Book Reviews
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Review of Ideal Man
24 May 2013 9:12 AM | No CommentsNew Mandala book review editor Michael Montesano reviews this new work on a key figure in Southeast Asian history.
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Review of Misalliance
17 May 2013 1:00 PM | 2 CommentsKeith Weller Taylor argues that this new book is thoughtful, lucid, original, analytical, and readable
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Review of Thailand’s Hidden Workforce
05 April 2013 9:15 AM | 1 CommentInga Gruß reviews a book about the work conditions of Myanmar migrant workers in Thailand at this time of immense change.
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Review of Gender, Emotions and Labour Markets
21 February 2013 9:10 AM | 1 CommentSri Ranjani Mei Hua reviews a book dealing with experiences of women in Southeast Asia.
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Review of Authority of Influence
06 January 2013 5:31 AM | 3 CommentsScholarly treatments of gender in Myanmar, past or present, remain scarce. Jessica Harriden’s book thus fills a gap in our understanding of an important and controversial topic.
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Review of The King in Exile
04 December 2012 8:35 AM | 4 CommentsDonald M. Seekins argues that this book is the story of a dynasty that belongs truly to Burma’s past.
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Review of Buddhist Fury
13 November 2012 7:57 AM | 21 CommentsThis book explores the relationship between religion and violence in far southern Thailand, where Buddhist monks are a marginalized local minority.
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Review of Revisiting Rural Places
30 October 2012 7:54 AM | 2 CommentsRevisiting Rural Places should become an essential reference text for researchers who work on social, cultural, political and economic change in Asia.
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Review of The Institutional Imperative
16 October 2012 7:00 AM | 9 CommentsDe-agrarianisation often isn’t very pretty, but economic disparity may well be the price to be paid for pursuing it as slowly as Thailand has over the past 50 years.
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Review of Imagining Gay Paradise
09 October 2012 6:55 AM | 2 CommentsThe creation of make-shift, idiosyncratic queer paradises provides shelter, community, and belonging for many who have refused to fit into standard narratives of Southeast Asia.
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Review of The Fate of Rural Hell
12 September 2012 7:56 AM | 6 CommentsThe models of eroticism and faith in the Hell Garden have been left behind by the robust urban bourgeois consumerist culture increasingly prominent across contemporary Thai society.
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Review of Revolution Interrupted
24 July 2012 11:46 AM | 6 CommentsQuestioning received notions of revolution, this book offers a passionate and rigorous reconsideration of the period in Thailand between October 1973 and October 1976.
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Review of Land and Loyalty
17 July 2012 9:18 AM | 9 Comments
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Review of The Lovelorn Ghost and the Magical Monk
11 July 2012 3:44 PM | 9 Comments
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Review of Saying the Unsayable
19 June 2012 6:27 AM | 19 Comments
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Faith in Malaysia
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Malaysia – revisiting the secular state debate
Posted on 3 November 2012 | 2 CommentsAhmad Farouk Musa provides a cogent account of why a secular state is better than an Islamic state, and that Muslims can best practice their faith in a secular state. -
Constructing the deviant ‘other’ – religious traditionalism in contemporary Malaysia
Posted on 31 July 2012 | 5 CommentsIn December 2010, Islamic officials in Selangor detained 200 Muslims believed to be members of a Shia-leaning circle. The arrests... -
Do we need more inter faith dialogue – Part 2
Posted on 15 July 2012 | 1 CommentWhat are some of the actions Malaysians can take to promote dialogue among believers? This is a question that I... -
Is there a need for more interfaith dialogue in Malaysia? Part 1
Posted on 23 June 2012 | 3 CommentsMalaysia is not unique in its multicultural make-up, and the problems it faces. What makes Malaysia unique is Islam is... -
Interfaith dialogue in Malaysia
Posted on 12 February 2012 | 1 CommentInterfaith dialogue in Malaysia is important, if not a prerequisite step to ameliorating societal tensions in Malaysia. However, I would... -
Religious dialogue: whose responsibility? – Part 2
Posted on 4 February 2012 | 5 CommentsThe challenge of approaching ‘Dialogue’ Next, I would like to raise three concerns on the way we approach the question... -
Religious dialogue: whose responsibility? – Part 1
Posted on 3 February 2012 | No CommentsMahathir not personally responsible? Sven Schottmann’s argument is simple and important: First, he offers a defense on Mahathir’s contribution to... -
Christian-Muslim dialogue and Mahathir
Posted on 26 January 2012 | 5 CommentsWhenever reports on the state of inter-religious relations in Malaysia find their way into the world media, the tenor is... -
Malaysia, truly Asia
Posted on 25 December 2011 | 3 Comments“Malaysia, Truly Asia?” was written in 2006, barely 5 years after 9/11. While one may not think that there is... -
Reckoning the peace/violence ambiguity in the apostasy debate
Posted on 19 December 2011 | 4 CommentsWhether a religion is of peace or not depends very much on the believers’ definition of ‘peace’ itself. One’s ‘peace’...