This interdisciplinary course explores the inter-relationships between ethnicity, identity formation and nation-building in China and South-East Asia. The seminar focuses geographically on the borderland regions of south-west China and Vietnam, Laos, Thailand, and Burma, but includes thematic issues from broader national and international contexts. Academic study of this region has generally been divided by national boundaries; but this course explicitly addresses contemporary issues and social groups with a trans-national, or para-national, perspective.
The first part of the course will introduce general ideas and broad arguments dealing with ethnicity and nation-states and offer a survey of modern (20th century) nation-building in China and South East Asia. The bulk of the seminar will be structured around thematic issues relevant to ethnic minorities who are marginalized by, and peripheral to, state administration. These themes include: historic connections, current economic development, political resistance, religious beliefs, language, crime, family relations and personal loyalties. The seminar is more ethnographically rather than policy oriented and is designed to promote investigation rather than ‘solutions’; however the course culminates with an open debate over regional development policy. In parallel to the lecture series, each student will pursue independent research of their own design and emphasis and a wide range of disciplinary approaches can be considered. (3 Credits)
Prerequisites:
None
Learning outcomes:
Upon satisfactory completion of this course students should:
Demonstrate basic knowledge of the the post-imperial and post-colonial history of nation-building and ethnic policies in China and South-East Asia.
Express familiarity with various social groups classified as ethnic minorities in China and neighboring countries.
Interrogate and analyze contemporary trends of globalization, development and urbanization as relevant to minority and borderland communities.
Demonstrate awareness (and respect) for alternative modes of familial, religious, and interpersonal relations amongst various ethnic groups.
Develop sensitivity towards the social, economic, administrative and cultural processes of prejudice, assimilation or segregation of minority groups.
Evaluate the role of individual choice interdependent with political and socio-economic conditions in the cultural formation of identity and ethnicity.
Conduct sociological/ethnographic research based on primary sources as well as scholarly reading.
Method of presentation:
This course combines lectures with seminar discussions and field-study excursions. Students are expected to attend and participate actively in all class sessions and excursions. Readings will be available online through MOODLE and are to be done prior to the designated class-session. There will be two organized field trips to relevant sites in Kunming and one multi-day excursion to a more remote location (which will serve as a basis for the mid-term paper) during the course of the semester. During the latter half of the course student-teams will be expected to lead seminar discussions. In parallel to the structured lectures and discussions, students will prepare an independent research project that requires extra readings and primary field-study throughout the semester and will culminate in a final paper and presentation (see ‘Required Work’).
Required work and form of assessment:
• Full attendance and participation in all class sessions and field-excursions is required: 20%
• A series of short response reflections on readings (1000 words each): - 30%
o (10% each) during week 2, week 6, and week 8
• One mid-term paper based on readings, lectures and the excursion - 20%
o Week 8: mid-term paper (7-10 pages)
• A final paper. 30%
o Week 4: preliminary paper proposal (1 page)
o Week 8: full proposal (2 pages) (5%)
o Week 10: progress report (3 pages) (5%)
o Week 15: paper (10%) and presentations (10%) (15-20 pages / 15 minutes)
• Note: page numbers are based on 12pt font, 1.5-spacing; but are to be used only an approximate guide.
content:
The first portion of the course is dedicated to theoretical and substantive background material. Students will be expected to have done readings prior to class and be able to respond to discussion questions. Week five includes a four-day field excursion and has minimal reading, but will require active engagement and note-taking in order to fulfill the obligations for the mid-term paper due the following week. Weeks six through ten will be run in a more open seminar format, with particular student teams taking the lead in discussions concerning particular case-studies. Week ten will turn to more macro/international concerns and will be staged as a debate on questions of policy and development based on knowledge gained through the course.
Each week will include four hours of class time divided between two sessions; but the sessions will be flexible and inter-linked as designated by the schedule below.(Readings are listed in the order in which they should preferably be read. When ‘selections’ are indicated but not specified they will be available a week ahead of time on Moodle)
*note: the readings assigned to classes below are a selection of readings that potentially could be assigned to the course. The instructor will choose a selection of readings comprising of a total of approximately 50-80pp per class.
Class 1) Theories of Ethnicity and Nationalism: Basic anthropological discussions of nationalism and ethnicity, interrogates assumed standards, and promotes alternative views.
- Anderson, Benedict. Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism. (selections). 1983.
- Anderson, Benedict. The Spectre of Comparisons: Nationalism, Southeast Asia and the World. (selections). 1998.
Class 2) Theories of Ethnicity and Nationalism continued
- Chatterjee, Partha. The Nation and Its Fragments: Colonial and Postcolonial Histories. (selections). 1993.
- Scott, James. The Art of Not Being Governed: An Anarchist History of Upland Southeast Asia. (selections). 2010.
- Leach, Edmund. Political Systems of Highland Burma: A Study of Kachin Social Structure. (selections) 1964.
Class 3) Nation Building in China: Broad historical introduction to the modern nation of China, with special relevance to the south-west border regions and non-Han ethnicities.
- Shin, Leo K. The Making of the Chinese State: Ethnicity and Expansion on the Ming Borderlands (selections). 2012.
- Heberer, Thomas. China and Its National Minorities: Autonomy or Assimilation (selections). 1989.
- Dikotter, Frank. The Discourse of Race in Modern China (selections). 1992.
Class 4) Nation Building in China continued:
- Zhao Suisheng A Nation State By Construction: Dynamics of Modern Chinese Nationalism. 2004.
chapt 2) The Origins of Chinese Nationalism (37-78)
chapt 5) The Challenge of Ethnic Nationalism (165-208)
- Wade, Jeff. “The Southern Chinese Borders in History.” (28-50). In Evans, Grant, et al, (eds). Where China Meets Southeast Asia: Social and Cultural Change in the Border Region. 2000.
Class 5) The State and Minorities in China: Administrative policies and socio-economic conditions in Yunnan province.
- Zhiyu Shi. Autonomy, Ethnicity, and Poverty in Southwest China: The State Turned Upside Down (selections). 2007
- Mackerras, Colin. China’s Ethnic Minorities and Globalisation (selections). 2003.
Class 6) Nation Building in 20th century Southeast Asia: The colonial and post-colonial history of bordering nations of Southeast Asia.
- Davidson, Jaime. “The Study of Political Ethnicity in Southeast Asia.” Pp 199-226. In Erik Kuhonta et al, (eds.). Southeast Asia in Political Science. 2008
- Reid, Anthony. Imperial Alchemy. 2009.
chapt 1) Nationalism and Asia (1-24)
chapt 2) Understanding southeast Asia Nationalisms (25-48)
chapt 3) Chinese as a Southeast Asian ‘Other’ (49-80)
- Thongchai Winichakul. Siam Mapped: A History of the Geo-Body of a Nation (selections). 1997.
Class 7) The State and Minorities in Southeast Asia: The contemporary conditions of ethnic minorities (mostly highland) in the border regions.
- Brown, David. The State and Ethnic Politics in SE Asia. 1993.
chapt 1) Ethnicity and the State (1-32)
- from Duncan, Christopher ed. Civilizing the Margins: Southeast Asian Government Policies for the Development of Minorities. 2004.
chapt 1) Christopher Duncan: Legislating Modernity among the Marginalized’ (1-23)
chapt 5) Kathleen Gillogly: Developing the “Hill Tribes” of Northern Thailand (116-149)
chapt 6) Curtis Lambrecht: Oxymoronic Development: The Military as Benefactor in the Border Regions of Burma (150-181)
Class 8) The State and Minorities in Southeast Asia continued:
- Callahan, Mary. Political Authority in Burma’s Ethnic Minority States: Devolution, Occupation and Coexistence (selections). 2007
- Jonsson, Hjorleifur. Mien Relations: Mountain People and State Control in Thailand. “Twentieth-Century Highlanders.” Pp 44-72. 2005.
Classes 9,10,11) Tourism and Representation / Excursion to Minority Area: Tourism as a process of cultural representation as well as an economic undertaking. Our academic concerns will be self-reflexive as we concurrently take a tour to a borderland minority area.
- Oakes, Tim. “The Village as Theme Park: Mimesis and Authenticity in Chinese Tourism.” Pp 166-192. In. Oakes, Tim and Louisa Schein, eds. Translocal China. 2006.
- Kolas, Ashild. Tourism and Tibetan Culture in Transition: A Place Called Shangrila (selections). 2011.
- Yang Li, et al ‘Ethnic Tourism Development: Chinese Government Perspectives’ in Annals of Tourism Research. 2008. 35(3). pp 751-771.
- Hillman, Ben and Henfry, Lee Anne. ‘Macho Minority: Masculinity and Ethnicity on the Edge of Tibet’ in Modern China 32 pp 251-72.
Class 12) Pre-Modern connections: Specific historic examples of cross-border, para/pre-national societies.
- Thant Myint-U. Where China Meets India: Burma and the New Crossroads of Asia (selections). 2011.
- Maxwell Hill, Ann. Merchants and Migrants: Ethnicity and Trade amongst Yunnanese Chinese in Southeast Asia. (selection) 1998.
- Giersch, Patterson. ‘Across Zomia with Merchants, Monks, and Musk: Process Geographies, Trade Networks and the Inner-East-Southeast Asian Borderlands’ in Journal of Global History 5(2). Pp 215-239. 2010.
Class 13) Post-Modern Economies and Ethnicity: Changing livelihoods of trans-border societies.
- from Grant Evans, et al eds. Where China Meets Southeast Asia: Social and Cultural Change in the Border Region. 2000.
chapt 8) Grant Evans. “Transformation of Jinghong, Xishuangbanna, PRC” pp 162-182)
chapt 12) Chua Thi Hai. “Trade Activities of the Hoa along the Sino-Vietnamese Border.” pp236- 252
- from Horstmann, Alexander and Reed Wadley, eds. Centering the Margin: Agency and Narrative in Southeast Asian Borderlands. 2006.
chapt 4) Davis, Sara. “Premodern Flows in Postmodern China: Globalization and the Sipsongpanna Tais.” Pp 87-110.
Class 14) Post-Modern Economies and Ethnicity continued:
- from Oakes, Tim and Schein, Louisa eds. Translocal China. 2006
chapt 10) Weng Naiqun. “Flows of Heroin, People, Capital, Imagination and the Spread of HIV in Southwest China.” pp 193-212.
chapt 11) Louisa Schein “Negotiating Scale: Miao Women at a Distance.” Pp 213-237.
- from Rossabi, Morris. ed. 2005 Governing China’s Multi-Ethnic Frontiers.
chap 2) Mette Halskov Hansen. “The Challenge of Sipsong Panna in the Southwest.” Pp 53-83.
- Pal Nyiri 2012 ‘Enclaves of Improvement and Developmentalism in the Special Zones of the China-Lao Borderlands’ in Comparative Studies in Society and History. 54:3 pp 533-562.
Class 15) (Trans-)Nationalism and Ethnic Identity: Re-creation of ethnic identity through discourse and practice in Southeast Asia. (Student teams will present different parts of the reading)
- from Shegharu Tanabe and Charles Keyes, eds. Cultural Crisis and Social Memory: Modernity and Identity in Thailand and Laos. 2002.
chapt 3) Nicholas Tapp: on forgetting amongst Hmong in Chiang Mai
chapt 6) Grant Evans: on Statuemania in Thailand and Laos
- from Adams, Kathleen. Everyday Life in Southeast Asia. 2011.
chapt 3) Holly High: Poverty and Merit: Mobile Persons in Laos. Pp 37-46.
chapt 6) Kathleen Gillogly: Marriage and Opium in a Lisu Village in Northern Thailand. Pp 79-88.
chapt 8) Hjorleifur Jonsson: Recording Tradition and Measuring Progress in the Ethnic Minority Highlands of Thailand. Pp 107-116.
chapt 10) Christina Schwenkel: Youth Culture and Fading Memories of War in Hanoi, Vietnam. pp 127-136.
chapt 21) Chris Lyttleton: When the Mountains No Longer Mean Home. Pp 273-282.
Class 16) (Trans)-nationalism and Ethnic Identity
- from Gehan Wijeywardene, ed. Ethnic Groups Across National Boundaries in Mainland Southeast Asia. 1990.
-chapt 5) Ananda Rajah. “Ethnicity, Nationalism, and the Nation-State: The Karen in Burma and Thailand. pp 102-133.
- from Alexander Horstmann and Reed Wadley, eds. Centering the Margin: Agency and Narrative in Southeast Asian Borderlands. 2006.
-1) Niti Pawakapan. “Once were Burmese Shans: Reinventing Ethnic Identity in Northwest Thailand.” Pp 27-52.
- Hjorleifur Jonsson ‘Serious Fun: Minority Cultural Dynamic and National Integration in Thailand’ in American Ethnologist. 28:1. pp 151-178. 2001.
Class 17) Ethnic Chinese in Southeast Asia: Peculiar circumstances of the largest and most influential trans-national ethnic group of the region. (Student teams will present different parts of the reading)
- Aiwha Ong. Flexible Citizenship (selections). 1999.
- Aiwha Ong. Neoliberalism as Exception. (selections). 2006.
- from Leo Suryadinata, ed. Ethnic Chinese and Southeast Asians. 1997.
chapt 1) Leo Suryadinata. “Ethnic Chinese in Southeast Asia: Overseas Chinese, Chinese Overseas, or Southeast Asians?” pp 1-32.
- Bolt, Paul. China and Southeast Asia’s Ethnic Chinese: State and Diaspora in Contemporary Asia. 2000
chapt 2) Asia’s Ethnic Chinese: Characteristics and Networks. pp 19-36.
- Yen Ching-Hwang. The Chinese in Southeast Asia and Beyond: Socio-Economic and Political Dimensions. 2008.
chapt 10) Social Change in the Ethnic (Overseas) Chinese Communities: A Historical Perspective (261-284)
Class 18) Language and Ethnicity: The subject of ever-shifting government policies and social priorities but also a vital signifier and medium of identity. (Student teams will present different parts of the reading)
- from Beckett, Gubahar and Gerard Postiglione, eds. China’s Assimilationist Language Policy: The Impact on Indigenous/Minority Literacy and Social Harmony. 2011.
chapt 1) Gulbahar Beckett and Gerard Postiglione: ‘China’s language policy for indigenous and minority education’ 3
chapt 6) Linda Tsung, et al. ‘Bilingual Education in China: The Case of Yunnan’
- from Michael Brown and Sumit Ganguly, eds. Fighting Words: Language Policy and Ethnicity in Asia. 2003.
chapt 5) Mary Callahan. “Language Policy in Modern Burma.” Pp 143-176.
chapt 6) Charles Keyes. “The Politics of Language in Thailand and Laos.” Pp 177-210.
chapt 7) Thaveeporn Vasavakul. “Language Policy and Ethnic Relations in Vietnam.” Pp 211-238
chapt 12) June Teufel Dreyer. “The Evolution of Language Policies in China.” Pp 353-384.
Class 19) Forms of Ethnic Resistance and Conflict: Despite almost continuous tension and flux throughout the region, Myanmar remains the only site of active violent political rebellion. (Student teams will present different parts of the reading)
- East-West Center. State of Strife: The Dynamics of Ethnic Conflict in Burma (selections). 2007.
- South, Ashley. Ethnic Politics in Burma: States of Conflict (selections). 2008
- Maung Thawnghmung. The ‘Other’ Karen in Myanmar: Ethnic Minorities in the Struggle Without Arms (selections). 2011.
- Kirsch, Scott. and Flint, Colin, eds. Reconstructing Conflict. 2001.
chapt 5) Carl Grundy-Warr and Karin Dean. “Not Peace, Not War: The Myriad Spaces of Sovereignty, Peace and Conflict in Myanmar/Burma.” pp 91-114.
- from Dominque Caouette and Sarah Turner, eds. Agrarian Angst and Rural Resistance in Contemporary Southeast Asia. 2009.
chapt 3) Sarah Turner and Jean Michaud. “Weapons of the Weak”: Selective Resistance and Agency among the Hmong of Northern Vietnam. Pp 45-60.
- Wang Lixiong and Tsering Shakya. The Struggle for Tibet (selections). 2010.
Class 20) Informal Economies and Crime: Perhaps the most exciting and romanticized, but also the least-studied, aspect of trans-border society in the region. (Student teams will present different parts of the reading)
- Marshall, Andrew. ‘Special Report: In Mekong Chinese Murders and Bloody Diplomacy’ in Reuters (27 Jan 2012). 2012
- Tapp, Nicholas. The Hmong of Thailand: Opium People of the Golden Triangle (selections). 1986.
- from Grant Evans, et al, eds. 2000 Where China Meets Southeast Asia: Social and Cultural Change in the Border Region
chapt 9) David Feingold. “The Hell of Good Intentions.” Pp 183-221.
- Alfred McCoy. The Politics of Heroin: CIA Complicity in the Global Drug Trade. 2003.
chapt 7) “The Golden Triangle.” pp 283-386
- Bertil Lintner. Merchants of Madness (selections). 2009.
- Bertil Lintner. Burma in Revolt: Opium and Insurgency since 1948 (selections). 2000.
Class 21) International Discourse: The role of policy-makers and debate regarding the different paths of development in the region.
- from Bill Chou and Yufan Hao, eds. China’s Policies on Its Borderlands and the International Implications. 2010.
chapt 11) Zhao Hong. “China’s Myanmar Policy: Challenges and Adjustments.” Pp 253-274.
- from Li Mingnjian and Ching Guan Kwa, eds. China-ASEAN Sub-Regional Cooperation: Progress, Problems, and Prospects. 2011.
chapt 2) Li Chenyang and He Shengda. “China’s Participation in the GMS Cooperation: Progress and Challenges.” Pp 15-36.
chapt 4) Li Wannian. “Sub-regional Economic Zones in China: Implications for ASEAN-China Cooperation.” Pp 57-76.
chapt 5) Sarah Tong and Catherine Chong Siew Keng: ASEAN Economic Growth Triangles and Implications for China (77-94)
chapt 8) Kalyan Kemburi. “China’s Growing Economic Gravity in Southeast Asia: An Opportunity for Economic Statecraft?” pp 143-170.
- from Rossabi, Morris, ed. Governing China’s Multi-Ethnic Frontiers. 2005.
chapt 6) Melvyn Goldstein. “Tibet and China in the Twentieth Century.” Pp 186-229.
Class 22) Final Presentations: Each student will be expected to make a 15 minute presentation and field questions on a topic of her/his choice as developed through the semester assignments and in consultation with the instructor.
Required readings:
- Adams, Kathleen. Everyday Life in Southeast Asia. 2011.
- Anderson, Benedict. Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism. (selections). 1983.
- Anderson, Benedict. The Spectre of Comparisons: Nationalism, Southeast Asia and the World. (selections). 1998.
- Beckett, Gubahar and Gerard Postiglione, eds. China’s Assimilationist Language Policy: The Impact on Indigenous/Minority Literacy and Social Harmony. 2011.
- Bolt, Paul. China and Southeast Asia’s Ethnic Chinese: State and Diaspora in Contemporary Asia. 2000
- Brown, David. The State and Ethnic Politics in SE Asia. 1993.
- Callahan, Mary. Political Authority in Burma’s Ethnic Minority States: Devolution, Occupation and Coexistence (selections). 2007
-- Caouette, Dominque and Sarah Turner, eds. Agrarian Angst and Rural Resistance in Contemporary Southeast Asia. 2009.
Chatterjee, Partha. The Nation and Its Fragments: Colonial and Postcolonial Histories. (selections). 1993.
- Chou, Bill and Yufan Hao, eds. China’s Policies on Its Borderlands and the International Implications. 2010.
- Evans, Grant, et al, (eds). Where China Meets Southeast Asia: Social and Cultural Change in the Border Region. 2000.
- Dikotter, Frank. The Discourse of Race in Modern China (selections). 1992.
- Duncan, Christopher ed. Civilizing the Margins: Southeast Asian Government Policies for the Development of Minorities. 2004.
- East-West Center. State of Strife: The Dynamics of Ethnic Conflict in Burma (selections). 2007.
- Gehan Wijeywardene, ed. Ethnic Groups Across National Boundaries in Mainland Southeast Asia. 1990.
- Heberer, Thomas. China and Its National Minorities: Autonomy or Assimilation (selections). 1989.
- Horstmann, Alexander and Reed Wadley, eds. Centering the Margin: Agency and Narrative in Southeast Asian Borderlands. 2006.
-Jonsson, Hjorleifur. Mien Relations: Mountain People and State Control in Thailand. “Twentieth-Century Highlanders.” Pp 44-72. 2005.- Kuhonta, Erik. et al, (eds.). Southeast Asia in Political Science. 2008.
- Kirsch, Scott. and Flint, Colin, eds. Reconstructing Conflict. 2001.
- Kolas, Ashild. Tourism and Tibetan Culture in Transition: A Place Called Shangrila (selections). 2011.
- Leach, Edmund. Political Systems of Highland Burma: A Study of Kachin Social Structure. (selections) 1964.
- Li Mingjian and Ching Guan Kwa, eds. China-ASEAN Sub-Regional Cooperation: Progress, Problems, and Prospects. 2011.
- Lintner, Bertil. Merchants of Madness (selections). 2009.
- Lintner, Bertil. Burma in Revolt: Opium and Insurgency since 1948 (selections). 2000.
- Mackerras, Colin. China’s Ethnic Minorities and Globalisation (selections). 2003.
- Marshall, Andrew. ‘Special Report: In Mekong Chinese Murders and Bloody Diplomacy’ in Reuters (27 Jan 2012). 2012.
- Maxwell Hill, Ann. Merchants and Migrants: Ethnicity and Trade amongst Yunnanese Chinese in
Southeast Asia. (selection) 1998.
- Maung Thawnghmung. The ‘Other’ Karen in Myanmar: Ethnic Minorities in the Struggle Without Arms (selections). 2011.
- McCoy, Alfred. The Politics of Heroin: CIA Complicity in the Global Drug Trade. 2003.
- Oakes, Tim and Louisa Schein, eds. Translocal China. 2006.
- Ong, Aiwha. Flexible Citizenship (selections). 1999.
- Ong, Aiwha. Neoliberalism as Exception. (selections). 2006.
- Reid, Anthony. Imperial Alchemy. 2009.
- Rossabi, Morris. ed. 2005 Governing China’s Multi-Ethnic Frontiers.
- Scott, James. The Art of Not Being Governed: An Anarchist History of Upland Southeast Asia. (selections). 2010.
- Shegharu Tanabe and Charles Keyes, eds. Cultural Crisis and Social Memory: Modernity and Identity in Thailand and Laos. 2002.
- Shin, Leo K. The Making of the Chinese State: Ethnicity and Expansion on the Ming Borderlands (selections). 2012.
- South, Ashley. Ethnic Politics in Burma: States of Conflict (selections). 2008.
- Suryadinata, Leo. ed. Ethnic Chinese and Southeast Asians. 1997.- Thant Myint-U. Where China Meets India: Burma and the New Crossroads of Asia (selections). 2011.
- Tapp, Nicholas. The Hmong of Thailand: Opium People of the Golden Triangle (selections). 1986.
- Thongchai Winichakul. Siam Mapped: A History of the Geo-Body of a Nation (selections). 1997.
- Wang Lixiong and Tsering Shakya. The Struggle for Tibet (selections). 2010.
- Yen Ching-Hwang. The Chinese in Southeast Asia and Beyond: Socio-Economic and Political Dimensions. 2008.
- Zhao Suisheng A Nation State By Construction: Dynamics of Modern Chinese Nationalism. 2004.
- Zhiyu Shi. Autonomy, Ethnicity, and Poverty in Southwest China: The State Turned Upside Down (selections). 2007.
Ethnicity In The Borderlands Of China And Southeast Asia
This interdisciplinary course explores the inter-relationships between ethnicity, identity formation and nation-building in China and South-East Asia. The seminar focuses geographically on the borderland regions of south-west China and Vietnam, Laos, Thailand, and Burma, but includes thematic issues from broader national and international contexts. Academic study of this region has generally been divided by national boundaries; but this course explicitly addresses contemporary issues and social groups with a trans-national, or para-national, perspective.
The first part of the course will introduce general ideas and broad arguments dealing with ethnicity and nation-states and offer a survey of modern (20th century) nation-building in China and South East Asia. The bulk of the seminar will be structured around thematic issues relevant to ethnic minorities who are marginalized by, and peripheral to, state administration. These themes include: historic connections, current economic development, political resistance, religious beliefs, language, crime, family relations and personal loyalties. The seminar is more ethnographically rather than policy oriented and is designed to promote investigation rather than ‘solutions’; however the course culminates with an open debate over regional development policy. In parallel to the lecture series, each student will pursue independent research of their own design and emphasis and a wide range of disciplinary approaches can be considered. (3 Credits)
None
Upon satisfactory completion of this course students should:
This course combines lectures with seminar discussions and field-study excursions. Students are expected to attend and participate actively in all class sessions and excursions. Readings will be available online through MOODLE and are to be done prior to the designated class-session. There will be two organized field trips to relevant sites in Kunming and one multi-day excursion to a more remote location (which will serve as a basis for the mid-term paper) during the course of the semester. During the latter half of the course student-teams will be expected to lead seminar discussions. In parallel to the structured lectures and discussions, students will prepare an independent research project that requires extra readings and primary field-study throughout the semester and will culminate in a final paper and presentation (see ‘Required Work’).
• Full attendance and participation in all class sessions and field-excursions is required: 20%
• A series of short response reflections on readings (1000 words each): - 30%
o (10% each) during week 2, week 6, and week 8
• One mid-term paper based on readings, lectures and the excursion - 20%
o Week 8: mid-term paper (7-10 pages)
• A final paper. 30%
o Week 4: preliminary paper proposal (1 page)
o Week 8: full proposal (2 pages) (5%)
o Week 10: progress report (3 pages) (5%)
o Week 15: paper (10%) and presentations (10%) (15-20 pages / 15 minutes)
• Note: page numbers are based on 12pt font, 1.5-spacing; but are to be used only an approximate guide.
The first portion of the course is dedicated to theoretical and substantive background material. Students will be expected to have done readings prior to class and be able to respond to discussion questions. Week five includes a four-day field excursion and has minimal reading, but will require active engagement and note-taking in order to fulfill the obligations for the mid-term paper due the following week. Weeks six through ten will be run in a more open seminar format, with particular student teams taking the lead in discussions concerning particular case-studies. Week ten will turn to more macro/international concerns and will be staged as a debate on questions of policy and development based on knowledge gained through the course.
Each week will include four hours of class time divided between two sessions; but the sessions will be flexible and inter-linked as designated by the schedule below.(Readings are listed in the order in which they should preferably be read. When ‘selections’ are indicated but not specified they will be available a week ahead of time on Moodle)
*note: the readings assigned to classes below are a selection of readings that potentially could be assigned to the course. The instructor will choose a selection of readings comprising of a total of approximately 50-80pp per class.
Class 1) Theories of Ethnicity and Nationalism: Basic anthropological discussions of nationalism and ethnicity, interrogates assumed standards, and promotes alternative views.
- Anderson, Benedict. Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism. (selections). 1983.
- Anderson, Benedict. The Spectre of Comparisons: Nationalism, Southeast Asia and the World. (selections). 1998.
Class 2) Theories of Ethnicity and Nationalism continued
- Chatterjee, Partha. The Nation and Its Fragments: Colonial and Postcolonial Histories. (selections). 1993.
- Scott, James. The Art of Not Being Governed: An Anarchist History of Upland Southeast Asia. (selections). 2010.
- Leach, Edmund. Political Systems of Highland Burma: A Study of Kachin Social Structure. (selections) 1964.
Class 3) Nation Building in China: Broad historical introduction to the modern nation of China, with special relevance to the south-west border regions and non-Han ethnicities.
- Shin, Leo K. The Making of the Chinese State: Ethnicity and Expansion on the Ming Borderlands (selections). 2012.
- Heberer, Thomas. China and Its National Minorities: Autonomy or Assimilation (selections). 1989.
- Dikotter, Frank. The Discourse of Race in Modern China (selections). 1992.
Class 4) Nation Building in China continued:
- Zhao Suisheng A Nation State By Construction: Dynamics of Modern Chinese Nationalism. 2004.
chapt 2) The Origins of Chinese Nationalism (37-78)
chapt 5) The Challenge of Ethnic Nationalism (165-208)
- Wade, Jeff. “The Southern Chinese Borders in History.” (28-50). In Evans, Grant, et al, (eds). Where China Meets Southeast Asia: Social and Cultural Change in the Border Region. 2000.
Class 5) The State and Minorities in China: Administrative policies and socio-economic conditions in Yunnan province.
- Zhiyu Shi. Autonomy, Ethnicity, and Poverty in Southwest China: The State Turned Upside Down (selections). 2007
- Mackerras, Colin. China’s Ethnic Minorities and Globalisation (selections). 2003.
Class 6) Nation Building in 20th century Southeast Asia: The colonial and post-colonial history of bordering nations of Southeast Asia.
- Davidson, Jaime. “The Study of Political Ethnicity in Southeast Asia.” Pp 199-226. In Erik Kuhonta et al, (eds.). Southeast Asia in Political Science. 2008
- Reid, Anthony. Imperial Alchemy. 2009.
chapt 1) Nationalism and Asia (1-24)
chapt 2) Understanding southeast Asia Nationalisms (25-48)
chapt 3) Chinese as a Southeast Asian ‘Other’ (49-80)
- Thongchai Winichakul. Siam Mapped: A History of the Geo-Body of a Nation (selections). 1997.
Class 7) The State and Minorities in Southeast Asia: The contemporary conditions of ethnic minorities (mostly highland) in the border regions.
- Brown, David. The State and Ethnic Politics in SE Asia. 1993.
chapt 1) Ethnicity and the State (1-32)
- from Duncan, Christopher ed. Civilizing the Margins: Southeast Asian Government Policies for the Development of Minorities. 2004.
chapt 1) Christopher Duncan: Legislating Modernity among the Marginalized’ (1-23)
chapt 5) Kathleen Gillogly: Developing the “Hill Tribes” of Northern Thailand (116-149)
chapt 6) Curtis Lambrecht: Oxymoronic Development: The Military as Benefactor in the Border Regions of Burma (150-181)
Class 8) The State and Minorities in Southeast Asia continued:
- Callahan, Mary. Political Authority in Burma’s Ethnic Minority States: Devolution, Occupation and Coexistence (selections). 2007
- Jonsson, Hjorleifur. Mien Relations: Mountain People and State Control in Thailand. “Twentieth-Century Highlanders.” Pp 44-72. 2005.
Classes 9,10,11) Tourism and Representation / Excursion to Minority Area: Tourism as a process of cultural representation as well as an economic undertaking. Our academic concerns will be self-reflexive as we concurrently take a tour to a borderland minority area.
- Oakes, Tim. “The Village as Theme Park: Mimesis and Authenticity in Chinese Tourism.” Pp 166-192. In. Oakes, Tim and Louisa Schein, eds. Translocal China. 2006.
- Kolas, Ashild. Tourism and Tibetan Culture in Transition: A Place Called Shangrila (selections). 2011.
- Yang Li, et al ‘Ethnic Tourism Development: Chinese Government Perspectives’ in Annals of Tourism Research. 2008. 35(3). pp 751-771.
- Hillman, Ben and Henfry, Lee Anne. ‘Macho Minority: Masculinity and Ethnicity on the Edge of Tibet’ in Modern China 32 pp 251-72.
Class 12) Pre-Modern connections: Specific historic examples of cross-border, para/pre-national societies.
- Thant Myint-U. Where China Meets India: Burma and the New Crossroads of Asia (selections). 2011.
- Maxwell Hill, Ann. Merchants and Migrants: Ethnicity and Trade amongst Yunnanese Chinese in Southeast Asia. (selection) 1998.
- Giersch, Patterson. ‘Across Zomia with Merchants, Monks, and Musk: Process Geographies, Trade Networks and the Inner-East-Southeast Asian Borderlands’ in Journal of Global History 5(2). Pp 215-239. 2010.
Class 13) Post-Modern Economies and Ethnicity: Changing livelihoods of trans-border societies.
- from Grant Evans, et al eds. Where China Meets Southeast Asia: Social and Cultural Change in the Border Region. 2000.
chapt 8) Grant Evans. “Transformation of Jinghong, Xishuangbanna, PRC” pp 162-182)
chapt 12) Chua Thi Hai. “Trade Activities of the Hoa along the Sino-Vietnamese Border.” pp236- 252
- from Horstmann, Alexander and Reed Wadley, eds. Centering the Margin: Agency and Narrative in Southeast Asian Borderlands. 2006.
chapt 4) Davis, Sara. “Premodern Flows in Postmodern China: Globalization and the Sipsongpanna Tais.” Pp 87-110.
Class 14) Post-Modern Economies and Ethnicity continued:
- from Oakes, Tim and Schein, Louisa eds. Translocal China. 2006
chapt 10) Weng Naiqun. “Flows of Heroin, People, Capital, Imagination and the Spread of HIV in Southwest China.” pp 193-212.
chapt 11) Louisa Schein “Negotiating Scale: Miao Women at a Distance.” Pp 213-237.
- from Rossabi, Morris. ed. 2005 Governing China’s Multi-Ethnic Frontiers.
chap 2) Mette Halskov Hansen. “The Challenge of Sipsong Panna in the Southwest.” Pp 53-83.
- Pal Nyiri 2012 ‘Enclaves of Improvement and Developmentalism in the Special Zones of the China-Lao Borderlands’ in Comparative Studies in Society and History. 54:3 pp 533-562.
Class 15) (Trans-)Nationalism and Ethnic Identity: Re-creation of ethnic identity through discourse and practice in Southeast Asia. (Student teams will present different parts of the reading)
- from Shegharu Tanabe and Charles Keyes, eds. Cultural Crisis and Social Memory: Modernity and Identity in Thailand and Laos. 2002.
chapt 3) Nicholas Tapp: on forgetting amongst Hmong in Chiang Mai
chapt 6) Grant Evans: on Statuemania in Thailand and Laos
- from Adams, Kathleen. Everyday Life in Southeast Asia. 2011.
chapt 3) Holly High: Poverty and Merit: Mobile Persons in Laos. Pp 37-46.
chapt 6) Kathleen Gillogly: Marriage and Opium in a Lisu Village in Northern Thailand. Pp 79-88.
chapt 8) Hjorleifur Jonsson: Recording Tradition and Measuring Progress in the Ethnic Minority Highlands of Thailand. Pp 107-116.
chapt 10) Christina Schwenkel: Youth Culture and Fading Memories of War in Hanoi, Vietnam. pp 127-136.
chapt 21) Chris Lyttleton: When the Mountains No Longer Mean Home. Pp 273-282.
Class 16) (Trans)-nationalism and Ethnic Identity
- from Gehan Wijeywardene, ed. Ethnic Groups Across National Boundaries in Mainland Southeast Asia. 1990.
-chapt 5) Ananda Rajah. “Ethnicity, Nationalism, and the Nation-State: The Karen in Burma and Thailand. pp 102-133.
- from Alexander Horstmann and Reed Wadley, eds. Centering the Margin: Agency and Narrative in Southeast Asian Borderlands. 2006.
-1) Niti Pawakapan. “Once were Burmese Shans: Reinventing Ethnic Identity in Northwest Thailand.” Pp 27-52.
- Hjorleifur Jonsson ‘Serious Fun: Minority Cultural Dynamic and National Integration in Thailand’ in American Ethnologist. 28:1. pp 151-178. 2001.
Class 17) Ethnic Chinese in Southeast Asia: Peculiar circumstances of the largest and most influential trans-national ethnic group of the region. (Student teams will present different parts of the reading)
- Aiwha Ong. Flexible Citizenship (selections). 1999.
- Aiwha Ong. Neoliberalism as Exception. (selections). 2006.
- from Leo Suryadinata, ed. Ethnic Chinese and Southeast Asians. 1997.
chapt 1) Leo Suryadinata. “Ethnic Chinese in Southeast Asia: Overseas Chinese, Chinese Overseas, or Southeast Asians?” pp 1-32.
- Bolt, Paul. China and Southeast Asia’s Ethnic Chinese: State and Diaspora in Contemporary Asia. 2000
chapt 2) Asia’s Ethnic Chinese: Characteristics and Networks. pp 19-36.
- Yen Ching-Hwang. The Chinese in Southeast Asia and Beyond: Socio-Economic and Political Dimensions. 2008.
chapt 10) Social Change in the Ethnic (Overseas) Chinese Communities: A Historical Perspective (261-284)
Class 18) Language and Ethnicity: The subject of ever-shifting government policies and social priorities but also a vital signifier and medium of identity. (Student teams will present different parts of the reading)
- from Beckett, Gubahar and Gerard Postiglione, eds. China’s Assimilationist Language Policy: The Impact on Indigenous/Minority Literacy and Social Harmony. 2011.
chapt 1) Gulbahar Beckett and Gerard Postiglione: ‘China’s language policy for indigenous and minority education’ 3
chapt 6) Linda Tsung, et al. ‘Bilingual Education in China: The Case of Yunnan’
- from Michael Brown and Sumit Ganguly, eds. Fighting Words: Language Policy and Ethnicity in Asia. 2003.
chapt 5) Mary Callahan. “Language Policy in Modern Burma.” Pp 143-176.
chapt 6) Charles Keyes. “The Politics of Language in Thailand and Laos.” Pp 177-210.
chapt 7) Thaveeporn Vasavakul. “Language Policy and Ethnic Relations in Vietnam.” Pp 211-238
chapt 12) June Teufel Dreyer. “The Evolution of Language Policies in China.” Pp 353-384.
Class 19) Forms of Ethnic Resistance and Conflict: Despite almost continuous tension and flux throughout the region, Myanmar remains the only site of active violent political rebellion. (Student teams will present different parts of the reading)
- East-West Center. State of Strife: The Dynamics of Ethnic Conflict in Burma (selections). 2007.
- South, Ashley. Ethnic Politics in Burma: States of Conflict (selections). 2008
- Maung Thawnghmung. The ‘Other’ Karen in Myanmar: Ethnic Minorities in the Struggle Without Arms (selections). 2011.
- Kirsch, Scott. and Flint, Colin, eds. Reconstructing Conflict. 2001.
chapt 5) Carl Grundy-Warr and Karin Dean. “Not Peace, Not War: The Myriad Spaces of Sovereignty, Peace and Conflict in Myanmar/Burma.” pp 91-114.
- from Dominque Caouette and Sarah Turner, eds. Agrarian Angst and Rural Resistance in Contemporary Southeast Asia. 2009.
chapt 3) Sarah Turner and Jean Michaud. “Weapons of the Weak”: Selective Resistance and Agency among the Hmong of Northern Vietnam. Pp 45-60.
- Wang Lixiong and Tsering Shakya. The Struggle for Tibet (selections). 2010.
Class 20) Informal Economies and Crime: Perhaps the most exciting and romanticized, but also the least-studied, aspect of trans-border society in the region. (Student teams will present different parts of the reading)
- Marshall, Andrew. ‘Special Report: In Mekong Chinese Murders and Bloody Diplomacy’ in Reuters (27 Jan 2012). 2012
- Tapp, Nicholas. The Hmong of Thailand: Opium People of the Golden Triangle (selections). 1986.
- from Grant Evans, et al, eds. 2000 Where China Meets Southeast Asia: Social and Cultural Change in the Border Region
chapt 9) David Feingold. “The Hell of Good Intentions.” Pp 183-221.
- Alfred McCoy. The Politics of Heroin: CIA Complicity in the Global Drug Trade. 2003.
chapt 7) “The Golden Triangle.” pp 283-386
- Bertil Lintner. Merchants of Madness (selections). 2009.
- Bertil Lintner. Burma in Revolt: Opium and Insurgency since 1948 (selections). 2000.
Class 21) International Discourse: The role of policy-makers and debate regarding the different paths of development in the region.
- from Bill Chou and Yufan Hao, eds. China’s Policies on Its Borderlands and the International Implications. 2010.
chapt 11) Zhao Hong. “China’s Myanmar Policy: Challenges and Adjustments.” Pp 253-274.
- from Li Mingnjian and Ching Guan Kwa, eds. China-ASEAN Sub-Regional Cooperation: Progress, Problems, and Prospects. 2011.
chapt 2) Li Chenyang and He Shengda. “China’s Participation in the GMS Cooperation: Progress and Challenges.” Pp 15-36.
chapt 4) Li Wannian. “Sub-regional Economic Zones in China: Implications for ASEAN-China Cooperation.” Pp 57-76.
chapt 5) Sarah Tong and Catherine Chong Siew Keng: ASEAN Economic Growth Triangles and Implications for China (77-94)
chapt 8) Kalyan Kemburi. “China’s Growing Economic Gravity in Southeast Asia: An Opportunity for Economic Statecraft?” pp 143-170.
- from Rossabi, Morris, ed. Governing China’s Multi-Ethnic Frontiers. 2005.
chapt 6) Melvyn Goldstein. “Tibet and China in the Twentieth Century.” Pp 186-229.
Class 22) Final Presentations: Each student will be expected to make a 15 minute presentation and field questions on a topic of her/his choice as developed through the semester assignments and in consultation with the instructor.
- Adams, Kathleen. Everyday Life in Southeast Asia. 2011.
- Anderson, Benedict. Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism. (selections). 1983.
- Anderson, Benedict. The Spectre of Comparisons: Nationalism, Southeast Asia and the World. (selections). 1998.
- Beckett, Gubahar and Gerard Postiglione, eds. China’s Assimilationist Language Policy: The Impact on Indigenous/Minority Literacy and Social Harmony. 2011.
- Bolt, Paul. China and Southeast Asia’s Ethnic Chinese: State and Diaspora in Contemporary Asia. 2000
- Brown, David. The State and Ethnic Politics in SE Asia. 1993.
- Callahan, Mary. Political Authority in Burma’s Ethnic Minority States: Devolution, Occupation and Coexistence (selections). 2007
-- Caouette, Dominque and Sarah Turner, eds. Agrarian Angst and Rural Resistance in Contemporary Southeast Asia. 2009.
Chatterjee, Partha. The Nation and Its Fragments: Colonial and Postcolonial Histories. (selections). 1993.
- Chou, Bill and Yufan Hao, eds. China’s Policies on Its Borderlands and the International Implications. 2010.
- Evans, Grant, et al, (eds). Where China Meets Southeast Asia: Social and Cultural Change in the Border Region. 2000.
- Dikotter, Frank. The Discourse of Race in Modern China (selections). 1992.
- Duncan, Christopher ed. Civilizing the Margins: Southeast Asian Government Policies for the Development of Minorities. 2004.
- East-West Center. State of Strife: The Dynamics of Ethnic Conflict in Burma (selections). 2007.
- Gehan Wijeywardene, ed. Ethnic Groups Across National Boundaries in Mainland Southeast Asia. 1990.
- Heberer, Thomas. China and Its National Minorities: Autonomy or Assimilation (selections). 1989.
- Horstmann, Alexander and Reed Wadley, eds. Centering the Margin: Agency and Narrative in Southeast Asian Borderlands. 2006.
-Jonsson, Hjorleifur. Mien Relations: Mountain People and State Control in Thailand. “Twentieth-Century Highlanders.” Pp 44-72. 2005.- Kuhonta, Erik. et al, (eds.). Southeast Asia in Political Science. 2008.
- Kirsch, Scott. and Flint, Colin, eds. Reconstructing Conflict. 2001.
- Kolas, Ashild. Tourism and Tibetan Culture in Transition: A Place Called Shangrila (selections). 2011.
- Leach, Edmund. Political Systems of Highland Burma: A Study of Kachin Social Structure. (selections) 1964.
- Li Mingjian and Ching Guan Kwa, eds. China-ASEAN Sub-Regional Cooperation: Progress, Problems, and Prospects. 2011.
- Lintner, Bertil. Merchants of Madness (selections). 2009.
- Lintner, Bertil. Burma in Revolt: Opium and Insurgency since 1948 (selections). 2000.
- Mackerras, Colin. China’s Ethnic Minorities and Globalisation (selections). 2003.
- Marshall, Andrew. ‘Special Report: In Mekong Chinese Murders and Bloody Diplomacy’ in Reuters (27 Jan 2012). 2012.
- Maxwell Hill, Ann. Merchants and Migrants: Ethnicity and Trade amongst Yunnanese Chinese in
Southeast Asia. (selection) 1998.
- Maung Thawnghmung. The ‘Other’ Karen in Myanmar: Ethnic Minorities in the Struggle Without Arms (selections). 2011.
- McCoy, Alfred. The Politics of Heroin: CIA Complicity in the Global Drug Trade. 2003.
- Oakes, Tim and Louisa Schein, eds. Translocal China. 2006.
- Ong, Aiwha. Flexible Citizenship (selections). 1999.
- Ong, Aiwha. Neoliberalism as Exception. (selections). 2006.
- Reid, Anthony. Imperial Alchemy. 2009.
- Rossabi, Morris. ed. 2005 Governing China’s Multi-Ethnic Frontiers.
- Scott, James. The Art of Not Being Governed: An Anarchist History of Upland Southeast Asia. (selections). 2010.
- Shegharu Tanabe and Charles Keyes, eds. Cultural Crisis and Social Memory: Modernity and Identity in Thailand and Laos. 2002.
- Shin, Leo K. The Making of the Chinese State: Ethnicity and Expansion on the Ming Borderlands (selections). 2012.
- South, Ashley. Ethnic Politics in Burma: States of Conflict (selections). 2008.
- Suryadinata, Leo. ed. Ethnic Chinese and Southeast Asians. 1997.- Thant Myint-U. Where China Meets India: Burma and the New Crossroads of Asia (selections). 2011.
- Tapp, Nicholas. The Hmong of Thailand: Opium People of the Golden Triangle (selections). 1986.
- Thongchai Winichakul. Siam Mapped: A History of the Geo-Body of a Nation (selections). 1997.
- Wang Lixiong and Tsering Shakya. The Struggle for Tibet (selections). 2010.
- Yen Ching-Hwang. The Chinese in Southeast Asia and Beyond: Socio-Economic and Political Dimensions. 2008.
- Zhao Suisheng A Nation State By Construction: Dynamics of Modern Chinese Nationalism. 2004.
- Zhiyu Shi. Autonomy, Ethnicity, and Poverty in Southwest China: The State Turned Upside Down (selections). 2007.