[Tlc] TLC-publication

[justinm at ucr.edu]

FYI.
Thanks,
justin

Charnvit Kasetsiri & Chris Baker (editors):
Annotated Bibliography on the Mekong.
Published by Mekong Press, Chiang Mai 2008, 318 pages.
A Book Review by Reinhard Hohler, Chiang Mai (27.09.2008)
This eagerly awaited publication has been made possible by the Southeast Asian Studies Regional and Exchange Program Foundation (SEASREP) and the illustrious Rockefeller Foundation based in Bangkok. “The mighty Mekong River is vast, abundant, mysterious, alluring, and fragile.” How true this introduction in the book’s preface rings, the author of this book review has experienced during Expedition Mekong 2002, which covered the navigable river’s flow from its Simao Port in China’s Yunnan Province to its nine-headed delta in the southern part of Vietnam. The Mekong River has been imagined as a great dragon or “naga” and a route for Europeans into China during the heydays of colonialism. That is why a cover illustration of the book was chosen from Louis Delaporte and Francis Garnier’s “A Pictorial Journey on the Old Mekong: Cambodia, Laos and Yunnan” (Reprinted, Bangkok: White Lotus, 1998).
Surely, this work on the “Mekong” had a myriad of contributors, but the edition of this comprehensive and useful annotated bibliography is the sole merit of Dr. Charnvit Kasetsiri, a distinguished historian and former Rector of Bangkok’s Thammasat University, and Chris Baker, a well-known author, analyst and translator.
The book’s contents are divided into a preface and six chapters, with one copy of an United Nations Map from January 2004. It concentrates on works published since 1950, favours works that transcend national borders, focuses on themes of current importance, and heavily draws on inputs from scholars based in the Greater Mekong Sub-region (GMS), comprising the six countries of China (Yunnan, Guangxi), Myanmar, Lao PDR, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam. Furthermore, the book includes works in English, French (but not German), and even Japanese.
In Chapter 1 of the book, <culture> is the scope of the bibliography and the mentioned works are divided into sections of books and monographs, journal articles and book chapters – the same as in all other following chapters.
First, there are works about history and archaeology, followed by arts, religion, literature and folklore, textiles and costume, food and cooking, linguistics, and last not least - ethnography.
Chapter 2 highlights <natural resources> and the mentioned works are on land and land use, geography, agriculture, forestry, fisheries, mineral exploitation, irrigation, and lastly – environment, while Chapter 3 focuses on <economics>, especially economic co-operation, trade and investment, infrastructure and transportation, and tourism.
Of general contemporary interest in Chapter 4 are the works on <social issues> that appear under the headings of labour and migration, trafficking, gender, poverty alleviation, education, and health, including the HIV/AIDS epidemic in some of the countries of Southeast Asia. Finally, Chapter 5 focuses on <politics> under the headings of conflict and co-operation as well as security issues.
Other subjects are handled in the last Chapter 6, such as bibliographies, leading journals, multimedia (Hohler, Reinhard on p.278), web-sites, such as the site of the Mekong River Commission (MRC) on p.289, as well as organisations and institutions, which are involved in the development of the Mekong River. One of the most important organisations is here the Asian Development Bank (ADB), headquartered in Manila, Philippines or the institution of the Australian Mekong Resource Centre (AMRC) based at the School of Geo-Sciences, University of Sydney, NSW Australia.
To sum it up, this book contains an outmost useful annotated bibliography on “Mekong River” studies and should encourage scholars and students alike to dig even deeper into this prominent geographical river phenomenon, which has recently become a “development corridor” being the “lifeline” of different peoples in six different countries. Such as the Rhine River in Europe, it should be promoted and protected accordingly. Also, the new book should not be missed in any library with books about Southeast Asia and Indochina, the world’s most important crossroads of cultures and religions.
Thanks must go to Trasvin Jittidecharak in Chiang Mai to publish this book under the label “Mekong Press” that was initiated in 2005 by “Silkworm Books” to encourage and support the work of local scholars and writers in the countries of the Greater Mekong Sub-region. For further information, please go to: www.mekongpress.com
Reinhard Hohler
GMS Media Travel Consultant
85 Suthep Road Soi 5,
Chiang Mai 50200
Mobile: 0066-8-91210268
E-mail: sara at cmnet.co.th
Web-site: www.sara-travel.com
______________
Dr. Justin McDaniel
Dept. of Religious Studies
3046 INTN
University of California, Riverside
Riverside, CA 92521
951-827-4530
justinm at ucr.edu