Wherever I am, the world comes after me.
It offers me its busyness. It does not believe that I do not want it.
Now I understand why the old poets of China went so far
and high into the mountains, then crept into the pale mist.
"The Old Poets of China" by Mary Oliver

Finding Intimacy in Asian History: Notes on Pain and Pleasure | A Special Lecture

Details

A special lecture, "Finding Intimacy in Asian History: Notes on Pain and Pleasure," by Dr. Raquel A.G. Reyes, is one of the highlights of the virtual launch of the Dr. Peter Boomgaard Southeast Asian Collection on 25 November 2020, 5 pm. The event is free and open to the public, but participation requires an authenticated Zoom account.
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ABSTRACT

Peter Boomgaard's path-breaking book, Children of the Colonial State: population growth and economic development in Java, 1795-1880, published in 1989, radically changed the way historians of Indonesia think about Java's social and economic development in the 19th century. In just one of many exceptionally well-argued chapters, Boomgaard makes the persuasive case for the inclusion of marriage customs, family life, and sexual behavior in economic analysis. Ranging from 9th century temple reliefs and sculpture, to indigenous literatures and foreign travel accounts, this lecture highlights practices of sex, birth, contraception, courtship, and the characteristics and dissolution of marriage, across cultures, time, and space, to discuss the central importance of intimacy and eroticism in Asian historiography.

ABOUT THE SPEAKER 

Dr Rachel A.G. Reyes is an academic historian and Philippine current affairs commentator. She obtained her PhD in Southeast Asian History from the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London and was a British Academy postdoctoral fellow. She is the author of Love, Passion and Patriotism: Sexuality and the Philippine propaganda movement in Europe, 1882-1892, editor of Art, Trade and Cultural Mediation in Asia, 1500-1950, co-editor of Sexual Diversity in Asia, c. 600 BCE to 1950, and numerous journal articles on gender and sexuality, history of science, medicine and technology, and early modern global trade and local cultures in Southeast Asia. Her latest work, “Sex in Manila in the late 19th and early 20th centuries,” will appear next year in The Cambridge World History of Sexualities.

THE VIRTUAL LAUNCH: MESSAGES/LECTURES

  •  Peter Boomgaard's Contribution to Southeast Asian Studies
                       Dr. David Henley, Leiden University, Netherlands
  •  Inspirational Message
                       Dr. Michael Lim Tan, Professor Emeritus, UP Diliman
  • Unlocking the Boomgaard Collection
                     Dr. Ariel  Lopez, UP Asian Center
In this talk, Dr. Lopez will reflect on his personal experiences studying Indonesia using Dutch archives, and share how Philippine-based scholars can make use of the Boomgaard Collection.

ABOUT THE COLLECTION

The “Dr. Peter Boomgaard Southeast Asia Collection” holds approximately 1500-2000 books, monographs and edited volumes, including data materials from Indonesia's National Archive in Jakarta.
Largely written in English and Dutch, the materials in the collection focus on disparate subjects ranging from economic, social, cultural, environmental, agricultural (forests, non-timber products, staple crops including rice and sugar), and scientific histories of Asia (mainland and southeast), particularly Indonesia. It also includes miscellaneous works on European history and politics.
The collection also includes issues of reputable journals, the titles of which include Environmental History, Journal of Economic and Social History of the Orient, Environment, and History. The archive data sources culled from Indonesia's National Archive are organized by geographic region. These sources, covering the period from 1600 to 1950, are largely statistical, compiled from colonial government censuses relating to births, marriages, and deaths.

A handwritten card reference catalog by Dr. Boomgaard is also a notable inclusion in the collection, which will be valuable for researchers working on topics concerning demographic, agricultural, and labor history of the Dutch East Indies. The collection was donated by his widow, Dr. Raquel A.G. Reyes, a historian and newspaper columnist.

ABOUT DR. PETER BOOMGAARD

Dr. Boomgaard (1946 – 2017) was Professor of Economic and Environmental History of Southeast Asia, University of Amsterdam. He was also former Director and Senior Researcher at the Royal Netherlands Institute of Southeast Asian and Caribbean Studies/Koninklijk Instituut voor Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde (KITLV) in Leiden. He specialized in Indonesia, with a particular focus on Java, authoring many books, edited volumes, and journal articles on demographic, social, and environmental history.

VIEW FULL PROGRAM

HOW TO ACCESS THE COLLECTION

The collection is open to faculty, students, and researchers, subject to current borrowing regulations in light of the community quarantine.
Please email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. for inquiries and procedures to access the collection. You may also get in touch with the Library Staff through the Asian Center Library Facebook Page. 

WEBINAR GUIDELINES

     Registration
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    • If your registration is successful, you will receive a confirmation email containing the link to join the webinar. Please do not share that link. Email reminders will be sent a day and an hour before the start of the webinar.
    • Attendance is first-come, first-served. The webinar can only accommodate 500. A live stream will be generated only if attendance exceeds 500. In this case, a link to the livestream will be posted on this page.
     Webinar Proper
    • If you have problems logging in, please try signing in first to your Zoom account before clicking the invitation/"join link."
    • Questions may be typed via the Q&A panel. You may choose to remain anonymous. The moderator and/or the main speaker will choose from the questions and answer them during the Open Forum. Please note that time constraints may not allow us to answer all queries.
    • The host(s) reserves the right to remove participants who send rude, inappropriate questions or messages.

ASIAN CENTER @ 65

This  activity is part of the Asian Center’s 65th anniversary celebration, with the theme “Asian Center @ 65: Zealously Cultivating Ideas, Ceaselessly Inspiring Minds Across Asia.” 

 The UP Asian Center offers M.A. degrees in Asian Studies with four fields of specialization: Northeast Asia, Southeast Asia, South Asia, and West Asia. The Center also has an M.A. program in Philippine Studies that allows students to major in Philippine society and culture, Philippine foreign relations, or Philippine development studies. The Center offers a Ph.D.  program in Philippine Studies in conjunction with the College of Arts and Letters and the College of Social Sciences and Philosophy. For an overview of these graduate programs, click here. The Asian Center also publishes Asian Studies: Journal of Critical Perspectives on Asia, the latest issue of which can be downloaded at the journal's website. For other news and upcoming events at the Asian Center, click here.