台灣與馬來世界

What does “Southeast Asian history” from a Taiwanese perspective look like? What does “Southeast Asia” look like from a Taiwanese perspective? What are the purposes and value of knowledge production about “Southeast Asia” in contemporary Taiwan? Who are we speaking to and writing for in Taiwan? This course begins with these questions by interrogating the notion of “area studies” as well as the different regional concepts and cultural imaginaries deployed in the study of what we now know as “Southeast Asia,” which includes narratives and discourses on “Chinese-ness” that have been influential in mediating and that continue to mediate Taiwan’s connections and disconnections with this region. We will be taking up this inquiry through a detour to the “Malay world,” using it as a site and heuristic device. Students should take note that the “Malay world” does not refer to contemporary Malaysia. For the purposes of this course, the “Malay world” refers to the Malay-Indonesian archipelago consisting of Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, Brunei, southern Thailand and the southern Philippines. Extending from a critical examination of ‘area studies,’ spatiality and units of research and analysis, a related and additional aim of this course is to re-think the limitations of the “nation-state” as an analytical unit and to discuss, at the same time, possibilities of historical research and writing in spite of or outside of the nation-state. As a fully-functioning state that remains a nation under erasure, Taiwan is an exemplary place to probe these questions. Students will learn about these key themes in the Malay world (1) concepts of “indigeneity” and “foreign-ness” (2) indigenous political-economic, socio-cultural, religious systems and their interaction with internal and “extra-regional” influences (2) histories of “state” and empire-building (4) European imperial formation and its effects on the Malay world especially the reconfiguration of race relations and race ideologies from the nineteenth to the early twentieth century. This course will be taught in Chinese. As this course does not adopt a conventional approach to teaching Southeast Asian history or the Malay world, students must attend the first lecture if they wish to sign up for the course.

60%: Class attendance and active in-class participation. **Pls read all readings assigned to you in advance. For L5 to L15, one student will do a 20 min ppt presentation on one reading for that week. [20%] Pls look through the list of readings and pick the reading you’ll like to present. I will assign specific chapter/chapters for books. 40%: 2 Written assignments, 20% each 1) Report related to field-trip to the National Museum of Taiwan History [20%[ 2) Research paper on a topic of your choice [20%]