HERE’S ANOTHER Colour of the Year for 2019 to consider. Other paint and decorating firms make their choices, but AkzoNobel’s |Dulux brand is going with “spiced honey”.

It says its warm amber tone is “versatile and contemporary and complements a wide variety of life and interior styles”.

Perfectly capturing this year’s theme, “let the light in”, the shade expresses the new sense of optimism felt throughout the global trend research, insights and consumer behaviour conducted by AkzoNobel’s Global Aesthetic Centre.

The warm amber of spiced honey has been chosen as the Colour of 2019.

“Our colours begin their journey at the centre, which has been responsible for trend analysis, colour research, colour design and art direction at AkzoNobel for over 25 years,” explains Heleen van Gent, its creative director.

“The choice of spiced honey is another milestone in empowering our consumers worldwide to choose paint colours with absolute confidence.”

Top design professionals from all over the world are invited each year to capture the mood of the moment.

“Last year, many of us were left unsettled by global events, so we closed our doors to retreat and regroup,” says Gent. “Now we feel ready to open our windows and let the light in.

“Our trend research shows that people around the world are experiencing a renewed sense of energy, optimism and purpose. We want to reach out, engage with others and to make things better.

“Spiced honey reflects those desires – it’s a colour that can be calming or nourishing, stimulating and energising, depending on the light and colours surrounding it.”

Now in its 16th year, AkzoNobel’s Dulux Colour of the Year can be tested by consumers using various tools, such as the Dulux Visualiser.

Spiced honey inspires four harmonious colour palettes – warm neutrals, soft pastels, intense pigments, and bold bright hues. Each takes a cue from the varied tones and remarkable properties of honey – natural, timeless and enduring, protective, rejuvenating and healing.

SOOTHING THOUGHTS

This relaxed paint colour palette has warming honey-hued Colour of the Year 2019 at its heart, combined with an inviting mix of rich neutrals and touches of soft pink, intense burgundy and sophisticated deep blue. Polished woods, mid-century furniture, graphic rugs and textiles emphasise the smart, yet soothing, coherence of look.

CALM DREAMS

The dream palette is serene and grown up yet soft and warm. A gently muted mix of romantic powder pinks and blues create calm, with the honey-toned Colour of the Year bringing depth and sophistication to the look. Plain pale woods, simple hand-thrown vessels and pretty fabrics add to the contemplative, centred feel of this home.

COSY LOVE

This warmest palette is filled with richly pigmented shades including deep forest green, bold teal and intense terracotta red, tempered by the honey-inspired Colour of the Year and pale neutrals. With wooden furniture and botanical prints, it all goes to create a relaxed yet cosy home that’s perfect for sharing with loved ones.

VIBRANT ACTION

The playful and bright palette combines vivid red and green with paler pink and blue, underlined by crisp grey and white. The golden tones of the honeyed Colour of the Year ensure that the palette stays warm and inviting. This home is brought to life with reclaimed furniture which has been painted and personalised by the owners. Bold graphic shapes, low-key cork and plywood with vintage rugs, create a space that inspires action.

GO AND GET PAINTED

Learn more at http://www.Dulux.co.th/cf2019 or http://www.Facebook.com/dulux.

The colour-play testers for spiced honey are available at http://www.Lazada.co.th.

FULL disclosure first:

1. Author Kevin Cummings and I became friends after I reviewed his first book, “Bangkok Beat”, in 2016.

2. He invited me to write the foreword to this book, “Different Drummers”.

3. Whatever idiot he got to write the fore?word has for some reason clumsily referred to the quite well-known author John Burdett as “Jim Burdett”.

4. And if you think that’s the only criticism I have of “Different Drummers”, keep read?ing.

“Drummers” constitutes the further adventures of a constellation of expatriate authors forming the main Bangkok cluster but observable throughout Southeast Asian space.

Many of the names dropped in “Bangkok Beat” reappear here with good reason, but Cummings was deliberately listening for alternative rhythms for this collection, and the veteran Lawrence Osborne and rookie Frank Hurst are among those getting fresh and interesting coverage. “Drummers” thus has much in common with “Beat”, but crosses into significant new territory.

Gleaned chiefly from Cummings’ person?al blog, Thailand Footprint, the chapters alternate between interviews with authors and reviews of their work. Cummings’ inter?view questions are always amusingly cacoph?onic, as if to make sure the subject and the reader are paying attention. “What have you got against windchimes?” he asks Osborne out of the blue. “They seem harmless enough.”

The reviews seem as unwaveringly kind as Cummings is in person but, once you’ve read enough of them, you start to notice the occa?sional barb buried like a landmine between the lines. He still appears to not quite “get” Collin Piprell’s ongoing futuristic, satirical and admittedly dense Magic Circles trilogy, for instance, but he chuckles about his slow?ness to the grasp and is obviously keen to keep trying.

When Cummings isn’t at the helm of a chapter, the rudder falls into the capable hands of thriller writer Thom Locke (using his nom de plume, T Hunt Locke) and “the poet noir” John Gartland, both of whom bring more entertainment to the table. Gartland has an even bigger array of wry and biting poems on offer, including some of the best stuff he’s written to date. Locke on his watch adroitly quizzes Jim Algie and pens another touching memoir of Mama Noi, the belle of the origi?nal Check Inn 99 cabaret, a country girl who bedazzled Hollywood stars.

He gets around, that Kevin Cummings does. With apologies to Michael Cooper, who shot the photos for the Beatles’ “Sgt Pepper” cover, replicated with a whole new cast by Colin Cotterill on the cover of “Different Drummers”. Paul being dead, Cummings has written a new coda for “A Day in the Life”. 

Check Inn, currently living in formidable premises on Sukhumvit Soi 33, continues to figure prominently in the grind of gridlocked writers in need of dry shoulders to moisten. In another telling example of how “Drummers” differs from “Beat”, the club has since moved three, make that four times in search of a permanent perch.

Its deservedly revered proprietor Chris Catto-Smith has relinquished managerial duties to Keith Nolan, a host of grace to match his, and also a downright giddy singer-key?boardist who, as a magnet for other great musical talents, continues the mission of reviving the club’s legendary status. Cummings would have faced scorn if he had?n’t featured both men in his ongoing chron?icle.

Another nightspot lately vies for the atten?tions of the writerly mob, though – Queen Bee on Sukhumvit 26, equally laden with terrific music and overseen by an equally amiable innkeeper, John Branton, who herein keeps up with Cummings’ interview style and often outpaces him.

Kevin Wood, a one-man band or the fre?netic frontman for an ensemble depending on the gig, rounds out the musical notation in “Drummers”. He performs at both places.

The author’s no-relation namesake Joe Cummings is an active musician too, of course, but will eternally be toasted most, as he is here, as the original lord of the Lonely Planet Thailand.

Hugh Gallagher is known to make rhythms of a kind as well and even appeared on the stage of the Apollo Theatre in New York City, but he comes into Kevin Cummings’ focus primarily for a quirky bible of post?modern advice titled “Yo Ching: Ancient Knowledge for Streets Today”.

Timothy Hallinan (“Hot Countries”), Matt Carrell (“Vortex”) and Christopher G Moore (all those great Vincent Calvino mysteries) are all in “Drummers”, as is Chad Evans, who wrote a guide to Moore’s oeuvre called “Calvino’s World”.

Other writ?ers featured are JD Villines (zombie thriller “Dead Bangkok”), Philip Coggan (“Spirit Worlds”) and Stephen W Palmer aka Iain Donnelly, whose “Angkor Cloth Angkor Gold” will be reviewed in this space imminently. They and Colin Cotterill, who finds time to illustrate Cummings’ jottings while at the same time producing endless books of his own, offer a lot of helpful insights into the nature of writ?ing and the machinations of the muse.

Osborne is undeniably the most |accomplished and most famous of the authors included, having even been chosen by the Raymond Chandler estate to write another Marlowe novel, which resulted in “Only to Sleep”. Cummings talks to |him and reviews “Beautiful Animals” |and “Hunters in the Dark”, the latter about to be filmed in Cambodia.

Added to all of these are visits with the inspired and abjectly unapologetic Dutch painter Peter Klashorst, who is no friend of Facebook’s censors, and his counterpoint, the gentlemanly elder statesman of journalism in and around Asia, Australian David Armstrong.

What else has changed since the original “Beat”?

Well, in place of a memorial to the then-recently deceased Stirling Silliphant, there is homage to another Bangkok-ensconced American hero of letters, the all-rounded rounder Jerry Hopkins, who left us this past June.

The other big change since 2016 is the most intriguing of all. In “Beat”, Cummings was the chronicler of Bangkok noir. And the chief attributes inherent in the novels men?tioned – not ALL gloom but certainly pack?ing a lot of Chandler’s LA angst and jocular smog-bound repartee – coated the chapters with the same soot as everything else in our city.

With “Drummers”, it seems as though much of the shroud of inner-city noir dark?ness has in just those two years dissipated. This book feels brighter, with glimpses of a new dawn, and surely nothing to do with the sense that the black spell cast over Thailand is lifting just because elections are imminent.

With a few exceptions, like James Newman (“Fun Punch City”), bless him, who has remained deliciously, viciously steeped in Kerouac and Burroughs and Hammett, and to a lesser extent Thom Locke, with his exhil?arating mad mystery-races through the town’s landmarks, expat literature in Thailand has begun to delve into more philosophical mus?ings.

There are more books now examining our sense of place, the fallacies of self-worth and recollection and, in anthologies, we are rewarded with overviews of what has made writing in Southeast Asia so interesting all along.

The darkness has not entirely lifted, by any means, and its chills continue to be most welcome. In “Bangkok Asset” last year, John-or-is-it-Jim Burdett conceived not one but two of the unholiest scenes ever put to paper, and Moore jack-knifed into expat suicide in “Jumpers”.

But Moore also wrote “Memory Manifesto” and has now produced the equal?ly pensive non-fiction “Rooms” (again, review forthcoming). There are foreign writers here now producing not just scary crime thrillers but rather exploring far broader lit-scapes, like Piprell in his dazzling, deep-thought Magic Circles series that began with “MOM”.

Cummings has happily moved on too in his chronicling. At the same time, he carefully replaces the best parts of “Beat” with worthy substitutes in “Drummers”. The former fea?tured the expat comic-magician Doctor Penguino and the latter has one of the world’s best stand-up comedians, the American shakedown artist Doug Stanhope, who per?formed in Bangkok last January and had a lot of the literary crowd in the audience.

Yes, there is room for criticism. Quite apart from no one else noticing the Jim Burdett gaffe before it anchored in print, no one seems to have noticed John Gartland, in a far too generously budgeted screed favouring Brexit (succinctly parried by Burdett just pages later) referring to the former British prime minis?ter David Cameron as Campbell. These were obvious blunders in haste, though, and I stand by my assertion in print that Gartland is by far the best of all the expatriate writers in Southeast Asia.

Less forgivable is Cummings’ cut and paste of his blog posts without the helpful addition of dates or amendments. Thus, the closure of Check Inn at its original location is “announced” in one chapter, seemingly about to occur, and then its rebirth in the next, nei?ther with context, leaving readers of the book who are unfamiliar with that rapid advance of history mystified.

That said, “Drummers” has fun with all of what’s going on and as a result it’s quite enter?taining to read. Anyone not yet immersed in the scene will feel welcome to grab a pair of drumsticks and join in the beat.

Different Drumers:Bangkok Beat Redux

Published by Frog in the Mirror Press 2018

Available at Amazon.com

Bt376

IF YOU’RE looking for a way to turn your iPad Pro or new iPad 10-inch into a notebook on which you can use the Apple Pencil to write, draw and jot down notes, you’ll find it in MyScript Nebo.

The app is simple to use and super efficient, warranting its recognition with Best App 2017 CES Mobile Apps Showdown and App Store Best of 2016.

I tested it on iPad Pro 10.5 and the app was fast and very responsive.

Once you’ve registered for a free MyScript account, you can format your handwritten text as titles, paragraphs, and bullet lists with just a few taps and strokes and easily edit with intuitive gestures. You can also add interactive diagrams, editable equations, freeform sketches, and annotate pictures. Ready to share? Instantly convert them to digital documents.

The app supports 59 handwriting recognition languages though unfortunately Thai is not yet one of them.

I found during the test that the app supported my English handwriting accurately when I wrote normally rather than printing. It recognised and showed words in real time as I wrote, making it ideal for those who are all fingers and thumbs on a keyboard.

After you have finished writing a sentence, you can quickly convert it into text by double-tapping it. You can also double-tap to edit the text.

The app supports drawing gestures for editing. For example, you can crossover a word to erase it. You can draw a line downwards to divide a connected word or you can draw a line downwards between two words to break a sentence. On the reverse, you can draw a line between two words to connect them or you can draw a line upwards at the end of the line to join two lines into one.

You can structure your notes using titles, paragraphs, and bullet lists then render notes into text, which will preserve the layout, colours and styles.

For example, you can draw two lines under words and turn them into a title or subtitle. You can also highlight your words by drawing a rectangle around them. Starting a list is as simple as jotting down a bullet point.

The app lets you select colours of your text and drawings from eight pre-set hues and you can customise more colours with a colour circle and two colour bars and save them for use.

Three taps of Pen, Add and Search are provided at the top of the screen.

The Pen tap provides you access to the pen with six sizes of pen tips to select, a rubber and colour options. The Search option lets you search and find handwritten ink and text in your note and in your diagrams.

The Add tap lets you add rich content to your notes. This tap provides you option to add photos from the gallery of the iPad or take a photo with the camera to add to the current note.

Or you can draw interactive diagrams with elements that you can edit, delete or move around. You can also write editable equations, get calculated results. You may draw freeform sketches and annotate pictures with the app.

After you have done with your notes, you can export them as text, PDF, HTML, or Word (.docx) files. You can also copy and paste fully editable diagrams to PowerPoint.

You can organise your notes in pages, notebooks and folders and sync your notes to iCloud, Google Drive or Dropbox.

Nebo is now in Version 1.9.5, which is compatible with iOS 12.

MyScript Nebo is highly recommended as it allows you to find another use for your iPad. It’s cheap too, retailing for just Bt279.

>> Seller: MyScript

>> Size: 136.9 MB

>> Category: Productivity

>> Requires: iOS 10.0 or later, iPad, Apple Pencil

>> Languages: English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Russian, Simplified Chinese, Spanish, Traditional Chinese

>> Age Rating: Rated 4+

>> Copyright: MyScript

>> Price: Bt279

Riding high on the success of its inaugural edition which drew more than 400,000 visitors, both local and international, Bangkok Design Week returns to Charoen Krung Road on January 26 for its 2019 showcase.

“It’s one of the biggest design events in Thailand and indeed in Southeast Asia and this year will feature works and ideas from more than 1,000 designers,” Pichit Virankabutra, acting managing director of the Creative Economy Agency (CEA), told the recent press conference at the Thailand Creative & Design Centre.

The Holy Rosary Church is an ancient Roman Catholic church in Samphanthawong District.

“It will encourage everyone to find inspiration and unleash their creativity.”

CEA is collaborating with the public and private sectors in holding this second creative and design festival on the concept “Fusing Forward”. The aim is to reflect the Thai capital’s potential as the hub for creators and entrepreneurs who are able to combine ingredients from various bodies, both local and international, from the old generation to the new generation, to create artworks and commercial products while also improving the quality of life.

The festival, which will run until February 3, features such highlights as a large factory-style pavilion made of used plastics, installation artworks from more than 1,000 artists and a market offering products as well as food and beverages.

The large recycled plastic pavilion by PTT Global Chemical will simulate the recycling process and present content and experiences related to ecofriendly plastic management by designing products, manufacturing processes and using plastic to reduce, reuse and recycle plastic.

Knotthing Studio is showcasing its products at this second creative and design festival.

“Bangkok Design Week is an important outlet to encourage ideas about what can be done with recycled plastic waste. In addition to our beautiful recycled plastic pavilion, visitors will learn about the waste separation process,” says Warawan Tippawanich, senior vice president of corporate affairs and corporate secretary of PTT Global Chemical, which manufactures petrochemicals and plastic pellets.

“First of all, plastic is not the villain and we don’t produce bad things but necessities used in daily life. Plastic is useful. We would like people to use it and to reuse it.”

Plastic has received a lot of bad press in recent months with Thailand named the world’s sixth biggest contributor of ocean waste and China the largest. Little wonder then that every country is paying attention to reducing, reusing and recycling plastic. In addition to the pavilion, PTTGC has transformed used plastic bottles into recycled textile fibre, which is then transformed into fabric to produce t-shirts and even backpacks as part of its “Upcycling Plastic Waste” project.

Fashion brand Inthai can be found at the Creative Market.

“We have collaborated with the Ecoalf Foundation from Spain, a fashion brand that uses the highest quality fabrics made from recycled waste found in oceans and rivers to create a new generation of sustainable products, as well as with the Tourism Authority of Thailand. We started raising awareness on how to recycle plastic waste and put it back into use. In the beginning, we went to Koh Samui and collected more than 10 tonnes of used plastic bottles and plastic bags, which were used to produce T-shirts and polo shirts. The production process was a little more difficult than for clothes in general. We looked for a factory and garment maker to work with us. We then stamped a statement of how many plastic bottles were used and where they were collected on the sleeve of the T-shirt.

“The first batch of 3,000 recycled T-shirts sold out within one day. It isn’t about making profit but about raising awareness. One T-shirt is upcycled from 14 used plastic bottles from Rayong. The product varies depending on how many plastic bottles are used and mixed with cotton or polyester. We don’t mind what the product is, but we would like people to wear or use it to send a good message towards others,” states Warawan.

Bangkok Design Week 2019 will be held in Bang Rak District, which has been dubbed a creative district and covers the Central Post Building and Charoen Krung Road. It will be loosely divided into five main activities. “Showcase & Exhibition” will feature more than 500 prototypes and products reflecting the potential of designers and creative businesses in Bangkok and other cities around the world. “Talk & Workshop” will be organised to enhance knowledge and inspiration and provide updates on the latest trends from Thai and international creative minds. “Creative District” will serve as a prototype for creative area development leading to practical use. “Event & Programme” will support creative practitioners in demonstrating their potential in various ways such as through music performances, film screenings, artistic performances, as well as an open house, while “Creative Market” will offer new and veteran entrepreneurs a space to build business opportunities, networks, and market channels.

A bag by Chansuda

“Bang Rak is a creative district linked to the economy. It’s centred on Charoen Krung Road, the first road to be built in Thailand, and encourages commercial prosperity and international business as well as diplomatic prosperity. Many tourists come to Charoen Krung Road to experience the culture and architecture,” says Phakaporn Sanguansak, the District’s director.

“Today, Charoen Krung Road is a very popular spot for local and international tourists. It is home to several cultural spots such as the Bangkok Folk Museum, Haroon Mosque and Wat Muang Khae. The area that lines the Chao Phraya River is expected to become more popular and livelier because of the opening of new shopping mall, Iconsiam, itself inspired by cultural values and beliefs tied to the Chao Phraya River.

“We have joined with the Silom community and Thailand Creative & Design Centre in building cultural tourism on this road that runs from Samphanthawong District to Pom Prap Sattru Phai District and which is home to traditional Thai houses built during the reign of King Rama V. We are trying to develop our identity and make it appear more interesting.”

“This year, the festival’s street furniture such as benches and the leisure pavilion will be left in place after the nine days of this event so they can be used by both the residents and those who come to visit. We are confident that this event will help reinforce the economy of the communities,” says Sombat Kanoktipwan, director of Samphanthawong District.

A date with design

– Bangkok Design Week 2019 takes place at the Grand Postal Building and other areas along Charoen Krung Road from January 26 to February 3.

– For more information, call the Thailand Creative & Design Centre at (02) 105 7441 or visit http://www.BangkokDesignWeek.com and Facebook.com/BangkokDesignWeek.

After announcing its launch at the beginning of 2018, RapidzPay has received tremendous interest in its services from businesses and consumers eager to embrace the concept of a cashless society in the Thailand 4.0 economy. With this partnership, movie patrons going to any Major Cineplex theatre can now use RapidzPay to purchase tickets, as well as snacks and beverages, via Major Cineplex’s M-Cash with no physical cash transactions required.

Currently, RapidzPay is only available in Thailand with selected participating merchants. Once it has received official approval from the Thai authorities, market demands for RapidzPay from both merchants and consumers are expected to skyrocket.

Rapidz will also open a cryptothemed cafe in collaboration with Major Cineplex Group, where major cryptocurrencies are accepted for all goods and services available in the cafe. RapidzPay will not only be a convenient way to make purchases and transactions, but an excellent avenue to distribute special offers and promotions that are uniquely available only through RapidzPay app, henceforth attracting more active users and encouraging greater usage and market penetration.

RapidzPay’s advantage works on leveraging blockchain technology to create a convenient, secure, and fast unified payment system across borders. Consumers now have an alternative payment option through the RapidzPay app to allow them to spend cryptocurrencies at shops and restaurants with the RapidzPOS. Essentially, RapidzPay works just like any creditcard or mobile payment by scanning a QR code to buy goods and services anywhere, but with much lower transaction fees.

“Today, Thai people are extremely interested in cryptocurrencies. So the Thai government is exceptionally supportive of endeavours like ours. We are confident that RapidzPay will continuously grow as more people turn to advanced methods of payment such as our RapidzPay. We are also in process of another initial coin offering (ICO) in January next year. Issuing digital currency like this raises more capital and coin circulation to encourage people to use epayment and ewallet technologies, which in turn encourages our aim of fostering greater growth towards a cashless society in Thailand,” said Wisara Chokedeetaweeanan, managing director of Rapidz Technologies (Thailand).

Until January 23, James Zhang, senior therapist at The Peninsula Beijing, will treat guests at The Peninsula Spa in Bangkok to the transformative benefits of Chinese body massage. The 90-minute Traditional Chinese Meridian Massage is a therapeutic and stress-relieving wellness journey carefully tailored to the needs of each guest. Based on the ancient Chinese belief in balancing the yin and yang energy forces, this uplifting body treatment uses no oils or lotions. Instead, the therapist uses shou fa (hand and arm) massage techniques, such as kneading, rolling and stretching, to stimulate the body’s key pressure points combined with a head massage to release stagnant qi and leave guests feeling reenergised.

The Traditional Chinese Massage is priced at Bt4,800-plus per person for 90 minutes and the Foot Reflexology costs Bt3,800-plus per person for 60 minutes.

Zhang holds certifications as a senior masseur, acupuncturist and traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) therapist. He specialises in Chinese body massage and foot reflexology treatments including Traditional Meridian Massage, Baguanfa Cupping and Gua Sha Scraping, which draw on timeless Chinese healing philosophies.

Book your session at (02) 020 2888 or visit http://www.Peninsula.com/bangkok.

Administered by experienced therapists in a wonderfully comfortable and relaxing environment, the Ruby Rejuvenation package begins with a 30-minute exfoliating apricot seed body scrub that uses essential extracts from pomegranate.

Apricot is a good source of nourishing vitamin A and pomegranate extract is rich in vitamin C and antioxidants, which can help alleviate skin inflammation and eliminate dark spots. Once the body scrub has opened and deepcleansed the pores, the skin is left feeling supple and radiant. It is the prefect prelude to the stressbusting 90-minute TaKe Relief massage using essential oils from the camellia flower.

The camellia flower is rich in antioxidants, oleic acid, vitamins A, B, D and E and Omega 3, 6 and 9. The molecular weight of the oil is an almost identical match for skin, allowing it to be absorbed quickly and thoroughly for maximum effect. The treatment is priced at Bt4,200plus and is available through the end of March.

Book a session by calling (02) 687 9000 or email spa@okurabangkok.com.

WANG GUNGWU was born in Indonesia in 1930 to migrant parents descended from “literati” families that had experienced trauma after the fall of the Qing dynasty, which coincided with the final dissolution of China’s empire. His father left to teach young Chinese in the maritime world of Nan Yang (“Southern Ocean”) – Southeast Asia. The parents first went to British Malaya and then Dutch Java, before moving with young Gungwu to British-controlled Ipoh, Malaysia, where his father worked as an inspector of Chinese schools.

Nan Yang (also called “The Great Golden Peninsula” by many) has experienced three waves of migrants from China, many floating down the Mekong river from Yunnan in search of a better life as traders and workers. The 17th-century fall of the Ming dynasty triggered the first wave, while the second wave fled the murderous oppression of the Manchu dynasty. The latest wave saw people from all over China escape 20th-century political disorder, economic stagnation, civil war and then communist rule.

Wang’s “Nanyang: Essays on Heritage” adapts talks he gave to mark special occasions, including memorial lectures celebrating giants of Asian scholarship and nation-building. Though accessible, the book will mainly interest scholars, journalists and civil-society actors. Its highlights help us understand the Chinese diaspora’s role in birthing of half a dozen nation-states and a city-state that still struggle toward affluence and modernisation, including coming to terms with internal minorities. Thailand gets barely a mention in the essays, despite its instructive history of Chinese migration, discrimination, adaptation and, finally, power.

The regionally respected historian is largely upbeat about Southeast Asia’s legal, social and economic progress, including growing respect and accommodation for the local Chinese communities that were once subject to personal and official prejudice, particularly in the early years of the newly independent states. The Chinese minority have proved themselves useful to the economic growth of the new nations and some are now facilitating investment and trade with the increasingly dominant regional power – China.

“Dividing empires into new nations was a major political gift of modernity in Southeast Asia,” the now octogenarian Wang writes in “Nanyang”, the 25th book written, edited or co-edited by him. “My parents talked about the Dutch, the British and the Japanese empires incessantly when I was a boy,” he says.

The essays reflect on Wang’s previous academic research and contributions, including China’s tribute-based and wide-ranging empire under five dynasties, the migration of Chinese to Southeast Asia and their attempt to fit in and excel among dominant local cultures while maintaining the core values of their own traditions, and the political and cultural transformation of the region as European empires receded and new states struggled into existence.

A book highlight details the build-up to the British exit from what is now Malaysia and Singapore and the ensuing different, but complementary paths taken by the resulting nation-state and city-state. After World War II, the British ramped up their plan for a durable united Malaya encompassing the Malay ethnic and religious heartland, along with the port of Singapore and the states of Sabah, Sarawak and Brunei on Borneo (Brunei eventually chose independent statehood).

The British, hoping to maintain commercial interests and influence post-independence, worked toward what Wang calls a “Malaya imaginary” – a democratic, capitalist, multicultural nation-state. They forged a three-pronged strategy for state-building. Economically, capital came mainly from abroad, while labour was divided among longstanding local communities and migrants. Sound management was reflected through law and order, infrastructure investment, peaceful communal relations, healthcare and literacy. Finally, centralisation saw Singapore and Kuala Lumpur controlling the people and property. This last dimension included legalising the use of force using local talent, slow and steady introduction of non-British and local participation in administration, and educating local elites in English-language schools and elite regional state schools.

Wang details the daring hopefulness and the probably inevitable dashing of the dream of a unified Malaya. The Chinese majority in Malayan Singapore, along with those in Penang and Malacca, watched developments closely as they hoped for a better deal, and a brighter future for coming generations after independence.

In unity negotiations, Singapore, with its large Chinese population, made explicit its vision for a nation anchored in power-sharing within a diverse multicultural state that treated all citizens as equal regardless of their ethic origins or communal identities. “Once stated baldly and with fervour, alarm bells began to ring in KL,” writes Wang of Singaporean ambitions. The Malay establishment had a counter-dream of Tanah Melayu, anchored in a Malay Islamic nation-state, reflecting the European model of dominance by a single ethnicity.

And so Chinese-majority Singapore in August 1965 left Malaysia’s orbit in search of prosperity for all its residents. We are familiar with its phenomenal economic success, relative internal harmony and respect from regional states. We also know of its lack of core rights to free speech, immature democracy and tight control by business interests – yet Wang avoids that discussion.

Wang argues that Singapore followed the British blueprint to success. Malaysia largely succeeded despite only partially adopting it, he also argues, due to early ethnic divisions, anti-Chinese prejudice and poor leadership – all of which can be overcome.

Fair enough, but recent demonstrations demanding more privileges for dominant Malay Muslims, combined with murderously violent Muslim extremism targeting Chinese and Christians in Indonesia, give pause.

And now, some the descendants of traders and merchants who fled China for Nanyang are coming full circle and throwing in their economic lot with the rising giant, an increasingly confident one-party state with a seductive and surging pace of economic growth.

Having re-engaged internationally through the United Nations and trade, Wang says, China has followed a moderate path and wants to be viewed as a responsible and great nation. To succeed, China must avoid mistakes made by many newly independent colonies, he writes, but must not duplicate the European national aggression of the 19th century and the more recent “revolutionary impulse to determine the regime changes of other nations”.

Wang’s view is that China is, overall, making the right choices: “My study of Chinese history suggests that the lesson has been learnt, that China’s acceptance of international norms comes not only from national interest but is also influenced by the system of political and social values that had shaped its relations with Southeast Asia for more than 2,000 years.”

Perhaps. But China’s neighbours can see past the seductive yuan to its increasingly nationalistic policies and bullying rhetoric, and it’s good to remember that Chinese citizens are denied the democratic rights that “Nanyang” countries offer to varying degrees.

For all the strengths Wang brings to his telling of history, the narrator wears rose-coloured spectacles when discussing his chosen homeland, Singapore, and as he looks to the emerging behemoth that has grown from the soil his ancestors once trod – and left.

Nanyang: Essays on Heritage

By Wang Gungwu

Published by Iseas Publishing, 2018

Available at major bookshops, Bt866

Telling the story of how truly special it is to collect shared memories, it features Mummy Pig and Peppa’s friends George, Suzy Sheep, Danny Dog and Emily Elephant.

Shows are at 11am, 2pm and 5pm on all three days. Tickets cost from Bt900 to Bt2,200 at Thai Ticket Major outlets, by calling (02) 262 3456 and online at http://www.ThaiTicketMajor.com.

Vath mans the decks

Sven Vath, the iconic German techno DJ and producer returns to Thailand with a dedicated show at Live Arena on Rama IX Road this Saturday starting at 9.

The show will be supported by Atma, one of the most talked about names on the Asia-Pacific electronic music scene.

Tickets are priced at Bt800 at http://www.EventPop.me/e/4672

Love, death and reconciliation

A new version of Patravadi Mejudhon’s adaptation of well-known Thai poem “Lilit Phra Lor” comes to the stage of National Theatre on January 11, 12, and 13.

First staged as a dance drama at Silpa Bhirasri Art Gallery, it returns for its 2019 edition as a poetry reading in both Thai and English by Patravadi, Tachaya “Keng” Pratumwan and Rajanikara “Leng” Kaewdee along with composer Anant Narkkong, violinist Kyle Dillingham from the USA, and costume designer Somchai Kaewtong.

There will be two performances each day, at 2 and again at 8pm.

Tickets costing Bt600 to Bt1,000 are now on sale at http://www.ThaiTicketMajor.com.

Isaan gets creative

The Isaan Creative Festival 2019 – the biggest creative festival in the northeast of Thailand – is being organised at the Thailand Creative and Design Centre in the area of Kangsadarn Market on Kalapapruek Road in Khon Kaen from January 1013.

The upcoming festival will feature the works of artists and designers in the exhibition “Look Isaan Now”, as well as in the “Isaan Material Centre” and through talks and workshops.

Find out more at (043) 009 389 or visit Facebook.com/TCDCKhonKaen.

Popular flea market returns

Made by Legacy will be back for its 10th edition at the riverside Sermsuk Warehouse January 11 to 13 from 3pm until midnight.

The event will feature a pop-up shop displaying the special “Made By Thailand Collection”, featuring items from Made By Legacy and more than 200 shops and vendors ranging from vintage and antique items to vinyl records to designer brands to local crafts, as well as a massive collection of classic cars and motorcycles.

Tickets cost Bt100 at the door.

For more information, visit http://www.MadeByLegacy.com.