Behind the Poppycock. "Bamboo Palace: Discovering the Lost Dynasty of Laos" by Christopher Kremmer [review]

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Date
2003-10
Authors
Walker, Nicola
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Publisher
Australian Book Review
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Abstract
Walker first met a refugee from Laos, a teacher in her former life, while working part-time in a miserable egg-packing factory in the early 1980s. She had only a hazy notion of what had brought Ping to this country. Christopher Kremmer’s "Bamboo Palace" has now clarified those circumstances, and what a sad and painfully human story it is: of a 600-year-old socially iniquitous, politically benign kingdom destroyed and replaced by a totalitarian state.
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Keywords
Australian, Book Reviews, Publishing, Nicola Walker, Pathet Lao Communist takeover, political prisoners, Khamphan Thammakhanty, Royal Lao Army, Stalking the Elephant Kings, Vietnam, Sisana Sisane, Chief Propagandist, Savang Vatthana, French, France, Vientiane Accords, Souvanna Phouma, Cambodia, Souphanouvong, Lao People's Democratic Republic, Crown Prince Vongsavang, Queen Khamphoui, Mekong, Theravada Buddhism
Citation
Walker, Nicola 2003. Behind the Poppycock. Review of "Bamboo Palace: Discovering the Lost Dynasty of Laos" by Christopher Kremmer. 'Australian Book Review', No 255, October, 47.