Vol. 34 No. 1 (2021): January – June 2021 | ASIAN REVIEW (tci-thaijo.org)

ปีที่พิมพ์ 2564
Asian Review 2021 vol. 34 No. 1
บรรณาธิการโดย Jirayudh Sinthuphan

IntroductionJirayudh SinthuphanThe three articles in this issue of The Asian Review examine how Asia’s mythical and historical past inform its political and socio-cultural present.Natawan WONGCHALARD focuses on a retelling of the great Asian epic “The Ramayana.” Her article uses Asura: Tale of the Vanquished by Anand Neelakantan as an object of analysis to demon-strate how a form of retelling called oppositional telling can provide alternative voices to the original story. Adopting a framework of subal-tern studies, she demonstrates the way in which Neelakantan demysti-fies both Rama’s virtues and Ravana’s evilness.Similarly, Pulind SAMANT also attempts to establish a method in which scholars of political sciences and international rela-tions can adopt the lens of longstanding Indic and Sinic civilization clashes in Southeast Asia to examine the present-day geopolitical rivalry between India and China. His article focuses on the current socio-political agitation in Thailand in order to demonstrate how the situation can be interpreted along this line and why it has posed great concern to India. Although its content is debatable, we decided to include it in order to lay the foundation for further discussions.Lastly, Alexandre BARTHEL brings us back to the days of the Cold War. His article focuses on the history of armed conflicts between the Royal Thai Armed Force and the Thai Communist Party in the Northeastern region of Thailand between 1960 to 1965. It 2Introductionprovides a rare account of the source of the conflict, how it unfolded and the involvement of Thai exiles in Laos.