Tea Empires, Tea Blood, Tea—and the Ta'ang
Myanmar Musings
In this episode we speak to Dr. Michael Dunford, recent graduate of the Australian National University, about his unique anthropology PhD thesis on the Ta'ang people and the tea they live with. Mike did his fieldwork in Northern Shan State and Northern Thailand, and is primed to launch off to a new job in Singapore. I'm sure you've heard of tea—but what about the Ta'ang? Listen in, to find out more!
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The Dark Side of the Rail
Myanmar Musings
In this episode we speak to Clare Hammond, author of the new book published by Allen Lane: On the Shadow Tracks: A Journey Through Occupied Myanmar. Clare travelled by train around most of Myanmar before the 2021 military coup, from the southern coast to the northern mountains, and tells stories of colonial legacies, forced labour, villages torn apart by railway construction, and forgotten dreams of railways that could have changed the nation. If you love train travel and train books, this is an absolute winner! Clare will be speaking about her book in Thailand at the FCCT in Bangkok on...
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Race, Ethnicity & Peasant Rebellion
Myanmar Musings
Peasant insurgencies are not only moments of conflict and crisis, but also of politics and performance: they are sites of social reproduction, where identities are made and remade. Dr. Jonathan Saha, Professor of South Asian History at the Durham University, discusses two events of the "Hsaya San Rebellion" in relation to racial capitalism and communal geographies. You can read his articles here: and .
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Rights, Refusal, Revolution
Myanmar Musings
What's the difference between a right and an opportunity in Burma, and how do people resist or refuse the blunt biopolitics employed by its military rulers? In this episode, Elliott Prasse-Freeman, Assistant Professer of Sociology and Anthropology at the National University of Singapore, discusses his new book Rights Refused: Grassroots Activism and State Violence in Myanmar, published by Stanford University Press, which investigates activists' lives in the years preceding the 2021 military coup, and after.
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Baptizing Burma and Religious Change
Myanmar Musings
Christianity is a hugely important minority religion in Myanmar and many Christians there follow the Baptist denomination. In a new book, Dr. Alex Kaloyanides, Associate Professor in Religious Studies at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, looks at the Baptist mission to Burma through a number of holy objects, from 1813 until 2013. In this episode we discuss the book Baptizing Burma, Alex's approach to writing and her experience following along with visiting baptists on the 200th anniversary of the founding of the American Baptist mission to Burma.
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Talking Along the Integral Margin
Myanmar Musings
Myanmar rulers and foreign experts often describe the country's economic reforms in the period following 2010 in glowing terms. In the book, Along the Integral Margin: Uneven Development in a Myanmar Squatter Settlement, author Stephen Campbell, Assistant Professor in the School of Social Sciences at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, takes readers into the lives of the labourers behind the much-lauded, yet terminally tragic, "transition", of the time leading to 2021. He discusses why Myanmar elites were beholden to modernisation theory, the nature of squatting, internal...
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The CDM Two Years On
Myanmar Musings
What is the Civil Disobedience Movement (CDM) and how does it sustain itself, after more than two years of existence as a revolutionary strategy? What are the expectations and challenges felt by CDM participants, who refuse to work for military-ruled institutions in Myanmar? Samuel Hmung, PhD Student at the Coral Bell School of Asia Pacific Affairs, at the Australian National University, discusses his ongoing doctoral work, and his separate research project into the CDM.
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2023 Economic Update
Myanmar Musings
Dr. Jared Bissinger, an independent development economist, talks off the back of his participation at the 2023 ANU Myanmar Update about the state of the Myanmar economy in 2023. Although some economic indicators have settled somewhat from the post-coup chaos, nearly all sectors appear to be in economic decline, and the ruling State Administration Council is rewinding or crippling most reforms made during 2011-2021 in order to further its rule at the expense of the average person, and the strength of the economy as a whole.
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Uncle Olive, the Opium Queen of Kokang
Myanmar Musings
Gabrielle Palluch, author of The Opium Queen: The Untold Story of the Rebel Who Ruled the Golden Triangle, published by Rowman & Littlefield, joins the show to discuss the remarkable life of Olive Yang. Born in the Kokang region in the 1920s, Uncle Olive was an enigmatic and influential figure in the history of her ancestral region: brother and sister to royalty, potential CIA collaborator, maybe drug smuggler, almost-definitely arms trader, cattle dealer and sponsor of celebrity film stars... She lived quite a life, and Gabrielle has dedicated over 200 pages to trying to sort out the fact...
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International Relations In and Around Myanmar
Myanmar Musings
In this episode we speak with Hunter Marston, PhD Candidate at the Coral Bell School of Asia Pacific Affairs at the Australian National University and Adjunct Research Fellow at La Trobe Asia, about Myanmar's foreign policy and international relations in the context of the the overblown 'New Cold War' superpower environment, the Southeast Asia region as a whole, and in terms of the numerous actors inside Myanmar still vying for state power.
info_outlineGabrielle Palluch, author of The Opium Queen: The Untold Story of the Rebel Who Ruled the Golden Triangle, published by Rowman & Littlefield, joins the show to discuss the remarkable life of Olive Yang. Born in the Kokang region in the 1920s, Uncle Olive was an enigmatic and influential figure in the history of her ancestral region: brother and sister to royalty, potential CIA collaborator, maybe drug smuggler, almost-definitely arms trader, cattle dealer and sponsor of celebrity film stars... She lived quite a life, and Gabrielle has dedicated over 200 pages to trying to sort out the fact from the fiction.