Stamford Raffles, James Brooke, John Crawfurd and Anna Leonowens were some of those who came from Europe or the United States to Southeast Asia in the 19th century and then wrote about what they saw.
Their writings deserve to be read now for what they truly were: Not objective accounts of a Southeast Asia frozen in imperial time but rather as culturally myopic and perspectivist works that betray the subject-positions of the authors themselves. Reading them would allow us to write the history of the East-West encounter through critical lenses that demonstrate the workings of power-knowledge in the elaborate war-economy of racialised colonial-capitalism. Many of the tropes used by these colonial-era scholars and travellers, such as the indolence or savagery of the native population, are still very much in use today. which means we still live in the long shadow of the 19th century.
About the Author
Farish A. Noor is Professor in the Department of History, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, Universiti Malaya. His work focuses on colonial Southeast Asia, and his recent works include Ras, Kuasa dan Kekerasan Kolonial di Jawa, 1808-1830 (with Peter Carey) (Jakarta: KPG Gramedia Publishers, 2021); Data-Collecting in 19th Century Colonial Southeast Asia: Framing the Other (Amsterdam University Press, 2020); America’s Encounters with Southeast Asia 1800-1900 Before the Pivot (Amsterdam University Press, 2018); The Discursive Construction of Southeast Asia in the Discourse of 19th Century Colonial-Capitalism (Amsterdam University Press, 2016); and The Malaysian Islamic Party 1951-2013: Islamism in a Mottled Nation (Amsterdam University Press, 2014).
