The Trouser People: Burma in the Shadows of the Empire - Softcover

Marshall, Andrew

4.01

275 ratings by Goodreads

9786167339184: The Trouser People: Burma in the Shadows of the Empire

Softcover

ISBN 10: 616733918X ISBN 13: 9786167339184

Publisher: River Books Press Dist A C, 2012

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This new edition of Andrew Marshall's classic book on Burma includes a gripping eyewitness account of the Saffron Revolution, the 2007 democratic uprising led by Buddhist monks.

Inspired by the diaries of a forgotten Victorian adventurer called Sir George Scott, Andrew Marshall set out to discover the real Burma - an impoverished nation then ruled by a repressive regime. Scott was a die-hard imperialist who hacked, bullied and charmed his way through uncharted jungles to help establish British colonial rule. Braving government spies and the after-effects of some powerful local hooch, Marshall retraces Scott's intrepid footsteps into Burma's remote tribal heartlands to encounter the bewitching 'giraffe women' and the former headhunters of the Wild Wa. His journey is an offbeat exploration of Britain's lost heritage and a powerful expos� of Burma's modern tragedy.

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Review:

In The Trouser People, Andrew Marshall recounts his ambitious crisscrossing of contemporary Burma, which emerges as isolated, heartbreaking, fitfully resilient, and, to Western eyes, certainly, often exotically unfathomable. Marshall's compass is the life of a now-obscure Victorian adventurer, Sir George Scott. He draws distinct parallels between British imperialism and Burma's crushing, present-day military dictatorship. But The Trouser People is less analysis than witty, candid travelogue, highlighted by excursions into the remote territory of some of the country's many ethnic minorities. Most fascinating among these are the Wa, former headhunters who now control much of Burma's drug trade. Through their territory Marshall tramps in search of a mysterious lake, whose waters, Wa myth has it, were their birthplace.

This muscular, anecdotal narrative, by centering on individuals and the quotidian complexities of Burmese life, washes a country too often capsulized in black and white into bright color. --H. O'Billovitch

About the Author:

I am a British author and journalist based in Bangkok, Thailand. Since 1993 I have explored Asia's remotest regions for magazines and newspapers worldwide, including TIME, The Sunday Times Magazine, National Geographic, Esquire, and many others. In January 2012 I joined Reuters as Special Correspondent, Thailand and Indochina. My book The Trouser People, about football and dictatorship in Burma, was a New York Times Notable Book and was shortlisted for the Thomas Cook Travel Book Award. I am also co-author of The Cult at the End of the World, a prescient account of Japan's homicidal Aum cult and the rise of high-tech terrorism. My books have been translated into ten languages. Please visit andrewmarshall.com.

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