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Books > History > Asian / Middle Eastern history
Prominent scholars across the political divide and academic
disciplines analyse how the dominant political parties in Malaysia
and Singapore, United Malays National Organisation (UMNO) and the
People's Action Party (PAP), have stayed in power. With a focus on
developments in the last decade and the tenures of Prime Ministers
Najib Tun Razak and Lee Hsien Loong, the authors offer a range of
explanations for how these regimes have remained politically
resilient.
Celebrating a "golden age" of travel, this new book retraces the
steps of a Grand Tour of South East Asia from the turn of the 20th
century to the present day. The Romance of the Grand Tour explores
the living heritage of 12 exotic port cities: from Rangoon
(Yangon), through the Straits Settlements of Penang, Malacca and
Singapore and the old Dutch East Indies cities of Batavia (Jakarta)
and Surabaya, via Bangkok to former Indochina at Saigon (Ho Chi
Minh City), Phnom Penh and Hanoi, through Manila to Hong Kong.
Drawing on archival images and accounts as well as present-day
photographs and illustrations, the book captures the romance and
excitement of these early Grand Tourists, while presenting
contemporary scenes and experiences for 21st-century travellers
determined to seek out the legacy of a bygone era.
The aircraft carrier USS Forrestal was preparing to launch
attacks into North Vietnam when one of its jets accidentally fired
a rocket into an aircraft occupied by pilot John McCain. A huge
fire ensued, and McCain barely escaped before a 1,000-pound bomb on
his plane exploded, causing a chain reaction with other bombs on
surrounding planes. The crew struggled for days to extinguish the
fires, but, in the end, the tragedy took the lives of 134 men. For
thirty-five years, the terrible loss of life has been blamed on the
sailors themselves, but this meticulously documented history shows
that they were truly the victims and heroes.
Chinese Buddhists have never remained stationary. They have always
been on the move. In Monks in Motion, Jack Meng-Tat Chia explores
why Buddhist monks migrated from China to Southeast Asia, and how
they participated in transregional Buddhist networks across the
South China Sea. This book tells the story of three prominent monks
Chuk Mor (1913-2002), Yen Pei (1917-1996), and Ashin Jinarakkhita
(1923-2002) and examines the connected history of Buddhist
communities in China and maritime Southeast Asia in the twentieth
century. Monks in Motion is the first book to offer a history of
what Chia terms "South China Sea Buddhism," referring to a Buddhism
that emerged from a swirl of correspondence networks, forced
exiles, voluntary visits, evangelizing missions,
institution-building campaigns, and the organizational efforts of
countless Chinese and Chinese diasporic Buddhist monks. Drawing on
multilingual research conducted in Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore,
China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan, Chia challenges the conventional
categories of "Chinese Buddhism" and "Southeast Asian Buddhism" by
focusing on the lesser-known-yet no less significant-Chinese
Buddhist communities of maritime Southeast Asia. By crossing the
artificial spatial frontier between China and Southeast Asia, Monks
in Motion breaks new ground, bringing Southeast Asia into the study
of Chinese Buddhism and Chinese Buddhism into the study of
Southeast Asia.
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