Government Policies and Ethnic Relations in Asia and the Pacific (review)

62 China Review International: Vol. 6, No. ?, Spring 1999 names it is often impossible to determine how they ought to be transcribed in either of the two romanization schemes. Brown adopts the pinyin system but is not entirely successful in this regard, incorrectly confusing the traditional postal name of cities (e.g., Chungking, Peking, Tsinan) as the Wade-Giles rendition in the chart of equivalents he provides. In the text itself, he occasionally uses WadeGiles or an incorrect pinyin spelling. But these are quibbles. Brown is successful in what he sets out to do: to provide an overall view of Presbyterian missions in China as a case study ofthe broader Protestant missionary effort ofwhich it was a part. Besides the basic factual accounts of stations and individual missionaries, he offers insights on the contributions and failures of the missionary enterprise. As one who has written recently about a particular group of Presbyterian missionaries in China, I can say that this work, had it been available when I was researching my topic, would have been immensely valuable in providing a general historical and institutional framework for evaluating the activities ofthat group or any other Presbyterian mission. Lawrence Kessler University ofNorth Carolina, Chapel Hill Lawrence Kessler is chair ofthe Curriculum in Asian Studies and a professor ofhistory whose latest book is a study ofthe Jiangyin mission station in China. Michael E. Brown and Sumit Ganguly, editors. Government Policies and Ethnic Relations in Asia and the Pacific. Cambridge: MIT Press, 1997. xiv, 607 pp. Paperback, isbn 0-262-52245-4. The end ofthe Cold War brought ethnic conflict to the forefront ofglobal issues, but few scholars have reported on ethnic relations comparatively and systematically. Moreover, until the publication ofthis volume, no study had analyzed the effects ofstate policies on ethnic tension and divisions in the Asian and Pacific region. This book edited by Brown and Ganguly is thus a welcome contribution to the scholarly literature on ethnic relations. At the heart of the book are a dozen case studies written by country special- " ter*y ists on the evolution ofgovernment policies toward ethnic problems. The contributors are Kanti Bajpai (India), Samina Ahmed (Pakistan), Amita Shastri (Sri Lanka), Josef Silverstein (Burma), Charles F. Keyes (Thailand), Sumit Ganguly (Malaysia and Singapore), R. William Liddle (Indonesia), R. J. May (Philippines), ofHawai'i Press Reviews 63 June Teufel Dreyer (China), Christine Fletcher (Australia), Andrew Sharp (New Zealand), and Stephen Levine (Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu, and the Federated States ofMicronesia). Each author examines the array ofethnic problems and challenges with which governments have had to contend. They describe demographic patterns and ethnic geography; precolonial and colonial legacies; ethnic group histories, fears, and goals; economic factors and trends; and regional and international influences. The authors identify the policy initiatives taken by a government toward its nation's ethnic problems, describe changes in policies over time, and analyze the impact that policies have had on ethnic strife. The country studies are rich in detail, and the portraits ofethnic conflicts and government actions are carefully drawn. Readers may object to the judgments ofindividual authors (as, for example, I did to May's statement that "Chinese ethnicity has not been a significant political issue" in the Philippines [p. 349] ), but on balance the collected case studies will be very useful references for students ofAsian and Pacific events. However, the editors should have included a case study of government policies toward ethnic problems in Taiwan, given the role that the conflict between Taiwanese and mainlanders has played in the island's post-World War II political economic development and in Taiwan's fragile cross-strait relationship with China. Based on the case studies, the editors (particularly Brown in his long concluding chapter) evaluate the effectiveness of governments ofmultiethnic states in promoting peace, order, and stability as well as political, economic, and social justice. The main point ofthis analysis is that government policies almost always have significant effects on the course and trajectory ofethnic relations in the country in question. Misguided or malicious policies can aggravate ethnic problems and turn potentially violent situations into deadly confrontations. Comparatively benign policies can help to hold together countries under difficult circumstances, (p. 511) Examples ofpoor state...