LIVING WITH CIVILISATIONS
Professor Wang Gungwu is the Institute of Policy Studies’ 12th SR Nathan Fellow for the Study of Singapore. This book is an edited collection of his four IPS-Nathan Lectures, delivered from November 2022 to March 2023, and includes highlights of his question-and-answer segments with our audience. The Southeast Asian region is home to a set of diverse local cultures and distinct local identities. In this lecture series, Professor Wang looks at how great civilisations came into contact with our region and shaped its local identities and cultures. Being at the centre of Southeast Asia, Singapore’s national identity and development have also been moulded by great ancient civilisations, namely the Indic, Sinic and Islamic. Later on, the idea of modernity brought about by Christian European civilisation greatly impacted our region. Understanding the history of Singapore from this perspective will give us insight to how the country’s modern identity is being shaped and enable us to better understand our region’s place in the modern world order. The IPS-Nathan Lecture series was launched in 2014 as part of the SR Nathan Fellowship for the Study of Singapore, named after Singapore’s sixth and longest-serving president. It seeks to advance public understanding and discussion of issues of critical national interest for Singapore.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Professor Wang Gungwu has been University Professor at the National University of Singapore (NUS) since 2007, and Emeritus Professor at the Australian National University (ANU) since 1988. He is best known for his explorations of Chinese history in the long view, and his writings on the Chinese diaspora.
Some of his notable past positions at universities include Dean of the Faculty of Arts at University of Malaya; Head of the Department of Far Eastern History and Director of the Research School of Pacific Studies at ANU; Vice-Chancellor at the University of Hong Kong; and Director of the East Asian Institute under NUS. Professor Wang is currently serving as a Senior Fellow at the Diplomatic Academy at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Adviser to the Ministry of Education’s Social Science Research Council. Professor Wang holds several appointments in organisations around the world, including Foreign Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Science, Academician of Academia Sinica, Honorary Member of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, and Fellow at the Australian Academy of the Humanities. He was conferred various international awards, such as the International Academic Prize of the Fukuoka Asian Cultural Prizes in 1994 and the Tang Prize in Sinology in 2020. He was awarded the Distinguished Service Order in 2020 by the Government of
Singapore.
