Monthly Archives: December 2014
Season’s greetings
Written on December 24, 2014 at 12:05 am, by Ian Holliday
As I said yesterday, I’m heading to New Zealand today for nearly two weeks of tramping – can’t wait. When I return to HKU in early January, I’ll take on a new role as Vice-President and Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Teaching and Learning) – quite a mouthful. It promises to be immensely stimulating, and also quite time-consuming. So…
Solvitur ambulando
Written on December 23, 2014 at 12:05 am, by Ian Holliday
Stepping out of my apartment block a couple of weeks ago I ran into visiting colleague Dai Hounsell, an emeritus professor at the University of Edinburgh. As we chatted about the benefits of a brisk morning stroll, Dai quoted a Latin aphorism I hadn’t come across before – solvitur ambulando. Usually translated as “it is…
Global Yangon
Written on December 22, 2014 at 12:05 am, by Ian Holliday
The exhibition “Global City: Yangon’s Past, Present and Future”, on display at the Yangon Heritage Trust office on Pansodan Street through to March next year, looks fascinating from many perspectives. I’m certainly looking forward to seeing it. However, with so many historical images now uploaded to Facebook on a daily basis (above all by the…
Death railway tourism in Mon State
Written on December 19, 2014 at 12:05 am, by Ian Holliday
It’s good to see from a recent Irrawaddy report that Mon State officials plan to build a museum dedicated to the Burma-Thailand “death railway” constructed by Allied POWs held under Japanese command during World War II. “‘We have historic pictures and we have [made] statues of the soldiers, and we will recreate scenes [from the…
Kachin in the 1930s and 1940s
Written on December 18, 2014 at 12:05 am, by Ian Holliday
Also interesting in Merrill’s Marauders is some of the background analysis. I didn’t know, for instance, quite how small even important Kachin communities were in the latter stages of colonial rule. This is from page 22, and must draw on the final census completed and fully reported by the British: “In 1931 Myitkyina, the largest…
Writing the history of World War II in Burma
Written on December 17, 2014 at 12:05 am, by Ian Holliday
One thing I really like about Merrill’s Marauders is its brief discussion of the problems facing anyone trying to write about World War II in Burma. This is the litany given on page vi: “Few records were available because the Marauders restricted their files in order to maintain mobility while they were operating behind the…
Changing State: Imaging Myanmar in a Time of Transition
Written on December 16, 2014 at 5:05 pm, by Ian Holliday
The Chinese University of Hong Kong
January 14 – February 6, 2015
For four years since early 2011, Myanmar has undertaken a transition away from authoritarian rule towards what its current constitution calls discipline-flourishing democracy. In the process, much has changed inside this country of more than 50 million people and, at the same time, much has remained largely untouched. This exhibition assembles paintings from the reform period – all were completed in the past four years. They touch on many different aspects of this changing state – rural and urban life, majority and minority life, mundane and spiritual life, real and imagined life. Together, the paintings present a series of vivid perspectives on Myanmar in a time of transition.
Merrill’s Marauders
Written on December 16, 2014 at 12:05 am, by Ian Holliday
A few weeks ago I posted consecutively on The Burmese Harp and The Stilwell Road. It thus seems appropriate to follow yesterday’s post on Fires on the Plain with a piece about Merrill’s Marauders – officially the 5307th Composite Unit (Provisional) of the US Army under the command of Brigadier General Frank D Merrill. The…
Fires on the Plain
Written on December 15, 2014 at 12:05 am, by Ian Holliday
With The Burmese Harp still playing in my mind, I decided to watch Kon Ichikawa’s other great World War II movie, Fires on the Plain (Nobi). Based on Shohei Ooka’s 1951 novel of the same name, the film was released in 1959 and runs to around 105 minutes. Though enjoying no more than a fraction…
Welcome to Karen
Written on December 12, 2014 at 12:05 am, by Ian Holliday
At 11:00 tomorrow morning, Tamalar’s one-man show “Welcome to Karen” will open at Yangon’s Nawaday Tharlar Gallery. In the late 2000s, the artist visited the Shan Hills and produced a superb series of landscapes well known to all lovers of contemporary Myanmar art. In 2012, he returned to his Karen homeland, traveling through villages in…