Southeast Asian Nationalist Movements Research Articles

Southeast Asia. Women in Southeast Asian nationalist movements: A biographical approach Edited by Susan Blackburn and Helen Ting Singapore: NUS Press, 2013. Pp. 334. Maps, Photographs, Bibliography, Index.

Women in Southeast Asian nationalist movements: A biographical approach Edited by susan blackburn and helen ting Singapore: NUS Press, 2013. Pp. 334. Maps, Photographs, Bibliography, Index. Susan Blackburn and Helen Ting's anthology, Women in Southeast Asian nationalist movements, tells fascinating stories of 12 women who have been socially, politically, and militarily active in anti-colonial and independence struggles in seven countries in Southeast Asia from the early twentieth century to the present day. Each chapter is devoted to the life story of one or two women, most of whom have been forgotten or undervalued, despite considerable contributions to their respective struggles. What readers will see in this book are vivid and colourful stories of these women as independent journalists and writers; as professional military and intelligence officers; as fervent and stubborn guerrilla fighters in jungles; and as capable educators, propagandists, and politicians. As a whole, this anthology challenges conventional, male-dominated national histories, and convincingly shows that the histories of anti-colonial and independence movements in Southeast Asia cannot be written without recognising the considerable contributions made by women. What is particularly successful about this book is the method used in each chapter: a biographical approach that focuses on an individual's life story. In taking this classic and recently reappraised approach, the book successfully sheds light on the lives of a number of women, adding nuance to our understandings of decolonisation in Southeast Asia and further complicating long-standing discussions of relationships between women and nationalism. For example, Chie Ikeya tells the story of a forgotten woman (chap. 1), an independent and prolific Burmese writer and journalist, Daw San, who founded a popular weekly newspaper in the 1930s. Beyond simply introducing her life, Ikeya analyses the reason behind the amnesia, locating it in Daw San's unconventional attitudes and ways of life, which challenge existing norms concerning gender and femininity in Burmese society (p. 40). Most chapters, like Ikeya's, aim at shedding light on forgotten women and their roles in history, but some intend to reveal new aspects of well-known women. Micheline Lessard, for instance, focuses on the life of Nguyen Thi Giang, who, in today's Vietnam, is generally remembered in a dramatic and romanticised fashion as a tragic lovelorn woman who committed suicide after witnessing her husband's execution (chap. 2). In this chapter, however, she is depicted as a capable and professional propagandist and intelligence officer, who was even specifically watched by French intelligence due to her prominent roles. Lessard, thus, describes her suicide less as that of a tragic wife than as an officer in sheer despair (p. 70). In addition, this book's biographical approach is useful in analysing these women's motivations for joining their movements. To be sure, some were hard-core activists, like Nguyen Thi Giang, who from the beginning hoped for the independence of her homeland from French colonialism. However, several of them joined their movements for non-ideological and non-political reasons. Vatthana Pholsena tells the stories of two Laotian women who joined anti-colonial revolutionary movements in Laos largely as a result of their desire for a better education (chap. 8). In such cases, as Pholsena aptly describes, more politically-inspired motivations, whether faith in communism or hope for the liberation of women, matured progressively over the course of their struggles (pp. 207-8). This approach also reveals that family contexts often had crucial impacts on the lives and careers of these women. Welyne J. Jehom (chap. 7) provides a glimpse of the life of Lily Eberwein, a Western-educated and English-speaking Eurasian, who, following the early death of her Eurasian father, converted to Islam, adjusted to her mother's social and cultural contexts, and adopted Malay culture, language, identity, and, eventually, the political movement against the cession of Sarawak to British colonialism. …

Women in Southeast Asian Nationalist Movements ed. by Susan Blackburn & Helen Ting (review)

Reviewed by: Women in Southeast Asian Nationalist Movements ed. by Susan Blackburn & Helen Ting Badriyah Haji Salleh Women in Southeast Asian Nationalist Movements Susan Blackburn & Helen Ting (editors) Singapore: Singapore NUS Press, 2013. xi, 333 pp. ISBN 978-9971-69-674-0 Susan Blackburn and Helen Ting, who edited the twelve chapters (including the introduction and conclusion) of this book, have succeeded in highlighting the roles of women in nationalist movements in Southeast Asia. They and other researchers who wrote the chapters concerning selected women personalities in their individual states manage to bring out the different roles, approaches and motives they used to achieve their ultimate aims through their struggles that these women themselves (or the writers) perceived as nationalistic or even feminist. These women—Daw Sun of Burma, Nguyen Thi Giang from Vietnam, Suyatin Kartowiyono and Rasuna Said from Indonesia, Salud Algabrae from the Philippines, Shamsiah Fakeh, Aishah Ghani from West Malaysia and Lily Eberwein from Sarawak, Manivanh and Khamla from Laos, Rosa de Camara (Bisoi) of Timor-Leste and Zipporah Sein from the Karen state (Burma)—struggled for the independence of their countries or states and for the uplifting of women’s equal rights through social, political and military movements. The women studied fought for the independence of their states or ‘nations’ from the colonial powers. Yet the term ‘nation’ and ‘nationalism’ varied, as depicted by the subjects themselves. Personalities like Daw Sun (Burma), Suyatin and Rasuna (Indonesia), Shamsiah and Aishah (Malaya) struggled to free their countries and nations as a whole from the colonialists. For the first time their understanding of ‘nation’ included the territories that they believed to have common similarities in their culture and traditions, such as their religion or customs. Daw Sun addressed the people of Burma as a whole irrespective of the presence of different ethnicities in the country. As did Suyatin and Rasuna in Indonesia, a large territory formerly governed by individual states and rulers, and who began to recognize only one language, Bahasa Indonesia, as the common factor that could bind the people, and used it as the official language for ‘Bangsa Indonesia’ (Indonesian nation). Similarly, Shamsiah and Aishah fought for the independence of Malaya, which was placed for the first time under one government. On the other hand, Salud Algabrae, Lily Eberwein and Zipporah Sein fought for specific entities. [End Page 111] Algabrae fought for the peasants (Sakdal) against landlordism in the Philippines, Eberwein fought against the cession of Sarawak to Britain and Zipporah Sein for the minority ethnic Karen (and the state/territory) vis-à-vis the greater Burma. Their struggles were fired up by nationalist movements in their respective countries. To all the individuals studied, nationalist struggles were to free their nations from the colonial powers. But their understanding of ‘nation’ and motives for their struggles differed. Shamsiah, who was a member of the Malayan Communist Party, believed that the Malayan nation should include all communities across ethnic boundaries. Not so with Aishah, who was a member of the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO), and who felt that the ‘nation’ should be focused only on the Malays, while the non-Malays were considered as immigrants. However, Lily Eberwein—a Eurasian from Sarawak—fought to retain the Brooke family as rulers (although the Brookes themselves were British), against the state being ceded as a British colony. In Burma, Zipporah Sein, who was the Secretary General of the Karen National Union, deemed that her nationalist struggles were for the freedom of a Karen State from the Burmans whom she considered as aliens. On the other hand, Daw Sun, who believed in a greater Burma, thought that independence for her country also meant freedom from Christianization and modern Western education. To her the revival of Buddhism would protect her nation from colonization. In Timor-Leste, Rosa de Camara joined the guerrilla resistance to free the people from the colonialists as well as traditional power structures that had fossilized the people for centuries, especially the women, and blocked them from any kind of progress or development. This book also gives us further insight into the motives of the women who participated in nationalist movements. Nguyen Thi Giang’s motives were straightforward, that is...

Book Review: Women in Southeast Asian Nationalist Movements: A Biographical Approach, edited by Susan Blackburn and Helen Ting

Book Review: Women in Southeast Asian Nationalist Movements: A Biographical Approach, edited by Susan Blackburn and Helen Ting

Asia and Africa: Japan's Role in Southeast Asian Nationalist Movements 1940–45. By Willard H. Elsbree. (Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press, 1953, pp. 182, $3.25)

Asia and Africa: Japan's Role in Southeast Asian Nationalist Movements 1940–45. <i>By</i> Willard H. Elsbree. (Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press, 1953, pp. 182, $3.25)

Japan's Role in Southeast Asian Nationalist Movements, 1940-45.

Japan's Role in Southeast Asian Nationalist Movements, 1940-45.

Japan's Role in Southeast Asian Nationalist Movements, 1940-45.

Japan's Role in Southeast Asian Nationalist Movements, 1940-45.

Japan's Role in Southeast Asian Nationalist Movements, 1940-1945

Japan's Role in Southeast Asian Nationalist Movements, 1940-1945

Japan's Role in Southeast Asian Nationalist Movements 1940 to 1945

Japan's Role in Southeast Asian Nationalist Movements 1940 to 1945 Japan'S Role in Southeast Asian Nationalist Movements 1940 to 1945. By Willard H. Elsbree. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University for the International Secretariat, Institute of Pacific Relations; London, Allen & Unwin, 1953. viii+182 pp. Bibliog. Index. 814′​′×512′​′$3.25. 18s. Hugh Tinker Hugh Tinker Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar International Affairs, Volume 30, Issue 3, July 1954, Pages 386–387, https://doi.org/10.2307/2605821 Published: 01 July 1954

Japan's Role in Southeast Asian Nationalist Movements, 1940–45. By Willard H. Elsbree. (Cambridge: Harvard University Press. 1953. Issued under the Auspices of the Institute of Pacific Relations. Pp. v., 182. $3.25.)

Japan's Role in Southeast Asian Nationalist Movements, 1940–45. By Willard H. Elsbree. (Cambridge: Harvard University Press. 1953. Issued under the Auspices of the Institute of Pacific Relations. Pp. v., 182. $3.25.)

Review: Japan's Role in Southeast Asian Nationalist Movements, 1940 to 1945, by Willard H. Elsbree

Book Review| May 01 1954 Review: Japan's Role in Southeast Asian Nationalist Movements, 1940 to 1945, by Willard H. Elsbree Japan's Role in Southeast Asian Nationalist Movements, 1940 to 1945Willard H. Elsbree Philip W. Thayer Philip W. Thayer Search for other works by this author on: This Site PubMed Google Scholar Pacific Historical Review (1954) 23 (2): 195–196. https://doi.org/10.2307/3634312 Views Icon Views Article contents Figures & tables Video Audio Supplementary Data Peer Review Share Icon Share Facebook Twitter LinkedIn MailTo Tools Icon Tools Get Permissions Cite Icon Cite Search Site Citation Philip W. Thayer; Review: Japan's Role in Southeast Asian Nationalist Movements, 1940 to 1945, by Willard H. Elsbree. Pacific Historical Review 1 May 1954; 23 (2): 195–196. doi: https://doi.org/10.2307/3634312 Download citation file: Ris (Zotero) Reference Manager EasyBib Bookends Mendeley Papers EndNote RefWorks BibTex toolbar search Search Dropdown Menu toolbar search search input Search input auto suggest filter your search All ContentPacific Historical Review Search This content is only available via PDF. Copyright 1954 The Pacific Coast Branch, American Historical Association Article PDF first page preview Close Modal You do not currently have access to this content.

Japan's Role in Southeast Asian Nationalist Movements, 1940-45.

Japan's Role in Southeast Asian Nationalist Movements, 1940-45.