Vientiane »

Providing insights into this neglected Southeast Asian city, this interesting book interprets Vientiane’s landscape - physical as well as imagined - as a reflection of key aspects of Lao geo-political history, the nature of Lao urbanism, and its critical relation to constructions of Lao identity in the contemporary period. It is argued that the patterns of change seen through Vientiane’s past embody the key political and economic processes and transformations impacting on the people of Laos.

The Lao urban past has rarely been an object of attention by scholars. Laos, in fact, is continually portrayed as a rural backwater, marginal to the dynamic trends affecting most of the Southeast Asian mainland. In contrast to these persistent and static portrayals of Laos as a tiny landlocked backwater, with no significant urban present or past, the authors aim to document, explain and evaluate the significance of the Lao urban landscape.

Focusing on the theme of Vientiane’s ‘marginality’ in its various forms, the book interprets this apparent marginality as an historically-produced phenomenon resulting from geo-politics dating from the pre-colonial period and extending into the post-colonial period. Drawing on a wide range of research materials, Vientiane is the first work of its kind on this ignored city.

List of Figures     x
List of Tables     xi
List of Plates     xii
Acknowledgements     xiv
Note on Lao/Thai word transliteration     xvi
Acronyms     xvii
Foreword     xviii
Vientiane, capital on the margins: urbanism, history and Lao identity   Marc Askew   William Logan   Colin Long     1
Urbanism and the Lao world of the Mekong Valley   Marc Askew     16
From glory to ruins   Marc Askew     43
Land of the lotus-eaters: Vientiane under the French   William Logan     73
Arena of the Cold War   Colin Long   Marc Askew     111
The Pathet Lao capital   Colin Long     151
Reshaping Vientiane in a global age   Colin Long   Marc Askew   William Logan     176
Notes     208
Bibliography     240
Index     258