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kontramundum's review
4.0
The first time I came across Wang Gungwu was when he delivered a lecture for a school-related event when I was 16/17. I couldn't really be bothered with that sort of thing at that age.
The second time I came across Wang Gungwu was several years back, in a Malaysian poetry anthology where he was published under the alias "Awang Kedua". The poem that I liked best was "I am not a Solider".
I have never had the privilege of meeting the man. But I've been vaguely aware of his academic contributions and have read his earlier memoir "Home is Not Here" and now this companion volume, "Home is Where We Are". This book continues Wang's story where the first one left off.
He narrates his life story in Malaya and beyond, from the vantage of the English-educated elite. However, his was a unique perspective as he was well-versed in the Chinese language and had a stint studying in China. He tells of his days in Malaya University (then based in Singapore) in the early 1950s, the university being "a last-ditch effort to educate a generation of graduates to appreciate what it meant to be part of a global imperial enterprise" and which is where he met his wife-to-be.
Wang shares his adventures as an academic, his sojourns overseas in the UK and in the US, and his reflections on Malayan/Malaysian politics. He was a man of his era - the post-independence "native" elite - filled with optimism in shaping the new nation, not without difficulties of course, but always with a sense of a bright future ahead. He certainly played an important role in Malaysia through his work advising the government, developing Malaysia's first university, and not least by his years as an educator.
The bits that I found particularly interesting are the nuggets of first-hand information about our nation's history. These include:
- How he (and many Malayans) assumed that Singapore would soon become part of Malaya one day, at the time of Malaya's independence in 1957. And that when Singapore was left out of the Federation of Malaya, how painful it was for Penang and Malacca, the other two components of the Straits Settlements.
- His literary exploits, including his experiments with Engmalchin, and the expectation for a national language native to the country, spoken by the majority, to form the basis of nationhood.
- His feelings as an "outsider".
- Malayan/Malaysian nationalism.
- How he was encouraged that although the three communal Alliance parties won in the elections, that they only had a small majority of the popular vote. His sentiments were with the centre-left parties.
- "Malaysia" consisting of Malaya, Singapore, Sabah, Sarawak, and Brunei, being an artificial political creation, and his hope in the "Malaysian Malaysia" slogan.
- His shock and dismay at the separation of Singapore, how Sarawak and Sabah had counted on having Singapore alongside them in the federation, and how he heard firecrackers celebrating Singapore's "liberation and independence" as a republic.
- His distrust of communalist political parties, including the Malayan Chinese Association.
- His help in forming the non-communal Parti Gerakan Rakyat Malaysia, before he left for Australia.
Wang is emblematic of the nation's brain drain, a talented Malaysian who set sail for brighter opportunities. I often reflect with resigned sadness, what could have been if more like him had stayed in this country.
4 stars for adding his valuable personal history and reflections on Malaya/Malaysia for posterity. Recommended if you have some interest in the author, biographies, post-colonialism, and/or Malayan/Malaysian history; may not necessarily be for the casual general reader.
The second time I came across Wang Gungwu was several years back, in a Malaysian poetry anthology where he was published under the alias "Awang Kedua". The poem that I liked best was "I am not a Solider".
I have never had the privilege of meeting the man. But I've been vaguely aware of his academic contributions and have read his earlier memoir "Home is Not Here" and now this companion volume, "Home is Where We Are". This book continues Wang's story where the first one left off.
He narrates his life story in Malaya and beyond, from the vantage of the English-educated elite. However, his was a unique perspective as he was well-versed in the Chinese language and had a stint studying in China. He tells of his days in Malaya University (then based in Singapore) in the early 1950s, the university being "a last-ditch effort to educate a generation of graduates to appreciate what it meant to be part of a global imperial enterprise" and which is where he met his wife-to-be.
Wang shares his adventures as an academic, his sojourns overseas in the UK and in the US, and his reflections on Malayan/Malaysian politics. He was a man of his era - the post-independence "native" elite - filled with optimism in shaping the new nation, not without difficulties of course, but always with a sense of a bright future ahead. He certainly played an important role in Malaysia through his work advising the government, developing Malaysia's first university, and not least by his years as an educator.
The bits that I found particularly interesting are the nuggets of first-hand information about our nation's history. These include:
- How he (and many Malayans) assumed that Singapore would soon become part of Malaya one day, at the time of Malaya's independence in 1957. And that when Singapore was left out of the Federation of Malaya, how painful it was for Penang and Malacca, the other two components of the Straits Settlements.
- His literary exploits, including his experiments with Engmalchin, and the expectation for a national language native to the country, spoken by the majority, to form the basis of nationhood.
- His feelings as an "outsider".
- Malayan/Malaysian nationalism.
- How he was encouraged that although the three communal Alliance parties won in the elections, that they only had a small majority of the popular vote. His sentiments were with the centre-left parties.
- "Malaysia" consisting of Malaya, Singapore, Sabah, Sarawak, and Brunei, being an artificial political creation, and his hope in the "Malaysian Malaysia" slogan.
- His shock and dismay at the separation of Singapore, how Sarawak and Sabah had counted on having Singapore alongside them in the federation, and how he heard firecrackers celebrating Singapore's "liberation and independence" as a republic.
- His distrust of communalist political parties, including the Malayan Chinese Association.
- His help in forming the non-communal Parti Gerakan Rakyat Malaysia, before he left for Australia.
Wang is emblematic of the nation's brain drain, a talented Malaysian who set sail for brighter opportunities. I often reflect with resigned sadness, what could have been if more like him had stayed in this country.
4 stars for adding his valuable personal history and reflections on Malaya/Malaysia for posterity. Recommended if you have some interest in the author, biographies, post-colonialism, and/or Malayan/Malaysian history; may not necessarily be for the casual general reader.
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