The UBC History Empires and (Post-)Colonialisms in the Asia-Pacific Cluster features local scholars who have recently published monographs to have informal discussions about a chapter or two of their book. We invite all faculty and graduate students with interests in modern Asia/-Pacific (broadly defined) and the themes of empire, colonialism, or postcolonialism/decolonization to join, regardless of discipline or department.
If you are interested in joining the cluster, please contact Quinton Huang (qhuang98@student.ubc.ca) to be added to the mailing list, and please direct other inquiries to Ryan Sun (rchsun29@student.ubc.ca).
The UBC History Empires and (Post-)Colonialisms in the Asia-Pacific Cluster is pleased to invite you to a seminar by Dr. Jane Ferguson (Australian National University) on her book, Silver Screens and Golden Dreams: a Social History of Burmese Cinema.
This seminar will be held on December 9, 11:30-1:00pm in Buchanan Tower 1112. The conversation will begin with brief remarks from Professor Ferguson about the motivation behind the book. Participants will be invited to share their own reflections, thoughts, and connections made with the assigned chapters. Light lunch will be provided. All are welcome; no RSVP required.
Participants are asked to read the introduction and Chapter 3 of Silver Screens and Golden Dreams. The book can be accessed and downloaded via the UBC Library. If you encounter trouble accessing the readings, please email qhuang98@mail.ubc.ca to enquire about PDF files.
Participants are further invited to attend a book talk and film screening with Prof Ferguson on Monday, December 9, from 3 pm to 6 pm, for the screening of the 1973 film Tender Are the Feet, directed by Maung Wunna. For more details and to RSVP, visit https://sppga.ubc.ca/events/event/silver-screens-and-golden-dreams/.
This event is funded by the UBC Department of History and co-sponsored by UBC Centre for Southeast Asia Research.
Silver Screens and Golden Dreams traces the veins of Burmese popular movies across three periods in history: the colonial era, the parliamentary democracy period, and the Ne Win Socialist years. Author Jane M. Ferguson engages cinema as an interrogator of mainstream cultural values, providing political and cultural context to situate the films as artistic endeavors and capitalist products. Exploring how filmmakers eschewed colonial control and later selectively toed the ideological lines of the Burmese Way to Socialism, Silver Screens and Golden Dreams offers a serious yet enjoyable investigation of leisure during difficult times of transition and political upheaval. By skillfully blending historical and anthropological approaches, Ferguson shows how Burmese cinema presents a lively, unique take on the country’s social history.
Jane M. Ferguson is associate professor of anthropology and Southeast Asian history at the Australian National University. Her previous work has included Repossessing Shanland: Myanmar, Thailand, and a Nation-State Deferred (U Wisconsin Press, 2021), which details tells the story of the Shan people in the Sino-Burmese borderlands in their own voices and offers a fresh perspective on identity formation, transformation, and how people understand and experience borderlands today. She is currently working on a new monograph about the history of commercial flight between Southeast Asia, Australia and North America, using archival materials from Thailand and the United States, ethnographic field research, and interviews with employees of Southeast Asian and North American carriers.