Eric Tagliacozzo, Helen F. Siu, and Peter C. Perdue, editors.Asia Inside Out: Changing Times.Eric Tagliacozzo, Helen F. Siu, and Peter C. Perdue, editors.Asia Inside Out: Connected Places.

Abstract

In 1961, John R. W. Smail published his seminal essay, “On the Possibility of an Autonomous History of Modern Southeast Asia” (Journal of Southeast Asian History 2, no. 2: 72–102). Smail sought the contours of an “autonomous history of Southeast Asia, hitherto largely hidden by our preoccupation with the impact of colonial rule” (100). He insisted, quoting the British geographer D. G. E. Hall, that Southeast Asia was “an area worthy of consideration in its own right, and not merely when brought into contact with China, India or the West” (77). Smail’s intervention remains a touchstone—a reminder of how much we miss when we lose sight of local perspectives and local experiences. In its own way, his was a call to look at Asia from the “inside out.” But Smail and his colleagues were also committed to treating Southeast Asia as a clearly defined, coherent region—one with clear boundaries, easily distinguishable from “East” and “South” Asia.