Committee activities may still be found at: rial for petrographic analysis. and the tomb plans, I was then able to deposited in the tombs. These two tra- www.iias.nl/esfac However, during the early stages of proceed through the Stockholm collec- ditions possibly co-existed at the kilns my research it became apparent that tion identifying each object, the site it some of the aims would have to be was from, and the tomb, if from a [advertisement] modified. This was due to the fact that tomb. This knowledge enabled me to when I began examining the objects set up a catalogue that detailed all of the there was no catalogue of them, nor vessels in the collection. This catalogue was there data available on their prove- contains an individual record for each
tries expand Indonesian Studies in the In fact, American contributions con- future. stituted less than 10 per cent of the Europe in general has lost its former world output in the 1990s. The ques- central position in Indonesian Studies. tion is whether these numbers reflect a Enjoying, today, about 38 per cent of general lack of interest in Indonesia global publication, its share might con- and Indonesian Studies in the USA and tinue to shrink in the future, eventual- whether this, if unchanged, might have ly reaching a third or less. This devel- serious long-term consequences for Let op! opment might lead to a new wave of American-Indonesian relations. < international cooperation between Europe and the other centres of Indone- Reference Film monteren incl kader! sian Studies in Asia-Pacific and North - Excerpta Indonesica, Leiden: KITLV Press America. (1970-) The leading market for Indonesian Studies is now in the Asia-Pacific coun- Dr Arndt Graf teaches at the Indonesian tries, including Australia. This country Department, Asia-Africa-Institute, Univer- alone, which has about the population sity of Hamburg, Germany. He is an IIAS size of the metropolitan area of Jakar- affiliated fellow (24 February - 31 March ta, is producing as much Indonesianist 2003) researching ‘Humor as a tool of polit- output as the entire US. An interesting ical marketing in Reformasi Indonesia’. result, on the other hand, is the low [email protected] turn out of ASEAN countries. If this reflects not just Excerpta Indonesica’s bias, but, rather, a lack of Indonesian- ist centres in, say, Thailand or the Philippines, one could expect to see more efforts put into Indonesian Stud- ies in these countries in the future. The United States, despite their role as the only remaining superpower in many other fields, do not play a central role in publications on Indonesia, the world’s most populous Islamic country.
IIAS Newsletter | #30 | March 2003 27 > Research & Reports Politics of Culture in China The emergence of a transnational management culture in China is a very recent phenomenon. There have, of course, been up to the resulting expectations. The Report > precedents, which may be traced back to the early twentieth century or even earlier. But what we see happening in China today in claim that their shared culture provides China Sino-foreign joint ventures has basically emerged during the 1990s. Small wonder that the study of transnational management is Chinese descendents with a big advan- still taking its first steps, and that a broadly oriented approach in this research field is lacking. Last year, a workshop entitled tage over other foreigners in doing ‘Politics of culture in transnational management: China during the twentieth century’ was convened by the authors in order to business in China is equally deceptive. develop such an approach. For example, research into the Suzhou Industrial Park shows how a joint By Leo Douw & Chan Kwok Bun ization studies at universities, and in pro- triate managers usually value women standing of these interests on the Chi- undertaking between the China and fessional schools, the work by Hofstede higher as to their work performance nese side seems to be much more help- Singapore governments ended in fail- he study of transnational manage- and his followers is still the standard ref- than men, they are nevertheless sensi- ful in conducting business than any ure because, amongst other things, Tment has been dominated by the erence. As for China, Hofstede has pro- tive to the argument of their Chinese perception of cultural differences, how- claims of cultural affinity from both concept of cultural difference ever since vided the obvious starting point for a counterparts, that most Chinese ever useful that may be. It would be bet- sides blinded the participants to objec- Geert Hofstede published his classical large number of research projects. employees would not accept a woman ter, too, if our rapidly increasing under- tions against a local administrational research on IBM and its branches over Undeniably, the Hofstede school has as their boss. In that way, career oppor- standing of the workings of Chinese project. the world (1980). Hofstede suggested engendered a vast amount of useful tunities for women are being over- business networks could be extended It is perhaps high time to transcend that the existence of cultural differences information on work relations in for- looked on a grand scale. Also, the argu- to the analysis of transnational man- the Hofstede approach by examining among the personnel of multinational eign-invested firms, including those in ment of cultural difference may agement, as a method of getting to what is behind the cultural divide firms offers a substantial explanation of China. There is no doubt about the exis- self-reinforce and perpetuate existing grips with the question of where for- rather than its alleged features and, the problems with which corporations tence of cultural differences nor about mutual stereotypes and thus hinder eign firms in China are heading in the also, by looking upon the newly such as IBM are confronted in their for- their being a real and often formidable changes in work relations. In contrast longer term, and which side controls emerged transnational management eign branches; he also offered an appar- obstacle to be overcome when doing with the Hofstede approach, the that process. The past achievements of culture in China as a totally new phe- ently sophisticated methodology for the business across national borders. Nev- acknowledgement that employees of such business networks in accommo- nomenon. To mention some final research of those differences, because ertheless, over the past decades the the- different cultural backgrounds also dating the needs of Western enterpris- examples: German and Chinese his project provided a convenient outline ory’s limitations have also become share many cultural features is obvi- es in China would particularly merit female managers in transnational of the components of culture and clear. For one thing, the argument of ously much more conducive to cultur- such analysis. enterprises in Hong Kong have enabled students to efficiently interview cultural difference can be manipulated al change. What applies to claims that cultural demonstrated a remarkable ability to the employees in those firms, measur- to the purpose of maintaining existing An even more challenging problem differences really matter, applies equal- create career opportunities for them- ing their proclaimed cultural luggage power structures. Research on gender is that undue emphasis on cultural dif- ly to claims of cultural affinity. Research selves, which is quite contrary to Chi- along sliding scales. In many depart- relations in Sino-German enterprises ferences may block out a realistic view reveals that managers of a bicultural nese common practice. Also, there is ments of business economics and organ- indicates that whereas German expa- of structural factors, which determine background are often perplexed by the now sufficient research showing that much of the problems encountered by conflicts which result from that situa- remuneration systems in transna- Info > foreign firms in China. Foreign enter- tion: prospective Australian-Chinese tional firms in China have their own prises usually serve different purposes business people for example, who try specific features and can no longer be The workshop ‘Politics of culture in transnational management’ was held at for the Chinese than for their foreign and enter the Chinese market, have called either ‘Chinese’ or ‘Western’. Hong Kong Baptist University on 23–24 May 2002, as a part of the internation- partners; they also, often unawares, often shrunk back from their initiative The new transnational management al conference on ‘China in the world in the twenty-first century: hot develop- serve quite diverse and sometime con- when realizing that they were consid- culture in China can be said to be com- ment issues in contemporary China’. flicting interests among their Chinese ered as Chinese rather than as Aus- posed of very different elements, but counterparts. A more realistic under- tralians, and were not prepared to live is more than the sum of its parts, and
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28 IIAS Newsletter | #30 | March 2003 > Research & Reports ‘Wellcome’ Asia: Histories of Medicine in the UK The Wellcome Trust, the well-known British educational charity, has played a sterling range of funds and be deployed to is closely related to the power struc- role in encouraging the development of research and teaching expertise in the history examine a variety of important issues. tures which gave birth to it and keep of medicine in the United Kingdom. At the moment the Trust funds three different Medical ethics in Asian contexts has changing it. < units at the universities of Oxford, Manchester, and East Anglia (Norwich), and one recently become the focus of discus- major centre in London. sions between the Wellcome Trust Cen- Reference tre and the IIAS, and will hopefully lead _ Hofstede, Geert, Culture’s Consequences: By Sanjoy Bhattacharya twentieth centuries, while Vivienne Lo to a collaborative research programme International Differences in Work-Related News > concentrates on the ancient and in the near future. It is to be hoped that Values, Beverly Hills, CA: Sage (1980). General he Wellcome Trust Centre for the medieval periods in China. the examination of this significant topic THistory of Medicine at University Dominik Wujastyk has recently been will encompass a transnational and Dr Leo Douw is Lecturer in Modern Chinese College London, now directed by pro- appointed as a senior research fellow multi-disciplinary perspective. A simi- History and Society at the University of fessor Harold Cook, has recently and is now working on medical trends lar approach could also, of course, be Amsterdam and the Free University in Ams- strengthened its Asian Studies compo- in India on the eve of colonialism. The used in a broad study of the attitudes terdam. He has engaged in the study of Chi- nent with two lecturers and a fellow in centre’s new specialist on Central Asia, held by Asian minority and migrant nese overseas business enterprise in China addition to the two lecturers already research fellow Hormoz Ebrahimnejad, communities in Europe towards state- during the twentieth century, and is cur- working there. Dealing with the histo- researches the introduction of Western sponsored healthcare provisions – rently working towards the study of business ry of South Asia, Sanjoy Bhattacharya medical practices in nineteenth-centu- another important theme that has families in Taiwan during the Japanese Peri- mainly works on the nineteenth and ry Iran, which he describes in this issue received far less attention than it od (1895-1945). Info > of the IIAS Newsletter, but is also inter- deserves. Hopefully, the start that the [email protected] ested in Afghanistan’s history. Alex Wellcome Trust Centre and the IIAS For fellowship applications, you may contact professor McKay, who joined us on 1 October made in this regard will lead to a series Prof. Chan Kwok Bun is Head of and Pro- Cook with a copy of your CV and a two- or three- page 2002 with a three-year fellowship, is of productive international partner- fessor at the Department of Sociology and research proposal, to be considered by the Centre’s working on the transmission of West- ships. < Director of the David C. Lam Institute for Research Committee before selected names are forward- ern medicine in Himalayan South Asia East-West Studies at Hong Kong Baptist ed to the Trust for its fellowship competition. between 1900 and 1947. Dr Sanjoy Bhattacharya is a lecturer at the University. Having published on a wide vari- The centre’s Asian Studies compo- Wellcome Trust Centre for the History of ety of sociological topics, he is now concen- Doctoral candidates (with their own funding) nent will be enhanced through the Medicine at University College London. He trating on problems of transcultural inter- may contact Dr Michael Neve: [email protected] development of large projects in col- specializes in the history of medicine in action and the workings of Chinese business Details are available from the centre’s website: laboration with international research South Asia, with particular emphasis on the networks in the global economy. www.ucl.ac.uk/histmed organizations. Such collaborative work nineteenth and twentieth centuries. [email protected] could be developed with the help of a [email protected] What Is Bon Medicine? Analysing Narratives of Illness and Healing Tibetan medicine is recognized today as one of the world’s most cine. Associated with the Bon religion, and claiming origins Tibetan literature that takes into account conventions of his- complex and sophisticated systems of medicine. Over the last 1300 dating back to centuries before Tibetan Buddhism, Bon med- tory and fiction specific to Tibetan contexts. years, Tibetan medical traditions have produced a vast corpus of icine is an ancient medical tradition. Taught in Bon monas- Medical narratives found in the earliest extant Tibetan texts literature analogous in complexity to the medical scholasticism of India, teries, specific medical schools, or through oral transmission from Dunhuang (ninth century AD) present ‘Bon’ priests China, or Greece. Tibetan medical systems are practised widely today in by hereditary lineages of Bon doctors, it is still practised today healing sick patients and clearly contain non-Buddhist ideas the countries of Nepal, Bhutan, and Mongolia; in Tibetan populated by Bon medical practitioners in the People’s Republic of and practices. Tibetological scholarship has demonstrated areas of the People’s Republic of China; in parts of Russia (Kalmykia, China, and in indigenous and exile Tibetan communities in that some of these early narratives are thematically related to Buryatia); and throughout India (Ladakh, Sikkim, and in Tibetan refugee Nepal and India. Historical and anthropological research on later Tibetan healing practices. Our project will compare heal- settlements). The popularity and use of Tibetan medicine is growing in Bon medicine will facilitate a scholarly analysis of the com- ing narratives in these early medical texts and in later Europe, North America, and the Pacific Rim as well. plexities of local medical practice and of indigenous under- eleventh- to fifteenth-century Bon literature with those known standings of health and illness in everyday life in Tibetan and used by Bon medical practitioners and their patients By Mona Schrempf and Frances Garrett communities. In the effort to understand how Bon medicine today. The research results will contribute to our knowledge Research > is defined as a tradition distinct from other forms of Tibetan of early Tibetan medicine and to defining a distinctive tradi- Central Asia tudies on Tibetan medicine generally refer to the ‘clas- medicine, this project will also contribute to the larger ques- tion of Bon medicine. Additional comparisons of Bon nar- Ssical’ medical system, which is largely influenced by Bud- tion of how medical and religious disciplinary boundaries ratives with contemporaneous Buddhist narratives will con- dhist notions of the body and the human condition. With an are drawn in Tibet both historically and today. tribute to discussions about theoretical confluences and emphasis on medical theory, existing historical research on distinctions of both traditions. Tibetan medicine stresses the influence of the Indian Narratives of illness and healing Historical and ethnographic research will aim to show that, Ayurvedic humoral system and Chinese pulse diagnosis, and Drawing on methodologies of history of medicine and med- in contrast to the way Tibetan medicine is presented by most focuses on the institutionally codified body of Tibetan med- ical anthropology, this project will analyse ‘story-like’ narra- scholarship today, Tibetan medical systems are not only empir- ical literature comprised by the Four Tantras (rGyud bzhi) and tive descriptions of individual experiences of illness and relief ically founded explications of natural phenomena, but also its commentaries. Many studies of Tibetan medicine are lim- from illness in Tibetan Bon literature and practice. In such ideological and cultural narratives greatly influenced by ited by a scientifically oriented epistemology that places value narratives, notions of self, society, and culture are negotiated changes in religious and social concepts, local and historical in the study of medical systems only in the search for effec- and made meaningful. These narratives – crucial components contexts, and other forms of culture. This approach identifies tive healing techniques. Medical anthropologists, in turn, of medical education, medical theory and practice, and the medicine as a player in a far larger discourse than simply that have concentrated mostly on the impact of modernity and healing process – will support an analysis of cultural con- of medicinal healing. It exposes broad hermeneutic issues that socio-political change among Tibetan patients on the public structions of illness and healing in Bon literature and prac- shape the relationship of medicine and culture in world soci- health system and on the institutionalization and profes- tice; their analysis will help clarify the relationship between eties, questioning the validity of superimposing our own epis- sionalization of traditional Tibetan medicine, as exemplified centralized and localized medical practices, written and oral temological taxonomies on classical Asian thought. < in the largest Tibetan medical institutions, the sMan rtsis histories, and text and performance. There are compelling rea- khang in Lhasa (Tibet Autonomous Region) and in Dharam- sons to use narrative as an organizational rubric for the study Frances Garrett, MA is a scholar of classical Tibetan medical, reli- sala (Indian exile). of medicine. In the last few decades, many sociologists and gious, and historical literature and the developer of Tibetan Medi- Despite a growing interest in Tibetan medicine, the plu- philosophers of science have challenged the approach of log- cine Learning Resources. She has performed preliminary research on ralistic diversity of Tibetan medical systems, that is their tex- ical empiricism, its ontological privileging of scientific knowl- healing narratives in Tibetan texts and done fieldwork on Tibetan tual, institutional, and localized practical forms, has received edge, and the adequacy of logico-scientific rationality. In its medicine in India and Tibet. little scholarly research attention outside Tibet. By examin- place some have embraced an understanding of the social and [email protected] ing modern-day Bon narratives of illness and healing and the historical contingency of all types of knowledge, including sci- http://iris.lib.virginia.edu/tibet/collections/medicine/TMLR.html historical development of such narratives in ninth- to fif- entific knowledge. The ontological concept of disease, for teenth-century Tibetan literature, this project aims to artic- example, based most centrally on a cataloguing of symptoms, Dr Mona Schrempf has worked on cultural-religious revivals among ulate the boundaries of a distinctive tradition of Bon medi- was an historical development in seventeenth-century Euro- Tibetan Bon communities in both China and India with recent field- pean medicine that revolutionized diagnosis and treatment. work on Bon medical practice. Specializing in oral history and med- Note > It is not necessarily, however, a well-suited model for the analy- ical anthropology, she holds a PhD in social anthropology from the sis of early systems of medicine, even within European intel- Free University Berlin, and is currently affiliated with the Depart- The authors express gratitude to Henk Blezer ([email protected]) lectual history, let alone for the analysis of Tibetan medical ment of Anthropology, South Asia Institute, Ruprecht-Karls-Uni- for his earlier comments on this article. systems. The present project will therefore involve the careful versität, Heidelberg. development of a theory of the role of medical narrative in [email protected]
IIAS Newsletter | #30 | March 2003 29 > Publications Contemporary Korean Cinema Over the last two decades the South Korean film industry has spectacularly increased its status both domestically and abroad. At past (p.180). The ways in which these issues are dealt with present, Korean films do not only repeatedly occupy the number one spot at the domestic box office, but many have even come to sometimes reflect a curious discontent with the absence of be included in the stock of video stores around the world, sometimes after winning several prizes at international film festivals. class. South Korean films have effectively reflected a simi- The success is, however, less remarkable in terms of figures than it is in terms of its likelihood. Taking into account the Japanese larly ambiguous concern over the inadequacy of status colonization of Korea that lasted almost half a century, the devastation caused by the Korean War, the vast constraints imposed by based on wealth, this time on the part of the new middle post-war military dictatorships, as well as the virtual absence of any form of state funding, it is close to a miracle that already at classes, who are depicted as cunning and blindly material- the outset of the current administration, Korean films represented a socio-political force to be reckoned with. Until then an ist. Lee’s analysis shows us that although state ideologies institution of rigorous censorship and propaganda, as well as unfair competition from Western cinema, marred the development are clearly represented in both North and South Korean of an independent Korean cinema. films, the ways in which films deal with them is rarely one- dimensional. By Roald H. Maliangkay he has personally seen to it that the medium of film has The combination of chronology with issues of gender, Review > become no more than another revolutionary instrument class, and nationhood is useful in that it provides more than Korea yangjin Lee’s Contemporary Korean Cinema: Identity, through which the masses can free themselves from feu- one excellent framework for future studies of Korean cin- HCulture and Politics explores how the socio-political sta- dal oppression. Lee explores how and to what extent cine- ema. It is also because of the structure, however, that Lee tus quo has influenced the work of directors and filmmak- ma has constituted a means to propagate nationalism and is forced to recapitulate historic events a few times, which ers in both North and South Korea over the years. Contrary the ideals of the working class. In outlining the most impor- in a few cases leads to observations that I would have liked to what the title suggests, it constitutes a history of the socio- tant socio-political themes in North Korean cinema to see earlier in the text. The very important comment that political conditions, ideologies, and struggles regarding (pp.34–44), she makes important observations, such as the in North Korean films South Koreans are not portrayed ‘in Korean cinema in both North and South Korea throughout exclusion of the colonial period in North Korean history, depth because they do not represent a separate political enti- the twentieth century. Lee analyses seventeen films from how the emphasis that films made between 1945 and 1950 ty that deserves meaningful attention’ (p.140), for example, both sides of the thirty-eighth parallel and shows how they lay on the historical legitimacy of North Korea as opposed merits inclusion in the subchapter ‘socio-political charac- represent the disparate personal and state ideologies regard- to that of the South, and the paradoxical use of scenes of teristics of North Korean film’ (p.34). Due to Lee’s histori- ing nationalism, class, and gender, while at the same time capitalist luxury in films from the 1990s to meet audiences’ cal approach, moreover, descriptions of, for example, the conveying the Korean people’s shared loyalty towards cul- increased curiosity about them. In her assessment of South effects of specific films on various audiences, or detailed tural traditions. Rather than building primarily on a chrono- Korean cinema, Lee points out how important socio-polit- motivations for adopting specific ideas, are not given. Lee’s logical structure, she divides her studies of the issues of gen- ical events and, in particular, regulations have influenced inspiring study does hint at, for example, the one-dimen- der, nationalism, and class consciousness into four chapters film themes over the years. In doing so, the industry’s sionality of the semantic narrative of contemporary North that each deal with cinema on each side of the divided necessity to comply with state ideology comes across as far Korean films, which I have personally found to be one of nation. At the end of the book a lengthy chronological fil- more threatening than the mandatory adoption of the offi- their distinguishing features, but she does not further mography (pp.194–221) is included that summarizes the cial doctrine in the North. This may be the inevitable result explore it. This leaves her account somewhat lacking in people and companies responsible for the films mentioned of the abundance of documentation regarding the violent involvement, which personal experiences or the odd use of in the book, followed by a bibliography and index. measures exercised by the South Korean administration anthropological data may have prevented. The black-and- In her introduction (pp.1–15), Lee explains that the pur- towards filmmakers who failed to comply, but I would have white pictures, meanwhile, never help to stir any enthusi- pose of her study is to show that the way in which film- liked to see some words on the difficulty of assessing the asm either, as most of them are too dark and out of focus. makers have related past experiences often express ideo- risk run by ‘irresponsible’ filmmakers in North Korea. Contemporary Korean Cinema: Identity, Culture and Poli- logical attitudes relevant to present-day society. Ideology, she In chapters two to four, Lee concentrates on films made tics is a wonderful addition to the dire volume of English- notes, underlies all films in so far as that they are not reli- between 1960 and 1999. She examines the various cine- language sources on Korean cinema. Although I would able mirrors of actual reality but coloured reconstructions matic representations of the folk tale of Ch’unhyangjòn, a have personally liked to read a little bit more about viewing of it. Her focus on the aspect of ideology in the interpreta- story that centres on issues of gender and class, and demon- experiences, as one of the first English-language works tions of North and South Korean films will, she predicts, strates how the separate ideologies are reflected. North entirely dedicated to Korean film, its historical approach is demonstrate that while both nations Korean renditions, she argues, lay emphasis on the issue certainly very welcome. Not only does Lee do a brilliant job claim a historical legitimacy over the of class, while South Korean versions focus on gender recounting practically the entire history of Korean cinema other, they have also maintained the issues. In comparing, among other things, camera posi- from the first films shown in Korea up to Im Kwòn-Taek’s idea of a cultural and ethnical homo- tions, the lines of the actors, and stage props, she makes a 2000 Ch’unhyangjòn, but she also offers many novel geneity. Following a summary of the number of fascinating observations. One of these is the insights and sharp observations. Since Lee has also scrupu- discourse on ideology in film studies depiction of Ch’unhyang in a North Korean film as a lously followed the McCune-Reischauer system – which is, in general, Lee recounts the Marxist provider to equate the monopoly of the filial virtue (p.84), ironically, misspelled (p.13) – this allows easy access to Kore- approach toward the expression of ide- another the surprising predominance of the girl’s – Con- an materials. The majority of the films from before 1945, ology in film, as well as that of post- fucian – self-sacrifice in a version made by director Shin and of South Korean films up to the 1970s, however, had structuralists and postmodernists, and Sangok’s after he was abducted to North Korea compared Sino-Korean titles, so I hope that future editions of this ties this into a brief but sharp assess- to an earlier version he made in the South (p.89). book will not only contain better pictures, but also a glos- ment of the relevance of the work of Lee then turns to the representation of nationhood and sary. It is definitely worth it. < Foucault, Said, Geertz, and Barthes. the notion of class. The narratives of North and South Kore- In the first chapter Lee relates the an films, she finds, do not only express a strong faith in the - Lee, Hyangjin, Contemporary Korean Cinema: Identity, Culture and development of Korea’s film industry Korean people’s common cultural traits, and in the tradi- Politics, Manchester and New York: Manchester University Press vis-à-vis political oppression from the tional Confucian family values and structure, but they also (2000), pp. 244, ISBN 0-7190-6007-9 (paperback) very outset. Within years after the reflect a shared conviction that reunification is inevitable introduction of the technology, film (p.141). She argues that although the socio-political dis- Dr Roald H. Maliangkay is lector at the University of Amsterdam. became a booming industry and it did course in North Korean films consistently emphasizes a He specializes in Korean folk and pop music, Korean popular culture not take long for the Japanese to real- classless society, class issues continue to arise out of a dual- and cultural policy. ize the medium’s potential as a pow- istic attitude towards social hierarchy inherited from the [email protected] erful tool for propaganda. The severe competition from foreign films forced Korean filmmakers [advertisement] to work with Japanese distributors and investors, but they often did so unsuccessfully. The difficulties they faced in making independent Korean films was exacerbated follow- ing the establishment of a system of censorship in 1922. From then onwards, opportunities to express Korean nation- alism became risky. By the 1940s, the Japanese had effec- tively abolished Korean cinema and turned it into an essen- tial part of their propaganda system. In her account of the colonial history of Korean film and the Japanese efforts to exercise control over the work of subversive filmmakers such as Na Un’gyu and those associated with the proletarian KAPF (Korean Art Proletarian Federation), Lee regrettably omits an analysis of the phenomena of ‘silent’ films. Although she notes the nationalist importance of the 1926 film Arirang, for example, she fails to mention that this film too was silent and that Korean narrators (pyònsa) may have played an important role in the projection of its patriotic message. The synopsis of the history of North and South Korean cinema continues with a description of how Kim Jong Il has applied his father’s ideas of self-reliance and inde- pendence, juche, to film. Through his famous love for film,
30 IIAS Newsletter | #30 | March 2003 > Publications State Formation in Korea Controversy surrounds the formation process of the Kaya Federation and the Three Kingdoms (Kogury0,˘ of Silla, she gives the impression to assess the process of Korean state for- Review > Paekche, and Silla) on the Korean peninsula, which took place at around the beginning of the Christian accept the theory that cultured horse-rid- mation without a precise ceramic Korea era. In essence, two main approaches oppose each other; the historical approach, which relies on ers migrated to Kyòngju without back- chronology. Several theories clash in the Chinese and Korean historical sources, and the archaeological approach, which relies on excavation ing up her view with factual data. Korean academic world, and here we see data. The former dates the foundation of the Three Kingdoms to the first century BC, while the latter, The same is true for the seventh chap- Barnes use her expertise to analyse dif- based on archaeological evidence of social stratification in the form of sumptuously furnished mounded ter, for Western readers the most useful ferent ceramic technologies. tombs, asserts that the Three Kingdoms did not emerge before the fourth century AD. part of this book, which looks at the In view of the number of recent exca- debate between Korean and Japanese vations relating to the period of state for- By Elisabeth Chabanol informative synthesis. An example is the larly in the case of the Paekche Kingdom. specialists about the entity known as mation on the Korean peninsula, there theoretical second chapter, which For example, sites such as P’ungnap Kaya. Unfortunately, Gina Barnes does is no doubt it would take a full team to n State Formation in Korea, Gina observes that the ‘problem of state for- t’osòng in southern Seoul, which not take a stance on the question of the arrive at a good synthesis on the matter IBarnes discusses the complex subject mation in the southern Korean peninsu- addresses the question of the location of existence of the Yamato/Wa outpost of this critical transition from the proto- of the transition period from the proto- la hinges on the integration of so-called Paekche’s first capital, should have been Minama. historical period to the historical period. history to the history of the peninsula Bronze Age and Iron Age data, and their mentioned. The final chapter refers to the late Meanwhile, Barnes’ book should not be against the background of these two his- integration requires the use of a settle- It is equally unfortunate that the ques- development of the Silla kingdom. Here neglected: it provides a wealth of infor- torical approaches. It is a complex sub- ment pattern concept which focuses on tion of the origin of some distinctive Barnes states that ‘Silla’s material cul- mation and is the pioneer publication in ject on which few books have been pub- actual communities and their relation to tombs from the south-west of the penin- tural roots are indistinguishable from a Western language on some important lished, this being the first ever book in a each other in a broader political and social sula, which relate to both the Korean Kaya, arising from the early stoneware questions related to this period. It will Western language to deal with it. Her network’ (p.89). It would have been peninsula and the Japanese archipelago, and tombs traditions of the Yòngnam serve as a necessary tool for students application of a Western state formation much better had it been incorporated into has not been examined. Barnes poses region’ (p.201), presenting the difficult who do not have direct access to the studies framework to the subject, which the first chapter. There, the author reap- piquant questions relating to state for- debate on ceramics and tomb typology. Korean sources and wish to specialize in has not previously been attempted, praises the study of seven states (from mation in the peninsula, covering the Again, it would have been interesting to ancient periods of North-East Asia, and allows her to make the Korean question Old Chosòn to Silla) as they are accepted different views of Korean and Japanese know her own position on the evolution to proto-historians working on other geo- more easily comparable at a global level. in Korean historical literature through academic worlds. It is puzzling why she of the different structures of tombs and graphic areas who wish to learn about This collection of eight essays deals the framework of the Western anthropo- did not endeavour to express more on the burials’ dating; topics which are the peninsula. < with specific questions that arose during logical theory on the transformation of frankly her own answers to these ques- subject to very varied interpretations. Barnes’ research into the ‘background to chiefdom-states, thus providing the book tions. While early on she asks the fun- Given the extent of her knowledge and - Barnes, Gina, State Formation in Korea: the complex social development on the with a proper introduction. damental question whether ‘ … the cen- comprehension of both Korean and Historical and Archaeological Perspectives. Japanese islands’, but does not attempt The lack of integration of new data is tralized entities of the Proto-Three Japanese archaeology and her own per- (Durham East Asia Studies), Richmond, to give a comprehensive answer to the particularly noticeable in the bibliogra- Kingdoms period … [were] organiza- spective, it would also have been fasci- Surrey: Curzon Press (2001), pp. 245, various questions peculiar to the penin- phy of the sixth chapter, not containing tionally continuous with or even related nating had Barnes adopted her own def- ISBN 0-7007-1323-9 sula. We are left not with a book but, a single excavation report more recent to the large states of the Three Kingdoms inite position regarding all these matters. rather, with a collection of papers and arti- than 1987. This is all the more regret- period’ (p. 46), she does not treat this Having said that, throughout the Dr Elisabeth Chabanol is head of the cles, originally written between 1983 and table because it presents a very interest- point regarding Paekche and Silla. essays Barnes does give detailed expla- Korean branch of the French Research 2000. Due to a lack of editing, the data ing discussion of the different possible Moreover, despite her detailed study nations of the problems of concepts and School of the Far East (Ecole française d’Ex- are sometimes redundant, and have not functions of the walled sites from the of armour, the author does not take a terminology, such as tribal state, tribal trême Orient, EfEO), residing in Seoul. Her always been brought up to date. The third century AD, and deals with an area stance on the issue of the Horse-rider league, chiefdom, tribal society, guo, main area of interest is art history and author has missed the opportunity to of research which has recently under- Theory and the Yamato/Wa aggression kingdom, or walled-state. Furthermore, archaeology of ancient Korea. draw diverse results into a real, new, and gone important developments, particu- in Korea. When it comes to the origins she reminds us that it is impossible to [email protected]
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IIAS Newsletter | #30 | March 2003 31 > Publications A Korean View of Korean Literature Due to political circumstances, Korean Studies has had a late start compared with the study of Japan and China and, people. In other words, much attention is paid to the rela- consequently, in many fields there still is a scarcity of authoritative standard works and handbooks in Western languages. For the tionship of literature with national identity, national con- study of Korean literature the publication of Histoire de la literature coréenne is a milestone, similar to that of the Sourcebooks of sciousness, and national destiny, and with the fate of the ordi- Korean Civilization for the study of Korean culture some years ago. It is the fruit of a collaborative effort by Cho Dong-il and nary people, those who were dominated and exploited. The Daniel Bouchez, both scholars who, in their own way, have played an important role in their field. preoccupation with the nation, a natural consequence of Korea’s confrontation with colonization and modernization, By Boudewijn Walraven a specific topic. The French version, too, may be used in does not, however, imply a mindless essentialism. National Review > this way (it contains a 34-page index and a detailed table consciousness is not assumed from the outset, but its emer- Korea ho Dong-il, who belongs to the generation of students of contents), but also is a pleasure to read from beginning gence is carefully traced. In a different context, writing about Cwhich toppled the regime of Syngman Rhee in 1960, to end. In fact, it provides one of the most attractive and the oral literature of Cheju Island, which he regards as that has not only published studies of various aspects of Kore- most stimulating introductions to Korean cultural history of a minority people, Cho has demonstrated that he is not an literature and a comprehensive five-volume history of I know, not least because of the attention paid to intellec- blind to the dangers and limitations of the nationalistic per- the subject (of which this book is an abridgement), but in tual developments in general. spective and has even issued a call to transcend it. The inter- his numerous books also has devoted a great deal of atten- To avoid misunderstandings, it should be emphasized est in literature that directly, or more often indirectly, repre- tion to comparative and theoretical issues. Originally a stu- that in this book ‘Korean literature’ does not only stand for sents the views of the lower strata of society may be seen as dent of French language and literature, from the outset literature in the Korean language. Koreans have from very a reflection of the drive for democratization that has charac- and with unrivalled energy he has attempted to develop a early in their history made ample use of Chinese charac- terized contemporary South-Korean history while one repres- perspective that could overcome the limitations of the ters and the Chinese language to express themselves in sive government after another assumed power. A Virtuous Woman Eurocentric views that also dominated Korean academia. writing, and to write in Korean was difficult before the Kore- The admiration Cho expresses for an author like Yi Kyubo protects her husband Daniel Bouchez first went to Korea to teach philosophy to an alphabet was invented in 1443. Cho Dong-il has firmly (1168–1241) is typical of his views and values. Although Yi against Japanese sol- Korean Catholic priests (in Latin!), but turned out to be broken with the tendency of some narrowly nationalistic exclusively wrote in Chinese, he exhibited a clear con- diers. Taken from the one of the most prominent European scholars of classical historians of Korean literature, after liberation from Japan- sciousness of Korean tradition, recording, for instance, an 1617 Tonghae shinsok Korean literature. Through his ground-breaking work on ese colonialism in 1945, to focus exclusively on writings in orally transmitted story about the founder of the ancient Samgang haengsilto the seventeenth-century author Kim Man-jung he became the vernacular. Consequently discussion of writings in Chi- Korean state of Koguryò in a long narrative poem, The Lay (Korean Examples of one of the central figures in a fierce debate in Korea con- nese takes up at least as much space as that of literature in of King Tongmyòng. He also was of the opinion that a Kore- the Display of Confu- cerning the language in which Kim wrote his novels. Korean, and probably more. One of the most prominent an writer should write about Korean conditions, putting cian Virtues: New, Bouchez has not only translated and abridged the first four and most fascinating themes in the book is the situation of this into practice himself by composing poems in which he illustrated edition), volumes of Cho’s history (leaving the truly modern litera- bilingualism (diglossia) in which the Koreans (some of expressed indignation about the terrible plight of the peas- which for each entry ture of the twentieth century for a future publication), but whom continued to write in Chinese until the twentieth ants, who were caught between the exactions of their own gives the text in Chi- also adapted the text for non-Korean readers, thus becom- century) found themselves during most of their history. The government and the Mongol armies that invaded Korea in nese as well as Kore- ing the co-author of this volume. The result is excellent. relationship between the two languages was extremely com- the thirteenth century. an, with a picture for Cho’s original work is so long that most readers will only plex. One of the two languages had a certain affinity with a One of the most interesting parts of the book is the last the illiterate. consult it piecemeal, whenever they need information on specific gender and class (for example women and com- chapter, dealing with the years 1860–1919, which is seen moners were largely excluded from literature in Chinese), as the final transition to the age of modern literature. This but this was not exclusive. Frequently there was interaction. is a period which, so far, has been somewhat neglected in Thus the vernacular lyrics called sijo often were translated the West, being neither truly ‘classical’ nor fully modern. into Chinese, while some sijo were originally Koreanized It is the period in which the Korean alphabet and the Kore- versions of lines of Chinese poetry. Many late Chosòn nov- an language finally gain the upper hand, although even then els exist in Korean and Chinese versions. A representative Chinese remained one of the languages of Korean litera- case is Kuunmong (A Nine Cloud Dream) by Kim Man-jung ture. Thus the patriot An Chung-gùn, who in 1909 killed (1637–1692), widely regarded as the best specimen of its the Japanese Resident-General Itó Hirobumi, expressed his kind. There has been disagreement about the language in nationalistic emotions in Chinese verse. which it was originally written and the last word has not This adaptation of Cho Dong-il’s General History of Kore- been spoken, but it is not unlikely that it was first written an Literature proves the added value of cooperation between in Korean, then translated into Chinese, and subsequently Korean and Western scholars. I look forward to a compan- retranslated into Korean. Chinese was used for all kinds of ion volume on modern Korean literature (and a similar purposes and not, as one might be tempted to think, always adaptation of the History in English for the non-francoph-
(Korean Examples of the Display of Confucian Virtues: New, illustrated edition) Virtues: New, (Korean Examples of the Display Confucian associated with conservatism and a lack of respect for one world). < Korea’s own culture. In many cases Chinese served to record native traditions and Korean self-esteem and it could - Cho, Dong-il, and Daniel Bouchez, Histoire de la literature coréenne, the vehicle for trenchant social criticism, as the cutting des origines à 1919, Paris: Fayard, (2002), irony of the short stories of Pak Chi-wòn (1737–1805) attests. pp. 424, ISBN 2-213-61235-8
National identity and tradition Professor Boudewijn Walraven is Professor of Korean Language and
Tonghae shinsok Samgang haengsilto Tonghae Two other prominent themes reflect basic concerns of Culture at Leiden University. His research interests include popular intellectuals of the generation to which Cho Dong-il belongs. religion and traditional literature and he has made Dutch transla- Using the Korean terminology these may be summarized as tions of classical novels and sijo poetry.
From the 1617 From minjok and minjung: the nation and (the masses of) the [email protected]
House of Glass: Culture, Modernity, and the State in Southeast Asia House of Glass evokes the condition of the prison: the policing and surveillance of inmates, Southeast Asian states are strength- Western ‘other’ is rather prominent Review > and visibility and transparency versus hidden power struggles, secrets and whispers. Where ened, not weakened, by rapid capital- in political discourses in Southeast Southeast Asia Pramoedya Ananta Toer’s House of Glass, written in prison, was an act of resistance against ist development. As both Ien Ang and Asia, generating partly converging the colonial state of the Dutch East Indies, the contributors to this volume wish to reveal Yao Souchou argue, this entanglement and partly conflicting processes of what is hidden behind the discursive practices and representational realms of the with the West also generates attempts identification. Anti-Western dis- contemporary state in different Southeast Asian countries. by Southeast Asian governments to courses in contemporary Southeast seal off their societies from what they Asian societies focus on cultural By Heidi Dahles and post-structuralist perspective. tiating national identity; (3) dealing see as evil influences of Western purity and pollution in an attempt to The eloquence and obtrusiveness with heterogeneity; and (4) coming to media and Western consumer culture. renegotiate national identity in a his book examines the relation- with which Southeast Asian states terms with popular culture. Unavoidably, the embrace of Western globalizing world. What emerges is Tship between discursive prac- plead their cause is the common con- The omnipresence of the state in industrial modernity brings about con- an Occidentalist paradigm that tices, modernity, and state power in cern of the authors. ‘If cultural mean- Southeast Asia and its permeation of flicts of control, as is forcefully illus- reverses the Orientalist idiom. In this Southeast Asia. Moving away from ing is, in the final analysis, political the social, economic, and cultural life trated by the state of Singapore. The context, the nationalist identification political economy, the authors – rep- meaning, then struggle in the field of in the region raise the question of how chapters by Ray Langenbach and Lee of Vietnamese diaspora communities resenting diverse academic disci- text becomes highly significant’, the state comes to terms with process- Weng Choy show that Singapore has in the United States (Ashley Car- plines such as cultural studies, argues the editor (p.4). es of globalization. As the contribu- created a ‘McNation’, unable to deal ruthers) and the commodification of anthropology, political science, soci- The contributions are arranged into tions to the first section show, a com- with the ambivalences and contradic- Thai culture (Kasian Tejapira) repre- ology, art criticism, and literary stud- four sections, which may be labelled plex ideological framework and tions of modernity. sent challenging domains for ies – analyse state narratives in the as follows: (1) the power of the nation effective enforcement supports and In an increasing pace of global research as the second section in this public media from a postmodern state in a globalizing world; (2) nego- ensures the state’s continuance. exchanges, the engagement with the volume illustrates.
32 IIAS Newsletter | #30 | March 2003 > Publications Moral Fictions: Tamil Folktales in Oral Tradition India represents a special conundrum for scholars working with folktales. Such early tale tion of their telling. As well as the clar- do much to ignore more societal and collections as the Panchatantra, the Buddhist jataka legends, and the fables of the Jain ity this allows into the contexts of the even functional dimensions of given elders point to the existence of a long-standing and diverse body of tale-telling traditions, tales, as Blackburn himself remarks folklore traditions. giving the folklorist a feel for historical continuity and change that is often absent among this approach also reveals something The tales are translated into a highly traditions of tale-telling in non-literate environments. Yet, at the same time, the literary of the ‘narrative logic’ through which readable style and present much that nature of such collections presents problems of its own. The same is true for Indian different tales relate to one another will be enjoyable to specialists and non- folktales collected by European folklorists. within a given session. specialists alike. The tales present There is a minimum of authorial insights into the religion and social By Nile Green comment on the tales outside of the structure of their tellers’ communities Review > ‘Introduction’ and ‘Afterword’. How- no less than the particular modalities South Asia he relatively widespread presence ever, in these two short pieces that of the Tamil folktale to which Blackburn Tof Europeans in nineteenth-cen- frame the collection, Blackburn is care- draws our attention. However, perhaps tury India resulted in the publication ful to draw our attention to the moral the most lasting contribution of the vol- of a number of collections of folktales dimension of the tales. He comments ume is its ability to draw the reader into from different regions of India, includ- that the weight of opinion among folk- the dazzling parallel universe of the ing the famous collections of William lorists is to view fantasy as the main tales themselves and in doing so com- Crooke from across northern India, characteristic of the folktale and the municate something of the peculiar Richard Carnac Temple and Flora topic of morality as only a peripheral narrative magic that sustains success- Steele from Punjab, and Mary Frere theme. Yet, for Blackburn, the most ful story-telling traditions, wherever from the Deccan.1 However, with the striking characteristic of the Tamil folk- they are found. < increasing sophistication of folklore tale is its emphasis on crime and pun- studies in the second half of the twen- ishment. Citing Maria Tatar’s argu- - Blackburn, Stuart, Moral Fictions: Tamil tieth century, the use of such collec- ment that violence and sex represent Folktales in Oral Tradition, FF Communi- tions as primary material has become the ‘hard facts’ of folklore,3 Blackburn cations No. 278, Helsinki: Academia Sci- increasingly difficult. Contemporary offers what he sees as the unifying entiarum Fennica (2001), pp. 338, ISBN perceptions often lead us to problema- characteristic of the folklore tradition 951-41-0898-1 tize their colonial context no less than he is presenting in the claim that the methodological lack of sophistica- ‘[T]hese Tamil folktales are moral fic- Dr Nile Green is research fellow at the tion with which they were sometimes Stuart Blackburn is therefore to be tions.’ Thus in one story from Faculty of Theology, Oxford University. He collected. applauded for his efforts in the Panaiyakkottai, a female practitioner specializes in Islam in South Asia and has Storyteller Ettirajalu The publication of Thompson and painstaking and time-consuming work of ‘country medicine’ steals fingers previously worked on Muslim oral traditions inside his house in Balys’s index of Indian tale-types in the of translating a large number of tales from corpses for her cures and so in the Deccan. Karaiyamputtur, 14 late 1950s represented a watershed in from a single regional tradition. becomes involved with a group of [email protected] November 1995. such studies.2 In its wake, a number of Moral Fictions brings together trans- thieves who try to burgle her house and important studies of folklore traditions lations of one hundred folktales that kidnap her. In the denouement, we in India have been methodologically Blackburn collected in different find the woman suitably admonished circumspect enough to satisfy the spe- regions of Tamil Nadu during the mid- through a short jail term and the cialist and include the important con- 1990s. Treading carefully the path thieves who molested her condemned tributions of Indian scholars. Howev- between the too widespread and the to death. In another tale from Tanjavur, er, as in so many other academic fields, too specific that can easily characterize a cruel mother-in-law is tricked by a a paradox remains between a richesse such enterprises, the collection is sig- young bride’s faked return from the of primary source material and its fre- nificant in the context of Indian folk- dead into arranging her own death and quently relegated position in publica- lore studies in providing a broad selec- funeral. With its mixture of helpless- tion. Given the temptations and tion of tale-types told by no fewer than ness and the catharsis of revenge, the rewards of the analysis of folktales, forty-one tellers that allow an overview story of the young bride is one with Notes > of one particular cultural/linguistic resonance for any patrilocal society folklore tradition at a given point in based around the extended household. 1 See: Crooke, W., Religion and Folklore of Northern India, space and time. As a methodological Such recurring societal references Oxford: Oxford University Press (1926); Frere, M., Old exercise in the writing of folktales, the suggest that Blackburn is right to take Deccan Days: or, Hindoo Fairy Legends Current in South- volume is also of interest for its issue with aesthetic arguments about ern India, London: J. Murray (1870); Steel, F.A., Tales of attempt to make the construction of the intrinsic narrative freedom of the the Punjab Told by the People, with notes by R.C. Tem- the text as close and simple as possible folktale, since such a perspective takes ple, London: Macmillan (1894). a mirror of the ethnographic experi- shape only by comparison to (and so 2 Thompson, S., and J. Balys, The Oral Tales of India, ence, while not allowing details of very much in the presence of) writing. Bloomington: Indiana University Press (1958). recording to interfere with the tales Like the genesis of folklore studies 3 Tatar, M., The Hard Facts of Grimms’ Fairy Tales, Prince- themselves. The volume is organized itself, however useful such aesthetic ton: Princeton University Press (1987). by story-telling ‘sessions’, keeping approaches are, they are very often the
tales together by author, time, and loca- product of a literate sensibility and can from the book under review. Taken
A third issue addressed is the rela- democracy’ Malaysia makes revisions In the final section, the struggle of state’s powerful directives. Ironically, versed in post-colonial history and tionship between integrative forces of to its colonial past and negotiates a Southeast Asian states to come to the energy that the state in Southeast regional power relations may avoid colonial heritage versus cultural het- position between the East and the West terms with popular culture is high- Asia invests in the orchestration and losing track. < erogeneity of the region. While most in a global society. In a similar vein, the lighted. While states are eager to control of discourses reveals a deep- of the nation states in Southeast Asia strength and weakness of the New develop the notion of Asian ‘unique- seated ambivalence and vulnerability – Yao Souchou (ed.), House of Glass. Cul- inherited from colonialism a political Order has been its pursuit of econom- ness’ based on an Occidental para- ‘as a result of the very conditions that ture, Modernity, and the State in South- system that is conducive to national ic development enforced by a patrimo- digm, popular culture more easily contribute to its potency, wealth, and east Asia, Singapore: Institute of unity based on equal rights for all citi- nial state and legitimized by discours- acknowledges the modern Asian political legitimacy’ (p.21). Southeast Asian Studies (2001), pp. zens, few governments are able or will- es of national unity and harmony, experience ‘betwitxt and between’ a House of Glass is an exciting book 342, ISBN 981-230-074-0. ing to carry this principle to the full. glossing over major ethnic and reli- colonial past, Western modernity, and that will not only appeal to scholars Governance in almost all states is char- gious cleavages, as Mark T. Berger Asian values. Whether it is a Singa- but also to a wider audience interest- Dr Heidi Dahles is an associate professor acterized by strategies of ‘ethniciza- shows (p.192). The political use of porean pop artist’s repertoire (Wee), ed in the politics of culture in South- at the Department of Culture, Organiza- tion’, discriminating more or less communication technologies and a museum exhibition featuring the east Asia under globalization. The tion and Management at the Free explicitly among their ethnically media censorship, which is widely used Philippine sugar industry (Marian appeal is in the interpretive approach University in Amsterdam. Her current diverse populations. The Malaysian by Southeast Asian governments to Pastor Poces), images of Vietnamese to widely publicized media events and research interest is in organizational cul- state, for example, actively enacts enforce their discourses and exclude celebrities (Mandy Thomas and Rus- the exposure of their manifold aspects ture in Southeast Asian trans-border ‘forms of resistance against a univer- multi-vocality, is not an invention of sell Heng), or a lower class protest within a kaleidoscopic perspective. regions. sal inscription of international rules of contemporary states, Tim Harper movement in Thailand (James However, lacking a thorough analysis [email protected] conduct’, as Loong Wong argues points out. It is a legacy of the post-colo- Ockey), the discursive efforts in these in terms of the political economy of (p.185). By proclaiming to be an ‘Asian nial regimes’ project of nation-building. instances are carried out against the the region, only a readership well
IIAS Newsletter | #30 | March 2003 33 > Publications Bali: Living in Two Worlds How enduring can paradise be? Although it was published in 2001, the socio-cultural contradictions, tensions, and repercus- Review > problems discussed in Bali: Living in Two Worlds, seem all the more poignant and burdened sions, emerging from uneven com- Southeast Asia with implications since the devastating bombing in Kuta-Legian on 12 October 2002. The mercial growth and socio-political immediate impact of the attack far surpasses these problems, but this (still) timely change, is little surprise and, to an compilation of essays, compositions, poetry, and photographs nonetheless offers a very informed audience, not all that contro- contemporary ‘critical self-portrait in order to bring up questions about present-day and versial. future cultural, social and ecological developments of Bali’ (p.10). The ‘two worlds’ of the The real quality of this book is the title refers, on this level, to the negotiating point between Bali’s often romanticized past diversity of the contributions and, and its possible futures. indeed, the editors’ achievement in bringing them together in this fresh By Laura Noszlopy of current concern on the island and the Balinese quality of life. All main- format. Although, in recent years, which are relevant to both academics tain, in their own ways, that there is ‘a Indonesian writers have been more his book can best be appreciated as and the more general reader. The con- shocking discrepancy between the exot- widely published in translation, this Ta response to the issues raised in tributions and, in particular, Rama ic Bali image of glossy tourist brochures book will be of real benefit to interna- two earlier publications: Michel Surya’s photographs, portray an excep- and a more than unpleasant reality of the golden age. Balinese couple’ (p.71), tional scholars and students, as well as Picard’s Bali: Cultural tourism and tionally ‘traditional’, though thorough- the present-day life in Bali’ (p.10). both ‘traditional’ (pakaian adat) and to the lay-reader, because it offers touristic culture (1996) and Adrian Vick- ly ‘globalized’ society, undergoing rapid This ‘unpleasant reality’ is high- global fashion MTV-style (sunglasses unique perspectives that can only ers’ Bali: A paradise created (1990). transformation; this is proposed as the lighted in a series of essays on little-dis- and nose-stud) effectively captures that derive from an everyday, personal Most of the essays in the new book meeting or collision of ‘two worlds’. cussed, and occasionally taboo, topics tension and just avoids the dichotomiz- engagement with the subjects dis- simultaneously celebrate and commis- The articles display a tough realism such as prostitution and drug abuse ing that is typical of overt ‘tradition’ ver- cussed, both as familiar relatives and erate the results of that creation and borne of intimate knowledge combined (Sugi B. Lanus) and the widespread sus ‘modernity’ imagery. Similarly, anthropological ‘others’. It is a pity that seek to further challenge the residue of with academic distance, thus acknowl- misappropriation of land for ‘develop- Coca-Cola and holy water are juxta- some minor English translation errors ‘paradise’ mythology while proffering edging the bittersweet contradictions ment’ (Putu Suasta). Degung Santikar- posed in what appears to be a fairly occasionally distract from the otherwise diverse views on Bali’s possible futures. that are so apparent and disturbing in ma discusses the way that an inflated functional and comfortable coupling, excellent overall quality of the contents With its multiple voices, (there are four- contemporary Bali. The main premise and obscured sense of ‘Balinese cul- despite the implicit critique of con- and presentation. It might also be teen contributors, including several of that runs throughout the collection is ture’ can be used as an excuse for xeno- sumerism and globalization in what, appropriate to consider translating and Bali’s most prominent intellectuals and that Bali is no longer the paradise it was phobic violence and as ‘a system of con- perhaps, ‘should be’ a more ‘spiritual’ publishing it in Indonesian, thus mak- social commentators), there emerges a once perceived and represented to be trol and exclusion’ (p.35). IGR Panji place (see photo). For me, one of the ing it more accessible to local readers. selective, but interdisciplinary, account and that various forces, especially Tisna comments upon the increasing most powerful images is of the provin- Such comments aside, this particular of the debates and discourses that are tourism development, are threatening havoc wrought by environmental pol- cial capital’s busiest crossroad junction, venture towards ‘living in two worlds’ lution and the tourist industry, while I on the way to Kuta, where a signpost, has, I think, been a success. < Ketut Sumarta discusses the Balinese funded by the Bali Post newspaper and language as a central, but seriously perched between advertisements and - Ramseyer, Urs and I Gusti Raka Panji threatened, aspect of local culture. I Hindu shrines, impotently reads ‘Jaga Tisna (eds.), Bali: Living in Two Worlds, Gde Pitana provides an incisive analy- Bali’ (‘Protect/guard Bali’) as the traffic Basel: Museum der Kulturen (2001), sis of the increasing tensions between hurtles past ‘Between Coca-Cola, reli- pp.194, ISBN 3-7965-1873-7, ill. competing factions of the PHDI, the gion and neurology, Denpasar’ Indonesian Hindu Council (Parisada (pp.92–93). References Hindu Dharma Indonesia), while Cok While the anthology explicitly seeks - Picard, M. Bali: Cultural tourism and touris- Sawitri discusses changing gender to challenge the enduring, but stale, tic culture, (Translated by Diana Darling), roles in the performing arts, to mention stereotype of Bali as paradise, many of Singapore: Archipelago Press (1996). but a few. The anthology also includes the contributions, perhaps under- - Vickers, A. Bali: A paradise created, Hong poems by Cok Sawitri, Oka Rusmini, standably, still read like a lament to par- Kong: Periplus Editions (1990). and Alit S. Rini, which offer alternative adise lost, despite their claim that par-
Copyright: Rama Surya; courtesy of Schwabe & Co. AG, Verlag, Basel. AG, Verlag, Rama Surya; courtesy of Schwabe & Co. Copyright: perspectives on being ‘a woman of Bali’ adise was never really there to begin Dr Laura Noszlopy has recently completed (p.139). with. It is, in the words of Urs Ram- her PhD thesis, The Bali Arts Festival – Rama Surya’s photographs comple- seyer, ‘an admonishing book’ (p.13). Pesta Kesenian Bali: Culture, Politics and ment the text and portray a similarly This critical rewriting of the tourist the Arts in Contemporary Indonesia, at the ambivalent view of urban Balinese mirage is not, however, without prece- University of East Anglia. She teaches com- adaptations to Indonesian, transna- dent. Very little scholarship of the past parative religion for the Open University and Coke bottle as holy tional, and cosmopolitan modernity. In two decades, at least, has unquestion- started a new British Academy-funded water receptacle. particular, the portrait of a young Bali- ingly romanticized the state of affairs research project in Bali in February 2003. Sanur. (p.68) nese couple in full garb, ‘The dream of in Bali. That there are contrasts and [email protected] The Politics of Multiculturalism Review > Pluralism means a belief in more than one entity or a tendency to be, hold, or do more will’, which has two far-reaching con- discourage some readers. Nevertheless, Southeast Asia than one thing. This literal meaning is common to all the political and social applications sequences: it leads to an emphasis on the fact that the contextualized approach of the concept of pluralism but has been applied in contexts so varied that, in practice, economic production, and to a frag- is complemented by longitudinal per- pluralism can be seen as having a multitude of separate meanings. Nonetheless, each of mentation of social demand (the ration- spective works in the book’s favour. As these ways of interpreting pluralism has had at least some influence on its primary ale for organizing consumption). an ancient Asian proverb says, ‘to contemporary meaning: that the pluralist model of society is one in which the presence of According to Furnival, the ethnic and understand the present, one should groups is of the political essence. religious ‘sections’ making up society scrutinize the past; without the past, the are so different from one another that present would not be what it is’. By Marie-Aimée Tourres which results from study conducted in are examined from the point of view of they have little in common apart from Indeed, the impact of European colo- the region between 1998 and 2000. politics, gender, markets, and religion. their market exchange. Consequently, nialism on Southeast Asian heritage here are perhaps no better exam- The book aims to answer the question Most of the contributors base their he could not envisage a political struc- was the exacerbation and consolidation Tples than Indonesia, Malaysia, of how to achieve civility and inclusive analysis on J.S. Furnivall’s general ture capable of ensuring stability with- of ethno-religious differences. With and Singapore to illustrate this con- citizenship in deeply plural societies. approach and works. This British in a plural society because he regarded influx of Chinese and Indian migrants cept of pluralism and open the In examining the discourse and prac- administrator and political writer intro- the constituent societies as being, by into the Malay peninsula, during the debate. However, despite this, most tice of pluralism across different duced Western readers to the idea of their very nature, unable to cope with nineteenth century, at a time when writers take Western industrialized spheres, and by trying to understand plural society, which he describes as a the problem of piecing their societal Britain was consolidating its colonial societies as the exclusive point of the conditions that facilitate its resolu- society that comprises ‘two or more puzzle into a unified whole. rule, administrative apparatus was departure for their discussion. Thus tion, Hefner (both editor and contribu- elements or social orders which live Against this background, the various introduced to facilitate socio-political by compiling the work of fourteen tor) hopes to address the serious short- side by side, yet without mingling, in contributors help to demonstrate why rationalization and segregation of what specialists, all Asian and based in comings in current literature on one political unit’. Certain distinctive today’s Indonesia, Malaysia, and even was, and still is, a highly heterogeneous Asia, Robert Hefner has attempted to citizenship and civic participation. The characteristics in the political and eco- more Singapore would, unquestionably, and polyglot population. Different challenge this approach in his book, issue tackled is not an easy one and the nomic spheres of life in plural societies have stunned Furnivall. Analysed from groups were formally categorized entitled The politics of multicultural- concepts discussed far from static. distinguish them from more homoge- a historical-structural perspective, and according to ethnicity; a classification ism. Pluralism and citizenship in Using a comparative knowledge nous societies. The most fundamental theory led, the book has a predomi- that post-colonial Indonesia, Malaysia, Malaysia, Singapore, and Indonesia, approach, the new faces of pluralism difference is ‘the lack of common social nantly academic approach, which may and Singapore have retained. The con-
34 IIAS Newsletter | #30 | March 2003 > Publications Preservation of Archives in Tropical Climates Both bibliography and manual, Preservation of Archives in Tropical Climates deserves a wide readership among all who recognize paper. Thus the very results of huge microfilming projects, the importance of preserving the cultural heritage in the tropics. This first-class reference work treats the reality of Asian set up in order to save the contents of deteriorating manu- electricity bills and why Quito is the place to be for a piece of paper... scripts, are endangered. Ironically, the films have in some cases become unusable whereas the manuscripts are still By Roger Tol a wealth of practical tips, thoughts, guidelines, projects and readable. Review > initiatives, and just plain facts. Who knew that Quito in Some other relevant ‘digital’ issues are not dealt with in the General hat makes life difficult in the tropics is first and fore- Ecuador seems to have the well-nigh perfect climate for book. For example, there is the encouraging initiative from Wmost the hot and humid climate, with its destructive preservation purposes? Although located near the equator, Southeast Asian professionals to set up a Southeast Asian effects on humans and archives alike. But apart from and due its high altitude provides the city with a dry and cool climate Consortium for Access and Preservation (SEACAP). This to the heat and moisture high quantities of gases, pollutants, and low atmospheric pressure. As is mentioned in the book consortium, which was set up in 2000, has already succeeded sunlight, dust, sand, fungi, bacteria, insects, and rodents also (p.98), this is the place where masses of documents collect- in publishing a collection of conference papers and main- pose threats. It has been argued that every 10-degree Celsius ed by religious orders and the Spanish colonial administra- tains a website. To my mind real omissions in the biblio- rise in temperature cuts the life of a book in half. However, tion remained for a long time in good condition. More impor- graphy are the two authoritative, free online databases for these are not the only problems encountered in tropical areas, tantly, some sections of the book can almost be read and used conservation professionals. These are AATA Online, a com- which are situated mostly in so-called developing countries. as a manual with immediate benefit in the field. Librarians prehensive database of more than 100,000 abstracts of lit- In most cases there is also political instability, unrest, or even in the tropics will undoubtedly find much to their advantage erature related to the preservation and conservation of mate- war; preservation and conservation of the cultural heritage among all kinds of subjects raised in the chapters. General- rial cultural heritage, and the BCIN database, which is are not placed high on the government’s priority list; tech- ly, the book has a sympathetic flavour in that it does not try managed by the Canadian Heritage Information Network nical facilities are limited; and the necessary training oppor- to impose solutions that are suitable for Western countries and brings together bibliographic holdings and abstracts pro- tunities are not always available. Problems in the tropics upon non-Western countries. This pragmatic attitude duced by several of the world’s major conservation centres. abound and are varied. Indeed, it is necessary to set apart the becomes evident in, for example, the chapter on building and Both databases are accessible through the Getty Conserva- issue of preservation in the tropics by devoting a specific the section on air-conditioning. Regarding the latter, the com- tion Institute. It is to be hoped that a future edition of this study to it. piler states realistically that ‘air-conditioning is very often not bibliography will take these matters into account. < Usually reading a bibliography is not a very exciting under- an option for archives in developing countries. That’s why taking. There are, however, some pleasant exceptions, and passive climate control becomes a more attractive way to con- – Teygeler, René, et al., Preservation of Archives in Tropical Climates: the bibliography compiled by René Teygeler certainly falls trol the physical environment. Air-conditioning could be an An Annotated Bibliography, Paris: International Council on into this category. It was a very astute choice of the compiler answer to control excessive heat and relative humidity, but Archives; The Hague: National Archives of the Netherlands; Jakar- to present the work in two parts. not one that many can afford. It is not just the cost of instal- ta: National Archives of the Republic of Indonesia (2001), pp. 328, Part two consists of a ‘traditional’ bibliography and con- lation; there is the need to maintain the system and the run- ISBN 90-74920-14-4. tains lists of relevant titles arranged according to seven main ning costs, i.e. the electricity bill. […] Often archivists hold topics, each constituting a chapter: ‘basic concepts’, ‘preser- the mistaken belief that if a comprehensive air-conditioning Dr Roger Tol is Chief Librarian of the Royal Institute of Linguistics vation and conservation’, ‘books and writing materials’, system is installed all would be well. It is now understood and Anthropology (KITLV) in Leiden. His research interests concern ‘building’, ‘storage’, ‘disaster preparedness’, and ‘integrated that this view is entirely erroneous’ (pp.89–90). The appen- the written and oral traditions from Indonesia, in particular in Malay pest management’. Part one, annotating and discussing the dix, mentioning around a hundred addresses of contacts and and Bugis, and the preservation of indigenous manuscripts. publications listed in part two, makes excellent and inform- institutes involved in preservation activities in the tropics, [email protected] ative reading. It has the same division into chapters as the comes in very handy. second part with the notion that each chapter is subdivided Evidently the compiler has opted for a discussion of preser- into several sections. For example, the chapter on storage is vation of traditional media such as palm-leaf, bark, and of subdivided into eight sections (introduction, internal climate course paper, paying no attention to other media such as control, sunlight, dust, shelving, handling, packaging, and microfilm (already in use for more than half a century), tape, good housekeeping), while some sections are again subdi- disk, CD-ROM, or other electronic media. Because of the Info > vided into smaller sections, for example in this case ‘inter- rapid expansion of these media in the libraries and archives nal climate control’ is subdivided into air-conditioning, sim- in developing countries, the preservation of microfilm, for Southeast Asian Consortium for Access ple mechanical provisions, and air pollution. In this way each example, is currently becoming an extremely urgent matter and Preservation (SEACAP) topic – large or minute – is dealt with in a narrative fashion, in the tropics. Microfilm and probably other modern media www.seacap.chiangmai.ac.th with summaries and quotes from the listed texts and with as well are in far more immediate danger of destruction as a comments and remarks by René Teygeler. result of the fatal combination of high temperature and high Getty Conservation Institute Personally, I really appreciate this approach, which is of humidity than are the traditional media. Indeed, destruction www.getty.edu/conservation immediate use to librarians working in the tropics. There is of films is taking place at a much higher pace than that of
mentation on the issue, the underlying upsurge of Islamic consciousness at the of Islam” do not want a majority-Mus- - Hefner, Robert W. (ed.), The Politics of reason is that the rigidly oppositional end of the twentieth century has lim country to become strong’ (p.33). Multiculturalism, Pluralism and Citizenship identities along ethnic lines, character- acquired a momentum of its own, pro- But Hefner remains optimistic. As in Malaysia, Singapore, and Indonesia, istic of plural societies and, in this par- moting a rise in national sentiments economies grow and societies differ- Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press ticular case, created by the Europeans and forcing serious contemplation of entiate, there follows a proliferation of (2001), pp. 312, ISBN 0 8248 2487 3 were left intact. As the lack of common some identity-politics, resulting in the new societal organizations and rela- ground and will among the different progress achieved in the socio-eco- tionships. Rather than opposing civil References groups served the political and eco- nomic field being compromised. Hefn- forces in society, the state must work - Furnivall, J.S., Netherlands India: A study nomic interests of the European colo- er mentions recent examples illustrat- with them. It is on this last point that of plural economy, New York: Macmillan nizers, nothing was done to encourage ing this phenomenon: ‘At the Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore (1944). the abolishment of this man-made beginning of the Asian economic crisis have the most to teach us. - Furnivall, J.S., Colonial policy and practice: rigidity. in 1997-1998, Mahathir appealed to Does the book have shortcomings? a comparative study of Burma and Nether- The notion of citizenship, which usu- Malaysian Chinese to purchase shares The excellent editor’s introduction is lands India, New York: New York Univer- ally refers to a status conferred by law, in Malay-owned business threatened the longest essay in the book, running sity Press (1948). came to be of vital importance in a con- with bankruptcy.’ The contrast with to no less than fifty-seven pages. The text in which ethnicity differentiated cit- Suharto of Indonesia could not be more reader would have benefited from an Dr Marie-Aimée Tourres is an economist centration of ethnic labour in varying izenship. There may be an ambiguous striking. In the final months of 1997 introduction simply explaining the fellow at the Institute of Strategic and Inter- niches in the economy and/or politics relationship between the idea of ethnic and early 1998, Suharto and his chil- organization of the book and the logic national Studies, ISIS Malaysia (Kuala served to fragment the national labour membership and that of citizenship, dren responded to the growing eco- of its presentation. As it is now, it is not Lumpur, Malaysia). She specializes on force along ethnic lines. Although eth- but Malaysia and Singapore’s history nomic crisis by accusing Chinese easy for the reader to see what links ASEAN+3 countries with a particular nocentrism may have existed before shows how membership of a commu- Indonesians of having masterminded individual chapters, despite the umbrel- emphasis on Malaysia. Her areas of work colonialism, the ethnic division of the nity can be advanced as a qualification the economic crisis so as to bring la-theme of multiculturalism. Essen- also include economic crisis management, economic sphere by the British encour- for citizenship. Suharto down. They did so, this propa- tially this volume offers a compilation international financial architecture, and aged further friction between ethnic Although religion never acts purely ganda claimed, because Suharto is a of good academic contributions, but nation-building. groups. Following Furnivall’s argu- as a substitute for economic forces, the Muslim and because ‘“these enemies one which lacks a coherent voice. < [email protected]
IIAS Newsletter | #30 | March 2003 35 > Publications Tourism, Anthropology and China Tourism, Anthropology and China links a variety of perspectives on tourism and anthropological approaches in ious state agents intentionally create a particular sense of per- Review > a colourful constellation of views on in-outsider relations with regards to culture. This highly readable ceiving history, ethnic diversity, and nationhood. The last three China collection of papers is based on the proceedings of a conference on ‘Anthropology, Tourism, and Chinese papers deal with the possibilities of preserving culture by Society’ held at Yunnan University in the autumn of 1999 in Kunming, Yunnan Province (South-West China). using income generated by tourism. The papers of Ian Chap- lin on Macanese culture in post-Portuguese Macau, and Johan Nilsson and Tan Ying on Quanzhou (Fujian Province) show that tourism and economic development promote heritage preservation, while Heather Peters discusses ways of raising money, exemplified by her case study of the Naxi in Lijiang. The purpose of the book, according to its editor Tan Chee- Beng, is to show how tourism brings about a reconstruction of local culture. These representations, according to Bruner, rely on credibility, rather than on authenticity, while fixing those images in the past. The editor points out the need for paying more attention to the study of tourism and ethnic expression, rather than just concentrating on the effects of tourism on ethnic groups (p. 18). In other words, the culture of ethnic minorities is not to be regarded as a static object, something to be revered, but as part and parcel of an econo- my in high need of development. Therefore the editor encour- ages observers of tourism and ethnic minorities in China to carefully weigh preservation and ethnicity against develop- ment and tourism (p. 19). Nevertheless, throughout the book I was disturbed by the idea that a large gap exists between the anthropological views of the editor and those of some of the main authors of the book. The highly critical descriptions (by authors in parts one and two) of the process of reconstruction and representation of local culture, and the role played in it by the state, seem to be regarded by Tan Chee-Beng, Yang Hui, and Bai Lian as a
M. Sleeboom recipe for the enterprise of trading local culture. This is prob- Zhonghua Ethnic Park (Zhonghua Minzuyuan) in the north of Beijing. It displays ‘40 ethnic landscapes, 100 scenic views, 200 ethnic buildings, 100,000 pieces of historic and ably due to a combination of an evolutionary perspective, cultural relics, 300 special theme exhibitions, 1,000 kinds of ethnic commodities, 200 kinds of ethnic delicacies, and 800 staff members of national minority groups.’ which regards the coming of a Chinese version of moderni- ty as inevitable and – what I call – a postmodern instrumen- By Margaret Sleeboom of local culture. Rather cynically, Charles F. McKhanns points talism. Here the postmodern notion of the ‘active local agent’ out that those who lament the loss of Naxi culture are the is equated with its political and economic role of ethnic ext to Tourism in China: Geographic, Political and same ones that encourage their children to speak Chinese at minorities in state planning. The book, therefore, could be NEconomic Perspectives (1995), (edited by Alan Lew and home and regard their dongba rituals as backward. improved by the addition of a theoretical framework in which Lawrence Yu), Tourism and Cultural Development in East Asia The role of the state in encouraging tourism as a tool of the clash of interests of ethnic minorities and the state can and Oceania (1997) (edited by Shinji Yamashita, Kadir Din, local economic development is the focus of part three. be understood. and J.S. Eades), and Tourism and Modernity in China (1998) According to Xu Xinjian’s study of the Chuanqing people of The book’s main merit lies in its diversity, covering gen- (by Tim Oakes), it is valuable as a rare study of tourism in Guizhou, officially listed as an ‘undefined ethnic group’, the eral notions such as the representation of human groups, China in English. Whereas China forms the location of state is very much involved in identifying ethnic culture for authenticity, nostalgia, modernity, and development, and research for the majority of papers, aspects of tourism in promotion, encouraging the use of ethnic identity as an more problem-related topics such as the effects of tourism Kenya, Southeast Asia, and Japan are also dealt with. Treating instrument of attaining economic progress. In this sense on ethnic minorities, the exoticism of ethnicity generated by society- and culture-related topics this book is interesting to minority peoples have become active subjects, capable of tourism, and the need for heritage preservation. < both students of the social sciences and Asian Studies. exploiting both tourism and ethnic identity to their own ends. The book is divided into four parts. In the first – theoreti- Yang Hui and colleagues show how opening up Dai villages – Tan Chee-Beng, Sidney C.H. Cheung, and Yang Hui (eds.), Tourism, cal – part, Edward M. Bruner discusses the issue of repre- inevitably leads to ‘modernizing’ influences such as karaoke, Anthropology and China, Studies in Asian Tourism, No. 1, Bangkok: sentation, showing how different agencies, ranging from the reconstruction of Dai dances, and the sale of fake works, White Lotus Press (2001), pp. 334, ISBN 974-7534-62-2. state to private enterprises and indigenous communities, while Bai Lian shows how Manchu associations in Shenyang may be involved in representing particular kinds of exhibits capitalize on tourism to project their ‘discovered’ identity. Dr Margaret Sleeboom is a cultural anthropologist specializing in (cultures, ethnic minorities, historical sites) to different cat- How can tourism go hand in hand with heritage preserva- East Asia. She is a research fellow at IIAS. egories of tourists, notably domestic and foreign tourists. tion and development? This question is dealt with in part four. [email protected] Eric Cohen urges a comparative approach, exemplified by his C.H. Cheung’s study of Hong Kong tourism shows how var- study of the politics of representation by the state and by Nel- son Graham’s discussion of nostalgia for tradition and nature in China and Japan. Graham emphasizes that nostalgia does [advertisement] not necessarily indicate a desire to return to the past, but may be a wish to re-experience certain aspects of the past. Han Min’s conception of tourist nostalgia for Mao Zedong pres- ents people’s feelings for a specific time as meaningful to their present life. Among the articles, Eileen Walsh’s fieldwork-based article on the myth of matriarchy among the Mosuo is outstanding. Its criticism of representations of the Mosuo as a model matriarchy is a time- ly warning against naïve interpretations of ethnic culture in Yunnan, used by, for instance, the international symposium on ‘Female anthropology and matriar- chal culture in the women-dominating kingdom around the Lugu Lake’ (8–12 March 2003, see www.Lugu-Lake.com). Part two deals with business and tourism. The chapter on the myth of matriarchy among the Mosuo and the legend of Ashima, by Eileen Rose Walsh, and the one on the legendary Sani woman portrayed in the Stone For- est, by Margaret Byrne Swain, show how myth is good for business, while Jean A. Berlie points out some negative effects of ethnic tourism on the local Dai cul- ture in Dehong, namely the destruction
36 IIAS Newsletter | #30 | March 2003 > Publications Of Moon and Man A Close Look at Chinese Landscape Painting Since antiquity the moon has been considered one of the most attractive elements of How the moon and its emitted light with a wide range of material and is a Review > nature, and men have often been depicted pondering its light. In China, the ‘literati viewing are represented in the paintings is solid basis for further research. < China the moon’ is an often-cited stereotype in works of art. Jeonghee Lee-Kalisch, an expert in another important part of this research. East Asian art history, discusses this specific genre of poetry and landscape painting. Is there reflection of the moonlight? - Lee- Kalisch, Jeonghee, Das Licht der Edlen How are shadows dealt with? The (junzi zhi guang). Der Mond in der chine- By Ricarda Daberkow Ill. 13 from Sun author points out that questions such as sischen Landschaftsmalerei, Monumenta Kehong (1532-1610). these, that European painters stress, are Serica Monograph Series XLVIII, Sankt he moon has long held special sig- Yueshang (Rising neglected by Chinese artists. They Augustin, Nettetal: Institut Monumenta Tnificance in Chinese popular moon). Section of a emphasize, not a naturalistic represen- Serica (2001), pp. 266, ISBN 3-8050-0457- mythology, and as such has been depict- hanging scroll tation of a moonlit landscape, but rather 5, German. ed in numerous works of literature and ‘Delectations for the manifestation of the essential, the art. Its smooth, reflective surface was leisure hours’. qi, of the moon. In comparison with Dr Ricarda Daberkow studied sinology, his- said to be the home of animals like the Ink and colour on Western realism with its representa- tory of art, and ethnology at the Ludwig- rabbit and the toad. It was also consid- paper. 28 cm. tions of changing light, Chinese artists Maximilian-University, Munich. Focussing ered an island paradise floating in the Gugong Bowuyuan, use synaesthesia: In Chinese art, on man’s role as a philosophical being in lit- skies – a dreamland. In the eighth cen- Taibei. inscriptions on the painting or the title erature and art, her research area compris-
tury the imagery of the moon changed, from the book under review. Taken are used to highlight the intention of the es China and Taiwan. She is currently work- becoming a residence of the legendary painter. A circle in a fair sky will evoke ing as an author for an East Asian art Queen Mother of the West, perhaps (bi) of individual painters and literati, in The second part of this study accen- the perception of a moonlit landscape at magazine. under the influence of Western ideas order to communicate an idea of their tuates the formal composition, and nighttime. The means of representation [email protected] that came to China by way of Buddhism. relationship with the moon. focuses on the characteristics of moon- – be it colour, ink or lavis – is secondary. Based on an investigation of poetry, Through an investigation of literary lit landscapes, with and without men Nonetheless, the publication would and ninety landscapes from the Song, patterns, mainly from Tang period poet- viewing the moon. Lee-Kalisch concen- have been more complete if it had pro- Yuan, Ming, and Qing dynasties, ry, the author shows that the purity of trates on the compositional element of vided the reader with colour, and not Jeonghee Lee-Kalisch’s Das Licht der the moon is associated with the pure an invisible line between the person and only black-and-white illustrations. Edlen (junzi zhi guang); (English: Light and chaste heart of the noble. Du Fu, Li the moon. By using schematic drawings As a whole this work, although inter- of Nobles) gives an insight into the rela- Bai, and Tang Taizong describe typical the author is able to show the clear pref- esting, unfortunately is too narrow. The tionship between the illuminated celes- situations whereby literati gather togeth- erence of painters, up to the Ming peri- whole complex of animals, plants, and tial body and its male observers. The pri- er on a terrace near the water, watching od, for a diagonal line between the view- beautiful women in moonlight, as well mary aim of this study is to pursue this the moon, drinking wine, and playing er and the moon. This stereoscopic effect as representations of the moon in reli- relationship, and as a result the author the flute or zither. They describe solitary enables art works to become more vivid. gious paintings is omitted in this study. deals with questions that revolve around men viewing the moon, sitting in a boat A vertical line between the moon and its This is unfortunate but understandable men. What where the noblemen pon- floating on the river. These people are viewer is often used to intensify the dis- considering the enormous range of dering on, or dreaming of, while gazing portrayed dreaming of leaving society tancing effect of the composition. Fre- material researched in undertaking this upon the moon? What kind of associa- and its rigid structure behind, search- quently, depictions of literati, the moon analysis. As such this text can only be tions with the moon did they have? Lee- ing for freedom of spirit and body, and and a third element, such as flying birds intended as an overview or an introduc- Kalisch also examines the stage names even immortality. or another person, form a triangle. tion to the topic. It provides the reader Differentiation and Integration in Daoism A member of the Ba minority in South-West China in the second century CE, a female poet of the Tang dynasty, an elite scholar- for Buddhist and Confucian thought, his ideas and his com- official of the Ming, and a priest in present-day Taiwan – what do these people have in common? One commonality between the mentary on the Laozi disclose his Daoist identity and make him four is that they are ‘Daoists’, either self-styled or labelled so by others. But what is ‘Daoist’ about all these people of different ‘a relevant voice in the history of Daoist thought.’ (p. 144). times, places, professions, sexes, and cultures? What defines their ‘Daoist identity’? Both Maruyama (ch. 12) and Asano (ch. 13) call into focus Daoist rituals in present-day Taiwan, the former discussing By Paul van Els lineages vis-à-vis local and popular cults; and part IV, ‘Ritual legal documents used in Daoist rituals of merit. The use of Review > Boundaries’, concentrates on the formation and reinforcement such documents distinguishes these rituals from Buddhist, China revious studies into Daoist identity have often departed of Daoist identity through ritual. Contributions to this volume Confucian, and popular rites, which lack such a textual prac- Pfrom the dated definition of ‘identity’. The identity of a reli- vary in degree of specialization and relevance to the topic at tice. Asano discusses offerings in Daoist ritual, likewise by dis- gious tradition, according to this definition, is its essence, or issue. Particularly relevant and enlightening articles include tinguishing it from other rites. The two forces of differentia- those essential features that remain unchanged throughout its the following. tion and integration are clearly visible in his example of different manifestations. As Christian identity can be accord- Kleeman (ch. 1) focuses on the interaction between ethnic meat-offering in Daoism. Though officially proscribed by the ingly characterized as the belief in one God and in Jesus as his identity and Daoist identity in traditional China. He shows how Daoist tradition, meat-offerings practiced in folk religion and this-worldly representative, Daoism may be explained as the the Daoist tradition has absorbed elements of religious belief in Confucian rites made their way into Daoism by popular belief in the Dao and the worship of Laozi, the Old Master, as systems of minorities; how, conversely, ethnic groups have demand. Nonetheless, Daoists deliberately keep meat-offer- its founder. However, this definition fails to explain the plu- embraced Daoism; and how, interestingly, a number of tradi- ings in the periphery and assign it far less importance than rality of identities under the Daoist umbrella. tional expressions of Daoist identity, such as priesthood and other components of offering – such as incense, flowers, tea, Inspired by the theories of the theologian and anthropolo- certain religious institutions, have survived only in minority or fruit – thus reassuring stability and continuity. gist Hans Mol, the editors of and contributors to this work belief systems and not in those of ethnic Chinese Daoists. In the end, what is ‘Daoist identity’? The tenor of this book interpret identity not as a static entity but as a dynamic process. Yu Xuanji, the Tang dynasty poetess, courtesan, and Daoist is that no univocal answer to this question exists. Each Daoist Rather than focusing on the ‘permanence and solidity in the nun, is the focus of Cahill’s contribution (ch. 5). Yu, executed at interprets and manifests his or her Daoist identity in a unique tradition’, they emphasize the ‘continuous interaction of the age 25 for murdering her maid, is a controversial figure in Chi- way. As Shiga concludes, they identify themselves as ‘Daoist’ two forces of differentiation and integra- nese history; up until the present day she has served as a bad based on their own idea about what Daoism is (p. 206). The tion’ (pp.7–8): in other words, the process example of feminine misbehaviour. Cahill ignores stories about book thus deconstructs the idea of the Daoist identity and pro- of how identity, on the one hand, changes Yu’s life and lets her poetry speak of her identity. Three images poses a Daoist identity that accommodates innumerable indi- through political and economical devel- that repeatedly appear in Yu’s poems are clothing, boats, and vidual identities. This novel approach surely is an asset, but opments and through adoption of ele- zithers. The second image most clearly reveals her Daoist iden- also raises questions. For example, such terms as ‘Daoism’ or ments from other traditions (differentia- tity. The boat – that is, the poet herself – takes Yu ‘from one place ‘the Daoist religion’ seem to suggest that there exists a ‘core’ tion) and, on the other, aspires for stability to another, one state of consciousness to another, and one con- identity with various manifestations. But how to determine and continuity (integration). Stability and dition of existence to another. She moves from city to country, this core if practitioners are free to establish their identity continuity are achieved by setting up – public to private, courtesan to recluse. She floats along through through differentiation and integration (leading, in one case, what Mol distinguishes as – belief sys- life and change, entrusting herself to the Dao.’ (p. 116). to abstinence of meat, to performance of meat-offerings in tems, lineage lines, rituals, and myths. Mabuchi (ch. 6) discusses the Daoist identity of Wang Dao, another)? Nonetheless, Daoist Identity is a refreshing and inter- Part I, ‘Early Formations’, of this vol- an elite scholar-official of the Ming dynasty (generally known esting read that stimulates further discussion. < ume on Daoist identity discusses Great as a Confucian era) and a student of Wang Yangming (the emi- Peace and Celestial Masters, two move- nent neo-Confucian thinker). Operating in Confucian sur- _ Kohn, Livia and Harold D. Roth, (eds.), Daoist Identity: History, ments that have been crucial in the cre- roundings, Wang Dao maintains that Confucius and Laozi Lineage, and Ritual, Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press (2002), ation of a Daoist identity. Parts II to IV express the same ideas and differ only in wording. Wang regards pp. x+333, ISBN 0-8248-2504-7. deal with the first three aspects distin- Daoist notions such as dao (the Way) and de (virtue) as roots, guished by Mol; part II, ‘Texts and Sym- and Confucian terms such as ren (benevolence) and yi (right- Paul van Els, MA is affiliated with the Research School CNWS at bols’, contains articles on the formation eousness) as branches. He criticizes the way that people focus Leiden University. His PhD project involves the study and transla- of Daoist belief systems; part III, ‘Lin- on branches instead of on roots and advocates the Dao as a tion of the Daoist text Wenzi (Writings of Master Wen). eages and Local Culture’, studies Daoist source of a deeper goodness. Despite his undeniable sympathy [email protected]
IIAS Newsletter | #30 | March 2003 37 > Publications Comintern Eastern Policy and Iran With the fall of the Soviet Union and the accessibility of former Soviet archives, rewriting the history of the Soviet Union history at the Institute of Oriental Stud- continues to be of scholarly interest. Of the different political institutions facilitating Soviet expansionism, as well as enlarging its ies at the Azerbaijan Academy of Sci- domain of political influence in the international arena, the Communist International (Comintern) was undoubtedly the most ences. Her interests include the com- influential. Originally set up as a ‘universal world revolutionary party’ in 1919, both its strategy and its tactics were guided by the parative analysis of twentieth-century principle of ‘world socialist revolution’. However, not long following its formation the Comintern metamorphosed into an political and social movements in institution defending the Stalinist policy of socialism in one country, only protecting the interests of the Soviet Union. Turkey and Iran as well the former Soviet republics of Georgia, Armenia, By Touraj Atabaki agrarian, nomadic societies in Asia, it baijan. Moreover, the author’s acquain- and Azerbaijan. < Review > developed into a more retained policy tance with a variety of languages Central Asia n Comintern Eastern Policy and Iran of cooperation and collaboration with enables her to utilize the pertinent - Rustamova-Tohidi, Solmaz, Comintern I(1919-1943) Solmaz Rustamova-Tohi- other social classes and groups within sources in Persian, Turkish, and Russ- Eastern Policy and Iran (1919-1943), Baku: di successfully endeavours to shed light these same societies. Rustamova-Tohi- ian as well as those in some Western Khazar University Press (2002), pp. 507, on the more general issue of the orga- di not only examines these phases and European languages. This book can be ISBN 9952-20-010-2 nization’s Eastern policy, by focusing changing policies in detail, but also con- highly recommended for students of on its policy towards Iran during 1920s siders their political implications for Soviet history and those seeking a Prof. Touraj Atabaki is president of the and 1930s. During the twenty-four Soviet internal and external affairs. broader understanding of the com- European Society for Central Asian Studies, years of its life, the Comintern went The Comintern Eastern Policy and plexities that burdened the Bolsheviks professor of Modern History of the Middle through different political phases, Iran (1919-1943) is a well-written and in sustaining the first socialist state in East and Central Asia at the University of adopting some zigzag type policies. thoroughly researched work. It is based history. Amsterdam and Utrecht University, and From a radical stance promoting a pro- on original materials obtained from Solmaz Rustamova-Tohidi is a his- Central Asia editor for the IIAS Newsletter. letarian socialist revolution, even for archives in Russia, Georgia, and Azer- torian specializing in Iranian modern [email protected] Women’s Images, Men’s Imagination The world of Indian women witnessed significant changes in the course of the nineteenth century. Patriarchal backgrounds, characters, moods as well as patterns of behav- Review > notions about lifelong protection and seclusion of women came under fire then and abolition of suttee, the pleas iour, so as to defy the stereotypical woman’ (p.9). The main South Asia for widow remarriage, and the demands for female education were major issues that engaged public opinion. The theme is approached from different disciplines. For this rea- position of Indian women also prominently figured in the novels of the period. In her study, Banani Mukhia son the study offers interesting insights for disciplines such explores the construction of female characters in fiction written by males. as women’s studies, history of private life, sociology, peda- gogy, and psychology. It may also serve as a model for simi- By Victor A. van Bijlert Among the earliest novels analysed in this study are Bankim’s lar ventures in the novels of the same period written in other Indira and Bishabriksha, both from 1873; the latest ones are Indian languages. The book has an appendix with summaries his perspective offers interesting new insights in differ- Rabindranath’s Jogajog (1929) and Sarat Chandra’s Shrikan- of all the novels discussed in the main text, an extensive bib- Tent gender relations, such as between: father and daugh- ta (1917–1933). This broad time-span enables Banani to liography, and an index. < ter, husband and wife, young wife and male in-laws, and the sketch developments and important changes. relations between women themselves: mother and daughter, As these novels reflect only to some extent the social real- - Mukhia, Banani, Women’s Images Men’s Imagination: Female char- wife and mother-in-law, and female friends. Banani does this ities of their times, Banani adds observations derived from acters in Bengali fiction in late nineteenth and early twentieth centu- by analysing various social roles played by the heroines in her own historical and sociological research on the period. ry, New Delhi: Manohar (2002), pp.167, ISBN 81-7304-410-4 the novels of three great Bengali writers whose careers span Yet the novels themselves remain the central focus of this more than half a century: Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay, study, as ‘these were essentially women-centred stories in Victor A. van Bijlert Rabindranath Tagore, and Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay. which women had been imagined from a great diversity of The Prelude to Empire The Prelude to Empire: Plassey Revolution of 1757 is a follow up of From Prosperity to Decline: Eighteenth-Century Bengal (1995), in which Chaudhury challenged the ‘conventional wisdom’ that the conquest of Bengal by the English was almost ‘accidental’ and that there were no ‘calculated plottings’ on behalf of the English behind the conquest. In this respect the author criticizes the position of scholars like S.C. Hill, B.K. Gupta, C.A. Bayly, and R.K. Roy, who all argued that the Plassey conspiracy was the handiwork of Indians and that political and economic crisis clouding over Bengal in the mid-eighteenth century brought in the British interference.
By Bhaswati Bhattacharya the major share in the export from the Review > region and the import of bullion still South Asia his book, the second by Chaudhury belonged to Asian merchants (p.23–25). Tto explore the Plassey conspiracy, The author dismisses the claim that it presents more evidence in support of was Siraj’s antagonism towards the Eng- his thesis that it was engineered and lish and his intention to drive them out encouraged by the British, who were of Bengal that were responsible for the able to persuade the discontented commencement of hostilities between courtiers of the Bengal nawab to stick the nawab and the English. It was the to their ‘project’ of revolution (p.9). attitude of the English, especially the There was a long but calculated transi- nation’ for the Plassey revolution, but As a result of the successive strong rigidity and belligerence of Drake, the tion period between the late 1660s and also because it shows that the historian and stable regimes in the region, Ben- English governor of Calcutta, which 1670s when, for the first time, the does not necessarily have to play the role gal in the early eighteenth century was caused of the outbreak of war against necessity of a shift from peaceful trade of judge when approaching sources. It a land of plenty. While Bengal became Siraj. Chaudhury asserts that there had to armed trade in India was first sug- is possible for the historian to assume, the dominant partner in the European not been an internal crisis – neither in gested, and the 1750s, when the servants instead, the role of advocate of the cause companies’ Asiatic and European trade, the form of schism in the society nor in of the English East India Company of one of the partisans, in this case, the Bengal Studies > terms of economic decline – which became set on conquering territories in rulers and merchants of Bengal. < would have caused and arguably legit- India. Indeed, the Plassey Revolution Contributions and suggestions including the name and imized British interference. was not a mere coincidence (chapter 5). - Chaudhury, Sushil, The Prelude to Empire: the address of the contributor can be sent to: ‘Given the rivalry between the Asian The role of the Indian conspirators in Plassey Revolution of 1757, Delhi: Manohar merchants and their European coun- the ‘drama’ of Plassey was passive; they (2000), pp. 192, ISBN 81-7304-301-9. Prof. Victor A. van Bijlert terpart, and the privileged position only joined the British when the latter IIMC Campus, Joka, Kolkata 700104, India enjoyed by the former, there could be no took the initiative and provided leader- Dr Bhaswati Bhattacharya is a senior [email protected] question of collaboration between the ship (p.113–114). research fellow at Rabindra Bharati Univer- [email protected] two.’ The English wanted to replace The book is interesting not only sity, Kolkata, India.
Bengal Studies Siraj in the interest of their private trade. because it offers ‘a completely new expla- [email protected]
38 IIAS Newsletter | #30 | March 2003 > Publications Southern Exposure: Modern Japanese Literature from Okinawa The first thing that needs to be said about Southern Exposure is that it is a publication of some significance. Okinawan writers nawan prostitutes who service the needs of the vast number of have, in recent years, demonstrated their brilliance by winning a variety of Japanese literary awards, notably the Akutagawa Prize. US servicemen who live on the military bases which occupy Few contemporary Japanese readers harbour any doubts about the quality of the literature being produced in Okinawa – here much of the territory of contemporary Okinawa. Kishaba Jun’s meaning the island chain south of Kyushu that has had such an unhappy history over the course of the previous century or two. 1955 story ‘Dark Flowers’ relates the sad chronicle of Nobuko and her African-American paramour. The identification of Oki- By Leith Morton media, such differences are becoming more diffuse and less nawans as the blacks of Japan works as both metaphor and Review > distinctive. Thus, the appearance of an anthology such as this theme, but the tale is told with little subtlety. The leading con- Japan fter losing its independence in the seventeenth century due of translations of modern Okinawan literature is a rare and wel- temporary Okinawan novelist Oshiro Tatsuhiro is represented Ato the forced annexation of the kingdom of the Ryukyus come event. Translations of Okinawan literature – whether clas- by a long and powerful story called ‘Turtleback Tombs’ dating into the Japanese province of Satsuma, often referred to by Oki- sical or modern – are very few in number, and this volume from 1966. This tale is set in wartime and is a complex medi- nawans as the Satsuma invasion, from 1879 Okinawa became undoubtedly represents the largest single such collection to tation upon religion, heredity, and ethnicity; themes that occur part of the Japanese Empire. The fact that many Okinawans appear in English to date. in other of the author’s works. eventually became fiercely patriotic can be gauged from the The anthology is divided into two parts: translations of mod- ‘Love Letter from LA’ (1978) has the distinction of being trans- huge number of casualties in the Battle of Okinawa, the only ern poetry and fiction. However, poetry is treated very badly, lated into English by its author, Shimokawa Hiroshi, who lec- land campaign during the Second World War fought on the with only seven poems totalling a mere ten or so pages. If we tures in English. Comparing the English version to the origi- homeland Japanese islands. During this compare this meagre total to the twelve stories (which make up nal, it is fascinating how the tempo and timing of the prose in campaign, nearly a quarter of the popu- well over 90 per cent of the 359 pages of translations) then it is the two languages is so different yet the story reads just as eas- lation of the main island of Okinawa disappointing indeed. The book does not at all represent the ily in translation. This is a tale about casual cruelty, the cruelty died, approximately a quarter of a million mass of poetry (in traditional and modern forms) produced in of Tomiko towards her old classmate, Sueko, who is separated deaths. As a result of the war, Okinawa Okinawa over the past century. It is noteworthy that one of the from her American husband. was severed from Japanese control and leading authorities on Okinawan literature, Okamoto Keitoku, A better story, in my view, is Yoshida Sueko’s ‘Love Suicide at ruled directly by the US until its reversion in his 1996 piece on modern Okinawan literature, included in Kamaara’ (1984) about the relationship between an ageing Oki- back to Japan in 1972. the recent seventeen-volume history of Japanese literature pro- nawan prostitute and an African-American deserter, their rela- Today, as the editors point out in their duced by Iwanami, begins his essay by stating that, in Okinawa, tionship demonstrating the difficult and obscure nature of love. introduction (pp.1–36), Okinawa is still modern fiction took shape much later than the modern poetry The two final stories by Medoruma Shun and Matoyoshi Eiki seen as a ‘marginal’ prefecture, with the produced in large quantities from early in the modern era respectively (the two young lions of contemporary Okinawan lowest living standard of any of Japan’s (Okamoto 1997: 177). writing) are excellent examples of the art of fiction. Both use nar- prefectures. Prejudice still exists on the However, despite this major shortcoming, this is neverthe- rative voices that are tentative and shifting – although not exact- mainland against Okinawans, with their less a historic and welcome beginning to what I hope will be ly the ghostly narrators that we have grown used to in much post- distinctive dialects and ethnicity. Oki- many volumes of translation and exegesis on Okinawan writ- modernist fiction – to portray the complexities of contemporary nawa cherishes its differences, not mere- ing. The translations read well in English, and the few pages Okinawan life in language that is both poetic and haunting. ly in language, but also in customs, food, that I checked against the originals revealed no errors. The trans- The volume, then, is worth reading, and certainly worth pur- and religion, from mainland Japan – lations themselves, done by a team of American and Japanese chasing, not merely for its intrinsic scholarly and literary val- although with the spread of mainland scholars, must have presented a number of severe linguistic ues, but also because it reveals an area of Japanese literature cultural influence through the mass challenges, as several of the stories utilize a number of the many hitherto little exposed to non-Japanese readers. All in all this is dialects for which Okinawa is famous. a handsome volume that contains various delights. < The few poems are by four Okinawan poets, including the [advertisement] most famous Okinawan author of all – Yamanokuchi Baku. The - Molasky, Michael and Steve Rabson (eds.), Southern Exposure: stories, save the first two, are all written in the post-war era, with Modern Japanese Literature from Okinawa, Honolulu: University of the bulk of the fiction dating from the 1960s. Thus, many of Hawai’i Press (2000), pp.362, ISBN 0-8248-2300-1 (pb). BOOKS FROM ISEAS the stories are reflections on the war and the American occu- http://bookshop.iseas.edu.sg pation. The stories also reveal an overwhelming concern with Reference ethnic identity, which is hardly surprising given the modern - Okamoto, Keitoku, ‘Okinawa no Shosetsu, Engekishi’ (Iwanami history of Okinawa. Koza) in Nihonbungakushi, Vol.15, Tokyo: Iwanami Shoten (1996), Governance in FORTHCOMING Yamanokuchi Baku is represented by a charming, ironic tale pp.175–191. Indonesia: Local Power and dating from 1938 about a pre-war Korean businessman in Japan Challenges Facing Politics in who passes himself off as Japanese in order to avoid racial dis- Professor Leith Morton the Megawati Indonesia: has published widely on Japanese literature. Presidency Decentralization crimination. The businessman finds himself observed by the He is Professor of Japanese and holder of the Foundation Chair in Hadi Soesastro, and narrator, who is no other than the Okinawan poet Baku; a twist Japanese at the University of Newcastle, Australia. Anthony L Smith Democratization that adds to the gentle irony and charm. [email protected] and Han Mui Ling, Edward Aspinall and A number of tales are about prostitution, specifically the Oki- editors Greg Fealy, editors 981-230-194-1 Soft cover 981-230-202-6 US$24.90 Hard cover 981-230-203-4 [advertisement] Indonesia’s Population: Tribal Malaysia: Islam, Ethnicity and Communities in Society and Religion in a Changing Political Politics the Malay World: Historical, Cultural Landscape Virginia Hooker and Leo Suryadinata, Norani Othman, editors and Social Evi Nurvidya Arifin and 981-230-156-9 Perspectives Aris Ananta, editors Soft cover US$24.90 Geoffrey Benjamin and 981-230-212-3 981-230-161-5 Cynthia Chou, editors Hard cover US$39.90 981-230-167-4 Islam & the State: Hard cover US$50.00 The Transformation of Islamic Political Shari’a and Ideas & Practices Politics in Modern in Indonesia Bahtiar Effendy Indonesia Soft cover 981-230-082-1 Arskal Salim and Azyumardi Azra, editors Hard cover 981-230-083-X Soft cover 981-230-187-9 Myanmar in US$29.90 ASEAN Hard cover Mya Than 981-230-188-7 981-230-210-7 US$39.90
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IIAS Newsletter | #30 | March 2003 39 > Publications Kingsbury, Damien, Harry Aveling (eds.) Kingsbury, Autonomy and Disintegration in Indonesia Routledge Curzon London, New York: (2003), pp. 219, ISBN 0-415-29737-0, maps & tables Pheuiphanh Ngaosrivathana, Mayoury, Ngaosrivathana Vietnamese Source Materials concerning of between the Court the 1827 Conflict I, II Siam and the Lao Principalities, Vol. for East Asian The Centre Tokyo: Cultural Studies for Unesco, The Toyo Bunko (2001), pp. 180, 207, ISBN 4- 89656-111-2, ISBN 4-89656-112-0 Pérez-Gruesco, Dolores Elizalde Economía e historia en las Filipinas españolas: Memorias y bibliografía Siglos XVI-XX MAPFRE Tavera Madrid: Fundacion (2002), pp. 159, ISBN 84-8479-026-6, Spanish Rutten, Mario in Asia: a Comparative Rural Capitalists Analysis of India, Indonesia and Malaysia London: Routledge (2003), pp. 269, ISBN 0-7007-1627-0, ill. Seekins, D.M. The Disorder in Order; Army-State in Burma since 1962 Bangkok: White Lotus Press (2002), pp. 403, ISBN 974-7534-96-7, ill., maps & tables Sparkes, Stephen, Signe Howell The House in Southeast Asia: A Changing Social, Economic and Political Domain London: Routledge (2003), pp. 271, ISBN 0-7007-1157-0, ill., maps & tables S.S.C., J.P. Estanislao, and H. Soesastro Tay, (eds.) Reinventing Asean Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies (2001), pp. 316, ISBN 981-230-147-X, tables (ed.) C.J.W.-L. Wee, Local Cultures and the ‘New Asia’ Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies (2002), pp. 245, ISBN 981-230-122-4 Interested in reviewing one of our Books Received? Request a copy from the editors at: [email protected] Books > Southeast Asia Abaza, Mona Debates on Islam and Knowledge in Malaysia and Egypt: Shifting Worlds London: RoutledgeCurzon (2002), pp. 304, ISBN 0-7007-1505-3 Gomez Benton, G., Edmund Terence Chinatown and Transnationalism: Ethnic Chinese in Europe and Southeast Asia Pandanus Books (2001), pp. Canberra: 40, ISBN 0-909524-44-0 Bousquet, Gisele, L., Pierre Brocheux, (eds.) Scholarship Viêt-Nam Exposé: French Vietnamese on Twentieth-Century Society Ann Arbor: the University of Michigan Press (2002), pp. 476, ISBN 0-472- 06805-9, tables Sandra Cate, Making Merit, Art: A Thai in Wimbledon Temple Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press (2002), pp. 232, 0-8248-23575, ill. Pierre-Arnoud, Joël Meissonnier Chouvy, Baa: Production, trafic et consom- Yaa mation de méthamphétamine en Asie de Sud-Est continentale (2002), Paris, Bangkok: L’Harmattan pp. 312, ISBN 2-7475-2397-7, ill., maps & tables, French Dick, Howard, Vincent J.H. Houben, J. Thomas Lindblad, and Thee Kian Wie The emergence of a national economy: an economic history of Indonesia, 1800-2000 Press (2002), pp. 286, Leiden: KITLV ISBN 90-6718-192-7, tables Richard Blurton (eds.) Green, Alexandra, T. Burma: Art and Archaeology London: British Museum Press (2002), pp. 180, 0-7141-2406-0, colour ill. Hering, Bob of Indonesia Father Soekarno; Founding 1901-1945 Press (2002), pp. 439, Leiden: KITLV ISBN 90-6718-191-9, ill. Books > South Asia Books > Korea Köllner, P. (ed.) Köllner, Korea 2002: Politik, Wirtschaft, Gesellschaft Hamburg: Institut für Asienkunde (2002), pp. 305, ISBN 3-88910-281-6, maps & tables, German Seth, Michael J. Politics, and Society, Education Fever: the Pursuit of Schooling in South Korea Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press (2002), pp. 305, ISBN 0-8248-2534-9, tables L. Caplan, Anglo-Indians Children of Colonialism: in a Postcolonial World Berg (2001), pp. Oxford, New York: 261, ISBN 1-85973-531-2 (ed.) Draguhn, W. Indien 2002: Politik, Wirtschaft, Gesellschaft Hamburg: Institut für Asienkunde (2002), pp. 428, ISBN 3-88910-280-8, maps & tables, German Mahias, Marie-Claude Le barattage du monde; Essais d’an- thropologie des techniques en Inde Maison des Sciences Paris: Fondation de l’homme (2002), pp. 374, ISBN 2- 7351-0930-5, colour ill., French Mines, D.P., S. Lamb Life in South Asia Everyday Bloomington, Indianapolis: Indiana University Press (2002), pp. 504, ISBN 0-253-34080-2, ill., maps & tables Vibhuti, Giles Tillotson Sachdev, Building Jaipur: The Making of an Indian City London: Reaktion Books Ltd (2002), pp. 197, ISBN 1-86189-1377, ill. Sarma, Ira Valeria Indian Philology and South East Asian Studies:The Laghukatha; A Historical and Literary Analysis of a Modern Hindi Prose Genre de Gruyter Walter Berlin, New York: (2003), pp. 341, ISBN 3-11-017593-2, ill. DiFilippo, Anthony The Challenges of the U.S.-Japan Military Arrangement: Competing in a Changing Security Transitions International Environment. M.E. Sharpe (2002), pp. 260, New York: ISBN 0-7656-1019-1, maps & tables Hook, G. D., R. Siddle (eds.) Japan and Okinawa: Structure Subjectivity London: RoutledgeCurzon (2003), pp. 255, ISBN 0-415-29833-4 Lidin, O.G. The Arrival of Europe in Tanegashima: Japan NIAS publishing (2002), Copenhagen: pp. 304, ISBN 87-91114-12-8, ill. Lloyd, Fran Bodies: Sex and Consuming Japanese Art Contemporary London: Reaktion Books Ltd (2002), pp. 224, ISBN 1-86189-147-4, ill. Mulgan, Aurelia George Revolution: Koizumi and Japan’s Failed the Politics of Economic Reform The Australian National Canberra: University (2002), pp. 260, ISBN 0-7315-3693-2 Nara, Hiroshi, Mari Noda Acts of Reading: Exploring Connections in Pedagogy of Japanese Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press (2002), pp. 326, ISBN 0-8248-2261-7, tables Schaede, Ulrike, William Grimes (eds.) Japan’s Managed Globalization: Century Adapting to the Twenty-first London: M.E. Sharpe (2002), New York, pp. 263, ISBN 0-7656-0952-5, tables Maurice May, Wright Japan’s financial crisis Oxford: Oxford University Press (2002), pp. 648, ISBN 0-199-250537 Akiko Yosano, from Hair: Selected Tanka Tangled Midaregami (2002), Company Boston: Cheng & Tsui pp. 165, ISBN 0-88727-373-4 Books > Japan Kivimäki, Timo, (ed.) or Peace in the South China Sea War NIAS Press (2002), Copenhagen: pp. 213, ISBN 87-91114-01-2 James P. Rice Luk, Thomas Y.T., Before and After Suzie: Hong Kong in Film and Literature Western Hong Kong: Chinese University Press (2002), pp. 192, ISBN 962-8072-09-9 Malek, R. (ed.) of Jesus Christ (Vol.1) The Chinese Face (Institut Monumenta Serica Monograph series) (2002), pp. 391, Nettetal: Steyler Verlag ISBN 3-8050-0477-X Roberts, J.A.G. China to Chinatown: Chinese food in the West London: Reaktion Books Ltd (2002), pp. 255, ISBN 1-86189-1334, ill. Sheng, Lijun Strait Cross China and Taiwan: Relations Under Chen Shui-bian Zed Books (2002), London, New York: pp. 154, ISBN 981-230-110-0 Song, Ligang (ed.) Dilemmas of China’s Growth in the Century Twenty-first Asia Pacific Press (2002), pp. Canberra: 352, ISBN 0-7315-3666-5, tables Jianfa Shen (eds.) Kwan-yiu, Wong, Resource Management, Urbanization and Governance in Hong Kong the Zhujiang Delta Hong Kong: Chinese University Press (2002), pp. 307, ISBN 962-996-026-5, tables Bersma, René, P. in Japan Woman Titia: The First Western Amsterdam: Hotei Publishing (2002), pp. 139, ISBN 90-74822-53-3, colour ill. Boissou, J. Japan: The Burden of Successs (2002), London: C. Hurst & Co. pp. 374, ISBN 1-85065-569-3, tables Books > China Abramowitz, Morton I., Funabashi Yoichi, and Yoichi, Abramowitz, Morton I., Funabashi Jisi Wang China-Japan-U.S. Relations: Meeting New Challenges for Japan Center New York: Tokyo, International Exchange (2002), pp. 86, ISBN 4-88907-041-9 (ed.) T.E. Barlow, New Asian Marxisms Durham, London: Duke University Press (2002), pp. 422, ISBN 0-8223-2873-9 Blum, Susan D., Lionel M. Jensen, (eds.) Mapping the Margins China Off Center: of the Middle Kingdom Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press (2002), pp. 402, ISBN 0-8248-2577-2, ill. Chris Coggins, The Tiger and the Pangolin: Nature, in China Culture, and Conservation Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press (2003), pp. 399, ISBN 0-8248-2506-3, ill., maps & tables Dickson, Bruce J., Chien-min Chao (eds.) Legacy in Assessing the Lee Teng-hui Politics: Democratic Taiwan’s and External Relations. Consolidation Armonk: M.E. Sharpe (2002), pp. 300, ISBN 0-7656-1064-7, tables Elliott, Jane E. Some did it for civilisation some for their country: A revised view of the Boxer war Hong Kong: Chinese University Press (2002), pp. 610, ISBN 962-996-066-4, ill. J. Farquhar, and Sex in Post- Appetites: Food Socialist China Durham, London: Duke University Press (2002), pp. 341, ISBN 0-8223-2921-2, ill. Finkelstein, David M., Maryanne Kivlehan China’s Leadership in the 21st Century Armonk, London: M.E. Sharpe (2003), pp. 302, ISBN 0-7656-1116-3, tables Karl, R.E. Chinese Nationalism Staging the World: Century of the Twentieth at the Turn Durham, London: Duke University Press (2002), pp. 314, ISBN 0-8223-2867-4 ISBN 0-415-27910-0, ill. Books Received Books > General Books > Central Asia > Books Received Alagappa, Mutiah (ed.) and Governance: The Declining Coercion Political Role of the Military in Asia Stanford: Stanford University Press (2001), pp. 594, ISBN 0-8047-4227-8, tables and Verity Jennifer Wearden, Rosemary, Crill, Wilson Dress in Detail from Around the World London: V&A Publications (2002), pp. 224, ISBN 1-85177-377-0, colour ill. (ed.) Ernst, W. and Plural Medicine, Tradition 1800-2000 Modernity, Routledge (2002), London, New York: pp. 253, ISBN 0-415-23122-1 B. Harris (eds.) Ernst, W., Race, Science and Medicine, 1700-1960 RoutledgeCurzon London, New York: (1999), pp. 300, ISBN 0-415-18152-6, ill. D., G. Higgs, and S. White (eds.) Kidner, Socio-Economic Applications of Geographic Information Science (2003), & Francis London: Taylor pp. 287, National Research Council New Partnerships in Remote Toward Sensing: Government, the Private and Earth Science Research Sector, DC: National Academies Washington Press (2002), pp. 80, ISBN 0-309-08515-2, tables Wimal Dissanayake, and Kwok-Kan, Tam, Siu-Han Yip, (eds.) Terry Localism, Sights of Contestation: Globalism and Cultural Production in Asia and the Pacific Hong Kong: Chinese University Press (2002), pp. 338, ISBN 962-201-869-6, ill. Morozova, Irina Y. and Revolution in The Comintern Mongolia White Horse Press (2002), Cambridge: pp. 96, ISBN 1-874267-50-2, ill.
40 IIAS Newsletter | #30 | March 2003 > Asian Art & Cultures Exhibiting Chola Bronzes Among the most renowned works of Indian sculptural art are the temple bronzes cast a thousand years Asian Art > ago during the Chola dynasty in the Tamil-speaking region of South India. Today, museum visitors South Asia encounter spotlit Chola sculptures within the hushed spaces of galleries. But in Chola times, the bronzes were consecrated as deities, adorned in silks, and encountered, amidst the chants and music of lively 10 November 2002 – temple processions, as gods. Richard Davis, in his seminal work, The Lives of Indian Images, first 9 March 2003 elucidated the dichotomous perceptions and practices surrounding the reception of Chola bronzes by Washington D.C., USA devotional and museum audiences.
By Debra Diamond exhibition because no Chola period bronzes of these mani- [2] Shiva as Nataraja, festations exist outside of India. An ancillary gallery displays Lord of Dance. Eigh- magnificent group of temple bronzes brought together a bronze Buddha and two Jinas (literally,victor; enlightened teenth century. Afrom public and private collections in Europe and the beings of the Jain tradition) that illustrate the extension of Bronze, 103 cm. United States forms the core of The Sensuous and the Sacred: Chola patronage and aesthetics to other religious commu- Chola Bronzes from South India, which seeks to broaden our nities within the region. understanding and appreciation of Chola bronzes by pro- Various textual and presentation strategies are employed ductively contrasting these arenas of perception. This exhi- to evoke the meaning and reception of festival bronzes with- bition expands upon traditional museum practice by address- in a Hindu context. A video documents the ‘lives’ of sacred ing the ritual adornment and sacred resonance of bronzes bronzes from creation in wax and casting in bronze to ritu- and by incorporating historical and contemporary Hindu al enlivenment by temple priests in a procession through the voices into its curatorial framing. streets of a South Indian city during a temple festival. Tem- Most of the bronzes date from the tenth, eleventh, and ple chants and South Indian classical music playing through-
twelfth centuries CE, the apex of Chola dynastic strength and out the exhibition evoke the aural environment of the tem- Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Marianne Brimmer Fund the height of the sculptural tradition. The Chola aesthetic of ple. Spotlit and unadorned ‘masterpieces’ paired with fluid movement, supple flesh contrasted with delicately contemporary photographs of similar sacred bronzes in pro- could not be easily carried, portable images of gods were pro- carved ornament, elegant proportion, and serene expression cession or worship allow visitors to compare the aesthetics duced that were able to leave temple premises, thus becom- is evident in an astonishing array of divine forms ranging of the museum with the aesthetics of Hindu worship – and ing accessible to even the most lowly of worshipers. In the from a seated Narasimha with ferocious but contained power to ponder the cultural contexts that alternately expose or same period (in a phenomenon that is surely connected but (Cleveland Museum of Art) to an elegantly composed wed- adorn bronze sculptures. An eighteenth-century bronze in ways not yet fully understood) the Tamil Vaishnava and ding group of Krishna, his wives and attendant Garuda (Los Nataraja from the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, ritually Shaiva poet-saints sought to imbue sacred images with their Angeles County Museum of Art). The bronzes are spotlit, garbed by a Hindu priest for the exhibition, is the centre of distinctive theology of embodiment. In this theology, per- displayed upon pedestals, and accompanied by curatorial an installation designed to suggest the colourful excitement sonal communion with the Lord – typically through sight – labels. of a temple festival (fig. 2). The bronze, flanked by donor-por- was paramount. Saint Appar wrote that beholding the visi- While the exhibition situates many of the bronzes in this trait lamps, stands upon a tall pedestal strewn with flowers ble beauty of God made even life on earth worthwhile*: aestheticizing fashion, it also seeks to address the meanings in front of a long banner of mango-coloured silk. Displays of that these bronzes have had for historical and contemporary bejewelled gold ornaments, similar to those given to temples if you could see Hindu audiences. In choosing bronzes for the exhibition, by devotees, provide further insights into the visual opulence the arch of his brow, curator Dr Vidya Dehejia was guided not only by exogenously of sacred bronzes in procession. derived aesthetic considerations, but also by the character, Curatorial labels address aesthetics, morphology, and the budding smile number, and size of sacred bronzes maintained within Chola chronology, but also relate the myths that underlie divine on lips red as the kovvai fruit,
shrines to Shiva and Vishnu, the main deities of Chola tem- forms. The gallery devoted to Shaiva saints invites viewers to if you could see… cool matted hair, ples. Two sets of ancient inscriptions, one at the modestly appreciate their sculpted forms and also to apprehend their the milk-white ash on coral skin, sized Shiva temple at Tiruvaduturai and the other from the importance within devotional practice. Dr Dehejia has noted and the sweet golden foot great royal temple of Shiva at Tanjavur, form the basis for the that in South India, from around the sixth century and per- Shaiva selection. Although no comparable Chola inscription haps earlier, Hindu deities began to assume public person- raised up in dance, has been located for a Vaishnava temple, current groupings ae similar to those of human monarchs. Deities were [1] Shiva as Nataraja, then even human birth on this wide earth in Shaiva temples indicate continuity from medieval to pres- required to appear in person in public and preside over a Lord of Dance. Chola would become a thing worth having. ent-day practice, and the grouping of Vaishnava bronzes are number of festivities that became part of a temple’s ritual Period, ca. 990. plausibly based on festival images found in contemporary cycle. Since the stone icons in the inner sancta of temples Bronze, 71.12 cm. Other poets, both Vaishnava and Shaiva, described the daz- temples. zling forms of deities in verses that led devotees towards an A Shiva Nataraja (figure 1) and a standing Vishnu in the awareness of cosmic power or even the paradox of an accessi- introductory gallery introduce visitors to the bipartite organ- ble but transcendent divinity. To augment the curatorial voice, ization of the exhibition. The two bronzes are visible from a verses from the Tamil saints’ poems, situated near appropri- lobby space decorated with a repeating pattern of the exhibi- ate bronzes throughout the galleries, allow contemporary view- tion title written in Tamil script. The script evokes the inscrip- ers to appreciate how Chola audiences would have understood tions carved into Chola temple walls and situates Tamil lan- the consecrated and adorned bronzes. Finally, excerpts from guage and culture as primary. This strategy also locates interviews with contemporary Hindus, conducted by teenagers English as the language of translation for a Western muse- from the Sri Shiva Visnu Temple in Maryland (USA), suggest um audience. Further on, the bronzes are grouped themati- some of the meanings that the deities hold for worshipers cally by divine personality, an ordering that is derived from today. The contemporary voices open up a refreshing variety the requirements of the ritual cycle, and one that also serves of perceptions, memories, and experiences, from condemna- to manage the complexities of iconography and myth for the tion of the museum display of sacred art to recollections of non-Hindu visitor. In the Shaiva section, galleries are devot- favourite festivals and descriptions of beloved deities. < ed to Shiva Nataraja, the Shaiva poet saints who lived between the sixth and the ninth centuries, Shiva in various manifes- Debra Diamond is Assistant Curator of South and Southeast Asian tations as ‘divine hero’, Shiva as ‘family man’, and goddess- Art at the Freer and Sackler Galleries (Smithsonian Institution, es associated with Shiva. The Vaishnava galleries are distin- Washington D.C.), which together constitute the National Museum guished by a monumental doorway that recalls South Indian of Asian Art. temple architecture. The doorway frames a Vishnu flanked [email protected] by his consorts Bhu and Lakshmi. Subsequent sections are devoted to Vishnu’s avatars: Varaha, Narasimha, Rama, and Info > Krishna. In recreating groupings for this exhibition, the repetition Exhibition itinerary of images within Chola temples is evoked through the inclu- Arthur M. Sackler Gallery sion of multiple bronzes of popular forms, although other Smithsonian Institution, gods important within the Chola ritual cycle, such as Shiva Washington D.C., USA Bhikshatana (‘enchanting mendicant’), are absent from the 10 November 2002 – 9 March 2003
Note > Dallas Museum of Art Dallas, Texas, USA * Dehejia, Vidya, Richard Davis, R. Nagaswamy, and 4 April – 15 June 2003 Karen Pechilis Prentiss, The Sensuous and the Sacred: Chola Bronzes from South India, New York: American The Cleveland Museum of Art Federation of Arts in association with University of Cleveland, Ohio, USA Washington Press (2002), p.66. 6 July – 14 September 2003 Scheduled acquisition by the Freer Gallery of Art Scheduled acquisition by the Freer
IIAS Newsletter | #30 | March 2003 41 > Asian Art & Cultures
Asian Art > Iran Parviz Tanavoli: Sculpted Poetry The recent retrospective exhibition of one of Iran’s most famous sculptors has helped to broaden the scope of contemporary entire ensemble appears as a shy little Iranian art for art historians around the world. In exploring the work of Parviz Tanavoli, I hope to illuminate his sculptural creature, looking out into the world intersections of Persian tradition with contemporary form. with sad eyes, as it huddles into the chair. By Nina Cichocki ily feature, except for a generic faucet taneously revealing and obscuring Another literary convention exem- on the front (symbolizing the freedom emerges not only in poetry, but also in plified in Heech and Chair II is that of n 26 January 2003, the contem- that water in an arid country like Iran other dimensions of Persian culture, the metaphor. If viewed in the most Oporary Iranian art world was affords), and is, therefore, devoid of most notably in the architecture of the superficial manner, the sculpture is a enriched by a long-awaited event in the emotional gesture. ubiquitous shrines, the grilles of which charming image of a cat sitting on a Tehran Museum of Modern Art: the Lyric Persian poetry, and particularly obstruct view and access, but simulta- chair. In the same vein, a poem about opening of a retrospective exhibition of the form of the ghazal (a short poem neously render the grave inside visible. the beauty of a beloved can be reduced Parviz Tanavoli, modern Iran’s leading with a monorhyme, seven to twelve Both the shrine’s grille and the poem to the evocation of a charming image, sculptor. Although a world-class sculp- verses long, usually about worldly and draw an artful circle – consisting of as in Hafiz’s ghazal Radiance: tor in the 1960s and 1970s, Tanavoli divine love), features some general metal rods and words, respectively – has remained lesser known to Western characteristics that also help to eluci- around their essential content, be it a The radiance of thy body’s gleam audiences and even art historians. date the qualities of this sculpture. grave or the feeling of happiness. The moon doth far exceed; There are a number of factors that According to Annemarie Schimmel, a Along the same lines, Tanavoli Before thy face the rose doth seem account for his undeserved obscurity: noted scholar on mystical poetry, the reveals his emotions and ideas merely Lack-lustre as a weed scholars of modern art still concentrate ghazal is not ‘meant to describe exactly by creating his sculptures and exhibit- mainly on developments within their this or that state of mind or to tell of the ing his inner world. Yet, at the same The corner of thy arched brow own European or American cultural poet’s personal situation in such a way time he hides these revelations behind My spirit doth possess, horizons and are seldom familiar with that one can speak of a unique experi- the veil of abstraction. He reduces pos- And there is not a king, I vow, the ideas underlying Tanavoli’s oeuvre, ence. […] the ghazal is not meant to sibly telling elements to simple geo- Dwells in such loveliness which is rooted in the cultural heritage explain and illuminate the poet’s feel- metric forms that give few clues to the (Arberry 1948: 135) of Islamic Persia. Scholars of Islamic ings: on the contrary, it is meant to veil viewer, just as Hafiz reduces his idea of art, on the other side, focus on the past them’ (Schimmel 1992: 3). This ten- happiness to an indefinite ‘phoenix of Underneath all this charm, however, rather than the present. Here, I will dency to veil rather than to explain emo- felicity’. we can uncover a deeper meaning. discuss the relationship of Tanavoli’s tions can be found in the first two lines Metaphors centring on the beloved or oeuvre to Persian classical poetry, using of the ghazal entitled Happiness, writ- Heech and Chair II, 1973 love are employed particularly in the as examples one early work as well as ten by Hafiz (1330–1389): Heech and Chair II operates as a visu- poetry that grew out of the mystical his most famous sculpture. al pun. The word heech (nothing) branch of Islam, Sufism. In Sufi poet- The phoenix of felicity appears here in the shape of a cat sit- ry – Tanavoli’s favourite poet Rumi is Poet with the symbol of Shall fall into my net at last ting huddled on the chair’s surface. The its greatest exponent – the love for a freedom, 1962 If e’er the blessed shade of thee cat’s head consists of the letter ha. Two human being stands for the love of Although many of Tanavoli’s bronzes Should rest upon me riding past holes stand for two eyes, and the top God, the beloved is God himself, and depict humans, as we can gather from part culminates in a little peak that can the beloved’s beauty is a reflection of both their statuary forms and their Like bubbles rising in a glass be seen as an ear. Calligraphers call the the beauty of God. The word heech titles, he obliterates distinct facial fea- I’ll throw my cap into the air initial shape of the letter ha, as it (nothing) in Tanavoli’s sculpture works tures, poses, or hand gestures, all of If by my goblet thou dost pass appears here, wajh al-hirr (cat’s face) in similarly, as attested by the sculptor which carry the expression of senti- And lettest fall thy image there Arabic. Also, traditional calligraphic lit- himself: ‘“Nothing” is an aspect of God. ment. The Poet with the Symbol of Free- (Arberry 1948: 131) erature often plays with imagery of the God is in all things and therefore in dom sports a box-like shape with a per- ha as a weeping face. Therefore, everything. The “nothing” is not God, forated front where we would imagine Hafiz does not expound on the Tanavoli’s interpretation of the heech as but is a place where God could be in his the head to be. The perforated front, immediate feeling of happiness, or a cat builds upon a traditional metaphor purest state’ (Morrison 1971: 10B). reminiscent of the grilles on the shrines closely describe the cause of it. Instead – and even elaborates it by giving the Thus, both the poem and the sculpture Tanavoli has visited since his childhood, he hides behind metaphors (‘the cat a body. The top of the letter djeem is can express the presence of God acts like a veil: it hides the poet’s face, phoenix of felicity shall fall into my fashioned to evoke a cat’s back and through the same means, that is, the bans all details and specifics, and, there- net’) or makes a side step by describing thigh, while its down-stroke literally metaphor. In the case of the poem, it is
Parviz Tanavoli fore, renders the poet’s feelings abstract the actions resulting from happiness becomes a tail. The sadness that calli- the beloved that is a metaphor for God: Parviz Tanavoli, Poet with the Symbol of and generalized. The cylindrical body (‘like bubbles rising in a glass I’ll throw graphic literature and poetry attribute in the case of the sculpture, it is the Freedom, 1962 is devoid of arms and hands or any bod- my cap into the air’). This idea of simul- to the letter ha also finds expression: the heech. <
References Parviz Tanavoli - Arberry, A.J., Immortal Rose: An Anthology of Persian Lyrics, London: Luzac & Co. Born in Tehran in 1937, Tanavoli benefited from Reza Shah Pahlavi’s quest for (1948). modernization/westernization. After Western-style art education had been intro- - Morrison, Don, ‘Iran’s “first sculptor” duced to Iran, Tanavoli graduated as the first student from the new sculpture pro- back with unique works’, The Minneapolis gramme at the Tehran School of Arts in 1956. Subsequently he went to Italy in order Star (1 April 1971), p.10B. to study under the well-known sculptor Marino Marini (1901–1980). Marini’s aware- - Parviz Tanavoli: Fifteen Years of Bronze ness of the past traditions of his native country, and their incorporation into his Sculpture, (exhibition catalogue) New contemporary work, led Tanavoli to explore his own cultural heritage and to search York: New York University Press (1977). for a style suitable to express Persia’s past achievements in a modern way. How- - Schimmel, Annemarie, A Two-Colored Bro- ever, due to religious prescriptions against the creation of images, Iranian sculp- cade: The Imagery of Persian Poetry, Chapel tural production ceased with the advent of Islam in the eighth century. Thus, the Hill: The University of North Carolina only way to integrate Persia’s Islamic heritage into his works was to look at arts Press (1992). other than sculpture, such as Persian classical poetry, considered to be the epito- me of Iranian-Islamic cultural production. Nina Cichocki, MA After several successful years abroad, Tanavoli returned to Tehran to teach at the is a Doctoral Candi- College of Decorative Arts. He also established his first studio, the Atelier Kaboud, date in art history at a meeting place for artists. In 1962, Tanavoli was invited to the Minneapolis Col- the University of lege of Art and Design as a visiting artist. During the early sixties, his pieces were Minnesota. Her exhibited at the Minneapolis Institute of Art and the Walker Art Center, poets and main interests are prophets being his main subjects. Ottoman architec- When Tanavoli returned to Iran in 1964, he helped with the establishment of the ture, heritage poli- Sculpture Department at the University of Tehran. A major turning point in tics, and contempo- Tanavoli’s career was a show at the Galerie Borghese in Tehran in 1965, where his rary Iranian visual culture. works addressed the modernization of Iranian lifestyle and the combination of new [email protected] technological phenomena with traditional culture. This exhibition marked the arrival of the heech (nothing) in Tanavoli’s oeuvre, a theme that would occupy him for the following nine years and become his trademark. The Revolution brought Tanavoli’s career in Iran almost to an end, since he pro- duced objects considered to contradict the precepts of Islam. Tanavoli retired from Parviz Tanavoli, his position at the University of Tehran and is now an independent artist and author. Heech and Chair II,
1973 Parviz Tanavoli
42 IIAS Newsletter | #30 | March 2003 > Asian Art & Cultures The Traditional Arts of South Asia Asian Art > South Asia Past Practice, Living Traditions 25–26 June 2002 How can a historical and theoretical understanding of traditional South Asian arts inform contemporary architecture. Hardy’s paper ‘Approach- Leicester, artistic and architectural projects both within and beyond South Asia? How can an understanding of ing design through history and history United Kingdom contemporary practices and design issues inform the study of art and material culture of the past? And, through design’ used examples from how have changing conceptions of art and craft influenced the study, understanding, and practice of Indian temple architecture to demon- South Asian traditional arts? strate that the study of architecture from a design perspective can lead to an By Crispin Branfoot 1880s in response to both the Arts and Hindu images. In ‘The Hindu icon: elements to age-revered forms. understanding of the processes of its Crafts movement in Europe and grow- between the cultic and the exhibitory Dr Parker examined the construc- creation. Such an approach to architec- The conference on ‘The traditional ing nationalist claims concerning the space’, Jyotindra Jain examined mass- tion, during the last century, of a gran- tural history is the basis for under- arts of South Asia: past practice, living destruction of Indian industries under produced Hindu imagery of the late ite Hindu temple, of the sort popularly standing the transformations of archi- traditions’1 aimed to address these colonial rule. This led to the idea that nineteenth and twentieth centuries. associated in Tamil Nadu with claims tectural traditions. It was argued that if questions and assess the role of the tra- craft should be considered a specific art With the shift to mass-production and to royal sovereignty, by the leaders of these various traditions can be deduced, ditional arts of South Asia, both as a form, which had a decisive impact on the use of print technology, a new gen- the Nadar community in Aruppukottai. they could subsequently be learned and way to understand the past and its cur- contemporary crafts, policies, and inter- eration of printed images of Hindu It was designed to give, literally, ‘hard’ brought into practice. This might then rent practice. These very issues are cen- ventions, but also shaped the way we deities and mythological characters evidence for the Nadar’s contested iden- lead to an architecture that draws from tral to the activities of De Montfort Uni- perceive Indian crafts today. came into being. tity as a royal caste allegedly dispos- tradition in a more profound way than versity’s research centre PRASADA In his paper, ‘British interventions in Using new techniques, these printed sessed of its true status. As such it is the case with past revivals and his- (Practice, Research and Advancement the traditional crafts of Ceylon (Sri pictures displayed an amalgamation of emphasizes the contemporary impor- toricisms. Similar approaches were in South Asian Design and Architec- Lanka) c. 1850–1930’, Robin Jones a whole range of pictorial elements, tance of temple architecture and expressed in the remaining two papers. ture).2 The speakers came from a vari- examined the British reappraisal of the including the idioms of the colonial art patronage as a means of expressing Kamil Khan Mumtaz’s background as a ety of disciplines, and included both material culture of Kandy in the late schools, traditional fresco and manu- social and political identity. Western-trained architect practising in academics and practising artists and nineteenth century, including attitudes script painting, European prints, pho- Eiluned Edwards (PRASADA) and Pakistan, with a keen interest in tradi- architects. The eleven presentations towards local arts, crafts, and architec- tography, Western and regional Indian Ismail Mohammad Khatri (Dhamadka tional architecture, discussed two cur- focused on a variety of media and con- ture, in response to the rediscovery of theatre, and contemporary cinema. village, Kachchh) discussed the textiles rent projects for a mosque and a tomb texts – including architecture, sculp- Sri Lanka’s ancient cities. From the This fundamentally changed depictions of Kachchh in Gujarat. Ismail Moham- in Pakistan. Nimish Patel and Parul ture, painting, and textiles – from Pak- 1850s to the 1930s the colonial govern- of Hindu imagery and went alongside mad Khatri, a ninth generation textile Zaveri similarly discussed the charac- istan, Sri Lanka, and India. ment and missionary societies estab- the rise of new exhibitory contexts, craftsman from the village of Dhamad- teristics of traditional architecture and Abigail McGowan (University of lished industrial schools, for the local from the consecrated, sacred space of ka, gave an account of block-printing tex- the creative process, and how this under- Pennsylvania) and Robin Jones population that effected traditional arts. the Hindu shrine to the living rooms, tiles from his perspective. His presenta- standing can be used in contemporary (Southampton Institute) both addres- This influence has been examined, not restaurants, shops, trucks, and taxis of tion of the Khatri community’s regional architectural practice and conservation, sed the colonial foundations of our least through Ananda Coomaraswamy’s modern times. history in Sindh and western India, as illustrated by their work on a number knowledge and interpretation of South early twentieth-century writings. In her paper ‘From temple to man- including a range of material produced of projects in Gujarat and Rajasthan. Asian traditional arts. In ‘Indian crafts Jyotindra Jain (Jawaharlal Nehru telpiece: changing paradigms in the art for the Hindu and Muslim herding com- At the start of the twenty-first centu- in colonial display and policy University, New Delhi) and Sharada and craft of South Indian metal icons’, munities of Kachchh, was complement- ry we are in the position of being able 1880–1920’, Abigail McGowan argued Srinivasan (National Institute of Sharada Srinivasan explored the ways ed by a practical demonstration of the to better assess the legacies of colonial- that in comparison with the preceding Advanced Studies, Bangalore) explored in which current artistic practices help complicated process of making ajrakh, a ism and twentieth-century modernity decades, a recognition of artisans as the impact of colonialism and moder- inform our understanding of past block-printed cloth that is printed on one in the representation and appropriation creative individuals emerged in the nity on the production and reception of images and their production. South or both sides with natural dyes. in present-day practice of the tradition- Indian metal images have also under- Eiluned Edwards discussed the al arts of South Asia. This will lead to a [advertisement] gone various paradigm shifts, from resist-dyed and block-printed textiles greater appreciation of the vitality and objects of ritual veneration and proces- produced by the Khatris for many variety of the region’s traditional arts, sional worship to mantelpiece curios in castes in the region. Encoded in these both past and present. < the marketplace. These transforma- textiles are a host of details about a per- tions are now shaping prevalent artis- son’s caste, religious affiliation, gender, Dr Crispin Branfoot is a research fellow in tic trends. age, marital status, and economic South Asian Art and Architecture, PRASA- Southern India remained the focus standing. She examined the changes in DA, De Montfort University, Leicester, Unit- of both Anna Dallapiccola (PRASADA) the, essentially, local markets for these ed Kingdom. and Samuel K. Parker (University of textiles and the emergence of new mar- [email protected] Washington, Tacoma). In ‘A contem- kets for the Khatri textiles as a result of porary pantheon: popular religious post-independence industrialization, Note > imagery in South India’, Anna Dal- changes in traditional caste occupations lapiccola discussed the traditional tem- and patterns of consumption, and 1 Conference held at De Montfort ple arts of late twentieth-century Tamil advances in textile technology. University, Leicester, United Nadu. She demonstrated how modern The architects Adam Hardy (PRASA- Kingdom. imagery and aesthetics, such as those DA), Kamil Khan Mumtaz (Anjuman-I- 2 For PRASADA, please refer to discussed by Jyotindra Jain, are influ- Mimaran, Lahore), and Nimish Patel, www.lsa.dmu.ac.uk/Research/pr encing brick and plaster sculptures and together with Parul Zaveri (Abhikram, asada.html temple murals, adding a wealth of new Ahmedabad), focussed on traditional
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IIAS Newsletter | #30 | March 2003 43 > Asian Art & Cultures Institute of International Visual Arts (INIVA) 6-8 Standard Place Rivington Street London EC2A 3BE T +44-20 7729 9616 F +44-20 7729 9509 [email protected] www.iniva.org Veil is a major touring exhibition organ- Veil ized by the Institute of International Visu- al Arts that is intended to evoke interna- tional dialogue across cultures. This exhibition features the work of twenty international artists and filmmakers who address the contested and complex nature of the veil in contemporary soci- eties. Particularly salient in light of changing world events and ambiguities associated with globalization, artists will Kourush Abdu’Allah, include: Faisal Adim, AES art group, Jananne Al-Ani, Bajull, Samta Farah Ghada Amer, Benyahia, Shadafarin Ghadirian, Ghazel, Majida Khat- Ramesh Kalkur, Emily Jacir, tari, Shirin Neshat, Harold Offeh, Zineb Sedira, Elin Strand, and Mitra Tabrizian. Until 27 April 2003 Walsall The New Art Gallery, 5 July 2003 – 16 August Gallery, Bluecoat Gallery & Open Eye Liverpool 22 November 2003 – 26 January 2004 Modern Art, Oxford Victoria and Albert Museum Road Cromwell South Kensington London SW7 2RL T +44-870 442 0808 T +44-20 7942 2000 www.vam.ac.uk Until 31 March 2003 The Art of Reflection: Mirrors, Messages and Magic collection of mir- Drawing on the V&A’s rors and other related items, this exhibi- tion focuses on Asian objects and traces the designs and materials of mirrors from ancient to contemporary eras. Until 30 April 2003 Japanese Cloisonné Enamelled Wonders: from the Edwin and Susan Davies Collection Taiwan Fine Arts Museum Taipei 181 Chung Shah North Road, Section 3 104 Taipei, [email protected] www.tfam.gov.tw 29 March 2003 – 11 May Let’s Make ART installation exhibition by Yu-Chuan Web Tseng Thailand Thavibu Gallery Silom Galleria Building, 3rd Floor Suite 308, 919/1 Silom Rd. Bangkok 10500 T +66-2 266 5454 F +66-2 266 5455 www.thavibu.com April – May 2003 – Lacquer Paintings Tuan Trinh intuitive in their subtle Considered Tuan’s expressions of emotion, Trinh lacquer paintings often dwell on themes of solitariness, sadness, and melan- choly. United Kingdom Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology Beaumont Street Oxford OX1 2PH [email protected] www.ashmol.ox.ac.uk Until 20 April 2003 of Art: Acquisitions from Japanese Works 1985-2002 the Story Fund, a rarely seen mix of Japanese Featuring ceramics, paintings, metalwork, and lac- quer usually held in the reserve or teach- ing collections of the museum. Until 25 May 2003 Seasons: An Exhibition of The Four Chinese Painting This exhibition explores traditional land- scape painting by nineteenth- and twen- tieth-century artists. Highlighted here are some of the basic principles land- scape painting as determined by the four seasons in ancient China, related to the lunar calendar and cycle of life. ings by Ren Bonian, Xu Beihong, Pu Ru, Zhao Shao’ang, Oi Baishi, and Huang Binhong. 17 December 2002 – 15 June 2003 Thirty-one works by Oh Chi-ho (1906-1982) painting, Oh is Master artist of Western credited with laying the roots of West- ern impressionist painting style in Korea applying it to capture and, in particular, Korea’s scenic beauty in a bright and clear The exhibits are part of the col- manner. lection of 34 paintings that Oh’s family donated to the museum upon his death. Netherlands Rijksmuseum voor Volkenkunde Steenstraat 1 2312 BS Leiden T +31 71-5168800 www.rmv.nl [email protected] Until 31 August 2003 The Kamoro The Rijksmuseum voor Volkenkunde presents a wide-ranging picture of the Kamoro culture on the south-west coast of Papua (New Guinea). The life the Kamoro is characterized by extensive cycles of feasts and rituals that mark these feasts the important life phases. For Kamoro make drums, masks, clothing, finely carved wooden panels jewellery, and statues. These are often of spectac- ular dimensions and are particularly beautiful and full of symbolism. Singapore Asian Civilizations Museum 39 Armenian St. Singapore 179941 www.nhb.gov.sg/ACM/acm.shtml Until May 2003 Chinese Gold and Silver from the Laiyantang Collection some 70 gold and silver objects Featuring including from the Laiyantang Collection burial objects, silver and inlaid bronze vessels and clothing accoutrements from States Period (475-211 BCE), the Warring the Han Dynasty (206 BCE-221 CE) and Dynasty (618-906 CE). the Tang Until June 2003 Tsze Chinese Paintings from the Dr Tan Chor Collection paintings from the Ming Twenty-five dynasty to the early Republication Era comprise this collection, recently donat- ed by one of Singapore’s leading collec- tors of Chinese art. The work several including paint- masters is on display, May 2003 Tjoe ‘Reach Me’: Christine Ay This exhibition of graphics and drawings Art House Tjoe at Cemeti by Christine Ay promises to offer a respite from the bit- ter debate going on in the visual art and throughout world, both in Yogyakarta Java; the never-ending debate on social issues, from the most vain to unconscious, from power politics to the scramble for a slice of the lucrative mar- ket. The reflective quality implicit from the approach to the Toe’s long evidence of Ay graphic medium is moving and forces us to think about universal values. Japan National Museum Tokyo Tokyo 13-9 Ueno Park, Taito-ku, www.tnm.jp 3 July 2003 – 13 Kamakura – The Art of Zen Buddhism In commemoration of the 750 anniversary of the founding Kenchôji, oldest Zen temple in Japan, this exhibition will and display designated National Treasures some objects never before seen outside of the temple walls. Objects will include sculptures, paintings, calligraphy and ceramics highlighting the complexity and wide-ranging aesthetics of Zen culture. Asian Art Museum Fukuoka Hakata Riverain 7-8F 3-1 Shimokawabata-machi Hakata-ku 810027 City, Fukuoka http://faam.city.fukuoka.jp Until 25 March 2003 Santo – Holy Sculptures from the Philip- pines Santos, religious images, were brought to the Philippines in sixteenth centu- ry by Spanish missionaries and wor- shipped in churches, chapels, and household altars. This exhibition looks at the role of Santo images in prom- in the Philippines ulgation of Catholicism and at their continued appeal. Korea Art National Museum of Contemporary 427-701, San 58-1 (Gwangmyeong-gil 209), Makgye-dong, Gwacheon-si, Gyeonggi-do T +82-2-2188 6000 F +82-2-2188 6123 www.moca.go.kr shoin 29 August 2003 – 26 October The National Muse- The Great Collections: to the – Art from the Fourteenth um Tokyo Nineteenth Century This exhibition presents the ‘golden age’ of Japanese art from the fifteenth to early seventeenth centuries. Highlight- ing artistic developments during the Muromachi and Momoyama periods, the exhibition features reconstructions of intimate traditional tearooms and a study room, together with the accou- trements of public splendour and noble symbols of status and power. India (Generously provided by ArtIndia) Jehangir Art Gallery 161/B Mahatma Gandhi Road Kala Ghoda, Hutatma Chowk Mumbai T +91 22 84 3989 3–9 April 2003 David Schorr – Paintings 10–16 April 2003 Paintings and sculptures by Rajesh Anil Vishaka Apte, Yusuf, Ambalkar, and Om Shailendra Kumar, Kumar, Prakash Khare. Exhibition Gallery 3–9 April 2003 Gopi Gajwani, Maruti Patil, Arunabha Karmakar – Paintings Kala Sangam Triveni Institution for Dance, Music, Drawing and Painting Marg, New Delhi 110001 205 Tansen T +91 22 371 8833 [email protected] Shridharani Gallery 3–13 April 2003 Paintings by Rameshwar Singh 27 March – 6 April 2003 Sanjib Saha – Oil on canvas 7–16 April 2003 – Drawings & paintings Kishor Wala Indonesia Art House Cemeti Jalan DI. Panjaitan 41 55143 Yogyakarta, [email protected] www.cemetiarthouse.com ` cho ` ´s work. The The Dutch- man, the head of the Dutch House Trading in Dejima, Nagasaki, Japan. Light colour on 1809. paper, Signed Saio Socho. 29 x 63.8 cm. ` cho ` Masuda. This exhibition fea- ` (1761-1814) to the Czech public. ` zaburo ` cho ` Náprstek Museum has the opportunity to present 55 masterpieces by Takebe So This exhibition of over 30 pieces art- work by 21 contemporary Hong Kong artists will illustrate the development of ink painting in Hong Kong during the most recent decades, influenced by cross-cultural trends. Special Exhibition Gallery 13 June 2003 From of Sun Xingge Painting and Calligraphy Exhibition about 40 representative works Featuring from Sun Xingge (1897-1996), which he executed from his mid 70s until into 90s, including images of flowers, birds, and landscapes. Czech Republic Náprstek Museum of Asian, African and American Cultures Betlémské nám. 1, 110 00 Praha 1 [email protected] www.aconet.cz/npm 30 January 2003 – 21 April So Painted Poems ‘Haiga’ – Takebe Paintings the private collection of Mr From Sho Germany Kunst- und Ausstellungshalle der Bundesrepublik Deutschland GmbH 4 Friedrich-Ebert-Allee 53113 Bonn T +49-228 9171-0 www.kah-bonn.de turing a very special genre of Japanese art puts together paintings, poems, and calligraphy that are part of Mr Masuda’s private collection of So Courtesy of Mr. Shozaburo Masuda, the privat collector, Japan. Two Emper- Two highlights the shortest and longest ors > Art Agenda Australia Australian Museum Street 6 College Sydney NSW 2010 T +612 9320 6000 www.austmus.gov.au Art Agenda Until 15 June 2003 Emperors: China’s ancient origins Two This exhibition is one of the most significant to leave China in over a decade. Canada Royal Ontario Museum 100 Queen’s Park Ontario, M5S 2C6 Toronto, www.rom.on.ca Until May 2003 of Naoko Spirit: The Woodcuts Tree Matsubara Over 50 of Naoko Matsubara’s woodcuts will be on display in the Herman Herzog The works span the artist’s Levy Gallery. entire career and show the development of her approach from the use stark black to exuberant colours and from organic forms based in nature to geo- metric and abstract designs. China Gallery Courtyard 95 Donghuamen Dajie Dongcheng, Beijing, 100001 [email protected] www.courtyard-gallery.com April 2003 Shugang Solo Exhibition Wang His first solo exhibition at the Courtyard Shugang’s lat- Gallery will feature Wang est bronze minimalist sculptures. Hong Kong Museum of Art 10 Salisbury Road, Tsimshatsui Kowloon, Hong Kong T +852 2721 0116 F +852 2723 7666 [email protected] www.lcsd.gov.hk/CE/Museum/Arts 4 April 2003 From Hong Kong Cityscapes: Ink Painting in Transition dynasties in China’s history: the Qin and Han. This stunning exhibition includes for- midable life-sized warriors, exquisite gold, jade, and bronzes, captivating farmyard animals, pigsties, and granaries.
44 IIAS Newsletter | #30 | March 2003 > IIAS news < Japanese regional cultural centres this link features a list of in New York, Provided by the Japan Cultural Center including the headquarters in Tokyo, cultural offices of the Japan Foundation, Japan and all of the twenty-nine regional cultural centres, which are located in five major regions in the world, namely North America, South Europe, Asia/Oceania, and the Middle East. The majority of these regional offices also have their own website, featuring information on language training, cultural activities, and information on grants for organizing cross-cultural exchange projects, featuring a wide range of activities in the field Asian arts, includ- ing dance, film, theatre, and the visual arts. Of particular interest is web- site of the regional office in Bangkok that contains up-to-date information on various art exhibitions held across Thailand, many of which receive some kind On the site of local office of support from the local Japan Cultural Centre. one can also find information on the ‘Under in Bangkok, at www.jfbkk.or.th Project’ that features seven young international curators who Construction have been working together in creating a series of curatorial platforms Japan, Korea, Indonesia, the Philippines, India, Thailand, and China, featuring con- temporary art from the region. www.jfny.org/jfny/offices.html Open performance art platform it is often dif- Wide Web, Amidst the many links and cross-links on World ficult to find a well composed website that features up-to-date information on local art events. One of the exceptions is private run, ‘unofficial’ website of the Japanese performance artist Arai Shin-ichi, which features important documentation on the first and second ‘Open Art Platform Performance that was organized in Beijing and Chengdu August 2000 Festival’ August 2001. The festivals featured live performances by a large group of young and established performance artists from China abroad. As these are experimental art events that have been placed on the absolute frontlines of art practice in China, visual documentation of these events is often hard to obtain, except through those who are in contact with the different perform- Arai has now put photographs and captions on each of ance artists. Luckily, the performances at two festivals on his website, presenting visitor with a good overview on different performance art practices from around the world, which will hopefully foster a better understanding of this field art practice through the Web. www.asahi-net.or.jp/~ee1s-ari/bipae.html and: www.asahi-net.or.jp/~ee1s-ari/sichuan.html Online bibliography This link provides access to a comprehensive and up-to-date bibliography of modern and contemporary Asian art, mainly works in European lan- guages. This document, which has been organized predominantly by the art Univer- historian John Clark, from the Department of Art History & Theory, is now available as a PDF-file, making it easy to browse and sity of Sydney, use the information for personal or institutional references, and furthermore making it easy to print out. Any notable omissions or additions are further welcome by providing a link to two email addresses that can be used for feedback purposes from users, or by filling out a template form provided on the website. www.arts.usyd.edu.au/departs/arthistory/department/general/jclark.html and: www.arts.usyd.edu.au/departs/arthistory/Courses%202002/ ARHT2040ModernAsia.html < Art Institute of Chicago 111 South Michigan Avenue Chicago, Illinois www.artic.edu 5 April 2003 – 27 July Himalayas: An Aesthetic Adventure Displaying mostly religious art objects between the fifth and nineteenth cen- turies, this exhibition traces the artistic achievement and history of the Himalayas together with its theological needs of Hinduism and Buddhism. for the Arts Buena Center Yerba 701 Mission St. at 3rd California San Francisco, [email protected] www.yerbabuenaarts.org 26 April – 13 July 2003 Time After Time: Asia and Our Moment This exhibition presents contemporary art from Asia that addresses concepts of time and considers the public discourse about progress, memory and tradition, transitional spaces, and the coexistence of multiple systems time. Featuring sculpture and painting, photography, video by emerging and mid-career artists. Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History 10th Street NW Ave., Constitution D.C. 20560 Washington, T +1-202-357 2700 www.mnh.si.edu 22 January – 8 June 2003 A Korean American Century This exhibition presents some 50 photo- graphs documenting the history and experiences of Korean immigrants to the USA from 1883 to 2001 mark the cen- tennial of Korean immigration to the United States. Included are historic pho- tographs of the American-initiated diplo- matic opening of Korea in the 1880s and the subsequent series of encounters that influenced Korean immigration to the United States beginning in 1903. Ground Picture courtesy of Baird Gallery. floor, Peabody Essex Museum Collection. as material/spiritual, social/individual, personal/clinical, interior/exterior and symmetrical/asymmetrical. son dynasties. ` explores the work of ten , and Cho ` emerging artists from Japan presenting two-dimensional, three-dimensional, installation art, video and film. An inter- national jury of art curators and critics selected the artists through Philip Morris K.K. Art Awards. Featuring Korean ceramic, metalwork, Featuring painting, and calligraphy from the fourth century to the present, from perma- nent and private collections. Including objects from the Three Kingdom, Unified Shilla, Koryo Until 19 October 2003 Glaze, Pattern, and Image: Decoration in Chinese Ceramics This exhibition illustrates changes in Chinese aesthetic taste through ceram- ics, highlighting the development of techniques and styles from the third cen- tury BCE to the nineteenth century CE. Art, Chicago Museum of Contemporary 220 East Chicago Avenue Chicago, Illinois 60611 T +1-312 280 2660 www.mcachicago.org Until 2 June 2003 Architecture: Hiroshi Sugimoto This series of photographs by Hiroshi Sugimoto includes landmark architec- tural structures of the twentieth century, and the ranging from the Eiffel Tower Empire State Building to buildings by Ando, and Frank Tadao Gehry, Frank among others in Europe, Lloyd Wright, North America, and Asia. Art Center P.S. 1 Contemporary at 46th Avenue Jackson Avenue 11101 New York Long Island City, T +1-718 784 2084 F +1-718 482 9454 [email protected] www.ps1.org Until 30 April 2003 The First Steps: Emerging Artists from Japan The First Steps Until May 2003 exhibition Chen Zhen Tribute This exhibition is a tribute to artist Chen Zhen, who died in 2001. Chen’s installa- tions draw on themes of illness and med- icine as metaphors for human difference; they also address the concept of organic whole and explore binaries such Until 17 August 2003 Chinese Themes in the Arts Great Waves: of Korea and Japan The exhibition explores how Chinese pic- torial themes of Buddhist iconography, flower and bird sub- landscape imagery, jects, and figural narratives were selec- tively adopted and interpreted by native artists in Korea and Japan. Museum of Art Los Angeles County 5905 Wilshire Boulevard Los Angeles, CA 90036 T +1-323-857-6000 www.lacma.org/lacma.asp 13 April 2003 – 27 July Art The Legacy of Genghis Khan: Courtly Asia, 1256–1353 and Culture in Western Illustrates the impact of Ilkhanid (Mon- Asia on art and culture gol) rule in West between the mid-thirteenth to mid- This exhibition fea- fourteenth century. tures examples of the decorative arts and architectural decoration demonstrating the convergence of local artistic expres- Eastern art forms of the sion with Far dynasty. Yuan Museum of Fine Arts, Boston of the Arts Avenue 465 Huntington Avenue Boston, Massachusetts 02115-5523 T +1-617-267 9300 www.mfa.org Until Spring 2003 RSVP: Sarah Sze Installation artist Sarah Sze is working on-site at the gallery as part of series RSVP mfa, in which artists are invited to respond to and work among the collec- tions, architecture, and grounds of the Museum, creating art that extends beyond the traditional walls of a gallery. Seattle Asian Art Museum Park Volunteer 1400 East Prospect Street, 98112-3303 Seattle, Washington T +1-204-654 3255 www.seattleartmuseum.org Until 24 August 2003 of Korean Sensibilities: The Evolution Form tureens, reverse glass paintings, and an ivory pagoda. 14 April – 4 May 2003 Chinese Buddhist Images: New Perspec- tives on the Collection Issues of authenticity and attribution are the focus of this exhibition that presents Buddhist sculptures and devotional objects within a critical framework. Recent analyses of these objects have led to refined explications of their original contexts and also raise awareness about the presence of fake Buddhist sculptures collections. in Western Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Harvard University 32 Quincy Street Massachusetts 02138 Cambridge, T +1-617 495 9400 [email protected] www.artmuseums.harvard.edu Until 25 May 2003 Image and Empire: Picturing India during Era the Colonial paintings, luxury objects, doc- Featuring umentary drawings and historical pho- tographs depicting India during the European colonization of South Asia in the seventeenth through early twentieth centuries. The exhibition draws on sev- eral private and museum collections will display objects created by South artists, including sev- Asian and Western eral important examples of ‘Company painting’ and a Rajput portrait of Queen Victoria as a maharani. The Metropolitan Museum of Art at 82nd Street 1000 Fifth Avenue 10028-0198 New York, T +1-212-535-7710 www.metmuseum.org Until 13 July 2003 Chinese Export Porcelain at The Metro- politan Museum of Art Presenting 65 objects from the Muse- um’s collection of Chinese export art, this exposition primarily highlights porcelain made in China for American and European markets. Objects date from the early sixteenth century to last quarter of the nineteenth century, including bowls and vases, services lives of women at the court, imaginary dwellings of deities and immortals, private pavilions commissioned by public officials and the Chinese elite classes. > Art AgendaArt Agenda www ‘Marsyas’, 2002, Installation by Anish Kapoor, Modern, The Unilever Series, 9 October Tate 2002 - 6 April 2003 > Asian Art Online Toshiba Gallery of Japanese Art Toshiba Modern Tate Bankside London SE1 9TG T +44-20 7887 8000 www.tate.org.uk/modern/ Until 6 April 2003 The Unilever Series: Anish Kapoor Marsyas, Anish Kapoor’s sculpture for Hall, com- Modern’s Turbine the Tate prises three massive steel rings joined together by flesh-like PVC membrane and seemingly wedged into the vast space, generating an undulating geometry of vertical and horizontal movement in the Hall. Kapoor’s sculpture is the third in The Unilever Series of commissions for Modern. Hall at Tate the Turbine United States Gallery of Art and Arthur Freer M. Sackler Gallery Jefferson Drive at 12th Street, SW SW 1050 Independence Avenue, P.O. Box 37012, MRC 707 D.C. 20013-7012 Washington, [email protected] www.asia.si.edu Until 30 March 2003 Palaces and Pavilions: Grand Architec- ture in Chinese Painting Exhibition featuring twenty-six paintings from the second to nineteenth cen- tury which evolve around three broad themes: historical palaces and the daily Photo by Marcus Leith and Andrew Dunkley, Copyright: Tate Photography
IIAS Newsletter | #30 | March 2003 45 > IIAS news Asian Space The space age began with the launch of the Russian artificial satellite Sputnik in 1957 and developed further Research > with the race to the moon between the United States and Russia. This rivalry was characterized by advanced General technology and huge budgets. In this process there were spectacular successes, some failures, but also many spin-offs. Europe, Japan, China, and India quickly joined this space club of the superpowers. With the advent of relatively low cost high performance mini-satellites and launchers, the acquisition of indigenous space capabilities by smaller nations in Asia has become possible. How, in what manner, and for what purpose will these capabilities be realized?
By David Soo crop failures. Thus the space application that has attracted The ADEOS-2 satel-
the most attention in this region is remote sensing. Remote lite configuration National Space Development Agency of Japan (NASDA) ocket technology has progressed considerably since the sensing satellites equipped with instruments to take photo- showing the layout Rdays of ‘fire arrows’ (bamboo poles filled with gunpow- graphs of the ground at different wavelengths provide essen- of satellite and its David Soo, C. Eng is currently an affiliated fellow at the IIAS inves- der) first used in China around 500 BC, and, during the Sung tial information for natural resource accounting, environ- instruments. tigating Asian space. He was staff member for many years at the Dynasty, to repel Mongol invaders at the battle of Kaifeng mental management, disaster prevention and monitoring, ADEOS-2 is the sec- European Space Agency (ESA) in Noordwijk, the Netherlands, work- (Kai-fung fu) in AD 1232. These ancient rockets stand in stark land-use mapping, and sustainable development planning. ond of the Japanese ing on the design and development of satellite guidance, navigation, contrast to the present-day Chinese rocket launch vehicles, Progress in these applications has been rapid and impres- ‘Advanced Earth and control systems. called the ‘Long March’, intended to place a Chinese astro- sive. ASEAN members, unlike Japan, China, and India, do Observation Satel- [email protected] naut in space by 2005 and, perhaps, to achieve a Chinese not have their own remote sensing satellites, however most lite’programme. moon-landing by the end of the decade. of its member nations have facilities to receive, process, and In the last decade there has been a dramatic growth in interpret such data from American and European satellites. Note > space activities in Asia both in the utilization of space-based In particular, Thailand, Malaysia, and Singapore have world- *The use of real time broadband satellite telecommuni- services and the production of satellites and launchers. This class remote sensing processing facilities and research pro- cations and video links for medical diagnosis and patient rapid expansion has led many commentators and analysts to grammes. ASEAN has plans to develop (and launch) its own care to remote rural communities having no access to predict that Asia will become a world space power. satellites and in particular remote sensing satellites. doctors and hospitals. The space age has had dramatic affects worldwide with Obviously, space technologies can also be used for non- direct developments in space technology influencing telecom- peaceful and military purposes (dual use technology). Earth munications, meteorological forecasting, earth resource and resource satellites, with their high resolution imaging capa- [advertisement] environmental monitoring, and disaster mitigation (flood, bilities, can be used for reconnaissance and spying. This forest fires, and oil spills). Asian nations have been particu- strategic use of satellites – of great value for national defence larly eager to embrace these developments. New and inno- and foreign policy – is of great significance in Asia taking Products and Services vative uses for satellites are constantly being explored with into account the region’s potential hot spots: North and South Tamarind Books potential revolutionary effects, such as in the field of health Korea, India and Pakistan, the Spratly Islands, and Taiwan Books about Southeast Asia and telemedicine,* distance education, crime prevention and China, amongst others. P.O. 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46 IIAS Newsletter | #30 | March 2003 > IIAS news Globalizing Media and Local Society in Indonesia Media can be defined as a meeting point of many conflicting forces in a modern society and is, therefore, a ly popular with female audiences in the Javanese village Report > highly complex issue. The study of media has been conducted in a wide variety of disciplines, such as where I carried out ethnographic fieldwork. In my own pres- Southeast Asia sociology, mass communication, cultural studies, political science, and anthropology. Although there have entation, I explored the mixture of the global and local and been numerous approaches and theories in media studies, we have not yet found any clear-cut satisfactory the traditional and modern in rural Java today. Focusing on 13–14 September perspective. The workshop ‘Globalizing media and local society in Indonesia’ tried to grasp the complex and foreign television programmes from the perspective of a cul- 2002 complicated mediascape in Indonesia, which has experienced drastic change in the last decade. The tural anthropologist, Gareth Barkin analyzed the ‘domesti- Leiden, participants discussed various topics ranging from transnational Internet and national TV to local radio cation’ effect of subtitling and translation from English into the Netherlands stations. Here we consider two of these topics, namely, the relationship between media and politics and the Indonesian. The consumption of American dramas in problem of globalization and localization, both of which are highly controversial in media studies in general. Indonesia always entails this kind of localization process. For example, Trans Television broadcasts an American series, By Makoto Koike more democratic and liberal media, which in turn led to the Sex and the City, which is well-known for its overt sexual emergence of a ‘public sphere’ and ‘civil society’ in Indone- themes and language. The translator re-wrote the text of the ome participants discussed the role of media in the col- sia. Edwin Jurriëns highlighted the role of private news radio drama, guided by her understanding of national standards. Slapse of the New Order in 1998. Based on interviews with in Java in representing the idea of civil society. On the other Interestingly enough, this radical drama has so far escaped television journalists, who had worked in the newsrooms, hand, Dedy N. Hidayat and Sasa Djuarsa Sendjaja showed the wrath of Muslim groups. Ishadi SK convincingly described how they came to side with vividly how the collapse of the New Order opened a Pando- In the province of Riau, which is very close to Malaysia and the people’s Reformasi (reformation) movement against the ra’s box of so-called hate media exploiting ethnic and reli- Singapore, local people watch foreign TV programmes and owners of the TV stations, who were Suharto’s children and gious conflicts in Ambon. Both speakers referred to mob listen to radio from the neighbouring countries. Suryadi dis- cronies. The critical news these journalists broadcast has- attacks against media organizations. Veven Sp. Wardhana cussed how some private stations relay programmes from tened the collapse of the New Order, which had implement- also discussed this problem, focusing on Islamic discourse foreign radio stations even though the Indonesian govern- ed the privatization of television. Merlyna Lim developed this on television programmes: it is very common for Muslim ment prohibits it. The relationship between this kind of theme, looking at how the newest technology, the Internet, groups to rush to the television stations whose programmes transnational radio broadcast and the revitalization of the played a crucial role in supporting the Reformasi and democ- they regard as unacceptable. Malay ethnic identity is an interesting question which needs ratization movements. For example, the emails about Suhar- The actions of such Muslim movements are considered to to be further researched. to’s wealth, originally written by George Aditjondro, were be a response to the globalization of television contents. We can, therefore, discern diverse global waves crossing published on a website launched by Indonesians in Germany. Though only a few participants overtly discussed media glob- Indonesia’s national boundaries. Nevertheless, John Postill Some Indonesian students found Aditjondro’s articles on the alization, it is an undeniable element of the contemporary reminded us of the importance of nation states as cultural Internet and printed them for their friends and family. Final- mediascape. Interestingly, the conference participants did areas, based on his comparative study of popular media in ly, newspaper sellers got hold of them and sold photocopies not endorse the widely held belief that globalization is a Sarawak, Malaysia, and Bali, Indonesia. Essentially, we need of the articles on the street, and this controversial informa- recent phenomenon that creates uniformity, and one which more research into the dynamics of the global, national, and tion spread widely in Indonesia. This is an interesting case is often seen to be conterminous with Americanization. On local in the wider Asian region, in which media and politics in which a new medium and traditional medium were effec- the contrary, media globalization and localization are con- are increasingly intertwined. < tively combined. Merlyna Lim also considered the negative current phenomena. Amrih Widodo discussed the popular- role of the Internet, and how it helped to fragment Indone- ity of Indonesian sinetron (television drama) amongst the Prof. Makoto Koike is Professor of Cultural Anthropology at St. sia into religious factions, focusing on the website of Laskar middle class, which is an example of the myriad localizing Andrews University, Osaka, Japan. As an affiliate fellow at the IIAS Jihad, an Islamic fundamentalist group. processes of global television. Latin American and Indian TV (4 February 2002 until 26 September 2002) he researched both the This contradictory character of media dynamics in the post- drama supplied the formula for sinetron as used by the most Indian contribution to the Indonesian media, cinema, and televi- Suharto era did not escape the participants’ notice. From an successful producer in Indonesia, Raam Punjabi, who is an sion drama and the local reception of mass media in a Javanese optimistic point of view, the drastic political change brought Indonesian of Indian decent. His drama, Tersanjung (‘Flat- village. about by the stepping down of Suharto paved the way for tered’), has achieved nationwide popularity and is amazing- [email protected] Fatwas and Religious Authority in Indonesia May a woman serve in a position of authority over men? Is jihad licit in Maluku? Who are lished views within the books of Islam- interest was the choice of terminology Report > the upholders of orthodoxy? These questions have recently been put before Muslim ic substantive law. in the opinion released, and just how Southeast Asia scholars and institutions in Indonesia and have received answers in the form of fatwas. Next Michael Laffan described his enforceable it might be, whether as ‘a Fatwas are the pieces of advice from the perspective of Islamic law on topical issues recent encounter with a traditionalist piece of advice’ or, perhaps, a ‘ruling’. 31 October 2002 affecting both individuals and society in general. Consequently they are important organization that does employ such Although many of the debates were not Leiden, indicators within the discourse of religious authority. They were also the subject of last books. In July 2002, Nahdlatul Ulama resolved last October, the project is the Netherlands October’s meeting of the Islam in Indonesia project, attended by some sixty participants, (NU) held consultative sessions to for- making good progress. A selection of both from the Leiden scholarly community and beyond.1 mulate topical fatwas. Laffan described the above papers is being considered the debates before examining how they for publication. < By Nico Kaptein & Michael Laffan journal al-Manar (1898-1936) and the analysed the changes in this discourse have affected the language and sub- Malay-Indonesian Archipelago. By and the role fatwas issued in Arabia stance of fatwas on such topics as the Dr Michael Laffan completed his PhD on ees van Dijk’s opening lecture examining requests for fatwas have played in the process. role of the sharia, and the permissibil- the history of Islamic nationalism in colo- Kintroduced a variety of regional addressed to al-Manar, Burhanuddin The three remaining papers each dis- ity of suicide bombs. Laffan concluded nial Indonesia. In January 2002, he joined cases (Malaysia, Singapore, and pointed out that there were three sorts cussed influential bodies in present-day that the methodologies adopted, as well the IIAS project on ‘Islam in Indonesia’, Indonesia), highlighting the tension of Southeast Asian petitioners: Malay- Indonesia that employ fatwas as part of as the results and justifications, were where he is concentrating on the competing between religious authority as Indonesian students in the Middle East their arsenal of authority. Nur Ichwan uneven and show that whilst the mem- discourses of traditionalism and modernism. expressed in fatwas on the one hand who seem to have formed the most examined how the Council of Indone- bership might apply pressure to discuss [email protected] and political authority on the other. It important channels of transmission of sian Ulama (MUI) has attempted to an issue or to call for a fatwa, the result- was shown that in some cases religious ‘Salafi’ reformist thought2 to their play a proactive role in politics since its ing declarations are largely shaped by Dr Nico Kaptein is research coordinator of authority was invoked successfully to homeland; persons of Arab descent liv- inception under Suharto. Focusing on the political concerns of the executive. the project ‘Islam in Indonesia’, coordinator overcome political tensions, while in ing in Southeast Asia; and finally, Mus- what he calls its ‘discursive products’ – The final session of the workshop of the Indonesian-Netherlands Cooperation others it was not. lims indigenous to the region. ranging from silence to fatwas – Ich- was intended to provide an overview of in Islamic Studies (INIS), and current sec- The following three papers addressed In the following paper, read by Mar- wan argued that the MUI has attempt- the meaning of fatwas in the Indone- retary of the Islamic Studies Programme at the question of why fatwas are request- tin van Bruinessen, Noorhaidi Hasan ed to guide the reformation process in sian context; the results suggested a Leiden University. ed. The first, delivered by Khalid gave a contemporary account of how an post-Suharto Indonesia. Nico Kaptein wider relevance. The discussants [email protected] Masud, was of a general theoretical Indonesian organization for Islamic then presented Syamsul Anwar’s paper returned to ask questions about what a nature and as such, illuminating for the propagation has used its links with con- on fatwas of the Muhammadiyah fatwa is, and indeed how Islamic broader theme. Masud discussed the servatives in Saudi Arabia and Yemen movement. The most interesting case authority is constructed. Of particular Quranic origins of istifta’ (the formal to justify the formation of a paramili- presented was related to whether a question posed in order to obtain a tary force. This force, Laskar Jihad, was woman could serve in a position of Notes > fatwa), its further development and dispatched to the Moluccas to wage authority over men. The resulting fatwa 1 The annual meeting of the KNAW/CNWS/ISIM-sponsored research pro- institutionalization. Masud suggested jihad in 2000. The main crux of the reinterpreted Prophetic traditions and gramme ‘Islam in Indonesia’ took place in Leiden on 31 October 2002. For that it is the istifta’ rather than the paper did not revolve around jihad itself Quranic verses with modern sociolog- more information, see: www.iias.nl/iias/agenda/archief/31102002.htm resulting fatwa which reflects a com- but interrogated the penetration of ical interpretations, declaring that a 2 The term ‘Salafi’ derives from the phrase al-salaf al-salih, lit. ‘the pious gener- munity’s political and social conditions. Salafi discourse in Indonesia and the woman could indeed be appointed. In ation’. Confusingly, this is used both by followers of the modernist move- Certainly this contribution meshed networks of authority it has established. doing so, Anwar argued that the fatwa ment, led in Cairo by Muhammad Abduh and Rashid Rida, and the Wah- well with Jajat Burhanuddin’s paper, According to Noorhaidi, most Salafi reflects Muhammadiyah’s attempt to habiyya movement of Arabia, which is now effectively the state doctrine of which addressed the dialogue estab- groups had remained essentially apo- promote a more dynamic understand- Saudi Arabia. lished between the Egyptian reformist litical until the crisis. He therefore ing of religion differing from the estab-
IIAS Newsletter | #30 | March 2003 47 > IIAS news
The institute endeavours to develop a dynamic and versatile knowledge and information. This entails activities such as pro- approach in its research programmes. Research fellows at a viding information services, constructing international net- post-PhD level are temporarily employed by or affiliated to the works, and setting up international cooperative projects and institute, either within the framework of a collaborative research research programmes. In this way, the IIAS functions as a win- programme, or on an individual basis. Always ready to antici- dow on Europe for non-European scholars and contributes to pate new developments, the IIAS opts for the enhancement of the cultural rapprochement between Asia and Europe. a broad, high quality level of knowledge on Asia. The institute The International Institute for Asian Studies (IIAS) is a post- organizes seminars, workshops, and conferences, and pub- The IIAS maintains the daily secretariat of the European doctoral research centre based in Leiden and Amsterdam, lishes a newsletter with a circulation of approximately 21,500 Alliance for Asian Studies (Asia- Alliance: www.asia-alliance.org) the Netherlands. Its main objective is to encourage the study copies. Moreover the IIAS has established a database for Asian as well as the Secretariat General of the International Conven- Studies, which contains information on researchers and tion of Asia Scholars (ICAS: www.icassecretariat.org). Regular of Asia and to promote national and international coopera- research related institutes worldwide. updates on Asia-Alliance and ICAS activities are provided in the tion in this field. The institute focuses on the humanities and IIAS Newsletter. < social sciences and, where relevant, at the interface between The IIAS acts as an international mediator, bringing various these disciplines and sciences like medicine, economy, poli- parties together. In keeping with the Dutch tradition of trans- tics, technology, law, and environmental studies. ferring goods and ideas, the IIAS works as a clearinghouse of www.iias.nl < nologies in Asian religious and secular cultures. It aims to generate insight into the ways in which use and monopoly over genetic information shape and influ- ence population policies, environmental ethics, and biomedical agricultural practices in various cultures and across national boundaries. The programme was initiated by IIAS and the Institute for Study of Islam in (ISIM, Leiden), and will Modern World be executed in cooperation with other Dutch research institutes such as the for Bioethics and Health Law Centre (CBG, University of Utrecht), the Insti- tute for Innovation and Trans-disciplinary VU), and var- University, Research (Free ious Asian research institutes. Programme director: Dr Margaret Sleeboom ([email protected]) www.iias.nl/iias/research/genomics Media and Society, Transnational Citizenship This programme studies the complex nature of contemporary cultural identi- ties and the role which globalization of information and communication tech- nologies (ICT’s) plays in the (re)con- struction of identities. The research will broaden our understanding of implica- tions of new media and communications technologies in transforming political and religious forms, which transcend the nation state and the relationship between consumption practices and identity formation. The programme was initiated by the Amsterdam School for Social Science Research (ASSR) together with the IIAS and is executed with financial support for the from the Netherlands Foundation Research Advancement of Tropical (WOTRO). Programme director: Prof. Peter van der Veer ([email protected]) Research fellows: Dr Shoma Munshi, Mahmoud Alinejad PhD students: Miriyan Aouragh, Myrna Eindhoven www.iias.nl/iias/research/transnation- al/projectdescr.html
[advertisement] New IIAS Publications
Antons, Christoph (ed.) Law and Development in East and Southeast Asia
([email protected]) London and New York: RoutledgeCurzon/IIAS Asian Studies Series (2003), 387 pp., ISBN 0-7007-1321-2 (hb) Gerda Theuns-de Boer, MA Gerda Theuns-de Boer, ([email protected]) www.abia.net www.iias.nl/host/abia/index.html CLARA: Changing Labour Relations in Asia This research programme aims to build a comparative and historical under- standing of labour relations in different parts of Asia which are undergoing diverse historical processes and experi- ences in terms of their national economies, their links with internation- al markets, and the nature of state inter- vention. Several types of activities, name- ly: coordination of workshops; research projects; short-term research fellow- ships; networking; publications; and the setting up of a databank are promoted. CLARA is supported by the IIAS and International Institute of Social History (IISH). Programme coordinator: Dr Ratna Saptari Research fellow: Dr Prabu Mohapatra, India www.iisg.nl/~clara/clara.htm www.iias.nl/host/abia/index.html Genomics in Asia: Socio-Genetic Marginalization This new research programme studies the socio-political implications and prac- tices of the development and application of the new biomedical and genetic tech- Benjamin, Geoffrey and Cynthia Chou (eds.) Tribal Communities in the Malay World: Histori- cal, Cultural and Social Perspectives Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies/ IIAS (2002), 489 pp., ISBN 981-230-167-4 (hb)
Chou, Cynthia Indonesian Sea Nomads: Money, Magic and Fear of the Orang Suku Laut London and New York: RoutledgeCurzon/IIAS Principal researcher: Dr J. Thomas Lindblad Junior researcher: Jasper van de Kerkhof, MA www.niod.nl www.iias.nl/iias/research/indonesianisasi ABIA South and Southeast Asian Art and Archaeology Index The ABIA Index online database covers archaeology publications on prehistory, material culture, inscrip- and art history, tions, coins and seals of South Southeast Asia. The IIAS is the centre for regions outside Asia, with support from Between 2002 the Gonda Foundation. and 2006 the project is coordinated by with support from the PGIAR, Colombo, Offices have also Cultural Fund. Central been opened at the IGNCA, New Delhi, for Humanities and the Research Centre and Social Sciences, Universitas Indone- sia, Jakarta. ABIA Index volume 1 is avail- 2 is available at able at the IIAS. Volume www.brill.nl ABIA General Editor for Asian publications: Dr Sita Pieris ([email protected]) publications: General Editor for Western Dr Ellen Raven ([email protected]) publications: Editor for Western ipate. The project is sponsored by the Docu- Netherlands Institute for War mentation (NIOD). Asian Studies Series (2003), 222 pp., ISBN 0-7007-1724-2 (hb)
Douw, Leo, Cen Huang and David Ip (eds.) Rethinking Chinese Transnational Enterprises: Cultural affinity and business strategies Richmond, Surrey: IIAS and Curzon Press (2001), 281 pp., ISBN 0-7007-1524-x (hb), illustrated
Hockx, Michel and Ivo Smits (eds.) development of the theory language and the human language capacity. The research focus is on classifiers, mod- ifiers, and possessors in the nominal domain; and on aspectual particles, resultatives and sentence-final particles in the sentential/verbal domain. The languages involved in the project are and Mandarin (all Sinitic) as Wu, Yue, well as the non-Sinitic Zhuang (Zhuang- Miao (Hmong-Mien), and Wa Tai), (Mon-Khmer). The project is co-funded by the Dutch Organization for Scientific Research (NWO) and Leiden University (main sponsors), and the IIAS. Programme coordinator: Dr Rint Sybesma Fellows/visitors/postdocs: PhD Students: Boya Li; Joanna Sio www.leidenuniv.nl/hil/china www.iias.nl/iias/research/syntax/index.html Indonesianisasi and Nationalization This research programme focuses on the shift in the management of Indone- sian economy from control by Western, especially Dutch private enterprises to Indonesian business, including Chinese Indonesian entrepreneurs. The project public embraces macroeconomic policy, discourse and case studies of major Dutch business firms and new Indone- sian enterprises. Locations include Jakar- Java, Bandung, Medan, and ta, Central Makasar where local scholars will partic- Reading East Asian Writing; The Limits of Literary Theory London and New York: RoutledgeCurzon/IIAS Asian Studies Series (2003), 299 pp., ISBN 0-7007-1760-9 (hb)
Munshi, Shoma (ed.) Images of the ‘Modern Woman’ in Asia: Global Media, Local Meanings Richmond, Surrey: IIAS and Curzon Press (2001), 211 pp., ISBN 0-7007-1343-3 (hb), 0-7007-1353-0
([email protected]) (pb), illustrated > IIAS Research Programmes Islam in Indonesia: the Dissemination of Religious Authority in the Twentieth Century This 4-year cooperative research pro- gramme aims at studying and docu- menting important changes, which occurred in religious – especially Mus- lim – authority in Indonesia during the past century and which have contributed significantly to the shaping of pres- ent nationhood. Its main donor is the Royal Netherlands Academy of Sciences co-sponsors are: ISIM, CNWS, (KNAW); and the IIAS. The programme further- more cooperates with several research institutions in Indonesia, such as the Islamic State Universities (IAIN). Programme coordinators: Dr Nico Kaptein, Josine Stremmelaar, MA Research fellows: Dr Michael Laffan, Johan Meule- Bakti man, Dr Andi Faisal PhD students: Jajat Burhanudin, Noorhaidi, Ahmad Syafi’i Mufid, Moch Nur Ichwan, Arief Subhan, Muhammad Dahlan www.iias.nl/iias/research/dissemination/ The Syntax of the Languages Southern China This research programme aims at describing and analyzing a number of syntactic phenomena in six languages spoken in Southern China comparing them in order to contribute further IIAS News 48 IIAS Newsletter | #30 | March 2003 > IIAS news < (USA) (Malaysia) (Taiwan) (Hong Kong) (Japan) (PR China) (PR China) PhD student within the joint NWO/ Leiden University /IIAS research pro- gramme Affiliated fellow, sponsored by NUFFIC Affiliated fellow, Affiliated fellow Visiting exchange fellow, sponsored by Visiting exchange fellow, the NSC sponsored by the Mit- Affiliated fellow, subishi Motors Corporation Professorial fellow, holder of the Euro- Professorial fellow, pean Chair of Malay Studies Prof. Md Salleh Yaapar Pantun and Pantoum: a study in Malay- European literary relations 2005 2003 – 5 February 5 February East Asia Prof. Kenneth J. Hammond The life, death, and posthumous career of Jisheng, 1516 – 1555 Yang 1 July 2002 – 2003 Dr HO Ming-Yu foreign direct investment and eco- Law, 1992-2002 nomic development in Taiwan 18 December 2002 – June 2003 Dr HOU Yu China’s industrial structure and sustain- able development after entering WTO 1 September 2002 – 30 June 2003 LI Boya, BA ‘The Syntax of the Languages Southern China’ 1 January 2001 – 31 December 2005 Dr SADOI Yuri The problems of the Japanese automobile production system in the different cultural setting: the case of Netherlands 1 September 1999 – 2003 SIO Joanna, BA PhD student within the joint NWO/ Lei- den University /IIAS research pro- gramme ‘The Syntax of the Languages Southern China’ 1 January 2001 – 31 December 2005 (USA) (India) (Indonesia) (Malaysia) (Indonesia) (the Netherlands, (Indonesia) Affiliated fellow United Kingdom) Stationed at the Amsterdam Branch pro- KNAW Office. Affiliated fellow, gramme: ‘Indonesian Society in Transition’. Stationed at the Amsterdam Branch sponsored by Office. Affiliated fellow, the NWO. PhD student within the framework of the project ‘Islam in Indonesia’ Ethnography of Balinese adat in the con- text of post-colonial and post New-Order Indonesia 15 January 2003 - 31 August Noorhaidi, MA The jihad paramilitary force: Islam and identity in the era of transition Indonesia 1 April 2001 – 2005 Dr Keat Gin Ooi The Japanese occupation of Dutch Borneo 1942-1945 25 March – 26 May 2002 and – 26 May 2003 Dr Tilak Raj Sareen 1942-1946 The Japanese prisoners of war, 31 March 2003 – 29 April Dr George Bryan Souza The colonial port city and the maritime trade of Asia: Batavia and cinnamon, sil- ver and opium, 1684-1792 1 April 2003 – 30 June Arief Subhan, MA The changing role of the Indonesian Madrasah and the dissemination of Mus- lim authority 15 June 2001 – 2005 Prof. Suhartono Sultan Hamnegku Buwono IX: his role in securing the Republic of Indonesia, 1945 – 1949 19 May 2003 – 18 June Prof. Barend Jan Terwiel (the Netherlands) IIAS Extraordinary Chair Cultures of Mainland Southeast Asia 2003 – 30 Febru- In Leiden: 10 February ary 2003 Prof. Ben White with crises in Indonesia Coping 25 September 2001 – December 2004 Senior visiting fellow PhD student within the framework of the project ‘Islam in Indonesia’ Affiliated fellow (Japan) (Indonesia) (Indonesia) (the Netherlands) (the Netherlands) (Malaysia) (Australia) (the Netherlands) Stationed at the Amsterdam Branch Office. Affiliated fellow within the programme: ‘Indonesian Soci- KNAW ety in Transition’. Research fellow, sponsored by NIOD Research fellow, Research fellow within the programme ‘Islam in Indonesia’ PhD student within the framework of the project ‘Islam in Indonesia’ Affiliated fellow Research fellow within the research project ‘Islam in Indonesia’ Affiliated fellow, sponsored by the JSPS Affiliated fellow, and NWO Prof. Zohra Ibrahim Information brokerage and knowledge sharing in Southeast Asia 6 January 2003 – 2004 Moch Nur Ichwan, MA The making and unmaking of statism. Islam: state production of Islamic dis- course in New Order Indonesia and after- wards 6 April 2001 – 2005 Jasper van de Kerkhof, MA (the Netherlands) sponsored by Junior research fellow, NIOD Indonesianisasi and nationalism. The emancipation and reorientation of the economy and the world of industry commerce 15 October 2002 – 2003 Dr Michael Laffan Sufis and salafis: a century of conflict compromise in Indonesia 1 January 2002 – 31 December 2004 Dr Thomas Lindblad Indonesianisasi and nationalism. The emancipation and reorientation of the economy and the world of industry commerce 1 October 2002 – 2006 Dr Hotze Lont with crises in Indonesia Coping 5 November 2001 – December 2004 Dr Johan Meuleman Dakwah in urban society twentieth- century Indonesia 1 January 2001 – 31 December 2004 Ahmad Syafi’i Mufid, MA The place of sufi orders in the religious life of contemporary Jakartans 18 September 2001 – 2005 Prof. NAKAMURA Kiyoshi PhD student within the framework of the project ‘Islam in Indonesia’ (Indonesia) (Australia) (India) (the Nether- (Indonesia) (Switzerland) (Canada) (Poland) (Germany) Gonda fellow lands) Stationed at the ASSR. PhD student within the ASSR/IIAS/WOTRO pro- Media Society, gramme ‘Transnational and Citizenship’. Affiliated fellow PhD student within the framework of the project ‘Islam in Indonesia’ Affiliated fellow Affiliated fellow Dr Suhnu Ram Sharma Gonda fellow Grammar of Manchad language 15 April 2003 – July Dr Lidia Sudyka The poem of Bhatti: a study 2003 – 4 April 3 February Southeast Asia Bakti Dr Andi Faisal Majlis taklim, pengajian and civil society: and how do Indonesian Majlis Taklim Pengajian contribute to civil society in Indonesia? 15 May 2002 – November 2003 Jajat Burhanudin, MA The making of Islamic modernism. transmission of Islamic reformism from the Middle East to Malay-Indonesian archipelago in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century 18 September 2001 – 2005 Muhammad Dahlan, MA The role of the Indonesian state institute for Islamic studies in the redistribution of Muslim authority 15 June 2001 – 2005 Dr Peter van Eeuwijk Growing old in the city: health transition among elderly in North Sulawesi, Indonesia 15 July 2003 – 30 October Myrna Eindhoven, MA Rays of new images: ICT’s, state ethnopo- licies and identity formation among the Sumatra) Mentawaians (West 1 November 2000 – 2004 Dr Arndt Graf Humor as a tool of political marketing in reformasi Indonesia 2003 – 31 March 24 February Hough Dr Brett Warren Performing arts in Bali Violence in Bali 3 March 2003 – 8 July Research fellow within the framework of the project ‘Islam in Indonesia’ PhD student within the framework of the project ‘Islam in Indonesia’ (Nepal) (India) (Russia) (Lithuania) (United Kingdom) (Nepal) (Australia) (the Netherlands) Senior visiting fellow Affiliated fellow Gonda fellow Affiliated fellow Dr David N. Soo Globalisation: an investigation into the A new emerging Asian space industry. force in space? 4 October 2002 – 2003 Central Asia Dr Mehdi Parvizi Amineh (the Netherlands) Stationed at Leiden and the Amster- dam Branch Office. Research fellow. security and development in the Conflict, post-Soviet era: toward regional economic Asian region cooperation in the Central 1 July 2002 – 31 December 2003 Lama Tsewang Antecedents of Bon Religion in Tibet 5 March 2003 - 1 April Dr Alex McKay The history of Tibet and the Indian Himalayas 1 October 2000 – 2005 Odé Dr Cecilia from the tundra and taiga Voices 1 July 2002 – 2003 South Asia Dr Audrius Beinorius The early and historical development of the medieval Indian astrology 1 September 2003 – 31 January 2004 Dr Alexandra van der Geer (the Netherlands) sponsored by the Research fellow, Gonda Foundation Animals in stone, Indian fauna sculptured through time 1 January 2003 – 2005 Dr Myeni Krishna Kumari Parallels and opposites between Hindu and Buddhist iconography 1 May 2003 – 31 July Ratna Manandhar Prof. Tri punishment in Nepal: a historical Capital perspective 1 May 2003 – 30 June Ilona Manevskaia, MA Characteristics of the commentarial genre in the Mahayana Buddhism 1 April 2003 – 30 August Affiliated fellow Gonda fellow Gonda fellow Research fellow (Morocco) (the Netherlands) (Taiwan) (Belgium) (the Netherlands) Research fellow Stationed at the ASSR. PhD student within the WOTRO/ASSR/IIAS pro- Media Society, gramme ‘Transnational and Citizenship’. financial support and who would like to do research in the Netherlands for a cer- tain period. The IIAS furthermore medi- ates in finding funding for those who have not yet secured means to cover their fellowship expenses (please also see the application form). 5. Gonda fellows the IIAS offers office facilities Annually, and living accommodation to five fellows selected and co-funded by the Stichting Please check (KNAW). J. Gonda Fonds website for information and the KNAW the application form at www.knaw.nl 6. Research guests The IIAS can offer office facilities to excel- lent scholars who would like to visit the institute for a short period. Both IIAS affiliated fellowship applica- tions and requests for IIAS mediation funding post-PhD researchers can be submitted at any time (no application deadline). Hereunder you will find, ordered by region of specialty and in alphabetical the names and research topics of order, all fellows currently engaged at the Inter- national Institute for Asian Studies. Men- tioned are further: country of origin, peri- od of affiliation, kind fellowship, and if applicable funding source/co-sponsor. General Miriyam Aouragh, MA The making of a collective Palestinian identity 1 May 2001 – 2005 Dr CHEN Hsiu-Li International product penetration 14 January 2003 – July Dr Roel Meijer Religion, transnationalism and radicalism 1 March 2003 – July Dr Bert Remijsen Hybrid word prosodic systems 1 July 2002 – 2005 Dr Margaret Sleeboom Research fellow Human genetics and its political, social, cultural, and ethical implications 17 September 2001 – 15 December 2005 Stationed at the Amsterdam Branch spon- Office. Visiting exchange fellow, sored by the NSC. Affiliated fellow gramme, i.e.: ‘Changing Labour Rela- tions in Asia’ (CLARA); ‘Islam Indonesia: The Dissemination of Reli- Cen- gious Authority in the Twentieth Media Society, tury’; ‘Transnational and Citizenship’; ‘Syntax of the Lan- guages of Southern China’; ‘Indone- sianisasi and Nationalization’ 15 March 2003 – 1 July The IIAS accommodates postdoctoral researchers in Asian Studies a variety of categories. Sponsorship these fel- lowships contributes to the institute’s aim for augmenting expertise and bol- stering the exploration of underdevel- oped fields of Asian Studies in the Netherlands. One of the most important goals IIAS is to share scholarly expertise by offering universities and other research institutes the opportunity to benefit from the knowledge of resident fellows. IIAS fellows are invited to lecture, participate in seminars, cooperate on research projects etc. The IIAS is most willing to mediate in establishing contacts and considers both national and internation- al integration of Asian Studies to be very important objectives. The IIAS wants to stress the cooperation between foreign researchers and the Dutch field. With regard to the affiliated fellowships, the IIAS therefore offers to mediate in finding external Dutch fund- ing, should the scholar have not yet found ways of financing his/her visit to more information, the Netherlands. For please refer to the IIAS fellowship appli- cation form, which can be obtained from the IIAS secretariat or can be found at: www.iias.nl/iias/applform.html The IIAS distinguishes six categories of fellows: 1. Research fellows a. individual b. attached to a thematic research pro- 2. Professorial fellows Professorial fellows are attached to the IIAS to lecture at universities and insti- tutes in the Netherlands. 3. Visiting exchange fellows The IIAS has signed several Memoranda of Understanding (MoU) with foreign research institutes, thus providing schol- ars with an opportunity to participate in international exchanges. 4. Affiliated fellows The IIAS offers office facilities to excel- lent scholars who have found their own > IIAS Fellows IIAS Fellows IIAS Newsletter | #30 | March 2003 49 > ASEF/Alliance news Asia Alliance
The European Alliance for Asian Studies is a cooperative frame- Directors of Urban Change work of European institutes specializing in Asian Studies. The Asia Alliance Partners are: in Asia and Europe IIAS (secretariat Asia Alliance) As the absolute and relative numbers of Asians living in cities are ever increasing, the population of countless The International Institute for Asian Report > Asian cities has reached over a million residents and some cities already have more than ten million Studies (IIAS) is a postdoctoral insti- General inhabitants, it was more than expedient to organize a workshop on the so-called ‘directors of urban change’. tute established in 1993 by Dutch uni- These ‘directors’ may be defined as actors with clear ideas about urban development and who are in a position versities and the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sci- 12–14 December to formulate and influence future developments. Two major questions are, then, to be asked: (1) what do the ences, to encourage Asian Studies in the humanities and 2002 directors of new urban developments envisage for the future; and (2) how do the directors manage to realize social sciences and to promote national and international Leiden, their ideas? In dealing with these questions at the workshop ‘Directors of urban change’, most participants scientific cooperation in these fields. The IIAS is mainly the Netherlands chose to discuss the current development of one or two Asian cities. financed by the Netherlands Ministry of Education, Culture and Sciences. president’s wife, and grassroots NGOs, Director: Prof. Wim Stokhof show no intention of cooperation. Their clashing visions, or indeed complete NIAS lack of vision of how to develop a city, The Nordic Institute of Asian Stud- generally result in a rather disorderly ies (NIAS) is an independent research end product. More than anywhere else, institute funded by the governments of Denmark, Finland, perhaps, this is the case in cities situ- Iceland, Norway, and Sweden through the Nordic Council of ated in countries going through a tran- Ministers. The NIAS, founded in 1967, serves as a focal point sition from a strict regime to a more lib- for research on contemporary Asia and for promoting Asian eral (capitalist) economy. Examples can Studies in the Nordic academic community. be found in Tehran, Nanjing, the Pearl Director: Dr Jørgen Delman River Delta, and Hanoi. Leifsgade 33 DK 2300 Copenhagen S, Denmark Can the natural environment be con- T +45-32-54 8844, F +45-32-96 2530 sidered a director of urban change? [email protected], www.nias.ku.dk One author’s case in point, though stretching the concept a little too far, IFA was quite well made. Issues of waste- The Institute of Asian Affairs (Insti- water and solid waste management, tut für Asienkunde, IFA) was founded land subsidence due to over-extraction in 1956 on the initiative of the German of ground water (leading to regular Parliament and the German Foreign Ministry. The Institute floods), and badly polluted air are has been assigned the task to study the political, economic, important issues to be addressed, espe-
and social developments in Asian countries. Its field of activ- Weeber Frank cially in mega-cities. ity concentrates on contemporary affairs, while aiming to As a follow-up to the workshop, con- procure and broaden scientifically based knowledge of the Hong Kong as seen By Freek Colombijn & Peter J.M. Nas papers have been submitted will the veners Freek Colombijn and Peter Nas, region and its countries. from Victoria Peak. workshop organizers attempt to draw in close cooperation with some of the Director: Dr Werner Draguhn hereas, at the beginning of the firm conclusions, but a few tentative participants, are trying to acquire funds Rothenbaumchaussee 32, D-20148 Hamburg, Germany Wtwentieth century, Europe was the general observations can already be to develop the workshop’s theme into a T +49-40-428 8740, F +49-40-410 79 45 continent where most of the largest cities made. research programme with junior schol- [email protected], www.duei.de/ifa were to be found, today eight Asian loca- Directors of urban change are com- ars, with the hope that specific themes tions figure prominently on the list of the peting for (international) investors. One relating to the concept of directors of EIAS fifteen largest cities in the world: Shang- way to attract investors is by creating an urban change may then be elaborated The European Institute for Asian hai, Tokyo, Beijing, Bombay, Calcutta, imaginative, spectacular, yet function- in subsequent workshops. < Studies (EIAS) is a Brussels-based pol- Jakarta, Seoul, and Madras. Their al cityscape. Upon joining the regional icy and research think-tank supported unprecedented rate of population growth or global competition for investors, Dr Freek Colombijn lectures at the Depart- by the European Union (EU) institu- and absolute population figures, ranging urban administrators must comply ment of Languages and Cultures of South- tions, which aims to promote understanding and coopera- from twelve to twenty-three million with international standards of what is east Asia and Oceania, Leiden University. tion between the EU and Asia. EIAS seeks to provide infor- inhabitants, pose considerable problems supposedly an imaginative architecture; He is an anthropologist and historian spe- mation and expertise to the European Union institutions, for their directors of urban change, prob- cityscapes thus tend to become uni- cializing in Indonesia and has published on the academic world and business by disseminating concise, lems that the European cities were never form. Yet, ironically, for their city to be urban development, environmental change, thoroughly researched and up-to-date material on EU-Asia forced to face. distinct from others, the urban admin- football, state formation, and violence in relations and important developments in Asia. In order to enrich the comparative istrators need to come up with some- Indonesia. Director: Dr Willem van der Geest perspective, the workshop also invited thing divergent from standard archi- [email protected] 35 Rue des Deux Eglises, 1000 Brussels, Belgium papers on the European cities of Lon- tecture. Local and provincial city T +32-2-230 8122, F +32-2-230 5402 don, Rome, and Cologne and on medi- administrators and national govern- Dr Peter J.M. Nas is affiliated with the [email protected], www.eias.org um-sized Asian cities, including some ments, making a showcase of their Department of Social and Cultural Studies, relatively small national capitals, such respective national capitals, are locked Leiden University. He is Associate Professor AEC as Colombo and Kuala Lumpur. Small in this paradox. Also, real estate devel- at the Department of Anthropology, Leiden In Fondation Nationale des Sciences as they may be (Colombo having a pop- opers involved in housing projects face University. His main topics of interest are Politiques (Sciences-Po), the Asia- ulation of less than a million inhabi- the same dilemma, torn between ful- urban and applied sociology and anthropol- Europe Centre is the third pillar with the SCIENCES PO tants), the national governments are filling universal requirements and the ogy with a regional focus on Indonesia, American Centre and the European already interfering with urban man- need to build something distinctive. It where he has conducted fieldwork. Centre in a resource framework at the service of the whole agement and have ambitions to attain is a paradox that also lies at the root of [email protected] institution. The Asia-Europe Centre acts as the interface global status for their capital. Other par- the ‘chains of aspiration’ noted above. between Sciences-Po components and our Asian counter- ticipants contributed papers on provin- Another issue is that directors of parts. It provides information and expertise to public and cial capitals and the way their urban urban change of all sorts, including the European institutions, to Sciences-Po’s academic network administrators aspire to the example of urban administration, the national gov- and to the business community. the, larger, national capital. Some ernment, real estate developers, the Director: Dr David Camroux ‘chains of aspirations’ were discerned. Fondation Nationale des Sciences Politiques For example, the Indonesian provincial Editors’ note > 56 rue Jacob, 75006 Paris, France capitals of Makassar, Surabaya, and T +33-58-71 7124, F +33-58-71 7125 Padang copy models derived from the This ASEF/Alliance workshop received grants from: ASEF-Asia Alliance; Leids [email protected], www.sciences-po.fr national capital. Meanwhile, Jakarta Universiteits Fonds (LUF); Social Science Research Council of the Netherlands looks for inspiration at Singapore: Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO-MaGW); and Research School of For more information also see: smaller but far more modern. Singa- Asian, African and Amerindian Studies (CNWS). The workshop was convened pore, in turn, is envious of Tokyo: the by Freek Colombijn and Peter J.M. Nas with secretarial assistance from Mar- www.asia-alliance.org only large and modern city in the Pacif- loes Rozing. ic region. A directly tangible result of the work- For agenda details of all shop is the planned publication of most ASEF/Alliance workshops, please check this issue’s Conference Agenda of the papers in a collective volume. (p.54–55) or visit www.asia-alliance.org/workshopseries Only when the final versions of the
50 IIAS Newsletter | #30 | March 2003 > ICAS news European Associations After September 11: for Asian Studies Islamism in Southeast Asia Association for Korean Studies in Europe, AKSE www.akse.uni-kiel.de Islamism, which is defined by some scholars as political discourse and action that attempts to centre Islam within the political order Prof. Werner Sasse (president) (Roy 1994; Sayyid 1997), has been a conspicuous phenomenon in different parts of the Muslim world, mainly since the eruption of the Universität Hamburg, Abt. Korea Iranian revolution in 1979. Southeast Asia has been no exception. This region has witnessed a proliferation of Islamist movements, Binderstrasse 34, 20146 Hamburg, Germany which have been highly assertive in seeking the restoration of ‘authenticity’ and the implementation of Islamic visions in all aspects of [email protected] life. During this period, Islamism has been involved in a contestation for the public sphere, although its challenges have never signifi- cantly threatened ruling regimes in the region. The proponents of Islamism have actively produced counter-hegemonic discourses by Secretariat, c/o Dr Antonetta L. Bruno proposing Islam as an alternative to the existing political, social, economic, and cultural system. The panel ‘After September 11: Universitá La Sapienza, Dipartimento Studi Orientali Islamism in Southeast Asia’ aims to examine the impact of the present increase of Islamism in the region. Piazzale Aldo Moro 5, 00185 Rome, Italy [email protected] By Noorhaidi Hasan when high explosive bombs exploded in still constitutes a dominant character of Agenda > Legian, Bali, on 22 October 2002, taking the majority of Muslims in Southeast European Association of Chinese Studies, EACS Southeast Asia ince 11 September 2001, when the lives of 185 foreign tourists. Asia vis-à-vis ‘radical Islam’, associated www.soas.ac.uk/eacs SAmerican airliners hijacked by ter- It is of interest to note that, while the with anti-Western sentiments? Prof. Glen Dudbridge (president) 19-22 August 2003 rorists struck the twin towers of the world’s hegemonic powers have The participants of this panel will Institute for Chinese Studies Singapore World Trade Center and part of the Pen- become more rigorous in presenting comprise scholars of sociology, anthro- Walton Street, Oxford OX1 2HG, United Kingdom tagon, the dynamics of Islamism in the negative image of Islamism associ- pology, political science, Islamic stud- T +44-1865 280 389, F +44-1865 280 431 Southeast Asia has apparently under- ated with terrorist actions, Islamist ies, and media studies, who have been [email protected] gone some significant changes. This media has flourished and attracted new particularly concerned with Southeast tragedy and its repercussions have not audiences. At the same time clashes Asia. The panel will be addressed to Secretariat, c/o Prof. Christian Henriot only facilitated the move of Islamism and tensions have increased among scholars, observers, and those who are Institut d’Asie Orientale, MRASH into the centre of the discursive field, Muslims from different groups, as they interested in the new political develop- 14 ave Berthelot, 69363 Lyon cedex 07, France but also radicalized its discourses and increasingly dispute religious symbols ments in Southeast Asia in relation to T +33-4-7272 6540, F +33-4-7272 6490 actions. It appears that the hostility to and public spheres. The political the issue of Islam. [email protected] the United States in particular and the dynamics of the region in general have We believe it to be of importance to West in general has become a domi- changed, particularly where various analyse the changing trends in Islam in European Association for Japanese Studies, EAJS nant colour of Islamism in Southeast governments have been urged to put Southeast Asia in the wake of 11 Sep- www.eajs.org Asia after 11 September. political pressures on Islamist groups, tember tragedy, and the subsequent Dr Josef A. Kyburz (president) In Indonesia, for instance, the rheto- the targets of the global anti-terrorist excessive campaigns by the United States 26, rue Camille Blanc, 94800 Villejuif , France ric of global holy war (jihad) against the actions led by the United States. against ‘Islamic terrorism’. Understand- T/F +33-1-4726 1474 so-called ‘West-cum-Zionist conspiracy’ ing the changing trends in Islam in [email protected] has increasingly enjoyed wide currency Objective of the panel Southeast Asia in relation to the 11 Sep- in popular political discourse. Massive Our panel at ICAS 3will focus on the tember issue will contribute to a more Secretariat, c/o Vikoria Heindorf demonstrations exploded in several issues around Muslim discursive dis- comprehensive study about Southeast Japan Centre, Munich University cities, demanding the implementation of putes, demands for implementation of Asia in particular and Asia in general, Oettingstr. 67, D-850538 Munich, Germany the Islamic sharia, viewed as the only the sharia, shifting attitudes of the rul- regions which are facing the challenges T +49-89-2178 2823, F +49-89-2178 2827 answer to challenge the hegemonic sys- ing regimes to Islamism, presentation of rapid modernization and globalization [email protected] tem imposed by the West. Similarly in of Islamism as projected in the media, in the twenty-first century. < www.eajs.org Malaysia, placards and banners hoisted and long-term impacts of the increas- with slogans like ‘we love jihad’ could be ing Islamism on Islam in the region. References Secretary, Dr G.G. Rowley found everywhere and Osama bin Laden Focusing on the events that have fol- - Roy, Olivier, The Failure of Political Islam, Waseda University, School of Law appeared to be a hero for thousands of lowed in the wake of the 11 September trans. Carol Volk, Harvard: Harvard Uni- Nishiwaseda 1-6-1, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo 169-8050, Japan young people. In the Philippines, Abu tragedy, this panel will seek to answer versity Press (1994). T +81-3-5286 1405, F +81-3-5286 1853. Sayyaf’s radical Islamist group intensi- several basic questions, which include: - Sayyid, Bobby, A Fundamental Fear: Euro- [email protected] fied their terrorist actions by kidnapping What are the dynamics of Islamism in centrism and the Emergence of Islamism, hundreds of foreign tourists. The peak of Southeast Asia after 11 September? What London: Zed books (1997). European Society for Central Asia Studies, ESCAS radical expressions of Islamism occurred is the significance of anti-Western sen- www.let.uu.nl/~escas timents for the groups or political par- Noorhaidi Hasan, MA is a PhD student Prof. Turaj Atabaki (president) Note > ties bringing such discourse into the within the framework of the project ‘Islam University of Utrecht, Vakgroep Oosterse Talen public sphere of various countries? To in Indonesia’, researching ‘The jihad para- Drift 15, 3512 BR Utrecht, the Netherlands At ICAS 3, the IIAS will present several panels dealing what extent will anti-Western sentiments military force: Islam and identity in the era T +31-30-253 6132, F +31-30-253 6138 with a large variety of topics. For more information, see influence the societal discursive forma- of transition in Indonesia’. [email protected] the next issue of the IIAS Newsletter. tion of Southeast Asian Muslims? How [email protected] is the future of ‘peaceful Islam’, which [email protected] European Association for Southeast Asian Studies, EUROSEAS iias.leidenuniv.nl/institutes/kitlv/euroseas Prof. Anne Booth (president) University of London ICAS 3 ICAS Secretariat School of Oriental and African Studies Department of Economic Studies Singapore Update In June 1998 the first International Convention of Asia Scholars (ICAS) material- Thornhaugh Street, Russell Square, United Kingdom ized. The convention, which was organized by the International Institute for Asian T +44-20-7323 6205, F +44-20-7323 6277/436 3844 The last months, the ICAS 3 organization committee has Studies (IIAS, the Netherlands) and the Association for Asian Studies (AAS, USA), [email protected] been working on the selection of papers and panels. As of was brought into existence because European and American scholars felt a need for January 2003, close to 900 paper proposals have been closer interaction. Although many individual contacts between researchers from both Secretariat, c/o Prof. Peter Boomgaard received. We are also happy to announce that professor sides of the Atlantic had already been established, an open, loosely organized forum Royal Institute of Linguistics and Anthropology, KITLV Prasenjit Duara of the University of Chicago will deliver the for discussion was still missing. This forum would allow specialists from all disci- P.O. Box 9515, 2300 RA Leiden, the Netherlands ICAS keynote entitled Crossing Boundaries: A personal journey plines, regions and paradigms to informally meet, exchange ideas, and engage in new T +31-71-527 2639, F +31-71-527 2638 in Asia research. plans for joint research activities. At ICAS 2 in Berlin it was decided to establish a per- [email protected] Please visit the ICAS3 website for the abstract of Profes- manent ICAS Secretariat General, promoting and stimulating ICAS conventions, serv- [email protected] sor Duara’s paper, the list of approved papers to date and ing as its archival and information centre, general information on ICAS 3. A new ‘forum page’ has been safeguarding the expertise that has been Address > European Association for South Asian Studies, EASAS added to the website to facilitate dialogue among the ICAS3 gathered through ICAS, and instrumental Prof. Dieter Rothermund (president) participants. As for the organizational aspects of the con- in drawing up a regulatory framework for Permanent ICAS Secretariat General Universität Heidelberg, Südasien Institut ference, please note that the deadline for early registration the ICAS activities. The secretariat active- Prof. W.A.L. Stokhof (Secretary) Im Neuenheimer Feld 330, 69120 Heidelberg, Germany has been extended to 31 March 2003. < ly pursues making ICAS visible through International Institute T +49-6221-5489 09/00, F +49-6221-5449 98 its presence at major meetings of Asia for Asian Studies ICAS 3 website scholars and through regular reports both P.O. Box 9515, 2300 RA Leiden, Secretariat, c/o Prof. Dirk Kolff www.fas.nus.edu.sg/icas3 in the IIAS Newsletter and on the ICAS the Netherlands Kern Institute Secretariat website. The secretariat is sta- T +31-71-527 2227, F +31-71-527 4162, P.O. Box 9515, 2300 RA Leiden, the Netherlands tioned at the IIAS in the Netherlands. For [email protected] T +31-71-527 2622, F +31-71-527 2503 more information please feel free to con- www.icassecretariat.org [email protected] < tact us. <
IIAS Newsletter | #30 | March 2003 51 > TANAP news Bangkok in the Age of Partnership Second TANAP Workshop The Royal Chronicles of Ayutthaya are full of events such as ceremonies for the Supreme-Holy-Lord-Omnipotent, and the King’s As it already owned large ships suitable for long-distance holy compassions and angers concerning his beloved Siam, especially in times of conspiracy. Westerners appear to have little deep-sea navigation and had access to the Japanese market, significance for the Thai kingdom (for a rare appearance see the annals of the time of the famous king Narai, 1656-1688). The the VOC became heavily involved in the sale of copper in Dutch are only mentioned twice: when they transported holy Buddhist monks to Sri Lanka in 1744 and when their ships were South Asia (Bengal, Coromandel, Malabar, Surat, and Cey- destroyed in 1766. Were they that marginal? Young historians try to formulate new answers to old puzzles. lon), in Persia as well as in Mocha. From 1725 to 1760 the VOC made particularly good profits, selling some 60 per cent By Hendrik E. Niemeijer research results on the inter-Asian competition for Japanese of its purchased Japanese copper on the South Asian mar- Report > copper and the rural society of Banten in the eighteenth cen- kets. Is it possible to demonstrate that the yearly sale of some General he second TANAP workshop, ‘Asia in the age of part- tury. In contrast, other debates concentrated on primary 300,000 pounds of copper in Bengal, in Cormandel, or on Tnership’, held in the shadow of the ruins of Ayutthaya in research orientations and methodological problems, such as Ceylon really affected the regional economies? Without doubt 24–26 October 2002 the cool conference room of Chulalongkorn University in the papers on South-African history, and those on diplomat- the merchant communities of Masulipatnam, Nagapatnam, Bangkok, Thailand Bangkok, enjoyed support from the IIAS, the Netherlands ic and political history. Hugly, Colombo, and other port towns profited from the Royal Embassy, and the Netherlands Unesco Committee. It Of particular interest were the papers offering new evi- imports. was inaugurated by His Excellency Mr Gerard J.H.C. Kramer, dence on the complexities of the intra-Asian commodity trade Ambassador of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, and the and its economic basis. Anjana Singh focussed on how the Ligor’s tin trade Dean of the Faculty of Arts, Chulalongkorn University (the Dutch-Indian port town Cochin functioned in the eighteenth The Thai historian Supaporn Ariyasajsiskul looked at the host of the workshop), Dr M.R. Kalaya Tingasabadh. The century, while Hoang-Anh Tuan from Hanoi presented a tin trade in Ligor, the present southern province of Nakhon opening speech was held by Prof. J.L. Blussé van Oud Albas, paper on Dutch-Vietnamese trade relations, 1637-1700, with Si Thammarat. Ligor was a well-know port to Chinese and programme director. specific reference to Tonkin. other traders, where black pepper was for sale as well as tin. In the presence of several foreign ambassadors the work- Europeans had claimed their share of the black pepper mar- shop opened with an interesting session on Thai-Dutch diplo- Japan’s copper exports ket at the beginning of the seventeenth century, until pepper matic and trade relations, 1604–1767. The Thai historian Dr Shimada’s paper on the inter-Asian economic competition prices dropped sharply in Europe. In 1632 the VOC sided Dhiravat na Pombejra held an opening speech on the nature for copper deserves further elaboration. When new Japanese with Ayutthaya when the Siamese throne pressed its claims of our historical knowledge of Thailand and the use of Thai copper mines, such as the Osarizawa Mines (1666) and the to Ligor. During a punishing expedition by Siamese forces, and Dutch sources. After that, two Thai TANAP PhD stu- Besshi Mines (1691) came into operation, the export of cop- the rebellious Ligor King and his wife were blown up in the dents presented interesting papers: Bhawan Ruangsilp per became big business, first for Japan’s domestic market, palace, which was full of ammunition. Ligor’s pepper plan- attempted to reconstruct a Portuguese diplomatic mission to but also in terms of exports. After reaching its late seven- tations were also completely destroyed. After the conquest of the court of Ayutthaya in 1639, whereas Supaporn Ariyasaj- teenth-century peak of some 90,000 piculs a year (1 picul Malacca in 1641, the VOC developed a strategy to monopo- siskul dealt with the VOC involvement in the tin trade in equals 122 pounds), production slowly decreased in the lize the tin trade on both sides of the Peninsula, with Kedah, Ligor. course of the eighteenth century. To protect its domestic mar- Perak, and Ujung Salang (Phuket) on the one side and Patani ket, the Japanese even restricted the copper exports to 15,000 and Ligor on the other. During the reign of King Naria, the New studies on intra-Asian trade piculs a year in 1715. VOC succeeded in securing exclusive contracts with Ayut- A group of twenty international scholars, acting as super- Did the handful of VOC copper ships made a difference to thaya and purchased 140,000 to 300,000 pounds of tin per visors, had been invited to comment on the papers, so as to Asian economies? Shimada argues that it did indeed. Outside year. Thus Ariyasajsiskul argues that the VOC and Siam were share their research experience with beginners in an open Japan, in China, Vietnam, and, in particular, South Asia, for ‘unavoidable allies’. The VOC needed Siam to counter Por- atmosphere, thus novice PhD students were exposed to a crit- example, copper was widely used for the production of cur- tuguese and, later, English competitors, and Siam needed a ical academic atmosphere as had been the case at the previ- rency. Its regular supply may have boosted the regional and strong European ally for military aid and overseas trans- ous workshop in Singapore. The Japanese PhD students local economy. Made from a relatively cheap metal, copper portation services. But Ligor, after all, was on the very periph- Ryuto Shimada and Atsushi Ota presented their respective coins were in wide use among the common people, such as ery of the Siamese court and sometimes the Council of Ligor Note > textile producers. Shimada believes that serial data on the fluc- simply ignored both Siamese demands and VOC threats. In A more detailed conference report plus a selection of the papers will be tuations in the export, re-export, and sales of copper may tell the eighteenth century the Dutch hesitated more than once: published in Itinerario, European Journal of Overseas History, 2003/1. us more about the mechanisms and dynamics of both intra- should they leave Ayutthaya altogether and deal with local Asian trade and how local and regional economies functioned. kings instead? For Ariyasajsiskul, her research findings confirm that the pre-modern history of Asian trade is foremost the history of conflicting and competitive parties striving for their own short-term interests rather than for long-term trading con- tracts with large trading organizations focussed on long-dis- Clerks’ Jobs for 12 Historians tance trade. A strong European counterpart such as the VOC Since 2000 a group of twelve young historians has been ploughing through the records of to clear the rooms. People then also simply became progressively entrapped in a wasps’ nest of the Dutch East India Company. They are quite determined to make this important series, used the paper in their fireplaces. Dur- political and economic struggles between the centre (Ayut- consisting of hundreds of content lists of heavy, back-breaking volumes of the ing the cold winter of 1821/22, some thaya) and the periphery (Ligor). Support for the centre may Overgekomen Brieven en Papieren (OBP, Incoming Documents from Asia) of the Zeeland 28,920 kilos – approximately 10,000 have temporarily led to profits, but in the end trading privi- Chamber accessible via Internet, before the year draws to a close. In the very near future volumes – of mostly seventeenth-cen- leges were lost to peripheral forces. they intend to begin with the Amsterdam Chamber’s OBP. Historians all over the world will tury papers of the Amsterdam Cham- thus soon be able to profit from their work. ber were also sold to the highest bid- Canton’s tea trade der. Ten years later, the rest of the Liu Yong, a student from Xiamen, looked at direct Dutch- By Hendrik Niemeijer publishing on the Internet, it will Amsterdam archives were brought in China trade under the so-called China Committee between Agenda > become possible to search the contents great disorder to the empty West- 1757 and 1795. During the seventeenth century, Chinese mer- General escribing historical sources is a with all kinds of search options, includ- Indies Slaughterhouse in Amsterdam. chants from Canton sold their tea in Batavia, where it would ‘Dvery specialist work’, says Mark ing searches for year, ships’ names, and Another 5,000 volumes (such as be discharged, purchased, and packed for VOC ships return- de Lannoy, a specialist on Indian histo- location. materials ledgers, bankbooks, and ing to Europe. To avoid these unnecessary logistics, the VOC ry and VOC sources who works at the Further funds are necessary to digi- commercial registers) were disposed decided to establish a special committee in the Dutch Repub- National Archives in The Hague. ‘The tize the existing inventories of the main of, and a total of only 3,160 volumes lic that controlled direct trade between the Netherlands and handwriting is often difficult to deci- series of the OBP’s of the Amsterdam and 587 letter files from the pay office China. Liu Yong now studies the records that this committee pher. Registers are missing, and Chamber. When all these data have were preserved. It took only a few cold created. His studies will without doubt further complement strange words, abbreviations, and mis- been placed in a single giant database, winters to destroy the patient work of Weng Eang Cheong’s work on the Hong (The Hong Merchants spellings occur frequently. Each volume it will be possible to reconstruct virtu- hundreds of VOC clerks. This makes of Canton, 1997), C.J.A. Jörg’s on porcelain (Porcelain and the may contain literally hundreds of doc- ally all the local and regional adminis- it all the more noteworthy that, today, Dutch China trade, 1982), and earlier studies on English com- uments.’ According to De Lannoy the trations of the former VOC. it only takes a few years for a small mercial ties with Canton by Hoh-cheung Mui and Lorna H. question is, ‘should we describe every Unfortunately for historians, the group of archivists to make worldwide Mui. Yong’s study shows that the Dutch tea trade in Canton document, even the very short ones that Incoming Documents from Asia of access to one of the most important comprised 70 per cent of the total Dutch trade in that port, were only sent for politeness sake?’ both the Zeeland and Amsterdam historical collections on Asian history which also included porcelain, raw silk, and silk textiles. Yet, Notwithstanding such practical prob- Chambers, vast as they may still be, are possible. < to place things in perspective, the Dutch were the second lems, which often force archivists into only a part of the original archives once largest exporter after the British Company, which, due to debate with each other on what to do, kept in Middelburg and in the Oost- Dr Hendrik E. Niemeijer Britain’s stronger position and military supremacy (consider thanks to the capable management of Indisch Huis in Amsterdam. When six www.tanap.net the Anglo-Dutch wars) far surpassed them. < Pieter Koenders (TANAP programme thousand of Napoleon’s troops retreat- coordinator for the National Archives), ed to Zeeland in the cold winter of Dr Hendrik E. Niemeijer is coordinator of the TANAP programme the archivists do not waste any time. 1814, they used the Oost-Indisch Huis and affiliated to the Research School for African, Asian, and By adding codes to the text in XML, a in Middelburg as a hospital and sold a Amerindian Studies (CNWS), Leiden University, the Netherlands. platform-independent language for great deal of VOC books as wastepaper [email protected]
52 IIAS Newsletter | #30 | March 2003 > On the Agenda NIOD Fellowships Sri Lanka at the Crossroads Agenda > ri Lanka has a geo-strategic location subjected to gross changes in the socio- in Southeast Asian Sin the Indian Ocean. Traditionally economic environment because of South Asia famous for its serenity, nowadays it is intensified globalization. All this has its characterised by its socio-economic repercussions in the socio-economic, Studies (1930s-1950s) 28-30 November development and a competitive democ- political and cultural spheres. The 2003 racy. During the post-colonial period, Ninth ICSLS conference will explore Agenda > ith generous support from the tives on colonialism and conflict in Matara, Sri Lanka the island-nation has, by and large, suc- this broad juncture in Sri Lankan WJapanese embassy in the Nether- Indonesia, 1930s-1950s. Towards a cessfully attained the objectives of a society. Southeast Asia lands, the Netherlands Institute for War multi-faceted interpretation of history’. higher rate of literacy, economic The ICSLS is a biannual meeting of Documentation (NIOD) invites appli- The research programme consists of growth, improved health and educa- scholars preoccupied with research on cants for short-term research fellow- three projects: tional services, and a higher level of Sri Lankan history, society, ethnicity, ships in Southeast Asian Studies, esp. • Changing roles and shifting loyalties: political participation. demography, economy, education, poli- Indonesia. NIOD is a research and Indonesians, Japanese, and Dutch Sri Lanka has been going through ty, literature, foreign policy, interna- documentation centre, and it is part of during the early Revolution; major changes and upheavals during tional relations, diaspora, gender and the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts • Gender and racial relations during the last several decades, including an other related issues. It provides an aca- and Sciences. The institute is based in the early Revolution; ongoing ethnic war since 1972 (now demic forum where scholars on Sri Amsterdam and its researchers study • ‘State of the Art’ work on Indonesia under ceasefire), two armed revolts in Lanka Studies, exchange their research the history of the Netherlands and in the Pacific War. the south and major changes in demog- findings and ideas in order to advance Southeast Asia in the twentieth century. raphy, social differentiation, and the scholarly exchange and have more Recently NIOD launched a new doc- As part of these projects NIOD has economy. Furthermore, Sri Lanka is innovative research in future. umentation and research programme, initiated a short-term research fellow- Contact > The conference aims to provide a entitled ‘Lasting attachments: person- ship programme (six weeks or three The deadline for submitting abstracts is 15 June 2003. forum for taking stock, rethinking, and al orientations and national perspec- months) specifically meant for scholars Please send abstracts and direct inquiries to: making plans in the light of past expe- More info > from Asia working in one of these Professor Sarath Amarasinghe, Conference coordinator rience. Scholars on Sri Lanka Studies Please send your applications to: fields. For academic applicants, eligi- Department of Sociology from around the world are invited to Ms Kuniko Forrer, NIOD bility is limited to junior scholars hold- Ruhuna University, Matara, Sri Lanka contribute papers on their research in Herengracht 380, 1016 CJ Amsterdam, the Netherlands ing an MA degree and senior scholars T + 94 - 41 27012 their respective fields, on a wide range [email protected] holding a PhD degree. For other appli- [email protected] of topics and from a wide variety of dis- cants, an equivalent level of profes- [email protected] ciplinary perspectives, with direct or For further enquiries please contact: sional achievement is expected. All indirect bearing on changes in Sri Dr Peter Post, NIOD applicants should have a very good General information: Lanka. Like in previous conferences, [email protected] command of spoken and written Eng- [email protected] we aim for ‘an exercise in conceptual- [email protected] lish. The closing date for this year’s www.icsls.org ization and theorization of Sri Lankan application is 1 April 2003. < reality’. < Religious Mobilization and Organized Violence in Contemporary South Asia Agenda > eligious violence, also called communal violence, is often undeclared political ambitions. The Rashtriya Swayamsevak lectively dubbed as Islamic terror networks. With these Rdescribed as a ritual or a ‘pact of violence between social Sangh (RSS, a national volunteer organization); Vishwa transnational networks the issue ceases to be of mere nation- South Asia groups’ that keeps the community boundaries in place. At Hindu Parishad (VHP, Global Hindu Organisation); Minhaj al or even bilateral significance between India and Pakistan. times the ritual turns from symbolism into organized Ul Quran (MUQ, Path to Quran); and Markaz Dawa-Wal- The third and last theme is the symbolism, scale, and 3-4 April 2003 pogrom. This is sometimes explained, for example by the Irshad, of the Wahabi sect; are some of the organizations in nature of violence. The attacks on Hindu temples in Gujarat Roskilde, Denmark police agencies, as the work of ‘local criminal elements’, or India and Pakistan that over some decades have successful- and Jammu in 2002 and the destruction of the Babri Masjid as the effects of deep religious passions and sentiments. ly mobilized urban men and women to participate in new (mosque) in Ayodhya a decade ago, augured a new kind of These explanations not only provide convenient excuses, but Holy Wars fought on both real and virtual turf. The impact highly charged symbolic politics. Violence is no longer rep- also imply that religious violence be accepted as an inevitable of this mobilization can be seen for example in Gujarat where resented as the mindless act of fringe elements of society but feature of the South Asian social fabric. after the recent riots some VHP leaders congratulated them- as an act with a well thought-out strategy and years of mobi- Any meaningful legal enquiry into the development of reli- selves for having ‘successfully raised the Hindu conscious- lization behind it, using to full effect the emotional power of gious violence, therefore, is made redundant because vio- ness’. The significance of these riots lies not just in the bru- TV media and a strongly communalized vernacular press. lence with religious overtones is considered outside the uni- tality and the number of people killed but also in the Government banning of electronic media from Gujarat in verse of criminal offences. This raises questions about the systematic destruction of residential and commercial prop- March 2002, for instance, stands in stark contrast to the high- role of the state and institutions of law enforcement and polic- erties that belonged to Muslims. With the destruction of ly charged news coverage in India of the attacks on temples, ing. Do they hibernate at such critical times or do they active- homes and sources of livelihood, the continuation of socio- or incidents in Kashmir. ly engage themselves in violence? In Gujarat, the state’s with- economic exchanges between the communities in the post- This two-day workshop attempts to cover the issues and drawal, or its active complicity at times, has been clearly riots situation has been rendered impossible. Like their questions opened by the recent events in South Asia through demonstrated where the state’s Chief Minister followed the Hindu opponents Islamic organizations, the ones stemming comparative or specific studies of religious violence, organ- internecine violence with a gaurav yatra, the celebratory ‘jour- from the Wahabis in particular, seem to be engaged in mili- izations and their (trans)national linkages both at empirical ney of pride’ through Gujarat. The chosen strategy was tant activities, suicide attacks and other activities, that are col- and conceptual levels. < indeed a far cry from a display of restraint and/or remorse that we tend to associate with state executives, in case of such [advertisement] turbulent events. Here we could witness a high official of the state justifying the killings as a Hindu reaction to repeated Muslim provocation and mischief. The pretence of neutral- ity and arbitration between communities has been replaced by a more openly partial and ‘ethnicized’ stance in favour of the majority community. How can we understand the face of violence characterized by a lack of remorse combined with brash display of com- munal power? This question opens the domain of religious mobilization through sustained, long-term programmes organized by nationalist groups with religious overtones and More info > Organizers: Ravinder Kaur and Christian Lund Graduate School of International Development Studies Roskilde University Centre, Roskilde, Denmark
Contact: Inge Jensen [email protected] www.sasnet.lu.se/roskgradsch.html
IIAS Newsletter | #30 | March 2003 53 > On the Agenda FEBRUARY 2004 2004 13-14 February United States Berkeley, 19th annual South Asia conference Information: Elizabeth Inouye [email protected] http://ias.berkeley.edu/southasia/ conference.html MARCH 2004 5–7 March 2004 San Diego, CA, USA AAS (Association for Asian Studies) annual meeting 2004 Information: www.aasianst.org/annmtg.htm APRIL 2004 1-2 April 2004 United Kingdom Cambridge, and religion in traditional China’ ‘Food Information: Dr Roel Sterckx [email protected] www.oriental.cam.ac.uk/~rs10009/ foodconf_.htm MAY 2004 May 2004 Denmark Copenhagen, ‘New Chinese migrants: globalisation of Chinese overseas migration’ Fifth conference of the International Society for the Study of Chinese Over- seas (ISCCO) IIAS sponsored conference Organized by: NIAS University of Copenhagen/ Contact: Mette Thunoe [email protected] JUNE 2004 16–19 June 2004 Leiden, the Netherlands ‘The Philippines: changing landscapes, manscapes and mindscapes in a globaliz- ing world’ Seventh International Philippine Studies (ICOPHIL) Conference Prof. Otto van den Muijzenberg Convenor: [email protected] www.iias.nl 2004 JULY 6–9 July 2004 Lund, Sweden 18th European conference on Modern South Asian Studies Islam in Indonesia Project, ’ in collaboration with the Amer- Indonesia Australian National University Dr Pierre van der Eng Convenor: [email protected]; [email protected] 24 September 2003 Aalborg, Denmark ‘Internet, governance and democracy in Denmark and Asia. Democratic transi- tions? - Will the Internet bring about more democracy and better governance?’ Lars Torpe Contact: [email protected] 26-27 September 2003 Australia Canberra, ‘Indonesia update 2003: changes and chal- lenges in business’, OCTOBER 2003 2-5 October 2003 Boston, USA CESS, fourth annual meeting John Schoeberlein Contact: [email protected] http://cess.fas.harvard.edu/ 9-11 October 2003 Leiden, the Netherlands trade and European empire in the ‘Country Arabian seas in the seventeenth and eigh- teenth century’ IIAS workshop Dr R.J. Barendse Convenor: Information: [email protected] [email protected] iias.nl www. 12-18 October 2003 Leiden, the Netherlands Asia: an historical overview’ ‘Law in Central Supported by the Humboldt-Stiftung Bonn Johnson, Prof. Prof. Wallace Convenors: and Prof. Denis Sinor Herbert Franke, Information: [email protected] [email protected] 24-26 October 2003 Egypt Cairo, ‘Religious networks between the Middle East and Southeast Asia’ workshop of IIAS/KNAW/CNWS/ISIM the research programme ‘ ican University in Cairo and the Dutch ican University in Cairo Institute in Cairo Convenors: Dr Mona Abaza en Nico Kaptein Information: [email protected] www.iias.nl , The Asia 21-27 July 2003 Leh and Kargil, India ‘Ladakh: art, culture and languages’ 11th IALS Colloquium Shakspo Nawang Tsering Contact: [email protected] 23–26 July 2003 Heidelberg, Germany ‘Bhakti in current research 2001–2003’ Ninth international conference on early devotional literatures in New Indo-Aryan languages Prof. Monika Boehm-Tettelbach Contact: [email protected] 24–27 July 2003 Penang, Malaysia ‘Southeast Asia since 1945: reflections and visions’ Organizer: Asia Pacific Research Unit (APRU), School of Humanities, Univer- siti Sains Malaysia Dr Ooi Keat Gin Contact: [email protected] General Enquiries: Secretary, Mrs Thilagavathi Vasudevan, Organizing Committee [email protected] 26 July – 7 August 2003 Los Angeles, United States ‘The world of Asian literature’ AUGUST 2003 19–22 August 2003 Singapore of Asia ‘Third International Convention Scholars (ICAS3)’ Organizer: National University of Singapore Information: [email protected] www.fas.nus.edu.sg/icas3 www.icassecretariat.org 25–29 August 2003 Dunhuang, Gansu Province, PR China of ancient sites on the Silk ‘Conservation Road’ Institute’s annual summer seminar for teachers Information: Clayton Dube [email protected] http://international.ucla.edu/asia Sheffield Hallam University Information: Dr David Picard [email protected] www.tourism-culture.com 19-22 June 2003 New Brunswick, USA discontinuities and contesta- ‘Continuities, society’ tions in Taiwanese of the North American Ninth Conference Studies Taiwan Association (NATSA) Rutgers University Information: www.natsc.org. 19–22 June 2003 Honolulu, Hawai’i, USA Studies in an Internet-connected ‘Asian world’ University of Hawai’i William Vanderbok Contact: [email protected] www.aspac.org. 24-26 June 2003 Singapore The 17th Pacific Asia conference on language, information and computation Information: Associate Prof. Kim-Teng Lua [email protected] http://cslp.comp.nus.edu.sg/cgi- bin/journal/review1.exe 27-28 June 2003 Nijmegen, the Netherlands Seventh international symposium on Malay and Indonesian linguistics (7th ISMIL) IIAS workshop Prof. Hein Steinhauer (IIAS Convenor: Extraordinary Chair) Information: [email protected] http://email.eva.mpg.de/~gil/ismil/ 2003 JULY 2 July 2003 Brisbane, Australia ‘Innovation and resistance in Japan’ Japanese Studies Association of Aus- tralia 2003 biennial conference Queensland University of Technology Panel proposals: Dr Christopher Pokarie [email protected] organization: Mr Jason Conference Thomas [email protected] 5–9 July 2003 Russian Federation Moscow, International conference on South Asia lit- eratures and languages (ICOSAL) Organizer: Institute of Asian and African Studies, Moscow State University Khokhlova (lan- Dr Ludmila V. Contact: guages) 22-25 May 2003 Leiden, the Netherlands ‘Historical consciousness and the future of modern China and Japan: conservatism, revisionism, and national identity’ IIAS sponsored workshop Prof. Rikki Kersten and Convenors: Prof. Axel Schneider Information: [email protected] [email protected] www.vici-core.leidenuniv.nl 23–25 May 2003 United Kingdom Newcastle upon Tyne, 20th annual Sanskrit tradition in the Mod- (STIMW) seminar ern World Dr Will Sweetman, University of Contact: Newcastle [email protected] 28 May–1 June 2003 Singapore in the new millennium: development, ‘Asia democracy and security’ Asian Political & International Studies Association (APISA) congress Co-Chairs: (National University of Prof. Lee Lai To Singapore) and Prof. Amitav Acharya University) (IDSS, Nanyang Technological for proposals: Contact Prof. Lee Lai To Information: [email protected] www.apisa.org JUNE 2003 June 2003 Stockholm, Sweden ‘New perspectives in Eurasian archaeology’ ASEF-Asia Alliance workshop Convenors: Dr Magnus Fiskesjö (Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities, Sweden) and Chen Xingcan (Chinese Academy of Social Sci- ences, China). Information: magnus.fiskesjö@ostasiatiska.se www.asia-alliance.org/workshopseries 2 June 2003 Amsterdam, the Netherlands ‘Scrapping ships in Asia and the liability regime’ IIAS workshop, in cooperation with Greenpeace and the Netherlands Mar- itime Museum Information: [email protected] www.greenpeaceweb.org/shipbreak University of London and Birkbeck College Information: [email protected] www.aah.org.uk 11–13 April 2003 Boston, MA, USA ‘Blacks and Asians in the making of modern world: a conversation across fields’ Ronald K. Richardson, Director, Convenor: African American Studies, Boston Uni- versity Dr Christine Loken-Kim Contact: [email protected] 25-26 April 2003 Los Angeles, United States ‘The encounter of Korean religions and Christianity’ Information:Sung-Deuk Oak [email protected] www2.h-net.msu.edu/announce/ show.cgi?ID=132073 28 April - 4 May 2003 Stanford, USA ‘On common ground 2003’ for American/Chinese exchange Forum at Stanford [email protected] Contact: http://faces.stanford.edu 30 April – 2 May 2003 London, United Kingdom ‘The city and literature’ workshop Information: [email protected] www.soas.ac.uk/literatures/ MAY 2003 May 2003 Amsterdam, the Netherlands exchanges: business, networks, ‘Transborder and identity formation in Asia’s Europe’s new economy’ ASEF-Asia Alliance workshop Uni- Dr Heidi Dahles (Free Convenors: versity of Amsterdam) and Dr Loh Wei Leng (University of Malaya, Malaysia) Information: [email protected] www.asia-alliance.org/workshopseries 2–4 May 2003 Los Angeles, California on the learner in LCTLs: profiles ‘Focus and prospects’, sixth national conference of Organiza- Organizer: National Council Languages Taught tions of Less Commonly Scott McGinnis Contact: [email protected] www.international.ucla.edu/lrc/ncolct/ index.html MARCH 2003 16–23 March 2003 Japan Kyoto, Forum Water Third World Information: [email protected] www.worldwaterforum.org 19–21 March 2003 Brighton, United Kingdom and environmental history of the ‘Forest British Empire and Commonwealth’, International conference Secretary Conference Rosa Weeks, Contact: [email protected] 20-22 March 2003 Indonesia Yogyakarta, ‘The oral history of Indonesian subaltern groups: reviewing the results’ Realino Research Institute person: Ratna Saptari Contact [email protected] 24 March 2003 Amsterdam, the Netherlands ‘Pakistan update: Pakistan after 11 Sep- tember’ Organized by the IIAS Branch Office and ISIM Dr Oskar Verkaaik Convenor: Information: IIAS Branch Office [email protected] www.iias.nl 24 March 2003 Geneva, Switzerland dans le nouveau ‘La question du Cachemire contexte international’ universitaire des hautes études L’institut internationals Mariejo Duc-Reynaert Contact: [email protected] www.genasia.ch 27–30 March 2003 USA New York, AAS (Association for Asian Studies) annu- al meeting 2003 man- Conference Karen Fricke, Contact: Association for Asian Studies ager, [email protected] www.aasianst.org/annmtg.htm 31 March 2003 Germany Tübingen, ‘Historical foundations and new ideas’ Third international symposium on ancient Chinese books and records on science and technology Seminar für Sinologie und Koreanistik, > International Conference Agenda Agenda
54 IIAS Newsletter | #30 | March 2003 > On the Agenda Organizers: SASNET and Lund University Information: www.sasnet.lu.se/researchf.html AUGUST 2004 23-27 August 2004 Russia Moscow, ‘Unity in Diversity’ ICANAS-37 Organizers: Orientalist Society of the Russian Academy of Sciences Contact: Professor Dmitry D. Vasilyev [email protected]. JANUARY 2005 6–8 January 2005 Leiden, the Netherlands ‘Between stress and tone’ IIAS sponsored conference Dr Bert Remijsen Convenor: [email protected] www.iias.nl A list of possible topics is provided on the conference website. Deadline: October 2003. registration and information, For please visit www.iias.nl/iias/agenda/icophil Panel proposals should be sent to IIAS: F +31-71-527 4162 [email protected] The Society of Indian Ninth International Conference In order to be able increase public exposure your conference listing, Asia’ and insert your conference on: please refer to ‘Agenda www.iias.nl/gateway/agasia If you like us to consider including your conference in the agenda this please submit the conference details at: newsletter, www.iias.nl/forms/conference.html Conference Announcement and Call for Panel Proposals Announcement and Call Conference on Philippine Studies 7th International Conference The Philippines: Changing Landscapes, Manscapes, and Mindscapes in a Globalizing World 16-19 June 2004 Leiden, the Netherlands on 7th International Conference Philippine Studies (ICOPHIL) ‘The Philippines: Changing Landscapes, Manscapes, and Mindscapes in a Globalizing World’ Convenor: Prof. Ot van den Muijzenberg Philosophy & Religion Dr Chandana Chakrabarti Contact: [email protected] NOVEMBER 2003 28-30 November 2003 Matara, Sri Lanka ‘Sri Lanka at the crossroads: continuity and change’, DECEMBER 2003 8-12 December 2003 , Leiden, the Netherlands KITLV ‘South-East Asian pop music in a compar- ative perspective’ workshop Paper submittal until the end of April Information: Professor Kees van Dijk [email protected] JANUARY 2004 3-6 January 2004 India Calcutta, ‘Language, consciousness and culture: East- perspectives’, West on Sri Lanka Studies for Conference: Coordinator Professor Sarath Amarasinghe, University of Ruhuna, Contact: [email protected] www.icsls.org Deadline for the submission of abstracts is 15 June 2003 . , International conference on visual anthropology Uni- and Yunnan Organized by EAIVA versity Dr Karsten Krüger (Vice-Director) [email protected] Andrea Stelzner (Managing Director) [email protected] www.eaiva.org Second International Conference on the Second International Conference of Grotto Sites Conservation (outside China): Kathleen Louw Contact Institute) (The Getty Conservation [email protected] (within China): Contact Su Boming (The Dunhuang Academy) [email protected] www.getty.edu/conservation 27–30 August 2003 Poland Warsaw, European Association for Japanese Studies (EAJS), 10th international conference Contact: Bernhard Scheid [email protected] Birgit Staemmler [email protected] www.eajs.org/whatsnew/warsaw.html SEPTEMBER 2003 6–12 September 2003 Oxford, United Kingdom International Association for Tibetan Stud- ies, 10th seminar Charles Ramble, convenor Contact: [email protected] www.wolfson.ox.ac.uk/iats/ 11–13 September 2003 United Kingdom ‘Interweaving medical traditions: Europe and Asia, 1600–2000’ ASEF-Asia Alliance workshop Convenors: Trust Dr Sanjoy Bhattacharya (Welcome for the History of Medicine, UK) Centre and Dr R.K. Chem (National University of Singapore). Information: [email protected] www.asia-alliance.org/workshopseries 17-20 September 2003 Kunming, PR China ‘Opening up to the future: The role of visu- al Anthropology in the twenty-first centu- ry’ 19-20 September 2003 United Kingdom Cambridge, ‘Chinese commercial law’ Information: Patricia Mirrlees [email protected] www.eai.cam.ac.uk/conferences/ commlaw.html 7-8 July 2003 Mongolia Ulaanbaatar, ‘International security and the Asian heart- land’ International symposium organized by Service of the the School of Foreign National University of Mongolia, in coop- eration with the IIAS and Nether- lands Institute of International Relations ‘Clingendael’ Prof. Kh. Bayasakh (the Convenors: Service of the Nation- School of Foreign al University of Mongolia) and Dr Paul Meerts (the Netherlands Institute of International Relations ‘Clingendael’) Information: [email protected] [email protected] 7–10 July 2003 Singapore ‘Self and others’ The Australasian Society for Asian and Philosophies 2003 annual Comparative conference National University of Singapore Information: [email protected] http://ap3.fas.nus.edu.sg:8000/appl/ web9/ASACP/announcement.htm 7-25 July 2003 Norwich, United Kingdom resolution and peace building in ‘Conflict war-torn societies’ course University of East Anglia Sarah Scott Contact: [email protected] www.odg.uea.ac.uk/pages/training.html 11–12 July 2003 Bonn, Germany ‘The restructuring of old industrial areas in Europe and Asia’ ASEF-Asia Alliance workshop Dr R. Hassink (University of Convenors: Bonn, Germany) and Dr Shin Dong-Ho (National University of Singapore) Information: [email protected] www.asia-alliance.org/workshopseries 14–18 July 2003 Helsinki, Finland Sanskrit conference 12th World University of Helsinki, Institute Contact: for Asian and African Studies [email protected] Contact: www.helsinki.fi/hum/aakkl/12wsc 20-23 July 2003 Sheffield, United Kingdom and photography: still visions - ‘Tourism changing lives’ [email protected] Dr Alexander M. Dubyanskiy (literatures) [email protected] IIAS workshop 2-4 June 2003 Singapore ‘Re-envisioning education: innovation and diversity’ Asia-Pacific conference on education National Institute of Education http://eduweb.nie.edu.sg/apace 6–7 June 2003 Halmstad, Sweden and politics in Asia’ conference ‘Women Dr Kazuki Iwanaga (Halmstad Contact: University) [email protected] http://eurasia.nias.ku.dk/Halmstad02 6-8 June, 2003 Indonesia Makassar, ‘The Bugis diaspora and Islamic dissemi- nation in the twentieth-century Malay- Indonesian archipelago’ IIAS workshop Bakti Organizer: Andi Faisal Information:[email protected] [email protected] www.iias.nl/iias/agenda/bugis/ 9 June 2003 Kazachstan Almaty, in statistical inferential methods: ‘Advances theory and applications’ Voinov professor Vassilly Contact: [email protected] www.kimep.kz/research 11-13 June 2003 London, United Kingdom ‘Narrating and imaging the nation’ Stephanie Jones Contact: [email protected] www.soas.ac.uk/literatures 13–14 June 2003 Leiden, the Netherlands Shizhen: cultural ‘The world of Wang politics and political culture in sixteenth- century China’ 17-19 June 2003 Oslo, Norway Nordic Association of Chinese Studies conference Liu Baisha Contact: [email protected] 19-20 June 2003 London, United Kingdom and translation theories East ‘Translations and West’ Dr Ross Forman Contact: [email protected] www.soas.ac.uk/literatures Convenor: Prof. Kenneth J. Hammond Convenor: Information: [email protected] www.iias.nl 3-4 May 2003 United States Berkeley, ‘Muang Lao’ Symposium on Lao History Information: Kongkeo Saycocie [email protected] www.muanglao.com 8–10 May 2003 Murcia, Spain ‘Islamic Legal Studies’, fourth interna- tional conference Organizers: University of Murcia and de Educación y Cultura la Consejería de Murcia Comunidad Prof. Alfonso Carmona Contact: [email protected] 9 May 2003 Amsterdam, the Netherlands ‘Indonesia in transition’ with crisis’; ‘Media and pub- Panels: ‘Coping lic culture’; ‘Civil society and regionalism’ organized by the IIAS Branch Workshop Office Dr Hotze Lont Convenor: Information: [email protected] www.iias.nl 9 May 2003 Chicago, IL, USA ‘Middle East history and theory’ 18th annual conference Patrick Wing, MEHTC Coordi- Contact: University of Chicago nator, [email protected] 10-14 May Denmark Copenhagen, ‘New Chinese Migrants – Globalization of Chinese overseas migration’ 5th conference of the International Society for the Study of Chinese Overseas (ISCCO) Prof. Ling-chi Wang Contact: [email protected] 12 May 2003 Baku, Azerbaijan Asia in globalization’ and Central ‘Caucasus Osman Nuri Aras, Qafqaz Uni- Contact: versity [email protected] [email protected] Abbasova Vefa [email protected] 13–17 May 2003 Leiden, the Netherlands ‘Empirical universals in semantics: lexicon and grammar’ IIAS semantics master class Dr Cliff Goddard and Convenors: Prof. Anna Wierzbicka Information: [email protected] www.iias.nl UCLA–USC conference on Universität Tübingen Prof. Hans Ulrich Vogel Contact: [email protected] APRIL 2003 2-4 April 2003 London, United Kingdom ‘Gender and literature in cross-cultural con- texts’ Dr Ross Forman Contact: [email protected] www.soas.ac.uk/literatures 3-4 April 2003 Roskilde, Denmark ‘Religious mobilisation and organised violence in contemporary South Asia’ Ravinder Kaur Contact: [email protected] www.sasnet.lu.se/roskgradsch.html 3–5 April 2003 USA New York, and political order national identity, ‘History, in the New Eastern Europe and Eurasia’ Eighth annual world convention of the Association for the Study of Nationalities University (ASN), Columbia McGrath, ASN Convention Troy Contact: Program Chair [email protected] 4 April 2003 Baltimore, Maryland, USA ‘Music of Japan today 2003’ and Organizers: Dr Kazuko Tanosaki Prof. E. Michael Richards [email protected] [email protected] http://home.sprintmail.com/~emrichard s/MFJ2003.html 4-5 April 2003 Los Angeles, United States ‘100 years of Korean-American experience: Historical perspectives and historical materials’, 9–13 April 2003 Rome, Italy 2003 Biennial AKSE Conference Prof. Antonetta Bruno, Secretary Contact: of AKSE [email protected] www.akse.uni-kiel.de 10–13 April 2003 London, United Kingdom ‘ARTiculations’ 29th Association of Art Historians (AAH) annual conference Korean immigration Information: [email protected] www.international.ucla.edu/korea
IIAS Newsletter | #30 | March 2003 55 > Service page > IIAS Staff > Colophon Staff Board IIAS Extraordinary Chairs IIAS Newsletter 30 Prof. W.A.L. Stokhof (Director) Prof. P. van der Veer - Chairman (University of Amsterdam) Prof. Henk Schulte Nordholt (the Netherlands) March 2003 Dr A.P. Sey (Deputy Director) Prof. J.L. Blussé van Oud Alblas (Leiden University) Special Chair at the Erasmus University Rotterdam, ‘Asian History’ 56 pages M. Arps (Trainee) Prof. B.J. ter Haar (Leiden University) 1 October 1999 – 1 October 2003 Dr R.B.P.M. Busser (Coordinator of Academic Affairs) Dr J. de Jong (Groningen University) Editorial Office Visiting address: Nonnensteeg 1-3, Leiden A.J.M. Doek, MA (WWW) Prof. R. Kersten (Leiden University) Prof. Hein Steinhauer (the Netherlands) Mailing address: IIAS, P.O. Box 9515, 2300 RA I.M. van Dijk (Secretary) Prof. M. van der Linden (IISG/University of Amsterdam) Special Chair at Nijmegen University, Leiden, the Netherlands W. Feldberg, MA (Fellow Programme Coordinator) Prof. M. Sparreboom (Erasmus University, Rotterdam) ‘Ethnolinguistics with a focus on Southeast Asia’ T +31-71-527 2227 N. Kershof, MA (Editor) 1 September 1998 – 1 September 2004 F +31-71-527 4162 [email protected] E.F.P. Haneveld (IT-Manager) Academic Committee www.iias.nl H.M. van der Minne, MA (Secretary Branch Office Amsterdam) Dr C. Touwen-Bouwsma – Chairman (NIOD) Prof. Barend Terwiel (the Netherlands/Germany) C. Noorlander (Project Coordinator) Dr I.S.A. Baud (University of Amsterdam) Special Chair at Leiden University, Editorial Staff A.M. Petit (Secretary) Dr J. van Bremen (Leiden University) ‘Cultures of Mainland Southeast Asia’ Editors – Maurice Sistermans & Natasja Kershof M. Rozing, MA (Financial Manager, Seminar Coordinator) Dr G.K. Lieten (University of Amsterdam) 1 September 1999 – 1 September 2004 Central Asia Editor – Touraj Atabaki South Asia Editor – Netty Bonouvrié M.F. Sistermans, MA (Editor) Dr P.J.M. Nas (Leiden University) Insular Southwest Asia Editor – Sandra Evers L.M. Scheen (Project Coordinator) Prof. C.I. Risseeuw (Leiden University) International Representatives Mainland Southeast Asia Editor – Stephan van Galen R. Sondaite-van Soest (Coordinator ASEM website) Dr R.A. Rutten (University of Amsterdam) Prof. J.G. Vredenbregt (Jakarta, Indonesia) Insular Southeast Asia Editor – Thomas Lindblad I.J.M. van Steijn (Secretary) Prof. B.C.A. Walraven (Leiden University) Dr W.G.J. Remmelink, Japan-Netherlands Institute (Tokyo, Japan) East Asia (China) Editor – Mark Meulenbeld J. Stremmelaar, MA (Executive Manager) Prof. E.J. Zürcher (Leiden University) Dr J.G.G.M. Kleinen (Hanoi, Vietnam) East Asia (Japan) Editor – Margarita Winkel East Asia (Korea) Editor – Koen De Ceuster Dr O.G.A. Verkaaik (Coordinator Branch Office Amsterdam) Asian Art & Cultures Editor – Kristy Phillips E.S.U. de Vries (Database Assistant) Photography: Photopoint English language corrections: David Takeo Hymans, Judy Laffan, and Elizabeth Saville * Special thanks to the Vadehra Art Gallery, New Delhi
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Victor A. van Bijlert ISSN 0929-8738 Climates / Chines Landscape Painting / Daoism / tion / ese Literature from Okinawa / Chabanol Diamond Bhattacharya Roald H. Maliangkay Boudewijn Walraven (p. 32-33) / Oral Tradition Marie-Aimée Tourres Margaret Sleeboom Ricarda Daberkow Atabaki Touraj Nina Cichocki Branfoot Crispin (p. 44-45) Morton Noszlopy Circulation 35 Preservation of Archives in Tropical Publications 30 Korean Cinema / Contemporary 31 in Korea / State Formation 32 A Korean View of Literature / 32 House of Glass / 34 / Worlds Bali: Living in Two 34 The Politics of Multiculturalism / 36 Anthropology and China / Tourism, 37 Of Moon and Man: A Close look at 37 Differentiation and Integration in 38 Images Men’s Imagina- Women’s 38 Eastern Policy and Iran / Comintern 38 The Prelude to Empire / 39 Southern Exposure: Modern Japan- 40 Books Received Asian Art & Cultures 41 Exhibiting Chola Bronzes / 42 Sculpted Poetry / Parviz Tanavoli: 43 Arts of South Asia / The Traditional 44 Asian Art Agenda / 33 in Folktales Moral Fictions: Tamil 45 Asian Art Online / 22,000 & Next issue Bal Deadline: 1 May 2003 Jemma Release: 1 July 2003 Arndt Graf Mona Lionel Frits Staal Frits Leo Douw Advertisements Isabelle Onians
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Ayami Nakatani Ayami The IIAS Newsletter is published by the IIAS and is available free of charge. If you wish to subscribe to the newsletter, please return a com- Schrempf ground and Influences / ties: Eurasians in India / Bud- Medieval Indo-Tibetan Tantric dhist Apologetics / ing Southeast Asian Handicrafts in Japan / / Future the Local and National / Interview with Patricia Spyer / Studies: The Asia-Pacific Region as / New Gravitation Centre tional Management: China during / Century the Twentieth cine in the UK / Gopal Shrestha Risakotta Indonesia / Marina V. Orelskaya Marina V. Matthew Isaac Cohen Robert Weber Moch Nur Ichwan Jasper van de Kerkhof (p. 26-27) / Ceramics Bun Chan Kwok Purdey Caplan pleted subscription form to the IIAS secretariat. 29 What is Bon Medicine? / 15 Artificial Languages: Asian Back- 16 Hybridi- and Post-Colonial Colonial 17 Be Bad: When It Is Good To 18 Sanskrit Manuals on Dance / 19 Global Performances in Jaipur / 20 Exoticism and Nostalgia: Consum- 21 Burma- Myanma(r) Research and Its 22 Ethnic Nationalism in Nepal / 23 Cultural Landscape in Change / 23 / Controversy The Seven-Word 25 Describing Kekerasan: Reconciling 26 Infrastructure of the Imagination - 26 in Indonesian Publication Trends 28 The Politics of Culture in Transna- 29 Asia: Histories of Medi- Wellcome 24 in Religion and Terror Power, 27 of Research on the Collection Subscription forms can be obtained from either the secretariat or the website: [email protected]
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Andra The responsibility for facts and opinions expressed Shalini in this publication rests exclusively with the authors (p. 8-9) (p. 6-7) and their interpretations do not necessarily reflect Waltraud Ernst Waltraud the views of the institute or its supporters. Birenda Raj Giri Koen De Ceuster Badri Narayan Tiwari Thomas de Bruijn Maurice Sistermans Han ten Brummelhuis J. Thomas Lindblad John Pickering Jingyuan Zhang Website: Fabrizio Speziale Fabrizio Kenneth J. Hammond 4 & 5) tion of Justice in Post-Authoritarian South Korea / Alvis Sharma Stokhof Nancy N. Chen tiane Hartnack Interview with Gananath Obeye- sekere / Anew / itics / text / India / analysis in Colonial in the Subcontinent Psychiatric Care / Culture / Folk Meeting with Shauna Singh Bald- and Krishna win, Shashi Tharoor, Baldev Vaid/ Jisheng of Yang Posthumous Career / 3 Settling the Past and Distribu- 8 Psychiatry Matters in China / Why Editorial Page 2 Editorial / 2 Director’s Note on ASEM / 2 Reply from the Author / 2 Letter to Editor / General News 1 Aristocrats to Primitives: An From 5 Asia and Europe Should Cooperate in Asia Theme:Psychiatry 6 Psychiatry in Asia / 6 and Geopol- Buddhism, Psychology, 8 Psychoanalysis in the Chinese Con- 10 on Garuda’s Wings: Psycho- Freud 11 and Modernity of Islamic Tradition Research & Reports 12 Bidesia: Migration, Change, and 13 A Thousand and One Identities: 14 The Life, Death, and A Martyr’s Tale: 9 Psychoanalysis in Japan / www.IIAS.nl > Index IIAS Newsletter #30 Index 56 IIAS Newsletter | #30 | March 2003