Foreword
Editors' Introduction
This seventh issue of Asian Anthropology begins with an article by the
anthropologist of globalization Ulf Hannerz on "Scenarios for the Twenty-first
Century World." Based on the Wei Lun Lecture delivered at the Chinese University
of Hong Kong, this article explores competing popular discourses about the
twenty-first century, doctrines such as "the end of history," "the clash of
civilizations," "Jihad vs. McWorld," and "the world is flat." This is innovative
because anthropologists have so rarely taken on such a large analytical task in
analyzing discourses of the contemporary world. The next article is by the
anthropologist of tourism Erik Cohen, discussing "Southeast Asian Ethnic Tourism
in a Changing World." Cohen outlines the massive changes that have taken place
in tourism of late, whereby a separate "tourist sphere" is emerging, largely
removed from the actual lives of ethnic peoples, in a kind of "Disneyfication"
of ethnic tourism. The third article, by Harald Beyer Broch, is about the
relationship between women, men and dogs among the Matinen people in East
Indonesia. Matinen men love their dogs; Matinen women, on the other hand,
express a desire to eat dog meat. Dogs thus serve as a displaced target of
female anger towards men, and a critique of gender relations, Broch shows.
Cohen's article discussed above was the keynote address at the International
Conference on "Tourism and Indigenous People/Minorities in Multi-cultural
Societies" held on 22¡V23 December 2007 in Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous Region in
southern Yunnan. This conference was organized by the Department of
Anthropology, the Chinese University of Hong Kong, and the Center for the Study
of Minorities in Southwest Yunnan Border Regions, Yunnan University, and
co-sponsored by the Department of Tourism, Xishuangbanna Government. Aside from
Cohen's article, we also have three ethnographic reports revised from papers
presented at the conference.
The first of these, "Tourism and the Lue Language in Xishuangbanna," by
Suraratdecha Sumittra, analyzes the gradual eclipse iv Editors' Introduction of
the Lue language in Xishuangbanna, and argues passionately for the importance of
maintaining Lue, not just because language death is a tragedy, but also for the
sake of tourism and its indigenous development. The second, by David Paul
Lumsden, "Blossoms, Bodies, and Authentic Reproduction: The Tujia and Tourism in
Youyang and the Shennong, PRC," focuses particularly on the Tujia occupation of
boat-tracker, and trackers' depiction in cultural media as being naked while
engaging in this work, in all its cultural and commercial implications. The
third, Mukesh Sharma's Mervyn Jackson's and Robert Inbakaran's "Promoting
Indigenous Food to Foreign Visitors" is on indigenous people's food in
Australia. It is included here because it is relevant to the anthropology of
tourism and food in Asia, considering that so few studies have been done on
indigenous people's food.
As usual, we offer an array of book reviews in this issue, on, in China,
market socialism, a migrant village, desire and neoliberalism, Daoism among the
Yao people, and paper offerings. For Japan, we review volumes on
transculturalism, Japan's low fertility rate, hip-hop music and popular music,
and Japanese organizational culture in France. We also review volumes on
Southeast Asian lives and on Islamization among the Orang Asli; and lastly we
review a book on ethnic identity and religion on the borderlands of India and
Bangladesh.
Asian Anthropology is published by the Chinese University Press (
http://www.cuhk.hk/cupress) for its
joint sponsors, the Hong Kong Anthropological Society (http://www.cuhk.edu.hk/ant/others/anthro.htm)
and the Department of Anthropology at the Chinese University of Hong Kong
http://www.cuhk.edu.hk/ ant If you have
any questions or comments about Asian Anthropology, please contact its
editors; we'd love to hear from you. We thank the many anthropologists from
several continents who have served as referees for our papers; in their
diligence, they have made Asian Anthropology possible. We thank all those
who have submitted papers and reviews for publication to us, as well as all
those individuals and institutions who have subscribed to us; we very much hope
for your continuing support. And we very much thank those who have helped format
and proofread this current issue: Cheuk Ka-kin, Siu Kit-wah, Lydia, and
especially Scott McKay, our editorial assistant, and Tse Wai-keung of the
Chinese University Press.
Tan Chee-Beng cbtan@cuhk.edu.hk
Gordon Mathews cmgordon@cuhk.edu.hk
Table of Contents
Editors' Introduction
Articles
Scenarios for the Twenty-first Century World
Ulf HANNERZ
Southeast Asian Ethnic Tourism in a Changing World
Erik COHEN
Gender and Matinen Dogs
Harald Beyer BROCH
Reports
Tourism and the Lue Language in Xishuangbanna
SURARATDECHA Sumittra
Blossoms, Bodies, and Authentic Reproduction: The Tujia and Tourism in
Youyang and the Shennong, PRC
David Paul LUMSDEN
Promoting Indigenous Food to Foreign Visitors: An Australian Study
Mukesh SHARMA, Mervyn JACKSON and Robert INBAKARAN
Book Reviews
Carolyn L. Hsu, Creating Market Socialism: How Ordinary People Are Shaping
Class and Status in China.
ZHOU Yongming
Biao Xiang, Transcending Boundaries ¡X Zhejiangcun: the Story of a Migrant
Village in Beijing.
WANG Danning
Lisa Rofel, Desiring China: Experiments in Neoliberalism, Sexuality, and
Public Culture.
LIANG Yongjia
Eli Alberts, A History of Daoism and the Yao People of South China.
CHIAO Chien
Janet Lee SCOTT, For Gods, Ghosts and Ancestors: The Chinese Tradition of
Paper Offerings.
LIU Tik-sang
David Blake Willis and Stephen Murphy-Shigematsu, eds., Transcultural
Japan: At the Borderlands of Race, Gender, and Identity.
Millie CREIGHTON
Frances McCall Rosenbluth, ed., The Political Economy of Japan's Low
Fertility.
Glenda S. ROBERTS
Ian Condry. Hip-Hop Japan: Rap and the Paths of Cultural Globalization.
Paul FESTA
Carolyn S. Stevens, Japanese Popular Music: Culture, Authenticity and
Power.
Gordon MATHEWS
Mitchell W. Sedgwick. Globalisation and Japanese Organisational Culture:
An Ethnography of a Japanese Corporation in France.
Andrew MACNAUGHTON
Rosanna Waterson, ed. Southeast Asian Lives: Personal Narratives and
Historical Experience.
Michael L. TAN
Toshihiro Nobuta, Living on the Periphery: Development and Islamization
among the Orang Asli.
A. BAER
Antu Saha, Ethnic Identity and Religion in the India-Bangladesh
Borderlands.
Md. SAIFUL Islam