略论二战以来老挝华人社会地位的变化

华人在老挝一向安居乐业。二战以后 ,老挝华侨华人社会经历了较大的变化。 1 975 -1 986年 ,老挝当局在越南政府排华政策的影响下 ,基本上铲除了华人赖以存在的经贸根基 ,大部分华人离开了老挝。当今的老挝华侨华人社会 ,无论在经济基础和籍贯结构方面 ,基本上都不是历史上华侨社会的延续 ,而是由少数留在本地的华人、 80年代后期回归的华人以及来投资的新华侨重新建构的。当前 ,老挝华侨华人主要从事商贸活动 ,有较高的经济地位和社会地位 ,但尚少有政治诉求。     

Sport as politics and history: the 25th SEA Games in Laos (Respond to this article at http://www.therai.org.uk/at/debate)

Like the recent World Cup in South Africa and the Beijing 2008 Olympics, December 2009's Southeast Asian (SEA) Games in Laos were embraced by the state as evidence of national achievement and progress. Yet, just like these much larger global sporting events, a range of controversies threatened to turn the pride of the Games into embarrassment. Of particular concern was the fact that, despite significantly reducing the size of the Games, Laos — one of the smallest and poorest countries in Southeast Asia — depended greatly on foreign help to conduct them, especially from China. The ultimate success of the SEA Games in Laos reinforced the power of sport to consolidate nationalism, despite the paradox in Laos of nationalism emerging from a complex mix of autonomy and dependence.     

THE CIRCULAR MATRIX FROM THE ROBINSON COLLECTION

Summary. The bronze matrix, now in the collection of the Fogg Art Museum, is said to have been found in southern Thessaly close to Larissa Kremaste. As comparanda for the Scylla on the matrix the silver gilt plaque from the third century BC necropolis of Dyrrhachion in Illyria is discussed, as well as the matrix in the Antikensammlungen of Berlin and silver plaques decorating a belt from a late-fourth-century BC grave at Laos, Lucania. Discussing the Thetis emblem on the other side of the matrix the author analyses the motive in Classical art of the fifth/fourth century BC, paying special attention to the stamped fourth-century BC gold and silver plaques with similar design coming from the Cimmerian Bosporus, Thessaly and Macedonia. Conclusions are drawn about the authenticity of the matrix in the Fogg Art Museum, and the close interconnections between toreutic centres in the late fourth century BC.     

具有中国血统者就是华人吗？——美国赫蒙人之案例分析

论文就中美两国对赫蒙人截然不同的族群界定与依据、赫蒙人在美国的生存适应与族群认同的状况进行了研究。对于20世纪中叶沦为难民后,陆续辗转移居美国的老挝赫蒙人,中国学者将其视为少数民族华人,美国官方却将其确定为与华裔、韩裔等少数族裔并列的独立族裔类别。美国赫蒙人虽然在血统的意义上可归属于具有中国血统的人,但其几乎不存在华人归属意识,也极少与中国发生社会联系。许多海外华人或海外具有中国血统的人将会随着时间的推移而逐渐失去华人认同意识,并与中国社会浙行渐远。因此建议依据中国血统、中国传统文化的保持、主观认同为华人、与中国社会的联系等“华人性”的几个维度去理解和定义“海外华人”。     

"The perfect business": human trafficking and Lao-Thai cross-border migration

Over the past few years some governments and development organizations have increasingly articulated cross-border mobility as "trafficking in persons". The notion of a market where traffickers prey on the "supply" of migrants that flows across international borders to meet the "demand" for labour has become a central trope among anti-trafficking development organizations. This article problematizes such economism by drawing attention to the oscillating cross-border migration of Lao sex workers within a border zone between Laos and Thailand. It illuminates the incongruity between the recruitment of women into the sex industry along the Lao-Thai border and the market models that are employed by the anti-trafficking sector. It discusses the ways in which these cross-border markets are conceived in a context where aid programming is taking on an increasingly important role in the politics of borders. The author concludes that allusions to ideal forms of knowledge (in the guise of classic economic theory) and an emphasis on borders become necessary for anti-trafficking programmes in order to make their object of intervention legible as well as providing post-hoc rationalizations for their continuing operation.     

Cultural Reproduction and “Minority” Sexuality: Intimate Changes among Ethnic Akha in the Upper Mekong

This article explores sexuality and its role in cultural reproduction amongst Akha, a minority group living in the mountainous reaches of southwest China, northern Thailand, Laos, Vietnam and Burma. For many minority peoples in the region sexuality has been a marker of cultural difference within trajectories of nationalist assimilation. In northwest Laos, Akha sexuality is currently a focusof intense interest as infrastructure development, increased interactions with lowland populations, and targeted state and donor-funded health programs are dramatically altering Akha lifestyles. Whether by conscious design to intervene insexual lives, or through the numerous ways that affective domains merge withmaterial aspirations, social structures shaping Lao Akha sexuality are being “re-formed” through engagement in processes of modernisation. As a result, sexuality remains central to ongoing ethnic marginalisation and evolving vulnerability to health threats.     

Experimental Consensus: Negotiating with the Irrigating State in the South of Laos

Abstract

It is common to view Laos as a political culture prone to “consensus”, yet it is also true that policy is constantly changing there, often radically. If everyone is always “in consensus”, what can explain this change? I suggest that the answer is found in the particular kind of consensus at play: it is informed by a wider “experimentarian” ethic evident in rural Laos, where ideas (including the latest policies) are put to the test through practical implementation. The results of these experiments are used to validate policy change and reversal. This allows rural residents a degree of manoeuvrability in their engagements with the state that is striking given the “authoritarian” status of the current regime. It can explain and is used to justify, for instance, the oft-observed gap between policy and actual practice. This room for manoeuvre comes at the price of “playing the game”, at least for a while, of the latest policy fad, sometimes with disastrous consequences for rural livelihoods. I use the example of an irrigation project that was implemented in the south of Laos from 1999–2002 to examine “experimental consensus” at work as policy was received, engaged and eventually relinquished.     

The Indochinese enlargement of ASEAN: security expectations and outcomes

The article examines the extent to which Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia have gained from their participation in ASEAN. To assess the security and diplomatic benefits of their membership, it identifies three expectations held by the Indochinese states—enhanced international status, improved security and relations vis-à-vis other ASEAN members, and more room for manoeuvre when dealing with non-member states. The study demonstrates, however, that while Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia are less isolated internationally after joining ASEAN, the actual benefits in terms of their relations with the other ASEAN members as well as non-member states have been more ambiguous. With ASEAN in mind, the article concludes by discussing the possible costs and drawbacks of enlargement that can transform any international organisation into a less influential and cohesive institution.     

From revolutionary heroism to cultural heritage: museums,memory and representation in Laos

ABSTRACT. Museum exhibitions in Laos represent two main strands of Lao national identity discourse. First, they glorify the ‘liberation struggle’ of the so‐called ‘Lao multiethnic people’ under the leadership of the Lao People's Revolutionary Party, and therefore serve as important ideological tools for the current regime's self‐legitimisation. Second, they display the history and cultural heritage of the Lao nation, providing the postcolonial state with a narrative of historical continuity and civilisation that is focused mostly on the dominant ethnic Lao culture. This article explores the contradictions within official images of the Lao nation‐state and how these opposing strands of national identity compete or interact. Museums as key arenas of ideological tensions constitute illuminating fields of research on discourses of national identity in Laos.     

Haunting the State: Rumours,Spectral Apparitions and the Longing for Buddhist Charisma in Laos

Buddhist ascetic monks and hermits that move largely outside of the institutional structures of the monastic order (sangha) have a long history in mainland Southeast Asia. In Lao Buddhism these figures seem to have largely disappeared, but due to their charismatic qualities they still occupy a crucial position in the social imaginary. This article explores rumours and narratives about the existence of ascetic monks and hermits in contemporary Laos. I argue that rumours about, and narratives of, spectral apparitions of these figures express a longing for Buddhist charisma that is partially rooted in Laos’ revolutionary past, and in recent social and economic changes. As Buddhist charisma can point to alternative, personalised sources of power, I argue that rumours and spectral apparitions can be interpreted as haunting, and therefore afflicting and challenging the current politics of religion of the Lao state.     

Unsettling Experiences: Internal Resettlement and International Aid Agencies in Laos

A number of programmes and policies in Laos are promoting the internal resettlement of mostly indigenous ethnic minorities from remote highlands to lowland areas and along roads. Various justifications are given for this internal resettlement: eradication of opium cultivation, security concerns, access and service delivery, cultural integration and nation building, and the reduction of swidden agriculture. There is compelling evidence that it is having a devastating impact on local livelihoods and cultures, and that international aid agencies are playing important but varied and sometimes conflicting roles with regard to internal resettlement in Laos. While some international aid agencies claim that they are willing to support internal resettlement if it is ‘voluntary’, it is not easy to separate voluntary from involuntary resettlement in the Lao context. Both state and non‐state players often find it convenient to discursively frame non‐villager initiated resettlement as ‘voluntary’.     

Landscapes of political memories: War legacies and land negotiations in Laos

Wars and their aftermaths frequently transform land use and ownership, reshaping ‘post-conflict’ landscapes through new boundaries, population movements, land reforms and conditions of access. Within a global context of controversial land concessions and farmland acquisitions, we bring to light the continued salience of historical memories of war in the ways land conflicts are being negotiated in Laos. Considering circumstances at different scales—from bilateral government relations to village-level claims—we find that political capital linked to memories of wartime affiliations have crucial spatial and place-based connections, and that they affect the ways investors, government officials and villagers negotiate over land concessions. Ethnographic evidence, spatial analysis and a survey of expatriate development workers engaged with land issues in Laos suggest that such ‘political memories’ are an important but often overlooked factor in shaping an uneven concessions landscape. We discuss implications for foreign development organizations that tend to privilege technical and legal aspects of land management over such political dimensions.     

Mission Raquez: A forgotten ethnographic expedition through Laos in 1905

This paper focuses on Mission Raquez, a French ethnographic expedition through Laos to collect material for the Marseille Colonial Exposition of 1906. This paper discusses the location of extant material and considers the ethnographic methods used on the mission in conjunction with anthropological study, mass media, and popular celebrity in turn of the century France.     

Nationalism Betrayed?

Arthur J. Dommen , The Indochinese Experience of the French and the Americans: Nationalism and Communism in Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam . Indianapolis and Bloomington : Indiana University Press , 2001 . xiii + 1172 pp. Notes, index. $ (cloth).     

World Bank‐directed Development? Negotiating Participation in the Nam Theun 2 Hydropower Project in Laos

The omnipotence of the World Bank on a global scale means that it is often regarded as the most influential partner in bringing about transformations in developing countries. This article contributes to ongoing discussions of this issue by examining some effects of the Bank's participatory agenda in one of its flagship projects, the Nam Theun 2 (NT2) hydropower scheme in Laos. Critical accounts suggest that the Bank's promotion of participation in donor‐dependent countries like Laos is either a guise or an imposition. These propositions are considered in two settings where participation was debated around the time of the Bank's loan appraisal for NT2: first, an international stakeholders’ workshop held in Vientiane; and second, some international attempts to identify the concerns of villagers living near the NT2 dam site. In workshops and villages, participation is a negotiated performance whereby competing representations emerge through the interaction between village, state and international actors. More generally, this article shows that a grounded view of development can attend to the practices that constrain the hegemonic tendencies of the World Bank, even while maintaining awareness of the potency of its policies and interventions.     

Planned Resettlement,Unexpected Migrations and Cultural Trauma in Laos

Though not officially considered a ‘policy’ by the Lao government, resettlement of ethnic minorities has become a central feature of the rural development strategy in Laos. Over the past ten years, a majority of highland villages have been resettled downhill, and the local administrations are planning to move the remaining villages in the coming years. This article draws on a national survey about resettlement in Laos, commissioned by UNESCO and financed by UNDP, that was undertaken by the authors. It focuses on the consequences of these huge shifts of population and on the social and cultural dynamics that underlie them. It shows that the planned resettlements, which are intended to promote the ‘settling’ of the highland populations by enforcing the ban on slash‐and‐burn agriculture and opium growing, actually cause increased and diversified rural mobility. This in turn complicates the implementation of the rural development policy and the political management of interethnic relationships. In other words, the ‘settling’ process promoted by the State, because of its broad and often tragic social consequences, can paradoxically generate unplanned or unexpected further migrations, which could be called ‘resettlement‐induced forms of mobility’     

Nontraditional security and China's transnational narcotics control in northern Laos and Myanmar

Regarding illicit drugs as a nontraditional security challenge (NTS), the Chinese state deploys a policy package combining coercive crackdown and development assistance to start transnational narcotics control in the Golden Triangle—the notorious illicit opium-producing area between Myanmar, Laos, and Thailand. This paper examines how illicit drugs are framed as a security challenge and how the state works with other forces to implement transnational narcotics control. Specifically, I focus on the Chinese state's efforts to implement transnational narcotics control in the notorious illicit opium-producing areas in northern Laos and Myanmar. My analysis draws first on the Copenhagen School's work on securitization, that is, how certain discourses are deployed to dramatize and present an issue as a security challenge requiring supreme priority. Then I situate drug trafficking in the tension between the territorial logic of national sovereignty and the transnational logic of NTS challenges in order to analyze the Chinese state's policy of narcotics control in the Golden Triangle. Through this analysis, I seek to underscore the longstanding but underdeveloped theoretical recognition of illicit drugs as a global commodity and an NTS challenge. The nexus of territorial sovereignty and extraterritorial subsystems spells out a new direction to understand NTS challenges in general and illicit drugs in particular.     

Harnessing the sending state: Pragmatic improvisations and negotiated memberships of the Chinese diaspora in Laos

As a form of state-led transnationalism, diaspora strategies have garnered much scholarly attention over the past two decades. Yet, the robust intellectual field still sees a dearth of works addressing how the power of the sending state is lived and experienced in the prosaic lives of transnationality. This paper fills the gap by examining the grounded ramifications of a specific approach that the Chinese government deploys to cultivate diaspora. It prioritizes coopting civil association leaders (hui-zhang) from populations abroad for diaspora governance. I unpack how street-level bureaucracies involved in the execution of this sending state strategy has been exploited by the Chinese entrepreneurs in Laos through qualitative fieldwork. My analysis reveals that these situated actors scrambled to set up their own diaspora associations in an attempt to make themselves hui-zhang eligible for the home country government's targeted engagement. In doing so, they accessed opportunities to appropriate and rework resources from the Chinese state for self-interested accumulation of symbolic and social capital. Both forms of capital are crucial to propel their wealth amassment in private career as intermediaries who extract commissions and kickbacks by brokering Chinese investments into Laos. Detailing these dynamics, the paper elucidates how the power of the sending state is disseminated and enacted through mundane and pragmatic improvisations of diasporic actors. Empirics presented also bring forward a nuanced understanding of the de facto convoluted relations between the Chinese government and the overseas Chinese populations.     

Lao State Formation in Phôngsali Villages: Rising Intervention in the Daily Household and Phounoy Reaction

Abstract

Since the mid-nineteenth century, the Phunoy in Phongsaly province have been closely linked with the state in Laos through their role in defence, yet state intervention in their affairs has remained minimal. Villages have traditionally organised their own social and economic lives without interference at household or community levels. Since the first half of the twentieth?century, successive states in Laos have attempted to benefit from Phunoy villages, but they have had limited and transient success. For the last 15?years, however, the state has become a more significant reality for villagers, with a swath of policies implemented locally: resettlement, land reform, mandatory commercial plantations, a shifting cultivation ban, a hunting ban, etc. This synergistic cocktail has contributed to drastic and irreversible changes in village livelihoods and the landscape. Surprisingly, the Phunoy have not reacted publicly to this drastic revolution of their livelihood. I investigate whether their apparent lack of resistance is a counter-example to the more widely-debated concept of “Zomia”. I conclude that the Phunoy resist the state at the family level, and move away from their former homes, leaving behind a deserted landscape.

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