HIST 287/EAST284/ANTH271
MW 11-12:20 PM
PAC002
MODERN SOUTHEAST ASIA
Tony Day
tday@wesleyan.edu
office: PAC213
office hours: by appointment (preferably MW 12:20-2 pm)
Southeast Asia is one of the most populous, culturally diverse, and problematic
“regions” of the world. It embraces the nation-states of Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia,
Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar (Burma), the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Timor Leste,
and Vietnam. Southeast Asia has been the destination of imperialists, tourists, and
migrants, a battlefield during the Cold War, and a frontline in the “war against terror.” It
has always been home to dynamic groups of people who seek to build strong,
independent, and culturally distinctive societies in the modern world. This course is an
introduction to the history of Southeast Asia in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
We will examine political, social, cultural, and economic transformations, with particular
attention to the effects of modernization, decolonization, and globalization. Topics of
special interest will include: the nature and legacies of imperialism in the region; the
formation of nations and states; religious belief and political action; the role of Chinese
settlers; gender and identity; the nature of the “region” as such and its relations to the rest
of the world. We will study the modern history of Southeast Asia through scholarly
writings, literature, and films.
Requirements: Four short papers (4-5 pages, 25% each). The papers must be submitted
in electronic form on: Wednesday, September 28 (first paper); Wednesday,
November 2 (second paper); Wednesday, November 30 (third paper); Wednesday,
December 14 (fourth paper). Unexcused late work will be penalized.
Films: We will watch three feature films and one documentary during the semester: Max
Havelaar (dir. Fons Rademakers, 1976); José Rizal (dir. Marilou Diaz-Abaya, 1998);
Tropical Malady (dir. Apichatpong Weerasethakul, 2004); and Burma VJ: Reporting
from a Closed Country (dir. Anders Østergaard, 2009). Other short video clips will be
shown and discussed in class.
Reading: Readings for the course will come from the following books, which have been
placed on two-hour reserve in Olin, and from articles and book excerpts that will be
placed in lecture folders on Moodle. Titles in bold can be purchased in the bookstore.
The list below also contains titles that have not been assigned as readings but may be of
interest to you.
David B. Abernathy, The Dynamics of Global Dominance (New Haven and London:
Yale University Press, 2002). D210 .A19 2000
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Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of
Nationalism (Verso, 2006). JC311 ELECTRONIC BOOK
Benedict Anderson, The Spectre of Comparisons (Verso, 1998). DS685 .A737 1998
Benedict Anderson, Under Three Flags: Anarchism and the Anti-Colonial Imagination
(Verso, 2007). HX828.A59 2005
Chris Baker and Pasuk Phongpaichit, A History of Thailand (2nd edit., CUP, 2009).
DS571.B35 2005 (1st edition)
Mark Philip Bradley, Vietnam at War (OUP, 2009). DS557.6 ELECTRONIC BOOK
Mary P. Callahan, Making Enemies: War and State in Burma (Cornell University Press,
2003). DS529.7 .C35 2003
David P. Chandler, A History of Cambodia (4th edit., Westview, 2008). DS554.5 .C46
2000 (earlier edition)
Michael W. Charney, A History of Modern Burma (CUP, 2009). DS530.4.C45 2009
Jonathan Culler and Pheng Cheah, eds., Grounds of Comparison: Around the Work of
Benedict Anderson (Routledge, 2003). JC311 .G76 2003
Duong Thu Huong, Paradise of the Blind (Harper Perennial, 2002). PL4378.9 .D759
N4813 1994
Penny Edwards, Cambodge: The Cultivation of a Nation, 1860-1945 (University of
Hawaii Press, 2007). DS554.7 .E39 2007
Eva-Lotta E. Hedman and John T. Sidel, Philippine Politics and Society in the
Twentieth Century (Routledge, 2000). DS685 ELECTRONIC BOOK
Mary Somers Heidhues, Southeast Asia: A Concise History (Thames and Hudson, 2001).
DS525.H44 2001
Reynaldo Ileto, Pasyon and Revolution: Popular Movements in the Philippines, 18401910 (Ateneo de Manila Press, 1997 ). DS674 .I35 1997
Paul A. Kramer, The Blood of Government: Race, Empire, the United States, and the
Philippines (Univ. of North Carolina Press, 2006). DS685 ELECTRONIC BOOK
Paul H. Kratoska et al., eds., Locating Southeast Asia: Geographies of Knowledge and
Politics of Space (Singapore University Press and Ohio University Press, 2005).
DS525.L63 2005
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Craig A. Lockard, Southeast Asia in World History (OUP, 2009). DS525 ELECTRONIC
BOOK
Tamara Loos, Subject Siam: Family, Law, and Colonial Modernity in Thailand (Cornell
Univ. Press, 2006). KPT540.L66 2006b
Thomas M. McKenna, Muslim Rulers and Rebels: Everyday Politics and Armed
Separatism in the Southern Philippines (Univ. of California Press, 1998). DS689
.C67 .ELECTRONIC BOOK
Norman Owen, ed., The Emergence of Modern Southeast Asia (Univ. of Hawaii
Press, 2004). DS525.E44 2005
Lynn Pan, Sons of the Yellow Emperor: A History of the Chinese Diaspora (Kodansha
International, 1994). DS732 .P36 1990
Vicente L. Rafael, Contracting Colonialism: Translation and Christian Conversion in
Tagalog Society Under Early Spanish Rule (Duke University Press, 1993).
DS666.T2 ELECTRONIC BOOK
M.C. Ricklefs, Polarizing Javanese Society: Islamic and Other Visions (c.1830-1930)
[ NUS Press and University of Hawaii Press, 2007]. HN710.J3R53 2007
José Rizal, El Filibusterismo (Univ. of Hawaii Press, 2007). PQ8897.R513 2007
José Rizal, Noli Me Tangere (Penguin, 2007). PQ8897.R5N513 2006. Other editions
(not on reserve): PQ8897.R5 N513 1997 (tr. Lacson-Locsin); PQ8897 .R5 N5
1982 (Spanish).
James C. Scott, The Art of Not Being Governed: An Anarchistic History of Upland
Southeast Asia (Yale University Press, 2009). DS523.3 ELECTRONIC BOOK
Pramoedya Ananta Toer, This Earth of Mankind (Penguin, 1996). PL5089 .T8 B8413
1996
Thongchai Winichakul, Siam Mapped: A History of the Geo-Body of a Nation
(University of Hawaii Press, 1994). DS563.9 .T47 1994
Carl A. Trocki, Singapore: Wealth, Power and the Culture of Control (Routledge, 2006).
DS610.6.T76 2006
Adrian Vickers, A History of Modern Indonesia (CUP, 2005). DS634.V43 2005
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Classes and assignments
N.B.: Readings in bold are required.
1. 9/5. What is “Southeast Asia”?
Owen, xvii-xxiii, 1-15; Anderson, The Spectre, 1-26 (Introduction); Scott, The Art of
Not Being Governed, 1-39 (ch. 1); Lieberman, “South East Asia and Eurasia during a
thousand years” (Moodle); Day, review of Kratoska et al., eds., Locating Southeast Asia
(Moodle).
2. 9/7. The 18th c. background: people and economy.
Owen, 19-34; Pan, 1-22 (ch.1); Reid, “An ‘Age of Commerce’ in Southeast Asian
History” (Moodle); Lieberman, “Review: An Age of Commerce? Problems of
Regional Coherence – A Review Article” (Moodle).
3. 9/12. The 18th c. background: religion.
Owen, 35-51; Keyes, The Golden Peninsula, 78-90, 194-202 (Moodle); Malarney,
“Weddings and Funerals in Contemporary Vietnam” (Moodle); “Phlai Kaeo is Ordained
as a Novice,” Khun Chang Khun Phaen, 55-78 (Moodle); Rafael, Contracting
Colonialism, 55-109 (ch. 2 and 3); McKenna, Muslim Rulers, 45-68 (ch.3).
4. 9/14. The 18th c. background: states and rebellions.
Owen, 52-71; Day and Reynolds, “Cosmologies, Truth Regimes, and the State in
Southeast Asia” (Moodle); Adas, “From Avoidance to Confrontation: Peasant
Protest in Precolonial and Colonial Southeast Asia” (Moodle).
5. 9/19. Imperialism/colonialism.
Owen, 83-92; Pan, 23-42 (ch.2); Thongchai, “Siam Mapped: The Making of Thai
Nationhood” (Moodle); Tagliacozzo, “Hydrography, Technology, Coercion:
Mapping the Sea in Southeast Asian Imperialism, 1850-1900” (Moodle). Abernathy,
The Dynamics of Global Dominance, 175-273 (ch. 8-11).
6. 9/21. The 19th c.: Siam, Burma, Malaya, Singapore.
Owen, 83-92, 93-105, 137-46; Baker and Pasuk, 1-104 (ch. 1-4); Trocki, 8-106 (ch.13); Thongchai, “The Quest for ‘Siwilai’: A Geographical Discourse of Civilizational
Thinking in the Late Nineteenth and Early Twentieth-Century Siam” (Moodle);
Baker and Pasuk, “The Career of Khun Chang Khun Phaen” (Moodle).
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7. 9/26. The 19th c.: Vietnam and Cambodia.
Owen, 106-16, 117-22; Bradley, 9-16; Edwards, 19-39 (ch. 1).
8. 9/28. The 19th c.: The Netherlands Indies.
Owen, 123-36; Salmon, “A Critical View of the Opium Farmers as Reflected in a
Syair by Boen Sing Hoo (Semarang, 1889)” (Moodle); Salmon, “The Batavian
Eastern Railway Co. and the Making of a New ‘Daerah’ as Reflected in a
Commemorative Syair Written by Tan Teng Kie (1890)” (Moodle); Suluk Gatholoco
(Moodle); Wedhatama (Moodle); Anderson, The Spectre, 105-30 (ch.5).
The first short paper, covering the material for lectures 1-5, is due on Wednesday,
September 28.
9. 10/3. Film: Max Havelaar.
10. 10/5. The 19th c.: The Philippines.
Owen, 147-57; Rizal, Noli Me Tangere; Anderson, The Spectre, 227-62 (ch. 10-11);
Wickberg, “The Chinese Mestizo in Philippine History” (Moodle); Aguilar, “Tracing
Origins: ‘Illustrado’ Nationalism and the Racial Science of Migration Waves” (Moodle).
11. 10/10. Anti-colonialism/nationalism.
Film: José Rizal (excerpts in class, full film available on Moodle as a qtl for viewing at
home); Owen, 161-279; Anderson, Imagined Communities, 9-36, 83-140 (ch. 2 and 67).
12. 10/12. Nationalism: Burma, Thailand, Malaya.
Owen, 322-34, 350-60, 312-21; Baker and Pasuk, 105-39.
13. 10/17. Nationalism: Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos.
Owen, 335-49, 361-70, 371-75; Bradley, 16-39; Edwards, 40-94 (ch. 2-3); Evans, A
Short History of Laos, ch. 2 (Moodle).
14. 10/19. Nationalism: The Netherlands Indies and the Philippines.
Owen, 290-311, 283-95; Pramoedya, This Earth of Mankind; Vickers, 1-84 (ch.1-3);
Kramer, 35-86, 159-227, 285-346 (ch. 1, 3, and 5); Rutherford, “Unpacking a National
Heroine” (Moodle).
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FALL BREAK, 10/21 – 10/26.
15. 10/31. Revolution and the Cold War: Indonesia and Burma.
Owen, 296-311, 322-34; Vickers, 85-168 (ch. 4-6); Charney, 46-147 (ch. 3-7).
16. 11/2. Vietnam at War.
Owen, 335-49; Bradley, 41-174; Miller, “Vision, Power and Agency: The Ascent of
Ngô Ðình Diệm, 1945-54” (Moodle); Schafer, “Death, Buddhism, and Existentialism in
the Songs of Trinh Công Són” (Moodle); Shafer, “The Trinh Công Són Phenomenon”
(Moodle).
The second short paper, which covers the material for lectures 6-14, is due on
Wednesday, November 2.
17. 11/7. The Cold War and genocide: Cambodia, Laos, and East Timor.
Owen, 361-70, 371-75; Chandler, 233-76 (ch. 11-12); Evans, ch. 3-4 (Moodle);
Kiernan, “The Demography of Genocide in Southeast Asia” (Moodle).
18. 11/9. The “American era” in Thailand and the Philippines.
Owen, 283-95, 350-60; Baker and Pasuk, 140-98 (ch. 6-7); Hedman and Sidel, 36-64
(ch.3); Anderson, The Spectre, 139-73, 174-91, 192-226 (ch. 7-9); “As the Empire
Falls: Lessons Learned and Unlearned in ‘America’s Asia’” (Moodle).
19. 11/14. “Paradise of the blind:” Vietnam, Laos, Singapore.
Owen, 379-413, 468-80, 492-96; Duong Thu Huong, Paradise of the Blind; Schafer,
“Lê Vân and Notions of Vietnamese Womanhood” (Moodle); Evans, A Short History of
Laos, ch. 5 (Moodle); Amrith, “Internationalism and Political Pluralism in Singapore,
1950-1963” (Moodle); Trocki, ch. 4 and 5 (Moodle).
20. 11/16. Globalization, civil society, and the state: Thailand, Indonesia, the
Philippines.
Baker and Pasuk, 199-278 (ch. 8-9, postscript); Vickers, 169-224 (ch. 7-8); Hedman
and Sidel, 65-165 (ch. 4-7).
21. 11/21. Film: Tropical Malady.
Apichatpong Weerasethakul, “Ghosts in the Darkness” (Moodle); Anderson, “The
Strange Story of a Strange Beast: Receptions in Thailand of Apichatpong
Weerasethakul’s Sat Pralaat (Moodle); Ingawanij and MacDonald, “Blissfully
whose? Jungle pleasures, ultra-modernist cinema and the cosmopolitan Thai
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auteur” (Moodle); “Khun Phaen flees with Wanthong,” Khun Chang Khun Phaen, 35871 (Moodle); Pasuk and Baker, Thaksin, Conclusion (Moodle); Pasuk and Baker,
“Thaksin’s Populism” (Moodle); McCargo, “Populism and reformism in contemporary
Thailand” (Moodle); Kasian, “Toppling Thaksin” (Moodle); McCargo, “Thai Politics as
Reality TV” (Moodle).
THANKSGIVING, 11/22 – 11/27
22. 11/28. States, separatism, religion, violence.
Hedman and Sidel, 166-82 (ch. 8); McCargo, “Thaksin and the Resurgence of
Violence in the Thai South” (Moodle); Srisompob and Panyasak, “Unpacking
Thailand’s Southern Conflict” (Moodle); Marston, “Clay into Stone: A Modern-Day
Tapas’” (Moodle); Wilson, “Continuity and Change: The Changing Contours of
Organized Violence in Post-New Order Indonesia” (Moodle); “Indonesia: Hope and Hard
Reality in Papua” (Moodle); Salemink, “Embodying the Nation: Mediumship, Ritual, and
the National Imagination” (Moodle); Kingston, “Burma’s Despair” (Moodle); Tan,
“Violence and the supernatural in Singapore cinema” (Moodle).
23. 11/30. (Trans/sub)national identities.
Anderson, The Spectre, 58-74 (ch.3); Aguilar, “The Triumph of Instrumental
Citizenship?” (Moodle); Hong Liu, “The Transnational Construction of ‘National
Allegory’” (Moodle); Pederson, “Burma’s Ethnic Minorities” (Moodle); Mansfield,
“Lao Hill Tribes: A Race with Oblivion” (Moodle); Pholsena, “Highlanders on the Ho
Chi Minh Trail” (Moodle); Lyons, “Transcending the Border” (Moodle); Yee, “Migrant
Rights in Singapore” (Moodle); Sim and Wee, “Undocumented Indonesian Workers in
Macau” (Moodle); Liebelt, “On Sentimental Orientalists … Filipina Domestic Workers’
Journeys to Israel and Beyond” (Moodle); K. W. Taylor, “Surface Orientations in
Vietnam” (Moodle); P. Taylor, “Minorities at Large” (Moodle).
The third short paper, which covers the material for lectures 15-19, is due on
Wednesday, November 30.
24. 12/5. Film: Burma VJ: Reporting from a Closed Country. Charney, 148-207 (ch. 8
and 9, Conclusion); Callahan, Epilogue; Pasuk and Baker, Thaksin, ch. 7 and 8
(Moodle).
25. 12/7. The future of Southeast Asia as a “region.” Judt, Ill Fares the Land, ch. 1
(Moodle); The ASEAN Charter (Moodle); Acharya, The Quest for Identity, ch. 1, 5,
Conclusion (Moodle); Chua, “Conceptualizing an East Asian popular culture” (Moodle).
.
The fourth short paper, which covers the material for lectures 20-25, is due on
Wednesday, December 14.
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