Transnationality And Nationalism: Shared And Contested Memories Of Wu Lien-teh Across East And Southeast Asia In Post-sars Era

Maurice Halbwachs proposed that the reading of the pasts is shaped by interests and needs of the present. The surging interest in Wu Lien-Teh— Penang-born, Cambridge-trained plague fighter in China—across East and Southeast Asia in post-SARS era appears to affirm Halbwachs' view. Utilising...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Por , Heong Hong
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Penerbit Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM Press) 2016
Subjects:
Online Access:http://eprints.usm.my/41172/
http://eprints.usm.my/41172/1/Art4.pdf
_version_ 1848879220055343104
author Por , Heong Hong
author_facet Por , Heong Hong
author_sort Por , Heong Hong
building USM Institutional Repository
collection Online Access
description Maurice Halbwachs proposed that the reading of the pasts is shaped by interests and needs of the present. The surging interest in Wu Lien-Teh— Penang-born, Cambridge-trained plague fighter in China—across East and Southeast Asia in post-SARS era appears to affirm Halbwachs' view. Utilising Halbwachs' presentist and constructionist approach, this article reads post-SARS memories of Wu Lien-Teh as a contested terrain where various historical actors, under a mix of fortuitous as well as intentional circumstances, come to construct what they presently perceive as relevant and important. Memories of the past is thus a site that tells about the present. Drawing on a variety of publications and online sources, this article makes post-SARS accounts of Wu in the region a case for the study of how the pasts are reconstructed to communicate the present. Given that the commemoration of Wu spans across various countries, the case also allows investigation of memory variation across the region. The findings show that the reconstruction of Wu's pasts in the region has been shaped by varying subjective concerns of different historical actors, politics and social conditions in the region, and the transnationality, locality and materiality of Wu's legacies.
first_indexed 2025-11-15T17:43:46Z
format Article
id usm-41172
institution Universiti Sains Malaysia
institution_category Local University
language English
last_indexed 2025-11-15T17:43:46Z
publishDate 2016
publisher Penerbit Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM Press)
recordtype eprints
repository_type Digital Repository
spelling usm-411722018-07-30T03:27:51Z http://eprints.usm.my/41172/ Transnationality And Nationalism: Shared And Contested Memories Of Wu Lien-teh Across East And Southeast Asia In Post-sars Era Por , Heong Hong P1-1091 Philology. Linguistics(General) Maurice Halbwachs proposed that the reading of the pasts is shaped by interests and needs of the present. The surging interest in Wu Lien-Teh— Penang-born, Cambridge-trained plague fighter in China—across East and Southeast Asia in post-SARS era appears to affirm Halbwachs' view. Utilising Halbwachs' presentist and constructionist approach, this article reads post-SARS memories of Wu Lien-Teh as a contested terrain where various historical actors, under a mix of fortuitous as well as intentional circumstances, come to construct what they presently perceive as relevant and important. Memories of the past is thus a site that tells about the present. Drawing on a variety of publications and online sources, this article makes post-SARS accounts of Wu in the region a case for the study of how the pasts are reconstructed to communicate the present. Given that the commemoration of Wu spans across various countries, the case also allows investigation of memory variation across the region. The findings show that the reconstruction of Wu's pasts in the region has been shaped by varying subjective concerns of different historical actors, politics and social conditions in the region, and the transnationality, locality and materiality of Wu's legacies. Penerbit Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM Press) 2016 Article PeerReviewed application/pdf en http://eprints.usm.my/41172/1/Art4.pdf Por , Heong Hong (2016) Transnationality And Nationalism: Shared And Contested Memories Of Wu Lien-teh Across East And Southeast Asia In Post-sars Era. International Journal of Asia Pacific Studies (IJAPS), 12 (2). pp. 83-103. ISSN ISSN: 1823-6243 http://ijaps.usm.my/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/Art4.pdf
spellingShingle P1-1091 Philology. Linguistics(General)
Por , Heong Hong
Transnationality And Nationalism: Shared And Contested Memories Of Wu Lien-teh Across East And Southeast Asia In Post-sars Era
title Transnationality And Nationalism: Shared And Contested Memories Of Wu Lien-teh Across East And Southeast Asia In Post-sars Era
title_full Transnationality And Nationalism: Shared And Contested Memories Of Wu Lien-teh Across East And Southeast Asia In Post-sars Era
title_fullStr Transnationality And Nationalism: Shared And Contested Memories Of Wu Lien-teh Across East And Southeast Asia In Post-sars Era
title_full_unstemmed Transnationality And Nationalism: Shared And Contested Memories Of Wu Lien-teh Across East And Southeast Asia In Post-sars Era
title_short Transnationality And Nationalism: Shared And Contested Memories Of Wu Lien-teh Across East And Southeast Asia In Post-sars Era
title_sort transnationality and nationalism: shared and contested memories of wu lien-teh across east and southeast asia in post-sars era
topic P1-1091 Philology. Linguistics(General)
url http://eprints.usm.my/41172/
http://eprints.usm.my/41172/
http://eprints.usm.my/41172/1/Art4.pdf