Mackerras, Colin, Eastern Asia, An Introductory History, Longman Cheshire, Melbourne 1992. 640 pp. Tables, figures, maps, index.

This work addresses an important need within contemporary Asian studies in Australia. It is designed to act as the core reading for a survey course in Asian studies, spanning the period from the 16th to the 20th centuries, and covering the geographical area of East and Southeast Asia. With the recent focus on Asian studies in Australian education and support of the Australian Government for the expansion of Asian studies at the secondary and tertiary levels, this work is bound to reach a significant audience. The fact that it is not designed to be an original work as such in no way detracts from its overall value, considering its primary goal as a pedagogical tool. The editor has assembled an impressive list of scholars of Asian studies from the various universities around Australia; the academic resources employed testify to the quality and depth of Asian studies in Australia.

The work is divided along orthodox lines, with the various parts focusing on geography of the region, its traditions, the period of colonialism and the local response, and the post-independent 20th century, with the last section focusing on Australia's connections with the region. A useful collection of visual aids is provided, assisting the reader by translating the condensed prose into tables, figures and maps. Each chapter concludes with a guide to further reading, reminding us that the work is intended primarily for undergraduate studies.

While many works of Asian studies designed for undergraduate use focus on a country by country analysis, this work has been designed wisely to look at connecting themes, crossing national boundaries. Thus we find that nationalism is examined as a phenomenon across the region, before looking at its manifestation in various countries. Likewise commercialism and capitalism are examined from a regional perspective, prior to looking at the individual case in several countries.

The treatment of religion in Asia is representative of this book's analysis of the various themes. Two chapters of the book, Chapters 4 and 35, are dedicated to religion in Asia, and are supplemented by various treatments elsewhere in this work which are embedded within other thematic focuses. Chapter 4 provides a very useful overview of the background to Asian religious traditions. This Chapter is based upon a comparison of universalistic versus community religions within the Asian context. Not only does the work describe these religious sub-groups in isolation, but it also demonstrates how some religious traditions, such as Confucianism and Shintoism, represent a synthesis of universalistic and community religious traditions.

The reader needs to remind oneself of the nature of the audience in order to avoid a sense of frustration at times. The work frequently touches upon issues of great interest, such as the comparison of Theravada and Mahayana Buddhism, without going into any depth in an analysis of these two sub-groups of the Buddhist tradition. Indeed, one of the prices which must be paid by introductory text books of this type is related to the detail of analysis. This work is necessarily reductionist in its treatment of the respective faiths. But in recognition of this fact, the authors provide important guides to further reading for students who wish to go into greater depth on any particular subject. Another example of reductionism which verges on misrepresentation, though by no means intentional, is found in the summary treatment of the concept of the Messiah or Christ within both Jewish and Christian traditions (p 63). Moreover, the suggestion that Catholicism and Protestantism are different "Christian religions" begs many questions which a work of this nature is unable to address.

To supplement the very valuable treatment of the background to Asian religious traditions in the earlier chapter, the editors turn their attention to the current situation of religion in contemporary Asia in Chapter 35. This Chapter surveys the present distribution of religions in Asia and their strength vis-à-vis increasing secularism as a result of influences from the West. It devotes attention to the various responses to religion by political authorities in various Asian countries, dealing with such diverse responses as the active discouragement of religious affiliation by the Government of the People's Republic of China, compared with the official sanctioning of Islam as a state religion by the Government of Malaysia. Another important point highlighted by this Chapter is that in many cases religion acts to support ethnic cohesiveness, as seen among Muslims in Malaysia, Southern Thailand, and the Southern Philippines. Though this Chapter is comparatively short in length, it nevertheless succeeds in providing readers with a very useful encapsulation of the contemporary religious scene in Asia as a whole.

This work addresses what has for long been a failing in Asian studies courses. That is that in the past students have far too long emerged from undergraduate studies having specialised in a particular feature of, say, Indonesia, without being the least aware of the manifestation of that same feature among neighbouring countries. Very often, trends and movements have been regional rather than national, but the country focus of early studies of Asian history and society in Australian universities has often neglected this fact. Thus a student emerging from a survey course which focuses upon this particular work will indeed have examined Asian studies, rather than studies pertaining to one particular country of Asia.

The corollary to this of course is the danger, of which Australians are often guilty, of seeing Asia as a monolithic bloc when it is far from being so. Any author or group of authors attempting to write a work focusing on Asia as a whole run the risk of being guilty of the popular Australian misconception of lumping the inhabitants of the region from Timor in the South to Hokkaido in the North into one large group. This current book does not fall into this trap; on the contrary, it succeeds in highlighting common themes across different Asian ethnic groups, while still identifying the important factors which differentiate one group from another. Thus one chapter considers class, status and gender as a whole throughout the region, then focuses on individual cases in Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam, China and Japan.

A detailed index provides the final useful aid to the student in finding a path through this substantial volume. The quality of this work provides ample testimony to the rigorous training undergraduate students of Asian Studies are receiving in Australian universities, as well as to the calibre of the staff giving these courses.

Peter Riddell

Canberra, 1992