Subject: Nation-building

The Druk journal : a journal of thoughts and ideas

Journal of National Essence (國粹學報)

The Journal of National Essence (國粹學報) was published  monthly  from 1905 to 1911  in Shanghai at the end of the Qing dynasty by the  國粹派 or the National Essence Group. The National Essence Group held a conservative  view and view on political and cultural reform of China tried to identify the national essence of China in order […]

Contesting Visions of the Lao Past: Lao Historiography at the Crossroads

**Christopher E. Goscha & Soren Ivarsson 2003 While the birth of any nation is always more complicated than official historiographies purport, the complex positioning of Laos at the crossroads of a wide range of historical, geographical and cultural currents makes this particularly true. It is well known that Laos’ emergence as a modern nation-state in […]

From Subjects to Citizens: Balinese Villagers in the Indonesian Nation-State

Lyn Parker 2003 Broadens the discussion on the expansion of the Indonesian state into the local community. Significant because it shows how we can understand Indonesia in its efforts to become a nation-state. Unusual in showing that the experience of many Indonesian citizens was not of a menacing and coercive state but of a modernizing […]

Performing the Nation: Cultural Politics in New Order Indonesia

Jorgen Hellman 2011 In sharp contrast to today’s disorder was the apparent cohesion and stability of Indonesia during much of the New Order period (1965–98). While Suharto’s authoritarian rule was significant, the regime’s cultural policies also played their part. Ethnic, religious and regional sentiments were to be channelled into the field of art rather than […]

Aiding Afghanistan: The Background and Prospects for Reconstruction in a Fragmented Society

Asger Christensen 1995 Examines how the structure and dynamics of Afghan society shaped not only earlier relations between state and society but also the resistance struggle and civil war, and still affect international efforts towards the country’s reconstruction.

Creating Laos: The Making of a Lao Space between Indochina and Siam, 1860–1945

Søren Ivarsson 2008 The existence of Laos today is taken for granted. But the crystallization of a Lao national idea and ultimate independence for the country was a long and uncertain process. This book examines the process through which Laos came into existence under French colonial rule through to the end of World War II. […]

Going Indochinese: Contesting Concepts of Space and Place in French Indochina

Christopher E. Goscha 2012 Why, Benedict Anderson once asked, did Javanese become Indonesian in 1945 whereas the Vietnamese balked at becoming Indochinese? In this classic study, Goscha shows that Vietnamese of all political colours came remarkably close to building a modern national identity based on the colonial model of Indochina while Lao and Cambodian nationalists […]

Beyond the Singapore Girl: Discourses of Gender and Nation in Singapore

Chris Hudson 2013 The branding of Singapore International Airlines with the image of a beautiful, petite and servile ‘Oriental’ woman dressed in figure-hugging sarong-kebaya is one of the world’s longest running and most successful advertising campaigns. But this image does not simply advertise a service; it is part of a global and national regime of […]