In April 2021, three months into Myanmar’s most recent and increasingly more violent coup d’état, local residents managed to obstruct the junta by refusing to cooperate with military appointed officials. The junta had attempted to replace all local level administrators with those loyal to the military. But in one town in Shan State, the junta-appointed admin ... Show More
Jul 3
Zev Handel, "Chinese Characters Across Asia: How the Chinese Script Came to Write Japanese, Korean, and Vietnamese" (U Washington Press, 2025)
For centuries, scribes across East Asia used Chinese characters to write things down–even in languages based on very different foundations than Chinese. In southern China, Japan, Korea and Vietnam, people used Chinese to read and write–and never thought it was odd. It was, after ... Show More
46m 54s
Jul 2
Heather Sutherland, "Seaways and Gatekeepers: Trade and State in the Eastern Archipelagos of Southeast Asia, C.1600-c.1906" (NUS Press, 2021)
The eastern archipelagos stretch from Mindanao and Sulu in the north to Bali in the southwest and New Guinea in the southeast. Many of their inhabitants are regarded as “people without history”, while colonial borders cut across shared underlying patterns. Yet many of these socie ... Show More
55m 47s
Feb 2021
Waking up to military rule in Myanmar
In the early hours of Monday morning, Myanmar’s military detained de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi and several other members of the National League of Democracy party, taking control of the country’s government. This means Myanmar is under military rule again, just as it was from ... Show More
15m 50s
Nov 2023
What Threat Does the Rebel Offensive in Myanmar Pose to the Junta?
In this episode of Hold Your Fire!, Richard is joined by Crisis Group’s Myanmar expert Richard Horsey to talk about the offensive launched by the Three Brotherhood Alliance, comprising three ethnic armed groups, that has made rapid advances against Myanmar’s military in northern ... Show More
40m 47s
Sep 2017
Ethnic Cleansing in Myanmar
Nearly 400,000 ethnic Rohingya have fled Myanmar across the border to Bangladesh. By the time you listen to this, that number will almost surely be much higher. Since late August, security forces from the government of Myanmar (also called Burma) have attacked villages and towns ... Show More
31m 27s