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The Taliban Are Coming! How Intra-Oligarchic Conflict Proliferates Computational Propaganda in Indonesia Critical Asian Studies (IF 1.7) Pub Date : 2024-09-16 Ary Hermawan
This study examines online propaganda against fifty-seven former employees of the Indonesian Corruption Eradication Commission (Komisi Pemberantasan Korupsi, KPK). This propaganda, which centered o...
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The Emergence of Political Indigeneity: The Resistance Movement on Jeju Island against Colonization by Development Critical Asian Studies (IF 1.7) Pub Date : 2024-09-04 Youjeong Oh
While Jeju Island South Korea is internationally known for its longstanding anti-base movement at Gangjeong Village, the island’s modern history of resistance can be traced to 1991, when the South ...
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Bread-and-Butter Politics: Arrested Liberalization and Hegemonic Materialism in Singapore Critical Asian Studies (IF 1.7) Pub Date : 2024-07-15 Say Jye Quah, Bertrand Seah
Singapore has displayed a continued ability to confound the assumed symbiotic relationships between democratization, economic growth, and liberalism. This paper historicizes the development, use, a...
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Correction Critical Asian Studies (IF 1.7) Pub Date : 2024-07-12
Published in Critical Asian Studies (Vol. 56, No. 3, 2024)
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Dynastic Female Politicians and Family Rule in Thailand: Evidence from the 2019 and 2023 General Elections Critical Asian Studies (IF 1.7) Pub Date : 2024-07-11 Yoshinori Nishizaki
Previous research has shown that the majority of Thailand’s female Members of Parliament (MPs) elected in or before 2011 came from political families and constituted one small yet important part of...
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Expanding Protected Areas Globally Post-2020: A Critical Perspective from Thailand, with Implications for Community Forestry Critical Asian Studies (IF 1.7) Pub Date : 2024-06-25 Mark R. Herse, Naruemon Tantipisanuh, Wanlop Chutipong, George A. Gale
The Convention on Biological Diversity’s post-2020 Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) includes targets to formally protect thirty percent of Earth by 2030 and stimulate financiali...
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Thailand's Contract Farming Act at a Crossroads: Impacts, Shortfalls, and the Need to Better Protect Smallholders Critical Asian Studies (IF 1.7) Pub Date : 2024-06-13 Danny Marks, Ian G. Baird, Norachit Jirasatthumb
Thailand is a global pioneer in contract farming (CF). Many smallholder farmers have gained better access to markets and capital while achieving higher and more stable incomes. Nevertheless, farmer...
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Re-reading The Indo-Pacific as Aidagara: Watsuji Tetsurō’s Relevance to Japan’s Foreign Relations Critical Asian Studies (IF 1.7) Pub Date : 2024-06-09 Taku Tamaki
This article focuses on how space and relationships co-produce one another within the Japanese foreign policy language of the Indo-Pacific. By reframing Agent-Structure dynamics, by which actors an...
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A New Neoliberal Offensive in South Korea: The Conservative Politics of Rollback and the Disciplining of Organized Labor Critical Asian Studies (IF 1.7) Pub Date : 2024-06-03 Ji-Whan Yun
This study explores a series of actions undertaken by South Korea’s President Yoon Suk-yeol to prohibit and reshape customary activities in labor unions. It terms this neoliberal offensive a form o...
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Civic Subjecthood: The Hybridization and Reformulation of Subjecthood and Citizenship in Brunei Critical Asian Studies (IF 1.7) Pub Date : 2024-05-31 Mu’izz Abdul Khalid
This article examines Brunei’s state formation and development from 1906 until 2023 to demonstrate the hybridization and reformulation of subjecthood and citizenship within the last absolute monarc...
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The Specter of Potential Foreigners: Revisiting the Postcolonial Citizenship Regimes of Myanmar and India Critical Asian Studies (IF 1.7) Pub Date : 2024-04-25 Elizabeth L. Rhoads, Ritanjan Das
Revisiting the citizenship regimes of Myanmar and India through a comparative lens, this article argues that a specter of the “potential foreigner” is decisive in the adjudication of citizenship in...
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Private Power and Public Office: The Rise of Business Politicians in Indonesia Critical Asian Studies (IF 1.7) Pub Date : 2024-04-20 Eve Warburton
Scholars have long been preoccupied with the role that capital plays in Indonesia’s democratic institutions. Observers emphasize a tight overlap between the worlds of politics and business, with ma...
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Revisiting the CIA’s Deceptions in Asia Critical Asian Studies (IF 1.7) Pub Date : 2024-03-31 Moss Roberts
Published in Critical Asian Studies (Vol. 56, No. 2, 2024)
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Mediating Coalitions and the Politics of Civil Rights in the Philippines under Duterte Critical Asian Studies (IF 1.7) Pub Date : 2024-03-20 David Lozada, Andrew Rosser
The Duterte administration in the Philippines displayed broad hostility towards civil rights. Yet its approach to specific civil rights issues varied significantly. This paper analyses this variati...
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“Framing” the Opposition: The Limits of Mobilization against Duterte’s “War on Drugs” in the Philippines Critical Asian Studies (IF 1.7) Pub Date : 2024-03-20 Mark Thompson, Kevin Agojo, Joyce Li Liang
Why is there sometimes limited mobilization against autocratization, particularly when it involves major human rights violations? Some scholars emphasize the loss of political space through repress...
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Hindutva, OBCs, and Koli Selfhood in Western and Central India Critical Asian Studies (IF 1.7) Pub Date : 2024-02-09 Dolly Daftary
This paper describes how cultivator caste Kolis, who are the largest electoral bloc in Gujarat, India’s flagship state of Hindu chauvinism, navigate, circumvent, and are constituted by the intensif...
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Forest Reserves as Frontiers of Indigeneity: Semai Orang Asli Investments of Work, Cultural Use, and Identity in the Bukit Tapah Forest Reserve Critical Asian Studies (IF 1.7) Pub Date : 2024-02-09 Karen Heikkilä, Anthony Williams-Hunt
At less than one percent of Malaysia’s total population, the Orang Asli (Peninsular Malaysia’s Indigenous Peoples) lack political clout; state nonrecognition of their land rights constitutes a fund...
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Historical Agrarian Change and its Connections to Contemporary Agricultural Extension in Northwest Cambodia Critical Asian Studies (IF 1.7) Pub Date : 2024-02-09 Brian R. Cook, Paula Satizábal, Van Touch, Andrew McGregor, Jean-Christophe Diepart, Ariane Utomo, Nicholas Harrigan, Katharine McKinnon, Pao Srean, Thong Anh Tran, Andrea Babon
This historical overview uses a political ecology approach to examine agricultural change over time in Northwest Cambodia. It focuses on key historical periods, actors, and processes that continue ...
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A “Forgotten” Massacre: The Battle of Thakhek in Laos, 1946 Critical Asian Studies (IF 1.7) Pub Date : 2024-02-09 Vatthana Pholsena, Suriya Khamwan
Hundreds of combatants and civilians, both Lao and Vietnamese, perished in the small border town of Thakhek in central Laos on March 21, 1946, when French forces launched their biggest military ope...
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The Politics of Misalignment: NGO Livelihood Interventions and Exclusionary Land Claims in an Indonesian Oil Palm Enclave Critical Asian Studies (IF 1.7) Pub Date : 2024-02-09 Tessa D. Toumbourou, Wolfram H. Dressler
Across Southeast Asia’s extractive frontier, Indigenous people increasingly negotiate an influx of nonstate actors pushing partnerships and projects to steer livelihoods away from extractivism and ...
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Populist Revolt from the Margins: The Ambiguous Case of Uma Bharati Critical Asian Studies (IF 1.7) Pub Date : 2024-02-09 Amrita Basu
Women are well-positioned to excel in populist leadership performances. Their displays of emotion appeal to gender stereotypes about female irrationality while challenging assumptions of female doc...
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From Bizarre Encounters to Native Strangeness: Indigenous Otherness and Insider-Outsider Interactions in Indonesia Critical Asian Studies (IF 1.7) Pub Date : 2024-02-09 Geger Riyanto
This paper analyzes how native strangeness is produced alongside native-settler, insider-outsider frictions in Indonesia. While peculiar cultural stereotypes of Indigenous others cannot be separate...
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CCAS Statement of Purpose Critical Asian Studies (IF 1.7) Pub Date : 2024-02-09
Published in Critical Asian Studies (Vol. 56, No. 1, 2024)
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Creating Racial Subjects: Eugenics, Psychiatry, and the Ainu Critical Asian Studies (IF 1.7) Pub Date : 2024-02-06 Hosanna Fukuzawa
This article explores the development of psychiatric interest in the Ainu people of Hokkaidō Island within the socio-political context of Japan’s colonial expansion and the eugenics movement from t...
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The Patani Malay Dilemma: The 2023 Electoral Landscape in Thailand’s Deep South Critical Asian Studies (IF 1.7) Pub Date : 2023-11-16 Duncan McCargo, Chanintira na Thalang
Published in Critical Asian Studies (Vol. 55, No. 4, 2023)
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Continuity and Complexity: A Study of Patronage Politics in State-owned Enterprises in Post-authoritarian Indonesia Critical Asian Studies (IF 1.7) Pub Date : 2023-11-16 Indri Dwi Apriliyanti
This study explores the role of patronage in Indonesian State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs) by analyzing board appointments between 2004 and 2019 under two different presidential administrations—those o...
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Spiritually surviving precarious times: Millennials in Jakarta, Indonesia Critical Asian Studies (IF 1.7) Pub Date : 2023-11-16 Inaya Rakhmani, Ariane Utomo
It is increasingly urgent to consider how work conditions have shifted with neoliberal transformations and, more recently, the COVID-19 pandemic. The precarious nature of work faced by millennials ...
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Discipline, Development, and Duress: The Art of Winning an Election in Bangladesh Critical Asian Studies (IF 1.7) Pub Date : 2023-07-24 Mathilde Maîtrot, David Jackman
ABSTRACT Bangladesh’s ruling Awami League Party has now won three consecutive general elections, an unprecedented achievement in the country’s political history. The 2014 and 2018 elections were, however, mired in controversy. Current analyses of the most recent of these center on the institutional and coercive tactics used by the Awami League to limit the political opposition. International media
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The Pot Calling the Kettle Black: Populism and Thai Conservative Movements, 2006-2014 Critical Asian Studies (IF 1.7) Pub Date : 2023-07-06 Motoki Luxmiwattana
ABSTRACT It is often asserted that the Thai public, particularly members of the urban middle class in Bangkok, are inherently conservative, leading them to support mass protests preceding recent military coups. What is often overlooked is that support for these movements has not been consistent, with polls suggesting that at many points, the Bangkok public has opposed these protests. This prompts the
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Land Mafias in Indonesia Critical Asian Studies (IF 1.7) Pub Date : 2023-06-23 Dianto Bachriadi, Edward Aspinall
ABSTRACT: In Indonesia, “land mafias” (mafia tanah) proliferate, alongside mafias that cluster around other commodities and state functions. We analyze the composition, character, modes, and sources of resilience of Indonesian land mafias, noting similarities with formations elsewhere, especially India. While taking care to avoid reifying the category, we view land mafias as opportunistic networks
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Shan Male Migrants’ Engagement with Sex Work in Chiang Mai, Thailand, Pre- and Post-Pandemic Critical Asian Studies (IF 1.7) Pub Date : 2023-06-20 Amporn Jirattikorn, Arunrat Tangmunkongvorakul
ABSTRACT Thailand’s sex industry for same-gender sexual services for men has seen a shift to a predominantly migrant workforce, particularly in northern Thailand. The majority of male sex workers in Chiang Mai are ethnic Shan nationals from neighboring Myanmar. This research explores the lives of Shan migrant male sex workers, their adaptations to and survival strategies in the pre- and post-pandemic
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Myanmar’s Menu of Electoral Manipulation: Self- and External Legitimation after the 2021 Coup Critical Asian Studies (IF 1.7) Pub Date : 2023-05-25 Michael Lidauer
ABSTRACT One decade after Myanmar’s military regime organized non-competitive elections that unexpectedly commenced a period of political reforms, the military leadership upended this transitional period with a coup based on a narrative of electoral fraud. Cancelling the November 2020 election results which had confirmed the voters’ preferences for civilian rule, the military has begun organizing fresh
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“Water in One Hand, Fire in the Other:” Coping with Multiple Crises in Post-coup Burma/Myanmar Critical Asian Studies (IF 1.7) Pub Date : 2023-05-10 Ardeth M Thawnghmung, Su Mon Thazin Aung, Naw Moo Moo Paw, Duncan Boughton
ABSTRACT This paper discusses how different groups within Myanmar’s population respond to multiple crises caused by the 2021 military coup, the economic and social consequences of multiple waves of Covid-19 and increasing global food and fuel prices. It is based on monthly observation reports (MOR) by local researchers to focus on the range of actions taken by Myanmar’s silent accommodating majority
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Crime Talk and Male Criminality: Ethnographic and Historical Perspectives on Malaysia, 1978-2018 Critical Asian Studies (IF 1.7) Pub Date : 2023-05-04 Michael G. Peletz
ABSTRACT In the past few decades many countries have experienced a surge in crime that is heavily gendered. Men are responsible for much of the rising tide of criminality (and for most criminal offenses prior to the recent surge). This dynamic threatens not only women and children but also societies and polities more generally. Additionally, it occasions serious doubts about state agents’ widely touted
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Tuu Karrai Spi: Deconstructing Aman Committees and Life in South Waziristan Critical Asian Studies (IF 1.7) Pub Date : 2023-03-17 Adnan Wazir, Ikram Badshah, Zahid Ali Shah, Uzma Rahim
ABSTRACT This study explores the post-9/11 ramifications of the Global War on Terror (GWOT) in South Waziristan, Pakistan. It discusses how the post-colonial state has undermined state and tribal political relations which constituted political order first during the British colonial era and later in Pakistan. Furthermore, it explores how the post-colonial state has shared de facto sovereignty in the
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Remembering Ngô Vĩnh Long, Renowned Scholar of Vietnam and Antiwar Activist Critical Asian Studies (IF 1.7) Pub Date : 2023-01-20 An Thùy Nguyễn, Douglas Allen
Published in Critical Asian Studies (Vol. 55, No. 1, 2023)
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Wukan: Failed Promises of the Era of Reform and Opening Critical Asian Studies (IF 1.7) Pub Date : 2022-12-27 John W. Tai
Published in Critical Asian Studies (Vol. 55, No. 1, 2023)
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Rebuffing Bengali dominance: postcolonial India and Bangladesh Critical Asian Studies (IF 1.7) Pub Date : 2022-12-02 Willem van Schendel
ABSTRACT A vast literature analyzes how Bengali identities developed in colonial India. This article steps away from both celebratory approaches and a focus on the colonial period. Instead, it explores how non-Bengalis increasingly challenged Bengali superiority in more recent times. As the colonial incarnation of a genteel Bengaliness lost its bearings and split into competing territorial manifestations
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Decolonizing knowledge of and from Okinawa Critical Asian Studies (IF 1.7) Pub Date : 2022-10-31 Hidefumi Nishiyama
ABSTRACT This paper explores the militarized situation of Okinawa Island and the ongoing struggles and challenges that Okinawans continue to confront. Particular focus is placed on how Okinawans challenge dominant colonial forms of knowledge, which assert that the U.S. military presence on the island is beneficial for Okinawan and Japanese people. After contextualizing Okinawa Island within contemporary
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Islands between empires: the Ryukyu Shobun in Japanese and American expansion in the pacific Critical Asian Studies (IF 1.7) Pub Date : 2022-10-24 Marco Tinello
ABSTRACT The treaty that the Ryukyu Kingdom signed with the US government in 1854 was crucial for understanding cooperation between the US and Japanese governments when the latter annexed the Ryuku Islands in 1879 (an episode known as the Ryukyu shobun). The article explores how Japan-US negotiations over treaty rights facilitated Japan’s ambitions in the Ryukyus, Ogasawara Islands, and Korea, as well
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Okinawan memories in Argentina: between a transnational circulation of memories and migrants’ agency, 1945–1965 Critical Asian Studies (IF 1.7) Pub Date : 2022-10-21 Mariana Alonso Ishihara
ABSTRACT The destruction of Okinawa after the Pacific War led Okinawans to look for new interpretations of their past to overcome the hardships of the present and imagine a new future. Although scholars have recently examined Okinawans’ memory politics, they have paid little attention to the history of Okinawans in South America and their memory construction during the American occupation of the Ryukyu
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Exhibition review: Portraits of Ryukyu Critical Asian Studies (IF 1.7) Pub Date : 2022-10-10 Travis Seifman
ABSTRACT The exhibition “Portraits of Ryukyu,” held at the Okinawa Prefectural Art Museum from November 2021 through January 2022, featured works by sixteen artists with close ties to Okinawa, highlighting the diversity of themes, approaches, styles, and media contained within the category of modern and contemporary Okinawan art, and expanding understandings of that canon. The fifteen women and one
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The limits of civil society activism in Indonesia: the case of the weakening of the KPK Critical Asian Studies (IF 1.7) Pub Date : 2022-10-10 Abdil Mughis Mudhoffir
ABSTRACT This paper examines the limits of Indonesian civil society activism in advancing democratic politics. This activism, mainly by middle-class reformers, has not only failed to prevent democracy from being hijacked by illiberal interests but also contributed to justifying the deepening of political illiberalism. A predominantly anti-political approach among civil society activists mainly aims
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Okinawa studies today Critical Asian Studies (IF 1.7) Pub Date : 2022-09-29 Laura Hein
ABSTRACT The recent explosion of work on Okinawa focuses attention on Okinawans in Japan’s empire, the diaspora, the American postwar order, and the more distant past. Another major topic is the multiple ways that individuals experience their relationship to Okinawan identity. This research matches the energy and creativity of Okinawan culture today. Popular frustration with the presence of U.S. military
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Reviewing “The Chinese Question” in Southeast Asia Critical Asian Studies (IF 1.7) Pub Date : 2022-09-16 Yong Han Poh
Published in Critical Asian Studies (Vol. 55, No. 1, 2023)
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Subject making with Chinese characteristics: gender, sexuality, and Chineseness in neoliberal popular and public imaginaries Critical Asian Studies (IF 1.7) Pub Date : 2022-09-08 Jamie J. Zhao
Published in Critical Asian Studies (Vol. 54, No. 4, 2022)
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Competing for opium profits: the Japanese Empire and imperial subjects in Manchukuo, 1932–1937 Critical Asian Studies (IF 1.7) Pub Date : 2022-07-20 Ming Gao
ABSTRACT This paper highlights the lives of Japanese and Korean subjects of Imperial Japan who were involved in opium production and circulation in Manchukuo. It discusses the dynamics, practices, and experiences of opium production and circulation. This paper provides a new reading of the diverse beneficiaries on the ground and of the opium industry in Manchukuo from the angles of production and circulation
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The 1974 Battle of Jolo: testimonial narratives of survivors and intra-Tausug relations Critical Asian Studies (IF 1.7) Pub Date : 2022-07-18 Elgin Glenn R. Salomon
ABSTRACT Addressing the limitations of the dominant historiography of the Martial Law period (1972–1986) of the Philippines in Mindanao and the Sulu archipelago, this article provides testimonial narratives of witnesses and survivors of the 1974 Battle of Jolo as a counter-history. Tausug identity has been constructed and depicted by examining how the experiences of both Christian and Muslim Tausug
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Layers of (in)visible resilience: art, women, and homelessness in Japan Critical Asian Studies (IF 1.7) Pub Date : 2022-06-02 Minna Valjakka
ABSTRACT Building on a critical gendered approach at the intersection of arts, women, and homelessness, this article calls attention to the structured layers of (in)visibilities of female agency, existence, and resilience. The arts have a special place and importance in civil society formation in relation to homelessness in Japanese cities today, so the aim is to elucidate the significant but understudied
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Statement of Purpose Critical Asian Studies (IF 1.7) Pub Date : 2022-05-30
(2022). Statement of Purpose. Critical Asian Studies: Vol. 54, No. 2, pp. 304-305.
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COVID-19’s impact on Nepalese migrants: families. Vulnerability, coping strategies, and the role of state and non-state actors Critical Asian Studies (IF 1.7) Pub Date : 2022-05-26 Jagannath Adhikari, Tristan Bruslé, Mahendra Subedi, Mahendra Rai, Chiranjivi Baral
ABSTRACT This article examines how COVID-19 has impacted Nepalese migrants’ vulnerability and the actions they have taken to adapt to the situation. It investigates the problems created by COVID-19 from a disaster-risk management approach, the preparatory measures taken to deal with the disaster, and efforts by state and non-state actors in migrants’ rescue, relief, and reintegration into society.
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“No city for lovers:” anti-Romeo squads, resistance, and the micro-politics of moral policing in an Indian city Critical Asian Studies (IF 1.7) Pub Date : 2022-05-26 Atreyee Sen
ABSTRACT This article explores the quotidian politics of women’s virtue vigilante groups in Mumbai. It illustrates the multiple ways in which lower class “respectable women,” ranging from members of ladies’ groups to lone-wolf leaders, actively participate in cleansing the cityscape of what they believe is “sexual vulgarity” by daily surveillance over public displays of love in poor and peripheral
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On the existence of (global) Maoism Critical Asian Studies (IF 1.7) Pub Date : 2022-05-24 Fabio Lanza
Published in Critical Asian Studies (Vol. 54, No. 3, 2022)
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Localizing global concepts: an exploration of Indigeneity in Cambodia Critical Asian Studies (IF 1.7) Pub Date : 2022-05-23 Jeremy Ironside
ABSTRACT Studies of Indigeneity in Southeast Asia have consistently stressed its contested nature. The relevance of the concept has been questioned by governments in this region on the basis that both majority and minority ethnic groups are equally Indigenous. An interesting divergence from this is Cambodia where the term “Indigenous” is recognized in Cambodian law. This has largely been permitted
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Surviving Pemakö’s pluriverse: Kunga Tsomo, the goddess, and the LAC Critical Asian Studies (IF 1.7) Pub Date : 2022-05-16 Ruth Gamble
ABSTRACT This article traces a multi-generation history of Kunga Tsomo’s family, from the early 1900s when her grandmother migrated to Pemakö in the eastern Himalaya until the twenty-first century. Grandmother’s journey to Pemakö was part of a larger Vajrayana Buddhist migration to “hidden lands” in the southern Himalaya. This movement is most often framed as a religious event, but also involved the
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“I am the land and I am their witness”: placemaking amid displacement among Lumads in the Philippines Critical Asian Studies (IF 1.7) Pub Date : 2022-04-30 Clod Marlan Krister Yambao, Sarah Wright, Noah Theriault, Rosa Cordillera A. Castillo
ABSTRACT What happens to place-based, intergenerational knowledge in conditions of displacement? Here we attempt an answer to this question by reflecting on the experiences of the Indigenous peoples of Mindanao in the southern Philippines, collectively known as Lumads. For decades, Lumad communities have faced violence and displacement at the hands of the Philippine military, corporate armies, civilian
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Zhuang Xueben and the Ninth Panchen Lama’s final journey Critical Asian Studies (IF 1.7) Pub Date : 2022-03-29 Huasha Zhang
(2022). Zhuang Xueben and the Ninth Panchen Lama’s final journey. Critical Asian Studies: Vol. 54, No. 2, pp. 282-293.
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“We used to have lice … ” interethnic imagery in post-war upland Laos Critical Asian Studies (IF 1.7) Pub Date : 2022-02-02 Paul-David Lutz
ABSTRACT This paper discusses interethnic dynamics in a multi-ethnic Khmu and Akha village in the uplands of Phongsali Province, far-north Laos. It offers an intimate vignette on how local Khmu people’s patronizing disposition towards their Akha neighbors – and Sino-Tibetan highlanders more broadly – has been shaped by Laos’ recent history of war, revolution, and development. In particular, it shows
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Writing war, and the politics of poetic conversation Critical Asian Studies (IF 1.7) Pub Date : 2022-01-29 James Caron, Salman Khan
ABSTRACT This article’s premise is that war is ontological devastation, which opens up questions as to how to write about it. The paper contends that even critiques of war, whether critical-geopolitical analyses of global structures or ethnographies of the everyday, center war in ways that underscore erasures of non-war life, and therefore risk participating in that same ontological devastation. Engagement
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CCAS statement of purpose Critical Asian Studies (IF 1.7) Pub Date : 2021-12-10
(2021). CCAS statement of purpose. Critical Asian Studies: Vol. 53, No. 4, pp. 590-590.