China's History and Its Relations with Asia and the World: An Interview With Wang Gungwu: Part 1

Zaharul Abdullah ； Wang Gungwu

《Southeast Asian Social Science Review》 7卷1期 (2022/05) Pp. 161-188

https://doi.org/10.29945/SEASSR.202205_7(1).0006

摘要

Professor Wang Gungwu is a renowned scholar, eminent thinker, public intellectual, historian and teacher, who has left an indelible mark with deep and extensive intellectual footprints in the corpus of knowledge in the humanities namely history since the second half of the 20th century and well into the third decade of the 21st century. This interview conducted via Zoom on March 7^(th), 2022 by Dr Zaharul Abdullah, an emerging scholar under the guidance of SEASSR's Chief Editor, is wide-ranging covering an extensive ground and rather lengthy. Part I covers his childhood days in Ipoh, his appreciation of diversity, his university education including why he chose to study history, his PhD dissertation ＂The Structure of Power in North China during the Five Dynasties＂, his career at the History Department, University of Malaya (UM) in the early 1960s and the state of Southeast Asian studies then. It also tells his views regarding the approach in the study of history, and his difficult decision to leave UM at the end of the sixties to join the Australian National University as Research Chair Professor of Chinese history especially its modern history, a topic very close to his heart which he could not pursue while in Malaya. Part II is equally wide-ranging but on topics outside of Malaya or Malaysia. It covers his experience in leadership positions in a number of universities - UM, ANU, University of Hong Kong and Singapore, the values of academic freedom, the training of scholarship and encouraging the best brains, the accolades he received, understanding China from the ＂southern perspective＂, conception of Southeast Asia and ASEAN, China's BRI, the US-China geopolitical rivalries, the Ukraine war, China's stand as well as implications of the war for Southeast Asia. It ends with a nice piece of advice for young scholars on topics to study, the importance of history, and the need to develop a proper balance between deep specialized knowledge and the big picture or the broader perspective.

關鍵字

Wang Gungwu ； University of Malaya History Department ； perspective on studying China ； conception of Southeast Asia and ASEAN ； geopolitics