I love history and I am now a big fan of Professor Wang Gungwu. As I am not a scholar, I believe that the world will change because of language. Sadly, most Chinese overseas children only speak English but a few will still speak Chinese. The advantage of Chinese people and their children is that they will be multi-lingual with English in the mix. I love the Mandarin language and I feel it must never be supressed. The way I see it, I feel China will be the place everyone want to visit or even live in the future because of its rich culture, it's beauty with a safe and free society, which is becoming more and more evident. They are changing for the better but will take time. How would you govern a country becoming so economically powerful? I see them as great thinkers that is why they succeed and I am very happy for them and am very proud at the same time.
I'm Mauritian (Mauritius), and I can relate myself to Pro-Wang here. Luckily, I'm trilingual English Chinese and French (spoken with written). I enjoy my comfortable life-style culturally or otherwise.
India was good in maritime as well. The Chola Kings did forays into South East Asia. In most cases it was not invasion per say. But cultural diffusion. This was at least five centuries before than Europe did.
No 'forced' citizenship. When a woman is pregnant, should be given a choice to choose which country she wants to deliver her baby. My parents are from China, but i am very proud and grateful to my country of birth. No one can tell me where my loyalty is. "Lahir sini, mati di-sini".
the unwillingness to learn Mandarin by the Singaporean Chinese was mainly due to inferior complex. By now they should feel regret. the only conclusion is LKY has the forsight that foresee China rise and the importance of Confucius culture in development.
Prof Wang is the only son of my high school principal at the Foon Yew HS in Johore Bahru. I met him at the inauguration meeting of the China-Australia Forum in Sydney in the 70s. The only blemish in Prof Wang's long outstanding life is that, LKY, based on a report written by him, closed down the only Chinese university in Singapore, the Nanyang University.
Initially there was University of Singapore, based in Singapore . Funding was for the most part by the then Malaya. After independence in 1957 for Malaya, the country started it's own University of Malaya in KL(capital) The one in Singapore became known as University of Malaya in Singapore.becasue of it's funding. This was the first step in the final separation into University of Singapore and University of Malaya. This happened in 1961. This is the year I entered University of Singapore. One last final detail. The Faculty of Engineering was still in KL. So students who wanted to study engineering had to go to KL. I hope I have clarified the matter.
Oyoter ... A very quick check yields this result: The predecessor of the university, King Edward VII College of Medicine, was established on 28 September 1905 in Singapore, then a territory of the British Raj. In October 1949, the merger of the King Edward VII College of Medicine and Raffles College created the university. Rapid growth during its first decade caused the university to organize as two autonomous divisions on 15 January 1959, one located in Singapore and the other in Kuala Lumpur. In 1960, the government of Malaysia indicated that these two divisions should become autonomous and separate national universities. One branch was located in Singapore, later becoming the National University of Singapore after the independence of Singapore from Malaysia, and the other branch was located in Kuala Lumpur, retaining the name University of Malaya.
Right now Xi is reducing this exceptionalism. It is making China 2nd class and in the South China Sea is producing a situation that will make China shoot itself in the foot. So this exceptionalism is not occurring at the present time due to massive leadership failure which will end in Peking being completely destroyed along with it's present rise if not returned to 10 years hence.
王教授是印尼出生，澳洲籍，新加坡和伦敦受教育，读过的一年中国大学是早已不存在的南京中央大学。 why taiwanese is so narcissist and bigoted? why not invite a Taiwan prof? i guess there is no better prof in taiwan more qualified than prof wang on this very topic. frankly speaking, i cant recall any mainland chinese prof is equally qualified on this topic-chinese immigrants to southeast east, nationalism, peranakan families, chinese exceptionalism
