Wang Gungwu

This book of interviews with Professor Wang Gungwu published to felicitate him on his 80th birthday in 2010 seeks to convey to a general audience something of the life times and thoughts of a leading historian Southeast Asianist Sinologist and public intellectual. The interviews flesh out Professor Wangs views on being Chinese in Malaya; his experience of living and working in Malaysia Singapore and Australia; the Vietnam War; Hong Kong and its return to China; the rise of China; Taiwans Japans and Indias place in the emerging scheme of things; and on the United States in an age of terrorism and war. The book includes an interview with his wife Mrs Margaret Wang on their life together for half a century. Two interviews by scholars on Professor Wangs work are also included as are his curriculum vitae and a select bibliography of his works.What comes across in this book is how Professor Wang was buffeted by feral times and hostile worlds but responded to them as a left-liberal humanist who refused to cut ideological corners. This book records his response to tumultuous times on hindsight but with a keen sense of having lived through the times of which he speaks.