BEYOND THE WILLOW PALISADE: MANCHURIA AND THE HISTORY OF CHINA'S INNER ASIAN FRONTIER

Dr David Sneath is the Director of the Mongolia and Inner Asia Studies Unit at Cambridge University and a lecturer in Social Anthropology. He is a Fellow of Corpus Christi College where he is Deputy Tutor for Advanced Students and Director of Studies in Archaeology and Anthropology. He is the Co-editor of the journal Inner Asia and his most recent book Changing Inner Mongolia: Pastoral Mongolian Society and the Chinese State was published in 2000 by Oxford University Press (reviewed in Asian Affairs, June 2002). The following article is based on a lecture which he gave to the Society on 17 July, 2002.     

Illusions of Relevance? An Australian Encounter with Malay History and Southeast Asian Security

A. C. Milner’s visiting inaugural at N.U.S. invites exploration of its author’s intellectual development, for he boldly claims a role for an Australian historian of Southeast Asia as a promoter of liberal governance for Southeast Asian societies, in face of militant Islamism. His earlier “postmodernist” commitment to “getting inside the Malay experience” constitutes some sort of precursor, but relativist scepticism fits as uncomfortably as does, in its own way, advocacy of Australian tolerance of Asian authoritarianism. In attacking Leifer’s Realism, the lecture seems ill-informed, while the post-war Oakeshott is scarcely relevant to the diverse societies of Southeast Asia.

In Matters of war and socialism,Anthony Barnett would shame and honor Kampuchea too much

Abstract

In an article on “Inter-Communist Conflicts and Vietnam” published in the current issue of Marxism Today, Anthony Barnett attempts to put the wars in Southeast Asia into historical and socialist perspective. He begins by stressing the already existing pattern of conflict in the socialist world. He notes in particular, the history of differences between neighboring communist states, the division of Marxist-Leninist movements resulting from the Sino-Soviet split and the sustained efforts of imperialist powers to exploit and to deepen these conflicts. The same conflicts, he argues, now find expression in Southeast Asia. In fact, the recent successful completion of the Vietnamese revolutionary war and the rise of other communist governments in China's hinterland might be promoting a trilateral conflict situation of a type already observed elsewhere. After the second World War, the indigenous, self-sustaining communist revolution in Yugoslavia successfully resisted efforts made by the older, larger communist power, the USSR, to force it to join its Eastern European bloc. Part of the Soviet pressure took the form of aggravating difficult bilateral relations between Yugoslavia and its neighbor Albania. The pattern of aspirations and hostilities in today's Southeast Asia is not, Anthony asserts, appreciably different:     

Asian Contributions on Democratic Dignity and Responsibility: Rizal,Sukarno and Lee on Guided Democracy

Democracy as political doctrine has its fair share of controversies over the adjudication of rights and the prioritization of the individual over the community. These debates have largely derived from its western genesis. The current stage of global development has however supplied many non-western perspectives on democracy which suggest that any consensus over an identifiable body of democratic thought is likely to witness more sub-diversity than ever before. This article argues that contemporary Asian thinkers on the philosophy of government have a valuable contribution to make to democratic discourse notwithstanding the clichés of the Asian Values debate of the 1990s. By performing a sampled reading of José Rizal, Sukarno and Lee Kuan Yew on their diverse interpretations of guided democracy in a nationalistic context, it will be shown that these three modern Southeast Asian political thinkers would offer some tentative Asian insights on the democracy of dignity and of responsibility.

Hybrid Politics and New Competitiveness: Hong Kong’s 2007 Chief Executive Election

In recounting Hong Kong's chief executive election in 2007, this paper charts the unexpected appearance of an “unauthorized” candidate and the occurrence of vibrant campaigning. Further, as electoral competitiveness increased, the liberal form of authoritarian rule that has characterized politics in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) began to change in ways that parallel the electoral authoritarianism practiced in Singapore. This paper argues that such change, if regularized and enhanced, may bring greater stability to the HKSAR’s politics, yielding greater legitimacy, popular compliance, and hence, new efficiencies in control. Even so, analysis of the chief executive election shows that this competitiveness was strongly resisted by the central government in Beijing.

Correspondence

Sir Tony Brenton, formerly British Ambassador to Moscow (2004-2008), considers in this article the Asian dimension of Russia. He considers the historical connections and importance of Asia (as opposed to Europe) in the development of Russia and the historical balance between Asian and European influence. This section pays particular attention to the development of Siberia and early encounters between Russia and China. He then examines shifting Russian attitudes towards Asia at significant moments in Russian history including the 19^th century (the Slavophile Movement), the Communist period, the post-Soviet 1990s and the current era under President Putin. The implications of the Ukraine crisis and the current relationship with China is studied. He concludes with a discussion of whether Russia is likely to see its future orientation as more towards China and Asia, and what implications Russia's deliberation about its future direction has for the western powers.     

Prospects for cooperative security arrangements in the Asia-Pacific region

The concept of multilateral dialogue on Asia-Pacific security is attracting increasing support. This results from the improvement of relations among most of the major powers, the growing awareness of the problems that can best be addressed through cooperation, and the development of more realistic proposals for multilateral dialogue. The best approach to cooperative security is to utilize a combination of channels, including the ASEAN Regional Forum for discussion of region-wide and Southeast Asian issues, a parallel forum for dialogue on Northeast Asia, consideration of some security problems in APEC, and a recognized unofficial dialogue on regional strategic questions. In Spring 1994, he was a visiting professor of East Asian studies at The George Washington University and as of January 1995 he will be the new dean of the Elliott School of International Affairs at GWU. He is the author ofA Fragile Relationship: The United States and China Since 1972 (Brookings, 1992).     

伊斯兰教与东南亚国家现代化关系刍议

东南亚是世界穆斯林人口最多的地区之一,伊斯兰教对穆斯林占人口多数的印尼、马来西亚和文莱的现代化进程产生深刻影响,也对穆斯林人口占少数的新加坡、泰国和菲律宾现代化进程产生一定影响.本文认为由于伊斯兰国家的政治制度、经济发展水平、教育程度、社会结构、国际环境不同,伊斯兰与现代化的关系是多样的,不仅中东和东南亚地区伊斯兰与现代化的关系有较大不同,而且东南亚国家间亦有较大差别,表现出伊斯兰与现代化关系的多样性.     

Hobsbawm's social banditry,myth and historical reality: A case in the Malaysian state of Kedah, 1915–1920

Abstract

Although the current worldwide recession began to affect Japan in the mid-1970s, the typical social consequences were not visible there until very recently. One of the reasons for this was that Japanese corporations were able to shift the burden of the crisis onto vulnerable sections of the working class at home, especially part-time women workers, and vulnerable workers abroad, particularly in Asia and Latin America. This article examines one aspect of the latter displacement—Japanese direct investment in the three currently most-favored countries in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN): Thailand, Indonesia, and Malaysia. Space limitations preclude discussion of the impact of this displacement on other affected ASEAN nations: the Philippines, where the influx of Japanese capital followed the rise of Marcos and ended with his fall; Brunei, which is exceptional in any context; and Singapore, which is more appropriately examined in the context of the so-called NICs (newly industrialized countries). After looking briefly at the crisis in Japan to show the links between the two developments, I will argue that foreign direct investment (FDI) in ASEAN is an expression of a growing and mutually beneficial alliance between the Japanese capitalist class and their counterparts in ASEAN. Unfortunately I do not have the space to show how the ordinary people on both sides increasingly suffer as a result of this alliance.     

Diminishing Returns? Prime Minister Koizumi’s Visits to the Yasukuni Shrine in the Context of East Asian Nationalisms

The Yasukuni Shrine is a site of contested nationalist politics in Japan and in neighbouring countries. Within Japan the status of the Shrine exists in a tension between public and private and religious and secular meanings. These tensions are given a specific focus in the context of the visits to the Shrine by Japanese Prime Ministers. The history of such visits is discussed and analysed, with particular attention given to the causes and consequences of the visits by Prime Minister Koizumi Junichiro between 2001 and 2006. It is argued that the controversies over the visits in Japan and elsewhere are best understood in the context of ‘revisionist nationalism’ in Japan. The reactions and nationalist problematics of the PRC and Taiwan with regard to the Yasukuni Shrine are then elaborated and analysed.

Malaysia: the making of a grand design

Anthony Stockwell is Professor of Imperial and Commonwealth History at Royal Holloway, University of London. He was President of the Royal Asiatic Society in 2002–2003 and is currently a Vice-President. His publications include British Policy and Malay Politics during the Malayan Union Experiment (1979) and, as editor, British Documents on End of Empire: Malaya, 1942–1957 (three parts, 1995). He has been joint editor of the Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History since 1990. This is a version of a lecture delivered to the Royal Society for Asian Affairs on 26 February 2003.     

Islamism,Trade Unionism and Civil Society: The Case of Hak-İş Labour Confederation in Turkey

Vostokovedieniye v izdaniyakh akademii nauk, 1726–1917: bibliografiya (Orientalism in the publications of the Academy of Sciences, 1726–1917: a bibliography), Moscow, Nauka Press, 1966; 144 pp. Edited by O. E. Livotova and V. B. Portugal’

Knigi glavnoy redaktsii vostochnoy literaturi izdatel'stva ‘Nauka’, 1957–1966: annotirovanniy katalog (The books of the major press for Oriental works — the Nauka Publishing House, 1957–1966: an annotated catalogue), Moscow, Nauka, 1968; 304 pp.

Literatura o stranakh Azii i Afriki (Publications on the lands of Asia and Africa), Moscow, Nauka Press.

Bibliografiya Turtsii (A bibliography of Turkey), Moscow, Oriental Literature Publishing Press, 1959–61.

Edited by N. I. Botashvili, its Russian title is Bibliografiya Turtsii (istoriya) (A bibliography of Turkey: history), Tiflis, Myetsniyeryeba Press, 1971; 292 pp.

Edited by A. K. Sverschevskaya, it is named Bibliografiya Irana: literatura na russkom yazike (1917–1965) (A bibliography of Iran: publications in Russian (1917–1965)), Moscow, Nauka Press — for the Institute of the Peoples of Asia in the Soviet Academy of Sciences, 1967; 392 pp.

edited by N. M. Zand and V. A. El'vova, is named Khudo?estvennaya literatura stran Afrika v Sovyetskoy pechati: 1958–1964 (The belles lettres of African countries in the Soviet press: 1958–1964), Moscow, Kniga Press, 1967; 176 pp.

compiled by K. O. Yunusov, and edited by two leading Orientalists, A. A. Dolinina and N. M. Zand. It is named Tawfiq al'‐Hakim: bibliograficheskiy ukazatel’ (Tawfiq al‐Hakim: a bibliographical guide), Moscow, Kniga Press, 1968; 72 pp.

Edited by T. A. Vaganova and S. S. Bulatov, it is named Spravochnaya literatura po stranam Azii i Afriki (Reference materials concerning the countries of Asia and Africa), Leningrad, Publication Department of the Library in the Soviet Academy of Sciences, 1972; 535 pp.     

Soviet studies on workers’ movements in the Middle East

Rabochiy klass Afriki (The working class of Africa), edited by I. P. Yastrebova, Moscow, Africa Institute of the Soviet Academy of Sciences, Nauka Press: 1966.

K. A. Guseynov's Rabochiy klass i Profsoyuzi Afriki {The working class and the trade unions of Africa), Moscow, Profizdat: 1969.

B. A. Shabayev's Rabochiy klass strait Magriba (The working class of the Maghrib lands), Moscow, Asia Institute¹ of the Soviet Academy of Sciences, Nauka Press: 1968.

Willard A. Beling's important Modernization and African Labor: a Tunisian Case Study, N.Y., Praeger: 1965).

F. M. Atsamba and L. A. Fridman and titled Rabochiy klass stran Azii i Afriki (The working class in the countries of Asia and Africa), Moscow, Moscow University Press: 1966.

F. M. Atsamba's ‘The workers’ movement in Egypt on the eve of the Second World War, 1929–1939’ (pp. 266–94)

Selskohozyaystvenniye rabochiye v stranah Azii i Afriki (The agricultural workers in the countries of Asia and Africa), edited by G. G. Kotovskiy and I. A. Svanidze, Moscow, Oriental Institute and Africa Institute of the Soviet Academy of Sciences, Nauka Press: 1969.

Rabocheye dvizheniye v Azerbayzhane v godi novogo revolyutsiyonogo podyoma, 1910–1914 (The workers’ movement in Azerbaijan during the revolutionary progress, 1910–1914), Baku, Soviet Azerbaijan Academy of Sciences: 1967.

A. I. Shamide, Rabocheye i profsoyuznoye dvizheniye v Irane posle vtoroy mirovoy voyni, 1946–1953 (The workers’ and trade‐union movement in Iran after the Second World War, 1946–1953), Baku, Soviet Azerbaijan Academy of Sciences: 1965

Z. Z. Abdullayev, Formirovaniye rabochego klassa Irana (The formation of Iran's workers’ class), Baku, Soviet Azerbaijan Academy of Sciences: 1968.

Sh. M. Badi, Rabochiy klass Irana (Iran's workers’ class), Moscow, the Asia Institute of the Soviet Academy of Sciences, Nauka Press: 1965, is a smaller book (130 pages).

M. S. Ivanov, Rabochiy klass sowemennogo Irana (The workers’ class of contemporary Iran), Moscow, Ethnography Institute of the Soviet Academy of Sciences, Nauka Press: 1969.     

The origins and development of the Jihadist movement: from anti-communism to terrorism

Gilles Kepel is Professor, Institute of Political Studies, Paris (1985 to present); Senior Researcher, CNRS (National Board for Scientific Research), Paris (1984 to present); Director of the Doctoral Program on the Muslim World, Institute of Political Studies (1994 to present). He was Visiting Professor, Columbia University, New York (1996–1997); Researcher, CEDEJ (Egyptian–French Center for Scientific Cooperation), Cairo, Egypt (1980–1983). He is the author of several books on Islam, including Jihad: The Trail of Political Islam, published by IB Tauris in 2002 (reviewed in this issue of Asian Affairs, p. 158) and Bad Moon Rising: A Chronicle of the Middle East Today (Saqi, 2003). An earlier version of this article was published in Ramse`s, 2003     

The noble art of the chase in the Arab world

Sir Terence Clark is a Council Member of the Society. He retired from the Diplomatic Service after a distinguished career spent mainly in the Middle East, where he was Ambassador to Iraq and Oman, and is the author of many articles in specialist journals on hunting and co‐author of The Saluqi: Coursing Hound of the East (1995), Dogs in Antiquity (2001) and Oman in Time (2001). This article is based on a lecture delivered to the Society on 23 October, 2002.     

A tribute to Phyllis Andors, 1942–1992

Abstract

Phyllis Andors died at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City on 10 February 1992. In the late sixties Phyllis was one of the founding members of the Committee of Concerned Asian Scholars that gave rise to the Bulletin of Concerned Asian Scholars (BCAS), and in 1975 she edited as well as contributed an article and a book review to two BCAS special issues on women in Asia. Most recently, BCAS published her article “Women and Work in Shenzhen” in volume 20, number 3 (July–September 1988). Phyllis was a very active and much appreciated member of the BCAS editorial board since 1987, not only refereeing articles and contributing money but also taking on special projects such as investigating how BCAS might get grants and being the main editor of a proposed BCAS book about women in Asia. We at BCAS are grateful to Phyllis's husband, Steve, for providing us with much of this tribute to Phyllis so that our readers can join us in appreciating who she was and her unique contribution to those around her and the world.     

The Initiation of the Sino-Indian rivalry

ABSTRACT

Sino-Indian interactions after the mid-19th century had a causal influence on Chinese and Indian elite perceptions. Modern China encountered modern India as an agent of British imperialism. China perceived India as an “imperial” power in the late 1940s by resorting to the availability heuristic while doubting India’s intentions in Tibet/Southeast Asia. By contrast, India viewed China as a fellow victim of colonialism that had sought India’s help during World War II. Consequently, India perceived China as a “partner” in postwar/postcolonial Asia. This interpretation was based on confirmation bias after 1947, despite contradictory Chinese signals. India’s image of China changed only after the 1950–51 invasion/annexation of Tibet. India then ascribed the image of an “expansionist/hegemonic” power to China based on historical analogy. Nevertheless, they carefully calibrated their strategies towards each other in consonance with these images until the 1959 Lhasa Uprising, thereby preventing their relationship from descending into militarized hostilities.     

Parliamentary reporting in England in the early eighteenth century an abortive attempt to influence the magazines in 1744

SUMMARY

In this article Joachim Bahlcke has re-examined the significance of the agreement of the Estates of the crown of St Wenceslas, representing Bohemia, Moravia, Silesia and Upper- and Lower Lusatia to a federal constitution, the Confoederatio Bohemica in 1619. He argues that this was not just an improvised response to the contingencies of the Bohemian revolt against their Habsburg king, Ferdinand of Styria, but the outcome of a lengthy process of discussion and negotiation between the Estates. He argues that they achieved a remarkable success in overcoming deeply rooted internal divisions, and produced a mature set of constitutional proposals involving significant modernizations of the traditional structures to achieve a strong federal system based on equality of rights between the participating Lands. These reflected ideas drawn from leading political thinkers of the age. He believes the Confoederatio Bohemica represented an alternative model of a more effective central government, based on consent from below, to the monarchical-absolutist command model then coming into favour in Europe.     

Les députés du Territoire d'Otrante au parlement napolitain de 1820–1821

SUMMARY

In this article, Éric Anceau examines the coup d'État of 2 December 1851, which was carried out by the President of the French Republic at the time, Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte, against the Legislative Assembly. By viewing the coup from the parliamentary side and by using the method of prosopography, the author reevaluates an apparently well-known period, while refraining from partisan judgements and hasty generalizations. In the first part, the author analyses the immediate and contrasted reactions of the 741 parliamentarians to the coup. He then describes their negotiations and alignments. He finally shows the consequences for the parliamentarians of their different attitudes towards the coup: active support, acceptance, total abstention (a stance chosen by approximately a fifth of them) or outright resistance. In fact, Éric Anceau shows the great variety of their responses. Nevertheless he underlines the undecided, wait-and-see and pragmatic attitude chosen by most of the representatives. He concludes by mentioning the long-lasting consequences of the coup on the relationship between the new regime and the former Assembly representatives.