This volume is the result of a two-year research project at KITLV. It brings together an international group of 24 scholars - mainly from Indonesia and the Netherlands but also from the United States, Australia, Germany, Canada and Portugal.

China's development over the centuries has purposely diverged from that of the West in terms of language, philosophy, and history, and for many decades its nationalism created a form of isolationism. In order to maintain its influence the Chinese Communist Party has created the myth that, without the Party, China could not have returned to the world stage and that, without the Party, the -territorial integrity- of the country cannot be restored. But what does this -restored- China look like? To answer, Henk Schulte Nordholt examines how Beijing's regional policy is causing structural tensions...

From the 1920s on, popular music in Southeast Asia was a mass-audience phenomenon that drew new connections between indigenous musical styles and contemporary genres from elsewhere to create new, hybrid forms. This book presents a cultural history of modern Southeast Asia from the vantage point of popular music, considering not just singers and musicians but their fans as well, showing how the music was intrinsically bound up with modern life and the societal changes that came with it. Reaching new audiences across national borders, popular music of the period helped push social change, and...