Lecture by Mr. Jason Lim, University of Wollongong
Thursday, January 18, 2024
5:00 PM – 6:00 PM (Pacific Time)
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In the 1950s, as several Southeast Asian countries began the process of decolonization during the Cold War, Taiwan gained new allies in its diplomatic struggle with the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and sought to contain anti-communism. pursued an aggressive anti-communist policy in the region. spread of communism. The Nationalist government also considers itself representative of all overseas Chinese, with Singapore, where 75 percent of the population is overseas Chinese, receiving particular attention. My lecture will be on the Kuomintang’s two main concerns about Singapore: political development (including communist activities and the alleged influence of the People’s Republic of China) and the Chinese people. I examine how Taiwan’s Kuomintang (KMT) government oversaw Singapore’s decolonization process, starting with the 1955 Labor Front election. We examine how the Kuomintang government viewed Singapore’s internal affairs, a path to full autonomy from the state. Annexed by Britain in 1959 and acceded to Malaysia in 1963, Indonesia responded through conflict and gained independence in August 1965.
Professor Jason Lim I am a historian focusing on China, Taiwan, and Southeast Asia.
Relations during the Cold War and history of overseas Chinese. Before joining academia in 2008, Lim served as an archivist and oral history interviewer. Since then, he has been a lecturer at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, and from 2008 he worked as a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of History at the National University of Singapore until 2010, before joining the University of Wollongong in September 2010. His two volumes on the Chinese tea merchants in the Fujian-Singapore trade and the Chinese tricycle industry in Singapore. In 2016, Lim served as his one of two editors for a book that examines Singapore’s history from 1965 to 2015. Lim He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society in 2022.