Neighborhood Histories in Southeast Asia

Scope and Goals:

The project examines the histories of neighborhoods in Southeast Asia through the narratives of the place at the most local scale or level and as narratives of communities and of processes. Neighborhood histories may be defined as collective biographies or narratives of communities that are constantly in the process of changing. Using the experiences of migrants, migrants-turned-settlers, and long-time (original) residents, the project explores how the narrative of their communities go through different processes of mobility and change: political (as in the case of redistricting areas in order to shift votes or accommodate elite interest in local power), economic (such as the search for livelihood or educational opportunities), and social and cultural (resulting from marriage, economic improvements or losses, renewed interest in local history and heritage).

Participants, Affiliation, Title of Paper:

  1. Maria Serena Diokno, University of the Philippines, Doing Neighborhood Histories (Introduction)
  2. Sri Sunarti Purwaningsih, Indonesian Institute of Sciences, Writing Batik , Writing History: Shifting Community Social Behavior in the Middle Development of Batik Laweyan Village in Solo, Indonesia
  3. Chantana Wungaeo, Chulalongkorn University, Transformation of Canal Neighborhoods in Bangkok
  4. Lamijo, Indonesian Institute of Sciences, The Lao Bao Border Neighborhood of Quang Tri, Vietnam: From Battlefield to Marketplace
  5. Maitrii Victoriano Aung-Thwin, National University of Singapore, Tampawaddy Quarter and the Socio-Historical Construction of an Arts Neighborhood in Contemporary Myanmar
  6. Narumon Arunothai, Chulalongkorn University, Fading Memories, Failing Rights: Digging out the Stories of Sea Nomad (Chao Lay) Settlement at Rawai Beach, Phuket Island, Thailand
  7. Nguyen Van Chinh, Vietnam National University, Hanoi, In Search of Hanoi’s Chinatown: Ethnicity and Neighborhood in the Urban Life of Vietnam (new title: Living Between Two Nations: A Chinese Neighborhood in the Sino-Vietnamese Borderlands)
  8. Danny Wong Tze Ken, University of Malaya, The Hakka Christian Settlements of Inanam-Menggatal-Telipok, Sabah
  9. Muhammad Arafat Bin Mohamad, National University of Singapore, The Jawi Community in Mecca