Much recent writing about Asian societies and Asian Histories adopts a homogenising vision of humanity. It views the definition of cultural difference as an 'Orientalist' project serving colonial or neo-colonial purposes. This unusual collection of essays, written by leading specialists in a range of disciplines. re-appraises and expands the 'Orientalism' debate. Several authors examine the ways in which the Asian 'other' acts as a creative stimulus for the European artist, composer and pl...

How are the rising mutual concerns of Asian and European countries shaping their approaches to the international order?Contributors to this volume discuss emerging critical issues in International relations, including the Indo-Pacific constructs, China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), and the progress of established regional security mechanisms like the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation. They also compare western and non-western approaches to these issues, with a holistic perspect...

Just who are 'the Malays'? This provocative study poses the question and considers how and why the answers have changed over time, and from one region to another.Anthony Milner develops a sustained argument about ethnicity and identity in an historical, 'Malay' context. The Malays is a comprehensive examination of the origins and development of Malay identity, ethnicity, and consciousness over the past five centuries.Covers the political, eco...

This collection of essays collects the leading scholars on British colonial thought in Southeast Asia to consider the question: what was the relationship between liberalism and the British Empire in Southeast Asia? The empire builders in Southeast Asia: Lord Minto, William Farquhar, John Leyden, Thomas Stamford Raffles, and John Crawfurd - to name a few - were fervent believers in a liberal free trade order in Southeast Asia.Many recent studies of British imperialism, and European ...

A Short History of Bali covers the entire history of this intriguing and mysterious island from before the Bronze Age to the presidency of Megawati Sukarnoputri and the tragedy of the Kuta bombings on 12 October 2002. It looks at the arrival of Indian culture early European contact the role of anthropologists and taste-makers of the 1930s in romanticising the island and the complex legacies of Dutch control. It tells of the Japanese Occupation the Indonesian Revolution the massacres of 196...

Since the Bali bombings of 2002 and the rise of political Islam, Indonesia has frequently occupied media headlines. Nevertheless, the history of the fourth largest country on earth remains relatively unknown. Adrian Vickers' book, first published in 2005, traces the history of an island country, comprising some 240 million people, from the colonial period through revolution and independence to the present. Framed around the life story of Pramoedya Ananta Toer, Indonesia's most famous and c...

New in the Short History of Asia series, edited by Milton Osborne, this is a readable, well-informed and comprehensive history of Malaysia from ancient past to hyper-modern present day. One of the last British colonies to achieve independence, Malaysia has been developed by its leaders as a model of rapid modernisation. From an earlier image as a romantic tropical backwater, it is now a self-conscious, rapidly developing, hi-tech nation-state stretching from Thailand to the sea boundaries ...

People within the Malay world hold strong but diverse opinions about the meaning of the word Melayu, which can be loosely translated as Malayness. Questions of whether the Filipinos are properly called "Malay", or the Mon-Khmer speaking Orang Asli in Malaysia, can generate heated debates. So too can the question of whether it is appropriate to speak of a kebangsaan Melayu (Malay as nationality) as the basis of membership within an aspiring postcolonial nation-state, a political rather than...

"This excellent volume, edited by Ooi Kee Beng and Wan Hamidi Hamid, discusses what it means to be Malay in Malaysia. And in doing that, it seeks to be much more..Being a Malay is about expressing the cultural interactions and assimilations that undeniably take place among the various ethnie that inhabit and have inhabited Malaysia. It is not only about being Malay, or being Malaysian. It is about being humans." - Senator Ariffin Omar.This collection of nine essays by young and 'you...

Choice Outstanding Academic Title 2009!This book examines three big ideas: difference, legitimacy, and pluralism. Of chief concern is how people construe and deal with variation among fellow human beings. Why under certain circumstances do people embrace even sanctify differences, or at least begrudgingly tolerate them, and why in other contexts are people less receptive to difference, sometimes overtly hostile to it and bent on its eradication? What are the cultur...

"Drawing on a course road tested for over a decade, Sharp has delivered an invaluable aid for teaching students about the complex political, cultural and spatial logics of colonialism and post-colonialism. Difficult theoretical jargon is demystified and the generous use of illustrations and quotes from both academic and popular sources means students can work with manageable measures of primary material. This book has succeeded in delivering a meaningful conversation between political econ...

The glossy guide book image of Bali is of a timeless paradise whose people are devoutly religious and artistically gifted. However, a hundred years of colonialism, war and Indonesian independence, and tourism have produced both modernizing changes and created an image of Bali as ‘traditional’.Incorporating up-to-date ethnographic field work the book investigates the myriad of ways in which the Balinese has responded to the influx of outside influence. The book focuses on the fascin...