I I A S N E W S L E T T E R # 4 7 S p r i n g 0 0 8
Contents #47
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s I write, the world is coming to terms with the devastation wreaked by a tropical
cyclone in Southeast Asia. There are fears of 100,000 dead and more than a million
homeless in Burma. It is too soon to know the full extent of the destruction but there is no
doubt that a massive humanitarian catastrophe has occurred. When disaster strikes the
international community rallies and aid pours in to provide food, clothing and shelter. Let
us hope that one effect of this catastrophe will be that awareness about the situation in
Burma becomes stronger and that international involvement in the country will grow.
Culture is a basic need and we should attend to this in times of crisis, too. This edition of
the Newsletter features an article on Cultural Emergency Response - a special programme
of the Prince Claus Fund for culture and development. This modest but important activity
is helping to restore sites of cultural heritage which are destroyed by war or other cata-
strophies. As the authors put it:
“Culture defines and reflects who people are. It is both creative expression and social
interaction. Although over time, the remnants of daily cultural activities may disappear,
the art and architecture that form a people’s cultural heritage live on and become the pil-
lars of their identity. They form the sources of hope and pride and the foundation on which
people can reconstruct their lives.” I fully subscribe to this statement and I am glad that
we can offer the authors this platform to expose their project of cultural ‘first aid’.
The theme of this issue is New Religious Movements. Many of these movements originate
in Asian countries and have found their way into Asian Diasporas and become established
in new countries. In fact, the world has witnessed a boom of New Religious Movements in
the past 50 years. In countries with basic democratic liberties that led to the formation of a
‘religious market’, New Religious Movements compete not only with their national coun-
terparts but also with a growing number of foreign groups from every religious stream.
This theme covers several aspects of this phenomenon, such as the economy, organisa-
tion and leadership of such movements. IIAS is presently exploring possibilities of setting
up an international research programme in this field and welcomes reactions.
Max Sparreboom
director
IIAS values dynamism and versatility in its research programmes. Post-doctoral research fellows are tem-
porarily employed by or affiliated to IIAS, either within a collaborative research programme or individually.
In its aim to disseminate broad, in-depth knowledge of Asia, the institute organizes seminars, workshops
and conferences, and publishes the IIAS Newsletter with a circulation of 26,000.
IIAS runs a database for Asian Studies with information on researchers and research-related institutes
worldwide. As an international mediator and a clearing-house for knowledge and information, IIAS is
active in creating international networks and launching international cooperative projects and research
programmes. In this way, the institute functions as a window on Europe for non-European scholars and
contributes to the cultural rapprochement between Asia and Europe.
IIAS also administers the secretariat of the European Alliance for Asian Studies (Asia Alliance: www.
asia-alliance.org) and the Secretariat General of the International Convention of Asia Scholars (ICAS:
www.icassecretariat.org). Updates on the activities of the Asia Alliance and ICAS are published in
this newsletter.
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The International Institute for Asian Studies is a postdoc-
toral research centre based in Leiden and Amsterdam,
the Netherlands. Our main objective is to encourage the
interdisciplinary and comparative study of Asia and to
promote national and international cooperation in the
field. The institute focuses on the humanities and social
sciences and their interaction with other sciences.
www.iias.nl
New Religious Movements
1, 4 & 5 The Brahma Kumaris World Spiritual University / Tamasin Ramsay and
Wendy Smith
3
Asian new religious movements as global organisations / Wendy Smith
5-6
Blurring the boundaries between corporation and religion / Louella Mat-
sunaga
6-7
Japanese NRMs as ‘multinational enterprises and ‘epidemics’ / Hirochika
Nakamaki
8-9
A Japanese new religion in the age of globalisation / Ronan Alves Pereira
10-11 Maintaining ‘Japaneseness’: the strategy of the Church of World Messian-
ity in Brazil / Hideaki Matsuoka
12-13 A global NRM based on miracles: Sukyo Mahikari / Wendy Smith
Research
14-15 From science fictional Japan to Japanese science fiction / Chris Goto-
Jones
16
Democracy by degrees: China’s roadmap for change? / Yongjun Zhao
17
Colonial courts and custom: comparative reflections on customary law
and colonial modernity in Korea / Marie Seong-Hak Kim
18-19 Double migrants, diversity and diasporas: a snapshot of the Hindustani
and non-resident Indian community in the Netherlands / Igor Kotin
19
An ‘aesthetic education’: the role of sentiments in the transition from tra-
ditional Confucianism to modern aesthetics / Mei-Yen Lee
In Focus: Cultural Heritage
20-21 ‘Culture as a basic need’: The Prince Claus Fund’s Special Program:
Cultural Emergency Response / Ginger da Silva and Iwana Chronis
22
The wisdom of ‘tied logs’: traditional boats of India’s Orissa coast during
the colonial era / Ganeswar Nayak
Research
23
Stable but unpopular: political parties after Suharto / Marcus Mietzner
24-25 Raja Lorenzo II: a Catholic kingdom in the Dutch East Indies / R.H.
Barnes
26-27 Betel-chewing in mainland Southeast Asia / Nguyen Xuan Hien and P.A.
Reichart
Portrait
28-29 Individuality, literature and censorship: Gao xingjiang and China / Bob van
der Linden
Book Reviews
30
New For Review
31
Bookmarked / New Asia Books update
32
Rebel with a cause: debunking the mythical mystical Tibet / Mara Matta
33
Lifting up women without lifting the veil / Karuna Sharma
34
Three’s a crowd? Declining US hegemony in the Asia-Pacfic / Thomas S.
Wilkins
35
The search for security in East Asia / Frans Paul van der Putten
36
Elections as popular culture / Meredith Weiss
37
A complex conflict / Nicholas Tarling
38-41 Network Asia
42
IIAS Research
44-45 Announcements
46
IIAS Fellows
47
International Conference Agenda