Visions of Southeast Asia

Original Title in English
by Author Cheong Soo Pieng

 

About the Author
Cheong Soo Pieng was a pioneer artist who created visually fresh pictures of Southeast Asia’s landscapes and people. By marrying the artistic traditions of the East and the West, Soo Pieng broke new ground in the way the tropics were portrayed.
Common Southeast Asian subjects — a fisherman’s kelong, two sarong-clad women on the way to the market, a group of people busy drying fish, the graceful figure of a Balinese dancer — take on new stylised forms through Soo Pieng’s deft use of pictorial devices and techniques from different cultures and traditions such as Chinese ink painting, Western oil painting, Cubism, geometric abstraction and wayang kulit.
About the book
This book is the first of its kind on Soo Pieng. The 94 colour plates present the reader with the breadth and complexity of this Nanyang artist’s extensive oeuvre. The chapters include a wealth of personal photographs as well as the latest research on the artist. Pictures of recently unearthed drawings, sketches, watercolours and woodcut prints shed further light on Soo Pieng’s personal philosophy and artistic ambitions.

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YourVietBooks is a collection of books on Vietnam for Readers who are interested in Vietnam's History, Culture, Language, Economy, or Business. Most titles are in English, but some are only available in French or Vietnamese. We can provide interested parties an accurate translation of some parts of the books for your research purposes. Translations are done by YourVietnamExpert's qualified and experienced translators. contact@yourvietnamexpert.com

ASEAN Plus Three (China, Japan, Korea) - Conference in Seoul 2004

Original Title in English: ASEAN Plus Three (China, Japan, Korea) - Towards an Economic Union in East Asia?
Edited by Karl Peter Schönfisch and Bernhard Seliger
Publisher: Hanns-Seidel Foundation (HSF) Seoul-Singapore, ISBN:89-954964
My ref: ATA-101

Proposed Title in Vietnamese:  
ASEAN cộng 3 (Trung Quốc, Nhật Bản và Hàn Quốc) - Hội nghị Seoul năm 2004

Backcover: Economic integration has come to the forefront of economic policy making in East Asia, finally. After lagging behind in forming a comprehensive regional integration area for various historical, political, cultural and economic reasons, today the discussion ranges from the introduction of bilateral Free Trade Agreements (FTA) through currency and financial market cooperation to a full fledged economic community. Heterogeneity of East Asian States and divergences in economic size and economic development are not longer seen purely as obstacles to integration, but also as potential complementarities. In this book, which collects the contributions of two international conferences hold in Seoul in December 2003, authors from the region as well as from Germany explore the future of economic integration in East Asia in a comparative regional perspective.

Contents
1. Introduction - Economic Integration in East Asia and Europe - Bernhard Seliger;
2. The East Asia Economic Community : Prospects and Implications - Pengiran Mashor Pengiran Admad;

Part One: East Asian Integration in the Light of the European Experience - The Valuable Lessons
3.Economic Integration in East Asia and Europe - A Comparison - Werner Pascha;
4. Integration through Competition: The European Experience - Gerhard Prosi;
5. The European Union and East Asian Integration - Lessons from Dealing with the Costs of Success - Jinwoo Choi;
6. Security Cooperation: European Experience and the Asian Way - Sangtu Ko;
7. The Possibility of and Prospects for a China-Japan-South Korea FTA: The Lessons from European Integration - Johgwon Lee;

Part Two: Southeast Asia and the Process of East Asian Economic Integration
8. ASEAN+3 and ASEAN Economic Integration - Jose L. Tongzon;
9. East Asian Economic Integration - A Perspective from Thailand - Nattapong Thongpakde;
10. The East Asian Free Trade Agreement - As ASEAN Perspective - Moh Haflah Piei;
11. East Asian Economic Integration and Implications for the Newer ASEAN Member Countries - Pham Quoc Tru;

Part Three: Towards an East Asian Economic Community
12. East Asian Economic Community and the Scope of East Asian Cooperation - Jae-Seung Lee;
13. Regional Integration in East Asia - Young-Jong Choi;
14. The Theoretical Foundations of ASEAN +3 : Prospects and Limitations  Seokwoo Kim.

Contributors
The Editors

• Karl-Peter Schönfisch is currently director of the regional representative office of Hans Seidel Foundation in Singapore and director of the regional leadership and management training programme. Before, he worked as director in the liaison office Bonn (Germany) and Brussels (Belgium) of Hanns Seidel Foundation and had been Head of the Southeast Asian and South Pacific Desks at HSS in Munich. He holds a degree in Economics, Geography and Technical Cooperation from Technical University RWTH Aachen (Germany). 
• Bernhard J. Seliger is currently resident representative of HSF in Seoul. From 1998 to 2002, he was Assistant Professor at the Graduate School of International Area Studies of Hankuk University of Foreign Studies and since 1999 Research Fellow at the Institute for Research Into Culture and Economic Systems, Univ. of Witten /Herdecke (Germany). From 1995 to 1998, Dr. Seliger worked as Assistant Researcher at the Institute for Economic Policy, Christian-Albrechts-University at Kiel (Germany), where he received a doctorate (Dr. Sc. Pol) in 1998. Dr. Seliger also holds a Master Degree from Université de Paris I (Panthéon-Sorbonne, France). Among the research interests of Dr. Seliger are Institutional Economics, Economics of Transformation and Integration and the Economic Development of Korea in Northeast Asia.

The Authors

• Pengiran Mashor Pengiran Ahmad is Deputy Secretary General of ASEAN since August 2003. He is a former ambassador of Brunei Darussalam to Vietnam, Belgium, the Netherlands, and the European Communities. He holds a Degree in Defence and Strategic Studies from the Royal College in Defence Studies in London and an MA Degree in International Relations and Diplomacy of Tufts University, Boston.
• Werner Pascha is Professor of Economics and East Asian Economics at the University of Duisburg /Essen. From 1996 to 1998, he was Director at the Institute of East Asian Science in Duisburg University. Since 1999, he is Vice-Chairman of the German Research Institute for the Economic Development of the Pacific Region. He holds a Ph.D. in Economics from Freiburg University. Among his numerous research grants are an AKS Fellowship at the Academy for Korean Studies in Seoul and a Japan Foundation Fellowship at Kyoto University in Japan. His numerous publications focus on the East Asian region, especially Northeast Asia.
• Gerhard Prosi is Professor Emeritus of Kiel University, where he had been Director of the Institute for Economic Policy from 1973 to 2001. Currently he is Vice-Chairman of Herrmann Ehlers Foundation. Before, he had been teaching in Princeton University, Southern Methodist University in Dallas and the University of Dallas, Irving. He holds a Ph.D Degree in Economics from Marburg University in Germany. Among his research interests are Competition Policy and Theory, Environmental and Social Policy and Comparative Economic Systems, including European Integration.
• Jinwoo Choi is Professor in the Department of Political Science and Diplomacy in Hanyang University of Seoul, as well as Assistant Dean of the College of Social Sciences of Hanyang University. Currently, he is Director General of the Korean Society for Contemporary European Studies. Professor Choi holds a Ph.D Degree in Political Science from University of Washington. He also served in numerous academic associations, among them as Research Director in the Korean Association of International Studies and as Director-General in the Society for European Political Studies.
• Sangtu Ko is currently Professor of Area Studies at Yonseil University, Seoul. He got his Ph.D in Political Science from Free University of Berlin, was General Secretary of the Korean-German Association for Social Science. His recent publications include: Change of US-Russia Relations after the September 11 Terrorist Attacks, published in the Global Economic Review, vol. 31, no. 2, 2002; The Putin Administration's Policy about North Korea, published in the International Journal of Korean Unification Studies, vol. 11, 2002.  
• Lee Jongwon is Professor in International Economics at Suwon University. He holds a Ph.D Degree in Economics from the University of Roma. He serves currently as Chairman of the Board of the Korean Society of Contemporary European Studies, where he formerly had been President, and Editorial Director of the Korean International Trade Research Association. He wrote various books and papers regarding International Trade issues and European Integration issues.
• Jose L. Tongzon is Associate Professor at the Department of Economics, National University of Singapore. He specialises in Trade and Development, focusing on the Economics of Southeast Asia. He has taught Trade and Development-related courses at NUS and has written a number of articles in internationally referred journals and books in the area of Trade and Development, including Port and Maritime issues, with special focus on Southeast Asia. Before joining NUS, Dr. Jose Tongzon was Chief Economist of the Port of Melbourne Authority, Australia, and also worked as an Academic and in the Civil Service for the Australian and Philippine Government for several years working in the area of Trade Policy and Regional Cooperation. Dr. Tongzon is an active member of the Chartered Institute of Transport (CIT), the International Association of Maritime Economists (IAME), and other associations of professional economists. He has also been a Consultant to a number of governments, private and international organisations.
• Nattapong Thongpakde is currently Dean of the School of Development Economics at the National Institute of Development Administration, Thailand. Mr Thongpakde is a Senior Consultant in the International Economic Relations Program of the Thailand Development Research Institute. He holds a Degree in Economics from Boston University. His recent publications focused on Trade issues, Thailand's Economic Development and Regional and Bilateral Cooperation in East Asia.
• Mohd Haflah Piei is currently Deputy Director at the Malaysian Institute of Economics, one of the premier independent think-tanks based in Kuala Lumpur. Prior to joining MIE and since 1975, Dr. Mohr Haflah was Associate Professor and Deputy Dean of the Faculty of Economics at the National University of Malaysia in Kuala Lumpur. Dr Mohd Haflah graduated with a Ph.D Degree in Economics in 1983 from the University of Lancaster, UK. He has worked in and contributed extensively to the field of International Trade, particularly in issues pertaining to International Economic Integration. He has served as Consultant to many international organisations, including World Bank, Asian Development Bank (Manila), Islamic Development Bank (Jeddah), UNDP (Kuala Lumpur), ISEAS (Singapore), East-West Centre (Honolulu), Japan Institute of International Affairs (Tokyo), Asian Development Bank Institute (ADBI, Tokyo), IDE (Tokyo), Sasakawa Peace Foundation (Tokyo), ASEAN Secretariat, Asian-Europe Foundation (ASEF, Singapore). Dr. Mohd Haflah was a member appointed by the Government of Malaysia to represent the country on the High Level Task Force on ASEAN-AFTA-CER Free Trade Area of the ASEAN Secretariat, Jakarta. He has published several books and numerous articles in his field of specialisation.
• Pham Quoc Tru is currently Deputy Director General of the Department for Multilateral Economic Cooperation in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Vietnam. Dr Tru holds a Ph.D and MA Degree in Political Science from Laval University, Canada. He is actively involved in the process of East Asian Integration through his participation in multilateral negotiations. His numerous recent publications and studies focus on Vietnam's role in the World Economy, Regional Integration and Trade issues.
• Jae-Seung Lee is Assistant Professor at the Institute of Foreign Affairs and National Security, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Korea. Professor Lee has taught at Yale University, Seoul National University, and many other institutes in Korea. Professor Lee also participated in drafting the EAVG Report and published numbers of books and articles on East Asian Cooperation. His area of expertise also includes European Integration and International Political Economy. Professor Lee holds a B.A. in Political Science from Seoul National University, an M.A. Degree and a Ph. D Degree in Political Science from Yale University.
• Young-jong Choi is Professor in the Department of International Studies at the Catholic University of Seoul. Dr Choi hold a Ph.D Degree from the University of Washington in Seattle.
• Seokwoo Kim is Assistant Professor in the Department of International Relations at the University of Seoul. Dr. Kim holds a Ph.D Degree in Political Science from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

For Vietnamese translation of this text, click here
by Translator Bảo Hân

Books on ASEAN: Southeast Asia In Search of An ASEAN Community

Original Title in English
by Author Rodolfo C. Severino
Publisher: ISEAS Publishing, 2006, ISBN 9789812303882
My ref: ATA-113


Reviews:
ASEAN is by far the most successful and durable regional association in the developing world. This volume, by a distinguished Philippine diplomat, is a must-read for anybody interested in the Association, its organisation, and its internal and external relations. Rod Severino served as ASEAN Secretary-General from 1998 to 2002, during a challenging period both for the Association and the individual member countries. He knows practically everybody in the field, and in this volume he reflects constructively and deeply on ASEAN, its achievements to date, and its future challenges. (by Hal Hill, H.W. Arndt Professor of Southeast Asian Economies, Australian National University)

There is not one in a better position to assess the trials and tribulations of Asia's most renowned international organisation - ASEAN - than Ambassador Rodolfo Severino. The book addresses the major concerns that have faced ASEAN in the past and will surely require its attention in the future. The former SG provides the wise perspective of a practitioner who served as a mediator on such sensitive issues as changes in ASEAN's non-interference norm, observed its primacy in other subsequent Asian international organisations, and grappled with the question of how ASEAN is reinventing itself to face the transnational challenges of the 21st century. This is a must reading for all who follow Asian international politics. (By Sheldon W. Simon, Professor of International Politics, Arizona State University).

... this important book is being published at an important moment in the life of ASEAN. (By Prof. Tommy Koh, Ambassador-at-Large, Singapore).
...Not just another book on ASEAN, this volume reappraises the organization from the inside, through controversial or perplexing issues such as the "ASEAN Way", the accession of the new members, including Myanmar, the principle of "non-interference", regional security, regional economic integration, the haze and SARS, and ASEAN's future. Written by a key player, the former ASEAN Secretary-General, this book will illuminate the inner workings of the key Southeast Asian regional institution. It is a must-read for journalists, policy-makers, political scientists and others who need an insiders' view on how ASEAN has evolved, how it operates and whether it will remain relevant in the evolving Asia Pacific and global order (Review by Global Investor Bookshop)

About the Publisher:

The Institute of Southeast Asian Studies (ISEAS) was established as an autonomous organisation in 1968. It is a regional centre dedicated to the study of socio-political, security and economic trends and developments in Southeast Asia and its wider geostrategic and economic environment.

The Institute's research programmes are the Regional Economic Studies (RES, including ASEAN and APEC), Regional Strategic and Political Studies (RSPS), and Regional Social and Cultural Studies (RSC).

ISEAS Publishing, an established academic press, has issued more than 1000 books and journals. It is the largest scholarly publisher of research about Southeast Asia from within the region. ISEAS Publications works with many other academic and trade publishers and distributors to disseminate important research and analyses from and about Southeast Asia to the rest of the world.

About the Author: Rodolfo C. Severino is Visiting Senior Research Fellow at the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies in Singapore and a frequent speaker at international conferences in Asia and Europe. He was Secretary-General of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) from 1998 to 2002.

The Origins of Vietnam War

Original Title in English: The Origins of Vietnam War
Author: Fredrik Logevall
Vietnamese Title: Nguồn gốc Chiến tranh Việt Nam 
Translator: undisclosed
Publisher: Longman, 2001, ISBN: 9780582319189

About the book: 

The war in Vietnam was a seminal event in post-1945 world affairs. The conflict had a profound and lasting impact on the politics and society of Vietnam and the United States, but also shaped the larger international system in critical ways. This volume provides an authoritative and accessible introduction to the origins of the war. It situates the developments from the French colonial period to the eruption of major war in 1965 in their larger global setting - how Vietnamese affairs were shaped by - and in turn shaped - developments outside Vietnam. 

The Origins of theVietnam War looks at:

• Why France colonized Indochina in the late 19th century, and why that colonial venture ended in defeat at the hands of Ho Chi Minh's Vietminh in 1954.
• Why the 1954 Geneva Agreement failed to bring long-term peace to Indochina.
• Why the United States opted to make a commitment to the creation of an   independent, non-communist South Vietnam.
• Why a major war developed in 1965, with the US and South Vietnam on one side  and the National Liberation Front and North Vietnam, backed by China and the Soviet Union on the other.
• Whether the war could have been avoided.

Containing a Guide to Characters, Chronology and detailed Bibliography, The Origins of the Vietnam War provides an indispensable introduction to one of the most important events in recent history.

About the Author: Fredrik Logevall is Associate Professor of History, University of California, Santa Barbara.

Chiến tranh Đông dương 3 - The Third Indochina War

Original Title in Vietnamese by Author: Hoàng Dung
Chiến tranh Đông dương 3 - Chiến tranh biên giới Hoa Việt, Miên Việt 1979.
Proposed translation of Title in English:The Third Indochina War or The 1979 Sino-Vietnamese War.

About the Author: 
A medical doctor who served the South-Vietnam Army, the author underwent re-education camp in post-war Vietnam. After his imprisonment, he left for the US and has been practicing medecine there since. During the conflicts with China and Cambodia, he was still living in Vietnam and had been studying the evolution of the situation. In his US residence, as a hobby, he later started extensive research on the subject.
Indochina III - is an analysis of the post-1975 Sino-Vietnamese conflict. Parts 1 to P6 present an introduction on Cambodia's history, pre-1975 Vietnam-Cambodia conflict, and reveal the foundation of the Cambodian Communist Party, the post-1975 relationship between Vietnam, Cambodia and China, SRVN's and China's efforts to establish diplomatic relations with US. Parts 7-9 cover the conflicts between Vietnam and China. Parts 10-13 present an overview of Chinese politics and diplomatic relations with Vietnam, its objectives and strategy in preparing the war against Vietnam in 1979. Parts 14 is a valuable description of the main historical characters during this period. Note: Cf. also list on Stanley Karnow's book (Vietnam: A History). The conclusion gives a brief description of how infantry troops of the SRVN's People's Army are organised.

Vietnam, A History

Original title in English by Author: Stanley Karnow
Vietnamese Title: Cuộc chiến không ai thắng (trích)
Vietnamese Translator: Hoang Nguyen
Publishers: Penguin Books, WGBH Education Foundation and Stanley Karnow, 1983, 1991, 1997. ISBN: 978-0-14-026547-7
Audiobook: Blackstone Audio, 2006.
Back Cover:
The Definitive History of the Vietnam War, Revised and Updated
This monumental narrative clarfies, analyzes, and demystifies the tragic ordeal of the Vietnam war. Free of ideological bias, profound in its understanding, and compassionate in its humain portrayals, it is filled with fresh revelations drawn from secret documents and from exclusive interviews with the participants- French - American, Vietnamese, Chinese: diplomats, military commanders, high government officials, journalists, nurses, workers and soldiers.
With over one million copies sold, Vietnam: A History puts events and decisions into such sharp focus that we come to understand - and make peace with - a convulsive epoch of our recent history.

Vietnamese version online<a href="http://vnthuquan.net/truyen/thuyhu.aspx?tid=2qtqv3m3237nqntn0nqn31n343tq83a3q3m3237nvn>Click here</a>

General Information on Vietnam (1)

Geography

Location

Located in Southeastern Asia, ( 21 02 N, 105 51 E, Time zone: UTC+7), bordering the Gulf of Thailand, Gulf of Tonkin, and South China Sea, Vietnam has a varied land topography, with three quarters of the country being mountains and forest, and a long a coastline of  3,444 km. With a total area of  331,210 sq km, of which land: 310,070 sq km, and water: 21,140 sq km, Vietnam size is, by comparison, slightly larger than New Mexico.

Boundaries

Land boundaries cover a total of 4,639 km, with border countries, Cambodia in the west and south west (1,228 km), China in the north (1,281 km), and Laos in the west (2,130 km). Extending 1,650 km from north to south, the country is only 50 km across at its narrowest point.

Rivers

There are two large and fertile delta systems in the country, the Red River (Sông Hồng) Delta in the north and the Mekong River (Sông Cửu Long) Delta in the south.

Climate

Like most of the SEA countries, Vietnam lies in the tropical monsoon zone.  Its elongated body running longitudinally creates 2 distinct climates in the north and south. In the north, there are four distinct seasons: spring from February to April; summer, hot and humid from May to July; cool autumn from August to October, and a cold and humid winter from November to January. In the south, there are two major seasons, a rainy season from May to October and a dry season from November to April.

(Extract from Business Vietnamese by Anh Tho Andres @authorhouse.co.uk, June 2011)

Vietnam, Parcours d'une Nation

Original Title in French by Author: Philippe Papin
Collection Documentation Française, Paris, 1999.
ISBN 2-11-004224-9


Review:
Tirant sa force de ses traditions, de son histoire et de sa situation géographique qui le place au contact de la Chine et de l'Asie du Sud-Est, le Vietnam est passé maître dans l'art de composer, d'assimiler et finalement d'intégrer tout ce qui, à diverses époques, s'est imposé à lui. Maintenant délié du poids des conflits qui ont marqué son histoire récente et livré à lui-même depuis la chute du bloc du l'Est, le Vietnam est confronté à de nouveaux défis: modifier son mode de fonctionnement économique tout en épargnant les structures sociales, assurer la transition vers l'économie de marché tout en conservant intacte la doctrine politique, s'assurer le soutien de nouveaux partenaires diplomatiques tout en ménageant le puissant voisin chinois. L'auteur propose d'aborder ces diverses questions sous l'angle d'une perspective historique seule capable de faire comprendre les ressorts de la singularité vietnamienne.


About the Author:
Ancien élève de l'Ecole normale supérieure de Saint-Cloud et agrégé d'Histoire, est actuellement membre de l'Ecole française d'Extrême-Orient en poste au Vietnam. Auteur d'une thèse sur la ville de Hanoi, ses recherches portent maintenant sur la société rurale au Vietnam des XV et XVI siècles.