Southeast Asian Identities: Culture and the Politics of Representation in Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, and Thailand

"Every chapter is worth reading .... I could imagine it also finding a place in, or even being used as a core text for various courses on Southeast Asia. And I have not come up with a better title" (Journal of Southeast Asian Studies). "This is in many ways an excellent 'cutting edge' collection of essays which strives to push Southeast Asian studies in new directions" (Pacific Affairs).

Nationalism, cultural identity, the politics of representation, culture wars, cultural globalization -- these are some of the themes explored in this collection of essays on Southeast Asia. Drawing on insights developed in the relatively new fields of cultural and post-colonial study, but at the same time attuned to the rather specific histories of Southeast Asian cultures and society, the authors from the region, Australia and Canada examine instances of, and contests over, cultural identity formation in Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand. At the same time, by making the very notion of "culture" upon which such identities are based problematic, these essays also offer important criticisms of those regimes of power that point to the unique cultural features of the region in order to ward off all challenges to their authority.