Bamboo People

Burma—a Southeast Asian country bordered by China, India, Laos, Bangladesh, and Thailand—has officially been known as “the Union of Myanmar” since 1989. The name was chosen by the military government, and its use remains inconsistent around the world. The UN uses the term “Myanmar,” but the US continues to refer to the country as “Burma” and its people as “Burmese.” Burmese people use the name Burma informally; Myanmar is considered more “formal and ceremonial” (271). Which name is preferred often relates to the contentious relationship between the military regime and the nation’s many independent ethnic groups. Perkins’s choice to use “Burma” reflects the novel’s emphasis on the efforts of Burma’s ethnic minorities to maintain their sovereignty and culture.

The British colonized Burma from 1886 to 1948, dividing the country into two main regions: “‘Ministerial Burma’ or ‘Burma Proper’, dominated by the Burman majority, and the ‘Frontier Areas’, populated mainly by ethnic nationalities” (“History Since Colonisation.” Burma Link, Burma Link, 10 Oct. 2014). Many ethnic groups ruled their own peoples separately, which created disparities in the development of each region. During Burma’s liberation movement, many ethnic groups allied with Britain, believing that it would “support their right to self-determination” (“

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