Abstract:
Responding to the challenge of redividing the world and understanding foreign countries, the concepts of Southeast Asia and Southeast Asian Studies as area studies were invented in Europe and the USA. In fact, Southeast Asian studies in the West had been dominant in global academia. However, paralleling with the end of Cold War and the rise of East Asia, Southeast Asian Studies in the East rose swiftly. The pattern transformation reflected the change of dynamism of knowledge production. Based on the historiographic review of Southeast Asian Studies, this paper argues that the new thinking of environmental history could provide new concepts and analysis tools for Southeast Asian studies. This will be helpful for it to shift its paradigm.
