South and Southeast Asian Languages and Societies Commons^™

Catastrophe Of War, Sujit Kumar Singh, Ayushi Jaiswal

Critical Humanities

The paper selects the novel Palpasa Café (2005) by Nepali author Narayan Wagle to highlight the factors that contributed to the Maoist insurgency and counter-insurgency that punctured the Nepali consciousness. It will also critique Eurocentric trauma theory for diminishing the South Asian perspectives of trauma (incidents) from the main discourse of trauma theory. In addition, the paper will explore the detrimental impacts of war and conflict as experienced by Nepalese cops and civilians together, and its long-lasting imprint on their psyche as manifested in different forms of trauma in the text. The dissemination of the 'inarticulable trauma' concept into something …

Queen Victoria, The Sultan And The Adventurer: Weaving Strands Of The History Of The Kashmir Shawl, Joan Hart

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

Tipu Sultan, William Moorcroft, and Queen Victoria owned Kashmir shawls from Kashmir, India dating from 1780 to 1880. Rare provenance for these shawls reveals the troubled strands of Kashmir production and the shifting political fate of the Kashmiri people.

Tipu Sultan is a hero in India, having conducted successful military campaigns against the British East India Company (1782-1799). Tipu gave a valuable Kashmir shawl to a captive British surgeon in 1784, probably the earliest shawl to enter Britain. Revealing a rare moment when the fate of India was not yet sealed for the British, Tipu still had empathy by honoring …

Dreams Intertwined In Strands Of Silver And Gold: Hidden Stories Of Home-Based Women Zardozi Artisans Of Bhopal, India, Meeta Siddhu, Anjali Karolia

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

This paper examines the experiences of home-based women zardozi artisans in Bhopal, India, who use traditional embroidery skills to create fashionable products. It highlights the role of the traditional craft sector in promoting women's empowerment, enhancing economic well-being, and supporting sustainable development in the Global South. Through ethnographic research, including literature review and interviews, the study reveals the resilience of these artisans, many of whom come from low-income backgrounds with limited education. Despite modest earnings, their craft contributes to their families' status and elevates women's roles within households. The findings suggest that the handicraft sector can provide viable economic opportunities …

The Many Names Of Limahong: Remembering A Chinese Pirate In The Philippines, William Martindale

BYU Asian Studies Student Journal

The 1574 attack of Limahong on Manila and the subsequent expulsion of his attempted Pangasinan colony left a profound impact in Philippine history. The threat once presented by Limahong cast a long shadow over Spanish colonization and Philippines security, particularly regarding relations with China and Chinese. As a result, his name was continually evoked in the centuries after his attack. This paper examines how Limahong is remembered in the Philippines. Limahong is remembered as a generic sea-borne threat, a pirate whose name is evoked at any threat from the sea or from China. But, he is also remembered as a …

The Politics Of Folklore In Asian Gothic, Katarzyna Ancuta

Manusya, Journal of Humanities

No abstract provided.

De-Politicizing And Dis-Remembering The White Terror Through Gothic : The Grand Narrative And Embarrassed Politics Of Collective Commemoration In The Movie Detention, Min-Tser Lin

Manusya, Journal of Humanities

This article aims to read Taiwan’s 2019 cinematic horror sensation, Detention, as part of the nation’s effort to construct a grand narrative of collective commemoration, as it tries to streamline its multiple conflicting memories about the Nationalist government’s violent political suppressions of suspected dissidents during the mid-20th century, commonly called the White Terror. For this nationalist narrative to follow the Gothic scenario of progression from repression to liberation, embarrassing elements of the past, especially many White Terror victims’ sympathy with the Chinese Communist Party, must be de-politicized and dis-remembered. The movie adopts a ploy that can be called “isomorphic …

The Image Rhetoric And Narrative Aesthetics Of “Teasing And Irony” In Contemporary Chinese Art, Yongliang Liu, Sone Simatrang

Manusya, Journal of Humanities

The “scar art” of the 1980s mainly came from reflection on and criticism of the entire society. In 1990s China, influenced by both Western modernism and postmodernism, a phenomenon of “Teasing and Irony” emerged in contemporary Chinese art. At this time, contemporary art began to present a state of deconstruction from poetry, novels, film and television, art, performance art, conceptual art and so on, to people’s real lives. Deconstruction of authority and of classics became the pursuit of the times. The emergence of this cultural trend of Teasing and Irony involved a game of power and discourse. There were also …

Looking Into The Eyes Of Aswang : Alyx Arumpac’S Aswang (2019) As A “Gothumentary” Of The Philippine War On Drugs, Jan Marvin A. Goh

Manusya, Journal of Humanities

Alyx Ayn Arumpac’s Aswang (2019) navigates an intimate terrain of the Philippine “war on drugs” during Rodrigo Duterte’s administration by documenting first-hand narratives from its various affected victims. The film challenges documentary norms as it entangles the reality of extrajudicial killings with the folkloric spectre of the “aswang.” Aswang’s (2019) narratives seek to temporarily disrupt perceptions of reality and expose the underbelly of Duterte’s anti-drug campaign, as spearheaded by the program “Oplan Tokhang,” within the dark urban spaces of Manila. By employing horror as an allegorical medium, Aswang (2019) blurs the boundaries between reality and folklore, which urges its viewers …

The Acquisition Of Passives By Thai Preschoolers, Kitima Indrambarya

Manusya, Journal of Humanities

This study investigates how pre-school Thai children comprehend Thai short and long passives with adversative and non-adversative and action and psychological verbs. The results show that preschool children did not comprehend passives well, primarily because of the thematic role reversal in the subjects of passives and actives. Action verbs are acquired earlier and better than psychological verbs. Unlike previous studies of other languages, Thai children comprehend long passives better than short passives with most verb types.

Cultural-Religious Dimensions Of The ‘Ritual Issue’ In Pre-Colonial Vietnamese And Western Interactions, Nguyen Quang Hung, Nguyen Dinh Lam

Manusya, Journal of Humanities

Through a meticulous examination of edicts issued by both imperial courts and Christian missionaries, this article posits that the ‘ritual issue’ – i.e., the divergence in ritualistic practices and values between Christianity and indigenous religions – constituted a principal obstacle to the proliferation of Christianity in Vietnam between the 17th and 19th centuries. Notably, the paper identifies a substantive transformation in the perception of the ‘ritual issue.’ During the 17th and 18th centuries under the Trịnh-Nguyễn lords, the issue was predominantly approached through a cultural-religious lens. However, in the 19th century under the Nguyễn dynasty, the issue acquired a cultural-political …

The Impact Of Inter-Basin Water Transfer Between Johor And Singapore On Johor’S Water Supply System, 1927 To 1941, Mohd Firdaus Abdullah, Ruhana Padzil, Arba’Iyah Mohd Noor, Mardiana Nordin

Manusya, Journal of Humanities

Inter-basin water transfer between Johor and Singapore from 1927 to 1941 had a significant impact on Johor’s water supply system. This study aims to assess the consequences of this transfer and provide a contemporary perspective on its implications. Existing research on inter-basin transfers and their impact on water systems between Singapore and Johor is abundant, but there is a notable lack of research specifically addressing Johor’s water system during this time. By examining the historical context and socio-economic dynamics that shaped the inter-basin transfer, this study aims to contribute a unique perspective to the existing body of knowledge. The findings …

A Battle On Social Media : Critical Discourse Analysis Of The Sampradaya In Bali, I Wayan Numertayasa, Anang Santoso, Moch Syahri, Pande Agus Adiwijaya

Manusya, Journal of Humanities

This study focuses on the discourse battle on Facebook between two ideological perspectives on the existence of Sampradaya in Bali. Sampradaya refers to the Hindu spiritual community in Bali which has been adopting new traditions and practices from India since 1980. Since then, their presence in Bali has faced opposition, including the prohibition of Hare Krishna literature and the closure of Hare Krishna learning centers. Starting in 2019, this resistance has created a battleground of conflicting narratives that influence the public. This research aims to comprehend the representation of ideological perspectives and discourse battle strategies within the Sampradaya discourse on …

From Victory To Democracy : The “Democracy” In Thailand’S Victory Monument, Gil Turingan

Manusya, Journal of Humanities

This paper discusses the symbolic transformation of Thailand’s Victory Monument in the Thai public memory, from embodying militarism to representing the complicated concept of Thai democracy. In the beginning, the monument had an indirect connection to democracy. However, due to the spatial agency, such as protest activities occupying this structure, it has turned into one of Bangkok’s democratic spaces. By looking at the stories of contentious politics and narratives surrounding this structure, this study reveals that the development of the Victory Monument’s meanings mirrors the democratic struggles of the Thai people. It also applies prevailing discourses on Thai democracy to …

Anaphoric Expressions In Thai Narratives : A Corpus Study On Accessibility And Distributional Tendency, Nimit Kumwapee, Nattanun Chanchaochai

Manusya, Journal of Humanities

This study examines the relationship between Thai anaphoric expressions and their antecedents’ Accessibility, analyzing 3,453 expressions from Thai-Zlatev Corpus (Zlatev and Yangklang 2001), Aakanee Website (Aakanee, “Thai Recordings”) and Thai Folktale Database (Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn Anthropology Centre, “Folktales”). Grounded in Ariel’s Accessibility Theory (1988, 1990), which asserts that referring expressions are universally arranged on an Accessibility scale but marking systems vary by language, we propose an Accessibility Marking Scale for Thai anaphoric expressions, informed by the factors of Distance, Competition, Saliency and Unity. Some anaphoric expressions showed no significant differences in mean Accessibility, leading them to share ranks. Our …

Mia Farang On Youtube: (Re)Defining Thai Womanhood In The Network Society, Porranee Singpliam, Treepon Kirdnark

Manusya, Journal of Humanities

This paper examines the notion of mia farang amid the covid-19 pandemic. An analysis of mia farang YouTubers during this time reveals essential characteristics of the gendered and sexualized trope. Through Barker and Kuiper’s (2014) lens on the globalization process, we postulate that women’s voices during the peak of covid-19 became more political, namely with regard to their quality of life compared to that in Thailand. Further, we argue that our textual analysis on three mia farang YouTubers (Yai Nee, Yai Nang, and Yai Chompoo) shows how the space of flows is a possible site for political criticism and negotiation …

Thai Rap Songs Through The World Englishes Approach : Code-Switching And Nativization, Ekkarat Ruanglertsilp

Manusya, Journal of Humanities

This study examines the English elements and nativized English features present in recent Thai rap songs. The source data comes from a Thai rap playlist called Thai Rapper on the online music platform Spotify. All English units found in the lyrics were manually counted and classified. The results diverged from most studies of Thai-English code-switching in Thai media in that, among the English elements considered, sentences were employed most frequently. Among nativized English features, semantic shift was most frequently employed. I argue that the local and global English identity flows (Pennycook 2009) index a shift in the Thai rap community …

From An Enclosure To Human-Scaled Encounters : Articulating The Notion Of Third Space In The Vishwakarma Community Temple, Penang, Sanjeh Raman

Manusya, Journal of Humanities

The Arulmigu Kamatchi Amman Devasthanam, located on Jalan Dato Keramat, in Penang, Malaysia provides entry into the cultural world of Pathars, the traditional Tamil goldsmiths who have long established their business in Penang. The continuity of this temple is studied through its spatial attributes and social impact in anchoring collective community experience Primary data was acquired through ethnography and secondary data was drawn from a document and photo review. The analysis provides a narrative account of the temple’s mandapa as a social space that facilitates the hybridity of identities that grow from this temple. As a representation of Bhabha’s Third …

Message From The Editor-In-Chief, Nattama Pongpairoj

Manusya, Journal of Humanities

No abstract provided.

Singing Crimes, Rhyming News : Folksong Newsprints, Horror Sensibilities, And The Rise Of Sensationalist Mass Media In Siam, 1920s–1940s, Arthit Jiamrattanyoo

Manusya, Journal of Humanities

The proliferation of print media in early-twentieth-century Siam coincided with the rising popularity of folk vocal music. By the 1920s, certain styles of folk balladry were appropriated by urban writers for news reportage and sociopolitical criticism with doses of sensationalization. Published in periodicals and chapbooks, this popular literature was characterized by its versification of true crimes and its typical focus on the figure of the criminal or the ghost. My article examines this hybrid genre of news entertainment at the nexus of a modern structure of the horror experience, folk music tradition, print capitalism, and journalistic culture in Siam. It …

Post-Colonial Relations Of Britain With India And Pakistan, 1947–71, Sabina Nargis Lepe

Manusya, Journal of Humanities

The decolonization process of Britain in India was completed with the independence of India and Pakistan in 1947. Because of the long colonial history in that area, it was natural that creating bilateral relations between Britain and the two former colonized parties (India and Pakistan) would be challenging and not free of issues. Furthermore, the two colonized parties were in a bitter relationship with each other. The major concern of this paper is to present the post-colonial bilateral relations of Britain with each country, India and Pakistan, between 1947 and 1971. It argues that multiple factors led Britain to maintain …