{"id":3125,"date":"2017-02-22T11:45:25","date_gmt":"2017-02-22T01:45:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/testblogs.griffith.edu.au\/asiainsights\/?p=3125"},"modified":"2023-08-07T07:44:37","modified_gmt":"2023-08-06T21:44:37","slug":"a-poem-and-the-politics-of-high-imperialism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/testblogs.griffith.edu.au\/asiainsights\/a-poem-and-the-politics-of-high-imperialism\/","title":{"rendered":"A poem and the politics of high imperialism"},"content":{"rendered":"

MICHAEL WESLEY\u00a0 |<\/p>\n

Michael Wesley takes a look at a new book by Andrew Selth and the story of how a poem by Rudyard Kipling took an empire in retreat by storm.<\/strong>
\n<\/em>
\nIn May of 2004, Andrew Selth and I were in London. We were both intelligence officials, and had stopped into the city on our way to a conference on new frontiers in intelligence analysis taking place in Rome.<\/p>\n

We popped into the big Waterstones bookshop in Picadilly and spent an hour or so browsing. I emerged with several tomes on terrorism and world politics; Andrew came bounding out, eyes shining with excitement, bearing a large book on Burmese textiles.<\/p>\n

It can only be this person who could produce a book like The Riff From Mandalay<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Its formal title, Burma, Kipling and Western Music<\/em><\/a>, speaks to all of the bloodless logic of Google searches and citation indexes; a logic that would have forced Kipling to retitle his famous poem \u201cFormer Soldier Reflects on Visit to Moulmein\u201d. God help us. In my small act of defiance, I\u2019m going to call this book by the title Andrew obviously preferred, The Riff From Mandalay<\/em>.<\/p>\n

The book is the work of a unique individual: deeply in love with Myanmar in all its aspects; a bibliophile and obsessive collector (who built two extensions of his house to house his Burma collection); a ferocious researcher. There is a story to this book: in the midst of writing a book on the Myanmar Police, Andrew began following a strand of interest in Kipling and music which became all-consuming.<\/p>\n

Read the full article “A poem and the politics of high imperialism<\/a>” article in The National Interest by Professor Michael Wesley, Dean of the ANU College of Asia and the Pacific.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MICHAEL WESLEY\u00a0 | Michael Wesley takes a look at a new book by Andrew Selth and the story of how a poem by Rudyard Kipling took an empire in retreat by storm. In May of 2004, Andrew Selth and I were in London. We were both intelligence officials, and had stopped into the city onContinue reading “A poem and the politics of high imperialism”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":3127,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[247],"tags":[1672,279,369,404],"class_list":["post-3125","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-indonesia-and-southeast-asia","tag-andrew-selth","tag-burma","tag-myanmar","tag-professor-michael-wesley"],"acf":[],"modified_by":"Christine Kowalski","yoast_head":"\nA poem and the politics of high imperialism | Griffith Asia Insights<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"MICHAEL WESLEY\u00a0 | Michael Wesley takes a look at a new book by Andrew Selth and the story of how a poem by Rudyard Kipling took an empire in retreat by\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/testblogs.griffith.edu.au\/asiainsights\/a-poem-and-the-politics-of-high-imperialism\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"A poem and the politics of high imperialism | Griffith Asia Insights\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"MICHAEL WESLEY\u00a0 | Michael Wesley takes a look at a new book by Andrew Selth and the story of how a poem by Rudyard Kipling took an empire in retreat by\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/testblogs.griffith.edu.au\/asiainsights\/a-poem-and-the-politics-of-high-imperialism\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Griffith Asia Insights\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/griffithasiainstitute\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-02-22T01:45:25+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-08-06T21:44:37+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.griffith.edu.au\/asiainsights\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2017\/02\/wesley.jpg?fit=900%2C300&ssl=1\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"900\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"300\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Griffith Asia Institute\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@GAIGriffith\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@GAIGriffith\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Griffith Asia Institute\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/testblogs.griffith.edu.au\/asiainsights\/a-poem-and-the-politics-of-high-imperialism\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/testblogs.griffith.edu.au\/asiainsights\/a-poem-and-the-politics-of-high-imperialism\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Griffith Asia Institute\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/testblogs.griffith.edu.au\/asiainsights\/#\/schema\/person\/8121b8aa336749474cbaca380c03029a\"},\"headline\":\"A poem and the politics of high imperialism\",\"datePublished\":\"2017-02-22T01:45:25+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-08-06T21:44:37+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/testblogs.griffith.edu.au\/asiainsights\/a-poem-and-the-politics-of-high-imperialism\/\"},\"wordCount\":300,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/testblogs.griffith.edu.au\/asiainsights\/#organization\"},\"keywords\":[\"Andrew Selth\",\"Burma\",\"Myanmar\",\"Professor Michael Wesley\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Region | Indonesia and Southeast Asia\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-AU\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/testblogs.griffith.edu.au\/asiainsights\/a-poem-and-the-politics-of-high-imperialism\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/testblogs.griffith.edu.au\/asiainsights\/a-poem-and-the-politics-of-high-imperialism\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/testblogs.griffith.edu.au\/asiainsights\/a-poem-and-the-politics-of-high-imperialism\/\",\"name\":\"A poem and the politics of high imperialism | Griffith Asia Insights\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/testblogs.griffith.edu.au\/asiainsights\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2017-02-22T01:45:25+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-08-06T21:44:37+00:00\",\"description\":\"MICHAEL WESLEY\u00a0 | Michael Wesley takes a look at a new book by Andrew Selth and the story of how a poem by Rudyard Kipling took an empire in retreat by\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/testblogs.griffith.edu.au\/asiainsights\/a-poem-and-the-politics-of-high-imperialism\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-AU\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/testblogs.griffith.edu.au\/asiainsights\/a-poem-and-the-politics-of-high-imperialism\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/testblogs.griffith.edu.au\/asiainsights\/a-poem-and-the-politics-of-high-imperialism\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/testblogs.griffith.edu.au\/asiainsights\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"A poem and the politics of high imperialism\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/testblogs.griffith.edu.au\/asiainsights\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/testblogs.griffith.edu.au\/asiainsights\/\",\"name\":\"Griffith Asia Insights\",\"description\":\"Asia Insights is published by the Griffith Asia Institute. It offers latest commentary on Asia-Pacific affairs and aims to inform and foster academic scholarship, public awareness and considered and responsive policy making.\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/testblogs.griffith.edu.au\/asiainsights\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/testblogs.griffith.edu.au\/asiainsights\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-AU\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/testblogs.griffith.edu.au\/asiainsights\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Griffith Asia Institute\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/testblogs.griffith.edu.au\/asiainsights\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-AU\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/testblogs.griffith.edu.au\/asiainsights\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.griffith.edu.au\/asiainsights\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2023\/10\/GU_Griffith-Asia-Institute_rgb_red_horizontal.png?fit=2930%2C308&ssl=1\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.griffith.edu.au\/asiainsights\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2023\/10\/GU_Griffith-Asia-Institute_rgb_red_horizontal.png?fit=2930%2C308&ssl=1\",\"width\":2930,\"height\":308,\"caption\":\"Griffith Asia Institute\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/testblogs.griffith.edu.au\/asiainsights\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/griffithasiainstitute\/\",\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/GAIGriffith\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/testblogs.griffith.edu.au\/asiainsights\/#\/schema\/person\/8121b8aa336749474cbaca380c03029a\",\"name\":\"Griffith Asia Institute\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-AU\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/testblogs.griffith.edu.au\/asiainsights\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f133de65681da3b20ddbc1917f066f458d355d7dfa1f214b10ff4bd135d5ab6c?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f133de65681da3b20ddbc1917f066f458d355d7dfa1f214b10ff4bd135d5ab6c?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Griffith Asia Institute\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/testblogs.griffith.edu.au\/asiainsights\/author\/gaigriffith-edu-au\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"A poem and the politics of high imperialism | Griffith Asia Insights","description":"MICHAEL WESLEY\u00a0 | Michael Wesley takes a look at a new book by Andrew Selth and the story of how a poem by Rudyard Kipling took an empire in retreat by","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/testblogs.griffith.edu.au\/asiainsights\/a-poem-and-the-politics-of-high-imperialism\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"A poem and the politics of high imperialism | Griffith Asia Insights","og_description":"MICHAEL WESLEY\u00a0 | Michael Wesley takes a look at a new book by Andrew Selth and the story of how a poem by Rudyard Kipling took an empire in retreat by","og_url":"https:\/\/testblogs.griffith.edu.au\/asiainsights\/a-poem-and-the-politics-of-high-imperialism\/","og_site_name":"Griffith Asia Insights","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/griffithasiainstitute\/","article_published_time":"2017-02-22T01:45:25+00:00","article_modified_time":"2023-08-06T21:44:37+00:00","og_image":[{"width":900,"height":300,"url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.griffith.edu.au\/asiainsights\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2017\/02\/wesley.jpg?fit=900%2C300&ssl=1","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Griffith Asia Institute","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@GAIGriffith","twitter_site":"@GAIGriffith","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Griffith Asia Institute","Est. reading time":"1 minute"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/testblogs.griffith.edu.au\/asiainsights\/a-poem-and-the-politics-of-high-imperialism\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/testblogs.griffith.edu.au\/asiainsights\/a-poem-and-the-politics-of-high-imperialism\/"},"author":{"name":"Griffith Asia Institute","@id":"https:\/\/testblogs.griffith.edu.au\/asiainsights\/#\/schema\/person\/8121b8aa336749474cbaca380c03029a"},"headline":"A poem and the politics of high imperialism","datePublished":"2017-02-22T01:45:25+00:00","dateModified":"2023-08-06T21:44:37+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/testblogs.griffith.edu.au\/asiainsights\/a-poem-and-the-politics-of-high-imperialism\/"},"wordCount":300,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/testblogs.griffith.edu.au\/asiainsights\/#organization"},"keywords":["Andrew Selth","Burma","Myanmar","Professor Michael Wesley"],"articleSection":["Region | Indonesia and Southeast Asia"],"inLanguage":"en-AU","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/testblogs.griffith.edu.au\/asiainsights\/a-poem-and-the-politics-of-high-imperialism\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/testblogs.griffith.edu.au\/asiainsights\/a-poem-and-the-politics-of-high-imperialism\/","url":"https:\/\/testblogs.griffith.edu.au\/asiainsights\/a-poem-and-the-politics-of-high-imperialism\/","name":"A poem and the politics of high imperialism | Griffith Asia Insights","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/testblogs.griffith.edu.au\/asiainsights\/#website"},"datePublished":"2017-02-22T01:45:25+00:00","dateModified":"2023-08-06T21:44:37+00:00","description":"MICHAEL WESLEY\u00a0 | Michael Wesley takes a look at a new book by Andrew Selth and the story of how a poem by Rudyard Kipling took an empire in retreat by","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/testblogs.griffith.edu.au\/asiainsights\/a-poem-and-the-politics-of-high-imperialism\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-AU","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/testblogs.griffith.edu.au\/asiainsights\/a-poem-and-the-politics-of-high-imperialism\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/testblogs.griffith.edu.au\/asiainsights\/a-poem-and-the-politics-of-high-imperialism\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/testblogs.griffith.edu.au\/asiainsights\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"A poem and the politics of high imperialism"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/testblogs.griffith.edu.au\/asiainsights\/#website","url":"https:\/\/testblogs.griffith.edu.au\/asiainsights\/","name":"Griffith Asia Insights","description":"Asia Insights is published by the Griffith Asia Institute. It offers latest commentary on Asia-Pacific affairs and aims to inform and foster academic scholarship, public awareness and considered and responsive policy making.","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/testblogs.griffith.edu.au\/asiainsights\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/testblogs.griffith.edu.au\/asiainsights\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-AU"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/testblogs.griffith.edu.au\/asiainsights\/#organization","name":"Griffith Asia Institute","url":"https:\/\/testblogs.griffith.edu.au\/asiainsights\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-AU","@id":"https:\/\/testblogs.griffith.edu.au\/asiainsights\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.griffith.edu.au\/asiainsights\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2023\/10\/GU_Griffith-Asia-Institute_rgb_red_horizontal.png?fit=2930%2C308&ssl=1","contentUrl":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.griffith.edu.au\/asiainsights\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2023\/10\/GU_Griffith-Asia-Institute_rgb_red_horizontal.png?fit=2930%2C308&ssl=1","width":2930,"height":308,"caption":"Griffith Asia Institute"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/testblogs.griffith.edu.au\/asiainsights\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/griffithasiainstitute\/","https:\/\/twitter.com\/GAIGriffith"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/testblogs.griffith.edu.au\/asiainsights\/#\/schema\/person\/8121b8aa336749474cbaca380c03029a","name":"Griffith Asia Institute","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-AU","@id":"https:\/\/testblogs.griffith.edu.au\/asiainsights\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f133de65681da3b20ddbc1917f066f458d355d7dfa1f214b10ff4bd135d5ab6c?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f133de65681da3b20ddbc1917f066f458d355d7dfa1f214b10ff4bd135d5ab6c?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Griffith Asia Institute"},"url":"https:\/\/testblogs.griffith.edu.au\/asiainsights\/author\/gaigriffith-edu-au\/"}]}},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/testblogs.griffith.edu.au\/asiainsights\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2017\/02\/wesley.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"featured_image_thumbnail_url":"https:\/\/testblogs.griffith.edu.au\/asiainsights\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2017\/02\/wesley.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/testblogs.griffith.edu.au\/asiainsights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3125","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/testblogs.griffith.edu.au\/asiainsights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/testblogs.griffith.edu.au\/asiainsights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testblogs.griffith.edu.au\/asiainsights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testblogs.griffith.edu.au\/asiainsights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3125"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/testblogs.griffith.edu.au\/asiainsights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3125\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testblogs.griffith.edu.au\/asiainsights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3127"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/testblogs.griffith.edu.au\/asiainsights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3125"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testblogs.griffith.edu.au\/asiainsights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3125"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testblogs.griffith.edu.au\/asiainsights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3125"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}