History & Culture & Politics (GR)

Although Chinese emigration has a long past, its modern phase dates from sixteenth century, when European colonialists began to collaborate with Chinese emigrants to develop a worldwide trading system. In this book, distinguished historian Philip A. Kuhn tells the remarkable story of five-centuries of Chinese emigration as an integral part of...

Few authors have as much to say about Singapore and Johor in the early 17th century as Cornelis Matelieff de Jonge (c.1570-1632). This admiral of the Dutch East India Company sailed to Asia in 1605 and besieged Portuguese Melaka in 1606 with the help of Malay allies. A massive Portuguese...

Chin Woon Pings ""Hakka Soul"" chronicles the dreams, ambitions and idiosyncrasies of her family, beginning with the death of her grandmother in pre-Independence Malaya. It was a tumultuous period when the occupying Japanese army had just been defeated, the British colonial government was losing its grip on the country and...

Rice is a staple part of the diet of virtually every Malaysian, to the extent that in each of the major languages used in Malaysia, rice means food and food means rice. Drawing on a wide range of sources, Rice in Malaya opens with an examination of the often fragmentary...

Beneath the modern skyscrapers of Singapore lie the remains of a much older trading port, prosperous and cosmopolitan and a key node in the maritime Silk Road. This book synthesizes 25 years of archaeological research to reconstruct the 14th-century port of Singapore in greater detail than is possible for any...

The Malay-language term used for indigenous minority peoples of Peninsular Malaysia, Orang Asli, covers at least 19 culturally and linguistically distinct subgroups. Until about 1960 most Orang Asli lived in small camps and villages in the coastal and interior forests, or in isolated rural areas, and made their living by...

Singapore fell to Japanese forces on 15 February 1942. Within a matter of days, the occupying army took prisoner more than 100,000 British, Australian and Indian soldiers, and massacred thousands of Chinese civilians. A resistance movement formed in Malayas jungle-covered mountains, but the vast majority of people could do little...

No countrys history is so well documented yet so poorly understood as that of a former colony. Singapore and Malaysia are particular victims of this historical paradox, and Carl Trockis account of the history of Johor and Singapore marks a decided advance in Malaysian scholarship. A study of the Temenggongs...

Japanese forces invaded Malaya on 8 December 1941 and British forces surrendered in Singapore 70 days later. Japan would rule the territory for the next 31/2 years. Early efforts to maintain pre-war standards of comfort gave way to a grim struggle for survival as the vibrant economy ground to a...

In Malaysia race is viewed not as an external attribute attached to a person but rather as an innate characteristic. Starting from this foundation, race and indigeneity have featured prominently in Malaysian politics throughout the post-war era, influencing both the civil status and property rights of broad sectors of the...

International politics in Southeast Asia since end of the Cold War in 1990 can be understood within the frames of order and an emerging regionalism embodied in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). But order and regionalism are now under seige, with a new global strategic rebalancing under way....

Wallaces Malay Archipelago is a classic account of the travels of a Victorian naturalist through island Southeast Asia. It has been loved by readers ever since its publication in 1869. Despite numerous modern reprints with appreciative introductions, this is the first - and long overdue - annotated edition in English....

From its beginnings in the late eighteenth century, the vibrant colonial port of Penang attracted a diverse range of peoples, enabled pioneering commercial enterprises, and fomented inter-ethnic collaboration and inter-cultural borrowings. The island came to be known as the "Pearl of the Orient", and for many travellers it was their...

Covering Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei, Agriculture in the Malaysian Region, originally published in 1982, presents a detailed description of the regions agro-systems, including shifting cultivation, wet rice production, smallholder tree-crop and mixed forms cultivation, plantation systems, and intensive market-gardening with livestock production. For this edition, the author has updated the...

Activist and vice president of Transient Workers Count Too (TWC2), Alex Au explores Singapore’s addiction to cheap labour, and the consequences it has on the vulnerable migrant worker community. Rational Conversations by Epigram Books is a series of essays and speeches by prominent Singaporeans on issues close to their heart....

Singapore at Random, an illustrated collection of Singapore trivia, contains anecdotes, statistics, quotations, diagrams, facts, recipes, advice, folklore and other unusual and often useful tidbits. Compiled and researched by a dedicated team of researchers and editors at Editions Didier Millet, and having unearthed an abundance of Singaporean trivia, the team...

"Baba," "Nonya," "Peranakan" and "Straits Chinese" are terms that refer to the descendants of Chinese traders who settled in Southeast Asia centuries ago, and assimilated aspects of indigenous Malay culture into Chinese culture. Built between 1896 and 1897, the NUS Baba House was the ancestral home of the Wee family,...

Malaysia Notebook features over 50 drawings and watercolours of artist Chin Kon Yit, who turns his keen eye and delicate brush to record Malaysias enchanting architecture and scenes of daily life. Featuring marvellous architectural details, this notebook is the perfect gift for stationery lovers and art enthusiasts alike.

Landmarks of Selangor is testimony to the rich architectural heritage of the state of Selangor. More than 40 buildings of historic or aesthetic importance have been specially painted by the distinguished artist Chin Kon Yit, with detailed commentaries by architect and conservationist Chen Voon Fee. A historical introduction is provided...

King Bhumibol Adulyadej of Thailand is the world’s longest reigning monarch. Indeed, his 65-year reign is one of the longest in world history, an achievement few would have predicted when the Thai king acceded the throne after the mysterious death of his brother in 1946. How did King Bhumibol revive...