By Naw Liang (London, UK and Belgrade, Serbia)
Mai soong kha!
It appears that we are on a roll as far as posts are concerned, and I am enjoying the rise in productivity. I had hoped to have a more detailed, research-oriented piece ready to publish (my stuff actually - very selfish I know), but this summer has been a Shan book bonanza. And, this latest text appears to be making its way around Shan communities - at least bulletin boards and blogs - much quicker than the last couple. So, without further adieu, here is another book to add to your Shan-specific reading list...
The Shan: Refugees without a Camp by Bernice Koehler Johnson
Several summaries/recommendations have already appeared online for this book, so I will limit my comments (For details, please visit S.H.A.N (here) or Shan Refugee Schools (here) reviews or do a quick Google search (here).
As told by Feraya Nangmone, Bernice Koehler Johnson has a wealth of knowledge about and contact with Shan in Northern Thailand where she visits annually to teach English to Shan refugees. The Finnish-German American, raised on the windswept prairies of Minnesota (I can sympathise - I come from Saskatchewan, Canada), Koehler Johnson has been touched by the harrowing stories that refugees lug, along with their meagre possessions, into Thailand for safety; it also includes their insights into the difficulty of assimilating into Thai society (a truly sad saga) and their peripatetic (often forced) existence in Thailand.
The Shan: Refugees without a Camp is a cornucopia of issues pertinent to Shan (and other ethnic minority) refugees along the Thai-Burma border: human rights abuses, the sex trade, unemployment, ostracism and more. This is not a happy-go-lucky travel journal of jaunts into Shan State and the lovely people she meets on the way - it is hard-hitting stuff about suffering, isolation and invisibility.
Well, that is all I can/have to say about yet another key Shan book I have yet to read. The list just keeps getting longer. Time to stop typing and get reading.
Naw Liang
