August 24, 2009

An Honour’s Thesis from the SEASP by Ms Ng Sue Chia (Honours Cohort 2002/2003) titled, “Threads of Gold: The Rise of Indochinese Enterprises in Terengganu” was spotted by a German Publishing house (VDM-Publishing) which approached her for the publication of her thesis. Retaining the original thesis title, the published book will be launched some time in September 2009 and available for purchase on Amazon.com and Nobles & Barnes.com.

Congratulations to Sue Chia on this accomplishment!

Details of the book is noted below:

Ng Sue Chia, Threads of Gold: The Rise of Indochinese Enterprises in Terengganu, Germany: VDM Verlag, 2009.

It has been more than 20 years since the Cham community settled en masse in Kuala Terengganu, Malaysia. Yet, hardly much is written about them. This book aims to provide an ethnographical study and examine the immediate history, networks and identity of the Cham Diaspora. The locals had assumed that they are either ‘Malays’ from Cambodia or ‘Vietnamese Muslim converts’. They are Muslim-Cham from Cambodia and Vietnam, who fearing the assaults of the Pol Pot regime and possible threats to their identity-and-religion, have from 1975 begun to flee to various United Nations-run refugee camps in Thailand, hoping to be resettled in Malaysia. From their initial occupations as petty traders and odd job labourers, they have emerged as successful textile and gold retailers in KT. They have also built a socioeconomic network within their community on which they could depend for various form of support.

This book would be of interest to anthropologists and political analysts who are studying minority group relations and the social- political dynamics of refugees-local population interactions.