The Dorothy and Horace Quaritch Wales Bequest — A Note

1995 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 91-92
Author(s):  
John Guy
Keyword(s):  
Southeast Asia ◽  
Southeast Asian ◽  
Asian Studies ◽  
Asiatic Society ◽  
Southeast Asian Studies ◽  
Asian History ◽  
Queens College ◽  
Insight Into ◽  
State Functions ◽  
Royal Asiatic Society

The Royal Asiatic Society has recently been a beneficiary from the estate of Mrs Dorothy Wales, widow of H. G. Quaritch Wales, the erudite scholar of early Southeast Asian history who died in 1981. The occasion of this bequest, the contents of which are discussed in the Librarian's report herein (pp. 169–70), prompts this note on the contribution of Quaritch Wales to Southeast Asian studies.Quaritch Wales was born in 1900 and educated at Charterhouse and Queens' College, Cambridge. He immediately embarked on a career in Southeast Asia, from which he was never to be deflected. At the age of 23 he entered the service of the Siamese Government where he served from 1924 to 1928 as an adviser to the courts of King Rama VI and King Rama VII. The first-hand knowledge gained from this experience formed the basis of his pioneering study Siamese State Ceremonies (1931), which remains a work of unrivalled insight into the Brahmanical rituals and Buddhist accretions of Thai kingship. He followed this with another work based on his experiences of Thai court and state functions, Ancient Siamese Government and Administration (1934).

Continuing, Re-Emerging, and Emerging Trends in the Field of Southeast Asian History

2013 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 87-104 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Aung-Thwin
Keyword(s):  
Southeast Asia ◽  
Southeast Asian ◽  
Asian Studies ◽  
Emerging Trends ◽  
Southeast Asian Studies ◽  
Current Usage ◽  
Asian History ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
New Generation ◽  
Current Operating

Abstract‘Trends’ in the field of Southeast Asian history have a way of being unresolved satisfactorily before ‘new’ ones emerge to take their place. Part of the reason is that older scholarship is not only considered passé, but each new generation of Southeast Asianists wants to ‘make its mark’ on the field in original ways. Yet, when one scrutinizes some of these ‘new’ issues carefully, they often turn out not to be entirely so; rather, they appear to be different ways of approaching and/or expressing older ones, using different (and more current) operating vocabulary. ‘Angle of vision’ and ‘perspective’, popular in the 1960s, have become ‘privileging of’ or ‘giving agency to’ in current usage, while their methodological intent is exactly the same, bearing the same (or nearly the same) desirable consequences. Older, seminal scholarship is often only given lip-service without much in-depth consideration, so that some of the ‘new’ scholarship begins ‘in the middle of the game’, scarcely acknowledging (or knowing) what had transpired earlier. This unawareness regarding the ‘lineage’ of Southeast Asia scholarship fosters some reinvention and repetition of issues and problems without realizing it, in turn protracting their resolution. So as not to lose sight of this ‘scholarly lineage’ that not only allows a better assessment of what are genuinely new trends and what are not, but also to resolve unresolved issues and move on to really new things, this essay will analyse and discuss where the field of Southeast Asian history has been, where it is currently, and where it might be headed. Although focused on the discipline of history, it remains ensconced within the context of the larger field of Southeast Asian studies.

scholarly journals Premodern Island-Southeast-Asian History in the Digital Age

2019 ◽  
Vol 175 (1) ◽  
pp. 29-57
Author(s):  
Derek Heng
Keyword(s):  
Southeast Asia ◽  
Keyword Search ◽  
Digital Age ◽  
Southeast Asian ◽  
Asian Studies ◽  
New Information ◽  
Southeast Asian Studies ◽  
Textual Databases ◽  
Asian History ◽  
Two Bodies

Abstract Premodern Southeast Asian history has primarily been predicated upon the exploitation of Chinese written documents. Reliance has been placed on several texts that detail Southeast Asian polities, products, and their respective societies. As indigenously generated sources of data have become available, primarily through archaeology, the trend has been to seek convergence between these two bodies of information. The availability of searchable digital databases has rendered Chinese documents to be open to the discoveries of new information previously unknown to historians of premodern Southeast Asia. This unutilized information has the potential of throwing new light on previously held conclusions. This article seeks to make an argument for the exploitation and potential of digitized Chinese textual databases, through keyword search methodologies, in expanding our understanding of Southeast Asia’s past, as well as the potential challenges that need to be addressed so that this new source base can be made sufficiently utilizable for Southeast Asian studies.

Humane Literacy and Southeast Asian Art

1995 ◽  
Vol 26 (1) ◽  
pp. 147-158
Author(s):  
Stanley J. O'Connor
Keyword(s):  
General Education ◽  
Southeast Asia ◽  
Research Direction ◽  
Southeast Asian ◽  
Student Interest ◽  
Asian Studies ◽  
Current State ◽  
Southeast Asian Studies ◽  
Self Discovery ◽  
Integration Of Learning

Humane literacy? An essay on undergraduate education? Isn't it a solecism to broach such concerns in this special issue ofThe Journal of Southeast Asian Studieswhere contributors are invited to take stock of the current state of scholarship in various fields of study? My response is simply if not now, then when? I am writing from North America where Southeast Asian studies has gained only a precarious beach-head in the academy and nowhere is this more evident than in the very limited undergraduate investment in our field. Despite the fact that any expansion of academic appointments for specialists on the region will be spurred by evidence of general student interest, a concern with that issue, on our occasions of collective self scrutiny, has been subordinated to questions of research direction, funding strategies, and the prevailing degree of accord between the various disciplines and area studies. But, however ancillary the general education mission of the undergraduate college may seem to professional scholars eager to get on both with their research and the training of graduate students, it is nevertheless a principal responsibility of those deans who control academic appointments. We differ from our colleagues within Southeast Asia where an interest in the region can be either assumed, or expected eventually to develop. While American universities place globalization high on their agendas today, it is not at all evident that their students will wish to study about Southeast Asia rather than, say, Africa or Latin America. So we do need to focus on how we may demonstrate the centrality of what we do to the process of self-discovery and the integration of learning that is at the heart of general education.

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