Enlightenment in Dispute: The Reinvention of Chan Buddhism in Seventeenth-Century China. By Jiang Wu. New York: Oxford University Press, 2008, 457 pages, ISBN: 978‐0195333572 (cloth), US $74.00.

Volume 18, 2011

Reviewed by Jack Meng-Tat Chia
Harvard University
mtchia@fas.harvard.edu

Read review

Zhongguo Fojiao shilun 中国佛教史论. Wang Rongguo 王荣国. Beijing: Zongjiao wenhua chubanshe 宗教文化出版社, 2008.

Read Review

Hong San See Temple 新加坡鳳山寺 (Photo by Jack)

SINGAPORE: The Hong San See Temple at Mohamed Sultan Road has won the highest UNESCO award for excellence in heritage conservation.

The temple received the Asia-Pacific Heritage Awards for Culture Heritage Conservation from UNESCO on November 22.

Built between 1908 and 1912, the temple revives the Minnan temple architecture of southern China from the late Qing Dynasty.

The Minnan dialect originates from the southern part of China’s Fujian province.

In Singapore, the variants of the Minnan dialect include Teochew and Hokkien.

In 1978, the temple, owned by the Singapore Lam Ann Association – a Hokkien clan group – was gazetted by the Preservation of Monuments Board (PMB).

In 2009, the temple received funding for restoration works and sought the help of the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) and the PMB.

The project beat 33 entries from 14 countries to win the award.

“It’s very prestigious because it really highlights for an audience all over the world the importance of cultural heritage in Asia and the Pacific, and in particular, the involvement of the local communities in preserving their heritage,” said Etiene Clement, deputy director of UNESCO Bangkok.

“There’s not many which over the past ten years have got the award of excellence. There’s even not one every year. So for this year, there’s only one, which is this temple.”

UNESCO said rigorous methods were used in the project’s conservation which have kept the authentic structure of the building well-preserved.

Mr Clement said there were a few reasons why the temple won. “Among them was the fact that they were looking for perfection…..Perfection, (it) doesn’t mean that everything needs to be restored to look new. On the contrary, it needs to be restored in a way that tells the story of the monument,” he said.

- CNA/ir

For more information on the cult of Guangze Zunwang and the Hong San See temple networks, you can read my dissertation “Sacred Ties across the Seas: The Cult of Guangze Zunwang and its Religious Network in the Chinese Diaspora, 19th Century -2009.”

In exploring the past, researchers labour in the present: to locate the archival document which is located somewhere behind a gate with its keeper; or to find that elusive participant who will throw light on a gap in our knowledge, and convince them to speak. The Makers and Keepers of Singapore History meditates on this relationship between past and present in a developmental city-state. It discusses how researchers seek to gain entry to archives and memories, in endeavours which crucially shape the imagination of Singapore as a nation and the identity of its people as citizens.

CONTENTS

Part 1 – History & The Gates

Chp 1: Encounters at the Gates – Loh Kah Seng

Chp 2: Walls, Gates and Locks: Reflections on Sources for Research on Student Political Activism – Huang Jianli

Chp 3: Archival Records in the Writing of Singapore History: A Perspective from the Archives – Kwa Chong Guan and Ho Chi Tim

Part 2 – Front Gates

Chp 4: Traversing the Boundaries of Historical Research: From the Singapore River to the Kra Canal – Stephen Dobbs

Chp 5: Seeking the Bukit Ho Swee Fire – Loh Kah Seng

Chp 6: Research on Rural Associations in the Early Phase of Nation-building in Singapore – C. C. Chin

Chp 7: An Insider’s Research into Buddhist History – Jack Chia Meng Tat

Chp 8: Archaeology and its Role in the Construction of Singapore History – Derek Heng

Chp 9: The National Museum as Maker and Keeper of Singapore History – Kevin Y. L. Tan

Part 3 – Side Gates

Chp 10: Perils and Prospects of Researching the Maria Hertogh Controversy – Syed Muhd Khairudin Aljunied

Chp 11: Making and Keeping the History of the US Involvement in Singapore – S. R. Joey Long

Chp 12: The United States, the Cold War and Countersubversion in Singapore – P. J. Thum

Chp 13: Writing Diplomatic History: A Personal Journey – Ang Cheng Guan

Chp 14: Digging up the Past in Singapore, Mainland China and Taiwan: Research into the Overseas Chinese Merchants in the China-Singapore Trade – Jason Lim

Part 4 – Memory Gates

Chp 15: Singapore Memories: Remembering, and the Makers and Keepers of Singapore History – Ernest Koh Wee Song

Chp 16: Oral History as a Product of Malleable and Shifting Memories in Singapore – Kevin Blackburn

Chp 17: The Women I Met – Lai Ah Eng

Chp 18: Researcher Positionalities, Moral Gatekeeping and Knowledge Production: Some Thoughts on Doing Research on the Samsui Women in Singapore – Kelvin E. Y. Low

Chp 19: A Diaspora at War: National and Transnational Narratives of Singapore’s Second World War – Ernest Koh Wee Song

Chp 20: A Personal Journey in Search of Art and Society in Singapore – Lim Cheng Tju

Chp 21: Coming to Terms with Relocation and Loss: Interviews on Diminishing Memories – Eng Yee Peng

Chp 22: Film and the Making and Keeping of Singapore History and Memory:A Dialogue with Martyn See and Tan Pin Pin moderated by Loh Kah Seng

Chp 23:The ‘Detention-Writing-Healing’ Forum, 2006: A Public Oral History of Former Leftists

For more information about the book and reviews, visit The Makers & Keepers of Singapore History.