Everyday, or common, forms of technology, such as radios, televisions, and sewing machines have had an enormous impact on human societies. Examining Southeast Asian history
In the 1920s and 1930s there was an explosion of print publications across Southeast Asia. These sources are invaluable for understanding many topics. While early
This week in the seminar we read about the transformation of Siam in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. This included examining the complex
Last summer Phan Lê Hà (founder of the Engaging With Vietnam conference series) met with curator Nguyễn Như Huy (founder of the art space Zero
Last week an article repeatedly appeared in my Facebook feed. It is a critique by a Vietnamese photographer (Hà Đào) of the works of a
In English-language writings on Vietnamese history, the Nguyễn Dynasty has long been depicted as resistant to reform. In this depiction, people like Emperor Tự Đức
As is well known, in the 1960s and 1970s Thailand became a major destination for international tourists. During those same years, Thailand’s domestic tourism market
In his 1971 work, Vietnam and the Chinese Model, historian Alexander Woodside sought to demonstrate that there was a discernable distinction between a (Southeast Asian)
At the beginning of 1956, the president of the Republic of Vietnam ordered the establishment of the Historical Research Institute (Viện Khảo-Cổ) under the Ministry
I just finished watching “The Vietnam War” by Ken Burns and Lynn Novick. While I really disliked the first episode (as it was extremely reductionist
Alexander Woodside’s Vietnam and the Chinese Model (1971) is a pioneering work of scholarship that remains today an important study of nineteenth-century Vietnam and the
This week in the seminar we read some of the scholarship of Jonathan Saha, an historian at the University of Leeds in the UK. While
I found the first episode of The Vietnam War by Ken Burns and Lynn Novick to be so simplistic that I wanted to stop watching,
Engaging With Vietnam is going to An Giang!! Our original plan for the upcoming 9th Engaging With Vietnam conference was to have the conference in
This week in the seminar we looked at “big history,” that is, history that is large in scope, be that temporal (i.e., looking at a
I just tried to watch the first episode of The Vietnam War, a new multi-episode documentary by American filmmakers Ken Burns and Lynn Novik. I
There is a major new documentary about the Vietnam War that is about to be broadcast on TV in the US. It is called The
This is a video summary of a weekly seminar that I am teaching (Fall 2017) on modern Southeast Asian History. The readings from this week
I read an article last week by Ariel Heryanto called “Popular Culture for a New Southeast Asian Studies?” [in The Historical Construction of Southeast Asian
This is a video summary of a weekly seminar that I am teaching (Fall 2017) on modern Southeast Asian History. The readings from this week
This is an announcement for the Engaging With Vietnam Hackathon!!
There is an extremely important text for the conflict in the 1830s between “Vietnam,” “Siam” and “Cambodia” that I have never seen an historian use
One very interesting aspect about what historians have labeled “the Vietnamese annexation of Cambodia” in the 1830s is that from the perspective of the values
Following up on the previous post, there is another source that mentions Cambodian officials and people wearing Vietnamese clothing – a Thai source known as
I’ve said it a million times before, but I’ll say it here again: “It is impossible to understand pre-20th-century Vietnamese history if one does not
The history of the relations between Cambodia and Vietnam is long and complex, and there are various elements of that history that make people today
In 1834, Vietnamese and Cambodian forces succeeded together in driving the Siamese out of Cambodia, and King Chan, who had fled to Vietnam (see this
In the early 1830s the Vietnamese fought a war with the Siamese: There was a rebellion that broke out in southern Vietnam at that time
The “tax issue” concerning how people in Cambodia were taxed when it was under Vietnamese control in the 1830s is very complex, and therefore, also
In the early 1830s a rebellion broke out in the Mekong Delta. The Siamese sent troops to support it, and then in 1834 the Vietnamese
After an intensive summer of planning for the 9th Engaging With Vietnam conference, we are pleased to announce details about the conference and to encourage
A few days ago I had the pleasure of attending two panels on “Emerging and Continuing Trends in Southeast Asian Studies” at The 10th International
In the previous post I wrote about an impression that one can get from viewing the interior design of the Independence Palace (Dinh Độc Lập)
As someone who is interested in architecture and “coolness,” I decided to spend some time this summer looking at the Independence Palace (Dinh Độc Lập)
I’m posting this information here for people who view this blog but who do not follow the Engaging With Vietnam Facebook page. These two videos
A year ago I made some videos of a conversation with scholar Trần Trọng Dương. I recently “updated” those videos by improving the quality of
Among the many musical compositions that Norodom Sihanouk composed was a piece called “Glory to Our Arab and African Brothers.” It would appear that this
After Cambodian Head of State Norodom Sihanouk was overthrown in 1970, he took up residence in Beijing, China and Pyongyang, North Korea. I’ve always wondered
In 1970, the head of state of Cambodia, Norodom Sihanouk, was overthrown by one of his military officers, Lon Nol. Sihanouk, who had declared Cambodia
Here are updated versions of the final two videos that I made about the Trưng Sisters in 2014. Part 3: Part 4:
One period of Vietnamese history that I find fascinating is World War II. During the War, Vietnam was occupied by the Japanese, but for most
While reading Christopher Goscha’s new survey of Vietnamese history, Vietnam: A New History, I decided to go back and read the first survey of Vietnamese
I used to teach a course on modern Vietnamese history (19th and 20th centuries), but I stopped teaching it a few years ago because I
As far as I know, no one has ever written a history of rice cultivation in the Red River Delta. Instead, I think most people
King Prajadhipok and Queen Rambhai Barni of Siam visited Honolulu in 1931 for only about 24 hours. That is not enough time to really gain
Recently a colleague pointed out to me that King Prajadhipok (Rama VII) and Queen Rambhai Barni of Siam visited Honolulu in 1931. I did not
The earliest record that tells us something about life in the Red River Delta in ancient times is Li Daoyuan’s sixty-century Shuijing zhu 水經注 (Annotated
[For an addendum to these opening comments, see this post.] Ben Kiernan begins his new Việt Nam: A History from Earliest Times to the Present
In his Việt Nam: A History from Earliest Times to the Present, Ben Kiernan argues that in the early history of Vietnam there were two
In 1976, linguists Jerry Norman and Tsu-Lin Mei published an influential article entitled “The Austroasiatics in Ancient South China: Some Lexical Evidence.” In this article,
