Lecture by Asst. Prof. Dr. Pang Koon Kein in the 49th talk of the “Tan Lark Sye Lecture Series”
The 49th session of the Tan Lark Sye Lecture Series, organized by the Institute of International Education and the Tan Lark Sye Institute of New Era University College (NEUC), was held on 29 April. The lecture featured Asst. Prof. Dr. Pang Koon Kein from the Research Institute of Global Chinese and Area Studies, Hua Qiao University, as the keynote speaker. He delivered a talk entitled “Technology, Rubber, and Agrarian Labour: The Global Crisis of Rubber Plantations and the Malayan Emergency”. The lecture was moderated by Assoc. Prof. Dr. Lew Siew Boon, Assistant Dean of the Institute of International Education, and attracted more than 150 participants. In the lecture, Dr. Pang examined the Malayan Emergency through the lens of the global rubber plantation crisis, offering an in-depth discussion of the political, economic, and social forces behind this historical period.
Dr. Pang Koon Kein is a Malaysian Chinese scholar who has served as an Assistant Professor at the Research Institute of Global Chinese and Area Studies, Hua Qiao University, since September 2024. He holds a PhD from the Department of History at Peking University, where his doctoral thesis was honored as an Outstanding Graduation Thesis. During his studies in China, he received the Tsinghua University Scholarship, the Peking University Freshman Scholarship, the Beijing Government Scholarship, and the Chinese Government Scholarship. His main research fields include Southeast Asian history and the history of Overseas Chinese, with a current focus on the history of Chinese laborers in Malayan plantations. He is currently leading one university-level project and one national-level project.
During the lecture, Dr. Pang revisited the historical event in which the Malay Peninsula entered the twelve-year period known as the “Malayan Emergency” in 1948. He noted that traditional narratives often frame the Emergency as a form of political strife, focusing mainly on British colonial authorities, ethnic elites, representative organizations, and the decolonization movement. However, such narratives may overlook other important factors that shaped post-war Malayan society. Taking “rubber” as a key point of departure, Dr. Pang analyzed how this tropical crop connected technology, capital, and agrarian labour, and how it triggered a political, economic, and social storm in Malaya.
Following the lecture, participants actively engaged with the speaker during the Q&A session, raising questions related to the global rubber plantation crisis, historical narratives of the Malayan Emergency, the history of Chinese laborers in plantations, and the political economy of colonial Malaya. Dr. Pang responded to each question in turn, fostering an engaging and dynamic exchange.
