• SUVANNABHUMI
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.69-108
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• 2021

Based on research of documents left by Vietnamese feudal dynasties, the current article reports how it initially reconstructed the process of Vietnamese tribute activity of Southeast Asia from the 10^th to 19^th century and demonstrates the significance of these activities to how Vietnam is considered central rather than peripheral as a nation. Tribute activity took place during a period when Vietnam was an independent country; feudal dynasties of Vietnam were independent and autonomous dynasties. Vietnam had just escaped from the 1,000-year invasion of China and more recently gotten out from the control of the French colonialists. From the demonstration of the tribute activity, otherwise called requesting investiture, the current article places it in relation to the contemporary Chinese "tributary system" to draw out the characteristics and its essence. At the time the current article explores the underlying causes that contributed to shaping the core characteristics of this "tributary system" and its significance to power relationships.

• SUVANNABHUMI
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.37-67
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• 2021

Mazu is considered the famous Chinese Sea Goddess, venerated by seafarers. Mazu belief was conducted in Meizhou County, Fujian Province. Soon worship of Mazu spread quickly to other parts of over the world, especially in Southeast Asia. In China, the Mazu belief was strongly influenced by marine culture, but its marine factors faded when Chinese immigrants had lived together with the Kinh people in Pho Hien (in the north of Vietnam) for more than four centuries. Applying the Acculturation theory, this paper aims to analyze the migration background of the Chinese and their integration into Kinh culture in Pho Hien. It can be said that historical, economic and social context, as well as native government policies have highly affected the manner and the rate of this belief's acculturation. Furthermore, the article explains the reasons for the fading of marine cultural traits and their replacement by the Kinh people's cultural factors in this belief.

• SUVANNABHUMI
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.53-70
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• 2022

This article compares archetypal heroes in Nguyễn Huy Thiệp's "The Tiger's Heart" and John Steinbeck's The Pearl. It aims to explore the voices of marginalized groups and ethnic minorities who suffer amidst the clash of civilizations. In exploring cultural communication between minority and mainstream communities as embodied by the archetypal heroes in the two works, this article highlights implications of resistance against values of the dominant. The method of "mythization" in modern Eastern and Western Literature, as this article argues, demonstrates the importance of minority discourses in as far as cultural conflicts in the globalizing world are concerned.

• SUVANNABHUMI
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.111-133
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• 2021

In 1882, after the French defeated Tonkin for the second time, the Nguyen Dynasty led by King Tự Đức 嗣德 appointed Phạm Thận Duật 范慎遹 and Nguyễn Thuật 阮述 as envoys to the Qing Dynasty to seek the Chinese's help to deal with the French invasion. The trip's information from 1883 such as the schedule, the content, the discussion, and the progress was specifically reflected in the two envoys' diaries, including "Notes of Voyage to Qing Dynasty in The First Year of Jianfu" 建福元年如清日程 (Phạm Thận Duật and Nguyễn Thuật), "Notes of Voyage to Tianjin" 往津日记(Nguyễn Thuật). This article presents the origin of these documents and their historical values in order to provide insights into the study of diplomatic relations between the Nguyen Dynasty and the Qing Dynasty in the late 19th century through the 1883 mission.

• SUVANNABHUMI
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.19-52
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• 2020

Southeast Asianists have a perennial tendency to question the reality of the region in which they are specialized. Yet while scholars have doubted, Southeast Asians at large have become increasingly sure that Southeast Asia does exist, and increasingly inclined to identify with it. This article summarizes a range of evidence to that effect, from opinion poll research and from the history of ASEAN and other pan-Southeast Asian institutions, and uses it to construct a critique of the relativistic view that Southeast Asia is a fluid and ill-defined concept. Southeast Asians today tend to see Southeast Asia as a cultural as well as a geographical and institutional unit. The nature of the perceived cultural unity remains unclear, and further research is called for in this area. There are reasons to think, however, that it reflects real inheritances from a shared past, as well as shared aspirations for the future.

• SUVANNABHUMI
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.31-52
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• 2022

Derived from the juxtapositional model of Comparative Literature, this article analyzes two movies, The Story of Pao (Chuyện của Pao, directed by Ngô Quang Hải) and Into the Wild (directed by Sean Penn), using eco-criticism and focusing on two specific aspects: looking for the relationship between "culture" and "nature" and questioning the ideology that puts people at the center of the natural world. Specifically, the article points out similar tones in discovering and praising the beauty of nature, and at the same time, focuses on explaining the "disagreement" and "harmony" in behaviors of different communities towards Mother Nature in these two films. Finally, The Story of Pao and Into the Wild are both read as discourses that participate in the repositioning of human beings in the natural world. The purpose of juxtaposition, therefore, is to seek a new existential dimension for the works, providing an opportunity to uncover and reveal hidden layers of meaning of each text.

• SUVANNABHUMI
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.229-246
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• 2022

Gabriel García Márquez's short story "The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World" ["El ahogado más hermoso del mundo," 1968] and the novel Chronicle of a Death Foretold [Crónica de una muerte anunciada, 1981] and Merlinda Bobis's novel Fish-Hair Woman (2012) and short story "O Beautiful Co-Spirit" (2021) feature unusual scenarios of death: the arrival of a drowned man's corpse at an island; the inaction of the community to stop the foretold death of a supposedly-innocent man; a woman with long hair that can fetch dead bodies at the bottom of the village river; and a Filipino Catholic and a Malaysian Muslim working together to prepare an Italian Catholic's corpse for a funeral. These narratives demand critical attention as all deaths make the community's existence meaningful as they alter its social reality. Looking into the works of the aforementioned Colombian writer and Filipino writer and unveiling how death affects the community, this paper relies on Jean-Luc Nancy's theory on death and inoperative community.

• SUVANNABHUMI
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.193-228
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• 2022

This study investigates the production and perception of Vietnamese tones by Japanese, Lao, and Taiwanese second language (L2) learners [n=30], comparing their performance in an Imitation task to that of Identification and Read-Aloud tasks. The results show that the Imitation task is generally easier for L2 speakers than the Identification and Read-Aloud tasks, suggesting that imitation is performed without some of the skills required by the other two tasks. It is also found that Lao and Taiwanese speakers outperform Japanese speakers, suggesting that prior experience with one tone language facilitates the acquisition of tone in another language. The result on speakers' tonal range show that L2 leaners have significantly narrower tonal F0 range than control Vietnamese speakers [n=11]. The results of error pattern analysis and tonal transcription also suggest that non-modal voice (glottal stop and creakiness) and contour tones (bidirectional fall-rise) are more difficult for L2 learners than modal voice tones (e.g., unidirectional contours: rising, falling, and level).

• SUVANNABHUMI
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.71-87
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• 2022

This article explores how women's voices are constructed in The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway and Nỗi buồn chiến tranh (The Sorrow of War) by Bảo Ninh. Specifically, this article approaches presentations of women's personalities and positions in the two novels that do not have obvious historical and geographical connections. The women's voices in the two novels, as this article suggests, are characterized by women's desire for self-determination, where they are able to free themselves from domination, and even influence men's psychology and actions. In comparing the characteristics of women's voices in the two works, the article aims to highlight different ways in which women assert their agency. The article affirms the potential contribution of cultural contexts in examining feminist voices and understanding how female figures are made to overcome default passivity and submission to male domination.

• SUVANNABHUMI
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.89-108
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• 2022

Using Peter Barry's conception of "outdoor environment" in discoursing nature and culture, this article analyzes images of the countryside in the short stories "Dưới bóng hoàng lan" ("In the Ylang-Ylang Shade") by Thạch Lam (Thach Lam) and "Антоновские яблоки" ("Antonov Apples") by Иван Бунин (Ivan Bunin). The two share portray the Eastern Lands, as may be seen in Vietnamese northern countryside and the East Slavic, Byzantine. The paper focuses on three aspects of the countryside-cultural values; traces of urban life and; the aspirations of people. The article aims to emphasize people's desire to return to a type of nature that bears traces and harmonizes with human cultures.