Television has arguably been (and remains) the most important medium for promulgating Indonesia’s national language, Indonesian, certainly for popularising it as speech. This paper looks particularly at the treatment of non-Indonesian languages on television in Indonesia during the New Order, the age of which coincided with the development of television. The paper examines how foreign …

WPS 34 Speaking the Truth: Speech on Television in New Order Indonesia Read More »

This study was undertaken to investigate the symptoms of ill health and health seeking behaviour during the puerperium (42 days following delivery) among six hundred mothers following their recent live birth in Kalutara district of Sri Lanka. Almost all these deliveries occurred in an institution, with only 10 per cent being cesarean section. Prevalence of …

WPS 33 Symptoms of Ill Health and Health Seeking Behaviour of Sri Lankan Mothers during the Puerperium Read More »

The emergence of the concept of ‘separatism’ or ‘bang yak dindan’ (separating the land) in the 1940s was a result of the internal conflicts among major central political factions and parties as well as the conflict between the Bangkok government and the Malay Muslim political movement. Incidentally the Haji Sulong and Dusun Ynor Rebellions in …

WPS 32 Origins of Malay Muslim “Separatism” in Southern Thailand Read More »

The 600th anniversary in 2005 of the first of the voyages led by the Ming eunuch Admiral Zheng He to Southeast Asia and beyond in the early part of the 15th century, will give rise to a range of celebratory activities and also some reassessments of the roles and effects of the voyages. In an …

WPS 31 The Zheng He Voyages: A Reassessment Read More »

The essay examines foreign campaigns against Yunnan from the fourth century BCE to the fourteenth century from a global and long-term perspective. I argue that power struggles in the Eastern Eurasian continent to a great extent transformed Yunnan from a non-Chinese area into part of the Chinese empire. Thus, the transformation of Yunnan cannot be …

WPS 30 Military Campaigns against Yunnan: A Global Analysis Read More »

There is a very dense traffic of popular culture products criss-crossing national and cultural boundaries of locations with predominantly ethnic Chinese population in Asia. The economics, the producer and consumer populations contained within the spaces delineated – the PRC, particularly its major cities, Taipei, Hong Kong and Singapore – by this traffic can be designated …

WPS 29 Gossips about Stars: Newspaper and Pop Culture China Read More »