During the nineteenth century there was a huge increase in the level and types of gambling in Thailand. Taxes on gambling became a major source of state revenue, with the government establishing state-run lotteries and casinos in the first half of the twentieth century. Nevertheless, over the same period, a strong anti-gambling discourse emerged within the Thai elite, which sought to regulate gambling through a series of increasingly restrictive and punitive laws. By the mid-twentieth century, most forms of gambling had been made illegal, a situation that persists until today. This...

This book examines Borneo, both British Borneo Brunei, Sarawak and North Borneo and Dutch Borneo in the period 1945-50. Borneo then was at the crossroads. Following the Japanese Occupation, the likely future status of the various Bornean territories was not at all clear, and the book discusses the various factions and powers, both local and international, who were contending for control in this period. It examines the effects of the Japanese surrender, the impact of the subsequent interregnum and Australian and British military administrations, the reassertion of Dutch control, the...

This book charts the development of the First Vietnam War the war between the Vietnamese Communists (the Viet Minh) and the French colonial power considering especially how relations between the Viet Minh and the Chinese Communists had a profound impact on the course of the war. It shows how the Chinese provided finance, training and weapons to the Viet Minh, but how differences about strategy emerged, particularly when China became involved in the Korean War and the subsequent peace negotiations, when the need to placate the United States and to prevent US military involvement in...

From the earliest museums established by Western missionaries in order to implement religious and political power, to the role they have played in the formation of the modern Chinese state, the origin and development of museums in mainland China differ significantly from those in the West. The occurrence of museums in mainland China in the late nineteenth century was primarily a result of internal and external conflicts, Westernization and colonialism, and as such they were never established solely for enjoyment and leisure.

Using a historical and anthropological framework, this book...

Macao, the former Portuguese colony in southeast China, has a long and very interesting history of cultural interaction between China and the West. Held by the Portuguese from the 1550s until its return to China in 1999, Macao was up to the emergence of Hong Kong in the later nineteenth century the principal point of entry into China for all Westerners - Dutch, British and others, as well as Portuguese. The relatively relaxed nature of Portuguese colonial rule, intermarriage, the mixing of Chinese and Western cultures, and the fact that Macao served as a safe haven for many Chinese...

Macao, the former Portuguese colony in southeast China from the 1550s until its return to China in 1999, has a long and very interesting history of cultural interaction between China and the West. As an entity with independent political power and unique social setting and cultural development, the identity of Macao people is not only indicative of the legacy and influence of its socio-historical factors and forces, but it has also been altered, transformed, and maintained because of the input, action, interaction and stimulation of creative arts and literatures. Held together by racial...

This book presents a comprehensive overview of the role of women in Burmese society from independence in 1948 to the present. It covers women in politics, women writers, working women, marginalised women such as prostitutes, and women s role in the 1940s as freedom fighters and since 1988 as campaigners for political reform. It shows how, although Burmese women project to the outside world an image of being strong, as exemplified by Aung San Suu Kyi, the leader of the opposition, women do not in fact enjoy gender equality.

Japan's Household Registration System (koseki seido) is an extremely powerful state instrument, and is socially entrenched with a long history of population governance, social control and the maintenance of social order. It provides identity whilst at the same time imposing identity upon everyone registered, and in turn, the state receives validity and legitimacy from the registration of its inhabitants. The study of the procedures and mechanisms for identifying and documenting people provides an important window into understanding statecraft, and by examining the koseki...

Providing a comprehensive survey of cutting edge scholarship in the field of German-Indian and South Asian Studies," " "Transcultural Encounters between Germany and India "looks at the history of German-Indian relations in the spheres of culture, politics, and intellectual life. Combining transnational, post-colonial, and comparative approaches, the book first examines the ways in which nineteenth century "Indomania" figured in the creation of both German national identity and modern German scholarship on the Orient, illustrating how German encounters with India in the Imperial era...