Book Review: Far East: Indigenous Political Systems of Western Malaya
| DOI | 10.1177/002070206602100339 |
| Date | 01 September 1966 |
| Published date | 01 September 1966 |
| Subject Matter | Book Review |
402
INTERNATIONAL
JOURNAL
THE
GLASS
CURTAIN
BETWEEN
ASIA
AND
EUROPE.
A
symposium
on
the
historical
encounters
and
the
changing
attitudes
of
the
peoples
of
the
East
and
West.
Edited
by
Raghavan Iyer.
1965.
(London:
Toronto:
Oxford
University
Press.
xii,
354pp.
$6.50)
This ambitious
book
contains
twenty
essays
by
various
authors
together
with
the
transcript
of
a
radio
discussion
between
the
editor
of
this
volume,
Dr.
Raghavan
Iyer,
and
Dr.
Arnold
Toynbee.
The
title
implies
that
some
kind
of
glass
curtain
exists
between
Asia
and
Europe,
a
kind
of
distorting mirror,
through
which
the
inhabitants
of
the
two
continents
still
view
each
other.
These
essays
attempt
to
explore
this
implication,
to
see
in
what
ways
it
is
still
true
and
how
it can
be
mitigated.
The
book
is
dedicated
to
those
for
whom, one
day
no
curtain
between
Asia
and Europe
will
exist.
It
is
impossible
to
do
justice
to
a
collection
of
essays
of
this
scope in
a
brief
review.
Suffice
it
to
say
that
this
book
contains
much
food
for
thought,
and
while
individual
readers may
be
disappointed
by
some
of
these
essays
they
may
equally
be
stimulated
by
others.
Personally
I
found
the
contributions
by
Robert
Shackleton
on
Asia
as
seen by
the
French
Enlightenment"
and
by
George
Bearce
on
"British
Attitudes
to
Asia"
of
particular
interest.
However,
the
con-
tribution
which summed
up
the
message
of
the
book
most
effectively
for
me
was
by
a
Chinese
scholar,
Dr.
Wang
Gungwu
on
"The
Umqueness
of
Europe
(as
seen
by
an
Asian).
Dr.
Wang,
who
is
Professor
of
History
at
the
University
of
Malaysia (Kuala
Lumpur)
was brought
up
as
a
boy
in
European-dominated
Malaya
just
before
the
Second
World
War.
In
a
sensitively
written
account
he
describes
his
intellectual
development,
and
his
feeling
of
living
between
two
worlds.
"I
was
made
keenly
aware
when
I
was
still
very
young,
that
there
was
a
'Europe'
and
a
'non-Europe.
'Non-Europe'
I
saw
mainly
as
morality,
religion, and
codes of
behaviour
peculiar
to
the
Asians.
As
for
'Europe,
it
was
science
which
first
made sense
to me
as
a
kind
of
magic,
a
new,
more
effective
magic
which,
unlike
'non-Europe,
was
dynamic
and
concrete.
He
goes
on
to
describe
how
the Japanese
conquest
of
Malaya
broke
the
spell
since
"the
all-powerful
science
was
no
longer
exclusively
European.
After the war
he
went
to
a
University
in
China
and
then
returned
to
Malaya
to
continue
his
studies.
He
describes how
his
image
of
Europe
changed
and
ends his
essay
by
analysing
the present
relation-
ship
between Europe
and
the
non-European
world,
and
offering
some
guarded
hope
for
the
future.
In
a
very
brief
foreword
the
Dalai
Lama
writes:
"Our redemption
lies
in
creating
forces
of
tolerance,
brother
hood,
and
equality
I
add
my
prayers
to
these
efforts.
So do
we
all.
University
of
Toronto
J.
L.
CRANMER-BYNG
INDIGENOUS
POLITICAL
SYSTEMS
OF
WESTERN
MALAYA.
By
J.
M.
Gullick.
1965.
(London: Athlone
Press.
Toronto:
Oxford
University
Press.
151pp.
$2.10)
This
is
a
paperback
re-issue
of
a
1958
edition
in
the
well-known
series,
the
London
School
of
Economics
Monographs
on
Social
Anthro-
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