Lauriston Sharp and Lucien M. Hanks. Bang Chan: Social History of a Rural Community in Thailand. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1978. $17.50

• Date: 01 January 1979
• DOI: 10.1177/000271627944100125
• Author: A. Thomas Kirsch
• Published date: 01 January 1979
• Subject Matter: Articles

207

LAURISTON

SHARP

and

LUCIEN

M.

HANKS.

Bang

Chan:

Social

History

of

a

Rural

Community

in

Thailand

.

Ithaca,

NY:

Cornell

University

Press,

1978.

$17.50.

In

1948

Sharp

selected

the

farming

village

of

Bang

Chan,

some

forty

kilo-

meters

from

Bangkok,

as

a

site

for

in-

tensive

study

by

the

nascent

Cornell-

Thailand

Project;

he

was

joined

by

Hanks

in

1952.

Bang

Chan

has

subse-

quently

been

studied

by

numerous

Thai

and

Western

researchers

representing

many

disciplines.

This

book

is

a

distil-

lation

of the

accumulated

experience

of

the

two

authors

and

the

colleagues

who

worked

with

them.

It

is

a

social

history

of

Bang

Chan

based

on

the

memories

of

informants,

contemporary

observations,

and

whatever

local

or na-

tional

history

that

could

be

brought

to

bear.

The

authors

acknowledge

the

limita-

tions

and

pitfalls

of

this

approach,

but

note

that

the

documentary

evidence

favored

by

conventional

historians

is

lacking

or

of

doubtful

utility

for

such

villages.

The

book

is

then

a

perspec-

tive

and

sympathetic

reconstruction

of

Bang

Chan’s

past

and

a

characteriza-

tion

of

its

present

seen

largely

through

the

lives

of

its

people.

The

foundation

of

Bangkok

as

the

Thai

capital

in

the

late

eighteenth

cen-

tury

sets

the

stage.

The

area

then

surrounding

Bangkok

was

a

vast

plain

inhabited

by

roaming

herds

of

elephants

and

containing

a

few

villages

located

on

accessible

streams.

Bang

Chan’s

first

settlers

came

as

pioneers

from

the

Chinese

quarter

of

Bangkok

in

the

1840’s,

though

settlements

of

Lao

and

Muslim

prisoners

of

war

already

existed

nearby.

The

ebb

and

flow

of

people

into

and

out

of

the

village

and

their

waxing

and

waning

fortunes

are

traced

from

this

beginning,

affected

by

natural

disasters

and

by

various

changes

emanating

most

directly

from

Bangkok.

More

than

a

chronology

of

Bang

Chan’s

transformation

from

an

isolated

farming

village

to

its

contemporary

situ-

ation

as

a

&dquo;suburb&dquo;

of

Bangkok,

each

chapter

illustrates

how

Thai

values,

cus-

toms,

and

institutions

merge

in

the

lives

of the

villagers,

influencing

their

choices

and

decisions

and

affecting

their

day

to

day

activities.

Change

is

not

something

that

happens

to

the

people

of

Bang

Chan,

they

are

a

part

of

it.

This

is

a

book

about

people,

not

statistics

or

sociological

abstractions.

Written

engagingly,

it

is

not

marred

by

the

intrusion

of

heavy

doses

of

social

science

jargon.

For

those

who

wish

documentation,

this

is

conveyed

in

ap-

pendices,

a

glossary

and

extensive

notes.

The

book

successfully

conveys

the

mul-

tiple

dimensions

of

Thai

life.

It

is

a

remarkable

achievement,

a

fitting

monu-

ment

to

the authors

and

the

people

of

Bang

Chan

which

it

celebrates.

A.

THOMAS

KIRSCH

Cornell

University

Ithaca

ROBERT

G.

SUTTER.

Chinese

Foreign

Policy

after

the

Cultural

Revolution,

1966-1977

.

Pp.

x,

176.

Boulder,

CO:

Westview

Press,

1978.

$15.00.

This

is

a

handy

little

book:

the

first

eighty

page

section

consists

of

a

concise

overview

of

Chinese

foreign

policy

dur-

ing

the

past

decade,

while

the

second

half

is

divided

into

capsule

summaries

of

China’s

policy

on

ten

specific

issues.

These

small

sections

(on

the

Soviet

Union,

the

United

States,

Taiwan,

Southeast

Asia,

Japan

and

Korea,

South

Asia,

Europe,

the

Middle

East

and

Africa,

Disarmament,

and

Foreign

Trade)

are

organized

in

the

manner

of

intel-

ligence

reports,

with

a

summary

fol-

lowed

by

a

more

detailed

narrative

of

several

pages.

Another

innovation

for

easier

reading

is

achieved

by

incorporat-

ing

source

documentation

(primarily

translations

provided

by

the

Foreign

Broadcast

Information

Service

(FBIS))

within

the

course

of the narrative.

The

style

is

a

familiar

one

to

the

author

who

served

as a

Chinese

foreign

policy

analyst

with

the

Central

Intelligence

Agency

for

ten

years.

Sutter

identifies

domestic

and

inter-

national

sources

for

a

foreign

policy