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F.J.L. Ghijsels; A Quiet Collector is the fascinating story of the evolution of an important collection of Indonesian art between 1910-1929. One of the most renowned colonial architects in the first half of the 20th century, the discovery that Ghijsels was also an avid collector comes as a surprise. Born in Java in the 19th century and educated in Holland, Ghijsels was a member of a new generation that in contrast to his predecessors greatly prized the artistic heritage of the land of his birth. A dedicated modernist, he was a member of a small but highly influential group of architects and city planners including Wolff Schoemakker, Henri Maclaine Pont and the fiery Thomas Kersten all of whom were graduates or affiliated with Delft University of Technology. Together with the architects P.A.J. Moojen and Cosmos Citroen, they would build many of the most iconic buildings, now heritage sites, in Indonesia that still influence young Indonesian architects. In addition they would, together prominent scholars, government leaders and art lovers, many who were also collectors, support cultural conferences, institutions and museums. Mostly held in Yogyakarta, these forums offered a unique opportunity for Indonesian intellectuals including many Javanese aristocrats to interact and work together despite this being frowned upon in official circles. After a long and successful career, Ghijsels would return to Europe to reunite with his family. Unfortunately the outbreak of World War Two would bring dramatic change and an early death. Until recently, like all the Dutch colonial architects, his legacy was largely ignored or forgotten in Holland. Richly illustrated with his architectural work and eclectic collection of often rare objects and art pieces, this book is a testament to a long lost era and the enduring beauty of Indonesian arts and crafts.

The history of Asia can be told through its great port cities: Guangzhou (Canton), Shanghai, Nagasaki, Basra, Aden, Jeddah, Kolkata (Calcutta), Mumbai (Bombay), Colombo, Batavia (Jakarta), Manila, Singapore, and many others. For millennia, port cities have been centres of global trade and the exchange of goods, peoples, cultures and ideas. They developed into cosmopolitan, multicultural societies and evolved distinctive, hybrid styles of art, architecture, material culture and ways of living. They were also crucibles of innovation, and have played an enormous, though under-appreciated, role in the spread of new technologies, new forms of creative expression and new ways of thinking throughout Asia. Stopping and sojourning at each of these port cities, museum director Kennie Ting tells an evocative, multi-layered tale of their living heritage, even as he paints a vivid picture of their importance in history. In doing so, he follows in the footsteps of generations of explorers and travellers who have wandered across the globe in the quest for knowledge, and recorded their experiences for posterity.

Siamese Anglophile is about the lifetime work of a Siamese born in London and nicknamed 'Teddy' by his English nanny. It is a heart-warming story of his eclectic and amusing experiences starting in 50s Britain and ending in 90s America. The Anglo-Saxon world is seen through the lens of an English speaking polyglot, with idiosyncratic insights and historical observations through a series of jobs from fruit-picking in Essex to performing as an extra in James Bond films at Pinewood studios to learning the ropes of the advertising industry in boomtown Manhattan. Here is a nostalgic memoir that starts more than half a century ago and conjures up the optimistic outlook of life at that time. Teddy's journey from London mailman to adman in Manhattan is amusingly told, with a wealth of fascinating anecdotes and historical references along the way, on working in post-war and sixties Britain, on the advertising business in the days before the Internet, and finally on teaching and travelling in America in the nineties. Teddy combines nostalgia and contemporary insights into the world of yesteryear peppered with wryly humorous narratives

This is the story of the money used from pre-colonial times to the present day on the island we know as Singapore.

Lee Kuan Yew, first Prime Minister of Singapore, is a figure whose international stature far exceeds that of the tiny island over which he presided for thirty years. This book analyses the origin and substance of Lee's ideas.