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Review
This bilingual edition of the poems of Amdo Gedun Chopel (1903-1951),1 In the Forest of Faded Wisdom, is a welcome addition to the ever-growing corpus of writings by and on the most outstanding, controversial figure of 20th century Tibet.
Prof . Lope z’s pre vious study and translation of Gedun Chopel’s commentary on Nagarjuna, The Madman’s Middle Way (MMW), 2006, is the first analysis in English of the Amdo scholar’s notorious philosophical commentary, The Middle Way. An Ornament on the Thought of Nagarjuna (dBu ma Klu grub dgongs rgyan). In that book, Lopez gives an overview of the life of Gedun Chopel, followed by a literal translation of this brilliant philosophical treatise – the most controversial piece of writing to emerge from modern Tibet, and a superbly written text.
In the Forest of Faded Wisdom (FFW) is quite a different kettle of fish. This too is a pioneering work. Lopez has put before us a selection of previously untranslated ‘poems’, many of which contain difficult classical and vernacular references. The introduction provides a biographical context to some of the texts, as well as a short literary analysis of classical Tibetan ‘poetry’. The selection is presented in a convenient bilingual form for students of Tibetan language and literature, and since Gedun Chopel has the reputation of being the finest poet of 20th century Tibet, this in itself is a major initiative.
How do we get to know foreign cultures in general and Indonesian in particular? Through tourism? Tourists tend to scratch the surface and very selectively at that (many think the holiday ‘paradise’ Bali is an independent nation). Through the media? Media reports on the 2005 tsunami or the sporadic terrorist attacks do not off er a balanced perspective on Indonesia either. No, we can best become familiar with another culture by reading its literary works – and for that to work we need translations.
A review of two fi lms on power: Performances of Authority and Being prominent in Indonesia, a day in the life of Ibu Mooryati.
Research sometimes serves to deconstruct power relations: to show how some groups are disenfranchised, marginalised or removed from histories of nations through literature, fi lm or other cultural practices. Academic work, in such cases, provides theoretical and direct criticisms
of how power structures, institutions, politicians and others, assert power.
Anne L. Foster. 2010. Projections of Power: The United States and Europe in Colonial Southeast Asia, 1919-1941. Durham and London: Duke University Press. xii + 241 pp, ISBN: 978-0-8223-4800-9 (paperback)
‘Nearly all works on United States relations with Southeast Asia have traditionally started their analysis with 1945, or perhaps 1941’, the author observes. (p. 9) Her book adopts a different line. That is welcome in at least two different ways. It tends to bring Southeast Asia into larger and more comparative studies, for example on US imperialism. That diminishes the risk, still prevalent, that Southeast Asia is ghettoised in more general works that draw their evidence and examples from other parts of the world, indeed other parts of Asia.
Symon, A. 2009. Writing from Asia. Newcastle, Australia: Global Exchange. 220 pages, ISBN: 9781876438418 (paperback)
Writing from Asia is a festschrift: a posthumous collection of his research and articles from 2000 to 2009, with a focus on issues that are still unresolved.
Garcia, J. Neil C. 2nd ed. 2009. Philippine Gay Culture: Binabae to Bakla, Silahis to MSM. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press. xxv + 537 pages, ISBN 978-962-209-985-2 (paperback)
Tadiar, Neferti XM. 2009. Things Fall Away; Philippine Historical Experience and the Makings of Globalization. Durham, NC: Duke University Press. ix + 484 pages, ISBN 978-0-8223-4446-9 (paperback)
When over lunch, I observed that the authors of the books I had been asked to comment upon characterised the dominant culture as ‘heterosexist, masculinist, and macho’, my lady friend couldn’t restrain a mocking smile, “Macho? Most of these poor devils are decidedly mother dependent, many a wife referring to her consort as her eldest son! When you come down to it, this place is run by women. The big boy just remains that, a big boy, full of bravado, which needs his wife to prop him up.” Her sneer reminded me of Thailand, where the lady of the house is referred to as ‘the hind legs of the elephant’ that would tumble without its mainstay.
Documentary films reveal and conceal. They are truthful without necessarily telling the truth. A film always shows just a slice of reality, and is the product of choices made by the main characters (who reveal certain aspects of their lives on camera) and the filmmakers (who select segments of these revelations to construct a story). When the film is screened, the question is how the main characters, and other audiences, will then decode the narrative. Do they experience the result as truthful? What strikes them as significant and meaningful in the film, and how does this further our understanding of social reality? The anthropological documentary ‘Living Like a Common Man’ (2011), which traces the lives of Indian youngsters who recently migrated to London, was shown to a varied selection of audiences in India and Europe, including the main characters. This article discusses their reactions, recorded by the filmmakers for further study.
Volker Grabowsky & Renoo Wichasin. 2009. Chronicles of Chiang Khaeng: A Tai Lu Principality of the Upper Mekong. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press. 424 pages, ISBN: 978-1-930734-02-9 (paperback)
As with the 19th century’s doomed plans to build a railroad linking India to China through the region, wild speculations and crackpot theories have blossomed forth from Western ignorance of “Upland Southeast Asia” – or, particularly, the
mountains that isolate the ethnic minorities of Laos, Burma and Yunnan along the borders that join those countries. Social theories strike out on a bold course, and they head up into the mountains with European aspirations that are incompatible with local cultural reality – not to mention geography – much like the prospect of that abandoned railway.
Elkins, James. 2010. Chinese Landscape Painting as Western Art History. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press. 208 pages, ISBN 978 962 209 000 2 (hardback)
In this book Elkins reveals a train of thought about art history in general and provides us with a daring and provocative exercise in understanding the way in which we see Chinese or any other unfamiliar art form: mainly as a subject incorporated in our own western art history. Elkins builds his argument around his study of a large number of leading writings about Chinese art by western art historians during the major part of the twentieth century. While providing us with ample quotations from these books, he notices the presumptions and blind spots that form an intrinsic part of the western art historical method itself. His razor-sharp dissection of the problem shows an open-minded and agile search for a better way to deal with the art of other cultures in a serious and thoughtful manner.
Rebecca E. Karl, 2010 Mao Zedong and China in the Twentieth-Century World: A concise history. Durham and London: Duke University Press. 208 pages, ISBN 978 0 8223 4795 8 (paperback)
If Mao Zedong were to catch a glimpse of present day China, he would surely turn in his grave, except for the inconvenient fact that he doesn't have one. Indeed, his embalmed body is today one of the major tourist highlights in Tiananmen Square. Not only has China embraced state led capitalist-style economic growth, but Mao himself, as kitsch and commodity, 'floods the consumer market', as Professor Rebecca Karl puts it in her excellent new biography. These days 'CCP' could just as easily stand for the Chinese Capitalist Party, rather than the Chinese Communist Party.
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