Keynote Address Southeast Asia: Imperial Themes
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 t...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Penerbit Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM Press)
2017
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| Online Access: | http://eprints.usm.my/41281/ http://eprints.usm.my/41281/1/IJAPS-132_ART9.pdf |
| _version_ | 1848879247733555200 |
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| author | Wang , Gungwu |
| author_facet | Wang , Gungwu |
| author_sort | Wang , Gungwu |
| building | USM Institutional Repository |
| collection | Online Access |
| description | 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. |
| first_indexed | 2025-11-15T17:44:12Z |
| format | Article |
| id | usm-41281 |
| institution | Universiti Sains Malaysia |
| institution_category | Local University |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2025-11-15T17:44:12Z |
| publishDate | 2017 |
| publisher | Penerbit Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM Press) |
| recordtype | eprints |
| repository_type | Digital Repository |
| spelling | usm-412812018-08-10T08:23:57Z http://eprints.usm.my/41281/ Keynote Address Southeast Asia: Imperial Themes Wang , Gungwu P1-1091 Philology. Linguistics(General) 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. Penerbit Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM Press) 2017 Article PeerReviewed application/pdf en http://eprints.usm.my/41281/1/IJAPS-132_ART9.pdf 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 http://ijaps.usm.my/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/IJAPS-132_ART9.pdf |
| spellingShingle | P1-1091 Philology. Linguistics(General) Wang , Gungwu Keynote Address Southeast Asia: Imperial Themes |
| title | Keynote Address Southeast Asia:
Imperial Themes |
| title_full | Keynote Address Southeast Asia:
Imperial Themes |
| title_fullStr | Keynote Address Southeast Asia:
Imperial Themes |
| title_full_unstemmed | Keynote Address Southeast Asia:
Imperial Themes |
| title_short | Keynote Address Southeast Asia:
Imperial Themes |
| title_sort | keynote address southeast asia:
imperial themes |
| topic | P1-1091 Philology. Linguistics(General) |
| url | http://eprints.usm.my/41281/ http://eprints.usm.my/41281/ http://eprints.usm.my/41281/1/IJAPS-132_ART9.pdf |