Social scientists, linguists, and poetical analysts from Asia and Australia focus on the physical border between China and mainland Southeast Asia to explore the new social and political alignments generated by the economic changes in the region and their impact on both mainstream and marginal and minority groups in hitherto remote areas. Their topics include the southern Chinese borders in history, recent migrations of the Hmong, and women and social change along the Vietnam-Guangxi border. The 15 studies were written before the Asian economic turndown, but the trends they describe are still in force. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Social scientists, linguists, and poetical analysts from Asia and Australia focus on the physical border between China and mainland Southeast Asia to explore the new social and political alignments generated by the economic changes in the region and their impact on both mainstream and marginal and minority groups in hitherto remote areas. Their topics include the southern Chinese borders in history, recent migrations of the Hmong, and women and social change along the Vietnam-Guangxi border. The 15 studies were written before the Asian economic turndown, but the trends they describe are still in force. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com) Grant Evans is Reader in Anthropology, Department of Sociology, University of Hong Kong. Chris Hutton is Senior Lecturer in Linguistics, Department of English, University of Hong Kong. Kuah Khun Eng is Assistant Professor of Anthropology, Department of Sociology, University of Hong Kong.