In a new book review at JCA, co-editor Geoffrey C. Gunn of the Centre for Macau Studies at the University of Macau, looks at Penang and Its Networks of Knowledge, edited by Peter Zabielskis, Yeoh Seng Guan and Kat Fatland and published by Areca Books.
Gunn argues that unlike the hyper-developed Singapore, its colonial twin Penang “has remained far truer to its early post-colonial origins until recent times.” He praises principal editor Peter Zabielskis and his colleagues and sponsors for having “assembled contributions from a stellar group of Malay world specialists” to look at Penang. In the book there are chapters by: Barbara Watson Andaya, Anthony Reid, Jean DeBernardi, Annabel Teh Gallop, Christina Skott, Geoff Wade, Anoma Pieris, Khoo Salma Nasution, Su Lin Lewis, Judith Nagata and Peter Zabielskis.
Gunn concludes that these chapters make a book that is:
practically indispensable to any researcher on Penang and anyone with an interest in the early role of print media and missionary activity in the circulation of knowledge, the rise and florescence of diasporic communities, colonial control, community agency as with the wafq examples, early modernities and much more.
JCA 