Research

As the national university, we champion and support innovative research that addresses the country’s most pressing challenges.

12 Sep 2024

UP Mindanao

Tarsiers need small forest fragments to survive, making it crucial to protect these isolated environments

The Philippine tarsier Carlito syrichta (Linnaeus, 1758) is considered a specially protected flagship species in the Philippines. However, the species is threatened...

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20 Aug 2024

UP Mindanao

In Visayan and Mindanao epics, the “Man With No Breath” is seen as deathless and invulnerable, contrary to the common view of continuous breathing as a sign of wellbeing

In Visayan and Mindanao epics, one encounters the figure of an enigmatic character called the “Man With No Breath”. This...

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09 Aug 2024

UP Diliman

Height and height differences impact different areas of life including jobs, education, sports and social interactions

This review article examines the meanings and materialities of human stature, from serving as a marker of human difference to...

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02 Aug 2024

UP Los Baños

Saba banana peels offer many health benefits including potential effectiveness in treating obesity and related disorders

This study presents a comprehensive investigation into the potential health benefits of saba banana peel (SBP). The study reveals that...

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29 Jul 2024

UP Manila

Pharmacy students are skilled in nonverbal communication and language use, but less confident in developing and managing treatment plans

Pharmacists are in a unique position to provide important medication information, prevent errors, and help improve patient outcomes. Patient medication...

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19 Jul 2024

UP Los Baños

Large-scale study involving samples from 90 countries reveals that butterflies originated approximately 100 million years ago in what is now the Americas

The research, conducted over seven years and involving over 80 scientists worldwide, aims to contribute to our understanding of butterfly...

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16 Jul 2024

UP Diliman

The dozens of animal engravings discovered in the Atxurra cave in Basque Country, Spain prove that there is planning before artistic production during the Upper Palaeolithic

The Atxurra cave (Basque Country, Spain) is an exceptional place to learn about the Magdalenian artists in Europe. A unique...

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26 Jun 2024

UP Diliman

Traditional Thai music was combined with Western classical music to develop unique chamber music pieces that more people can appreciate

Imagine blending the intricate melodies of Thai traditional music with the rich harmonies of Western classical music to create something...

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18 Jun 2024

UP Diliman

The Vocabulario de Iapon (Japanese Vocabulary) is both typical and unique among books first printed in the Philippines from 1593 to 1640

Books go through a process of transformation from uniformity to uniqueness in the course of their survival. Some of these...

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13 Jun 2024

UP Diliman

The lack of a consistent Southeast Asian values system may explain the ongoing sexual prejudice toward lesbian women and gay men in the region

Homonegativity or negative attitudes towards lesbian women and gay men still persist in Southeast Asian countries. Such attitudes not only...

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11 Jun 2024

UP Diliman

Research investigates how crowdsourcing, digital co-production and collaborative governance can modernize local public transport services

The SafeTravelPH Public Transport Crowdsourcing App, which was designed as part of a bigger research, is a platform that actively...

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04 Jun 2024

UP Diliman

Intrinsic goal orientation or motivation varies among students from different cultural backgrounds

This study investigates the motivation of university students in Indonesia, Thailand, Bangladesh, and China for online learning. It analyzes how...

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Research

“The Churning of the Sea of Milk” is a story of a young Filipino scholar who is backpacking in Siem Reap in 2012 but the memory is recollected in 2023. In his journey, he meets a Khmer scholar who is visiting the Angkor Wat to pray. Their encounter enables the persona to learn about the deep knowledge of ancient Khmer people regarding irrigation which was responsible in sustaining their farming, making them one of the most powerful empires in Southeast Asia. The persona also learns about their sophisticated skills in architecture and the centrality of their spirituality in the configuration of their temples. But all these vanished because of long droughts and civil wars that destroyed the waterways and the Angkor temples. The encounter serves as a metaphorical reconstruction of the ruins, a study of the past which is also a journey in the reconstitution of the self in the present. The Filipino scholar and the Khmer scholar parts ways in the end but the persona’s memory of the encounter continues to persist in his present, enriches it, and melds it with his cinematic inner life.

The “Churning of the Sea of Milk” merges memory studies, film studies, and film techniques to perform an elucidation of the Khmers’ deep knowledge of hydraulics intertwined with their politics, their architectural ambitions that altered landscapes and waterscapes in Siem Reap which were necessary to ensure their survival as a people. It offers a reading of the ruins of the Angkor Wat to reveal their dark traumatic past in the hands of Pol Pot, the erosion of ecosystems through a changing climate, and their massive effort to reconstruct and save the Angkor Wat as their architectural and cultural heritage. On a personal level, it is an analysis of healing of the traveler-persona who will be saved by the memory of his encounter with a Khmer scholar few years later. The essay is framed by In the Mood for Love by Wong Kar-wai but provides a narrative inflection by infusing it with queer subjects. The narrative is a churning of the present, past, not-so-distant past, and the future into one extended filmic reading of the Siem Reap River.

Author: Elio Garcia (UP Film Intitute)

Read the full paper: https://archium.ateneo.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2085&context=kk

Image by Sharon Ang from Pixabay