natchewwy's review against another edition
3.0
As someone who primarily associates Nanyang with a single school, I found this an accessible primer on rural/pre-modern Chinese Malayan history and culture, especially as told through its food. Wong's essay on leicha mapped the culinary evolution of the dish to parallel linguistic, literary, and cultural changes in the diaspora, which helped me draw connections between a bunch of different information I was only vaguely aware of before. The essays are largely anecdotal and often nostalgic slices of life, with some iffy forays into argument. For instance, there's a strong emphasis on the diversity of the Chinese diaspora, but also a tacit acceptance of groups like "Chinese-educated Malaysians" as monolithic, which undermines Wong's insistence that we recognise the differences between communities.
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