Editorial: Archives & Memory II


Welcome to part II of s/pores issue 2. The technology available allows us to update s/pores on a regular basis. Just as we were about to upload issue 2, I met up with Robert Yeo and he told s/pores about an interview with Wang Gungwu he conducted in the mid 1980s which was never published.

A ‘lost’ interview with Wang Gungwu about the politics of writing and the early days of university education in Singapore with anti-colonial elements thrown in – that’s almost too good to be true! Robert recalled that the interview was conducted more than 20 years ago when Prof Wang was passing through Singapore. He was still with the Australian National University at that time and the interview was conducted in a room at the Regional English Language Centre along Orange Grove Road.

When we sent the interview to Prof Wang for proof-reading, he generously sent us the speech he made at the official opening of the National University of Singapore Bukit Timah Campus. It all ties in nicely.

Many thanks to Wang Gungwu, Robert Yeo and Karen Goh for their generosity and help.

An Interview with Wang Gungwu (in the mid-1980s) Robert Yeo

New University, Three Generations: China, Malaya, Singapore 1949-2007 Wang Gungwu

A Book Review of Memories & Reflections: The Singapore Experience: Documenting a Nation’s History Through Oral History Loh Kah Seng