Tan Koon San's Books

Dynastic China

An Elementary History

By: Tan Koon San

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Dynastic China: An Elementary History surveys four millennia of China’s history. It traced commentaries from the mythological period of Pangu, creator of the Chinese universe, and the Goddess Nuwa, creator of the Chinese people, through to the legendary periods of the Xia, Shang and Zhou dynasties to subsequent succeeding dynasties from the Qin Dynasty (221 BC) to the end of the Qing Dynasty (1912 AD). It weaved through brutal political intrigues and conspiracies of China’s imperial existence. The persistent enthronement of child emperors for the benefits of power-hungry eunuchs, dowagers, members of the imperial clans, generals and warlords formed a large part of the narrative. Encrypted within are salient elements of Chinese philosophical precepts, civilisation values, and political ideals. The core concepts that mould the idea of tian xia 天下 (all under heaven) and tian ming 天命 (Mandate of Heaven), and how these guided Chinese perception of their world are painstakingly explained. The profound influence of Confucianism and the functional adoption of the Legalist framework in statecraft are imparted in the context of practicality and idealism. So too is the complementary notion of natural dualities, the Yin-Yang (阴阳) harmony of contradictions. How these filtered through from philosophy to cultural values are deftly introduced. Imperial obsessions with frontier threats are also incisively presented. So are the diplomatic statecraft of matrimonial kinship, tributary exchanges and military engagements adopted to conduct relations. China’s perception of people in the frontier region are insightfully described. The application of the Chinese character yi 夷 to refer to them, it seems, carries a more gracious nuance to mean “of a distinct or different nature” and not the offensive attribution of ‘barbarian’ as made out in western notion. This and many more distinctions in discernment of the Chinese mindset are perceptively elucidated in the book.

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Page Count

535

Publisher

The Other Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

9839541889

ISBN 13

9789839541885

100 Inspiring Rafflesians, 1823-2003

By: Guan Heng Tan

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100 Inspiring Rafflesians, 1823-2003

By: Guan Heng Tan

This proceedings volume contains results presented at the Sixth International Workshop on Data Analysis in Astronomy - "Modeling and Simulation in Science" held on April 15-22, 2007, at the Ettore Majorana Foundation and Center for Scientific Culture, Erice, Italy. Recent progress and new trends in the field of simulation and modeling in three branches of science - astrophysics, biology, and climatology - are described in papers presented by outstanding scientists. The impact of new technologies on the design of novel data analysis systems and the interrelation among different fields are foremost in scientists' minds in the modern era. This book therefore focuses primarily on data analysis methodologies and techniques.

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Page Count

291

Publisher

World Scientific

Published Date

ISBN 10

9812778926

ISBN 13

9789812778925

The Baba of Melaka

Culture and Identity of a Chinese Peranakan Community in Malaysia

By: Tan Chee-Beng

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The Baba of Melaka

Culture and Identity of a Chinese Peranakan Community in Malaysia

By: Tan Chee-Beng

“. . . The fullest and most comprehensive ethnography of the Baba community in Malaysia. . . . The author is a meticulous ethnographer, and provides three chapters of richly detailed information on Baba kinship and marriage practices, ancestor worship, Chinese folk religion and festivals and a variety of Baba social patterns and organizations. . . . This is certainly a necessary and pleasurable reading materials for scholars of Malaysia, and for those interested in ethnicity more generally.” Professor Judith Nagata, Pacific Affairs 62(2), 1989. Based on a long-term ethnographic study, the new edition of this book provides a comprehensive description of Baba culture and identity in Melaka, Malaysia. Tan Chee-Beng’s landmark study analyses the term Baba, the development of Baba society, their distribution in Melaka and overt features of identity, the Baba Malay dialect, customs and religion, kinship and social interactions – all of which tie in to changes in Baba identity. By discussing cultural change and ethnic identification of a Chinese Peranakan community in Malaysia, the reader can gain a more complete understanding of this unique minority group within a minority in a rapidly changing Malaysian context.

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Page Count

214

Publisher

Strategic Information and Research Development Centre

Published Date

ISBN 10

9672464762

ISBN 13

9789672464761

A Scholar's Path

An Anthology of Classical Chinese Poems and Prose of Chen Qing Shan : a Pioneer Writer of Malayan-Singapore Literature

By: Peter Min-Liang Chen,Michael Tan

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A Scholar's Path

An Anthology of Classical Chinese Poems and Prose of Chen Qing Shan : a Pioneer Writer of Malayan-Singapore Literature

By: Peter Min-Liang Chen,Michael Tan

English translation and appreciation by Peter Chen and Michael TanReviewed by Chan Chiu MingAn original English translation from the Chinese text: Comprises 60 poems (85 verses) and three prose compositionsOpens a window to the heart and mind of a Chinese scholar who lived from the late Qing through the 1950sReflects the life of a pioneer writer of Malayan-Singapore Chinese Literature: his personal tragedies, struggles, disappointments and the joy in his family, friends and his poetryEnglish explanations for many interesting expressions and allusions used in Chinese classical poetryEnables an English language reader to enjoy the rich and colourful heritage of Chinese culture and language A companion edition of the book in Chinese is available ? the original classical text translated into modern Chinese and profusely annotated by Associate Professor Dr Chan Chiu Ming of National Institute of Education, Singapore.

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Page Count

635

Publisher

World Scientific

Published Date

ISBN 10

9814317489

ISBN 13

9789814317481

Behind Barbed Wire

Chinese New Villages During the Malayan Emergency, 1948-1960

By: Tan Teng Phee

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Behind Barbed Wire

Chinese New Villages During the Malayan Emergency, 1948-1960

By: Tan Teng Phee

Behind Barbed Wire looks behind the façade to ask what it was really like to be moved to, and live in, a 'New Village'. Tan, who himself lived in New Villages growing up, combines archival sources and oral history to give us a rounded account . . . We need Tan's book, because up to now the outsider's view has predominated, and outsiders have their own agenda." Karl Hack, in the Journal of the Malaysian Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society This unique book revisits the moment in the Malayan Emergency when some 500,000 women, children and men were uprooted from their homes and moved into new settlements, guarded day and night by police and troops. A majority were rural Chinese: market gardeners, shopkeepers, rice farmers, tin miners and rubber tappers who had long made Malaya their home and had lived through the hardships of the Japanese Occupation. Based upon newly accessible archival materials and painstaking multilingual interviews with more than 80 informants in four New Villages, Tan Teng Phee rewrites the history of the Emergency, exposing the voices of those at the heart of this lauded ‘social experiment’. In Francis Loh’s words, these were ordinary villagers ‘caught in the crossfire between the British security forces and the Malayan Communist Party’ whose lives were turned inside-out and re-ordered completely, with daily curfews, body searches and food controls alongside the carrots and sticks of registration, (re)education, sanitation, psychological warfare and swift punishment. Highlighting the disciplinary aims of British policy, as well as the ways in which villagers resisted this discipline through ‘weapons of the weak’, this book forms a unique history from below of the Malayan Emergency, and of a resettlement programme which shaped the social and geographical landscape of Malaysia for generations to come.

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Page Count

210

Publisher

Strategic Information and Research Development Centre

Published Date

ISBN 10

9672464592

ISBN 13

9789672464594

Book's by Tan Koon San

Dynastic China

Dynastic China

100 Inspiring Rafflesians, 1823-2003

100 Inspiring Rafflesians, 1823-2003

The Baba of Melaka

The Baba of Melaka

A Scholar's Path

A Scholar's Path

Behind Barbed Wire

Behind Barbed Wire

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