Episode 146: Taomo Zhou, Associate Professor of Chinese Studies, National University of Singapore
Release Date: 04/09/2026
Episode 146: Taomo Zhou, Associate Professor of Chinese Studies, National University of Singapore
Gatty Rewind Podcast
In this episode, host Namfon Narumol Choochan and Carrie Mo, a master’s student in Asian Studies, interview Taomo Zhou, Associate Professor of Chinese Studies at the National University of Singapore, about her research on the life of Francisca Casparina Fanggidaej, an Indonesian transnational activist in the Afro-Asian movement and the mother of seven. Because of her involvement with the Communist Party of Indonesia (Partai Komunist Indonesia, PKI), Francisca went into exile in China after the 1965 Indonesia massacre, forcing her to separate from her family for many decades. By...
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Episode 145: Liang Wu, SEAP/Science and Technology Studies, Cornell University
Gatty Rewind Podcast
In this episode, host Namfon Narumol Choochan, joined by Yi-Jen Chen, a Cornell PhD student in Anthropology, interviews Liang Wu, a postdoctoral associate in Environmental Humanities in the Southeast Asia Program and the Department of Science and Technology Studies. Together, they explore what it means to rethink “maritime Southeast Asia.” Rather than treating Southeast Asia as a fixed geographic region, the conversation focuses on the circulation of labor and commodities across Southeast Asia and the globe. Dr. Wu highlights the central—yet often overlooked—role of Filipino seafarers,...
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Episode 144: Lydia O’Meara, Cornell Atkinson Center for Sustainability, Cornell University
Gatty Rewind Podcast
In this episode, host Namfon Narumol Choochan is joined by Francine Barchett, former host of the Gatty Rewind Podcast and a Cornell PhD candidate in Natural Resources & the Environment. Together, they interview Lydia O'Meara, a postdoctoral fellow at the Cornell Atkinson Center for Sustainability. Lydia studies how diets in coastal communities can reveal links between human nutrition and marine ecosystem health. Her research focuses on Timor-Leste in the Coral Triangle, a biodiversity hotspot where many people rely on fish but face growing threats from climate change and biodiversity loss....
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Episode 143: Patrick Daly, Department of Anthropology, Washington University in St. Louis
Gatty Rewind Podcast
In this episode, host Namfon Narumol Choochan is joined by Trifosa Simamora, a PhD candidate from the New York Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit, to interview Patrick Daly, a research scientist for sustainability and resilience in the Department of Anthropology at Washington University in St. Louis. Dr. Daly gave us a rundown of his lecture, Using Archaeology, History, and Geology to Build a Paleo-Tsunami History for Southeast Asia. We discuss his 20-year endeavor to craft a long history of tsunamis in this region through collaboration between the arts and sciences. Tune in to find...
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Episode 142: Mark Sanchez, Department of Asian Studies, Vanderbilt University
Gatty Rewind Podcast
In this episode, host Namfon Narumol Choochan is joined by Elissa Domingo Badiqué, a recent doctoral graduate from the Department of Performing and Media Arts. Together, they interview Mark John Sanchez, Assistant Professor of Asian Studies at Vanderbilt University. Dr. Sanchez recapitulates his lecture on the legal tactics used by the Free Legal Assistance Group (FLAG) to defend civil liberties during the martial law era under Ferdinand Marcos in the Philippines. He then reflects on how his personal journey and positionality have shaped his research. The conversation further explores the...
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Episode 141: Kevin D. Pham, Assistant Professor of Political Theory, University of Amsterdam
Gatty Rewind Podcast
In this episode, host Namfon Narumol Choochan interviews Kevin Pham, Assistant Professor of Political Theory at the University of Amsterdam. Professor Pham’s talk is titled “A Postcolonial Theory of Free Speech,” in which he focuses on North Vietnamese intellectuals and their perspective on new speech in the 1950s. He argues that although the meaning and value of free speech have long been contested in the West, they overlook how people outside of the West, in illiberal conditions, theorize free speech. Growing up in San Jose, Professor Pham was intrigued by a trip to the Middle East and...
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Episode 140: Jangai Jap, Department of International Affairs, The University of Georgia
Gatty Rewind Podcast
In this episode, guest co-host Drake Avila, a master’s student in Asian Studies, joins host Namfon Narumol Choochan to interview Assistant Professor Jangai Jap from the Department of International Affairs at the University of Georgia. They discuss her recent research on ethnic rebellion in Myanmar and why the current explanation of post-independence political exclusion falls short in accounting for the rebellion's onset. Professor Jap shares how her Kachin heritage and NGO work experience in Myanmar have sparked her academic curiosity and shaped her doctoral and current research. Tune in for...
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Episode 139: Analyn Salvador-Amores, Department of Anthropology, University of the Philippines Baguio
Gatty Rewind Podcast
In this episode, host Namfon Narumol Choochan interviews Analyn Salvador-Amores (Ikin), Professor of Anthropology and former Director of the Museo Kordilyera at the University of the Philippines Baguio. Together, they discuss how the recent tourism trend has revitalized Kalinga tattoos, a tradition of the ethnolinguistic group in Buscalan village, northern Luzon, Philippines. Having conducted anthropological research on traditional tattoos for over 30 years, Professor Ikin provides nuanced insights into how tourism has changed the village’s landscape, tattoo practices, and reshaped gender...
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Episode 138: Anocha Suwichakornpong, Associate Professor of Film, Columbia University
Gatty Rewind Podcast
In this episode, host Namfon Narumol Choochan speaks with “Mai” Anocha Suwichakornpong, independent filmmaker, producer, founder of Electric Eel Film, and Associate Professor in Film at Columbia University. Anocha shares how films and filmmaking can be a form of resistance by rethinking the boundary between truth and fiction. They discuss how her previous and upcoming features have engaged with the politics of remembering and forgetting of state violence in Thai history. The conversation also delves into Before It Gets Dark, her most renowned feature, and what the Thammasat Massacre means...
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Episode 137: Chiara Formichi, Department of Asian Studies, Cornell University
Gatty Rewind Podcast
In this episode, host Namfon Narumol Choochan interviews Chiara Formichi, H. Stanley Krusen Professor of World Religions, Director of the Religious Studies Program, and Professor of Asian Studies at Cornell University. They discuss how Prof. Formichi’s personal and intellectual journey shaped her research trajectory in Islamic and Southeast Asian studies. Drawing from her latest monograph, Domestic Nationalism: Muslim Women, Health and Modernity in Indonesia, she explores how Indonesian women envisioned their own versions of modernity through gendered care work, from the colonial Dutch East...
info_outlineIn this episode, host Namfon Narumol Choochan and Carrie Mo, a master’s student in Asian Studies, interview Taomo Zhou, Associate Professor of Chinese Studies at the National University of Singapore, about her research on the life of Francisca Casparina Fanggidaej, an Indonesian transnational activist in the Afro-Asian movement and the mother of seven. Because of her involvement with the Communist Party of Indonesia (Partai Komunist Indonesia, PKI), Francisca went into exile in China after the 1965 Indonesia massacre, forcing her to separate from her family for many decades. By examining Francisca’s life and activism in Indonesia, China, and the Netherlands, Prof. Zhou tells us how contested international politics shaped gender roles and expectations, redefining what motherhood meant.
Lightning round(Lecture Summary): 4:20
Main interview: 8:12
8:12 – How did you first discover Francisca Casparina Fanggidaej, and how did you piece together her story through archival materials and oral history interviews?
10:17 – Can you walk us through Francisca’s background and life trajectory? What led her to political activism?
11:26 – How did Francisca become involved in politics, and what shaped her early political commitments?
13:44 – How does Francisca’s life reflect shifting gender ideologies, particularly across the Sukarno and Suharto eras in Indonesia?
16:54 – During her exile after the 1965 political violence, Francisca arrived in Beijing. How should we understand China’s role within a more rigid gender framework at the time?
19:54 – In her diaries, Francisca attempts to tell her story to her daughter. How do you interpret these writings in relation to the politics of maternal absence?
23:17 – Why is motherhood a critical lens for rethinking internationalism?
26:27 - How does the case of Francisca become useful to think about the gender roles and expectations in the present, especially for mothers?
27:38 – Your upcoming book, Made in Shenzhen, shifts focus geographically—what drew you to Shenzhen, and are there connections between this project and Francisca’s story, particularly around migration?
31:33 – How does the concept of maternal absence reshape our understanding of domestic labor and caregiving?
Advice Advice for researchers and recommendations: 33:50
Dr. Zhou’s top recommendations:
The music on the podcast is from "14 Strings!", a Filipino-style Rondalla group established at Cornell University. Check them out here.
Produced by Neen Yada Tangcharoenmonkong, Adam Farihin, and Cecilia Liu