https://so01.tci-thaijo.org/index.php/arv/issue/view/16603
ปีที่พิมพ์ 2563
Asian Review 2020 vol. 33 No. 1
บรรณาธิการโดย Jirayudh Sinthuphan
IntroductionJirayudh SinthuphanWithout any prearrangement, articles in this issue of Asian Review are addressing alternative ways of thinking whether it is the issue of language-learning, ethno-religious identity, social innovations or post-colonial scholarship.Saranya PATHANASIN invites Thai policy makers to re-consider a suitable educational language policy for the children of immigrants in Thailand. She proposes that children should be allowed to receive an education in their mother tongues in order to improve their educational success and to ensure their basic human rights. It has also been proven in some countries that have already adopted such a policy that, the mother tongue education can assist minority children to be quality members of the country rather than creating a rift within the society. Considering that Thailand is essentially made up of diverse ethnolinguistic groups, such a proposition might also be applicable to children whose mother tongues are not Thai.Similarly, LAN Xiaoxia is looking at the role of the Christian churches in the life and identity of new Chinese immigrants in Chiang Mai. According to her article, the church allows a new group of oversea Chinese to explore a new identity and to establish the sense of a new home. Through Christian congregations, the Chinese immigrants can resolve the tension associated with the modernity and their inner lifer, as well as helping them to establish a new moral profile. In this sense, religious congregations can be established as a form of social innova-tions that Istvan Rado and Shekh Mohamma Altafur Rahman defines in his article as a new way of thinking/doing that serves particular social needs and leads to an empowerment of the community. Building upon seven case studies from Thailand and Taiwan, Rahman identifies two approaches in social innovations. One focuses on the empowerment Asian Review 33, (1), 2020, pp.1-2.Introduction2 of local communities. The other strives for a systematic change. His article provides the readers with necessary frameworks to understand the process, the product and the impact of social innovations in Asian context. In spite of the different approaches, it is important that the design and execution strategies of social innovations are consistent with the type of impact they wish to achieve. The issue concludes with an article by Bedika BHATTACHARJEE who focuses on Postcolonial efforts in the field of Indology, especially by the body of work by K. K. Handiqui. In the view of BHATTACHAR-JEE, such a re-reading of colonial texts in Indology posits a postcolonial stance to the prevailing ideological constructs and paves a new way to understand the history and cultures from within.
