Penang and Its Networks of Knowledge brings together the work of eleven distinguished scholars in efforts to recover and preserve cultural-historical knowledge embedded in the fabric of the city of George Town and articulate the significance and reach of the global connections created in Penang’s island capital.
The essays contained within this volume explore a diverse range of cultural intersections of knowledge and ideas, from the broad geographical scope of Penang’s newspapers, to the dissemination of religious ideology, to the modern iterations of waqf. Eschewing a more traditional, nationally oriented framework of history, each tells the story of Penang through an outward-looking lens – an approach more suited to a cosmopolitan port city with far-reaching links to the world.Through this lens, Penang’s role as a nexus of both networks of knowledge and trading diasporas becomes abundantly clear.
Penang and Its Networks of Knowledge paints a vibrant portrait of a city in constant flux, where linguistic, cultural, and perceptual worlds intersected at a dizzying pace, creating new and vibrant connections that continue to inform the island’s outlook into the contemporary era. As such, the collection is a valuable addition to the growing movement to document Penang’s history.
Contributors
Barbara Watson Andaya
Anthony Reid
Jean DeBernardi
Annabel Teh Gallop
Christina Skott
Geoff Wade
Anoma Pieris
Khoo Salma Nasution
Su Lin Lewis
Judith Nagata
Peter Zabielskis
Table of Contents
Foreword
Introduction
Contributors
Chapter 1 Gathering ‘Knowledge’ in the Bay of Bengal: The Letters of John Adolphus Pope, 1785–1788
Barbara Watson Andaya
Chapter 2 Regional Networks of Knowledge: The Penang Collège Général and Beyond
Anthony Reid
Chapter 3 Emplacing a Network Religion in a World in Motion: Evangelical Christianity and the Brethren Movement in Penang
Jean DeBernardi
Chapter 4 Indian Ocean Connections: Illuminated Islamic Manuscripts from Penang
Annabel Teh Gallop
Chapter 5 A View from the Hill: Romantic Imaginings and ‘Improvement’ in Early Penang
Christina Skott
Chapter 6 New Ways of Knowing: The Prince of Wales Island Gazette – Penang’s First Newspaper
Geoff Wade
Chapter 7 Secret Histories of the Colonial City: Penang Viewed through the 1867 Riots
Anoma Pieris
Chapter 8 The Press and Pan-Islamism
Khoo Salma Nasution
Chapter 9 Cosmopolitanism and the Modern Girl: A Cross-Cultural Discourse in 1930s Penang
Su Lin Lewis
Chapter 10 The Changing Perceptions of Waqf and Other Religious Endowments: Social, Cultural and Symbolic Capital in Penang
Judith Nagata
Chapter 11 At The Crossroads of History and Development: An Urban Kampung as ‘Unseen’ Heritage and a Critique of Development in Penang
Peter Zabielskis
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