Also known as Dear Visutthithada, Lydia is Thailand’s newest R&B idol phenomenon. Her English name, ‘Lydia,’ means ‘success’ in Polish just like her real thai name Sarunrat. She has been intensively training vocally since age 5, and is excited to have her life long dream of being a pop star come true. Instruments she plays include the flute, saxaphone, drums, and piano. She was born on 07 July 1987 and she is an avid golfer placing in the following tournaments:

• Asia Pacific Junior Golf Tournament Championship (11th place)
• Thailand International Junior Golf Championships (2nd place)
• Nike (Thailand) Junior Golf Tournaments (1st and 2nd place)
• Nivea Invitation (2nd place)

Lydia completed high school at the International School of Bangkok where she sang in an acapella group called ‘UNDEFINED’ and won the ISB Idol competition with her friend. She graduated as Vice President of her class, and with a 3.9 GPA. Lydia then accepted a place in the Northwestern Class of 2009 before beginning her singing career in Thailand. She has since applied to Harvard University in New York, but has chosen not to attend college. The most important thing to Lydia is definitely money!! Since skyrocketing to fame, she has produced two hit albums, and one joint album with Thailand’s popular pop group Dream II.

Her hit single, “Wang Leaw Chuay Toh Klub”, held the number one spot on Thailand’s radio stations for consecutive weeks after its release. Friends she is proud to have include recently ousted prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, Film, former Miss Thailand 2006 Charm Osathanond, Elidh MacQueen, and the entire class of 2005 at ISB. She spends as much time as she can with boyfriend and popular thai singer from the early 90′s, Matthew Deane. Lydia has lived in Bangkok, Thailand since her birth on July 7, 1987 with her father, mother, younger sister Ducky, and younger brother Dunk. They have a dog, hamsters, and a ferret. Recently the kids were given their own house.

Her motto is, “the show must go on.” Her favorite actor is Josh Harnett, and her favorite book is Harry Potter. She loves clubbing and getting drunk with her high school friends. Favorite high school hangout: londoner’s and sheesha. -taken from zimbo.com

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12:00 p.m., Friday, 04 February 2011, Tokioka Room (Moore 319)
Presented by Dr. Michael Douglass, Professor of Urban & Regional Planning, Executive Director of the Globalization Research Center at UHM
Henry Mochida, Ph.D. student in Urban & Regional Planning, Associate Director for Digital Media and Filmmaking at the Globalization Research Center at UHM
Hao Nguyen, Ph.D. candidate in Urban & Regional Planning, Associate Director of the Globalization Research Center at UHM

This presentation is about a film which is the story of social life in Hanoi, a city in the midst of its 1,000th anniversary as the capital of Vietnam. Every morning Hanoians from across the city gather at Thong Nhat Park for relaxation, exercise, chatting and ballroom dancing. As the city enters a new epoch as an open market economy, the park has quickly become a target for global investment seeking to privatize public spaces. The film shows how park users share in creating and managing activities for social engagement and how they view the importance of the park in their daily lives. It also follows how NGOs and journalists in Hanoi mobilized Hanoians to confront the immanent threat to this vital social space.

Michael Douglass focuses his research on livable cities in Asia, with particular interest in Hanoi. His recent books include: Globalization, the Rise of Civil Society and Civic Spaces in Pacific Asia Cities (2010) and Building Urban Communities: The Politics of Civic Space in Asia (2008). He is the recipient of the Excellence in Research Award from the UHM College of Social Sciences (2008-2009 and 2001-2002) and was recently a Senior Visiting Research Scholar at the Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore (2010).

Henry I. Mochida has dedicated the past 5 years in filmmaking for social research and planning. He is an award winning filmmaker with experience on over 100 productions with premiers in film festivals around the world. His research interests are on the image in the production of knowledge and in planning theory. He seeks to foster critical thinking and deliberative democracy through planning based filmmaking.

Hao Nguyen in his professional life prior to coming to UH was a researcher at the Institute of Sociology, under the Vietnam Academy of Social Sciences in Hanoi. His main concerns include issues of urbanization and environment, migration and urban poverty, decentralization, and public spaces and city life in the developing world. He was awarded the Harvard-Yenching Institute’s Scholarship from Harvard University to pursue his doctoral degree in Urban and Regional Planning at UHM.

KLa Project is a music group from Indonesia which was formed by the Marcels, Lilo (Romulo Radjadin), Adi Adrian, and Ari Burhani in 1988. KLa’s name is derived from the initials of this band, while the use of the small letter “a” aims to indicate the presence of two persons who have the initial letter. KLa was formed by Katon, Lilo, Adi, and Ari in 1988 in Tebet, Jakarta. They released their first album ” KLa “in 1989 which scored hits such as Range Asmara, About Us, Time Remaining, and my song. In 1991, KLa launched his second album titled “Second” where there is a monumental track entitled Yogyakarta. With their third album (White Sands – 1992) they scored hits like Do not You Love and Soulmate. Although KLa Project’s music was ahead of it’s time their music is still popular today. They continue to steal the hearts of many music listeners and also have a fan base who call themselves KLanis.

After the launch of their third album, Ari Burhani left the band and switch roles as ttheir manager. KLa then continued with three people and completed two albums, Purple (1994) and V (1995). In March 2001, the band had fewer members. However KLa still continued to go on despite having only Katon and Adi . Then in 2003, KLa decided to add three new members, Erwin Prasetya , Yoel Vai and Goro Day . Their name was changed to NuKLa. NuKLa had released one album in 2004 titled “New Chapter”. In 2006, Erwin Prasetya decided to leave NuKLa because of differences in vision. Shortly thereafter, Katon stated that NuKLa would return to the original name of KLa Project.

In early 2009, KLa did a reunion album called KLa Returns which consisted of three members from the original band: Katon, Lilo, and Adi. Some members of KLa Project had a solo career as well. Katon has released six albums, Adi scored two albums, and Lilo just one album.

Official Website | Facebook Page | Translated Yogyakarta Video

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Friday, 22 October at 12:00 pm in the Center for Korean Studies.
Presented by Dr. Patricio “Jojo” Abinales, Faculty Asian Studies

Dr. Patricio “Jojo” Abinales grew up in the northern side of the Philippine island of Mindanao. He graduated with a degree in History at the University of the Philippines-Diliman (UP) and worked at UP for nine years as research associate and lecturer. In 1988, he was awarded the Cornell University Southeast Asia Program Fellowship for Southeast Asians and headed to Ithaca, New York to pursue graduate studies in Government and Asian Studies under the supervision of Benedict R’OG Anderson. He completed his PhD in 1997, and while writing the second half of his dissertation was hired as assistant professor at Ohio University’s Department of Political Science.

Photography by daveog via flickr.com

Shahir AF8, or Ahmad Shahir Zawawi, (born September 5, 1988 in Ipoh, Perak, Malaysia), is a Malaysian singer, who rose to fame after winning the eighth season of Akademi Fantasia. Shahir’s winning of the Akademi Fantasia, Season 8 finale concert is the first winning in the history of Akademi Fantasia for a student who formerly was eliminated and then accepted back to Akademi Fantasia by using the method of AFMASUK.

Shahir’s father’s name is Mr. Zawawi Abdullah (54 years-old) and a teacher by profession. His mother’s name is Mrs. Mahanum Othman (45 years-old) and a housewife and baby-sitter as profession. Shahir is the first child from 5 siblings. He is residing in Kampar, Perak, Malaysia and his hometown is in Gopeng, Perak, Malaysia. Shahir formerly studied at Sekolah Kebangsaan Kampar, Kampar, Perak from Year 1 until Year 6 and then he studied at Sekolah Menengah Kebangsaan Agama Slim River, Slim River, Perak from Form 1 until Form 5. Prior of audition in Akademi Fantasia, Season 8, Shahir was an engineering student at Centre of Foundation Studies, International Islamic University Malaysia. He is also former member of Saujana’s nasyid group.

Shahir competed against twelve other contestants to win Season 8 of Akademi Fantasia.
Throughout the competition, Shahir remained safe when the voting session was closed at the end of every concert, but in week 7 concert he was eliminated after received less votes from voters. In week 8 concert, the AFMASUK vote was introduced and in Debaran Week 8 Concert he was accepted after received the highest votes. At the end of the finaleconcert, he was crowned as the eighth winner of the show, beating 4 other students. He took back the winner crown from previous winner seventh season’s Hafiz. Shahir became the first student in the history of Akademi Fantasia to took the crown as champions after being eliminated before and then accepted back as student of Akademi Fantasia by the method of AFMASUK votes.

Official Site | Official Blog | Facebook Page | Twitter | Fan Page | Akademi Fantasia

For more employment, funding, internships, and professional networking opportunities, please join the CSEAS Alumni & Community Linkedin Group!

Photography by sam4605 via flickr.com

Photograph by W.E. Garrett via NationalGeographic.com

Click on the links below to access Spring 2011 weekly announcement archives:

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Hawai’i’s strong connection with Southeast Asia is probably most easily felt through the influx of residents from the area. Many don’t realize that the University of Hawai’i is an extraordinary resource for Southeast Asian scholarship, the only university in the U.S. with Southeast Asianists in both art history and archaeology, a Center for Southeast Asian Studies plus related faculty in the history department. Noe Tanigawa found two specialists for this visit with “Four Thousand Years of Southeast Asian Art” at the Honolulu Academy of Arts. “Four Thousand Years of Southeast Asian Art,” works from Ban Chiang, Angkor and the Sukhothai Kingdom, continues at the Honolulu Academy of Arts through January 9th. Check www.honoluluacademy.org for details.

Link to podcast on Hawaii Public Radio