South East Asia Community Research Articles

From idioms of distress, concern, and care to moral distress leading to moral injury in the time of Covid.

In this invited commentary on the thematic issue of Transcultural Psychiatry on idioms of distress, concern, and care, I provide a brief overview of how my research agenda evolved over the years while conducting community and clinic-based research in South and Southeast Asia as well as North America. I then suggest areas where future research on idioms of distress, concern, care, and resilience will be needed among different demographics given social change and shifts in how we communicate face to face and in virtual reality, the impact of medicalization, pharmaceuticalization and bracket creep, changes in indigenous healing systems, and hybridization. I further call attention to the importance of conducting idioms guided research in occupational settings. Toward this end I highlight the moral distress health care workers in the U.S. have experienced during the Covid-19 pandemic and point out the importance of differentiating individual burnout from moral injury related to structural distress. I conclude by discussing the general utility of an idioms of distress perspective in the practice of cultural psychiatry and suggest that this perspective needs to be included in the training of all practitioners regardless of the system of medicine they practice. Doing so may enable the formation of mental health communities of practice in contexts where there are pluralistic health care arenas.

CULTURAL VALUES OF THE HOA PEOPLE COMMUNITY IN HOI AN (VIETNAM)

The article studies the cultural values of the Hoa people (The Chinese people) community in Hoi An (Vietnam). In particular, in the field of material culture, the author of this article delves into the architecture, costumes, and cuisine of the Hoa people in Hoi An. Considering the spiritual culture aspect, the article examines the core contents in terms of religion, belief, language, customs, and practices of the Chinese community here. At the same time, clarify the cultural exchange between Vietnam and China to create the cultural identity of Hoi An today. To conduct research on this issue, the author relies on original documents and academic achievements of Vietnamese and international scholars. The author combines two main methods of History, namely the historical method and the logical method, with other research methods such as analysis, synthesis, comparison, etc., to complete the study’s contents. The article will contribute to clarifying the cultural values of the Chinese community in Southeast Asia as well as in Vietnam and Hoi An in particular.

J.C. van Leur and the Problematic Origins of “Autonomous” Indonesian History

The main purpose of this article is to criticize J.C. van Leur's reputation as a Dutch historian who had been very vocal in criticizing his predecessors regarding Indonesian history. For modern Indonesian historians, van Leur is seen as a pioneer to reverse the perspective of a centric Western perspective to an Indonesian centric point of view. The Western centric point of view places Indonesian history as an extension of the Dutch history in Europe so that it is clear that Indonesian history does not have autonomy. However, van Leur's critique is true for the history of Indonesia during the Dutch colonial period, not for critiques of the pre-colonial period. To critically review van Leur's conception of Indonesia's historical autonomy, this article will take a close look at the intellectual trends that Van Leur responded to. This article argues that van Leur's research is very deductive by making the claim that the picture of the past trading community in Southeast Asia is proving to be misguided. This article finds that one of van Leur's weaknesses is that he conducts historical research that is thesis-driven, not research-based, and his belief in a thesis has prompted him to impose totality on Western categories of Southeast Asian history. The use of Max Weber's model in analyzing history actually makes van Leur's analysis of Southeast Asian history not even fully autonomous

China's Muslims and Japan's Empire: Centering Islam in World War II by Kelly A. Hammond

Reviewed by: China's Muslims and Japan's Empire: Centering Islam in World War II by Kelly A. Hammond Selçuk Esenbel (bio) China's Muslims and Japan's Empire: Centering Islam in World War II. By Kelly A. Hammond. University of North Carolina Press, 2020. xviii, 294 pages. $95.00, cloth; $29.95, paper, $22.99, E-book. In China's Muslims and Japan's Empire: Centering Islam in World War II, Kelly Hammond examines the Japanese empire's cultivation of China's [End Page 453] Muslims—primarily Sino-Muslims—amidst the multiethnic composition of the Japanese-occupied territories in China. Identified as regional collaborators in East Asia, Sino-Muslims were also designated as representatives of Japan's interests in the wider world of Islam beyond East Asia, reaching out to Muslim communities in South East Asia, the Middle East, and North Africa through their longstanding transnational network across the Muslim world. The book's first chapter discusses Japan's growing interest in Sino-Muslims from the Meiji period through the puppet regime of Manchukuo until the end of World War II. The second chapter exposes the difficult situation of Sino-Muslims "sitting on a bamboo fence" between the Chinese Nationalists and the Japanese empire. The third chapter situates Sino-Muslims in the Japanese empire's Islam policy projects to "undermine Soviet Communism and Western imperialism" (p. 109)—projects such as presenting Japan as the savior of Islam, the 1938 opening of the Tokyo Mosque, and providing haven to anticolonial and anti-imperialist Muslims and to Tatar Muslims. The latter were officially designated as Japan's Muslims. The Japanese authorities built mosques, erected schools for the education of Sino-Muslim men and women, and sponsored the 1938 Sino-Muslim religious pilgrimage (Hajj) to Mecca and Medina and the pilgrimages of Japanese Muslim agents during the 1930s. The government formed the Greater Japan Islamic League (Dai Nippon Kaikyō Kyōkai) in Tokyo in 1938 for Islamoriented public relations propaganda, with General Hayashi Senjurō as its president and the Russian Muslim Tatar religious cleric-activist Abdurresid Ibrahim as the Muslim "face" of the organization. In 1937 Japanese authorities had already founded the All China Muslim League in Beijing with Wang Ruilan as chairman and Takagaki Shinzō as the Japanese advisor. Chapter 4 moves on to the deployment of Sino-Muslims in Japan's aspirational empire in regions beyond East Asia, discussing the reports of the Greater Japan League which argued in favor of using Sino-Muslims as a "model" for modern Muslims and as a commercial network to sell tea in the Middle East and North Africa as part of Japanese "cultural diplomacy." The final chapter 5 and the conclusion link Japan's policy toward Islam with fascist entanglements, whereby "Islamic spaces and overlapping interests" (p. 183) tied policies of the Japanese empire to those of Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy within the global fascist project. The book concludes that both the Chinese Nationalists and the Chinese Communists were in their postwar regimes impacted by Japan's Sino-Muslim policies factoring in the formation of Sino-Muslims as an ethnic community—Hui minzu. It ends with an epilogue on lessons of history, addressing the current violent and repressive Chinese oppression of Uyghurs. Highlighting the connection of Sino-Muslims to imperial Japan's prewar "Islam policy" (frequently termed kaikyō seisaku in the writings of [End Page 454] Japanese Pan-Asianist intellectuals such as Ōkawa Shūmei), Hammond makes particular use of the photographs, journals, and policy reports of the Greater Japan Islamic League, the Japanese government's propaganda and networking agency targeting Muslim lands near and far. Many publications on Islam in Japan were written by the first generation of Japan's own Islamic studies experts. These included the Arabist scholar Kobayashi Hajime, who was educated in Egypt and became an instructor in the Army Academy during the war; Tanaka Ippei, an expert on Chinese Muslims and interpreter for the Imperial Army; and the Japanese Muslim Suzuki Takeshi, who participated in and wrote about the Japanese Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca. Hammond tapped other rich materials deposited in Waseda University's Dai Nippon Kaikyō Kyōkai database, including the journals Isuramu (Islam) and...

Challenges and opportunities for breast cancer early detection among rural dwelling women in Segamat District, Malaysia: A qualitative study.

IntroductionBreast cancer patients in low- and middle-income countries often present at an advanced stage. This qualitative study elicited views regarding the challenges and opportunities for breast cancer screening and early detection among women in a low-income semi-rural community in Segamat district, Malaysia.MethodsIndividual semi-structured interviews with 22 people (health professionals, cancer survivors, community volunteers and member from a non-governmental organization) and four focus group discussions (n = 22 participants) with women from a local community were conducted. All participants were purposively sampled and female residents registered with the South East Asia Community Observatory aged ≥40 years were eligible to participate in the focus group discussions. Data were transcribed verbatim and analyzed using thematic analysis.ResultsThe thematic analysis illuminated barriers, challenges and opportunities across six domains: (i) personal experiences and barriers to help-seeking as well as financial and travel access barriers; (ii) primary care challenges (related to delivering clinical breast examination and teaching breast-self-examination); (iii) secondary care challenges (related to mammogram services); (iv) disconnection between secondary and primary care breast cancer screening pathways; and (v) opportunities to improve breast cancer early detection relating to community civil service society activities (i.e. awareness raising, support groups, addressing stigma/embarrassment and encouraging husbands to support women) and vi) links between public healthcare personnel and community (i.e. improving breast self-examination education, clinical breast examination provision and subsidised mammograms).ConclusionThe results point to a variety of reasons for low uptake and, therefore, to the complex nature of improving breast cancer screening and early detection. There is a need to adopt a systems approach to address this complexity and to take account of the socio-cultural context of communities in order, in turn, to strengthen cancer control policy and practices in Malaysia.

‘We are people of the Islands’: translocal belonging among the ethnic Chinese of the Riau Islands

ABSTRACT The Riau Islands Chinese are an anomaly in the study of Chinese Indonesians. For one, while many of their ethnic Chinese counterparts in other parts of Indonesia can no longer speak Chinese due to the New Order regime’s assimilation policy, Chinese languages are alive and well in the Riau Islands. Based on ethnographic fieldwork conducted in 2017–2018, this paper seeks to understand the Riau Islands Chinese’s cultural resilience and sense of belonging as a borderland ethnic minority. I argue that long-standing inter-Island and cross-border mobilities and cultural flows with Singapore have been central to the maintenance of Riau Islands Chinese identity. Utilising translocality as a theoretical framework to understand the processes of identity formation and place-making that transcend national borders, I contend that the case study of the Riau Islands Chinese challenges the conventional state-centric modes of analyses prevalent in the study of ethnic Chinese communities in Southeast Asia.

Madhhab Negotiation, Education Transformation and Conflict Resolution in Conveying the Sermon of Tablighi Jamaat in Southeast Asia

The article aims to understand the phenomena of practicing madhhab in the Tablighi Jamaat (TJ) community in Southeast Asia, particularly in Thailand, Malaysia, and Indonesia. The article also investigates the madhhab negotiation between TJ members and local people where the dawah occurs in a specific context. The article also looks at changes in religious educational program developed by TJ members that tend to be informal religious education. The majority of informal religious education surrounding TJ communities is tahfiz school (memorizing the Quran). TJ members are more interested in sending their children to tahfiz school than informal school and later become Islamic priests (kyai). They are not interested to semade their children take the university level. Besides, the article also concerns exploring another role of TJ in a socio-political context where they become facilitators to overcome the Pattani Muslim conflict with the Thai government. This research was conducted for a year in 2017-2018 (March 2017-April 2018) in three countries using ethnography approach during the process of collecting data by directly involved in Tablighi Jamaat activities. The mothed of collecting data used in this research was qualitative with observative participative technique, deep interview, and documentation. The result of the research shows that Jamaah Tabligh was successful negotiating the madhhab they believe to Muslim community with different Islamic point of view. Moreover, the shifting of education orientation was emerging in TJ community, the focus was on religious exegesis without paying attention on another aspect of education for their children. Parents of TJ have pride to be called a father of a hafiz than a doctor. Another finding was Jamaah Tablig have prominent role as a reconciliatory in Pattani, South Thailand that they earned trust from Thailand Government. Amid the deadlock of reconciliation of local Muslim who want to separate from the state of Thailand with regression that created violence, bombing and arresting the activist, Jamaah tablig was there as their guarantor.

Species and spatio-environmental effects on coral endosymbiont communities in Southeast Asia

Species and spatio-environmental effects on coral endosymbiont communities in Southeast Asia

Contributors

Contributors

The Spice Route and The Sub-Urban Muslim Community in South East Asia

The spice route is the route that the spice trade passes from its home country, the Maluku Islands in particular, and the Archipelago Islands in general to other countries in the world. The spice route is thought to have existed for several centuries BC. The spice route stretches from the Maluku Islands/Nusantara to Malaya, India, Persia, Arabia, Egypt, to Europe. The Arabs took part in the spice trade from the Archipelago and the Persians, Indians, Malays, and the Chinese. When the Arabs embraced Islam and followed by the Persians and Indians, they passed and controlled the trade in the spice route. Since the first century to the twelfth century AD, Indian civilization with Hinduism and Buddhism dominated society and politics in Southeast Asia. Even the still Hindu solid kingdom in Java lasted until the end of the fifteenth century. During such a period, the Muslims became members of the marginalized communities on the spice route under the shadow of Hinduistic hegemony. However, they can play a role in the Islamization of the Southeast Asian Region through the spice route. Gradually the Muslims can shift the Hindu/Buddhist civilization and establish political power and build Islamic civilization. Islamic civilization includes, among others, the development of Islamic religious knowledge, shaping Islamic traditions in society, advancing education, and establishing political power. The writer used the 4-step historical method in this study, namely heuristics, criticism, interpretation, and historiography. He also applied acculturation theory to discuss this theme. Given the limited time, secondary sources were used to write this research.

Frequent Eating Out and 10-Year Cardiovascular Disease Risk: Evidence from a Community Observatory in Malaysia.

Despite increasing mortality rates from cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) in low- and middle-income countries, information on the estimation of 10-year CVD risk remains to be sparse. Therefore, this study was aimed at predicting the 10-year CVD risk among community dwellers in Malaysia and at identifying the association of distal (socioeconomic characteristics) and proximal (lifestyle practices) factors with 10-year CVD risk. We calculated the 10-year CVD risk score among 11,897 eligible respondents from the community health survey conducted by the South East Asia Community Observatory (SEACO) using the Framingham risk score (FRS). The findings indicate that 28% of respondents have a high chance of having CVD within the next ten years. After adjusting for the age of respondents, demographic and socioeconomic factors such as gender, ethnicity, marital status, education, income, and occupation had an association with the 10-year CVD risk. In addition, frequent eating out had an association with 10-year CVD risk, while physical activity was found to have no association with predicted CVD risk. CVD remained among the top five mortality causes in Malaysia. Health promotion strategies should emphasize the importance of having home-cooked meals as a healthy dietary behavior, to reduce the mortality rate among Malaysians due to CVDs.

Towards an Integrated Approach to Improve the Understanding of the Relationships Between Water-Borne Infections and Health Outcomes: Using Malaysia as a Detailed Case Study

As in many low- and middle-income countries around the world, thousands of local communities in Southeast Asia rely on river water to sustain their livelihoods. However, poor water quality threatens the health of both humans and ecosystems. The aim of this review was to examine the available literature to investigate how health outcomes in Malaysia have been studied and reported as directly attributable to human infections from river water. Computer-aided searches from 10 electronic databases were undertaken, with searches limited to the English language and publication dates since January 2010. The literature search revealed that the predominant river water infections identified in Malaysia were bacterial (coliforms,Salmonellaspp., typhoid, leptospirosis, melioidosis), viral (including dengue, hepatitis, enterovirus), parasitic infections including amoebiasis, giardiasis and cryptosporidiosis, helminth infections,Blastocystisinfections and sarcocystosis. No studies were found that have attempted to evaluate the impact of water related infection on human health longitudinally. Moreover, the possibility of integrated water governance systems that could reduce infection and improve water quality, particularly for marginalized groups have not been discussed or studied. Several cross-sectional studies identified infections at a point in time, but large longitudinal data sets of water infection parameters and how they influence human health outcomes have not been reported. Using Malaysia as a demonstration case study, we suggest a number of recommendations based on using a systems approach to tackle the challenges involved in data collection and integration, which is central to the understanding, strategic planning and management of water-borne infections.

Editorial: Improved Understanding of Firebrand Processes During Large Scale Fire Disasters

In addition, the rise of informal settlement communities in Southeast Asia and Africa continues to result in large outdoor fires capable of great destruction.A common feature in the rapid spread of large outdoor fires are the generation of smaller combustible fragments from the original fire source, referred to as firebrands. In the case of WUI fires, the production of firebrands occurs from the combustion dynamics of vegetative, such as trees and shrubs, and human-made fuel elements, such as homes and other structures. For urban fires and informal settlement fires, firebrands are produced primarily from human-made fuel elements.Firebrand combustion has a series of important aspects: initial generation or formation from the combustion of both vegetative and structural fuel types, transport, deposition, and ignition of fuel sources generally far removed the original fire source. Post-fire investigations, for WUI fires, have reported that firebrand processes are responsible for a majority of structure losses in these fires [https://link.springer.com/referenceworkentry/10.1007/978-3-319-51727-8_46-1].

Infection-Derived Monocytic MDSCs Require TGF-β to Suppress Filarial-Specific IFN-γ But Not IL-13 Release by Filarial-Specific CD4+ T Cells In Vitro

Lymphatic filariasis (LF) remains a major health problem with severe economic repercussions in endemic communities of Sub-saharan Africa, South-East Asia and South America. The rodent-specific nematode Litomosoides sigmodontis (Ls) is used to study the immunomodulatory potential of filariae and research has elucidated pathways involving regulatory T cells (Tregs), IL-10 producing cells and alternatively activated macrophages (AAMs) and that CD4+ T cells play a paramount role during infection. Myeloid-derived suppressor cells (MDSCs) have been identified and characterised in man in cancer and other pathologies. The hallmark of MDSC populations is the suppression of T and B cell responses using various mechanisms, which are mostly specific to the pathology or setting. However, until now, it remains unclear whether they play a role in filarial-specific responses. We report here that monocytic MDSCs (Mo-MDSCs, CD11b+Ly6C+Ly6G-) and polymorphonuclear MDSCs (PMN-MDSCs, CD11b+Ly6Cint/loLy6G+) expanded in the thoracic cavity (TC, the site of infection) and correlated positively with filarial life-stages in Ls-infected BALB/c mice. In vitro, only infection-derived Mo-MDSCs showed a suppressive nature by preventing IL-13 and IFN-γ secretion from filarial-specific CD4+ T cells upon co-culture with soluble worm extract. This suppression was not mediated by IL-10, IL-6 or TNF-α, and did not require cell-contact, nitric oxide (NO), IL-4/IL-5 signalling pathways or CCR2. Interestingly, neutralizing TGF-β significantly rescued IFN-γ but not IL-13 production by filarial-specific CD4+ T cells. In comparison to naive cells, PCR array data showed an overall down-regulation of inflammatory pathways in both infection-derived Mo-MDSCs and PMN-MDSCs. In conclusion, these primary data sets show activity and expansion of MDSCs during Ls infection adding this regulatory cell type to the complex milieu of host responses during chronic helminth infections.

Building from the Ground Up: The Archaeology of Residential Spaces and Communities in Southeast Asia

Despite the ethnographic importance of the Southeast Asian house and household, an explicitly Southeast Asian “household archaeology” is still in its infancy. Nevertheless, archaeologists in Southeast Asia have undertaken excavations within habitation areas and residential spaces, identifying domestic debris, the partial remains of house structures, and activity areas. As a result, archaeologists of Southeast Asia have addressed many topics of relevance to those who use a household archaeology approach, including the identification and description of houses and household activities; the domestic economy; domestic ritual; diversity and variability both within houses as related to questions of identity, specifically gender and age, and between houses, especially as related to status; and identification of supra-household communities. In this review, I consider how archaeologists have addressed these themes using examples from a diverse set of geographic locations and time periods in mainland and island Southeast Asia. I conclude with suggestions for future research directions to continue building an archaeology of residential spaces and communities in Southeast Asia.

Feasibility and Acceptability of a Dietary Intervention to Reduce Salt Intake and Increase High-Nitrate Vegetable Consumption in Malaysian Middle-Aged and Older Adults with Elevated Blood Pressure: Findings from the DePEC-Nutrition Trial.

The DePEC-Nutrition trial is a complex dietary and behavioural intervention of salt intake reduction combined with increased high-nitrate vegetable consumption among Malaysian middle-aged and older adults with elevated blood pressure. This study aimed to assess the feasibility and acceptability of the trial. Participants were recruited from the South East Asia Community Observatory (SEACO) database and randomised into one of four groups: (1) low salt; (2) high-nitrate vegetable; (3) combined high-nitrate vegetable and low salt; and (4) control. The intervention included a combination of group counselling sessions, information booklets, reinforcement videos and text messages to modify dietary behaviour. The primary outcomes evaluated were the measures of feasibility and acceptability of (1) recruitment, follow-up attendance and retention; (2) data collection procedures and clinical outcome measures; and (3) individual and combined multi-modal dietary interventions. A total of 74 participants were recruited, and the 10-month retention rate was 73%. Data collection procedures were acceptable with minimal missing data. All intervention strategies were feasible and acceptable, with group counselling being the most acceptable strategy. This study provides important insights into improving the screening process of participants, facilitating their access to the research facilities and refining the measurement protocols and dietary recommendations, which are instrumental in formulating the design of a full-scale definitive DePEC-Nutrition trial.

On Unraveling Community Ignition Processes: Joint Influences of Firebrand Showers and Radiant Heat Applied to Fuel Beds

ABSTRACT Devastating large outdoor fires have been responsible for the destruction of vast amounts of infrastructure and the loss of human life. Wildland fires that spread into urban areas, known as wildland-urban interface (WUI) fires, are capable of enormous destruction. WUI fires are distinct from wildland fires; WUI fires include the combustion of both vegetative and human-made fuels and occur where population centers exist, whereas wildland fires include the combustion of vegetative fuels and occur in uninhabited areas. The rise of densely populated urban areas has also seen the development of large urban fires. In addition, the rise of informal settlement communities in Southeast Asia and Africa continues to result in large outdoor fires capable of great destruction. As a wildland fire reaches an urban area, structure-to-structure fire spread processes will occur via the same mechanisms as those in informal settlement fires and urban fires: radiant heat, direct flame contact, and firebrands. Firebrands are in fact the main culprit to destroy structures in large outdoor fires. An additional complication is related to the showers of firebrands produced in large outdoor fires from vegetative and structural fuel combustion, and in the presence of the combustion of these fuel types, there is also radiant heat produced that may only enhance ignition processes. These combined ignition processes have been overlooked and are the subject of this experimental investigation. To this end, a custom experimental apparatus that produces firebrand showers, in the presence of applied radiant heat, was installed inside a wind facility. The firebrand generator was tuned to produce firebrands typical of those quantified from the combustion of structures and the coupled influences of firebrand showers and radiant heat, under various wind speeds was determined. The total firebrand mass for smoldering ignition (SI) decreased as the wind speed and preheating time increased. In all experiments, SI was observed to transition to flaming ignition (FI). To better understand the experimental observations, a simple model was developed and is presented.

The Teochew Chinese of Thailand

The Chinese moved into ancient Siam to escape poverty in Yunan Province of China and to find work as merchants, traders, craftsmen, and farmers. This paper focuses on the Teochew Chinese of Thailand because they peacefully formed the first mercantilist associations while increasing local employment. After the 1932 coup, the number of Chinese tripled in number due to the conducive work environment. By 1945, at least 5% of Siamese had become political leaders, and by the 1970s. Today, Thai-Chinese make up around 15.5%, while 53% of Thai prime ministers are of Chinese descent, including Teochew-Chinese Thais such as Thaksin Shinawatra and Yingluck Shinawatra. Generations of Chinese migrants to Siam and modern Thailand have maintained and fostered Chinese customs and traditions for many centuries. This paper looks at the Chinese communities in Southeast Asia in general and in Thailand in particular. The paper represents the findings of the author’s original fieldwork on the Teochew Chinese of Krung Thep Maha Nakorn.

The Tokugawa World ed. by Gary P. Leupp and De-min Tao

Reviewed by: The Tokugawa World ed. by Gary P. Leupp and De-min Tao Laura Nenzi The Tokugawa World. Edited by Gary P. Leupp and De-min Tao. Oxon and New York: Routledge, 2021. 1198 pages. ISBN: 9781138936850 (hardcover; also available as e-book). What did the shogun do during a solar eclipse? Was smoking tobacco commonplace in Edo? How did the experience of a female hairdresser differ from that of her male counterparts? How did urban dwellers dispose of human excrement, and how did rural theater producers obtain costumes for their plays? The answers to these questions are all included in this extensive examination of the Tokugawa world—its cities, villages, and oceanic spaces; its samurai and commoners; its men, women, and children; its hegemons, weavers, performers, propertyless urban workforce, and outcastes; its tea masters, haiku poets, and Confucian scholars; its pilgrims, teachers, and seafaring merchants. The Tokugawa World, edited by Gary P. Leupp and De-min Tao, includes contributions by a combination of emerging and established scholars hailing from Europe, North America, East Asia, Australia, and Israel. A very short introduction (four pages) outlines the basic features of the Tokugawa era—the Great Peace, controlled interactions with the outside world, the status system, and urbanization. The sixty-four chapters that follow are organized in eleven thematic parts: "National Reunification, 1563–1603," "The Physical Landscape," "Tokugawa Society," "Family, Gender, Sexuality, and Reproduction," "Tokugawa Economy," "Tokugawa Japan in the World," "The Performing Arts and Sport," "Art and Literature," "Religion and Thought," "Education and Science," and an epilogue on bakumatsu. The topics within each section offer a very rich picture of life in Tokugawa Japan. In what other edited volume will one find as many as three chapters on music culture and two on shunga? Not all aspects of the Tokugawa world are given equal attention, which is to be expected. As the editors admit, institutional history is out, and studies of peasant resistance are now on life support. Interest in gender and women's history, while far from new, remains strong. Anything related to globalization, popular culture, and "the commodification of everything" is currently trending (p. 4). With no fewer than ten chapters, the "Tokugawa Japan in the World" section is tellingly the longest [End Page 330] in the book, a sign not only of welcome new directions within the field but also of broader trends in historical research. The chapters in each section are not in any particular order—certainly not chronological—although those in part 1, "National Reunification, 1563–1603," are an obvious exception. "Tokugawa Japan in the World," for example, opens with Kären Wigen's beautiful chapter on nineteenth-century maps, followed by Travis Seifman's compelling and enjoyable examination of sixteenth- and seventeenth-century diasporic settler communities in Southeast Asia. The historiographical debate on the "closed country" is introduced in the third chapter, Noémi Godefroy's excellent study of Ezo-chi from a global and very, very longue durée perspective, and returns again six chapters later in the equally strong contribution by Xing Hang, "Selective Sakoku?" (note the question mark). While the size of the volume is intimidating at over 1,100 pages, its content is in fact a surprisingly fast and easy read thanks to the editors' choice to include many short chapters, varying in length between ten and thirty pages, that inform without overwhelming. The book, of course, is not meant to be read sequentially cover to cover, although that is certainly an option. There is, in this volume, a little bit for everyone, true to the editors' promise to make it appealing to "a wide spectrum of readers" (p. xxv). Some contributors revisit familiar arguments by summarizing their monographs; some narrate their intellectual, and often literal, journeys in search of source material (Shing-Ching Shyu on seventeenth-century Chinese émigrés and Wang Min on the cult of King Yu, for example). Others provide textbook-like synopses that will appeal to those new to the field (note the abundance of descriptive titles in the index), while others yet promote fresh perspectives and relatively new areas of inquiry (chapters on race and food come to mind). The shogunal capital of Edo...

The Teochew Chinese of Thailand

The Chinese moved into ancient Siam to escape poverty in Yunan Province of China and to find work as merchants, traders, craftsmen, and farmers. This paper focuses on the Teochew Chinese of Thailand because they peacefully formed the first mercantilist associations while increasing local employment. After the 1932 coup, the number of Chinese tripled in number due to the conducive work environment. By 1945, at least 5% of Siamese had become political leaders, and by the 1970s. Today, Thai-Chinese make up around 15.5%, while 53% of Thai prime ministers are of Chinese descent, including Teochew-Chinese Thais such as Thaksin Shinawatra and Yingluck Shinawatra. Generations of Chinese migrants to Siam and modern Thailand have maintained and fostered Chinese customsand traditions for many centuries. This paper looks at the Chinese communities in Southeast Asia in general and in Thailand in particular. The paper represents the findings of the author’s original fieldwork on the Teochew Chinese of Krung Thep Maha Nakorn.