Student Activism in Asia Between Protest and Powerlessness

"Since World War II, students in East and Southeast Asia have led protest movements that toppled authoritarian regimes in countries such as Indonesia, South Korea, and Thailand. Elsewhere in the region, student protests have shaken regimes until being brutally suppressed--most famously in China's Tiananmen Square and in Burma. But despite their significance, these movements have received much less attention than American and European student protests of the 1960s and '70s. The first book in decades to redress this neglect, Student Activism in Asia takes an interdisciplinary, comparative approach, focusing on ten countries where student protests have been particularly fierce and consequential: China, Japan, Hong Kong, Taiwan, South Korea, Indonesia, Burma, Malaysia, Thailand, and the Philippines. The contributors explore similarities and differences among student movements in these countries, paying special attention to the influence of four factors: higher education systems, students' collective identities, students' relationships with ruling regimes, and transnational flows of activist ideas and inspirations"--Provided by publisher.