The 21st Conference of the International Association of Historians of Asia (IAHA), held on June 22-25, 2010, was organized by the Department of History, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, National University of Singapore and was dedicated to the 50th anniversary of the Journal of Southeast Asian Studies/JSEAS). The Organizing Committee of the conference was headed by the editor-in-chief of this magazine Ion Mun Chen (Singapore).

The conference was attended by more than two hundred researchers from Singapore, China, India, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, Malaysia, Thailand, the Republic of Korea, Indonesia, the Philippines, the Netherlands, Great Britain, France, Germany, Russia and other Eurasian countries.

The conference opened with a welcome from the Chairman of the organizing committee, Ying Mun Chen, and a lecture by Wang Gongwu (Singapore) on "Rising Asia and Changing the Role of the Historian".

Wang Gongwu noted the changes that have taken place in the world since the first IAHA conference in Manila, primarily the end of the cold war and the change in the balance of power in favor of the Asian giants - China, India and Japan. Historians of the mid-20th century focused on the concept of the national state, the institution of which is currently experiencing a crisis, and they understood history mainly as a political, event-based one. Over the past fifty years, the knowledge of the past has undergone tremendous changes: the penetration of natural science and mathematical methods into data processing, the emergence of new sources and research directions (oral history, gender studies, history of concepts), the blurring of boundaries between different disciplines (interdisciplinary approach). Under these circumstances, Wang Gongwu asked himself: what should a historian do now? In his opinion, a historian should strive to avoid being forced by the state, the environment, or the university to create an open-minded system of knowledge and accept and defend the thesis "everything is worthy of history", in other words, there are no forbidden topics for research. Wang Gongwu emphasized that Southeast Asia, the crossroads of cultures, economic and political ties of the modern Asia-Pacific region, is central to IAHA's activities.

Professor N. Tarling (New Zealand) expressed his gratitude and memories of the Association's formation.

Further work of the conference was held in sixty sections: "Ancient China", "Beliefs and history of China", "Conflict and Nation Formation: Singapore and Malaysia", "Islam and History", "Memory, Heritage and Archive: the Myanmar Historical Commission and the formation of the national past"; " Ancient History of Southeast Asia"Intellectual Thought of China in the 20th Century"; "Indonesia: Nationalism, War and Revolution"; "Islam and Southeast Asia"; "Decolonization and Conflict in Southeast Asia", Religious Beliefs in Southeast Asia", "New Understanding of the History of Singapore and Malaysia","Isolated Centers: Rethinking the Medieval Experience of Japan"; "The Dutch in the East Indies"; "Decolonization and Comparison in Southeast Asia"; "South Asia: Borders and Divisions"; "China and Chinese Abroad: Old Sources and New Perspectives"; " Justice and Order in Colonial Southeast Asia"Southeast Asia in Modern Times", "Literature, History and Identity", "Japan and Southeast Asia from the 17th Century to the 1940s"; "Indonesia: Nation Formation in the 20th Century"; " South Asia in 1858-1918.", "Chinese Communities and Shaping Chinese Identity in Malaysia"; "Local Knowledge", "Japan and Southeast Asia under Occupation", "Connectivity and Networks in Modern Eastern Indonesia", "Archives", "South and Southeast Asian Trade in Modern Times", "Identity and Historiography", "Japan and Southeast Asia: the Modern Period"; "Social History of Thais", "South Asia since 1947", "Treaty Ports of Japan"; "Foreign Relations of South Asia in History", "Diaspora", "Gender in the World". South Asia", "Architecture, Space and History", "Numismatics and Asian History", "War, Peace and War Crimes: Southeast Asia and Japan, 1945-1954"; "Local Stories in the Philippines", "Exploration, Borders and Conflict in Colonial Mainland Southeast Asia"; "Cultural Cartography-

Research: Connections to Communities and History"; "Publishing in the 21st Century"; "Between Races, between Nations: the Legacy of Dutch and Japanese Involvement in Indonesia"; "Gender in Southeast Asia", "Indonesia: Archipelago Management in the 20th Century"; " Asian Sugar in the 18th Century: Manufacturing, trade and consumer culture"; "Social Change in Modern China, 1900s-1950s"; "Violence, Rebellion, and Pressure in the Philippines"; "Europeans in Asia"; "Korean Science and the Japanese Empire"; "Religion in East Asia"; "Negotiating Borders and Differences in Southeast Asia"; "Modern South Asia: International Interaction in the past and present"; "South Asia: Cultural and Economic interaction", "Environmental History in Southeast Asia".

Section meetings were held on June 23-25. Unfortunately, the author of the report did not manage to attend all the meetings, as at least five sections were working simultaneously. Therefore, only those presentations that the author participated in will be described.

B. Lakomska's report "The Emergence of collectibles in China: Unearthed jade treasures as a reflection of ancient collectibles" traced the evolution of the perception of jade products from the Neolithic to the Han Empire. In the 4th millennium, the first sets of jade objects appear (Xianglongwa culture). At that time, these objects were magical, religious symbols of power, which generally persisted until the 1st millennium BC. In the 3rd millennium BC, the concentration of jade collections in the hands of noble families, and not just leaders, is noticeable. In the era of the Warring States, the religious aspect of jade perception is already being lost. Gradually, there is an attitude towards it as an object of antiquity, antiques. Jade products become "works of art".

In his report "Systematic knowledge of water resources management as a strategy for persuading the state to more actively manage water resources", Li Zhoying (Taiwan) used the example of the hydrological reform in the lower Yangtze River at the end of the 15th century to show the interaction of local specialists and government officials for irrigation and land reclamation activities. In the literature of that time, the question of the advantage of building dams and polders (polder dikes building) or dredging (dredging) was actively discussed. Yao Wenhao, a Chinese official who was involved in the reform and published a collection of forty-seven works on land irrigation in 1497, concluded that the first method was advantageous. Lee Join noted that local experts were eager to involve the state in water resources management in order to streamline it.

Go Gye Yan (Singapore), in her report "Inscribing Tagaung in Burmese History: the plot of the first state of Myanmar", based on a comparison of archaeological data from the excavations of Srikshetra, Tagaung and Pagan with the Burmese chronicles proclaiming Tagaung as the first kingdom of Burma, suggested that Tagaung occupies an intermediate place in the chronology of cultures in Myanmar between Srikshetra and Pagan. where the Pyu culture prevailed, and Pagan, already truly Burmese in culture. Archaeological materials from Tagaung show a stylistic similarity of stamped patterns to the symbolism of Pyu coins, and the presence of Buddhist buildings connects it with Pagan.

A. O. Zakharov (Moscow) in his report "Some features of the early island polities of Southeast Asia" analyzed inscriptions of the IV-V centuries from Central Vietnam, East Kalimantan and West Java and found that the polities that left them were chiefdoms. The factors of their occurrence were military clashes over the establishment of a monopoly on trade routes.

T. P. Barnard (Singapore), in his report "Protecting the Monitor Lizard: Dutch Attempts to Restrict access to Komodo Lizards in the 1920s and 1930s", identified an ecological dimension in the Dutch colonial policy.

P. Bumgaard (Netherlands) in his report "Dutch claims to Java forests in the XVII-XVIII centuries" reconstructed the impact of wood needs on the policy of the Dutch East India Company authorities in Batavia: it was the desire to provide the city with teak and rice that caused wars with local principalities, with which the supply of wood and rice is always specifically stipulated in peace treaties to the Dutch. He also pointed out the connection between the European fashion for statistics and the measurement of Javanese forests by colonial authorities.

H. Schulte-Nordholt (Netherlands) in his report "Modernity and Cultural Citizenship in Dutch India" showed the penetration of Western Art Nouveau culture into the colonial society of Indonesia in the first half of the 20th century. A middle-class lifestyle.-

he considered wearing a European suit, gaiters, Swiss watches, smoking cigars, reading newspapers for an Indonesian, and coldness began to prevail in female beauty. Small families, mobility, personal hygiene and cleanliness, and light hair were cultivated. Even conservative circles used the sign of modernity - the telephone. But the development of modernity was hindered by racial barriers that could not be overcome. Nationalism - one of the characteristics of modernity-developed more slowly, as middle-class people were more focused on a career in the state than on participating in the fate of the nation.

Abdul Wahid (Netherlands), in his report "The Fokkens Report and Tax Reform Policy", studied the Dutch efforts to reform the tax system in Java in the 1870s and 1900s, showed the clear dominance of the Chinese in key sectors of the economy and revealed the role of Fokkens in the abolition of the tax system. Fokkens investigated the socio-economic situation in 1892-1894 and recommended increasing government support to the Javanese peasantry. Although officials of the Dutch administration ignored his proposals, he gave two public lectures in the Netherlands, after which the opinion of the mother country forced the colonial authorities to abolish the tax-paying system.

D. Apilado (Philippines), in her report "The integration of colonial culture and Spanish influence in the everyday life of the Ilok region in the 17th and 19th centuries", demonstrated the combination of Christian and traditional elements in the culture of the Ilok/Ilokan people on the west coast of Luzon.

L. Andaya (USA) in his report "Malay connectivity and networks of Eastern Indonesia" established the role of the Malays of Makassar in the trade and politics of the region's societies in the XVI-XVII centuries. They dominated international trade, served as scribes and officials (in particular, in the Sultanate of Bima on the island of Sumbawa), had the right to a separate settlement with broad autonomy. B. V. Andaya (USA) in the report "Connectivity of Christianity in Eastern Indonesia" reconstructed the penetration of Christianity into the daily life of local peoples in the XVI-XX century.In the 18th century, Christianization was complicated by the struggle between Christian communities: Catholics-Dominicans and Protestants, as well as between Christianity and Islam. The veneration of the image of the Virgin Mary (Banda Maria), the celebration of Holy Friday, bell ringing, sacred music, chains with a cross penetrated into everyday life. Protestant Dutch brought new objects of worship-writing and sacred texts.

Zh. Duggan (Singapore) in her report "Local knowledge and written sources in the production and transmission of historical knowledge on Sevu Island" showed the role of oral tales in the reconstruction of the past. The island of Sevu in eastern Indonesia was connected with the islands of Java, Dana, Solor, Timor, Sumba, Flores, Roto by various relationships: from religious and military agreements, marriage unions, common genealogy to borrowing words (the Javanese word ratu (king) became a personal name in Sevu).

K. Reynolds (Australia), in his report "Astrology and other sciences for insurance against risk and fear: Control over compliance in Thailand 1920-1930", identified the important role of pseudoscientific practices in the political process of Siam.

M. Meyer (Thailand) in her report "Changing concepts of economic and social in Thailand at the beginning of the XX century" reconstructed the intellectual trends in the political and economic elite formed under the influence of modernization and made a conclusion about the opposition of a new layer - the urban intelligentsia to state officials and the conservative nobility.

J. Warren (Singapore), in his report "Restless spirits: alcohol, excise duty and extraterritoriality in Siam in the late 19th and early 20th centuries", linked the increase in alcohol consumption in the country to the emergence of a large number of Chinese migrants, new European goods (champagne, whiskey) that enjoyed high prestige, and the inability of the excise system to prevent widespread use of heavy drinking and its negative social consequences.

E. Raven (Netherlands) in her report "Scepter-bearing kings: the mysterious coin type of "Chandragupta" with a scepter" based on stylistic analysis attributed this gold coinage to the reign of Chandragupta II Vikramaditya (376 - ≈414). Apparently, this is one of the earliest coin series of this king. N. Wright (Australia) in the report "William Farker in Malacca and beyond" proved that the credit for the development of Singapore belongs not so much to its founder T. S. Raffles, but to its first resident and commandant Farker.

The next, 22nd IAHA conference will be held in Yogyakarta (Indonesia)at the Gaja Mada University.

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