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UML 24. Southeast Asian Folktales Book Project Collection, 2018-2019

The Southeast Asian Folktales Book Project Collection consists of materials from a collaboration between UMass Lowell faculty members and community-based organizations in the Lowell, Massachusetts, area to collect and publish folktales from four community

Collection Description


UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS LOWELL

CENTER FOR LOWELL HISTORY

SOUTHEAST ASIAN FOLKTALES BOOK PROJECT COLLECTION, 2018-2019

UML 24

NOTE: This is a draft finding aid.

EXTENT: 

ABSTRACT: 

The Southeast Asian Folktales Book Project Collection consists of materials from a collaboration between UMass Lowell faculty members and community-based organizations in the Lowell, Massachusetts, area to collect and publish folktales from four community groups: Burmese, Cambodian, Laotian, and Vietnamese.

The complete collection is available for viewing online at SEADA’s Omeka site.

Historical Note

In 2016, University of Massachusetts Lowell faculty members MinJeong Kim (College of Education), Allyssa McCabe (Psychology Department), and Phitsamay Sychitkokhong Uy (College of Education) received a Creative Economy Initiatives Fund award from the University of Massachusetts system. This grant supported a project to collaborate with Southeast Asian community-based organizations in the Lowell, Massachusetts, area to collect folktales from four community groups and compile the stories into a book. Collaborating community organizations included the Cambodian Mutual Assistance Association of Greater Lowell, Inc., SayDaNar Community Development Center (Burmese), Vietnamese Language School at Tuong Van Buddhist Temple Inc., and Wat Buddhabhavana of Massachusetts (Laotian). Focus groups were conducted with community groups to gather folktales. Once the stories were chosen for inclusion in the book, professional illustrators and UMass Lowell students illustrated them. Stories were also translated so that they exist in the language of the originating community and in English.

A book launch and signing event took place on April 20, 2019. The print book, A Long Long Time Ago in Southeast Asia: Tales from Burma, Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam, is also currently available for purchase for a limited time with part of the proceeds going to UMass Lowell’s Center for Asian American Studies.

For more information:

Scope and Content

The collection includes born-digital and digitized files as well as print materials. All digital files are in English except for the book, which is in English with some stories also in Burmese, Khmer (Cambodian), Lao, and Vietnamese. Most of the files are transcripts in English of the focus groups conducted with Burmese, Cambodian, Laotian, and Vietnamese community members. These transcripts include stories that did not make it into the final book.

Print materials include a disbound copy of the book, A Long Long Time Ago in Southeast Asia: Tales from Burma, Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam, and a poster for the book launch and signing event. Both have been digitized.

Related Collections

For a listing of related collections at the University of Massachusetts Lowell and elsewhere, please visit the Related Collections webpage.

Copies of the book A Long Long Time Ago in Southeast Asia: Tales from Burma, Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam have been cataloged for general circulation at UMass Lowell Libraries and for Special Collections at the Center for Lowell History.

Contact the Southeast Asian Digital Archive (SEADA)

For more information about the SEADA, please visit our home page at www.uml.edu/seada, or email us at seada@uml.edu.