This paper looks at the role of the learned society in Southeast Asia as a space of cross- cultural sociability and intellectual exchange between Western and Asian intellectuals in the colonial-era port-city. The vibrant, outward-looking atmosphere of the colonial port-city as a node of information and cultural exchange made Rangoon and Penang the intellectual staging grounds for new visions of the nation. Penangites transformed their society using the tenets of imperial citizenship to make political and cultural claims. By the 1930s, Burmese in Rangoon, imbued with a renewed sense of cultural pride, absorbed the rising tide of anti-colonialism nationalism echoing across the globe. Diverse Asian communities sought platforms to articulate their concerns and inform themselves of the affairs of the wider world, and their place within it. The advent of the Victorian era fostered new class and racial divisions between them, yet also created more cosmopolitan port-cities with the mushrooming of print-culture. Though Rangoon and Penang had starkly different relationships to colonial rule, they shared a history as multi-ethnic ports where various communities existed side-by-side over centuries. From the mid-nineteenth century, vast improvements in steamship and communication technology created an inter-linked network of port-cities in the Indian Ocean and maritime Asia.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |