Jeffrey Wasserstrom at NYU

Songs Beyond Borders: Thailand and Transnational Musical Connections

Join the New York Southeast Asia Network (NYSEAN) and New York University for a conversation with Jeffrey Wasserstrom and Benjamin Tausig about the way that music features in their new books and how they engage with songs in their various writings.

To begin the conversation, Tausig will give a brief introduction to his latest book, Bangkok After Dark, which places nightlife in Thailand’s capital city during the Cold War into a transnational perspective via discussion of a jazz pianist.

Wasserstrom will then discuss his new book, The Milk Tea Alliance, the longest chapter in which is about protests in Bangkok for which the soundtrack included everything from hip hop numbers by the local hip hop collective Rap Against Dictatorship to the rousing imported anthem “Do You Hear the People Sing?”

Margaret Scott, NYSEAN co-founder, will moderate the discussion.

This is a hybrid event

Register to attend in-person here / Register to attend online here

NYU Wagner, Floor 2
Lafayette Conference Room
105 East 17th St
New York, NY 10003

The political situations in Burma, Thailand, and Hong Kong are radically different. Yet, many young activists and exiles from these regions feel that their struggles are connected. How do these activists, each facing their unique situations, find common ground and sustain one another? For The Milk Tea Alliance: Inside Asia’s Struggle Against Autocracy and Beijing, historian Jeffrey Wasserstrom traveled globally to interview members of this loosely constituted alliance, finding them united by the rising influence of a common adversary—the Chinese Communist Party.

“A story of resilient defiance against not just local oppression but the expanding shadow of Xi Jinping’s China—a defining battle of the twenty-first century.” —Evan Osnos

Learn more about The Milk Tea Alliance