Wang , Gungwu
(2017)
Keynote Address Southeast Asia:
Imperial Themes.
International Journal of Asia Pacific Studies (IJAPS), 13 (2).
pp. 179-192.
ISSN ISSN: 1823-6243
Abstract
A celebratory conference of this kind should allow the keynote lecture to be
somewhat more personal than normal. It is with that in mind that I have linked
the theme, 'Southeast Asia: Past, Present and Future', to the person whose
birthday we are celebrating. I do not know if I can do that successfully but
will try by pursuing some of Nick's [Nicholas Tarling] and my own life and
professional experiences with imperial themes in Southeast Asian history. Why
'imperial themes'? Would not that be too much of a bias towards the past? It
would seem to ignore the conference theme to include both the present and the
future. Of course, I have an historian's weakness for what is past; in this case,
even 'privileging' a past paradigm that Southeast Asians today might prefer to
forget. My excuse is that the party is for Nick, who is even more the historian
than I am, and this is a rare opportunity for me to connect with him in the
Southeast Asian context. But I shall not only talk about the past. I also hope to
show that there are imperial themes in different contexts and different kinds of
empires. Many of us wish to see the end of empires forever, and indeed some
kinds of empires may have come to an end. But imperial themes are pervasive
and resilient and may be more present than we think, and more relevant for
the future than we would want. I recall suggesting a few months ago, when
commemorating the end of the Second World War in Asia, that the kind of
empire that the Japanese had tried to establish in Southeast Asia between 1941
and 1945 was gone and never to return.
Actions (login required)
 |
View Item |
![[img]](http://eprints.usm.my/style/images/fileicons/application_pdf.png)
