Home Is Where We Are

Memoirs of Wang Gungwu 王賡武回憶錄 #2

by Wang Gungwu, Margaret Wang

Does home have to be a country or a city?... Or is home this house or that? We have been fortunate.... We seemed always to have been home.
 
Wang Gungwu’s account of his university education in Singapore and the UK,  and the early years of his career as an academic in Malaysia captures the excitement, the ambition, and the choices of a generation that saw it their responsibility to build the new nations of Southeast Asia.
 
The exploration of the emotional and intellectual journey towards the formation of an identity, treasured by readers of Wang's  Home Is Not Here,  extends in this volume into an appreciation of love, family life, and the life of the mind. We also see these years from Margaret’s perspective, her own fascinating family story, and her early impressions of this young bearded poet. Wise and moving, this is a fascinating reflection on identity and belonging, and on the ability of the individual to find a place amidst the historical currents that have shaped Asia.
 

Genres: Memoir

308 pages, Hardcover

Published April 30, 2021

About the author

Wang Gungwu is an academic who has studied and written about the Chinese diaspora, although he has objected to the use of the word diaspora to describe the migration of Chinese from China, because it is inaccurate and has been used to perpetuate fears of a "Chinese threat". He was born in Surabaya, Indonesia, and grew up in Ipoh, Malaysia. He completed his secondary education in Anderson School, Ipoh before going to the university.

He studied history in the University of Malaya, Singapore, where he received both his Bachelor and Masters degrees. He holds a Ph.D. from the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London (1957) for his thesis on The structure of power in North China during the Five Dynasties. He taught at the University of Malaya (in both Singapore and Kuala Lumpur) before going to Canberra in 1968 to become Professor of Far Eastern History in the Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies (RSPAS) at Australian National University. He was Vice-Chancellor of the University of Hong Kong from 1986 to 1995. In 2007, Wang became the third person to be named University Professor by the National University of Singapore.

Reviews

[Joel Goh · Rating 4 out of 5]

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.

[Fern · Rating 3 out of 5]

A well-written account of the remarkable life of a historian; of putting down roots and uprooting as circumstances changed and opportunities arose, during an ever changing landscape of the 60s,70s and 80s of political awakening of South-east Asia countries. It captures the history of the times, and the people he encounters who changed his life and where he moved to, and how all of them shaped his thinking.

I especially enjoyed the pieces written by his amazing wife, Margaret, who supported the decisions he made in his career, moving to London, Petaling Jaya (Malaysia), Canberra and Singapore, raising the family and letting his career take precedence over hers. These excerpts, based on what she had written for her children, add a wonderfully personal dimension, to the story and their life together.

[YP · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed learning about prof Wang Gungwu's journey to becoming an academic. The thought process of his intellectual journey (the questions that intrigued him resonates so much with me personally even though I am not an academic) as well as the interactions/exchanges he had with other preeminent scholars who I read and heard while in in undergrad.

The book was made richer with Margaret Wang's account of the life they lived through her lense, giving us readers an insight to how life was for a woman of her calibre from the 50s to 70s. I would love to read more about her life, her family and her thoughts.

I wish there were more books of this kind to lend readers of today more glimpses into how life was and has been for different generations of people.

[Lau Cze Kai · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wang Gungwu is a legendary sinologist but this biography is really interesting and a real fun read. He lived through plenty of momentous events such as the fall of the ROC, the dawn of independent Malaya, the Malayan communist emergency etc etc. Just really interesting to see how he navigated through these events happening in the background while managing his professional career and his family. His reflections on his challenges with his identity being an overseas Chinese and the search for home with his continuous sojourning (both personally and as an overseas Chinese) are also really thoughtful.

[Yutong Cai · Rating 4 out of 5]

流水账

[Jacqueline · Rating 3 out of 5]

读的是中文版，对其学术研究不是很感兴趣，所以有些章节是速读翻过去的。总体的回忆录还算有些意思。作者父母要求他在４９年前夕离开南京，真是英明之举。

一个人的一生如果能生活在和平年代，不需要为了躲避战乱饥荒和各式各样的意识形态而颠沛流离，离开故土，真是幸运。