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Even in the last two decades of the nineteenth century, Isabelle Bird, by then an established travel writer, was able to refer to the Malay Peninsula as an almost unknown land. Travelling back from Japan, the intrepid travel writer stopped off in Singapore where the British Colonial Secretary offered her the opportunity to vist the native states of the Western Archipelago. Because she had such a good introduction, she went and was taken everywhere by local officials. And so Miss Bird's journey was less rugged than her many other trips, but, rather more comfortable and well connected, she enjoyed it immensely.
This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1876. Excerpt: ... CHAPTER XIII. A Summer Tour In The Bw6-karen Country. In the hot season of 1869, when the arid heat of the plains made the English cantonments almost intolerable, we were not sorry that duty and pleasure combined, rendered it desirable that we should take up our residence in that portion of the district, inhabited by a tribe called Bghai, or Bwe, the least known, although not the least important of the three great families into which ethnologists have found it convenient to divide the Karen race. Bghai, the English equivalent of the Karen spelling, as rendered by the missionaries, is somewhat arbitrarily required to be pronounced Bway or Btof. We propose, therefore, to adopt the phonetic spelling. The Bw6s are the most numerous of the three families, and comprise in their body, the Kayos or Red Karen3, Tsawkoos, Padoungs, Hashwies, Prays, and other minor clans. The Bw& proper are found on the left bank of the Sittang, immediately above Toungoo, south of the Gaykhos, having the Tsawkoos and other cognate clans to their east. Those located on the affluents of the river wear short drawers like the Gaykhos, with radiating red lines near the bottom, while those south of them wear a white armless sack-like garment, with perpendicular bands fashioned like those patronized by many other tribes. The missionaries have accordingly distinguished them by the names of Pant Bghai (Bw6) and Tunic Bghai (Bwe) on account of these peculiarities in their dress. Similar designations are given them by the Burmese who also call them Leik-bya-gyee (Great Butterfly) and Leik-bya-gnay (Little Butterfly) probably from some fancied resemblance in their dress to these insects. The appellation Bwe1 is borrowed from the Sgan Karens, and the people recognise the term so far as to apply ...
In 1880, Isabella Bird visited the Malay Peninsula - romantically dubbed "The Golden Chersonese" - and was still able to refer to it as an almost unknown land. The world's most famous female travel writer of the nineteenth century set sail from Japan and called at Hong Kong, Canton and Saigon before reaching Singapore. Bearing letters of introduction to the elite of Malacca and Penang, Bird was able to observe life on the west coast of the peninsula before steaming upriver through mangrove swamps to explore the interior of the land. From courtroom to elephant back, from the grandeur of Malacca's Stadthuys to the jungle calm of a picturesque Malay village on stilts, this indefatigable Victorian explorer offers invaluable descriptions and delightful hand-drawn sketches of life in late nineteenth-century Singapore and the Malay Peninsula.
Other questions of both general and critical interest, such as vestimentary display in its guise as exhibitionary colonialist language are also raised."--Jacket.
The fascinating account of two former British colonies with a shared past but vastly different identities today! Singapore and Malaysia sit astride the sea lanes linking East with West--vital choke points in the world's commerce. Since ancient times, ports along the Silk Road of the Sea were populated by peoples from around the globe who came here to trade and live, carried by the steady flow of goods and the ever-present monsoon winds. Author Christopher Hale recounts many fascinating histories of this region, including: The ancient international trade in spices and the seven voyages to the southern seas of the Chinese eunuch Admiral Zheng He in the 15th century The rise of Islamic kingdoms along rivers bordering the Straits of Malacca and the conquest of Malacca, one of the world's largest cities, by a few hundred Portuguese marauders in 1511 The saga of Sir Stamford Raffles, credited with founding Singapore, and the development of tin mines and vast rubber and oil palm plantations on the Malay Peninsula The disastrous fall of "Fortress Singapore" to the Japanese in World War II after only three weeks of fighting, the worst British military defeat in history The wildly successful film Crazy Rich Asians, set in Singapore, the highest grossing romantic comedy of the decade A Brief History of Singapore and Malaysia tells these and many other compelling stories about the people and events which have shaped these nations as they developed into modern powerhouses of international trade and tourism.
The literature of Malaysia and Singapore, the multicultural epicentre of Asia, offers a rich body of source material for appreciating the intellectual heritage of colonial and postcolonial Southeast Asia. Focusing on themes of home and belonging, Eddie Tay illuminates many aspects of identity anxiety experienced in the region, and helps construct a dialogue between postcolonial theory and the Anglophone literatures of Singapore and Malaysia. A chronologically ordered selection of texts is examined including Swettenham, Bird, Maugham, Burgess, and Thumboo. This genealogy of works includes colonial travel writings and sketches as well as contemporary diasporic novels by Malaysian and Singapore-born authors based outside their countries of origin. The premise is that home is a physical space as well as a symbolic terrain invested with social, political and cultural meanings. As discussions of politics and history augment close readings of literary works, the book should appeal not only to scholars of literature, but also to scholars of Southeast Asian politics and history.