Colonialism and Male Domestic Service across the Asia Pacific

Julia Martínez is Associate Professor of History at University of Wollongong, Australia. She is the co-author of The Pearl Frontier: Indonesian Labor and Indigenous Encounters in Australia's Northern Trading Network (2016). Clare Lowrie is Senior Lecturer in history at the University of Wollongong, Australia. She is the author of Masters and Servants: Cultures of the Empire in the Tropics (2016). Frances Steel is Senior Lecturer in History at the University of Wollongong, Australia. She is the author of Oceania under Steam: Sea Transport and the Cultures of Colonialism, c.1870–1914 (2011). Victoria Haskins is Professor of History at the University of Newcastle, Australia, and Director of the Purai Global Indigenous and Diaspora Research Studies Centre. She is the author Living with the Locals: Early Europeans' Experience of Indigenous Life (2016) and Matrons and Maids: Regulating Indian Domestic Service in Tucson, 1914-1934 (2012).

It is a thoroughly satisfying work, pulling together concepts drawn from gender theory, the new imperial history, and the growing interest in the history of the littoral, as seen through the lens of a generally neglected aspect of an often marginalized institution.

• Introduction1. Creating the Houseboy: Early Asian influences on European cultures of domestic service2. Indigenous Houseboys and Asian Ideals in Darwin and Suva3. Intercultural Influences on American Domesticity in the Philippines4. Colonial patriarchy and representations of masculinity in photographs of domestic workers5. Steamship Stewards: Encountering Asia on the high seas6. From India to Fiji: Cultures of service in the grand hotel7. Labour and Political Activism by Chinese and Vietnamese Domestic WorkersConclusionBibliography