Written by author and speaker Shawn Seah, My Father's Kampung delves into the social history of Aukang and Punggol as it traces a son's journey to better understand and appreciate the kampung life his father lived. The book is rich in personal stories and oral histories of those who lived there from the 1940s to 1970s, brought to life by Seah's passionate narrative as well as illustrations and photos.This book is supported by the National Heritage Board, with Forewords by Robert Yeo and Montfort Alumni.

The Sound of Memories: Recordings from the Oral History Centre, Singapore features the happy, funny, poignant and bittersweet — but always heartwarming and unforgettable — stories, memories and anecdotes of Singaporeans from all walks of life. Distilled from almost 5,000 interviews that the National Archives of Singapore's Oral History Centre has collected since 1979, these recordings describe the experiences of everyman, from tycoons and tailors to chief executive officers and chief cooks.Relive the significant moments that have unfolded in Singapore's history through the eyes of people who personally bore witness to these events. Their recollections are vividly captured in chapters on communities, schooldays, popular pastimes, the Japanese Occupation, food, national tragedies, medicine, economy, women, the performing arts and sports.

In The Appearances of Memory, the Indonesian architectural and urban historian Abidin Kusno explores the connections between the built environment and political consciousness in Indonesia during the colonial and postcolonial eras. Focusing primarily on Jakarta, he describes how perceptions of the past, anxieties about the rapid pace of change in the present, and hopes for the future have been embodied in architecture and urban space at different historical moments. He argues that the built environment serves as a reminder of the practices of the past and an instantiation of the desire to remake oneself within, as well as beyond, one’s particular time and place. Addressing developments in Indonesia since the fall of President Suharto’s regime in 1998, Kusno delves into such topics as the domestication of traumatic violence and the restoration of order in the urban space, the intense interest in urban history in contemporary Indonesia, and the implications of “superblocks,” large urban complexes consisting of residences, offices, shops, and entertainment venues. Moving farther back in time, he examines how Indonesian architects reinvented colonial architectural styles to challenge the political culture of the state, how colonial structures such as railway and commercial buildings created a new, politically charged cognitive map of cities in Java in the early twentieth century, and how the Dutch, in attempting to quell dissent, imposed a distinctive urban visual order in the 1930s. Finally, the present and the past meet in his long-term considerations of how Java has responded to the global flow of Islamic architecture, and how the meanings of Indonesian gatehouses have changed and persisted over time. The Appearances of Memory is a pioneering look at the roles of architecture and urban development in Indonesia’s ongoing efforts to move forward.

Since 2006, over 500 young Americans have travelled to Malaysia under the auspices of the Fulbright Program to serve as English Teaching Assistants (ETAs) in public secondary schools. Fulbright is a U.S. State Department funded educational exchange program between the U.S. and over 150 countries around the world that seeks to increase mutual understanding between Americans and the citizens of other countries. The ETA program in Malaysia, administered by a bi-national commission known as the Malaysian-American Commission on Educational Exchange (MACEE), is one of the largest Fulbright programs in the world and has impacted thousands of students, teachers, and ETAs in communities across the country. This compilation of essays, stories, and reflections has been written by present and former ETAs and compiled by MACEE to celebrate the breadth of experiences and depth of connections made possible by this cultural and educational exchange. This compilation of essays, stories, and reflections has been written by present and former ETAs and compiled by MACEE to celebrate the breadth of experiences and depth of connections made possible by this cultural and educational exchange.

Singapore's successful public housing programme is a source of political legitimacy for the ruling People's Action Party. Beng-Huat Chua accounts for the success of public housing in Singapore and draws out lessons for other nations. Housing in Singapore, he explains in this incisive analysis, is seen neither as a consumer good (as in the US) nor as a social right (as in the social democracies of Europe). The author goes on to look at the ways in which Singapore's planners have dealt with the problems of creating communities in a modern urban environment. He concludes that the success of the public housing programme has done much for Singapore.

What can you remember of your childhood? This was the question put to a number of ‘seniors’ asked to start from as far back as they could get, and go as far as the onset of adolescence. Their answers are in this unusual book. Topics naturally include their physical self; their parents, siblings, grandparents, friends, playmates, teachers, classmates, pets; their manners, training, rewards and punishments; food; play, toys; likes, dislikes; schools, kindergarten, elementary; outings, holidays, travel; notable experiences; dreams, nightmares, pleasures, fears. They were also invited to give an account of their physical surroundings, their home, and the context of everyday life, what they took for granted; and to draw attention to a past in which so much of what is now common was then absent: TV, cell-phones, ubiquitous motor cars, air travel. The question was directed to and accepted by people from a number of countries and with a range of experiences. Several are or were academics, and the introduction contains some comments on memory and points to commonalities among the remembered experiences, as well as differences. But the book is mainly for the general reader, who may want to ask: what can I remember of my childhood? - Let me try!