Burma Through Western Novels

Department of History, National University of Singapore
Burma through the Prism of Western Novels

Author(s): Josef Silverstein
Source: Journal of Southeast Asian Studies, Vol. 16, No. 1 (Mar., 1985), pp. 129-140
Published by: Cambridge University Press on behalf of Department of History, National University
of Singapore
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20070844 .

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Burma through thePrism ofWestern Novels
JOSEF SILVERSTEIN
"If you want to write a real Burmese story", U Nu once told an audience of Burmese
writers, you "must know the real Burmese background". It is advice that applies to
foreign as well as indigenous writers and, inmost cases, non-Burmese writers have
followed it.The recommendation is important because fictionprovides a popular entry
way for the "average" reader to reach beyond his normal range of knowledge and
imagination; it ismore likely that he will have read a novel or short story rather than a
history or a scholarly work and it is from this source that he will have formed his ideas
and adopted his stereotypes. Thus, it is necessary that the available literature is good,
that it is accurate in itsdescriptions of the locale and the behaviour of the people, that
it catches the nuance of local speech and expression, that it reflects the psychology of
the subjects when it discusses them rather than imputing alien speech, values, and
attitudes.
Burma's Western interpretershave, in themain, tried to present accurate descriptions

and true representations of the people and the country. Most of the writers have
lived inBurma for a period of time and have travelled fairlywidely in the countryside.
Although the stories that they tell are more likely to interest non-Burmese audiences
than local ones, nevertheless, their observations and descriptions together with their
presentation of local conditions and the problems of change contain rich insights from
which all?
benefit.
indigenous and alien alike?can
Any survey of this genre of Burmese fictionwill reveal that the subject matter and
themes that interestmost non-Burmese writers are the problems of theWesterner ?
and in one case, the Japanese ?
in a strange and distant land. They focus more on
how the non-Burmese survive and remain untainted by their alien environment than
they do on how Westerners adapt to new circumstances and develop new and broader
perspectives. Inmost respects theirnovels depict the clash of cultures with neither group
really being affected by the other. A few writers, especially those with missionary
backgrounds, emphasized the triumph ofWestern culture and Christian values. The
great event formost who have written about Burma in the last thirtyyears was World
War II and how Europeans,
trapped inBurma, or Japanese, left after the war's end,
either escaped capture or responded to the victory of the Allies. Few, if any, have
attempted to write about independent Burma and the problems itspeople faced from
civil war, military rule, and isolation in a world growing closer through travel and
communications.
American writers have shown a particular interest in theminority peoples of Burma,

especially theKarens and theKachins. Some of this interest stems from the fact that the
writers were Baptist missionaries who lived and worked amongst the Karens while
others were American Special Forces who fought alongside the Kachins in the war.
Here, the writers either treat the minorities as primitive peoples benefitting from
129

130
Josef Silver stein
conversion to Christianity or as noble savages fromwhom modern Western man can

recover the eternal truths about himself and his relationship to nature.
Only a fewWestern novelists have tried towrite historical novels inwhich the subject
is exclusively Burman. Part of the reason for this is that the writers are not
Burmese scholars and most are unfamiliar with the language and local literature. The
few attempts thatwere successful were so because their authors either had the necessary
knowledge or they had access to a body of documents that allowed them to reconstruct
history in a fictional form and tell a Burmese and not aWestern story.
matter
With the exception of the historical novels, Western writers have not placed Burman
heroes at the center of their stories.When, on occasion, a Burman is offered as a major
figure in the narrative, he is not typical. Usually, he is a member of the ?lite, has had a
Western education, speaks English fluently and may have lived part of his life inEurope.
Thus, he is able to fiteasily into a European environment and be absorbed by it rather
thanmove the story into a Burmese arena. Also, one finds thatwhere a non-European
is an important character he usually is an Anglo-Burman orAnglo-Indian and is a bridge

between East and West. A second characteristic of this body of fiction is that the story
is placed in a rural rather than an urban setting. This allows thewriter to give long and
detailed descriptions of the country and the people and to provide a context for the clash
of cultures as the tiny"island" of Europeans struggle to create what theybelieve to be a
corner of England in the colonial outpost. Burma, in themain, isbackground and many
of the plots and characters could just as easily fit into the Indian orMalay scene.
For all practical purposes, the end of colonial rule in Burma brought an end to
Western writers using the nation as a locus for their stories or its people and their
war and
problems as their subject matter. There are a number of reasons for this: the
so many
a
which
saw
from
of
end
the
permanent expatriate population
independence
of the earlier writers were spawned; the nation discouraged foreigners from coming
through limitations on both visits and residence; few, except scholars and diplomats,
knew enough about the country to saymore thanwhat could be gleaned frompast works
of literature or travel books, which in the main were drawn from limited secondary
sources; therewere toomany other places in theworld towrite about where one did not
have to know the language, customs, or the people from personal experience. If new
novels are not being written by non-Burmese writers, there at least is a corpus of old
ones which are useful forwhat they have to say about the country, its people and the
Westerners who lived amongst them; at least two still are widely read and help shape
attitudes and values of readers toward Burma and itspeople. In answer toU Nu, the
Burmese backgrounds are real even ifthe novels do not always tell real Burmese stories.
There are four major themes which unite the novels of Burma: colonial rule and
its impact on Europeans and Burmese alike; religion and the clash of culture; war,
especially World War II; and Burmese history at moments of great change.
Probably the best known work on Burma isGeorge Orwell's Burmese Days. In it, the
author provides his reader with a damning indictment of imperialism as a corrupting
influence on the Europeans who serve it. Shrouded in the myth of the "white man's
burden", they claim the right to rule and special privilege.Yet, beneath themantle, they
are ordinary Englishmen, no better or worse than their countrymen who remain at
home. However, once they arrive in the colonies, they change and Orwell sees such
banal characteristics as pretentiousness and arguing, scheming and boredom as the
elements of colonial life that transform these otherwise ordinary individuals into
unpleasant, and in some cases, dangerous sojourners in a foreign land.

Burma throughWestern Novels
131
Orwell draws the reader's attention to the fact that inBurma, as elsewhere in theEast,
life. It represents an exclusive world where entry
the club is the center of European
one's
skin
race,
colour,
depends upon
nationality, and position in the ruling ?lite. Despite
efforts of liberal administrators, located at great distances in the capital cities, to open
these clubs to "natives", the denizens scheme to remain exclusive, believing that any
crack in thewall of their closed society would create a flood and theywould be lost in a
sea of local people. At the root of their reactionary stance was their belief that change
would diminish theirmaterial standard of living to a level probably no better than ifthey
had remained inEngland and itwould destroy their pr?tentions as members of a ruling
class.
Other novelists who have written of Burma have examined the club and itsmembers,
but no one has been as harsh as Orwell. Maurice Collis, who is better known for his
histories and biography, than forhis fiction, presents a less damning view inSanda Mala;
but he too finds very little that is redeeming in itor itsmembers. Here, as inBurmese
Days, Europeans gather to drink, gossip, and plot against all outsiders. Although the
period about which Collis writes, the early 1920s, ismore pacific than the next decade,
the focus of Orwell's novel, nevertheless, the behaviour, values, and attitudes of the
the Europeans expect the government's
members is nearly the same. In Sanda Mala,
even
to
them
when
they have cheated their indigenous business
representative
uphold
rivals.When officials do not, the club members are prepared to appeal to high quarters
in order to triumph or plot the downfall of all who stand in theirway.
If the club is the locus of action, it is themembers who tell and act out the storyof the
corruption of colonial rule. Orwell created a number of stereotypes that successive
authors used. There is the District Commissioner and Inspector of Police who are
there tomaintain law and order. While they are expected to deal even-handedly with
Europeans and natives alike, as representatives of a paternalistic government, their
?
timber extraction,
sympathies are with the expatriates who represent British business
etc.
rice
It
is
the
latter
that
the
reader
finds the clearest
amongst
mining,
milling,
of
and
racists
defenders
of
It
also
is
the
latter
that one finds
examples
amongst
privilege.
the outsider, the individual who rejects the system and even fights to change it.Orwell's
hero, Flory, employed in timber extraction, hates himself for sharing the false lifestyle
of British society in Burma; yet, he is too weak to abandon it or fight permanently
against it in order to force change. Flory, unlike his fellow countrymen, finds and
appreciates the natural beauty of the country and the charm ofmany aspects of itsculture.
To bridge the dichotomy between the lifestyle he dislikes and the country he loves,
he finds friendship in an Indian doctor, solace indrink, and pleasure in the charms of his
Burmese mistress. He has the potential for leadership and demonstrates itwhen the club
is under physical attack, but when he must face his fellow club members and seek their
approval for themembership of his friend,Veraswami, the Indian doctor, he fails. In the
end the conflicting forces and treacherous plotting of his mistress and a Burmese
magistrate overwhelm and destroy him and he finds escape in suicide.

In other novels of Burma, there are many variations of Flory. Patterson, inH.E.
Bates, The Jacaranda Tree, is a stronger individual; he, too, is part of the commercial
establishment and like Flory, is involved in timber.Unlike Flory, he finds both pleasure
and love with his Burmese mistress and does nothing to hide his relationship with her
from the others. Also, unlike Flory, he rejects the club and lives outside itswalls and its
rules. Patterson, like Flory, rises to the challenge of danger?
this time from thewar?
and
the
out
as
of
Burma
the
by organizing
leading
Europeans
Japanese advance.

132
Josef Silver stein
In Cecilie Leslie's The Golden Stairs, a third variation of Flory is reflected in the
character of Hamish. This time, the unorthodox and nonconformer to the club ethic is
the Superintendent of Police. He, unlike Flory or Patterson, is obliged to follow orders
from above and carry them out with impartiality.However, when he sees the contradic
tion between the commands, which were issued from afar, and the realities on the spot,
he too, rises to the challenge of war and does what he thinks is right and good regardless
of the rules and orders.
Against these opponents of the system stand the defenders and perpetuators. In
Burmese Days, it is Elizabeth Lackersteen. She came to Burma mainly because her
chances formarriage and social advancement were poor or nonexistent. In themale
dominated society of the club, her faded beauty is revived and she is sought after by the
lonely men of rank or position. For Orwell, she represents the tragedy of the colonial
?
the never-ending stream of new recruits who accept its rules and keep it
system
alive. In The Golden Stairs, Monica Wadley is the counterpart to Elizabeth. She, too,
comes frommean circumstances inEngland and sets her goal on succeeding in the new
opportunity thatBurma offers.Monica is older than Elizabeth and ismore determined
inher quest. She, too, is faced with a greater challenge ?
the collapse of empire and the
from the advancing Japanese. One is

irregular flight of the ill-prepared Europeans
a
more
to
of
this
read
type than in the author's account of
unlikely
devastating critique
the unreal lifeat the hill-station inMaymyo where itsemptiness and pretentiousness are
starklydrawn and vividly portrayed against the background of the retreatingBritish army
and the disintegration of empire.
Bates introduces a thirdvariation of Elizabeth inThe Jacaranda Tree. Connie McNair,

like the other two, came to Burma to find a better life,but unlike Elizabeth orMonica,
she is dominated by her mother and therefore cannot realize her own potential until it is
too late. The savage death of hermother brings freedom but not marriage because illness
and death overtake her before she can blossom.
It is through the characters and the club that the reader learns that it is theEuropean
and not the Burmese who are corrupted by the political system and that the Burmese,
in their isolation, remain relatively untouched by it. By concentrating on hinterland
rather than the city, the authors fail to explore the direct impact of the colonial system
on the local people who must serve it.How it alters and arouses them and the impact it
leaves on their lives and thought is an area unfortunately none of theWestern writers
explore
or even
consider.
If the novel is to be the source of one's knowledge of the Burmese and their culture,
the several that have been published offer a variety of views. In Burmese Days, Orwell
looks closely at particular Burmans and finds very little to say about them that ispositive.
?
?
is the villain who not only
themagistrate
Of the four he presents indetail, Po Khin
understands the colonial system and itsweaknesses but is able tomanipulate it and its
servants, European and native alike, to achieve promotion, wealth, and membership in
the club. By focusing on the thought and action of Po Khin, Orwell presents a harsh
one can use for one's own ends.
picture of Buddhism as an opportunistic faith that
Po Khin piles one evil deed upon another as he acquires power and position with the
clear intention of using his ill-gotten gains tomake religious merit inhis declining years.
Even though he fails to achieve his ends, the negative impression of Buddhism remains.
Ma Hla May, Flory's mistress, is the classic example, in any culture, of the woman
scorned who gets revenge. Ma Khin, Po Khin's wife, on the other hand, believes in her
faith and worries about her husband's fate because she is aware of all of his evil deeds.

133
Finally, there isMaung San Hla, or as he is called, Ko S'la. As Flory's manservant he is

wily, pragmatic, amoral, and devoted to his employer. Given the situation where Flory
is away a good deal of the time and, when he is home, his lack of interest in his house
hold, his drunken-state, and his long association with Ko S'la, themanservant is allowed
to act inways that are more universal than Burmese, and one should not generalize
Burmese behaviour, culture, or values from the thingshe does or says. Although Orwell
presents, ingeneral, a positive and accurate picture of some aspects of Burmese life, the
overall impression of the faith and the people is very negative.
An opposite view of theBurman, his religion and society, isoffered inEthel Mannin's
The Living Lotus. Here Burman society in rural upper Burma is described in loving
detail. The people are shown realistically with warmth, jealousy, and treachery being as
much a part of their lives as one finds in any other culture. Buddhism and its rituals are
described with care and understanding. The people who emerge?the
heroine Mala, an
a
war
who
is
raised
Burman
the
years, Ma Hla
Anglo-Burman girl
by
family during
are shown in a traditional setting that is detailed and
her foster sister, and others?
believable. The author makes many digressions in order to explain aspects of the faith
and ritual, which would do credit to an anthropologist or sociologist. Mannin also
provides a clear picture of the clash of cultures as the heroine is seen first, in her early
years, living in a home where the cultures of her parents are in conflict; then, through an
accident ofwar, she isbrought to a Burman village and raised by her adopted familyas one
of their own. Finally, through a trick, she is taken toEngland and there her father tries
to supplant her Buddhism with Christianity. In the end she chooses to give up her
English heritage and return toBurma and the husband and family she left. In thisnovel,
the reader is challenged to consider theBuddhist faith as practised by genuine believers
against theChristian faith and itsmisuse by those who represent it.A careful reading of
this book will not only provide entertainment but a great deal of information about the
Burman people and their culture.
The theme ofmixing cultures is repeated in several of the novels of Burma. In Sanda
Mala, Nat ShinMe, the heroine, is the daughter of a Burman prince and a Shan princess
who has been educated in theWest. Although betroth to a Burman, she isunhappy with
theman her parents have chosen. Thus, when the hero, Mangin, arrives fromEngland
to paint the portraits of her parents, she acts firstas a bridge between her parents and
him and, gradually, falls in love. Her mother, Sanda Mala, not only approves but
manipulates events so that, in the end, her daughter is able tomarry Mangin. Her father,
who speaks no English, remains in the background. While the author gives details of his
life and personality, the father never emerges as a central figure in theway his English
educated daughter and worldly wife do.

A lessmake-believe version of theEuropean-Burmese
union is found in The Golden
Stairs, where Tom McNeil, a forestryofficer and Hla Gale, a wealthy Burman woman
are married and their son, Ken, is raised firstas a Burman Buddhist and then sent off to
school inEngland only to return to his family as war envelops Burma. He represents the
ambivalence and confusion of the person of two cultures in a period of change. Ne vil
Shute presents the problem slightly differently in The Chequer Board. There, the
European is at best an agnostic; the author allows theBritish airman, through livingwith
a Burman family and falling in love with one of itsmembers, to be drawn intoBurmese
life and to understand and respect it.Here, too, the reader is given some fine detail of
the faith and itsplace inBurmese life.
There is one other non-Burman tragic type to be found in the environment of the

134
Josef Silver stein
Burma outpost, the Indian and theAnglo-Indian. Again, it isOrwell who draws a bitter
the doctor living on the edge of the European enclave and
picture of Veraswami,
Burmese society, without membership in either. He represents theAsian who succeeds
inmastering Western science by becoming a doctor and is convinced of the superiority
of Western culture and literature. He is like those nineteenth-century Indians who
manned the ranks of the infant Indian Congress Party and saw theWest as superior to the
East. Veraswami's tragedy is that his skin colour and race bar his entry into the "sacred"
club while at the same time he is rejected by the local population amongst whom he lives.
In The Jacaranda Tree the author provides the reader with an Anglo-Indian nurse,
Miss Allison, who while accepted nominally by the European community never really
feels a part of it. Initially, she joins with the small band of Europeans as they seek to
escape to India. But as the caravan moves forward, she realizes that she is not a part of
the European group and India is not her home. She deserts the group and disappears
amongst the local population, who are leftbehind. The author gives no clue whether or
not she is successful either in surviving or being accepted by the people. The Anglo
Indian, like the Indian, was never accepted by the Burmese and when independence
came to Burma, in 1948, many in both communities left the country either forEngland
or India. Those who remained behind either tried to submerge themselves intoBurmese
society or resolved to remain permanent outsiders and retained their identity and their
culture.
For most of the authors who wrote of the war, heroism and tragedy were the twin
themes they repeated most often. Bates wrote two novels about Burma inWorld War II,
The Jacaranda Tree and The Purple Plain. In the former, he dwells upon the character
of Patterson, the hero, who rises to the challenges the war presented and triumphs
because of his good common sense, personal courage, and an unswerving devotion to
the goal of escape. In the end, he achieves his goal while those who desert his leadership
meet tragic ends. In The Purple Plain, Bates created a counterpart to Patterson in
Squadron Leader Forrester, whose plane crashes and who assumes the leadership of the
survivors; against impossible odds, he leads them to safety.Heroism is so central to the
novel that it could have been located anywhere as the setting, the people, and the
country are only incidental to the story.Even theBurmese village, where Forrester finds
love, is a Christian village and, therefore, is very atypical of Burma.
One of the best and leastwell-known stories of thewar inBurma isThe Golden Stairs.
Again, the central theme is escape from the Japanese. A group of Europeans, Indians,
encounter a variety of dangers as they pass through the heart
and Anglo-Burmans
of Burma to the deadly Hukong Valley to reach safely in India. The author writes
and their
accurately and sensitively of the country and its people as the Europeans
retainers make theirway out of the country. In choosing to focus on the last leg of the
escape, the author is able to give a vivid feeling of the remote areas of northern Burma
where fewWesterners have been. The "Golden Stairs" is the final test for the evacuees
as theydescend through a quagmire, which the rains have made of the thousand steps of
clay that divides this area of Burma from India. The book provides vivid and accurate
descriptions of the human struggle along this route because the author relied upon diaries
and interviews with evacuees as themain sources of her information. The story of the
exodus allows her to introduce actual historical events and characters. It also permits her
to introduce a new character not found in the other literature of Burma. Daw Hal Palai,
the sister ofHla Gale and the aunt of Ken, is the bridge between theNationalists of the
1930s and the Burmese revolutionaries of thewar period. She is represented as having

135
been a follower of Saya San in the futile revolt in the early 1930s and a supporter of the
Burmans who saw the war as a means of achieving the nation's independence. The
presence of theNationalists and Daw Hal Palai provides one set of pulls upon young Ken,
which are counterbalanced by those exerted by Monica Wadley, Ken's father, and the
other Christian Europeans. Again, the clash of cultures creates the tensions within the
characters and gives depth and meaning to the story.
IfBates and Leslie were concerned with thewar's effect on theEuropeans, there is an
important novel about its impact on the Japanese. Michio Takeyama's Harp of Burma,
is trulyunique. Itwas written by a man who never visited nor, before he wrote the novel,
studied Burma. Nevertheless, he produced an exceedingly accurate picture ofthat land.
More important, he gives rich insights to the meaning of Buddhism.to the people of
Burma. He wrote his story from the information he gleaned from the soldiers who were
repatriated fromBurma. It is directed at the Japanese who, in the firstyears after the
war's end, were trying to understand it, their defeat, and themselves.
Like the novels about the British inBurma, Harp of Burma is about the Japanese in
Burma at thewar's end. Throughout the earlier days of combat, a company of soldiers
were inspired by one among them, Corporal Mizushima, who led them in song through
the accompaniment of a Burmese harp, which he had taught himself to play. When the
war ended and his company surrendered, he escaped, and having donned the yellow
robe of the local Burmese monks he gradually learned itsmeaning and found his
to find and bury the bodies of the fallen Japanese ?
life'smission ?
and gives up the
opportunity of returning to his homeland.
Unlike the Europeans writing about themselves in the environment of Burma, but
really untouched by it,Takeyama looks at Burma's impact upon the Japanese who went
there as soldiers and stayed long enough to be affected by their experiences with
Burmese culture. One gets to know rural Burma and itspeople through Japanese eyes
and especially gains a positive view of Burmese Buddhism. Unlike Orwell, Takeyama
does not see Burmese character differing fromBuddhist teachings. The question he asks
at the end is a universal one: cannot everyone learn from theBurmese and recover a bit
of their humanness from theirmaterial and scientific preoccupations? It is a question
neither Orwell nor any other writer about Burma ventured to ask.
Patrick Cruttwell provides a different kind of war novel and insight to Burmese life.
InA Kind of Fighting, his hero, Lin Soe, is a thinlydisguised version of Burma's national
hero, Aung San. If read only as a novel about thewar's impact upon Burma, itprovides
an interesting storyof a young man who knows that he isdestined forgreatness and early
death. As a fictionalized version ofmodern Burmese history it is a poor imitation of life.
In order to develop his narrative, the author places himself at the center of the story, as
the link between Lin Soe and theworld. He provides a number of snapshots of theman
and his time: the university where Lin Soe studies; in hiding where the author and the
hero meet and plan for unity between the Burmese Nationalists and the British; the
hero's final hours. But through all of this the reader learns littleabout Burma, therising
generation of nationalist leaders, or the values and ideals of the people. Unlike in the
other novels noted earlier, in this one the author is theman in between. As the univer
sityprofessor, he teaches the hero about the ideals and values of theWest; later, as the
agent for theAllies, he is called upon to return towartime Burma and convince the hero
to join forces with the British in the final stages of thewar. Finally, he is asked by the
Burman Nationalists, who succeed Lin Soe, towrite of their fallen leader so that they can
learnmore about him. Thus, the author sees himself both instructing theBurmese about

136
Josef Silver stein
theWest and about their own hero, while he informed the British and theAllies about
the new Burman man whom theywill have to deal with at war's end. Overall, the novel
fails to give a clear and consistent picture of Burmese society in the throes of war and a
highly unlikely picture ispresented of the nation's future hero and those who supported
him. It does represent an original attempt to create a trulyBurman hero who, although
a product ofWestern education, never really loses his national identity. It also departs
from the other novels of modern Burma in that it treats the hero and his supporters as
secular figures. This isnot the storyofAung San ; instead, it is a view through a prism that
distorts reality as it allows little of the man's strength of character and unswerving
devotion to an ideal to shine through.
From the perspective of a purely American war story, probably the best that has been
published thus far isTom Chamales' Never So Few. The locale is in northern Burma
where a small group ofAmerican forces live and fightalongside theKachins. This special
group ofAmerican fightingmen is the forerunner of themodern CIA who work behind
the lineswith local resistance fighters.The author provides rich descriptions of Kachin
life and, especially, theKachin fightingman. The Americans, who make the rules that
they live by as they go along, anticipate the cruelty and inhumanity inwar theAmerican
public will come to know and feel a generation later as national shame for their
behaviour atMy Lai. Con Reynolds is theAmerican hero inNever So Few. In his war
deeds, his intelligence, and his revenge, he is larger than life.He drinks excessively, he
administers justice by a code he makes up as situations arise, and fights towin regardless
of themethod or tactic. He stands in awe of Nautaung, the Kachin whom the author
idealizes as an example of native nobility. The Kachins and theirway of life not only
stimulate the author's and the hero's interest, but provide a frame of reference for
considering their own. No anthropologist has provided a more positive picture of the
Kachin value system, rituals and behaviour both inpeace and battle.
This is a uniquely American story and one not likely to interest theBurmese or British
reader. Yet, itprovides an important dimension to thewar stories in that itexamines the
conflict from the perspective of theminorities, who the author believes will lose, regard
less of the outcome. It suggests some of the problems thatwere bound to arise after the
war when the Kachins were left to fend for themselves against the Burmans, and it
expresses the fear that theymight not be able to retain their political freedom and way
of lifeonce the fightingends. As part of the literature on Burma, itoffers one of the best
descriptions of life amongst theKachins one is likely to find inpopular literature.
sees theminorities as noble savages, Harry I. Marshall sees them quite
differently. Given his background as an American Baptist missionary and a trained
anthropologist whose scholarly study of the Karens is a classic, his novel Naw Su is a
If Chamales
mixture of both traditions. Looking at theKarens as a backward hill people, he makes

the case for Christianity as a civilizing and enlightening vehicle. The Karens in this
novel, which was set in the period just following the thirdAnglo-Burmese War (1885?
86), are hill dwellers, primitive, dirty, and filled with superstitions and fears of the
Burmans who have dominated them. Naw Su is the story of a Karen girl who rejects
native superstitions and searches for something different and better. She finds itwhen
she leaves the hills and enters a missionary school where she learns to read and to live in
a differentway. Cleanliness, godliness, and self reliance gradually transformher. In time

she returns to the hills to bring new ideas and techniques to her people. Although written
very simply and almost as a parable, it nevertheless contains excellent cultural detail
which gives an accurate picture of Karen life in the hills of Burma where, even today,

137
there are many who have had little or no contact with the outside world and still live
much as they did before the arrival of theWesterner. This author, too, sees a kind of
nobility amongst theKarens, especially when they allow themselves to surrender to the
teachings of the missionaries and gain new strength from their foreign doctrines and
techniques. If, in this case, the clash of cultures is uneven, it is intended to be. For the
reader who will not be put off by the special pleading of the author, the novel will reward
him with the best portrait of the hill Karens he is likely to find in fiction.
John Slimming, a British writer who earned his reputation as a novelist of books on
in presenting a
Malaya,
joins his American counterparts, Chamales and Marshall,
novel
The
Pass. This is
in
his
the
of
the
minorities, again
Kachins,
sympathetic portrait
one of the few books on Burma that is set in the post-independence period and itsaction
takes place against the background of theCold War. Again, the conditions of the people
and the action of the story is narrated by aWestern journalist who comes to this area in
search of a storyof escape fromCommunist China. Under theChinese, theKachins are
forced to labour long hours under themost difficult conditions and therefore are willing
to seek escape rather than remain. Within this frame of reference, the author is able to
compare the lifeof theKachins inChina and themajority who live under Burmese rule.
He makes modest criticisms of theBurma government for its failure to give refuge to all
who are lucky enough to escape fromChina and for itsgeneral neglect of theminorities.
Once again, Christian missionaries are found living amongst the Kachins; however,
unlike their counterparts inNaw Su, these are less certain of theirmission and theirplace
in independent Burma. Living with thisWestern family is a young Kachin woman, who
embraced Christianity while still very young and living in China; persecuted for her
attachment to thisWestern belief, she escaped across the pass, found religious freedom
and devoted herself towork in themissionary hospital that is run by her protectors.
Although Slimming is not the equal of Chamales in providing detailed and graphic
portraits of individual Kachins and does not share the latter's reverence for the native
nobility of theKachins, nevertheless, he does provide interesting and accurate portraits
of thisminority group as they existed in the 1950s. His discussions of theKachins bear
out some of the fears for their future thatChamales had expressed in his earlier novel.
Finally, there are two historical novels which deserve attention. Maurice Collis, She
was a Queen, is set against the reigns of the last two monarchs of the Pagan dynasty,
Usana and Narathihapate, while F. Tennyson Jesse, The Lacquer Lady, takes place
during the reign of the last king of theKonbaung dynasty, Thibaw. In style, content, and
source, they are as different as two novels can be. Collis used theEnglish translation of
theHmannan Yazawun or theGlass Palace Chronicles, which were prepared in 1829 by
Burman scholars under the direction of the king, as his chief source. Jesse, on the other
hand, relied on documents and interviewswith Burmese and Europeans who either had
first-hand knowledge of events or assured her that they had received their information
fromparticipants or observers. Collis tells the storyof the rise of a peasant girl,who was
destined for greatness, to the station of chief queen, and the life she spent at the court;
Jesse follows the intrigues of a jealous and demanding chief queen, Supayalat, as she
maneuvers and dominates her husband, Thibaw, and helps bring down the empire.
Unlike Collis, Jesse provides a lady-in-waiting, Fanny, the Lacquer Lady, who, if the
story is to be believed, caused the third Anglo-Burmese War through her jealous
actions. In a historical sense, the two stories are similar; both dynasties fell to foreign
invaders, the Chinese in the case of the Pagan dynasty and the British in the time of the
Konbaung dynasty, while in fact both dynasties are in the process of internal collapse.

138
Josef Silver stein
Saw, the heroine of She Was A Queen, is shown from two perspectives: as a girl
growing up in an upper Burma village and as a queen at the court. In each, the author
provides insightfuldiscussion of the interrelationships between the people, their lifestyle
and, more important, their belief system. Here, the reader is introduced to themagical
Ma
world of omens, signs, spirits, and other supernatural forces that govern the beliefs of
commoners and royalty alike. Collis also gives an excellent picture of court instability
through his descriptions of intrigue and plotting, reward and revenge, which were the
ongoing activities of the courtiers as they sought power and authority in a system that did
not have an orderly process of succession or a stable civil service. In this brief volume,
the reader finallywill feel that he has entered the world of the Burman people and is
seeing them fromwithin. Granting the fact that the author is an outsider who depended
upon translations from his sources, nevertheless, he has tried to remain faithful to the
chronicles and, inBurma, his work generally is recognized as reliable.
The Lacquer Lady will seem more familiar to theWestern reader who knows nothing
of Burma or the area. Jesse fills her pages with detailed descriptions of the court
and itsEuropean and Burmese inhabitants and the
and palace, the city ofMandalay
influences upon both by Rangoon, Calcutta, London, and Paris. Once again, the bridge
is an Anglo-Burman, Fanny; she was the daughter of a Burman mother and an Italian
father, who was educated in England, and became a lady-in-waiting at the Burman
court. Given her knowledge of both worlds, shemoves easily between them as she slips
in and out of the palace. Through her, the reader meets a host of historical as well as
fictional characters who mesh and clash as the story unfolds. For the reader who is
interested in learning about lifeat court or comparing the court of the nineteenth century
with that of the thirteenth, the period of She Was A Queen, he will find the descriptions
and dialogue to be rich and colourful in their detail. He also will find excellent descrip
tions of architecture of the old palace, which still stood at the time the novel was written,
the daily life of the queen and her ladies-in-waiting, the relationship between the king
and his queens as well as the intrigue both in and outside the palace.
Many have quarreled with the author's interpretation of life at the court and the
sprawling city outside. Burmese have been offended by her presentation of their last
king as easily manipulated and not in complete control of his mental faculties; his cruelty
and lack of judgement were widely publicized during his lifetime in theWestern press.
Supayalat, the queen, too, is presented in themost negative fashion possible. She, too,
is shown as cruel, petty, revengeful, and ignorant of the outside world as she seeks power
and influence.Whether later day historians will reverse these judgements remains to be
seen. Jesse presents the court and its inhabitants as Western historians have described
them and makes no allowances for the biases that theymay have harboured.
It isFanny who provides not only the link between theBurman court and the outside
but, in addition, represents the different mentalities found in the two places. When
Fanny is in the court she behaves as do the other women; when outside, she is the
modern and for her times, liberated, woman who is in contact with missionaries and
businessmen, government officials and charlatans. Through her, the reader gets the
feeling of being a part of thisAsian capital where traditional Burma
with the agents and ideas of theWest.
is in open conflict
The narrative is filledwith real historical figures and Jesse brings them to life.Arthur
Phayre, Dr. Marks, theKinwun Mingyi and many others leap from the pages of history
and are presented, not as idealized types, but as living characters with known strengths
and weaknesses. Fanny, Captain Bagshaw her husband, and Bonvoisin her lover,may

139
or may not be real, but they are believable and they

help the reader to understand both
theAnglo-Burman and the Europeans who populated Burma during the last days of
Thibaw's reign.
Historians may quarrel with Jesse over her subplot, the jilting of Fanny by her French
lover and the heroine's revenge: revelations to the British of a French plot to dis
rival as the ally of Burma. Burmese historians, especially,
place their European
Dr. Maung Maung, dispute the notion of a French plot as the basis of British aggression
against the Burmans in 1885. Certainly itwas a factor, and Jesse tries tomake itmore
important than itprobably was. Nevertheless, it is a plausible story and, given theBritish
fears of French advancement westward from Indochina, it borders so closely to real

events that the reader will find the fictionalized account of big power rivalry to be a
useful way of examining both the behaviour of the court and itsEuropean adversaries.
The era ofWesterners writing about Burma is over. The restrictions on travel and
residence inBurma makes it impossible for an outsider to learn and observe the nation
and itspeople in theirdaily lives.More important, the era of expatriates living at a higher
standard than theywould at home is finished. The novels of Burma in the futurewill be
written by Burmese writers. A large body of Burmese novels exist, but have not been
translated. Therefore, the writers and their stories are all but unknown to the outside
world; thus, themodern epics of Burma's struggle for independence, forunity amongst
itspeople, and formodernization without loss of national character, exist or are in the
process of being written. However, until either Burmese orWestern translators make
these novels available inEnglish and Western publishing houses bring out these works,
they are likely to remain unknown to theworld beyond Burma. That in the end would
be a tragedy because itwould be a part of the perpetuation of Burma's isolation and a
loss of contact between peoples at a very time when communications and media are
bringing the peoples of theworld together.
The novels of Burma do provide an important prism throughwhich the strands of light
propel images and ideas of Burma to the reader that help him to understand aspects of
Burmese lifeand culture. They are useful to scholar and layman alike and it ishoped that
the growing body of those written by Burmese novelists will soon refract their lighton
independent Burma and help us to know itbetter.

140 JosefSilverstein
A BRIEF ANNOTATED
1. Bates, H.E.,
in England).
_
2.
3.
4.
_,
5.
The Jacaranda Tree (London: Penguin Books, 1977), 250 pp. (available only
story of escape
and Burmese.
from the Japanese
The
Europeans
BIBLIOGRAPHY
invasion
of Burma
by a small party of
, The Purple Plain (London: Penguin Books, 1977), 233 pp. (available only
inEngland). The storyofwar heroism as a small partyof downed fliersmake theirway to
novel
safety. This
was made
into a film.
Collis, Maurice, She Was A Queen (London: Faber and Faber Limited, 1952), 248 pp.
(out of print).A historical novel of the lastyears of thePagan dynasty.Follows the riseof
a peasant
girl to chief queen
life at court.
and
Sanda Mala (New York: Carrick and Evans, Inc., 1940), 328 pp. Also published
inEngland by Faber and Faber Limited (out of print).A love storybetween a European
and
painter
a Burmese
girl, and
life in lower Burma
in the 1920s.
Chamales, Tom T., Never So Few (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1957) (out of
war story about American
special
print). An outstanding
into a film.
inNorthern
Burma.
This novel was made
forces
fighting alongside
Kachins
6. Cruttwell, Patrick, A Kind of Fighting (New York: Macmillan Company, 1960), 272 pp.
(out of print).A thinlydisguised storyof Burma's nationalist leader,Aung San.
7. Marshall, Harry I., Naw Su (Portland, Maine: Falmouth Publishing House, 1947),
351 pp. (out of print).A simple storyof a youngKaren girlwho leaves her village and lives
withAmerican Baptists as she adopts Christianity and later imparts it to her people
8. Jesse, F. Tennyson, The Lacquer Lady (New York: Macmillan Company, 1930), 441 pp.
(available innew paperback edition). A historicalnovel of courtlifeand intrigueduring the
reign of Burma's
last monarch,
Thibaw.
9. Leslie, Cecilie, The Golden Stairs (Garden City: Doublday and Company, Inc., 1968),
286 pp. (out of print).A haunting and sensitive storyof escape fromthe Japanese invaders
by a group
of Europeans
and Asians
who
eventually
reach
India.
10. Orwell, George, Burmese Days (London: Penguin Books, 1969), 272 pp. The best known
novel
The
story of a small group
system they serve.
by the colonial
of Burma.
corrupted
of Europeans
living
in upper
Burma
who
are
11. Mannin, Ethel, The Living Lotus (New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1956), 255 pp. (out of
print).The storyof an Anglo-Burman girlwho is raised by a Burman familyduringWorld
War II; later she is lured toEngland by her fatherwho tries tomake her a Christian and
English and failson both counts.
12. Shute, Nevil, The Chequer Board (New York: William Morrow and Company, 1947) (out
of print). Only a portion of the novel deals with Burma; it provides the background of
a subplot about an English pilotwho is shotdown during thewar and findslove and happiness
amongst
the Burmese.
13. Slimming, John, The Pass (New York: Harper Bros., 1962), 256 pp. A novel set inpost
independentBurma, which takes place in the border region of the Kachin State where
Kachins,
against
defeated
company
difficult odds,
seek
to escape
from China.
14. Takeyama, Michio, Harp of Burma (Rutland, Vermont; Charles E. Tuttle Co., 1968),
132 pp. (translated by Howard Hibbett). The unique storyof Burma's impact upon a
of Japanese
soldiers who
await
repatriation
home.


Burma Through Western Novels

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Burma Through Western Novels

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Department of History, National University of Singapore

Burma through the Prism of Western Novels

Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20070844 .

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Burma through thePrism ofWestern Novels

Burma's Western interpretershave, in themain, tried to present accurate descriptions

American writers have shown a particular interest in theminority peoples of Burma,

This content downloaded from 14.139.69.54 on Tue, 29 Apr 2014 02:04:49 AM

Josef Silver stein

conversion to Christianity or as noble savages fromwhom modern Western man can

is an important character he usually is an Anglo-Burman orAnglo-Indian and is a bridge

This content downloaded from 14.139.69.54 on Tue, 29 Apr 2014 02:04:49 AM