The Genteel Sabai: This February (2012), the UHM’s Department of Theatre and Dance presented the rare theatre form of Randai with its production of “The Genteel Sabai,” a folk dance-drama from the Minangkabau ethnic group in West Sumatra, Indonesia. Randai features beautiful traditional music and singing, martial arts, dance, and acting; and its signature pants-slapping percussion!

Randai Data:
Audiences reached:
Kennedy Theatre performances: 3924
School outreach lecture demonstrations:
Kamehameha Middle school: 400
Kaala Elementary, Wahaiwa: 250
Connections Public Charter School Hilo K-12: 350
Paauilo Elementary, Big Island : 300

Friday, April 1st, 12 Noon, Tokioka Room (Moore 319)

Presentation by Intan Paramaditha
Department of Cinema Studies
New York University

One crucial feature of the Indonesian cinema revival after the downfall of the New Order authoritarian regime in 1998 is the entrance of more women into the film scene. Within a relatively more democratic political climate, this coincides with the emergence of new women writers, artists, and activists who challenge the New Order gender constructions and frankly examine how women experience their bodies, desires, and sexuality. Today women have significant roles in film production, exhibition, and distribution as producers, directors, scriptwriters, and film festival organizers. This dynamic situation is a new privilege in the history of Indonesian cinema, as records indicate that there were only four women who directed and produced their films before 1998. Through this presentation, I would like to revisit the New Order film culture and trace how gender discourse was produced by state paternalism and cultural paternalism underpinning the male-dominated film scene. Contrary to the assumption that the New Order film artists were compliant to state power as a result of the severe control on cinema, I will show spaces of resistance in which the (male) artists posed their critique towards the official visions of nationhood and how opposing voices were articulated through gender metaphors. The two faces of paternalism, hence, operated in different ways, yet both have largely ignored women’s perspectives and limited women’s involvement as decision-makers in the New Order film culture.

Ms. Intan Paramaditha is a Ph.D candidate at the Department of Cinema Studies, New York University, currently writing her dissertation on film culture and sexual politics in post-Suharto Indonesia. Her writings on Indonesian cinema appear in Jump Cut, Asian Cinema, Criticine, and Encyclopedia of Women and Islamic Cultures. She also writes fiction and has published two collections of short stories in Indonesia.

Friday, March 4th, 12:00 pm, Tokioka Room (Moore 319)
Presented by Erenst Anip, Masters Student in the Department of Library Information Services (LIS)

In July 2010, Erenst went to Southeast Asia to be the LIS program’s first intern at the National University of Singapore Central Library where he was introduced to the inner workings of a premier university library in Asia. There, he learned about a different library system and organization. In this second talk story session, he will share his experience in ‘finding a missing librarian’ and being a ‘junior operative’, the library’s outreach and social media initiatives, KPIs and PMS, and Singapore’s favorite past time of ‘makan’. Update from the first talk includes internship experience and relevancy with our own library system.

Mr. Erenst Anip is a 2nd year LIS student from Indonesia. As a future academic librarian, he focuses on digital technologies and social media features to enhance the library’s appeal to the users while keeping abreast of (Southeast) Asia area studies. He is also the project manager of Hawaii’s Digital Newspaper Project, part of Library of Congress’ National Digital Newspaper Project (NDNP).

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.

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.

Link to podcast on Hawaii Public Radio

The ears of our entire office were smiling when we initially heard The Like Me’s a month ago. This unique group hails from California, but they have shown their love and devotion to Khmer music by showcasing modern Cambodian music is alive. We applaud their efforts and invite everyone to check out the amazing talent of these four women! We guarantee your ears will fall in love, too…

The Like Me’s “Sva Rom Monkiss” (Monkey Dance Monkey)

The Like Me’s are an R&B/Alternative/Pop band that started in March of 2009. Bonded by simultaneous heartbreaks and empowered by the love of music, members Loren Alonzo, Helena Hong, Monique Coquilla and Laura Mam found solace in making music and performing. Their inspiration was founded on the ideals of music and art as a means to heal and empower all while having fun. Though the ideology hasn’t changed, they have grown with a new keyboardist, Loren Alonzo, and have worked with different bassists to help nurture their current sound. They include Ben Everett (Case In Theory) and Raymond Bernal (Fakepublic).

The Like Me creed still stands as, “Healing through Expression, Interpreting Adversity, and Celebrating Adventure.”

Although The Like Me’s are a Northern California-based band, their audience has expanded nationally and internationally through viral exposure such as YouTube and press coverage. Their fan base is quite diverse; however, they are extremely popular among Southeast Asian youth and Cambodian communities around the world because of their efforts to re-establish a Cambodian music scene. The band performs songs in English, Cambodian and French.

Over the last 30 years, Cambodia has been recovering from a state of post-war devastation following the 1975-1979 genocide that took place during the Vietnam War. Since then, the Cambodian music scene has been limited at best and prone to copying musical compositions from neighboring or influential countries. The Like Me’s have made it one of their goals to reverse this trend and re-spark a lively tradition and appreciation of original music in Cambodia. In addition, the all-female band is attempting to achieve Southeast Asian female representation in the international music scene and hope to inspire other young Southeast Asians. Given many of the similar social problems found in contemporary Southeast Asian communities domestically and internationally, The Like Me’s hope to discourage negative outlets of expression and encourage the next generation to find healing, understanding and empowerment through the expression of art.

“After 3 months of planning, creating, networking, shopping (lots of shopping), story-boarding, daydreaming and then MORE re-planning…its finally here!!! I have finally consolidated all my music–English and Khmer–with my band and will be making music with The Like Mes. This is our rendition of the infamous Pan Rons Sva Rom Monkiss. We hope that this story speaks to ending the silence between the young and old Cambodian generations. In my belief, it is about time that we make that small but necessary effort to understand ourselves by understanding each other. This is dedicated to the incredible Cambodian musicians of the 60s, may their spirit live on in all of us and may they bless us with the ability to express ourselves once again.”

-Laura Mam via youtube.com

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NPR Article | Article Phnom Penh Post | Article from Angry Asian Man Blog

Angkor Wat was a Hindu temple, built to honor God and King in the early 12th century CE in northwestern Cambodia. Through the centuries, the Khmers never abandoned Angkor Wat as their spiritual center. This lecture will review our current knowledge of Angkorian period economy and social organization, and discuss findings from the 2010 field season.

Dr. Miriam Stark joined the University of Hawai’i-Manoa in August 1995 as a Southeast Asian archaeologist. In 1996 she began co-directing the Lower Mekong Archaeological Project (LOMAP) in southern Cambodia, and have continued work in this region over the last 12 years. She edited the journal Asian Perspectives, the leading archaeological journal devoted to the prehistory of Asia and the Pacific region, published by the University of Hawai’i Press, from 2000-2006. Since 2007, with funding from the Henry Luce Foundation Initiative in East and Southeast Asian Archaeology and Early History, Dr. Stark has directed the Luce Asian Archaeology Program.

Although the Philippines started the “third wave” of democratization in Asia, its democracy has been perceived as unstable. The country experienced not a few coup attempts, scandals of the Presidents, and large scale rallies on the street. Even elections, a fundamental democratic solution to the conflicts in the society, have not been able to gain the confidence of the people due to various frauds. In the 2010 elections, Noynoy Aquino, son of the two national “heroes” of democratization, was elected new President. Did the 2010 elections bring the hope for democratic consolidation? Or was the same old game merely repeated? We will try to assess the impact of the 2010 Philippine elections.

TAKESHI KAWANAKA is Senior Research Fellow of the Institute of Developing Economies, Japan. His research interests are in political institutions and political economy of new democracies. He received his Ph.D. in political science from Kobe University, and conducted research at the University of the Philippines, Stanford University, and Ateneo de Manila University as visiting scholar.

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The Tanjung Tanah code of law, dating to the late 14th century, was issued by the Maharaja of Dharmasraya, the former capital of the Malayu kingdom. This manuscript, written in both Sanskrit and Malay in Pallavo-Nusantaric script on bark paper, was a few centuries later reissued by the Sultan of Jambi, but this time on paper and in Arabic-Malay script. The two manuscripts, both in the possession of the same family, not only give us interesting insights into the changes that the Malay language underwent from the 14th to the 18th century, but also teach us the impact of Islamic law on the legal system of a Sumatran Malay polity.

Dr. Uli Kozok (MA, PhD Hamburg 1989,1994) is a Professor in Indonesian language and literature at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. His research interests include the paleography of Island Southeast Asia, Sumatran philology, and the development of authentic teaching materials and computer-assisted language learning applications for the Indonesian language.

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