The discourse on postcolonial urbanism is interesting to be studied. One of the books reviewed is “Postcolonial Urbanism: Southeast Asian Cities and Global Processes”, edited by Ryan Bishop, John Phillips, and Yeo Wei Wei (Routledge, 2003). For about 2 months (June-July), the students of Sanata Dharma University who conducted their Alternative Service Program VIII in YPR had read and translated some selected chapters of that book into Indonesian. On Thursday, August 13, 2009, they presented the results on reading and translating the book in front of the volunteer staff and YPR, and the supervisor from Sanata Dharma University in Muara Kapuas, Ngaglik, Sleman.

These students (Sita, Arin, Inkan, Vika, and Rina) admitted that they had found an unique reading and translating experience when they worked on it. They also confessed that the materials of this book are challenging and had its own special difficulties, especially when they faced particular conceptual terms that is not existed in the dictionary. Nevertheless, the experience of reading this postcolonial book broadens their perspective, as student of English Literature, toward the reality of diverse ‘text’. By reading this book, we are invited to explore deep beyond the town halls of Asia in the context of globalization problems. Our memories are also tempted to go deeper into the unconscious reality problems faced by the present heterogeneous and complicated towns.

As Sita said, she had experienced an unique feeling when she was reading and translating one of the chapters about the postcolonial cities in India. In the postcolonial period, the cities in India are surely have the cultural mix between indigenous culture and colonial culture. This fact can be seen from the architect’s buildings, culture, and their language. Sita also explained on the process of translating ‘Postcolonial Urbanism’ was quite ‘unfamiliar’ but it provided various lessons, such as learning on how to understand texts correctly, how to understand the messages and meanings conveyed by the texts, and how to understand and capture the text messages correctly.

Furthermore, Arin told her experiences when reading about the cities which were related to disaster and terrorism. She explained on how the cities are targeted, as the targets of natural disasters, like earthquakes, hurricanes, and floods, and also how the city became the target of immigration (legal or illegal), economic, and bombings like what happened in the World Trade Center tragedy. In addition, the cities have became the center for a wide range of activities promoting the economy. The cities economic development can be seen in the Philippines, which have moved from the modern town to hypermodern town. In the Philippines, they have EPZ (Export Processing Zone), which allows free trade areas and duty-free area for export goods, so that their economy is growing.

The stories of urban Asian cities are more interesting when the discussion came to Inkan’s turn. Inkan, originally from Jakarta, explained on her reading about the phenomenon of the homosexual (gay) life in one of the cities in Thailand who struggle to find their identity, form their own communities, and try not to be influenced by Western gay lifestyle. What is interesting is that the gay lifestyle can influence the city spatial of Bangkok. On the other hand, Inkan told about Jakarta, which is considered as a metropolitan city that experienced on very large fragments, so that it can be divided into 12 sections. This division appears as the impact of globalization and from a wide range of interests of various aspects of social life, politics and culture.

This book is also photographing the story of the irrationality on West community, which is London, that appears to have faith in ghosts. Vika presented ann article about the Vampire. Moreover, the article said that postcolonialism is similar to ‘vampirism’. Even though ‘vampirism’ has been eliminated for thousand times, but it will still haunt us though we have to wait for years and even for centuries. Vika also talked about the ‘Arcades Project’ by Walter Benjamin, which is paired with other approaches about the post colonial city planning.

In the end, Rina told much about her difficulties during the translation process. The difficulty raised mainly because she felt that she has different background with the translated text. The second difficulty is on the sentences complexity in the text, even she found a paragraph that consists of only one sentence.

That is the results of their reading in Postcolonial Urbanism in Southeast Asia by the students of Alternative Service Program VIII. It is an experience that ‘enriches’ the perspective of a discourse of the thriving reality town from a period called ‘the next day of the past’. It is a critical reflection on the fact of the cities in Southeast Asia today. The Indonesian translation of this selected chapters may help us to understand the dynamics of the post colonial cities.