Book Chapters by Derek Heng
The Maritime Silk Road Global Connectivities, Regional Nodes, Localities Edited by Franck Billé, Sanjyot Mehendale and James W. Lankton, 2022
Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Asian History, 2022
Southeast Asia has been a critical nexus of the economic interactions between the Indian Ocean, C... more Southeast Asia has been a critical nexus of the economic interactions between the Indian Ocean, China Seas, and the Pacific Ocean littoral. Trade and commerce developed from the early first to late second millennia involving shipping and commercial networks both within Southeast Asia and from further afield. Accompanying these networks were the region's port cities, which held these networks together, pulling the subregional networks of trade and commerce into one regional economic sphere. The nature of trade and commerce was affected by the different ecological and economic zones of Southeast Asia. This in turn affected the types of products that were traded and the communications links that connected the different subregions to the outside world. In addition, economic interactions with regions further afield and the geopolitical changes that these regions underwent also determined the types of products that flowed into and through Southeast Asia, as well as the way in which commerce was conducted.
Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Asian History
Southeast Asia has been a critical nexus of the economic interactions between the Indian Ocean, C... more Southeast Asia has been a critical nexus of the economic interactions between the Indian Ocean, China Seas, and the Pacific Ocean littoral. Trade and commerce developed from the early first to late second millennia involving shipping and commercial networks both within Southeast Asia and from further afield. Accompanying these networks were the region’s port cities, which held these networks together, pulling the subregional networks of trade and commerce into one regional economic sphere. The nature of trade and commerce was affected by the different ecological and economic zones of Southeast Asia. This in turn affected the types of products that were traded and the communications links that connected the different subregions to the outside world. In addition, economic interactions with regions further afield and the geopolitical changes that these regions underwent also determined the types of products that flowed into and through Southeast Asia, as well as the way in which commer...
Journal of Southeast Asian Studies, 2009
interpretations are left dangling, as the book does not provide enough information about Ong and ... more interpretations are left dangling, as the book does not provide enough information about Ong and others involved: for example, are they Christian, Buddhist or practitioners of what is called ‘Chinese religion’ in Malaysia, the latter often having close, positive associations with Hindu polytheism in Malaysia and Singapore? This book may be of interest to Deluze scholars and followers of the Stanford University Press Cultural Memories series, as an example of how their general theories can be applied indiscriminately to (but in no way challenged or changed by) cultural others around the world. It certainly is a good example within contemporary American anthropology of the triumph of trendy theory over detailed ethnography (with such passé concerns as local linguistic competence). Scholars interested in and knowledgeable about the latter are likely to find the depth of descriptive material, presentation and interpretation disappointing.
Bijdragen tot de Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde, 2019
Premodern Southeast Asian history has primarily been predicated upon the exploitation of Chinese ... more Premodern Southeast Asian history has primarily been predicated upon the exploitation of Chinese written documents. Reliance has been placed on several texts that detail Southeast Asian polities, products, and their respective societies. As indigenously generated sources of data have become available, primarily through archaeology, the trend has been to seek convergence between these two bodies of information. The availability of searchable digital databases has rendered Chinese documents to be open to the discoveries of new information previously unknown to historians of premodern Southeast Asia. This unutilized information has the potential of throwing new light on previously held conclusions. This article seeks to make an argument for the exploitation and potential of digitized Chinese textual databases, through keyword search methodologies, in expanding our understanding of Southeast Asia’s past, as well as the potential challenges that need to be addressed so that this new sour...
Singapore in Global History, 2011
Singapore from Temasek to the 21st Century
Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Asian History, 2018
Ships form a critical component of the study of Southeast Asia’s interaction both within itself a... more Ships form a critical component of the study of Southeast Asia’s interaction both within itself as well as with the major centers of Asia and the West. Shipwreck data, accrued from archaeologically excavated shipwreck sites, provide information on the evolving maritime traditions that traversed Southeast Asian waters over the last two millennia, including shipbuilding and navigational technologies and knowledge, usage of construction materials and techniques, types of commodities carried by the shipping networks, shipping passages developed through Southeast Asia, and the key ports of call that vessels would arrive at as part of the network of economic and social exchanges that came to characterize maritime interactions.
Migration and Membership Regimes in Global and Historical Perspective, 2013
Singapore in Global History
Journal of Southeast Asian Studies
Studies on the international history of fourteenth-century Singapore have been hitherto limited t... more Studies on the international history of fourteenth-century Singapore have been hitherto limited to external trade conducted by local inhabitants, and material consumption patterns that this trade enabled them to develop. Broader regional cultural influences have been postulated though not clearly demonstrated, given scant textual records and limited material culture remains. This article seeks to examine the external influences, adaptation and assimilation in the production and consumption of fourteenth-century Singapore. In particular, it looks at three aspects of Singapore's pre-colonial existence — modes of economic production, patterns of consumption of international products, and the articulation of high culture vis-à-vis external entities. By examining available archaeological, epigraphic, art historical and cartographic data from the fourteenth through the nineteenth centuries, this article postulates how distinct consumption patterns may have developed among different ri...
Journal of Southeast Asian Studies, 2019
Studies on the international history of fourteenth-century Singapore have been hitherto limited t... more Studies on the international history of fourteenth-century Singapore have been hitherto limited to external trade conducted by local inhabitants, and material consumption patterns that this trade enabled them to develop. Broader regional cultural influences have been postulated though not clearly demonstrated, given scant textual records and limited material culture remains. This article seeks to examine the external influences, adaptation and assimilation in the production and consumption of fourteenth-century Singapore. In particular, it looks at three aspects of Singapore's pre-colonial existence-modes of economic production, patterns of consumption of international products, and the articulation of high culture vis-à-vis external entities. By examining available archaeological , epigraphic, art historical and cartographic data from the fourteenth through the nineteenth centuries, this article postulates how distinct consumption patterns may have developed among different riverside populations living north of the Singapore River. This study also questions the common view that Singapore developed as a cosmopolitan port-city only after the advent of British colonialism, demonstrating that its diversity and openness was likely a feature centuries before.
Journal of Medieval Worlds, 2019
This essay provides an overview of the economic interactions between China and Southeast Asia dur... more This essay provides an overview of the economic interactions between China and Southeast Asia during the late first and early second millennia C.E.. It positions the development of this relationship within the context of the Old World, and looks at how the interactions manifested in the ports that grew as a result of the economic exchanges that took place, the transportation networks that were developed to facilitate the exchanges, the growth in the demand and production of products from both regions, the migration of traders, and the development of economic codependency between both economies. The essay also provided sub-topics and online sources with which this topic could be approached in a classroom, including art materials, archaeological information, and textual documentation.
An Ocean of Cloth: Textile Trades, Consumer Cultures and the Material Worlds of the Indian Ocean, 2018
and Keywords Ships form a critical component of the study of Southeast Asia's interaction both wi... more and Keywords Ships form a critical component of the study of Southeast Asia's interaction both within itself as well as with the major centers of Asia and the West. Shipwreck data, accrued from archaeologically excavated shipwreck sites, provide information on the evolving maritime traditions that traversed Southeast Asian waters over the last two millennia, including shipbuilding and navigational technologies and knowledge, usage of construction materials and techniques, types of commodities carried by the shipping networks, shipping passages developed through Southeast Asia, and the key ports of call that vessels would arrive at as part of the network of economic and social exchanges that came to characterize maritime interactions.
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Book Chapters by Derek Heng
evolved, but, as argued in this article, perhaps not in the straightforward fashion often assumed. Naval capabilities and strategies evolved in tandem with state policy to adapt to changes in the wider Asian maritime political economy which was dominated at various times by China and India. This article examines the factors that affected maritime policy in the Melaka Straits c. 500 to 1500 CE, and the extent to which these furthered the viability of the mainly Malay port-polities, and in particular
the regional hegemonic state of Srivijaya in eastern Sumatra. The study utilizes textual records, epigraphic materials, and literature to reconstruct a more nuanced picture of maritime states and naval power in premodern Southeast Asia.
of this littoral region exercising influence over smaller, outlying economies by binding
the latter into co-dependent relationships, witnessed in such areas as the currency
systems adopted by the smaller economies, which align them to the larger primary
economies in the region, and in the ways in which products traded from one economy
to another develop from being directionally exclusive and beneficial but noncrucial,
to one where the economies are mutually dependant. This may be witnessed
between China and the Malay region during the tenth to the fourteenth centuries.
The period began with the Malay region’s polities dispatching to China high-value
commodities from the region and the Indian Ocean littoral, and receiving in
return Chinese products that were largely re-exported to markets further afield.
Within four centuries, the relationship became one comprising primarily of lowvalue
products, characterised by a mutually dependent relationship in the provision
of low-value commodities that were regularly consumed, and in high quantities.
More importantly, a substantial degree of vertical economic integration between the
two economies, with the Malay region supplying China with primary products, and
China providing the former with manufactured goods, developed.
quantities, from land settlement sites dated to between the tenth and fourteenth centuries.
Despite their apparent importance, their role and function in a regional context is still
largely unknown. This article seeks to reconstruct the usage of these coins in the Straits
region through the integrative use of Chinese textual information and archaeological
data.