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BOOK REVIEWS
The diffusion, he feels, through the bureaucratic network ended by the middle of the Ch'ing dynasty, thereafter the other two types have been the dominant methods by which theatrical styles have diffused into the Hong Kong area.
In short, the author has an appropriate conceptual framework for presenting the field research data. The book will be welcomed by many scholars, particularly by anthropologists and sinologists. The book is written in Japanese, but includes a short guide to contents in English. It is profusely illustrated with photographs.
WANG SUNG-HSING
John M. Chin, The Sarawak Chinese, Kuala Lumpur: Oxford University Press, 1981. xvi, 158 pp. maps, plates, appendices, bibliography, index.
R.H.W. Reece, The Name of Brooke: the end of White Rajah rule in Sarawak, Kuala Lumpur: Oxford University Press, 1982. xxxi, 331 pp. maps, plates, tables, appendices, glossary, bibliography, index.
These two books published recently by Oxford University Press in Kuala Lumpur are so disparate that a combined review seems to this reviewer very unfair. Hence my observations are given below separately.
First, The Sarawak Chinese: This small readable work is a thumbnail sketch of the role of the Chinese in Sarawak from their earliest arrival to the present. It gives a background to Chinese contact with Borneo from ancient times (Ch. 1); sketches the migration of Chinese (mostly coolie laborers) to Sarawak (Chs. 2-6) and the policies of, first, distrust and then gradual toleration, and direct encouragement of Chinese immigration and enterprise in the late nineteenth century, and early twentieth century development of agriculture and trade (Chs. 6-7).
The historical section, covering the period up to World War II (Chs. 1-7) lacks sufficient detail to be more convincing than a cursory sketch can be. It contains a few myths: that “Majapahit succeeded Shivijaya" and "extended its rule over Ternate, Luzon and the northern coasts of Borneo" (p. 3) (A better term would be "influence" or "suzerainty"); the "intolerant"
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