Asian history Books

Book SynopsisSince its inception 31 years ago, Southeast Asian Affairs (SEAA) has been an indispensable annual reference for generations of policy-makers, scholars, analysts, journalists, and others. Succinctly written by regional and international experts, SEAA illuminates significant issues and events of the previous year in each of the ten Southeast Asian nations and the region as a whole. Southeast Asian Affairs 2007 begins with five incisive regional surveys, which focus on political change, gender issues, and socio-environmental impact on Southeast Asia in 2006. The eleven country sections with the inclusion of Timor-Leste discuss incisive surveys of regional economic, political, and social trends. It offers indispensable country reviews.

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Book SynopsisSince independence in 1948, Burma has been the scene of some of the most-sustained and diverse ethnic insurgencies in the contemporary world. This study examines the dynamics of conflict that have caused internal wars to become so uniquely entrenched in one of Asia‘s most troubled lands. Against a backdrop of conflict, different nationality movements have been able to adapt and survive, utilizing the changing political, economic, and international conditions in the country. In the process, armed opposition became a way of life in the borderlands, while the central state became increasingly militarized. Burma‘s conflicts, however, have not been static. This study identifies five major cycles of conflict that have seen the national government transform from a parliamentary democracy at independence through Gen. Ne Win‘s “Burmese Way to Socialism” to the current military State Peace and Development Council. As the political impasse continues, ethnic ceasefires and open-door economic policies are changing the structures of conflict. In an overview of humanitarian and international dilemmas, the study concludes that conflict resolution — with integrated support from the international community — remains a primary need if Burma and its peoples are to achieve peace, democracy, and a stable nation-state.

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Book SynopsisSince its inception in 1974, Southeast Asian Affairs (SEAA) has been an indispensable annual reference for generations of policy-makers, scholars, analysts, journalists, and others. Succinctly written by regional and international experts, ""SEAA"" illuminates significant issues and events of the previous year in each of the Southeast Asian nations and the region as a whole.""Southeast Asian Affairs 2008"" provides an informed and readable analysis of the events and developments in the region in 2007. In the regional section of this volume, the first three articles provide the political and economic overview of Southeast Asia and the region, while the fourth and fifth examine ASEAN at its fortieth year. Eleven country reviews as well as four special theme articles follow, delving into domestic political, economic, security, and social developments during 2007 and their implications for countries in the region and beyond.

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Book SynopsisThis is a ground-breaking history of the Rani of Jhansi Regiment, part of the Indian National Army led by Bengali revolutionary Subhas Chandra Bose during World War II. The Regiment, a hitherto forgotten part of 'the Forgotten Army', was composed largely of teenage volunteers from Malayan rubber estates, girls who had never seen India yet were eager to enlist to liberate India from colonial bondage. Bose, creator of the Regiment, connected a historical thread extending from the original Rani of Jhansi, killed in battle by the British in 1858, through Bengali women revolutionaries of the 1930s, to the Regiment, which he hoped would spearhead the liberation of India. ""The Rani of Jhansi Regiment"" provides a model of empowerment relevant for contemporary Indian women.Trade ReviewOne of the most distinguished American historians of Asia, Professor Joyce Lebra has written an innovative and path-breaking book on Indian women who took up arms against the British Raj during the Second World War. Women Against the Raj: The Rani of Jhansi Regiment will be warmly welcomed as a major contribution to the fields of international history, military history and women's history. Sugata Bose, Gardiner Professor of History, Harvard University

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Book SynopsisUntil the mid-1950s nearly all the waters lying between the far-flung islands of the Indonesian archipelago were as open to the ships of all nations as the waters of the great oceans. In order to enhance its failing sovereign grasp over the nation, as well as to deter perceived external threats to Indonesia’s national integrity, in 1957 the Indonesian government declared that it had “absolute sovereignty” over all the waters lying within straight baselines drawn between the outermost islands of Indonesia. At a single step, Indonesia had asserted its dominion over a vast swathe of what had hitherto been seas open to all, and made its lands and the seas it now claimed a single unified entity for the first time.International outrage and alarm ensued, expressed especially by the great maritime nations. Nevertheless, despite its low international profile, its relative poverty, and its often frail state capacity, Indonesia eventually succeeded in gaining international recognition for its claim when, in 1982, the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea formally recognized the existence of a new category of states known as “archipelagic states” and declared that these states had sovereignty over their “archipelagic waters”.Sovereignty and the Sea explains how Indonesia succeeded in its extraordinary claim. At the heart of Indonesia’s archipelagic campaign was a small group of Indonesian diplomats. Largely because of their dogged persistence, negotiating skills, and willingness to make difficult compromises, Indonesia became the greatest archipelagic state in the world.Trade Review“The book not only tells the story from the Indonesian point of view, but also paints a comprehensive picture of how Indonesia struggled and succeeded in its archipelagic campaign. Sovereignty and the Sea is easily the best book I have read so far this year.”” - Leonardo Bernard, Contemporary Southeast Asia"This is a very good book... Highly recommended, not only to historians of the law of the sea and of modern South-East Asia, but to those who seek to understand just what lies behind the current maritime order." - James Goldrick, The Mariner's Mirror

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Book SynopsisInternational politics in Southeast Asia since end of the Cold War in 1990 can be understood within the frames of order and an emerging regionalism embodied in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). But order and regionalism are now under seige, with a new global strategic rebalancing under way. The region is now forced to contemplate new risks, even the emergence of new sorts of cold war, rivalry and conflict.Ang Cheng Guan, author of Southeast Asia's Cold War, writes here in the mode of contemporary history, presenting a complete, analytically informed narrative that covers the region, highlighting change, continuity and context.Crucial as a tool to make sense of the dynamics of the region, this account of Southeast Asia's international relations will also be of immediate relevance to those in China, the USA and elsewhere who engage with the region, with its young, dynamic population, and its strategic position across the world's key choke-points of trade. This is essential reading for decisionmakers who wish to understand our current situation, looking back to the end of the Cold War thirty years ago, and forward to an uncertain future.Trade ReviewNo other author has matched the width and depth of analysis as has Ang Cheng Guan. His histories of Southeast Asian international politics, from the perspective of a Singaporean, the centre of a diverse and dynamic region, provides a prospective not achieved by any other authority. Southeast Asia After the Cold War brings his penetrating account up to date.|Deft and imaginative sourcing gives Southeast Asia After the Cold War a clear and compelling perspective from within the region—one that renders alternative perspectives trivial. In linking the evolution of Southeast Asian regionalism to the uncertain search for a new order, Ang Cheng Guan has written a brilliantly conceived book.

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Book SynopsisJacob Gotfried Haafner (1754-1809) was a writer of great talent, and an early dissenting voice from within the colonial enterprise. Haafner was orphaned in the Dutch East Indies, and lived in South Africa, Sri Lanka, India and Mauritius for more than 20 years. On his return to Europe he transformed himself into one of the most popular Dutch writers of the early 19th century, for his travel writing in the Romantic mode. Books like his popular Travels in a Palanquin were translated into the major European languages, and his essays on the havoc wrought by missionaries worldwide stirred up great controversy, particularly in his home country of the Netherlands. He was a fierce critic of English machinations in India: "Had I to write the history of the English and their deeds in Asia", Haafner once said, "it would be the spitting image of hell". But there was a scholarly side to him to complement the pamphleteer and travel writer, working to promote European understanding of Indian literature, myth and religion, including through his translation of the Ramayana into Dutch.With the help of generous excerpts from Haafner's own writings, including material newly translated into English, van der Velde tells an affecting story of a young man who made a world for himself along the Coromandel Coast, in Ceylon and Calcutta, but who returned to Europe to live the last years of his life in Amsterdam, suffering an acute nostalgia for Asia: "No, in Europe and especially in its northern climes, no one enjoys their life..." This will be compelling reading for anyone interested in European response to the cultures of Asia.Trade Review“Haafner’s stories often seem outrageous, yet van der Velde shows how independent records verify his accounts.” “A vibrant and deliberately concise biography. . . . van der Velde paints a unique image of the late eighteenth-century colonial world, through the medium of Haafner’s stories.”Table of ContentsIntroduction: Haafner's Journeys Haafner's Work and His World Reactions to Haafner My Journey to Haafner Chapter 1: A Wandering Existence Carefree First Adventure in Porto Praya The Cape of Good Hope Adultery and Torture Khoikhoi Love Beads Famous Lost Son The Umbilical Cord Unravels Chapter 2: Struggle for Life Sardis: A Futile Person Graveyard of the Europeans Willem Koelbier: The Bloodthirsty Tiger At the Pen in Nagapatnam The Sadras Idyll Advanced Science Sadras Lost, Disastrous Cost Chapter 3: Where can Our Soul Shelter? Famine in Madras The Foolish Count Bonvoux Anna's Embrace The Palmetto Oh, That Wanderlust! Baker George Most Reasonable of the Unreasonable Mestizo among the Mestizos Delusion and Pimberah Forsaken by Anna Chapter 4: Passion for India Merchant in Calcutta The Impetuous Julius Soubise Sunrise Mamia! Snakebite Lily of the South In the Land of the Dodo and Javanese Hawfinch Heaven and Earth Perished Chapter 5: Languishing in Europe Kees, Kees! Shouted the Orange Rabble A Full Purse The Haafner Case The Dutch Society of Sciences Laureate of the Teylers Theological Society The God of One's Tyrants A Shot across the Bow of the Mission Phallus Worship Farewell Lovable Objects! Postscript Sources Jacob G. Haafner (1754–1809): A Brief Chronology of His Life List of Publications by Jacob Haafner List of Publications on Jacob Haafner Index

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Book SynopsisThe environmental turn in the humanities and social sciences has meant a new focus on the history of animals. This is one of the first books to look across species at animals in a colonial, urban society. If imperialism is a series of power relationships, it involves not only the subjugation of human communities but also animals. What was the relationship between these two processes in colonial Singapore? How did various interactions with animals enable changes in interactions between people, and the expression of power in human terms.The imposition of imperial power relationships was a process that was often complex and messy, and it led to the creation of new communities throughout the world, including the colonial port city of Singapore. Through a multi-disciplinary consideration of fauna, this book weaves together a series of tales to document how animals were cherished, slaughtered, monitored, and employed in a colonial society, to provide insight into how imperial rule was imposed on an island in Southeast Asia. Fauna and their histories of interacting with humans, thus, become useful tools for understanding our past, revealing the effects of establishing a colony on the biodiversity of a region, and the institutions that quickly transformed it. All animals, including humans, have been creatures of imperialism in Singapore. Their stories teach us lessons about the structures that upheld such a society and how it developed over time.Trade Review“[D]eeply researched, well annotated... the information Prof. Barnard presents in this book is widely applicable to subjects as varied as the history of natural history, psychology, sociology, political science, cross-cultural communications, and urban planning. It is therefore strongly recommended it to all those with an interest in any of these subjects, as well as to those who are merely curious to discover a slice of the history of a time and place with which few today can be said to familiar, but from whence so significant a modern global city-state has emerged”. — The Well-Read Naturalist

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Book SynopsisMarjorie Doggett's Singapore, an evocative interplay of photos and texts, forms a tribute to a pioneer woman photographer, Marjorie Doggett. From 1954-57, camera in hand, she roamed Singapore's colonial precincts, its port and river, the characteristic ethnic areas and elsewhere. Mind and eye aligned, and aware of the increasing pace of development, Doggett captured for posterity the cityscape in images and with historical texts.Her work appeared in Characters of Light, the first photo book to fully portray Singapore's urban setting and architecture. Published in 1957, and reissued in 1985, the book was a pioneer: in its depiction of Singapore's city and as the first local photographic book by a woman. This work draws on those two publications, both long out of print. In this book, Marjorie Doggett's photos are enriched by Edward Stokes' historical and personal texts.Born in England, Doggett was a self-taught photographer. She had arrived in Singapore in early 1947 with her future husband. In 1962 they became citizens of Singapore, their lifetime home. The photos and narrative in Marjorie Doggett's Singapore offer an entirely new presentation. Half of the book's images are hitherto unpublished. The texts and photos portray Singapore the place, through the prism of Doggett's life, inspiration and methods. Marjorie Doggett had clear views concerning the preservation of buildings, and in later years her seminal book contributed significantly to the preservation of Singapore's historic architecture.Trade Review“...beautifully produced with top-quality photographic reproductions" and "excellent introductions and commentaries packed full of biographical and historical information which adds depth and contextuality to the photographs.” “Significantly, Marjorie Doggett’s photos are the first seriously published visual record of Singapore’s urban landscape to have superbly captured many of the island’s grand structures as well as its more modest vernacular buildings. . . . In Asia, the few women who did create photo books were virtually unknown, with Marjorie Doggett blazing the path.” “[It] is important in focusing on a photographer who, though she was productive, was neither commercial nor an artist, but who remained, in the true sense, an amateur, a dedicated documentarian. . . . this book serves handsomely as an example to others harboring (or hoarding!) a collection of historical photographs.” “Doggett captured what turned out to be the end of an era. . . . This beautifully produced book is a fitting testament to an outstanding woman who led a life of quiet significance.”

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Book SynopsisBoth the Japanese and Filipino people experienced a re-writing of their national histories upon being defeated by the United States: the Philippines after 1902 and Japan after 1945. This re-writing was conducted in order to justify and explain US rule and its ideology of modernisation and democracy. These new histories portrayed the immediate past as the dark ages: the Spanish colonial period for the Philippines and Japan's wartime totalitarianism and militarism. What kind of dilemmas and contradictions did Filipino and Japanese historians and intellectuals embrace by accepting the US re-writing of their national histories? Did Japanese Filipino and Japanese historians interact at all, under the US hegemony? The idea of America's Shadow is meant to shed a light on areas of darkness in both Japanese and Philippine historiographies and understanding of their region.Through an examination of the commonalities, differences and interactions of Japanese and Filipino histories, ideas of history, modernisation theory, and area studies, Serizawa makes an important contribution to sorting through the tangled histories of Asia in the complicated matrix of colonial, wartime and Cold War contexts.Trade Review“An important read for scholars of Japanese and Southeast Asian Studies... intended to demonstrate that despite Japan’s Pan-Asian discourse, American knowledge and power has defined Japanese and Filipino history writing since the early twentieth century.” * The Journal of Southeast Asian Studies *“Writing History in America’s Shadow is especially adroit at demonstrating the underlying legacies of Orientalism and imperialism on US area studies, including Japanese studies and Southeast Asian studies. . . . [This book] is an astute meditation on history and politics, modest and at times disjointed in its historical scope but ambitious in its historiographical intervention.” * Pacific Affairs *“Employing almost ten years’ worth of archival research and interviews, Serizawa’s book is commendable for its documentation of the individual histories of numerous Japanese scholars and his explanation of the political context behind their intellectual works, which were for either propaganda or academic use. Many of those included in this book are understudied, which gives Serizawa the leverage on the selection of these authors.” * Philippine Studies: Historical and Ethnographic Viewpoints *

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Book SynopsisIn postcolonial Singapore and Malaysia, Pentecostal megachurches dominate the Christian landscape, but the "big four" Protestant churches-Anglican, Methodist, Presbyterian and Brethren-remain religions of heritage for many. Sixty Malaysian and nineteen Singaporean assemblies identify themselves as Christian Brethren, and most trace their roots to independent local churches formed in Penang and Singapore in the 1860s. After World War II, former Brethren elders founded new independent churches, from charismatic local churches and Pentecostal megachurches to a small network of Exclusive Brethren assemblies. This study is a transregional history of the Brethren movement and its emplacement in Singapore and Malaysia, but is also a history of discontinuous continuities that have shaped the modern field of religious practice in China and Southeast Asia.Trade Review"A landmark publication on two counts. It not only re-inserts the historical significance of the Brethren churches in Malaysian and Singaporean Christianity, but also provides an important point of departure for future scholarship on the intersections between this stream of Christianity and socio-cultural and political shifts in modern postcolonial nation-states in the region.” - Studies in World ChristianityTable of Contents List of Illustrations Preface Introduction: Christian Circulations Part I: The Open Brethren Movement Chapter 1: The Brethren Movement and the Local Church Chapter 2: George Müller, Anthony Norris Groves, and the Local Church in India Part II: Penang and China Chapter 3: The London Missionary Society in Penang, 1819-1843 Chapter 4: The Brethren Movement and the Penang Mission Chapter 5: Revival and Rebellion in China Chapter 6: Crisis in the Penang Mission Chapter 7: Hokkien Evangelists Part III: Circulations Chapter 8: Singapore: Visiting Every City Chapter 9: Penang and its Networks, 1874-1912 Chapter 10: Alexander Grant and the Boxer Uprising Part IV: Schism and Continuity Chapter 11: Chinese Revivalists in Southeast Asia, 1929-1943 Chapter 12: Wilson Wang and Teh Phai Lian Chapter 13: A New Local Church Movement and Living Waters Chapter 14: Schism and Continuity Chapter 15: The Full Gospel Assemblies and the Charismatic Church of Penang Conclusion: The Brethren Movement and its Modern Fate Chinese Glossary Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisFirst published in 1977, C. M. Turnbull’s one-volume history of Singapore has been an essential resource for more than forty years. Turnbull’s History provides a solid foundation for understanding of the two-hundred-year trajectory of Singapore from colonial outpost to world city. While many modern studies focus on current affairs or very recent events, emphasizing Singapore’s successful transition from the developing to the developed world, Turnbull connects this story to Singapore’s colonial experience under the East India Company and the British Crown. This new edition, building on two earlier thorough-going revisions, presents the standard history in a new and more affordable format for students, teachers, and anyone fascinated by the many stories of changing Singapore.Table of Contents Plate Maps Preface Abbreviations Introduction to the First Edition Introduction 1. The New Settlement, 1819–1826 2. "This Spirited and Splendid Little Colony", 1826–1867 3. High Noon of Empire, 1867–1914 4. "The Clapham Junction of the Eastern Seas", 1914–1941 5. War in the East, 1941–1942 6. Syonan: Light of the South, 1942–1945 7. The Aftermath of War, 1945–1955 8. The Road to Merdeka, 1955–1965 9. The New Nation, 1965–1990 10. The New Guard, 1990–2005 Notes Further Reading Index

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Book SynopsisThe name of Thomas Stamford Raffles continues to be a mark of prestige in Singapore, more than 200 years after he first established a British factory on the island. Not one but two statues of Raffles stand tall in prominent sites in Singapore's civic and heritage district. Streets and squares are named after him, and important local businesses use the Raffles name. Does Thomas Stamford Raffles deserve this recognition? Should we continue to celebrate him? Or like the image of Cecil Rhodes in South Africa, must Raffles fall?Those exercised by the discussion and debates around Singapore's 2019 Bicentennial should know that the question was considered at length nearly 50 years ago, in Syed Hussein Alatas' slim but devastating volume Thomas Stamford Raffles: Schemer or Reformer? While publication of the work failed to spark a wide debate on Raffles' legacy in 1970s Singapore, it was noticed by Edward Said, who later cited Alatas' essay as one example of works "set themselves the revisionist, critical task of dealing frontally with the metropolitan culture, using the techniques, discourses, and weapons of scholarship and criticism once reserved exclusively for the European."Read nearly 50 years after its original publication, this extended essay on Raffles reads as fresh and relevant. Presented here for a new audience, Schemer or Reformer sets out the key elements of the debate in understanding Raffles' own political philosophy through the record of his actions, not just in Singapore, but in Southeast Asia in the years just before and after Singapore's foundation. A new introduction by Syed Farid Alatas assesses contemporary Singapore's take on Raffles, and how far we have or have not come in thinking through Singapore's colonial legacy.Trade Review“[The book] was recently reprinted by NUS Press in 2020. It makes a timely reappearance amidst increasing conversation about race, identity, and historical memory in Singaporean society…. Thomas Stamford Raffles: Schemer or Reformer today serves as a standard-bearer for works that expand discourse on Singapore’s history. Its intervention into established colonial narratives is vital to present-day efforts to gain a broader, more critical understanding of Singapore history and society.” * Singapore Unbound *Table of ContentsPreface Introduction 1. The General Framework of Raffles' Political Philosophy 2. The Massacre of Palembang 3. Raffles' Views on the Different Communities in this Area 4. The Banjarmasin Affair 5. Raffles and the Ideology of Imperialism Notes to the Text Bibliography

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Book SynopsisThis is a particularly vivid biography of a remarkable individual, an Indonesian historian and public intellectual who was both a public figure and a multi-minority member, being Dutch-educated, Indonesian Chinese, gay, alcoholic, irreligious and hedonist, in a conservative society. This biography delves into its subject's interior life: the fears, doubts, confusions; the issues of sexuality, the mental breakdown, the jailing, the later success, joys and celebrity, as a historian, public intellectual and famous cook. This biography breaks out of the Indonesian Chinese category. It is primarily an Indonesian story. In its early chapters this biography reveals much about the 'sugar king' Chinese aristocracy of Indonesia, from the inside. In its later chapters this book shows much about the development of Indonesians writing their own post-colonial history, and the intellectual influences on this writing. Onghokham was a senior public intellectual with over 300 writings over 50 years, containing original insights into many varied Indonesian topics, including colonial history and its effects on modern politics and society; the Indonesian Chinese; 'outsiders' -- marginal people; the jago or brigand as people's champion; sexuality in Indonesia past and present; food; the Oedipus complex; painting; traditional Javanese beliefs from the palace to the peasant.Trade Review"You will meet a delicious & complex character in these pages. Brave, cheeky, a scholar, politically fierce & a marvellous cook, Ong made life into a feast. His passionate commitment to justice led him to jail; his students loved him. Both an insider and an outsider, he is irreplaceable. Learning about his life will enrich yours." - Miriam Margolyes, actor

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Book SynopsisA balanced, sensitive study of the history of comfort women in Singapore during World War II. “Comfort women” or ianfu is the euphemism used by the Japanese military for the women they compelled to do sex work in the Second World War, and has become the term generally used in English to discuss the subject. The role of comfort women in the Japanese empire during World War II remains an important and emotional topic around the world. Most scholarship concentrates on Korean comfort women, with less on their counterparts in Japan, China, and Taiwan, and even less on Southeast Asia. That gap persists despite widespread knowledge of the elaborate series of comfort stations, or comfort houses, that were organized by the Japanese administration across Singapore during the Occupation from 1942 to 1945. So why, the author asks, did no former comfort women from Singapore come forward and tell their stories when others across Asia began to do publicly in the 1990s? To understand this silence, this book offers a detailed examination of the sex industry serving the Japanese military during the wartime occupation of Singapore: the comfort stations, managers, procuresses, girls, and women who either volunteered or were forced into service and in many cases sexual slavery. Kevin Blackburn then turns from history to the public presence of the comfort women in Singapore’s memory, including newspapers, novels, plays, television, and touristic heritage sites, showing how comfort women became known in Singapore during the 1990s and 2000s. Bringing great care, balance, and sensitivity to a difficult subject, Blackburn helps to fill an important gap in our understanding of this period.Table of Contents Introduction 1. Lee Kuan Yew and Masculinist Memories of the Comfort Women 2. The Role of the Women of Singapore in the Sex Industry of the Japanese Military 3. Inside the Comfort Stations of Singapore 4. Korean and Indonesian Comfort Women in Singapore 5. The Comfort Women Returning to Live in Postwar Society 6. The Silence of the Local Comfort Women of Singapore 7. The Comfort Women of Singapore as 'Dark Heritage' Conclusion Bibliography Endnotes

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Book SynopsisExplore Vietnam’s rich literary and graphic design history. Vietnam has a strong literary culture that dates back to Confucian influence and has remained important today. Using Vietnamese books, documents, and manuscripts from the collection of the British Library, Vietnam Documented gives a window into that heritage and represents key incidents in Vietnamese social, cultural, and political history. It also highlights the visual sophistication of Vietnamese design, drawing on Chinese and French models and socialist styles in art and design. An informative text by the long-time Keeper of the Vietnamese collection, Sud Chonchirdsin, introduces the book. Among the earliest documents in the Library's collection is a 17th-century royal letter to the English East India Company. Other highlights include a travel diary of a member of one of the last of Vietnam's tribute missions to the Imperial court in China (1880) and a beautifully illustrated manuscript of the classic Tale of KiÊ`u. The strength of the collection lies in materials collected during Vietnam's twentieth-century struggle for independence—including rare periodicals from North Vietnam—that show how artists were mobilized in wartime. This accessible, full-color introduction to an under-appreciated design heritage is a welcome view into a beautiful culture.Table of ContentsPrefaceIntroductionThe formation of the Vietnamese collectionVietnamese manuscriptsVietnamese theatreFifty shades of Kiê`uMythical creatures in Vietnamese cultureVietnam and dragonsEarly dictionaries of Southeast Asian languagesClasses and costume in traditional Vietnamese societyVietnamese traditional marketsVietnam War artWomen and the Vietnam WarChildren in the Vietnam WarWar cartoons and propaganda from North VietnamAnniversary of the end of the Vietnam WarVietnamese collection milestone:Retroconversion of the card catalogueBibliography

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Book SynopsisNew insight into the defense history of Singapore. Even small states can have grand strategies. Singapore, despite its poor natural resource endowment, small population, and size, has often been described as punching above its weight in international affairs. Part of this stems from the way Singapore strategically integrates the different diplomatic, political, and defense-oriented tools at its disposal. To explore this, Singapore’s Grand Strategy offers a fresh and useful diplomatic, defense, and security history of Singapore, from its independence in 1965 through today’s period of strategic realignment. Most previous studies of grand strategy have focused on super- or at least middle powers, but this book presents an important contribution to international relations and strategic studies by showing how the concept can help explain the strategic posture and achievements of small states as well. Moreover, he brings a historian's perspective to a subject usually tackled by political scientists. The result will be useful and important for scholars in these fields.Trade Review"This book offers a powerful account of the evolution of Singapore's grand strategy, stretching from the 1960s to the 2000s. It shows that size does not limit the ability of states to develop a successful objectives-resources alignment. It will generate further inquiry into the conditions that drive small states' strategic competence." – Thierry Balzacq, Sciences Po, Center for International Studies, Paris "This is a solid and insightful study of the fundamentals of Singapore's foreign and defence policies, explained as an overarching Grand Strategy. Developed by three of Singapore's most influential strategic thinkers--Lee Kuan Yew, Goh Keng Swee and S. Rajaratnam--the Singapore Grand Strategy, initially driven by the compulsions of a new and small state seeking to survive in a difficult neighbourhood, eventually evolved into a set of underlying principles consistently guiding the country's international and defence posture since 1965. The core elements of the Grand Strategy are clearly explained in this carefully researched and well contextualised study." – Tan Tai Yong, Singapore University of Social Sciences

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Book SynopsisThe first book in English on this important archaeological excavation in the heart of Vietnam's capital, now a World Heritage site. As Vietnam entered the twenty-first century it began to prepare for the 1000th anniversary of the founding of its capital Thang Long, now Hanoi. In the heart of the city, a rescue excavation was launched on land earmarked for the construction of a new National Assembly building. Archaeologists unearthed thirteen centuries of vestiges of the ancient city of Thang Long, yielding a richer record than anyone had dared to hope for. Construction plans were shelved, excavations widened, and at the city's millennial celebrations in 2010, UNESCO announced its inscription of the Imperial Citadel of Thang Long on its World Heritage List. This archaeological discovery has two histories. The first, told here by the archaeologists involved, is the story of the dig, which brought to light the bricks, tiles, pillars, sculptures, and ceramics of countless ancient temples and palaces. The second is the history of the citadel itself, in its early years as an outpost of the Chinese empire, in its heyday as the Forbidden City of Vietnam’s emperors, and in its downgrading and eventual destruction at the hands of the Nguyen dynasty and French colonial rulers. Bringing together history, urban history, and a fascinating story of the interplay of influences from China and Southeast Asia, this is also a fascinating case of an Asian capital city coming to understand its history and deciding how to preserve its archaeological remains.Table of ContentsList of Maps and FiguresAcknowledgementsForewordIntroduction: The Discovery of Thang Long Imperial Citadel: Archaeological Dig and Historical EventPlates: Thang Long Citadel Excavation LandscapesPart I. Excavation of the Citadel as Historical Event1. Archaeological Research and Discoveries at the Thang Long Imperial Citadel Site, 18 Hoàng Di?u Street, Hanoi2. Fascinating Mysteries from a Corner of the Citadel (Section D4-D6)3. Discoveries Change Our Understanding of Vietnam's Ancient Architecture4. Interpreting the Cultural Layers5. Our Ancestors' Bricks6. The Central Sector of the Imperial Citadel of Thang Long Hanoi – World HeritageMaps and FiguresPart II. Research into the History of the Citadel7. Thang Long Imperial Citadel in Vietnamese Memory8. Gao Pian ?? (822-87), the Last Protector General of Annan9.The Location of the Archaeological Site at 18 Hoàng Di?u Street in the Structure of the Thang Long–Hanoi Citadel through the Historical Periods10. Ð?i Vi?t and Champa, Viewed from the Excavation Trenches at 18 Hoàng Di?u Street11. Ancient Thang Long through Old Maps12. From Thang Long to Hanoi: the Downgrading and Destruction of the 19th-Century CitadelGlossaryBibliographyList of ContributorsIndex

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Book SynopsisAn analysis of the human-animal relationship in post-colonial Singapore. Modern Singapore is the Garden City, a biophilic urban space that includes a variety of animals, from mosquitoes to humans, even polar bears. Singaporean Creatures brings together historians to contemplate this human-animal relationship and how it has shaped society—socially, economically, politically, and environmentally. It is a work of historical and ecological analysis, in which various institutions, perspectives, and events involving animals provide insight into how the larger society has been formed and developed over the last half-century. The interaction of all Singaporean creatures thus provides a lens through which we can understand the creation of a modern and urban nation-state, shaped by the forces of the Anthropocene.Table of Contents List of Images Introduction: Humans and Other Animals in a Singaporean Anthropocene Chapter 1: Tilapia, Travel and the Making of a Singaporean Creature Chapter 2: One of the Main Drawbacks of Tropical Living Chapter 3: Mosquitoes, Public Health and the Construction of a Modern Society Chapter 4: Fear, Fascination and Fantasy in the Cultural History of Crocodiles Chapter 5: Too Much Monkey Business Chapter 6: Songbirds in a Garden City Chapter 7: Marine Life in Service of the State at Public Aquariums and Oceanariums in Singapore Chapter 8: Nation, Nature and the Singapore Zoological Gardens, 1973-2018 List of Contributors Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisAn overlooked history of Southeast Asia’s varied healthcare regimes during the Cold War. For far too long, Southeast Asia has been treated as a static backdrop for the exploits and discoveries of Western biomedical doctors. Yet, Southeast Asians have been vital to the significant developments in the prevention and treatment of diseases that have taken place in the region and beyond. Many of the institutions and people that shaped subsequent responses to outbreaks, epidemics, and pandemics first began their work in Southeast Asia during the Cold War. The diversity of approaches to health and medicine during that era also reminds us of the possibilities, and limits, of human intervention in the face of political, social, economic, and microbial realities. The people and places of Southeast Asia have provided clinical trials for different health regimes. Fighting for Health highlights new perspectives and methods that have evolved from research presented at regional conferences, including the History of Medicine in Southeast Asia (HOMSEA) series. These insights serve to challenge dominant models of the medical humanities.Table of ContentsList of TablesList of IllustrationsAcknowledgementsIntroductionChapter 1: Health, Agriculture and Animism in the 'Development' of Portuguese Timor, 1945- 1975Chapter 2: Tool of Domination and Act of Benevolence: Medicine and Healthcare during the Malayan Emergency, 1948-1960Chapter 3: Health Sector Contestation in Cold War Laos, 1950-1975Chapter 4: More Eastern than Traditional: The Making of Ðông y in the Republic of Vietnam during the Cold WarChapter 5: Building a "socialist health system": Soviet assistance in malaria control in the Democratic Republic of Vietnam during the Cold WarChapter 6: Mobilising Applied Medical Knowledge for Indonesia: Soekarnoist Science and Asian-African Solidarity, 1950sChapter 7: The Cholera Pandemic, Chinese Diaspora, and the Cold War Politics in Southeast Asia and China during the 1960sChapter 8: Managing Wartime Conditions: South Korean Developmental Ambitions, Public Health, and Emerging Forms of Overseas Medical Outreach, 1964-1973GlossaryBibliographyContributorsIndex

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Book SynopsisPirates, Ports and Coasts in Asia aims to fill in some of the historical gaps in the coverage of maritime piracy and armed robbery in Asia. The authors highlight a variety of activities ranging from raiding, destroying and pillaging coastal villages and capturing inhabitants to attacking and taking over vessels, robbing and then trading the cargo and its people. Generally speaking, what connects these activities is the fact that they are carried out at sea, often in the coastal inshore waters, by vessels attacking other vessels or raiding coastal settlements. Acts of maritime piracy cannot be regarded as being located outside the relevant framework of the coastal zone. Coastal zones have therefore become highly desirable places, a circumstance which has transformed them into places subject to great social and ecological pressures. Piracy being the most dramatic of marginal(ized) maritime livelihood, this book brings the relationship between pirates, ports, and coastal hinterlands into focusTrade Review""The contributors -- historians, researchers, anthropologists, and professors -- are eminently qualified to enlighten readers on the various topics on which they expound. The three facets which these contributors examine are intricately intertwined -- various groups of people lived in the ports and on the coasts, while pirates interacted with and victimized them all. Of particular import to any reader of Asian piracy is to understand that it differs from the western concept of piracy, and this is pointed out not only at the beginning of the book, but also in several of the essays. These essays focus on the relationship between pirates, ports, and coasts from various historical perspectives, as well as the links between piracy and organized crime, such as smuggling, trafficking in drugs and people, and taking hostages. The essays hold the reader's interest without being overly pedantic. While each provides important information, the essay I found most intriguing involved the attach on the SS Namoa, an the photograph of the subsequent execution of the pirates. Also of special note is Ikuya Tokoro's essay, for he interviewed (ex-)pirates to obtain firsthand information for this studies. This volume is a worthy addition to any collection that deals with Asian piracy, and the information it contains adds significantly to English-language studies on the topic from a variety of perspectives"" (Pirates and Privateers: The History of Maritime Piracy). ""There are several unifying points which nearly all of the contributions highlight and which the introductory essays nicely bring into focus. In their introduction, the editors argue that the problem of contemporary piracy in Asia needs to be studied from a historical perspective and should not be studied in isolation from the larger histories of the coastal spaces in which piratical acts often taken place. Furthermore, piracy and maritime violence more generally must be examined within the complex interrelationship of local and regional trade networks, politics, and cultural traditions. Velthoen's essay on Sulawesi and Knapp's study of the Papuan areas, for example, demonstrate the importance of regional politics and trading patterns in understanding the rise, spread, and decline of maritime raiding in the Indonesian archipelago. The problem of defining piracy is an additional important theme that surfaces throughout the essays in this volume. Michael Pearson's introductory essay clearly lays out the difficulty inherent in defining the various forms of maritime violence that were and often still are lumped under the label of piracy. Historically, what was termed piracy, who were deemed a pirate, and which groups participated in piratical acts varied depending on whose interests were at stake and even according to seasonal weather patterns. Indeed, even today the definition of piracy varies according to which international organization or court of law you consult. Nearly all of the essays included in the book touch on this important issue, reminding us that where colonial sources labelled any maritime activity inimical to their trade interests as piracy or smuggling, historians today need to be more critical of our sources and cautious in our application of such loaded terms. Overall, Pirates, Ports and Coasts in Asia is a valuable contribution to the study of piracy, as well as to maritime history more generally"" (International Journal of Maritime History). ""Pirates, Ports, and Coasts in Asia is an important new contribution to the literature on piracy in Asian seas. As the title suggests, the authors were looking to go beyond an examination of piracy wholly on its own, and sought instead to link predation on the high seas to the maritime littoral in general, and to sea-based cities in particular, in their analysis. The thirteen chapters in the book are united in keeping the focus of attention on sea-strand relations, and one never seems to be too far from the other in the three hundred pages that make up this book. This in itself is an innovation of sorts, as many earlier attempts to deal with piracy in Asia have dwelt too much on the high seas and not enough (perhaps) on the coasts that supply people, ships, and material to make piracy possible in the adjacent waterways"" (Southeast Asian Studies).

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Book SynopsisProvides background information on Acehnese history, politics and culture, which will benefit expatriate aid workers as well as foreign and domestic scholars in their dealings with the people of Aceh. It is written by specialists of Indonesian and Acehnese studies from a number of countries.

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Book SynopsisThis is the first study by a Western scholar of a significant facet of the history of the Second World War - Japanese-trained independence and volunteer armies as agents of revolution and modernisation. At the time, the Japanese did not see that their military imprinting would affect a whole generation of political/military leadership of nations of post-Second World War Southeast Asia. Leaders like Suharto, Ne Win and Park are all products of Japanese military training.

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Book Synopsis“In 1511, a Portuguese expedition under the command of Afonso de Albuquerque arrived on the shores of Malacca, taking control of the prosperous Malayan port-city after a swift military campaign. Portugal, a peripheral but then technologically advanced country in southwestern Europe since the latter fifteenth century, had been in the process of establishing solid outposts all along Asia's litoral in order to participate in the most active and profitable maritime trading routes of the day. As it turned out, the Portuguese presence and influence in the Malayan Peninsula and elsewhere in continental and insular Asia expanded far beyond the sphere of commerce and extended over time well into the twenty-first century. Five hundred years later, a conference held in Singapore brought together a large group of scholars from widely different national, academic and disciplinary contexts, to analyse and discuss the intricate consequences of Portuguese interactions in Asia over the longue dure. The result of these discussions is a stimulating set of case studies that, as a rule, combine original archival and/or field research with innovative historiographical perspectives. Luso-Asian communities, real and imagined, and Luso-Asian heritage, material and symbolic, are studied with depth and insight. The range of thematic, chronological and geographic areas covered in these proceedings is truly remarkable, showing not only the extraordinary relevance of revisiting Luso-Asian interactions in the longer term, but also the surprising dynamism within an area of studies which seemed on the verge of exhaustion. After all, archives from all over the world, from Rio de Janeiro to London, from Lisbon to Rome, and from Goa to Macao, might still hold some secrets on the subject of Luso-Asian relations, when duly explored by resourceful scholars.” —Rui M. Loureiro Centro de Historia de Alem-Mar, Lisbon

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Book SynopsisIn 1511, a Portuguese expedition under the command of Afonso de Albuquerque arrived on the shores of Malacca, taking control of the prosperous Malayan port-city after a swift military campaign. Portugal, a peripheral but then technologically advanced country in southwestern Europe since the latter fifteenth century, had been in the process of establishing solid outposts all along Asia's litoral in order to participate in the most active and profitable maritime trading routes of the day. As it turned out, the Portuguese presence and influence in the Malayan Peninsula and elsewhere in continental and insular Asia expanded far beyond the sphere of commerce and extended over time well into the twenty-first century. This two-volume set pulls together several interdisciplinary studies historicising Portuguese 'legacies' across Asia over a period of approximately five centuries (ca. 1511-2011). It is especially recommended to readers interested in the broader aspects of the early European presence in Asia, and specifically on questions of politics, colonial administration, commerce, societal interaction, integration, identity, hybridity, religion and language.

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Book SynopsisHow did imported technology contribute to the development of the colony of Singapore? Who were the main agents of change in this process? Was there extensive transfer and diffusion of Western science and technology into the port-city? How did the people respond to change? Examining areas such as shipping, port development, telegraphs and wireless, urban water supply and sewage disposal, economic botany, electrification, food production and retailing, science and technical education, and health, this book documents the role of technology and, to a smaller extent, science, in the transformation of colonial Singapore before 1940. In doing so, this book hopes to provide a new dimension to the historiography of Singapore from a ""science, technology and society"" perspective.

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Book SynopsisWith China's transformation into a republic after two millennia as an empire as the starting point, Ooi Kee Beng prompts renowned historian Wang Gungwu through a series of interviews to discuss China, Europe, Southeast Asia and India. What emerges is an exciting and original World History that is neither Eurocentric nor Sinocentric. if anything, it is an appreciation of the dominant role that central Asia played in the history of most of mankind over the last several thousand years.The irrepressible power of the Eurasian core over the centuries explains much of the development of civilizations founded on the fringes - and its edges to the west, the east and the south. Most significantly, what is recognised as The Global Age today, is seen as the latest result of these conflicts between core and edge leading at the Atlantic fringe to human mastery of the sea - in military and mercantile terms. In effect, human history, which had for centuries been configured by continental dynamics, has only quite recently established a new dimension to counteract these. In summary, Wang Gungwu argues convincingly that “The Global is Maritime”.

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Book SynopsisSingapore's collection of Southeast Asian animals–one of the world's largest–dates back to the old Raffles Museum, officially established in 1878.With the opening of the Lee Kong Chian Natural History Museum in 2015, the original Raffles Museum has ""reincarnated"" and the loop on its remarkable 127-year history has closed. Beneath the sleek exterior of today's modern museum building lies a saga of titanic struggles and changes. That the collections survived at all–through the multiple challenges of the nineteenth century, the disruption of World War Two, and its potential disintegration in the face of Singapore's modernization–is nothing short of miraculous. This book is not only an institutional history of the museum but also tells the story of frustrations, commitment and courage of the numerous individuals who battled officialdom, innovated endlessly and overcame the odds to protect Singapore's natural history heritage. The book features 108 historical photographs and natural history illustrations printed in full colour throughout.Trade Review"Of Whales and Dinosaurs provides a solid introduction to Singapore’s natural history collection, and to the island-state’s often fraught relationship with its heritage and environment."Sojourn

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Book SynopsisIn this book, Andrea Benvenuti discusses the development of Australia’s foreign and defense policies toward Malaya and Singapore in light of the redefinition of Britain’s imperial role in Southeast Asia and the formation of new postcolonial states. Benvenuti sheds light on the impact of Britain on Australia’s political and strategic interests in Southeast Asia during the Cold War. It will be of interest to historians of Australia’s foreign relations, Southeast Asia, and the British Empire and decolonization.

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Book SynopsisEver since Singapore became an independent nation in 1965, its government has been intent on transforming the island’s environment. This has led to a nearly constant overhaul of the landscape, whether still natural or already manmade. Not only are the shape and dimensions of the main island and its subsidiary ones constantly modified so are their relief and hydrology. No stone is left unturned, literally, and, one could add, nor is a single cultural feature, be it a house, a factory, a road or a cemetery. Given one of Singapore’s unique features, namely that the state is the sole landlord, all types of property in all parts of the island, rural as well as urban, were and remain subject to expropriation, fortunately always with due compensation. This atlas illustrates, essentially through diachronic mapping of the changing distribution of all forms of land use, the universality of what has become a tool of social management. By constantly “replanning” the rules of access to space, the Singaporean State is thus redefining territoriality, even in its minute details. This is one reason it has been able to consolidate its control over civil society, peacefully and to an extent rarely known in history.

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Book SynopsisChina and Europe have had a storied, and at times stormy, relationship. Yet their relationship is hardly one of a simple, binary exchange. Instead, their roles are best described as entangled. This exchange has a physical manifestation in the world of garden design, as artists on both continents engaged in complex processes of appropriation, crossover, and transformation.Entangled Landscapes focuses on the exchange of ideas of landscape practice between Europe and China in the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries. Yue Zhuang and Andrea M. Riemenschnitter explore this through three themes – empire-building, mediators’ constraints, and aesthetic negotiations. They challenge our assumptions about how China and Europe influenced one another and go beyond well-documented outcomes like the jardin anglo-chinois and Européenerie styles. Interdisciplinary and revisionist, this brings the critical spirit of postcolonial studies to art history and will appeal to scholars in fields such as comparative literature and visual culture, history, and human geography.

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Book SynopsisFor forty-four months during World War II, the Japanese occupied Singapore, renaming it Syonan and setting out to drastically change life on the island. As part of the occupation, the Japanese created a research bureau, the Chosabu, to study occupied Singapore. The bureau’s detailed reports on the economy covered prices, wages, currency, rationing, living standards, food production, and industrialization. Syonan’s military and civilian administrators drew on them when formulating social and economic policies.The reports were notoriously difficult to read, and so this exceptional translation by Gregg Huff and Shinobu Majima is a true linguistic accomplishment. These records are an invaluable record of life during this tumultuous period and are especially important as the Japanese destroyed most records of their wartime administration, leaving the Chosabu reports as one of the few first-hand sources to have survived. Introductory chapters by the editors position the reports against wartime events in Singapore and examine the careers of the Chosabu authors and the places they occupy in the history of Japanese economic thought.

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Book SynopsisTrade Review“In this most significant contemporary study of Indonesian trade unions and the broader working class, Max Lane provides a concise and informed examination of the practical and ideological challenges of incipient labour organizations engaged in political and popular struggles in an underdeveloped nation. This detailed and highly informative book evokes similar historical and comparative struggles of exploited workers worldwide and is indispensable for students of labour movements in the Global South.” - Immanuel Ness, Professor of Political Science, City University of New York, author of Southern Insurgency: The Coming of the Global Working Class“Given the potential importance of Indonesian trade unions and labour politics, and the shortage of general analyses of the complicated issues and conflicts, as well as the myriad of groups, this historical overview of the radical efforts in particular is most welcome and useful. Unavoidably, there is a focus on certain issues and explanatory factors. But one does not have to agree on all of them to benefit from Lane’s insightful accounts and analyses.” - Olle Törnquist, Professor of Political Science and Development Research, University of Oslo“It is impossible to understand the dynamics of trade union politics in Indonesia without an appreciation of the historical legacies of the New Order and its authoritarian controls over labour as well as the labour radicalism that emerged as a reaction to it. In this important study, Max Lane provides a sharp and detailed analysis of the impact of both legacies upon contemporary trade unions, the ongoing tensions between them, and possible future trajectories.” - Ian Wilson, Asia Research Centre, Murdoch University

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Book SynopsisThis article traces China’s foreign policy transformation from 2013 to the present. It also examines Deng Xiaoping’s doctrinal response to the political crises of 1989–91 and compares it to current Chinese foreign policy doctrines. From the early 1980s until the 2010s, China’s foreign policy has generally focused on keeping a low profile. Deng’s Tao Guang Yang Hui foreign policy doctrine is characterized by its “No’s”, while Xi Jinping’s Xin Xing is marked by its “New’s”. The move from Tao Guang Yang Hui to Xin Xing is a major doctrinal shift in China’s foreign policy. Since the 19th Party Congress in 2017, Xi’s “new” narratives have seemingly dominated Chinese foreign policy. However, old principles, particularly that of “non-interference” or “no hegemony”, are still alive, albeit in a different form.This transformation is driven by three forces, which this paper describes in the 3As framework: China’s Ambition to be a “great country” and a “non-hegemon” in a changing world; its provision of Alternatives to fill the gaps in regional and global governance structures; and its Adaptation to what it deems as “unprecedented major changes in a century” (Da Bian Ju). As China undergoes this foreign policy transformation, contradictions and dilemmas inevitably emerge. While China’s foreign policy transformation is currently being disrupted by the coronavirus crisis, there have been adjustments which were already apparent before the crisis. The ambitious “One Belt and One Road” strategy, for instance, was replaced by the “Belt and Road Initiative”; “constructive intervention” was replaced by “constructive role”; and “common destiny” was replaced by “shared future”. Looking ahead, China’s foreign policy transformation could include more strategic or, at least, tactical adjustments.

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Book SynopsisTrade ReviewEver since the dissertation of Th. Pigeaud was published in 1926, the Tantu Panggelaran has both intrigued and perplexed scholars of the cultural history of Java. Despite Pigeaud's translation and copious notes much remained uncertain and his comments were not easily accessible except to readers of Dutch. Now, the publication of Threads of the Unfolding Web has breathed new life into studies of this rare exemplar of the literature of the 'period of transition' in sixteenth century Java. This collaborative volume combines the skills of Stuart Robson, a senior in the field of translation from Old Javanese, and Hadi Sidomulyo, whose deep interest in the early history of Java combines attention to the inscriptional record with field work using GPS technology to locate and describe archaeological remains spread throughout Java. As a result you have before you a volume that illustrates the close linkages between a literary text describing the mythical foundations of the ?aiva ascetic communities of the Javanese Rsi order and the geophysical coordinates of these communities as far as they can be traced today. This combination represents a giant leap forward for studies of the Tantu Panggelaran. We owe the authors a debt of gratitude for the years of work that lay behind the completion of this important volume."- Thomas M. Hunter, Lecturer in South-Southeast Asian Studies, University of British Columbia.

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Book SynopsisUpdated by popular demand, this is the fourth edition of this important bibliography. It lists a wide selection of works on or about Myanmar published in English and in hard copy since the 1988 pro-democracy uprising, which marked the beginning of a new era in Myanmar's modern history. There are now 2,727 titles listed. They have been written, edited, translated or compiled by over 2,000 people, from many different backgrounds. These works have been organized into thirty-five subject chapters containing ninety-five discrete sections. There are also four appendices, including a comprehensive reading guide for those unfamiliar with Myanmar or who may be seeking guidance on particular topics. This book is an invaluable aid to officials, scholars, journalists, armchair travellers and others with an interest in this fascinating but deeply troubled country.

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Book SynopsisSoutheast Asia's growing economic linkages with China have generated political opportunities and strategic concerns in equal measure. This study provides a fuller picture of Chinese investments in Southeast Asia for those seeking to understand its significance and impacts. From their carefully constructed dataset, Goh and Liu provide a regionwide, multi-sectoral analysis quantitative survey and analysis of key changes in Chinese investments in Southeast Asian economies over fifteen years, from 2005 to 2019. Additionally, they provide a qualitative assessment of the geopolitical significance of these trends and patterns. Thus, this study creates a baseline understanding of more recent Chinese investments in the region. In the near future, when a feasible data series can be collated for the years from 2020, it will also allow a sharper analysis of the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on Chinese investments in the region.

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Book SynopsisUnderstanding Development.- Development from the Sociological Perspective.- Development Policies, Plans, and Programs in South Asia.- Rural Development in South Asia.- Urbanization and Development in South Asia.- Alternative Approach to Development.- Development as an Environmental Concern.- Discourses of Development in South Asia.- A Composite Model of Development: Limitations of SDGs, Challenges, and Way Forward.

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Book Synopsis.- Foreword I.- Foreword II.- Preface.- The Warring States and Ancient Greece.- Introduction.- Chapter I   The Warring States.- Chapter II   Ancient Greece.- Conclusion.- The Qin and Han Dynasties and Ancient Rome.- Introduction.- Chapter I   Two Civilizations.- Chapter II   The Western Han Dynasties.- Chapter III   The Roman Empire.- Conclusion.- Ancient China and Rome under the Alien Rule.- Introduction.- Chapter I   The “Five Northerners” Entering the Central Plains.- Chapter II   Germanic Invasions of the Western Roman Empire.- Chapter III   Europe, China, and Their Civilizational Choices.- Conclusion.

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Book SynopsisThe Ocean and Marine Research Vessels.- Features of Research Vessels.- Overcoming Challenges and Building the Foundation.- Forging Ahead and Heading Towards the Deep Blue.- Scaling New Heights and Striding Towards the Forefront.- Ocean Management and Offshore Survey.- Enterprising Design Teams.- Outlook for the Development of Research Vessels.

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Book SynopsisChapter 1: Cold War Redux Amidst Great Power Rivalry: The Rise of the Global Right, the Quad and China.- Chapter 2: Japan's Resurgence as a Neoconservative State: Towards Constitutional Revisionism & Great Power Status.- Chapter 3: The United States' Neoconservative Turn: American First and the Containment of China.- Chapter 4: The Emergence of the Conservative Right and Australia's Relations with China and the United States.- Chapter 5: India and Global Conservative Movement.- Chapter 6: Cold War Redux The Rise of the Global Right and The Revival of the Cold War.

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