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From World City to the World in One City examines changing geographies of Liverpool through and across the lives of Malay seamen who arrived in the city during its final years as a major imperial port.
* Draws upon life histories and memories of people who met at the Malay Club in Liverpool until its closure in 2007, to examine changing urban sites and landscapes as well as the city's historically shifting constitutive connections
* In considering the historical presence of Malay seamen in Liverpool, draws attention to a group which has previously received only passing mention in historical and geographical studies of both that city, and of multi-ethnic Britain more widely
* Demonstrates that Liverpool-based Malay men sustained social connections with Southeast Asia long before scholars began to use terms such as 'globalization' or 'transnationalism'
* Based on a diverse range of empirical data, including interviews with members of the Malay Club in Liverpool and interviews in Southeast Asia, as well as archival and secondary sources
* Accessibly-written for non-academic audiences interested in the history and urban social geography of Liverpool
List of contents
Series Editors' Preface vii
List of Figures viii
Abbreviations and Acronyms ix
Glossary of Non-English Terms xi
Acknowledgements xiv
Prologue 1
1 Introduction: Locating Malay Liverpool 5
Worlds of Connection, Worlds in Cities 10
Sites and Routes of Fieldwork 14
Organization of the Book 20
2 From the Malay World to the Malay Atlantic 27
World City Liverpool in the Alam Melayu 28
Malays in the 'New York of Europe' ... and in New York 39
The Malay Atlantic 45
3 Home Port Liverpool and its Malay Places 56
Somewhere Worth Staying? 57
Remembering Cosmopolitanism and its Limits 62
Home and Away 68
Places to Be Malay 72
4 Merseyside Malaise and the Unmaking of British Malaya 83
Transnationalization and Malaysianization 84
Student Connections: From Kirkby to the Inner City 90
Urban Malaise 94
5 Diasporic (Re)connections 107
In Search of Lost Ancestors 108
Diaspora Envy and Worldly Malay?]ness 114
Old Malays versus the Islamized New Malay 121
6 Relocating Expectations of Modernity 135
Kuala Lumpur: Journeys to the New Centre of the Malay World 136
Tandas?]ization: Excremental Transition in Malacca 144
Returning to Singapore: From Third World to First 150
7 Community in the Capital of Culture 165
The Place of Community 166
Glasgowing and Beyond: Towards Multicultural Regeneration 172
Marking Malays(ia) on the Map of the World in One City 178
8 The Last Hurrah: From Independence Celebrations and Interculturalism to Club Closure 188
Merdeka on the Mersey 189
Performing Malay?]ness on Jermyn Street 194
Community Conflict and Urban Interculturalism 198
Death in the Place of Community 202
9 Conclusion: Catching up with Kuala Lumpur? 211
Comparative, Conceptual and Methodological Returns 216
Key Lifepaths 227
Archival and Documentary Sources 231
References 233
Index 250
About the author
Tim Bunnell is Associate Professor in the Department of Geography at the National University of Singapore. He is the author of
Malaysia, Modernity and the Multimedia Super Corridor: A Critical Geography of Intelligent Landscapes (2004).
Summary
From World City to the World in One City examines changing geographies of Liverpool through and across the lives of Malay seamen who arrived in the city during its final years as a major imperial port.
Report
'Here we have a distinctive approach to global and transnational urbanism, one that provides us with "sites and routes" that are markedly different from the normal science of urban studies. In this beautifully conceptualized and written book, Tim Bunnell draws us into life histories that are compelling world histories. In the process, cities are made and urban theory is remade.'
Ananya Roy, Professor of Urban Planning and Social Welfare and Director, The Institute on Inequality and Democracy at UCLA Luskin, USA
'This is an engagingly written and sensitively researched portrait of the Malays - from seafarers to students - who have lived in and through Liverpool, shaping this world city, which is now marketed as the 'world in one city'. Tracing the transnational lives of Liverpool Malays, it takes our understandings of diaspora cities and connected geographies in some exciting new directions.'
Richard Phillips, Professor of Geography, University of Sheffield, UK
