Pre-European Asian gunpowder technology has received insufficient attention and the transfers of firearms from Ming China to Dai Viet (modern northern Vietnam) and their implications are a case in point. On the one hand, this paper demonstrates how the Vietnamese acquired gunpowder technology from the Ming from the late fourteenth to early fifteenth centuries. It …

WPS 11 Chinese Military Technology and Dai Viet: c. 1390-1497 Read More »

Since the 1970s, Singapore and Malaysia have witnessed a revival of interest in what is termed peranakan, baba or Straits Chinese culture and society. Definitions of what these terms mean and what specific ‘identities’ they refer to, however, continue to be contested. The aim of this essay is to address and throw new light on …

WPS 10 Transcultural Diaspora: The Straits Chinese in Singapore, 1819-1918 Read More »

This paper investigates how a regional, ethnic-oriented party, the Dayak Unity Party (commonly abbreviated PD), grew out of the logic of colonial rule.  The Dutch of had forged a “Dayak” identity out of a diverse, autochthonous, non-Islamic population to be juxtaposed against Islamic “Malays.” Specifically, however, the Catholic Church was the institution through which the …

WPS 09 “Primitive” Politics: The Rise and Fall of the Dayak Unity Party in West Kalimantan, Indonesia Read More »

The article traces an historical relationship between modern architecture (particularly housing) and the condition of emergency. It argues for considering de-housing and re-housing as part of a history of mobilization, which taken in its broadest meaning – to render mobile – was among the most common state-citizen interactions of the twentieth century. Beginning with positions …

WPS 08 Toward a Spatial History of Emergency: Notes from Singapore Read More »

This is a paper about the detention of asylum seekers in Australia. It looks at the detention process as a means of creating alienness and strangeness, to be effectively concealed and yet on hand to be paraded when and if necessary. The paper’s central focus will be detention as spectacle. The paper looks at the political theatrics …

WPS 07 The Spectacle of Detention: Theatre, Poetry and Imagery in the Contest over Identity, Security and Responsibility in Contemporary Australia Read More »

Domestic violence against women has been on the global agenda since the 1970s but the problem has continued to escalate. Singapore and Malaysia have in the last decade enacted specific laws to deal with domestic violence, and while these laws have had some measure of success, further reform is required. This paper highlights the importance of …

WPS 06 A Feminist Critique of Domestic Violence Laws in Singapore and Malaysia Read More »

This paper is part of an inquiry into the history of Indian fisheries during the period of British colonial rule, which I am undertaking with my colleagues from the South Asia Research Unit at Curtin University.  We are seeking an understanding of (i) the effects on the fisheries and fishing communities in the different regions …

WPS 05 The Cultural Significance of Fish in India: First Steps in Coming to Terms with the Contradictory Positions of Some Key Materials Read More »

The exploration of the oral memories of the men and women who belong to ethnic minority groups in southern Laos and who have been involved in the Vietnam Wars constitutes the focus of this paper. It analyses their interpretations of the past through their narratives: their pattern, logic and coherence, but also their discontinuities, omissions …

WPS 04 Narrative, Memory and History: Multiple Interpretations of the Lao Past Read More »