Between Two Deaths: Representation of the 1968 Huế Massacre 1968 in “Song for the Dead” of Trịnh Công Sơn

( Lo Duc Anh ) 부산외국어대학교 아세안연구원(구 부산외국어대학교 동남아지역원) 2020 Suvannabhumi Vol.12 No.1

The 1968 Huế Massacre is a horrifying event rarely mentioned today in Vietnamese history and mass media. It is forgotten perhaps because it is simply indescribable. This study reads a song by Vietnamese musician Trịnh Công Sơn, where he attempted to chronicle the catastrophic images of the massacre. We use the notion of symbolic death in psychoanalysis to interpretation of the song, and shed a new light on how it captured this historical event which eludes understanding.

Language Choice in Philippine Government Websites: Sociolinguistic Issues and Implications

( Gerard P. Concepcion ) 부산외국어대학교 아세안연구원(구 부산외국어대학교 동남아지역원) 2021 Suvannabhumi Vol.13 No.1

Government websites provide useful and timely information to the public such as government’s history, organizational values, codes of ethics, public services, facts about public official, among others. Using language choice as framework, the study seeks to examine what language is used, in what contents, and in what kind of website. The study employed online observation in 235 Philippine government websites (.gov.ph) via content analysis. As a result, English is overwhelmingly used; while Filipino, the Philippines’ national language, and only a handful of regional languages, are minimally used in the contents. Discussion will follow how multilingualism can improve the dissemination of information and communication more conveniently and efficiently from the government to its citizens.

Ramayana Retellings in Southeast Asia: Ravana and Hanuman in Popular Culture, Case study in Thailand and Vietnam

( Nguyen Thi Tam Anh ),( Nguyen Duy Doai ) 부산외국어대학교 아세안연구원(구 부산외국어대학교 동남아지역원) 2021 Suvannabhumi Vol.13 No.1

The Ramayana is a very popular epic in Southeast Asia. It is the story of King Rama who must save his kidnapped wife, Sita. After Sita was abducted by the Demon King Ravana (Tosakanth) and taken to Lanka, Rama and his brother rescued her with the help of the monkey warriors, especially with the help of the Monkey King Hanuman. Along the way, the epic teaches Hindu life lessons. Today The Ramayana is told and retold through literature, theatre, orally, in movies, and is referenced in many other forms of popular culture. Nowadays, in Thailand, Ravana and Hanuman deconstruct the role of divine and become folk deities that also find their places in calendar art, advertising and stamps, etc. And in Vietnam, Ravana and Hanuman have become the two figures that can’t be absent from Southern Vietnam Khmer ceremonies. In this article, our aim is to show how Ravana and Hanuman became symbols of popular culture (case studies in Thailand and Vietnam). The data provided in this article is drawn from field surveys with reliable reference resources.

Documents of The Nguyen Dynasty’s Mission to China in 1883: The Origins and Historical Values

( Nguyen Thi Thu Thuy ) 부산외국어대학교 아세안연구원(구 부산외국어대학교 동남아지역원) 2021 Suvannabhumi Vol.13 No.1

In 1882, after the French defeated Tonkin for the second time, the Nguyen Dynasty led by King Tự Đức 嗣德 appointed Phạm Thận Duật 范慎遹 and Nguyễn Thuật 阮述 as envoys to the Qing Dynasty to seek the Chinese’s help to deal with the French invasion. The trip’s information from 1883 such as the schedule, the content, the discussion, and the progress was specifically reflected in the two envoys’ diaries, including “Notes of Voyage to Qing Dynasty in The First Year of Jianfu” 建福元年如清日程 (Phạm Thận Duật and Nguyễn Thuật), “Notes of Voyage to Tianjin” 往津日记 (Nguyễn Thuật). This article presents the origin of these documents and their historical values in order to provide insights into the study of diplomatic relations between the Nguyen Dynasty and the Qing Dynasty in the late 19th century through the 1883 mission.

Ecocriticism in Non-Western Contexts: Natural Disasters, Ecological Wounds, and Colonial Conditions in Thơ mới (Vietnamese New Poetry, 1932-1945)

( Chi P. Pham ),( Bui Thi Thu Thuy ),( Hoang To Mai ) 부산외국어대학교 아세안연구원(구 부산외국어대학교 동남아지역원) 2021 Suvannabhumi Vol.13 No.1

Thơ mới (Vietnamese New Poetry, 1932-1945) is a literary movement in colonial Vietnam that is broadly considered to have marked the modernization of Vietnamese literature. This paper examines depictions about natural disasters, ecological wounds, and about relationships between humans and nature in New Poetry, asking how those descriptions reflect social and political issues in colonial Vietnam. The paper argues that ecocriticism, developed in Western academy, brought to the New Poetry Movement new meanings, associated with a material world. That is the specific reality of colonial Vietnam in the early twentieth century, when the colonial modernization resulted in natural and social collapses in the area. This approach is especially significant, given that New Poetry is largely seen as the embodiment of the expansion of Western romanticism by Vietnamese scholars. Moreover, in examining Thơ mới (Vietnam) from perspective of ecocriticism, this paper extends the ecocritical approach to non-Western literatures. Specifically, although ecocriticism developed in the West, particularly in United States and England, it has become an effective approach to non-Western literatures, particularly since the early twentieth first century. In this context, Asian literatures, particularly Southeast Asian literatures, potentially offer ecocriticism new meanings, many of which are associated with local social and political conditions and histories.

Epistemic Reflexivity and its Applications to Southeast Asian Studies

( Yekyoum Kim ) 부산외국어대학교 아세안연구원(구 부산외국어대학교 동남아지역원) 2021 Suvannabhumi Vol.13 No.1

With a view to contributing to the epistemological and methodological debates in Southeast Asian Studies, the aim of this paper is to examine critically the epistemic concepts and approaches in the social sciences and then to seek an epistemic reflexivity and its potential methodological applications to Southeast Asian Studies. Although the field of social sciences has attempted to search for a means of tackling the ontological and epistemological dilemmas in its major paradigms, Southeast Asian Studies still demands a more ‘actor-centered’ epistemic account of reflexive interaction between actors and social structures. Bearing in mind the need for a more ‘actor-centered’ epistemic approach, this paper continues to discuss the ‘epistemic reflexivity’ in the social sciences and its potential applications to Southeast Asian Studies. In this paper, I will consider ‘epistemic reflexivity’ as an alternative methodological orientation. It emerges as interlinked with the ontological standpoint of what is called ‘reflexive approaches’ and its application to the detailed ‘reflexive methodology’ which I am proposing in this paper. In doing so, this paper discusses the autobiographical experiences of the author arising from his ethnographic field research in North Sulawesi, Indonesia and their implication for a reflexive methodology in Southeast Asian Studies. In conclusion, the paper argues that we need a ‘more actor-centered’ epistemic framework to compensate for the epistemological and methodological dilemmas in the social sciences and the alternative framework will equip Southeast Asian Studies with a reflexive methodology relevant to the life-dynamics of the social world in the process of developing its inquiries, methodological technics, analysis, and validation.

Tributary Activity in Diplomacy Relations between Vietnam and Mainland Southeast Asian Countries from 938 to 1885

( Nguyễn Thị Mỹ Hạnh ) 부산외국어대학교 아세안연구원(구 부산외국어대학교 동남아지역원) 2021 Suvannabhumi Vol.13 No.2

Based on research of documents left by Vietnamese feudal dynasties, the current article reports how it initially reconstructed the process of Vietnamese tribute activity of Southeast Asia from the 10^th to 19^th century and demonstrates the significance of these activities to how Vietnam is considered central rather than peripheral as a nation. Tribute activity took place during a period when Vietnam was an independent country; feudal dynasties of Vietnam were independent and autonomous dynasties. Vietnam had just escaped from the 1,000-year invasion of China and more recently gotten out from the control of the French colonialists. From the demonstration of the tribute activity, otherwise called requesting investiture, the current article places it in relation to the contemporary Chinese “tributary system” to draw out the characteristics and its essence. At the time the current article explores the underlying causes that contributed to shaping the core characteristics of this “tributary system” and its significance to power relationships.

Making Anyatha (Upper Lander) and Auktha (Lower Lander): Crossing the Introduction of the Colonial Boundary System to British Burma (Myanmar)

( Myo Oo ) 부산외국어대학교 아세안연구원(구 부산외국어대학교 동남아지역원) 2021 Suvannabhumi Vol.13 No.2

In Myanmar studies, despite research on the categorization of ethnic nationalities are fairly much, research on the categorization of Myanmar people (ethnic Myanmar) is rarely exposed. People settled down in Central Myanmar had been categorized by regionalism into two groups as Anyatha (Upper Lander) and Auktha (Lower lander). It can be determined that the regionalism of Myanmar people existed and still exists. Previous scholarship in the colonial history of Myanmar has primarily referred to the documents recorded by the colonial officers and historical texts composed by the British authorities and scholars. The Catalogue of the Hluttaw Records is one of the rarest documents recorded in the Myanmar language on the affairs in the borderline drawn by the British after the Second Anglo-Myanmar War (1852-1853). Scrutinizing the Catalogue of the Hluttaw Records, it has been found that the text sheds light on the division of Central Myanmar into two regions in colonial Burma, later known as Lower Myanmar and Myanmar kingdom. These areas were known as Upper Myanmar between 1853 and 1885, and the categorization of the Myanmar king's subject, known as Anyatha (Upper Lander) and British colony citizen later known as Auktha (Lower Lander). This article traces back the relation of introducing the colonial boundary system and the division of Central Myanmar into two regions that allowed the emergence of regionalism among Myanmar people.

Rajakudakan Wat Chotikaram: From Ruins to The Reconstruction of The Grand Stupa, Wat Chedi Luang, Chiang Mai

( Kreangkrai Kirdsiria ),( Isarachai Buranautb ),( Kittikhun Janyaemc ) 부산외국어대학교 아세안연구원(구 부산외국어대학교 동남아지역원) 2021 Suvannabhumi Vol.13 No.2

The Grand Stupa is mentioned in historical text as ‘Rajakudakan’, which means a royal building with a multitiered superstructure. This Grand Stupa is the principal construction of Wat Chedi Luang, and marks the center of the Chiang Mai City Plan. This study argues that the Grand Stupa was built in 1391 during Phaya Saen Mueang Ma’s reign, possibly inspired by the construction of Ku Phaya in Bagan. Thereafter, in 1545, the Grand Stupa’s superstructure collapsed after the great earthquake, resulted in the irreparable damage since then. Therefore, a survey using a 3D laser scanner is conducted to collect the most precise data on the current condition of the Grand Stupa, yielding an assumption of its reconstruction. Other simultaneous stupas or those that show a close architectural relationship (e.g. stupas in Wat Chiang Man and Wat Lok Moli and the stupa of King Tilokaraj in Wat Chet Yot in Chiang Mai) are also employed as research frameworks for the reconstruction. As a result, the architectural research on the Grands Stupa, compared with simultaneous stupas, yields a fruitful argument that the pre-collapse superstructure form of the Grand Stupa marks the most architectural similarity to the stupa of Wat Chiang Man.

The Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic on Indonesia's Economy and Alternative Prospects for Untact Society

( Kyungchan Lee ) 부산외국어대학교 아세안연구원(구 부산외국어대학교 동남아지역원) 2021 Suvannabhumi Vol.13 No.2

This research is an attempt to understand the economic and social consequences that are occurring in Indonesia due to the spread of COVID-19. Indonesia, which has maintained solid economic growth since the inauguration of President Jokowi's government, is also experiencing difficulties to deal with unexpected COVID-19 pandemic as the global economic turmoil has had a very significant impact on its economy. The economic impact of COVID-19 can be felt, starting from the phenomenon of panic buying, the free fall of the stock price index, the depreciation of the Rupiah against the Dollar, sluggish activities in the processing industry, and ultimately it has an impact on slowing economic growth. Various policies and measures have been taken by the Indonesian government to minimize the negative impact caused by the COVID-19 pandemic on the economy. One such area is electronic commerce business or e-commerce that witnessed a vast increase of online and non-cash transaction amid rising voices that the country needs to prepare for the advent of a new economic system, the so-called New Normal era. The Covid-19 pandemic will temporarily slow economic growth and delay some development projects and policy initiatives as the Indonesian government diverts capital from infrastructure development to help respond to the crisis. However, the Jokowi administration's efforts for continuous reform are expected to accelerate the transition to the digital economy.