Reddit mentions: The best southeast asia history books

Hello ~ I'm Hmong, my husband is white, and we've been together almost a decade, married about 7 years now with one child. I just wanted to first and foremost, congratulate you on the biggest first step in the relationship! You probably might not think much of it and consider it "inevitable" but culturally, it is a huge step for the relationship if the woman introduces her boyfriend to her family. It means that she is seriously thinking you are the one, and want everyone's (or mostly everyone's) blessing/okay.

One of the big things about the culture is that word gets around fast within the community (because it's so close-knit), and the reason why it's such a huge step is because once a woman is married, she's completely cut off from her family as a "daughter." It's a little confusing, and I don't want you to get confused so I'll clarify it a little bit: her family will still consider her a daughter/sister (and love her all the same), but spiritually she will not be, so she cannot just go back to her parents.

Anyway, a good way to make a good impression is be open, don't be afraid to talk to the elders (most of them know English, and mostly all can still communicate effectively even with their broken English), ask a question if you do not know or do not understand!, and don't be afraid to be yourself.

Hmong events have a lot of drinking involved, so if you're not the drinking type, you can always make up good excuses, such as, "I take a specific type of medication that won't allow me to drink." Or as someone else mentioned, just keep holding that same first half finished beer can and sip here and there. My husband's favorite thing to do is holding a NOS can and say he already has a can of beer. Also, related to this, always finish your can/shot. It is viewed as highly disrespectful to not. Also, depending on if her family is "hardcore" about drinking, you might get away with "I'm not feeling well."

Each family/clan have their own rules about drinking, but a few good points/questions to ask:

• Ask which hand to drink with, which hand to pour from, and what direction (this last one is only relevant if you are sitting a table).
  
  
• If it is a shot, it is generally accompanied with some words. Ask who it is from, and why. Always, always keep track of who it is from, and who has drunk from it already because after you drink, you must pass the shot down so that it goes back to the person who first poured it. Note: Taking "shots" is about quantity, not the quality of the liquor in it (since there's so many people in one single event), so more than likely the shot will be some shitty beer like Coors, Bud, etc. However, with that being said, quality liquor does come out, but generally mid-end of an event or if there's not a lot of people.
  
  
• Very important - Do not fall into the trap of someone drinking for you! When the shots come out, it's about the mind games! So, if it is your turn to drink and someone goes, "bp1984, this shot is from XYZ because he blahblahblah. I will drink this shot for you because I want you to know that I now think of you as a brother." Cool, right? Makes you feel good because you aren't drinking, someone's drinking for you, and now they think of you like a brother, right? Wrong! Later on, when the real liquor comes out (and I'm talking about like, Hmong moonshine, not the beer they use to pour into the shot glasses), when it's their turn to drink, they will turn to you and be like, "bp1984, I drunk for you already, will you help me drink this?" and they will keep giving you their shots! They can go with, "bp1984, you are now my brother, and as my new brother, will you help me drink this?" Those are some sweet words that you can't turn down, amirite? Yep... it's all a trap! With that being said, you can't really refuse someone drinking for you, however you can at least prepare yourself for when they want to make you take their drink for them. You can go, "Thank you for viewing me as your new brother, but how about we drink this one together? You drink half, and I'll drink half," or "You drink as much as you can and I will finish the rest for you." It's all mind/words games.
  
  
• Always shake hand with every single man and say hello to them. It is a gesture of respect and acknowledgement from both sides. On your way out, try to shake hands with every single man before leaving; if you miss a few, it's okay.
  
  
• When you visit her parents, always acknowledge Dad and Mom when you first get there (no handshake for Mom). When you leave, always acknowledge them when you leave, again, handshake for Dad. You don't have to call them "Dad" and "Mom," but you can call them respectful titles such as "Niam Taiv" and "Yawv Txiv."
  
  
• Try to know who's who. I know remembering names are hard, so you don't have to try to remember everyone's name within one to two visits, but if you at least remember their face, and remember their title or how they're related to your GF, you'll get big points for this. Knowing titles means knowing their position in the family hierarchy, which is important within the Hmong culture. This is related to where they sit at the table when there's a big event going on, like a wedding.
  
  
• Ask a question if you don't understand something. This shows your interest.
  
  
  That's all I can think of at the moment. Feel free to PM if you want more details/have any more questions, or if you want to ask my husband any questions.
  
  I recommend reading An Introduction to Hmong Culture. It'll give you a good basis of the culture and history, and you'll be able to understand a lot of the idiosyncrasies that goes on within.

Asian cities are increasingly viewed as the new frontier of both the process of urbanisation and the exciting conceptual terrain for theorisation, especially so in the growing postcolonial literature. But I always have this uneasy feeling whenever I am speaking about Asian cities collectively, because it doesn't quite make sense to me - after all, how could the biggest continent on the planet that mothered three of the oldest civilisations and currently hosting the majority of world population be easily generalised and summarised? Personally I'd prefer to have a closer look into a particular country/culture you're interested in, which would be a lot more productive given its unique historical trajectory in urban development.

My past studies focused on Chinese cities and Singapore, and there are in fact tons of books and articles about urban planning in Asia. I'm not sure if you have access to them and if you'd be interested since many are highly academical, but I'll write type down a few things in my mind right now.

Wu (2015) Planning for Growth: Urban and Regional Planning in China - this is basically an encyclopedia about urban planning in China which covered both the past and the present and is fairly easy to read. The book summarises the Chinese cities really well - you could still see ancient Chinese urban planning's legacy and influence in East Asia even in the contemporary world, e.g. Kyoto and Chang'an, the capital city of Tang Dynasty; the Soviet influence is still very much traceable in many Chinese cities nowadays. Fulong Wu was my supervisor and I can guarantee that he's an expert in the field of Chinese planning and wrote a lot about cities, development, planning, and policies in China. Give him a quick search you'd find plentiful articles about Chinese cities and planning.

Heng (2002) 50 Years Of Urban Planning In Singapore - Singapore is definitely a unique city-state, and I'd say that this collection of articles covers a wide range of aspects of urban planning in Singapore and is something highly readable. In fact, the city kinda is a giant urban laboratory nowadays. Singapore's urban planning is undoubtedly influenced by the British colonial legacy but has grown out of it. It's rare to witness so many classic urban concepts coming alive within the same city. Also, give publications from the Centre of Liveable Cities a look too if you'd like to understand more about the details. Their articles cover a range of planning research in Asia and are all free to access. They post links to their work regularly on LinkedIn. In short, Singapore has been written a lot.

Roy (2004) Urban Informality : Transnational Perspectives from the Middle East, Latin America, and South Asia and Roy (2011) Worlding Cities : Asian Experiments and the Art of Being Global Anaya Roy focused a lot on Indian cities and her work contributes a lot to postcolonial urbanism. Definitely, not the easiest to read but her perspectives are very helpful to me.

The Western vs non-Western debate is something I often have mixed feelings about. The overemphasis of the Anglophone has to be overcome, but the world does not exist in this perfect binary. And I do believe that cities, since their very birth, have never been existed in silos - they form the early networks of civilisations and influence each other a lot. The communist legacy in China, the interplay between colonial planning and modernism in India, and the evolution of urban planning in Singapore are all fascinating, so happy googling and happy reading!

Second post because I went past the 10k character limit:

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>- [Temporary Foreign Worker Program Undergoes Major Changes
(C'mon in and stay!)] (https://www.cicnews.com/2016/12/temporary-foreign-worker-program-undergoes-major-changes-128744.html#gs.Ht7op4Q)

These are workers that already have employment, and have established social and economic ties in Canada. The 2011 provision by the conservative government meant that these workers would often have to leave the country and cut their social and economic ties in Canada. Employers using the TFW program would then have to seek out new workers, retrain them, and reintegrate them in Canada for another four year period -- expensive and unnecessary.

>- ["Canada has not received such a large number of immigrants (320,932) in a single annual period since the early 1910s during the settlement of Western Canada" (2016)] (http://www.statcan.gc.ca/daily-quotidien/160928/dq160928a-eng.htm)

Not particularly a big deal if you consider what I've written above in my first point. This is a population increase of 1.2% and nothing correlated to any increase in unemployment.

>I'd like to point out how difficult it is to find even tangentially related sources for these points, because our government does not allocate any resources to gathering data that would contradict their objectives (suppress the middle class, lower the average quality of life, and exploit cheap 3rd world labour)

The government allocates tons of resources to gathering good data on immigration. We have an entire branch of government called Statscan that does exactly that. Have you thought about the fact that maybe it's not all just a conspiracy, and that immigration being positive on the whole is just a widely accepted economic fact?

I am curious though as to what makes you so inclined to believe modern immigration policy is this vast conspiracy perpetuated by all levels of government and academic institutions around the world. There's overwhelming evidence that it's positive, what motives would institutions and governments have to fudge economic data and analysis in favour of pro-immigration policy?

Anyway, if you're still really curious I implore you to explore /r/neoliberal a bit. It's a genuinely serious community of people that believe globalization, immigration, free-trade, and open-borders policy are societal net-positives. There's a lot of intelligent people there that can answer questions you might have from the opposing side probably better than I can.

And finally, I want to recommend a really good book if you have some free time to read: https://www.amazon.ca/Strangers-Gate-Peoples-First-Canada/dp/0802081177.

The short lived Japanese Empire nominally controlled all of Indochina for a period of time. Also the Khmer/Angkor Empire at its peak controlled significantly more territory than the French did. They're pretty well known for constructing the Angkor Wat which is quite beautiful.

But back on topic - the Mandala political system played a major role in promoting the multicentric nature of Southeast Asia. Here's a article on Mandalas.

Southeast Asian (SEA) Empires never really paid much attention to borders, but rather client and opposing states. The widely held idea that power emanated from the center changed the nature of statehood in SEA - 49. States had a less forced relationship between the center and its respective peripheries. It was pretty common for different Mandalas to intersect and share a client state amongst its outward regions. Also control of water was the primary concern for ancient Southeast Asian empires. The hegemonic practices of Southeast Asia focused more on establishing an independent vassal rather than integration. Many client states operated independently, their main obligations was to contribute men and supplies for massive irrigation projects/wars. They maintained a separate government, taxation system, culture, and at times - religion. The independence of these tributary states led empires to constantly maintain a tenuous rather than firm control (as seen in Europe) of their periphery states.

It's been a while since I've read/learned about Southeast Asia. So I'm not quite sure if everything is correct. If you're interested in further reading, the Cambridge series on Southeast Asia is pretty well written.

Read up as much as you can before you come. Local Singaporeans would have heard a lot about NS from their older brothers/family/relatives/friends, so they tend to have a lot of in-built understanding of the whole organisation and culture.

However, since you're not local and haven't spent much time in Singapore, you'll be at a disadvantage. More information and preparation is always good. Speaking of preparation, you didn't mention your physical condition, but try to exercise (especially push-ups) and build up your physical fitness before coming. Do note that the hot and humid weather in Singapore will present you with significant difficulties. Pulau Tekong (on which the Basic Military Training Center [BMTC] is located) is known for being hotter than mainland Singapore (by 1 degree Celsius).

A few helpful links:

• Official Recruits Handbook published by MINDEF [Ministry of Defense]: It's a few years outdated (2012) and some important things like the IPPT [Individual Physical Proficiency Test] system has completely changed, but it's a good start.
  https://www.mindef.gov.sg/dam/publications/eBooks/More_eBooks/RecruitsHandbookApr12.pdf
  
  
• Pioneer Magazine: An official regular publication by MINDEF. Good to browse through. Lots of announcements and information about various exercises, achievements, capability enhancements, etc.
  https://www.mindef.gov.sg/imindef/resourcelibrary/cyberpioneer/magazine.html
  
  
• Hardwarezone forums on NS Knowledge: If you don't already know about it, Hardwarezone is a very Singaporean forum. Besides the information present in the forum, lots of local slang and expressions are used, so it may be difficult for you to understand. But if you can learn some of it, it might be useful.
  http://forums.hardwarezone.com.sg/national-service-knowledge-base-162/
  
  
• Wikipedia page on SAF [Singapore Armed Forces]: As usual, good for general information and history.
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Singapore_Armed_Forces
  
  
• Book on the SAF: It's quite old by now (2001) but still a good book to read up on for in-depth information about how the SAF was built up and organized.
  https://www.amazon.com/Defending-Lion-City-Forces-Singapore/dp/1865081183

To understand the impact of the war on both Southern and Northern economies, start with French colonialism. It wasn't great for the Vietnamese people. But with the advent of WWII, French control disintegrated as they submitted to the Japanese, and things went from bad to worse. In 1945 the war ended and a power vacuum ensued. The Viet Minh took control of Hanoi in the North and began to fight for power with the French, based in Saigon to the south. An estimated 5 million people died of famine, war, and disease during these years (out of a population of about 24 million). The French eventually lost the North in '54, and set up a puppet government backed by the US and UK in Saigon. Flagrant corruption and religious persecution caused discontent with the Southern government, and the Viet Minh sent forces south to start a guerilla movement known as the Viet Cong. That's when the US jumped in under the pretense of stallin' communism.

As the US began losing the ground war in the mid 60s, they switched to carpet bombing, Agent Orange, and napalm. It's impossible to say how much exactly, but a staggeringly large percentage of land, especially in central Vietnam, eastern Laos, and northern Cambodia, was decimated by 7 million tons of bombs, 72 million liters of Agent Orange (covering nearly 10% of the Vietnamese countryside and jungle), and a modest 400,000 tons of napalm.

Eventually the North took control of the entire country as it is today. It's no surprise that the Communist party fought so hard for the land below the 17th parallel, whatever patriotic slogans they may have used--the Mekong delta alone produces half the country's rice, and rich businessmen in Saigon were scraping huge profits. When the Hanoi government took over in 1975, wealthy elites, intellectuals, and catholics fled the country or were killed/persecuted/removed from power. The Party annexed a vast majority of the economy into SOEs (state-owned enterprises) and sucked the economy dry yet again by corruption, misuse of state funds, and cronyism. Tack on a war in Cambodia, and it took Vietnam another 20 years ('75-'95) to even begin to recover. Older people here remember very well not having enough rice 20 years ago.

Think about what 30 years of war and famine does to a population. As Viktor Frankel so poignantly put it when describing Nazi concentration camps, the best examples of our species do not survive. Those who were altruistic, honest, and brave died first. Those who were not increased their chances of survival. Open persecution of anything deemed intellectual, individual, or capitalist for so many years has a stifling effect on an economy. Only in the last 15 years has Vietnam begun to pull itself out of an economy that meant severe poverty for a majority of people. As Hanoi's paranoia of all things foreign subsides and a small number of SOEs have been privatized, a growing middle class and new wealth in Saigon (now Ho Chi Minh City) are raising living standards. Riding the wave of China's boom, Vietnamese people saw life improve at an almost surreal pace from 2002-2007. Today things have slowed down and inflation is getting out of hand, once again due in large part to the reluctance of the Party's plutocrats to tidy up the corruption.

Regardless of its often melancholy history, Vietnam is a beautiful country, full of bright, charming people. Visiting is easier and more pleasant than ever. Things are looking up here.

I highly recommend reading Jonathan Neale's A People's History of the Vietnam War. It goes into detail about the war and its effects through the 1980s. link

>Ho didn't defend shit, his regime proudly valued their Marxist allies' aid more than morality or anything approaching people's rights if they opposed that of the state.

HCM was actually a pretty shrewd diplomat who played the Chinese off against the USSR and used both for aid while completing his domestic objective of unifying the country. Need I remind you that he appealed to the United States first before going to the socialist bloc for aid? America was too busy propping up the French and later the "Republic" of Vietnam.

Ho listened to the Chinese and used their resources to develop a "people's war" division in the form of the Viet Cong and stockpiled Soviet heavy artillery, tanks, and aircraft because they wanted him to fight a conventional land war against the RoV. By never fullying adopting one doctrine but switching between the two as time went on, the North was able to wheedle more aid out than was strictly necessary by making China and Russia compete to see who could be more influential. And as Nixon withdrew they were able to dial back the VC and ramp up the conventional combined arms conflict to crush the South.

I recommend reading Karnow's Vietnam: A History if you want the most comprehensive take on the war, with interviews from senior officials on all 3 sides of the conflict.


>Both are now backwater countries that have been superseded by their neighbors.

Which neighbors? The US leveled nearly all of SE Asia with the exception of Thailand.

> No, but it's just as corrupt as a system that instead of buying land, let's you "rent it from the state" with payouts to the appropriate cadre members. Is this really what you want for the future of Asia?


At the risk of sounding like a pot kettle attack that's how real estate works everywhere. Trump pays the mafia to develop. People in north St. Louis are going to get kicked out of their homes when the defense mapping agency moves across town. Ever since Kelo v. City of New London the Supreme Court has ruled that the government can seize your property as a taking for the enjoyment of private developers, not just in the public interest.

>Just like the unwillingness of this sub to be anything but a pro-communist echo chamber.

It's not like I even think state socialism or Mao is that great of a dude. I just don't see a lot of compelling evidence to suggest that the Republic of Korea, the KMT, or any of the other groups they fought against were that much better. If their causes were so righteous and backed by the world's preeminent superpower then how did they lose?

• The Gate by Francois Bizot. French anthropologist working in Cambodia at the time the Khmer Rouge came to power:
  > In 1971, on a routine outing through the Cambodian countryside, the young French ethnologist Francois Bizot is captured by the Khmer Rouge. Accused of being an agent of 'American imperialism', he is chained and imprisoned. His captor, Douch - later responsible for tens of thousands of deaths - interrogates him at length; after three months of torturous deliberation, during which his every word was weighed and his life hung in the balance, he was released. Four years later, the Khmer Rouge entered Phnom Penh. Francois Bizot became the official intermediary between the ruthless conqueror and the terrified refugees behind the gate of the French embassy: a ringside seat to one of history's most appalling genocides. Written thirty years later, Francois Bizot's memoir of his horrific experiences in the 'killing fields' of Cambodia is, in the words of John le Carre, a 'contemporary classic'.
  
  
• The Years of Lyndon Johnson by Robert Caro. Four volumes, with one more to follow. Both a brilliant biography of a fascinating character, but also a great study of a turbulent part of American history and more generally of the nature of political power.
  
  
• A Fish In The Water by Mario Vargas Llosa. Biography of great Peruvian author - alternates chapters between his growing up and becoming a novelist, his first love etc, alongside a narrative of his campaign for the presidency. His politics are quite different to mine, so I preferred the life story parts! If you like that, maybe try his novel Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter, which is a fictionalised account of his own story.
  
  
• Emergency Sex (And Other Desperate Measures). Three friends who end up working for the UN in various conflict zones and humanitarian disasters around the world. It's a great mix of stories about their (mis)adventures alongside thought provoking stuff about peacekeeping, aid and getting involved in conflicts. Well worth a look.

Thanks for this resource! Great job in translating.

For people interested in seriously studying the language, say, academically, how would you say this textbook compares to books you'd have to pay for, like Steven Collins' new Pāli grammar book (http://www.amazon.com/Pali-Grammar-Students-Steven-Collins/dp/9749511131)? Free is usually better than not free but sometimes quality can be wonky. I may end up in a position where I could be teaching Sanskrit and/or Pāli soon to students so I was just wondering what you might think about recommending a free text (perhaps yours?) versus something they'd have to buy (students hate buying textbooks!). If this is a conversation for private email that's cool too =) Just thought this question might help out others who might be either learning or teaching.

Cheers

>If you could learn any Bahasa Daerah, what would it be and why? I'm learning Kawi for the poetry.

I'm part Javanese and I went to Yogya for university, so I speak and understand some Javanese. Enough to get by. Learning proper Javanese for understanding Wayang and classical poetry would be cool, but it's too tough for me. I'd focus on my Mandarin instead.

​

>What's are your favorite books, fic/non-fic on Indonesia in Indonesian/English/Spanish. I love Indonesian history, but moved to the U.S. before SMA, so everything since then has only been self study.

To start, I'd recommend Nusantara by Vlekke. It's not perfect, it's not complete, but it's a good start. Afterwards, perhaps you could read Indonesia, Etc. by Elisabeth Pisani to know modern-day Indonesia.

If you want to get historical, read The Indianised States of Southeast Asia by Coedes and A History of Java by Raffles. Those are very academic, so be warned.

​

>If YOU had carte blanche to write the most interesting book ever on Indonesian history, what's the title/subject and why?

I'd write about the pre-Islamic period and the interaction between the Indonesian kingdoms with the rest of Asian countries such as China and India. I feel like nobody knows much about this crucial period. Heck, we even had Majapahit ambassadors go to Japan and Korea ffs, yet nobody knows this.

​

>Can we be buddies? I'm on twitter and instagram and stuff.

Only on reddit. I want to remain anonymous.

Vietnam: A History by Stanley Karnow is the best non-fiction book I have read regarding the war.

As far as fiction goes, if you are looking for an idiosyncratic, unconventional, and hilarious analysis of the conflict, I highly recommend Norman Mailer's Why Are We In Vietnam? Note: at first glance it may seem like this book has NOTHING to do with Vietnam (in fact, the word "Vietnam" appears nowhere in the text itself) but bear with it! It provides an amazing critique of American culture and foreign policy during the fifties and sixties. One of the best and most decisive works from the greatest war writer of all time.

Such a guide doesn't exist. The very expensive Herpetofauna of Vietnam is by far the best and most complete guide. It's definitely not a field guide, and still only lists the provinces and towns where animals have been found (no range maps). The closest thing to an acceptable guide is something like this or this both of which are mediocre and don't directly cover Vietnam. Don't bother with this one either, the drawings are shit, the natural history info is lacking and there's almost no distribution information. Your best bet is to cobble information together from a few other guides. Amphibians are harder yet still, but you should be able to get down to at least genus with other sources. Sorry to be a downer! Still, Vietnam is great fun for herping!

In terms of field guides, I've found both Glassberg's "Butterflies through Binoculars" and Petersen's "Field Guide to Western Butterflies" to be amazingly helpful for identifying Leps on the go.

Technical books can be a bit trickier, however. I wholeheartedly agree with sandozguineapig's recommendation on Triplehorn's textbook. I'm currently using the 7th edition for many of my entomology courses and both the keys and family descriptions are excellent for all the insect orders. Another book my Lepidopterist friend actually uses in her work is Scoble's "The Lepidoptera: Form, Function and Diversity" and tells me it is also quite an excellent book.

I'll be sure to ask some folks around lab to see if they have any suggestions!

Always enjoy me some Ho Chi Minh. The book "Ho Chi Minh on Revolution" is truly inspiring, and while it isn't particularly heavy in theory it is certainly an amazing book.

His point at 2:14 about self-criticism seemed to be one of the most ardent philosophical tenets he held.

One of the best historiographies ever composed on USA involvement in Viet-Nam:

https://www.amazon.com/Fire-Lake-Vietnamese-Americans-Vietnam/dp/0316159190/ref=sr_1_1_twi_pap_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1505052020&sr=1-1&keywords=fire+in+the+lake+by+frances+fitzgerald

Pretty good:

https://www.amazon.com/Embers-War-Empire-Americas-Vietnam/dp/0375756477/ref=sr_1_1_twi_pap_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1505068806&sr=1-1&keywords=embers+of+war+logevall

Pretty good:

https://www.amazon.com/Vietnam-History-Stanley-Karnow/dp/0140265473/ref=sr_1_1_twi_pap_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1505068845&sr=1-1&keywords=vietnam+a+history

Peter Hessler's writings on China are great reads for people who are interested in the region. I particularly enjoyed River Town and country Driving, but Oracle Bones (which I haven't read) is a more historical outlook.

South East Asia is a big and varied region, is there a particular region or specific area in history you're interested in? In 20th century history there are many great biographies on Gandhi and also a lot of informative non-fiction on the Vietnam conflict

I didn't want to open a debate about where some publisher is located. I just wanted to find new publishers so I have a wider selection.

I'm actually interested in buying two guides for an upcoming trip: Laos & Indonesia. I was expecting to find different publishers, so I could take a look at the most updated guide.

Here's the result of my little investigation (I don't think it's going to be too useful to anyone else, but anyway).

To be honest, it seems like there are only two good sources for both countries:

Lonely Planet
----------------
Country of origin: Australia

Headquarters: Melbourne or Tenesse (who knows)

Laos guide: Mar 2014

Indo guide: May 2013

Rough Guides
----------------
Country of origin: UK

Headquarters: London (owned by Penguin)

Laos guide: Nov 2014

Indo guide: Oct 2014

DK Eyewitness
----------------
Country of origin: UK

Headquarters: UK

Laos guide: Jan 2016

Indo guide: Feb 2010 (only Bali & Lombok)

Fodor's
----------------
Country of origin: USA

Headquarters: New York, NY

Laos guide: May 2016 (several countries)

Indo guide: They have a 2001 version (seems too old)

Let's Go
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Country of origin: USA

Headquarters: Cambridge, MA

Laos guide: They have a 2000 Southeast Asia guide (seems too old)

Indo guide: They have a 2000 Southeast Asia guide (seems too old)

Le Routard
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Country of origin: France

Headquarters: Paris

Laos guide: Aug 2015 (only in French)

Indo guide: Couldn't find it.

El País-Aguilar
---------------
(I think these are the same as DK Eyewitness but translated to Spanish (maps & drawings seem to be the same))

Country of origin: Spain

Headquarters: Madrid (owned by Penguin)

Laos guide: Feb 2012 (only in Spanish)

Indo guide: Couldn't find it.

you get 10,000 points for "Sightseeing"!

I can't think of too much fiction... The Windup Girl is an excellent book, but the Thai setting feels a little cringey and forced. It doesn't ruin the book but it doesn't have to be in Thailand either.

Three non-fiction books I think are essential for anyone who hates being clueless:

• Very Thai explains a lot of minutiae about life in Thailand that you probably won't figure out on your own. I wish it were easier to find here, but it's worth buying if you ever see.
  
• Siam Mapped by Thongchai Winichakul explains how modern Thailand and the concept of "Thainess" came to be. It's by a famous Thai academic, but was originally written in English because there's a little too much hard truth in it.
  
• The Art of Not Being Governed by James C. Scott explains the fuck out of hill tribes. I don't think any book has colored my understanding of anything quite like that one. It's full of boring, skippable parts but there are some insights about Southeast Asia I don't think you can gain elsewhere.
  
  edit: I remember an awesome hilarious collection of anecdotes/essays by a prototypical farang sexpat in the late 40s but I forget what it's called, I'll look for it tomorrow
  
  edit #2: Lonely Planet's "World Food Thailand" is also excellent and well-researched
  
  edit #3: "Letters from Thailand" is interesting too, it's about a boy who immigrates to Bangkok from southern China in the 1940s and it follows the rest of his life in Thailand.

John Nagl's Learning To Eat Soup With A Knife: Counterinsurgency Lessons from Malaya and Vietnam is a great read. Nagl contrasts the successful British counterinsurgency in Malaya with the unsuccessful US counterinsurgency in Vietnam and tries to analyze what lessons the US military can take to be more successful at counterinsurgency in the future.

Hi, well, yes, you guessed well. I read Thailand's Political History: From the 13th Century to Recent Times recently and liked a lot. I've read others as Andrew McGregor Marshall or Paul M. Handley's The King Never Smiles.
I just wondered if you had a book that could recommend to someone who doesn't know anything about Thailand.

> I sort of wish Ken Burns would do a documentary on Vietnam. A lot of the feature length stuff about it just seems over dramatized.

Have you seen Vietnam: The 10,000 Day War or Vietnam: A Television History?

Both are extensive examinations and outstanding in their depth and breadth. Vietnam: A Television History also has a super thorough companion book called Vietnam: A History written by journalist/historian Stanley Karnow. It's perhaps the best single-volume history of the Vietnam war.

> Issan showed they can burn down parts of the capital

Can you explain this? As far as I'm aware there's no evidence that anybody who burned down those buildings was from Isaan, nor that Isaan (the biggest part of Thailand) should in any way be blamed for it. That's like saying "Muslims did 9/11".

> We need better than Time.com to explain Issan to us. Anybody know better sources?

Well, the article is mostly paraphrasing David Streckfuss, so you could start there. It also links to this book by Charles Keyes, which I haven't read but looks interesting. Keyes talks a bit more generally about rural cosmopolitanism vs entrenched middle class in Asia in this interview.

Thongchai Winichakul has written extensively on Thai national identity and internal geopolitics since the 70s. His book Siam Mapped (originally written in English) is pretty much required reading for anyone who wants to understand how Isaan became a part of Thailand and, more generally, Thailand's "unique situation" beyond what you hear on the news and from crazies on the internet like me.

"But panomyong," I hear you say, "I googled Keyes, Streckfuss and Thongchai and they're all anti-coup/pro-red shirt! Why don't you link some balanced sources?" (somebody is going to say it so I'll just type this up now)

The answer is that they're aren't any and there's a very clear cut (but complex!) reason why. In a broad sense, Thai history is caught between two competing and irreconcilable narratives - the official one that is taught in schools and views Thailand as exceptional, and the one everyone else believes that looks at Thailand within the framework of the rest of the world. To accept one is to reject wholesale the other because they have almost nothing in common and the first relies on verifiable falsehoods.

The first views Thailand as modernizing the people of Isaan and bringing them into the warm embrace of Thainess, the second sees Isaan as an ethnically distinct region that has been continually exploited by different kingdoms throughout history. To accept the first requires a Thai nationalist view of history, to accept the second requires the opposite and never the two shall meet. You don't want to read the nationalist stuff about Isaan, it's boring and wrong.

You've probably figured out where I'm going with this, but rejecting the nationalist version of history usually means rejecting the coup and its justifications which means that you get called a red shirt and a Thaksin-lover. That is purely a result of propaganda conditioning - these guys have been saying the same things for decades. For example, you might read this article by Thongchai and think "thaksin lover!!" (I think somebody actually described him as a 'red shirt academic' when that was posted) but he wrote Siam Mapped in 1988 and it's exactly the same stuff. If you read some opinion pieces from the 1973-76 liberalization (they're all in Thai and I don't even know how you'd find them) you'd probably start wondering if Thaksin could time travel.

I have not visited a Dhammakaya temple, so I can't say. Though what I've read seems to lead me to thinking it is a cult. As for the controversy, most of it stems from money, fraud, corruption, or just plain ol' greed.


Here are a couple interesting things I've found floating around:


Nirvana for Sale?: Buddhism, Wealth, and the Dhammakaya Temple in Contemporary Thailand


Temple of Profit - Thailand


There is also a good thread on DhammaWheel with some good information.

Just going to add. There's another, very good book that was released a few years back by Mark Bowden of Black Hawk Down fame. It covers it from all sides including this story, although obviously not as detailed given the focus.

Michael Mann is directing a docu on FX on this book which will be interesting. It will likely be in the mould of look at everything from all angles documentary-style that Ken Burns and Lynn Novick revived, rather than the guitar-riff and exaggerated adjective heavy style.

True Theravada would be practice in accordance with scripture and traditions that are in accordance with scripture, that scripture obviously being the Pali canon. Aren’t the teachings I’ve related against the Vinaya? Of course they are, you should know that or read some Vinaya good sir. I’ll show you proof of the cultish nature https://youtu.be/JraSg2its7w. That video wasn’t asking hard questions either. It’s Buddhist televangelism on steroids. I don’t hate the devotees many are good people. They’ve just been convinced you can get some quick https://www.amazon.com/Nirvana-Sale-Buddhism-Dhammakaya-Contemporary/dp/1438427840.

I'd recommend "Thailand's Political History: From the 13th Century to Recent Times" by B. J. Terwiel. I really enjoyed it -- it's a solid page turner. I picked it up on my first visit and has done wonders for furthering my understanding of the country.

I'm gunna buy it. I need other book suggestions to make it $25 for free shipping.

Here are some of my suggestions to others:

>The U.S. Army/Marine Corps Counterinsurgency Field Manual (Paperback)
>by John A. Nagl
>http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0226841510

>Learning to Eat Soup with a Knife: Counterinsurgency Lessons from Malaya and Vietnam (Paperback)
>by John A. Nagl
>http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0226567702

>War is a Racket: The Antiwar Classic by America's Most Decorated Soldier (Paperback)
>by Smedley D. Butler
>http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0922915865

>Cultivating Exceptional Cannabis: An Expert Breeder Shares His Secrets (Marijuana Tips Series) (Paperback)
>by DJ Short
>http://www.amazon.com/Cultivating-Exceptional-Cannabis-Breeder-Marijuana/dp/0932551599

You are correct, got my VN battles mixed up. There was speculation that Khe Sanh was a diversion for the Tet Offensive, which Hue was a part of. This is a great book on the subject if you're interested:

​

https://www.amazon.com/Hue-1968-Turning-American-Vietnam/dp/0802127002/ref=pd_lpo_sbs_14_img_0/138-7381523-0850412?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=A47R6QEBPB0VJZGVXCWH

I recommend starting with the works of Ho Chi Minh.

You can find a copy of selected writings from 1920-1966 here.

Vietnam: A History, by Stanley Karnow.

It was made into a PBS series in the 1980's, and is in my opinion the best account of the country, their history, and the war.

https://www.amazon.com/Vietnam-History-Stanley-Karnow/dp/0140265473

http://www.amazon.com/Learning-Eat-Soup-Knife-Counterinsurgency/dp/0226567702

Great book about how the British were able to counter the Malayan insurgency while also highlighting how the US was unable to learn any of the tactics that were so successful for the Brits. TL;DR: It's hard as fuck to beat guerrilla tactics militarily.

Have a look at François Bizot's The Gate also

I would recommend--

Fiction:

• Fields of Fire by James Webb
  
• My Dying Breath by Ben Reed
  
• Charlie Mike by Leonard B. Scott
  
• The Last Run by Leonard. B Scott (sequel to Charlie Mike)
  
• The Hill also also by Scott
  
  Non-fiction:
  
  
• The Boys of '67 by Andrew Wiest
  
• Hue 1968 by Mark Bowden
  

Stanley Karnow: Vietnam A History

That's the book to read. It was our textbook at University.

https://www.amazon.com/Vietnam-History-Stanley-Karnow/dp/0140265473

I really like this one: http://www.amazon.com/Thailands-Political-History-Century-Recent/dp/9749863968/ref=tmm_pap_title_0

It's a bit dry in some areas, contradicts the standard Thai "We're militarily awesome, especially against Burma," but drives home how ridiculously lucky/skilled Thais have been with diplomacy. Takes a lot of the myths out and replaces them with more realistic scenarios.

Highly recommended reading based on the Battle of Hue