Punks, Monks and Politics

Punks, Monks and Politics takes you on an excellent and timely exploration of contemporary struggles for and with authenticity in Southeast Asia. Despite discussions over many years about authenticity in the region, the debate on how to define authenticity in a global context is still underdeveloped. This volume advances the debate significantly, by revealing how the dynamics and politics of authenticity arises at the seams between performative insider vs. consumptive outsider positions, and between some peoples desire to remain connected with the past and others desire to produce culture that is true to their self-experience in the globalised now. The book also shows how, despite of all this diversity and contestation, authenticity remains central as a social currency and a fundamental value. -- Thomas A. Reuter, Professor and Future Fellow of the Australian Research Council, and past Chair of the World Council of Anthropological Associations (WCAA), author of Custodians of the Sacred Mountains: Culture and Society in the Highlands of Bali This is an important book that illuminates the cultural dynamics of a region whose increasingly pivotal role in world affairs has only begun to be appreciated. Through detailed, engaging case studies, the volumes contributors explore the centrality of ideas regarding authenticity to an array of cultural phenomena, from Buddhism to textiles to heavy metal, in three adjoining Southeast Asian nations. The result is an overdue wake-up call for those who would minimize the strong affinities between indigenous and imported cultural formations across national, religious, and linguistic boundaries revealed by this volumes unique focus. -- Jeremy Wallach, Professor, Department of Popular Culture, Bowling Green State University, USA Punks, Monks and Politics provides a cogent examination of authenticity through the lens (or perhaps the headphones?) of punk and heavy metal music in Southeast Asia. The chapters on these genres of music, alongside other chapters on politics and religion in the region, provide fertile ground for a nuanced and complex interplay between global and local understanding and creations of meaning, identity, and culture. Often these situations are understood and represented as all encompassing sites of either assimilation or resistance. The chapters in Punks, Monks and Politics instead articulate far less axiomatic negotiations taking place to create authenticity. This volume should be on the reading list of anyone interested in globalization, youth culture, identity formation, Southeast Asia, or any combination of thereof. -- Gordon Gray, Assistant Professor of Media and Culture at Berea College, USA; author of Cinema: A Visual Anthropology

Julian CH Lee is Senior Lecturer in Global Studies at RMIT and a member of the Centre for Global Research. He is the author of Second Thoughts: On Malaysia, Globalisation, Society and Self, and the editor of Narratives of Globalization: Reflections on the Global Human Condition. Marco Ferrarese is an independent researcher and freelance writer. He is author of Nazi Goreng, and Banana Punk Rawk Trails: A Euro-Fool's Metal Punk Journeys in Malaysia, Borneo and Indonesia, and has reported from all over Asia for a number of international publications including BBC, CNN and National Geographic Traveller.

Introduction, Julian CH Lee and Marco Ferrarese / Section 1: Malaysia / 1. Heavy Metal Nothingness: Alluring Foreignness and Authenticity Construction in Early 2010s Malaysian Metal, Marco Ferrarese / 2. Religiosity as a Currency of Authenticity: Islam and Group Identity Formation in Malaysia, Frederik Holst / 3. Close Encounters of the Authentic Kind: Exploring Love, Sex and Intimacy among Gay-Identifying Malaysian Men, Joseph N. Goh / 4. Ini Bukan Budaya Kita: This is not our Culture, Julian CH Lee / 5. A Postscript Ini Budaya Kita: This is our Culture, Nikkola Mikocki-Bleeker, Julian CH Lee and Ceridwen Spark / Section 2: Indonesia / 6. Emplacing Punk: Subcultural Boundary Work and Space in Indonesia, Erik Hannerz / 7. Punk Sejati: The Production of Do It Yourself Authenticity in the Indonesian Hardcore Punk Scene, Sean Martin-Iverson / 8. Authenticity and the Textiles of Sikka: An Essay on the Apposition of Values, E Douglas Lewis / 9. Culture as Art: From Practice to Spectacle in Indonesia, Greg Acciaioli / Section 3: Thailand / 10. If you dont do it who fucking will? Authenticity and Do-it-Yourself Practices in Bangkoks Underground Rock Subculture, Pablo Henri Ramirez Didou / 11. Questioning Thainess: Pleng Lukthung in the Twenty-first Century, Viriya Sawangchot / 12. Thailand after the 2014 coup: Restoring Thai-style democracy, Alessio Fratticcioli / 13. Buddhism and Authenticity in the Mountains of Southeast Asia, Sean Matthew Ashley / 14. Reshaping the Quest for Authenticity in Home-Stay Tourism in Northeast Thailand, Rebekah Farrell