View Full Resolution

issue front cover image

Front Cover:

Cover: Yan Naing Tun (b.1979), Life at the Teashop, 2013. Acrylic on canvas, dimensions 36.5 in. x 36.5 in. Burma Art Collection at Northern Illinois University (BC.2019.03.11). Gift from Ian Holliday, Thukhuma Collection.
Photo: Center for Burma Studies, Northern Illinois University

In Burma/Myanmar teashop culture is quintessential. Speaking of the military regime from 1962 to 2012, Yan Naing Tun said: “we had unemployed people with so much free time. They’d sit in teashops, listen to songs, and drink tea. Some would rest there before going home. A teashop is a place for people to come together and chat. We’d talk about things that had gone well and things that had not. We’d talk about politics and business. We’d talk about everything.” (quoted by Ian Holliday on 4 May 2020).

Well known after he graduated in 2002 from the University of Culture in Yangon for visually encapsulating this notably demoralized period, his works at that time were largely in monochromes but often with an emergent greenish lower tint; as the public spaces of that time were mentally colored by the military government and its soldiers green uniforms.

This painting is part of another series where Yang Naing Tun largely abandoned his explorations of the faintly maudlin greens and replaced now by brighter colors—here with a dominant blue—during the brief emergence of the new democratic movement under Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, when the economy palpably began to change. Yet still rather evocative of the sadness, loneliness and stunned ennui of those waiting for another cup of sweet milk tea, and the accompanying gratis thermos of lepeyé: hot water flavored with few leaves of Shan tea.

In this realistic rendering, these two longyi-wearing but faceless companions are seated atop the low wooden stools so characteristic of Burmese tea shops, still considering their generally depressed and void existence throughout this earliest phase of political transition. But their somewhat ruddy skin tones and the warmer light coming from outside translate into possible future hopes. The embossed appearance of the faintly overlaid Burmese script evokes their smalltalk—if still largely desultory chatting—yet the cooly bluish atmosphere transmits a yet-unhealed loneliness. Not pictured here are the children invariably buzzing around: refilling instantly the customers’ demanding another thermos of lepeyé; or maybe even a second cup of milk tea.This painting illustrates one of the articles in this issue related to Burmese teashops.

Dr. Catherine Raymond, curator of the Burma Art Collection at NIU. This painting was exhibited in Kaleidoscope of Burmese Art at the NIU Art Museum in 2016 to celebrate the 30th Anniversary of the Center for Burma Studies. It is now part of the permanent exhibition Painting Myanmar Today located at the Founders Memorial Library at Northern Illinois University since 2019.

Journal of Burma Studies

In this Issue

Table of Contents

View Online Version

About the Cover

DOI: 点击下载

full access

Editor's Note

Jane M. Ferguson

pp. ix-xiii

DOI: 点击下载

full access

Research Articles

Decision-Making, Irregular Migration, and Benefits: A Case of Chin Migrant Workers in Malaysia

Tual Sawn Khai

pp. 191-219

DOI: 点击下载

full access

Assessing the Effectiveness of Japanese Official Development Aid in Myanmar: A Case Study of the Grant Assistance for Grassroots Projects in the Chin State Education Sector

Khen Suan Khai

pp. 221-259

DOI: 点击下载

full access

Tolerant Tea Shops: The Social Construction of Forbearance in Child Labor

Nyunt Nyunt Win, Aung Naing

pp. 261-289

DOI: 点击下载

full access

Citizens and Land: Socioeconomic Effects of Relocation and Resettlement by the Thilawa Special Economic Zone

Michael Griffiths

pp. 291-328

DOI: 点击下载

full access

The Politics of Banana Planting in Waingmaw Township

Wah Wah, Aung Naing

pp. 329-360

DOI: 点击下载

full access

Preparing the Coup in Myanmar: The Military's Strategy for Undermining the National League for Democracy Government

Mikael Gravers

pp. 361-398

DOI: 点击下载

full access

Additional Information
ISSN	2010-314X
Print ISSN	1094-799X
Launched on MUSE	2023-07-24
Open Access	No

Copyright

Copyright © Center for Burma Studies, Northern Illinois University

Additional Issue Materials

Editorial Board