Victor T. King

Professional Middle Class Youth in Post-Reform Vietnam: Identity, Continuity and Change

There is very little information or analysis on middle class youth in Vietnam. This paper begins to fill this gap in our knowledge by utilising data on urban, educated professional youth from the Survey Assessment of Vietnamese Youth (2003‐04) and an ethnographic investigation in Hanoi between 1999 and 2002. It considers some of the conceptual and analytical issues in addressing the characteranddefinitionofthemiddleclassinSoutheastAsiamoregenerally,and providescontextualinformationontheemergenceofthemiddleclassinVietnam and the transformation of the class structure there. The information available suggests that the expanding young middle class in Vietnam exhibits many of the characteristics of the middle class everywhere—possession of cultural capital, a firm interest in and commitment to education, an orientation to consumption and to accessing news and information, and aspirations to improve and develop in personal and career terms. However, the continuing close relationship between members of the middle class and the Vietnamese state suggests that there is little evidence as yet of the middle class developing a political identity or of the emergence of civil society. The data demonstrate continuity in state-generated employment and education between the current generation and its predecessor, which arises from the continuing influence of the state on Vietnamese society in its role as provider of employment, career paths, education and scholarships, as well as from the continuing influence of the senior generation on their children. The literature on the middle class, and particularly urban middle class youth in Vietnam is decidedly patchy, and despite the importance of educated youth in post-reform Vietnam there has been very little

What is Brunei Society? Reflections on a Conceptual and Ethnographic Issue

Introduction Although a general survey of the ethnographic literature on Brunei Darussalam is urgently needed so that we might satisfactorily assess what has been accomplished and what remains to be done, I do not propose to present an overview here. In the course of the discussion I shall indicate some of the strengths and weaknesses of the anthropology of Brunei, but, in the main, I shall be concerned with both a conceptual and an ethnographic issue which I believe is of crucial importance to Brunei studies. The discussion also leads me to propose certain matters for future anthropological investigation both in Brunei and neighbouring territories. The issue which I have in mind is certainly not particular to Brunei. It has been confronted by anthropologists who have undertaken fieldwork in complex multi-ethnic situations in other parts of South East Asia; it is especially well illustrated in Edmund Leachs study of the political systems of Highland Burma (1964) and in J6rome Rousseaus analysis of Central Borneo society (1990; see also King, 1993). However, in the case of Brunei it is of special interest because of the long history of this sultanate and the fact that Brunei Darussalam is the only surviving, politically independent Malay Islamic monarchy in South East Asia (Braighlinn, 1992: 18ff.). The sultanate therefore provides us with the most direct example of a sociopolitical system whose constituent elements, both ideological and non ideological, demonstrate processes of, on the one hand, transformation and innovation and, on the other, continuity and the celebration of tradition. The subject to be addressed is that of the conceptualization, definition, and description of Brunei society in the context of an established political system dominated by one ethnic group. In investigating the matter of what we mean by Brunei society, I think we are able to examine and re-order the separate ethnographic studies of various communities in parts of north-west Borneo in quite interesting ways. Therefore, it allows us a point of

Discourses with the past: Tourism and heritage in South-East Asia

This special issue is intended to explore in some empirical detail the relationships between culture (including ethnicity) nature, tourism, development, and political action, and in this connection to focus specifically on what is widely called ‘heritage’ and its conceptualization and representation in South-East Asia. Heritage is both a narrow concept, literally ‘what is or may be inherited’ (Little Oxford English Dictionary, 1996: 294), and a broader one pertaining to notions of ethnicity and nationalism, and even global identity. Heritage has become something which the state and its agents, as well as tourists and local communities appropriate and create as an object worthy of touristic attention, though only certain items are selected for this purpose and others are discarded. It has been remarked upon frequently that the concept of heritage is difficult to define and that, in popular discourse, its meaning is very wide and flexible. A useful starting point is the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), which designates World Heritage Sites as of either ‘cultural’ or ‘natural’ or ‘mixed’ (both cultural and natural) importance. According to the World Heritage Convention, 1 which was adopted by UNESCO in 1972, ‘cultural heritage’ embraces a group of buildings or a site of historical, aesthetic, archaeological, scientific, ethnological or anthropological value’. In contrast UNESCO defines ‘natural heritage’ in terms of outstanding physical, biological, and geological features; habitats of threatened plants or animal species and areas of value on scientific and aesthetic grounds or from the perspective of conservation. We are using the term heritage here to refer primarily to tangible and concrete elements of the past which are presented and re-presented in the present: archaeological finds, historical sites, monuments and buildings, urban and rural landscapes, and material artefacts (usually housed and displayed in museums). What is more ‘the sites selected to represent the country’s heritage will also have strong implications for both collective and individual identity and hence the creation of social realities’ (Black and Wall, 2001: 123). We also recognize that the term is used in a wider sense to refer not just to ‘traditional’ material objects but also to ‘traditional’ ways of life (often such overt, sensory and ‘aesthetic’ cultural forms as dance, drama, music, and the visual and plastic arts), which are usually brought into association with the material evidence of the past. The importance of these cultural forms as heritage is enhanced precisely because governments in promoting tourism tend to focus on those which are immediate, accessible, colourful, and visible to the ‘tourist gaze’, and which can be more easily shaped and constructed (Wood, 1997: 10). The concept of heritage therefore shades into the more general concepts of culture and tradition, and it is bound up with issues of national and local identities. However, as we shall see, even the natural environment can be defined and sanctioned as heritage and moulded in particular ways for the tourist market, although it is usually presented and given meaning, as is cultural heritage, as ISSN 1363-9811 print/ISSN 1469-8382 online/03/890003-13  2003 Editors, Indonesia and the Malay World

Models and Realities: Malaysian National Planning and East Malaysian Development Problems

In this paper my main empirical data are taken from the East Malaysian state of Sarawak, but much of what I say applies equally to the other East Malaysian state of Sabah. What is more, my argument is relevant in large part to the southern two-thirds of the island of Borneo-that is, to the four provinces of Indonesian Borneo or Kalimantan. For the purposes of this discussion I have to treat the small, newly independent oil-rich sultanate of Brunei Darussalam on the north-west coast of Borneo as an exception. My general concern is with the peripheral position of the Borneo territories, economically and politically, in relation to the developed core areas of the nation-states of Malaysia and Indonesia. As a result of its environmental and demographic characteristics, its historical experiences under British protection and then colonialism in the north, and Dutch colonialism in the south, and its subsequent post-independence experience, Borneo is admirably suited to perform the role of a natural resources area for the national development programmes of Malaysia and Indonesia (Ave and King, 1986). For Indonesian Borneo there is an additional issue; it is also an area for the resettlement of some of the excess population from the densely populated islands of Indonesias heartlands, especially fromJava and Madura. Fortunately, Malaysian Borneo has no need to fulfil such a role in relation to West Malaysia.

Some Aspects of Iban-Maloh Contact in West Kalimantan

The nineteenth century witnessed extensive Iban migrations from the upper Batang Lupar riverI in Sarawaks Second Division. The majority of Iban moved via the nearby Kapuas lakes and the Leboyan and Embaloh2 rivers of Dutch West Borneo (now West Kalimantan) and on to the Rejang basin the Third Division of Sarawak. However, much of the scholarly work which has been done on these important indigenous movements has focused on them in a Sarawak context.3 The main purpose of this study is to redress the balance by synthesizing and analyzing material on Iban migration and culture contact in Dutch territory.4 In the course of their spread into Dutch Borneo, Iban sometimes came into contact with other peoples already settled in these border regions (see Figure I). As Pringle says:

A journey among the peoples of Central Borneo in word and picture

Editors introduction Hendrik Tillemas life and work Tillemas journey to the Apo Kayan (Kayan Plateau) Tillema after his Apo Kayan journey A bibliography of Tillemas main publications (with particular reference to Borneo) Editors bibliography The book Part I The Apo Kayan in word and picture Chapter I To the Apo Kayan I make preparations for the journey I make a list of more than 250 queries about the journey, luggage, etc., etc. Small presents preserve friendships, particularly among the Dayaks Filming equipment requires meticulous attention Attention to transport, sleeping arrangements, clothing, medicines, food, and drink The struggle through the rapids ( kiham ) The second stage (overland) The third stage back in the perahu Editors notes Chapter 2 In the Apo Kayan My domestic arrangements The country and its people Through the Apo Kayan with Dr de Rooy To the Punans and back home The future of the Apo Kayans lies in the hands of the government, public health service, and missions Dates of my journey Editors notes Part II The Apo Kayans in picture and word.

Heritage and development in a Malaysian city: George Town under threat?

(2003). Heritage and development in a Malaysian city: George Town under threat? Indonesia and the Malay World: Vol. 31, No. 89, pp. 44-57.

Borneo Studies: Perspectives from a Jobbing Social Scientist

The paper comprises an intellectual journey through Borneo. But rather than summarising the results of his and others research on Borneo’s societies, cultures and histories and demonstrating their contribution to knowledge within certain fields of scholarship and theoretical tradition the author dwells on a particular style of research which he refers to as ‘jobbing’. Popular reactions to the use of such a concept usually turn on the images which it conjures of an unprofessional and unscholarly approach to what are serious matters of academic endeavour. However, in arguing that much of his own research can be characterised as ‘jobbing’, that it falls somewhere in the middle of a continuum from theory to practice drawing on concepts in an eclectic and pragmatic way in order to analyse and present materials gathered from a diverse range of sources in a logical and meaningful explanatory narrative, the author proposes that much of the research undertaken in Borneo over the last half century can also be categorised in the same fashion. The paper ranges over ‘jobbing concepts’, the relations between area studies and a jobbing lifestyle, the apprenticeship of a jobbing researcher, the ways in which research both on the ‘Maloh’ of interior Kalimantan and on Borneo more generally can be appreciated from this perspective, and the problems posed by globalisation approaches for those whose work is rooted in the understanding of ‘on-the-ground’ structures and processes. Keywords: Borneo, jobbing, autobiography, methodology, globalisation ABSTRAK Makalah ini merupakan satu pengembaraan intelektual merentasi Borneo. Namun, daripada hanya merumuskan hasil penyelidikan sendiri dan juga penyelidikan orang lain mengenai masyarakat, budaya dan sejarah Borneo, dan menunjukkan sumbangan para penyelidik itu kepada khazanah ilmu pengetahuan dalam bidang kesarjanaan dan tradisi teoretis tertentu, penulis turut memperkatakan tentang suatu gaya penyelidikan khusus yang beliau namakan sebagai jobbing. Reaksi popular ekoran penggunaan konsep sedemikian lazimnya memberikan satu gambaran seolah-olah ia suatu pendekatan yang tidak profesional tanpa mempunyai nilai kesarjanaan terhadap suatu kegiatan akademik yang serius. Walau bagaimanapun, penulis menghujahkan bahawa kebanyakan daripada penyelidikannya sendiri boleh disifatkan sebagai jobbing, iaitu ia terletak di tengah-tengah dalam satu kontinum daripada teori membawa kepada praktis, menggunakan pelbagai konsep secara eklektik dan pragmatik untuk menganalisis dan membentangkan bahan-bahan yang diperolehi daripada sumber-sumber yang amat pelbagai dan menuangkannya ke dalam suatu huraian naratif secara logik dan bermakna. Dengan cara itu, penulis menghujahkan bahawa banyak daripada penyelidikannya di Borneo dalam tempoh setengah abad ini boleh dikategorikan dalam gaya yang sama. Makalah ini menghuraikan konsep jobbing, hubungan antara kajian kawasan dengan gaya hidup jobbing, perantisan seseorang penyelidik yang jobbing, cara bagaimana penyelidikan mengenai ‘Maloh’ di kawasan pedalaman Kalimantan dan mengenai Borneo secara lebih umum boleh difahami dengan lebih baik sekiranya dilihat daripada perspektif ini. Begitu juga perspektif ini membantu memahami dengan lebih baik masalah yang ditimbulkan oleh pendekatan globalisasi bagi mereka yang penyelidikannya terpahat dalam pemahaman struktur dan proses on- the-ground. Kata kunci: Borneo, jobbing, autobiografi, metodologi, globalisasi

Tourism in Asia: A Review of the Achievements and Challenges

Since the appearance of our co-edited book Tourism in South-East Asia (Hitchcock, King and Parnwell 1993), now well over a decade ago, the study of tourism development in the region and more widely in Asia has come of age. Janet Cochranes ambitious edited volume Asian Tourism: Growth and Change (2008?z), with its thirty-one chapters, three sub-section introductions and 40 contributors drawn from a variety of disciplines, marks a further significant step in the development of scholarship on Asian tourism. The country coverage is impressive; as well as cross-regional chapters there are contributions on Bhutan, India, Sri Lanka, the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Taiwan, China, Hong Kong, Japan, Mongolia and Tibet. As a substantial Asia-wide volume with several contributions from

The problem with areas: Asia and Area studies

Review of:Goh Beng Lan (ed.), Decentring & diversifying Southeast Asian Studies: Perspectives from the region. Singapore: ISEAS, 2011, xiii + 304 pp. ISBN 9789814311564, price: USD 34.90 (paperback); 9789814311571, USD 45.90 (hardback).Terence Wesley-Smith and Jon Goss (eds), Remaking Area studies: Teaching and learning across Asia and the Pacific. Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press, 2010, xxvii + 243 pp. ISBN 9780824833213. Price: USD 45.00 (hardback).Jacob Edmond, Henry Johnson and Jacqueline Leckie (eds), Recentring Asia: Histories, encounters, identities, xv + 339 pp. Leiden/Boston: Brill, Global Oriental: 2011. ISBN 9781906876258. Price: EUR 80.00 (hardback).