Asymmetrical Neighbors

Han has given readers a timely, up-to-date study of state-building in the China-Myanmar-Thailand borderland zone. This text is especially interesting as the author provides a new understanding of this complex borderland in the modern era, a process that illustrates how deeply intertwined China is with its neighbors Myanmar and Thailand. Han's approach is a welcome shift from the traditional area studies method of treating each country separately, facilitated further by his distinction of state- and nation-building as different but interrelated processes most affected by cross-border dynamics, what Han calls the "neighborhood effect". Specialists will appreciate the author's use of sources in multiple languages, while general readers will welcome how this highly accessible account makes sense of a complex geographic, political, and ethnic context. * M. C. Brose, Indiana Universit, CHOICE *
This book is an important contribution to the comparative political scientific study of statemaking in South East Asia, focusing mainly on Myanmar (Burma), Thailand and China, and on the issue of how far each of them have been able to integrate their borderland areas into the body of the state. The book also forms a contribution to a growing literature that intentionally strives to look across the borders between China and South East Asia. * Magnus Fiskesjö, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA, SOUTH EAST ASIA RESEARCH *
This book is essential for understanding borderlands. Han has dived head first into the multiple layers and terrains of Myanmar's borders with China and Thailand. The study succinctly reveals that China and Thailand, as two asymmetrical neighbours, have brought about tremendous implications to the process of state formation and nation building of Myanmar in its borders. * Yow Cheun Hoe, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, Pacific Affairs *
Enze Han has delivered a rich and path-breaking account of the 'neighbourhood effects' of state and nation building in an important geographical and socio-cultural conjuncture between mainland Southeast Asia and China. His multi-lingual andhistorical comparative approach to this borderland highlights that state building, far from being an isolated process, is instead deeply interactive and influenced by power asymmetries and relations among neighbouring states. An essential backgrounder for all who are interested in contemporary ethnic politics and conflict in Myanmar and China's influence in Southeast Asia * Evelyn Goh, Shedden Professor of Strategic Policy Studies, The Australian National University *
This book delivers a brilliant account of the relational dynamics of state building, bringing into dialogue extensive multilingual perspectives on China, Myanmar, and Thailand. Enze Han's timely book navigates deftly across geographical contexts, historical settings, cultural dynamics, and political struggles in the borderlands, showing how concurrent global events shape both domestic policies and international relations. The book will be an important resource to scholars in area studies, borderland studies, ethnic studies, and comparative politics * Elaine Lynn-Ee Ho, National University of Singapore, author of Citizens in Motion: Emigration, Immigration, and Re-Migration Across China's Borders *
Enze Han's book is a must-read for anyone who is interested in the complexities and contradictions of border demarcation wherever the border may be. In this case, the focus is Myanmar's borders with China and Thailand, and Han combines scholarly research with personal notes, which will appeal to specialists as well as a more general audience of educated readers * Bertil Lintner, author of Great Game East: India, China, and the Struggle for Asia's Most Volatile Frontier *