So Chiangmai University is going to hold a conference on Burma Studies, 24-26 July. Fine, you say, but what does it have anything to do with Shans?
Plenty, that is, if you are a real Shan, one who’s doing something for Shans, and not just a Shan who likes to speak Shan, and wear those beautiful Shan costumes at parties like the one we are talking about.
Here are some of the panels and papers that focus on Shans and the Shan State:
24 July 2015
| Time | Room # | Topic | Panelist |
| 13:00-14:30 | 1 | Impact of minorities issues on northern Myanmar on China-Myanmar relations | Qingsi Li |
| 13:00-14:30 | 5 | Religious networks of TaiBuddhists across the China-Myanmar border | Takahiro Kojima, Osaka University |
| 13:00-14:30 | 5 | Cross border migration and revitalization of Shan Buddhist practices in the Myanmar-Thai border area | Tadayoshi Murakami, Osaka University |
| 13:00-14:30 | 5 | Thai Buddhist monk KhrubaBoonchum, Burmese ethnic following and the shift in a millennium movement at the Thailand-Burma border | Amporn Jirattikorn, Chiangmai University |
| 14:45-16:15 | 3 | Shan Ethnic Aspiration toward the Future of its Armed Organizations | Amporn Jirattikorn, Chiangmai University |
| 25 July 2015 | |||
| Time | Room # | Topic | Panelist |
| 9:45-11:15 | 3 | Maize corporate Contract Farming, Moneylenders and the Making of Poverty-Market-led Debt, Dispossession and Differentiation in Rural Shan State, Myanmar | Kevin Woods, University of California, Berkeley |
| 11:30-13:00 | 2 | The Learning curve of a Stationary Bandit-A Case Study on the Pa-O Self Administrated Zone | Yue Ricky |
| 11:30-13:00 | 3 | Living withOpium: Livelihood Strategies Among Rural Uplanders in Southern Shan State, Myanmar
| Khu Moe Htun, Chiangmai University |
| 11:30-13:00 | 6 | The Impact of Centralized Education System in Post-Primary School Management in Rural Areas of Shan State, Myanmar | Nang Htay Aung:
|
26 July 2015
| Time | Room# | Topic | Panelist |
| 8:00-9:30
| 2 | Kokang Self-administered ZoneEmployment Development: Case Study of Gambling Industry in Kokang | Myint Myint Kyu, Chiangmai University |
| 8:00-9:30 | 6 | The Shan in Thailand: Contentious Approaches to Management of Refugees | Garrett Kostin, University of Washington |
Maybe you think you know more about these subjects than the outsiders. In your own way, you’re right of course because you’re in it, not them. But, like a football match, there are things a player in the field misses that the outsider sees plainly. Only by learning things from both sides, you’ll be able to deal with the problems you’re facing.
So I hope you’ll all be there and at least allow me a chance to greet you in Shan.
