Southeast Asian Identities

Download or read book Southeast Asian Identities written by Joel S. Kahn and published by I.B.Tauris. This book was released on 1998 with total page 273 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Cultural politics have undergone a resurgence in the last decade: nationalisms in Eastern and Central Europe, tribalisms in Africa, racial and ethnic movements in the Americas and Australasia have left the world in the grip of the politics of recognition. Until this book, however, little attention has been paid to the significance of cultural politics in Southeast Asia, whose people are often assumed to be dedicated to the single goal of economic development. This study of a variety of Southeast Asian countries - including Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand - reveals that such issues of culture and identity politics are, in fact, of primary importance to the people of the region and their leaders.