TAIPEI, TAIWAN - (Media Outreach) - As the leading scholar on Sino-Southeast Asian historical relations, he developed a unique approach to understanding China by scrutinizing its long and complex relation with its southern neighbors. His erudition and critical discernment have significantly enriched the explanation of the Chinese people's changing place in the world, traditionally developed from an internalist perspective or in relation to the West."Born in Surabaya in the Dutch East Indies (today's Indonesia) in 1930 to Chinese parents, Prof. Wang grew up and received education in British Malaya, and later pursued advanced studies in London, where he got a PhD degree from SOAS, the University of London in 1957. His subsequent academic appointments brought him to Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Australia and the United States. He was president of the University of Hong Kong from 1986 to 1995, a visiting fellow at Oxford's All Souls College, a Rockefeller visiting fellow at the University of London and recipient of Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1991. Currently, he is university professor at the National University of Singapore.
Spending much of his life immersed in different cultures gives Prof. Wang diverse personae as a scholar. He is an "insider" in the academic tradition of Chinese Confucianism and British elite education, and an "outsider" in the interpretation of China's perception of the world. "What drew me to that subject (Chinese overseas) was what China meant to the world outside, especially to those Chinese who had left the country and settled abroad," so remarked Prof. Wang in his memoir, Home Is Not Here. His original approach to understanding China from the southern perspective is in part a natural choice given his personal experience. This same experience provided him with abundant inspiration in his formative years as he matured into an authoritative voice in the analysis of China's worldview.
The terms "Chinese overseas" or "Chinese immigrants" refer to words such as hua qiao (Chinese expatriates) commonly seen in Chinese-language newspapers. The word qiao is defined as people who lodge in places or countries other than their ethnic origin. Qiao first appeared in Wei Shu (The Book of Wei) and Jin Shu (The Book of Jin), written during the period of China's Six Dynasties, and referred to sojourning in a foreign land. However, when reality forced Chinese migrants to extend their stay, their sojourn turned into long or even permanent residence, and what changed was their sense of identity. Enlightened by his family and educational background, Prof. Wang knows too well that the development of an identification is more an emotional process than a rational decision. In addition, because one's identity implicates one's psychological state, it can undergo a transformation whenever one's circumstances change. Therefore, there is never a clear-cut answer when it comes to identity. Prof. Wang, taking advantage of his western academic training, is able to look beyond dichotomous concepts. Instead, he explores the concepts by tracing the history of qiao and eventually came up with the idea known as "Chinese overseas."