October 19, 2020

In celebration of Professor Wang Gungwu’s 90^th birthday and imminent book release, NUS conducted an interview with him at the Bukit Timah campus. It becomes clear as the meeting unfolds, delving through his time in Southeast Asia, China, and the West, that Singapore has been very fortunate to have kept the renowned scholar working and proactively building an academic community at NUS since the 1990s.

Prof Gungwu was the founding Chairman of the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy and former Chairman of the NUS East Asian Institute – institutions that served to promote Singapore’s growing stature within the international academic community, as well as fulfilling the task of educating the nation’s own aspiring next generation. His appraisal of the NUS work environment focuses on the singular theme of ‘intellectual freedom’, stating that “I was never told what to do” and that the university is committed to “offering freedom to the scholar.”

‘Home is Where We Are’, the 2^nd volume of Prof Gungwu’s memoir, will be published by NUS Press on 20^th October 2020. Co-written with his wife Margaret of 65 years, who sadly passed away earlier this year, the memoir frames their life together from her perspective, adding an intimate layer of detail from those closest to him. Identity, belonging, and personal history permeate the pages of this definitive autobiography. Discover both volumes at NUS Press here.

Upon concluding the interview, Prof Gungwu returns to his office at a muted and sparsely populated NUS, a campus that has been severely disrupted, as so many other university campuses have been, during the ongoing pandemic. Yet as the professor’s own life story reveals in both the interview and his memoirs, adverse moments in history must be well met, lived through, and overcome, as only then can the spirit of curiosity and excellence flourish.

Read the full article here.