Foreword Two

附：黄子坚先生原文

By Danny Wong Tze Ken

University of Malaya

Dr．Song is a late comer to the study of Chinese in Malaysia and Southeast Asia．The one year which he spent at the University of Malaya and his involvement with members of the Malaysian Chinese Research Centre，provided him with plenty of opportunities to take a closer look at the evolution and development of this very important field of study．It is also interesting to note that Dr．Song，who is trained as a historian of Song era，was able to make the shift and adjustment to undertake a series of studies on the subject of the Chinese in Malaysia．This is a most interesting development，with Dr．Song as a new inclusion to the circle of colleagues working on the Chinese in Malaysia．Thus it is not surprising that Dr．Song is able to complete a book to be offered as a new work on the subject．

The volume is a compilation of Dr．Songƴs work，centres on three broad themes of leadership，community and religion and belief．There are two papers under the leadership theme，focusing respectively on the epigraphic information on the Capitan China of Melaka，and the leadership authority of the Cheng Hoon Teng temple;under the second theme of community，a paper is devoted to the study of the Hokkien demography of Kuala Lumpur based on the burial receipts of the Hokkien cemetery，while a second paper looks into the Hokkien Association of Selangorƴs concerns on China;there are four papers in the last theme of religion and belief，with the first focuses on the life of a Buddhist master，and the following two papers centre on the development of ChinaG origin Buddhism，whereas the last paper examines the Chinese belief of Balik Pulau in Penang．The last section of the book is a small collections of Dr．Songƴs short articles which appeared in newspapers．

Even though the list of papers are by no means exhaustive， they are reflective of the type of work that Dr．Song did while he was in Malaysia．This is a rather impressive achievement considering the short duration he spent in the country．It is also a testament of the enthusiasm and high energy level that Dr．Song had that enabled him to carry out very meticulous research work in the country．For a man who had spent such short duration in Malaysia，Dr．Songƴs research findings are not only impressive， they are also very accurate depictions of the Chinese community in Malaysia，especially on their religious belief．More importantly， his works on the religious and belief system are in many ways， groundbreaking efforts–in documenting the development of localization of belief systems that originated from China，which had taken on new lease of life in Malaysia．Which in the process acquired a certain degree of localization．

Even though trained in the steep tradition of Chinese historiography，Dr．Song was able to adapt well to the use of alternative sources as reflective in his references which also incorporate sources from the field and local archives．He had also incorporated references from other languages，including English．This is a very important step which has ensured his work to be empirically rich，yet constantly maintaining a dialogue with existing works．

Dr．Songƴs volume on Leadership，Community and Religion and Belief，is an important new contribution to the study of the Chinese in Malaysia and Southeast Asia．We look forward to more research output by Dr．Song in the future．