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Rice in Malaya: A Study in Historical Geography
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
October 1, 2023
This is a book that tell the history of rice in Malaya or nowadays Peninsular Malaysia. It begin with the origin on rice plant and its dissemination to the Southeast Asian region as well as theory on how it might come to Malaya. It continues with the development on rice plantation in different region with the peninsular it self. It show how various event that happened in peninsular has an effect on the rice plantation. It also show various effort by the British colonial government, local ruler and people in try to increase the production of rice and makes it a viable commercial product. The book also show how rice plantation technic evolve and regress due to changes in policy, situation and market. Not only that, by following along the stories of rice. The book also show changes in the land itself and how the perception of the land changes with the plantation of rice on it.
This book was bought while visiting Borneo Culture Museum in Kuching, Sarawak with an interest on how rice come to Malaysia. It was shocking how factual and data rich this book is makes reading it feel like reading textbook. It feel rigid and technical cause an inability to imagine the situation that the book are tell. Thus taking much longer time to finish. Nonetheless, the connection of rice and Malaya situation is quite intriguing but the lack of involvement from Borneo is a letdown. this cannot be blame on the author as the book are already specific on the regions. In conclusion, This is a good book but it is hard to digest.
This book was bought while visiting Borneo Culture Museum in Kuching, Sarawak with an interest on how rice come to Malaysia. It was shocking how factual and data rich this book is makes reading it feel like reading textbook. It feel rigid and technical cause an inability to imagine the situation that the book are tell. Thus taking much longer time to finish. Nonetheless, the connection of rice and Malaya situation is quite intriguing but the lack of involvement from Borneo is a letdown. this cannot be blame on the author as the book are already specific on the regions. In conclusion, This is a good book but it is hard to digest.
May 20, 2025
2nd read: a bit more helpful. a bit.
This is not a book written for outsiders (like me). It assumes a knowledge of the scholarship and historical events in British Malaya - which is a little puzzling given that the first few chapters are dedicated to a deep-historic context of rice-growing in Southeast Asia.
Wouldn't it make sense to include a brief outline of British colonisation of the Malayan peninsula too, regardless (or, especially because) of the disciplinary audience Hill is writing for? Yet these events are only obliquely alluded to, so that the uninitiated reader is left to guess at what "events of..." Hill is sometimes referring to. The overall effect sometimes verges on incoherence. Why play at such guessing games?
While we're talking about incoherence, the prose is so passive and uninvolved that I often only realised I've zoned out about two or three paragraphs in - continuously, for the whole book.
Maybe historical geographers have, through continual exposure and experience, developed a resistance to this soporific prose. Maybe it's just an issue of style and academic culture/expectations. But it's not a texture of writing that's very kind to non-specialists.
Which brings me back to my original point - this isn't a great book for the unfamiliar.
I think it's good that Hill resists the sort of sweeping generalisations when talking about rice growing across the entire Peninsula, and is at pains to warn us against such caricatures. And this book is probably useful if you perhaps required specific knowledge about specific parts of colonial Malaya at a specific historical moment.
But overall this book is not a friend of the uninitiated. Content-wise, it is too granular (ha ha), too descriptive; stylistically it is written too passively to be digested and assimilated in one go.
This is not a book written for outsiders (like me). It assumes a knowledge of the scholarship and historical events in British Malaya - which is a little puzzling given that the first few chapters are dedicated to a deep-historic context of rice-growing in Southeast Asia.
Wouldn't it make sense to include a brief outline of British colonisation of the Malayan peninsula too, regardless (or, especially because) of the disciplinary audience Hill is writing for? Yet these events are only obliquely alluded to, so that the uninitiated reader is left to guess at what "events of..." Hill is sometimes referring to. The overall effect sometimes verges on incoherence. Why play at such guessing games?
While we're talking about incoherence, the prose is so passive and uninvolved that I often only realised I've zoned out about two or three paragraphs in - continuously, for the whole book.
Maybe historical geographers have, through continual exposure and experience, developed a resistance to this soporific prose. Maybe it's just an issue of style and academic culture/expectations. But it's not a texture of writing that's very kind to non-specialists.
Which brings me back to my original point - this isn't a great book for the unfamiliar.
I think it's good that Hill resists the sort of sweeping generalisations when talking about rice growing across the entire Peninsula, and is at pains to warn us against such caricatures. And this book is probably useful if you perhaps required specific knowledge about specific parts of colonial Malaya at a specific historical moment.
But overall this book is not a friend of the uninitiated. Content-wise, it is too granular (ha ha), too descriptive; stylistically it is written too passively to be digested and assimilated in one go.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews