The Napoleonic War and WW2 taught the Russians that they need neutral countries between Germany and Moscow to act as buffer states to survive a…
View More When Titans Clashed
Author: Julia_M
The World Beyond Life in Early China
Life and Afterlife in Ancient China by Jessica Rawson, 2023. I read this book in 2023. Rawson, a former professor at Oxford University, in this…
View More The World Beyond Life in Early China
Books on The Malayan Emergency
The Malayan Emergency: Revolution and Counterinsurgency at the End of Empire By Karl Hack, 2022 is touted as the definitive history. While it is indeed…
View More Books on The Malayan Emergency
Religions in China—Part 2
Phenomenal growth in Protestantism, Post-Mao Since 1978, Protestantism has been the fastest-growing religion in China. Before 1949, its growth was not impressive by any standards.…
View More Religions in China—Part 2
Religions in China
The state of religions in China post-Mao is a rather opaque area. Two recent books shed some much-needed light. The Souls of China: The Return…
View More Religions in China
Revisiting 1965 Through New Records
The Albatross File Inside Separation edited by Susan Sim, 2025. Late last year, in Dec 2025, a trove of secret documents on the negotiations between…
View More Revisiting 1965 Through New Records
Leadership Lessons from the Goh Era
Goh Chok Tong was Singapore’s 2nd Prime Minister, from 1990 to 2004. Impressions of the Goh Chok Tong Years in Singapore (2009) is the definitive…
View More Leadership Lessons from the Goh Era
The Babas—Part 4
The Baba community is loosely referred to as Peranakan Chinese in Malaysia. The Babas in Malaysia started with immigrant Chinese from China (who, during the…
View More The Babas—Part 4
The Babas—Part 3
In October 2025, the Malaysian government officially recognized the Baba Nyonya community as a distinct ethnic group, allowing members to have “Baba Nyonya” listed as…
View More The Babas—Part 3
Sun Yat-sen in Penang
No. 120 Armenian Street is the site of the Sun Yat-sen Museum. This is because the shop here was the Nanyang Headquarters of Sun Yat-sen.…
View More Sun Yat-sen in Penang