Growing Up In British Malaya And Singapore: A Time Of Fireflies And Wild Guavas

Growing Up In British Malaya And Singapore: A Time Of Fireflies And Wild Guavas PDF Author: Maurice Baker
Publisher: World Scientific
ISBN: 9814623806
Category : Literary Collections
Languages : en
Pages : 128

Book Description
Growing Up in British Malaya and Singapore: A Time of Fireflies and Wild Guavas is an autobiography of Maurice Baker's life in Malaya and Singapore from the 1920s to the 1940s. His memoir extends from the earliest of childhood memories with his family and friends up to the defeat of the British during the Japanese Occupation of Singapore.Baker's recounts are often humorous and detailed with the help of rare photographs, preserved since his childhood. His love for poetry also seeps through the lines of vivid prose, sending the reader back to a simpler time where tigers still used to roam the jungles of Malaya and Singapore; where fireflies were as abundant as starlight, and wild guava trees stood tall.

The Accidental Diplomat

The Accidental Diplomat PDF Author: Maurice Baker
Publisher: World Scientific
ISBN: 9814618330
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 300

Book Description
“For the life of a diplomat is often a variation of routine boredom and exhilarating crises.” Maurice Baker is an academic and one of Singapore's pioneer diplomats. Growing up in colonial–governed Malaya and Singapore, his profound love for great literature works inspired him to obtain an honors in English from King's college, London in 1948 despite the cruelties faced during and after the Second World War. Baker's humble beginnings and political consciousness earned him the friendship and respect of many diplomats during his missions to India in 1967, Malaysia in 1969, Philippines in 1977 and back to Malaysia in 1980 before retiring from his career as a diplomat in 1988. Between his diplomatic missions, Baker returned to Singapore in 1972 to head the Department of English at the University of Singapore for five years. This is Baker's story of how he came to be The Accidental Diplomat. With occasional poems and a sense of humor, he candidly recounts the colourful romances of his life to his enriching encounters of diplomatic relations. His portrayals of admiration for great leaders and men paint a vivid picture of the qualities that guided his beliefs, proving that he was by no means an “Accidental Diplomat” in the eyes of others. Contents:Foreword by S R NathanMessage by S DhanabalanAcknowledgementsIntroductionPart I:Cameron Highlands, MalayaUniversity College, Leicester and King's College, University of London Return to SingaporePart II:High Commissioner to IndiaHigh Commissioner to Malaysia and Return to AcademiaAmbassador to the Republic of the PhilippinesReturn to MalaysiaRetirement in Singapore Readership: General public. Key Features:Provides an insight into the career rise of an Eurasian through colonial and post colonial timesThe challenges of a first time diplomat in adapting to the role from academiaThe political insights of the Singapore Government of the time and those of the countries that Mr Baker represented Singapore inKeywords:Eurasian;Diplomacy;Pioneer Diplomat;Malaysian PoliticsReviews: “Maurice Baker is from my generation and his autobiography reflects the life and times that I went through.” Lee Kuan Yew

A Time of Fireflies and Wild Guavas

A Time of Fireflies and Wild Guavas PDF Author: Maurice Baker
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Diplomats
Languages : en
Pages : 144

Book Description


Transforming Lives

Transforming Lives PDF Author: National University of Singapore
Publisher: NUS Press
ISBN: 9789971693275
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 104

Book Description
As the National University of Singapore (NUS) celebrates 100 years of university education in Singapore in 2005, the institution takes a look at significant developments in history and the people who have shaped its past decades. This book captures key elements of Singapore's higher education landscape through photos, quotable quotes from university staff, students, alumni, educationalists and leaders in society. Published in a handy and accessible format, it contains more than 120 photos and lists milestones chronologically, starting from 1905. This book will make an excellent gift for anyone who has been involved with NUS and higher education in Singapore.

Encyclopedia of Post-Colonial Literatures in English

Encyclopedia of Post-Colonial Literatures in English PDF Author: Eugene Benson
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1134468482
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 1950

Book Description
" ... Documents the history and development of [Post-colonial literatures in English, together with English and American literature] and includes original research relating to the literatures of some 50 countries and territories. In more than 1,600 entries written by more than 600 internationally recognized scholars, it explores the effect of the colonial and post-colonial experience on literatures in English worldwide.

A Company of Planters

A Company of Planters PDF Author: John Dodd
Publisher: Monsoon Books
ISBN: 1912049112
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 396

Book Description
Through a collection of letters written to his best friend and to his father in England, and from his own personal diary entries, John Dodd’s memoir offers a fascinating and amusing glimpse of life as a colonial rubber planter. With true stories and confessions that would make even Somerset Maugham blush, we discover what life was really like for young colonial planters in late-1950s Malaya. Increasing daily rubber output may have been their goal but for the young planters the bigger picture of chasing girls and finding a ‘keep’ was of much greater importance. But life was more than just a series of stengahs in the clubhouse, dalliances in the Chinese brothels of Penang and charming ‘pillow dictionaries’ – there were strikes, riots, snakes, plantation fires and deadly ambushes by Communist terrorists to contend with. Set against the backdrop of the Emergency period, the rise of nationalism and Malaya’s subsequent Independence, A Company of Planters is a very personal, moving and humorous account of one man’s experiences on the frequently isolated rubber plantations of colonial Malaya.

The Golden Chersonese and the Way Thither

The Golden Chersonese and the Way Thither PDF Author: Isabella Lucy Bird
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : China
Languages : en
Pages : 538

Book Description


Tropical Nature, and Other Essays

Tropical Nature, and Other Essays PDF Author: Alfred Russel Wallace
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Color
Languages : en
Pages : 386

Book Description


Cultural Heritage and Peripheral Spaces in Singapore

Cultural Heritage and Peripheral Spaces in Singapore PDF Author: Tai Wei Lim
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 9811047472
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 299

Book Description
This book documents through first-hand experience and academic research the historical, cultural and economic interactions affecting land use in Singapore. Offering a unique study of nostalgia in Singaporean heritage, it discusses the subjective nostalgic meanings and interpretations that users of peripheral, heritage and green spaces in Singapore create and maintain, through a combination of informal observations and interactions combined with research into local history and heritage. It addresses the subjective meaning-making processes of individuals within the larger theoretical frameworks that structure understandings of changing land use and economical changes which impact on contemporary cityscapes, centered around peripheral and de-privileged areas of Singapore’s economic development.

A Sociolinguistic History of Early Identities in Singapore

A Sociolinguistic History of Early Identities in Singapore PDF Author: Phyllis Ghim-Lian Chew
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 113701234X
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 245

Book Description
What role does race, geography, religion, orthography and nationalism play in the crafting of identities? What are the origins of Singlish? This book offers a thorough investigation of old and new identities in Asia's most global city, examined through the lens of language.