Soon-Tzu Speechley 孫子

The dog really channeling Lady Agnew this evening

Two books I’m very excited to dig into landed in my doorstep this week, so that’s my summer reading sorted.

Also a bit wary about the apparent censorship of Palestinians on here.

Testing the waters, there still aren’t as many Southeast Asian folks over here, and a lot of my favourite accounts there haven’t moved, so dividing my attention

Have genuinely contemplated moving elsewhere this hayfever season

Spring is nice.*

* on days I’m not absolutely suffering from hayfever

Interested in difficult heritage and/or the history of anti-Chinese violence in the settler colonial world? This is a must read from Karen Schamberger from the Young Historical Museum in Australia
www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Architectural Encounters in Asia Pacific Architectural Encounters in Asia Pacific explores the architecture of colonial trade and industry, revealing a complex network of transnational connections acro…

More recently I launched a book I edited with colleagues. It’s been a big year. www.bloomsbury.com/au/architect...

Since I last logged on here I launched my book in Singapore. It was lovely.

Guilty as charged

Thank you!

Not yet, but it’s available to order from Kinokuniya and possibly Tsutaya!

The fascinating history of Malayan classical architecture captured in Soon-Tzu Speechley’s ‘Mala... KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 27 — Visitors to Malaysia are often surprised by our modern skyscrapers and the glistening temples to consumerism we call malls, especially in central Kuala...

Had a chat with the Malay Mail about my book, and how I came to write about Malaysia’s rich architectural heritage. It’s a bit surreal to be in the pages of KL’s oldest English-language paper, which was such an important source for my research. www.malaymail.com/news/life/20...

Hand holding the book Malayan Classicism

It’s publication day for Malayan Classicism! My book is now available via Bloomsbury in the UK and US. (It’ll take a little longer for copies to make their way down to our southern shores).

I'm tremendously grateful to the entire team at Bloomsbury for working with me to make this book a reality, and in particular Ros O'Cleirigh who helped shepherd this book to completion. Special thanks also to Alex Highfield for getting the ball rolling.

Copies of the book Malayan Classicism on an antique desk, with one copy open to a two-page spread featuring black and white photographs and a building plan.

Extra-special delivery from the postie today. Received my author’s copies of Malayan Classicism this morning. Surreal feeling!

Thank you! Hope you enjoy the book!

I do appreciate that academic monographs are very expensive. Please consider recommending the book to your local library – it’s tremendously helpful to me as an emerging scholar and helps me get my work out there.

Flyer with blurb and discount code for Malayan Classicism: GLR AQ4.

My book is available for pre-order (delivery in Feb 2024 for Australia and NZ) with a 35% discount. Use the code GLR AQ4 for a discount from Bloomsbury’s ANZ website.

Photograph of a hardcover book entitled Malayan Classicism, with a black and white image of the former Penang Free School and tropical foliage on the cover.

Image of a two-page spread of a book illustrated with historic black and white images.

Image of a two-page spread of a book with historic black and white images.

Image of the back cover of a book with blurb.

The first copies of my book have just arrived at Bloomsbury's office in London. My editorial assistant sent these photos overnight and will be sending my author copies over soon 🥹

Completely understand! I’ll need to sell a few hundred copies of the hardcover before a paperback edition is viable for my publisher, but will keep you posted!

The book is available to preorder with a 35% discount though.

Welcome!

This week I'll be chatting with some wonderful people who are much smarter than me about writing diverse histories of architecture in conjunction with the MSD’s exhibition 'Matrix – How We Live Now'. Event registration below: msd.unimelb.edu.au/events/matri...

The kicap manis is from the store, but the ginger and spring onion sauce was made from scratch.

Malaysians as a rule are such night owls that I think the later sunsets suit us well – people eat dinner late and often hang out at mamak restaurants after midnight so the sun rising a bit later doesn’t feel too bad at all

It’s something like 300,000 people crossing the border daily, and can go up to 950,000 during long weekends and festive periods so it’d be complete chaos if we had different timezones tbh.

When Malaysia decided to move forward an hour in the 80s Singapore decided it’d be prudent to do the same, given how closely the two countries are economically and socially.

Singapore has shared the same timezone as the peninsula since the 19th century, since the Straits Settlements and Malaya were effectively administered together. There were debates about DST there in the 20s, and we all ended up in Tokyo’s timezone during WWII.

Yes Singapore shares the same timezone. Basically the Peninsula + Singapore have adopted Borneo’s natural time zone. Which is perhaps why I prefer the later sunsets we have here during DST. But you can cross the border between M’sia and Thailand any day of the year and instantly go back an hour.

Map of timezones from India to Japan. Malaysia is a notable exception within its latitude which mostly follows GMT+7 line, instead sharing a time zone with China, the Philippines and Western Australia.

Malaysia has had six different timezones over the last century or so. The one we’re in now is really well ahead where we should be if going by longitude – a change made in the 80s to harmonise East and West Malaysia and help trade with HK/China: www.therakyatpost.com/living/2021/...