一个新村，一种华人
——重建马来（西）亚华人新村的集体回忆
潘婉明 著
潘婉明
生于马来西亚怡保，台湾国立政治大学历史系毕业，台湾国立暨南国际大学历史学研究所硕士。目前担任台湾中央研究院社会学研究所研究助理。研究兴趣在马共历史和新村生活，并致力于庶民历史的田野工作。
作者电邮：ymphoon@gate.sinica.edu.tw
cliophoon@yahoo.com.tw
大将观点30
—个新村，一种华人？
重建马来（西）亚华人新村的集体回忆
潘婉明 著
大将出版社
大将出版品第213种
大将观点30
一个新村，一种华人？重建马来（西）亚华人新村的集体回忆
作者：潘婉明
主编：徐婉君
编辑：刘艺婉
助编：苏淑萍
社长：傳承得
发行人：傅兴汉
创意顾问： 游川
法律顾冋: 吴汉强律师、王瑞隆律师
出版：大将出版社（马来西亚）
发行：大将出版社（马来西亚）
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第1版第1刷：2004年11月20日
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著作权所有•侵害必究
国际书号:ISBN983-3098-23-1
图书分类：
Perpustakaan Negara Malaysia Cataloguing-in-Publication
Data
Phoon,Yuen Ming,1973-
[Yi ge xin cun, yi Zhong hua ren?]
一个新村，一种华人？/潘婉明著
(大将观点：30)
ISBN 983-3098-23-1
1.Villages--Malaysia.2.Rural development--Malaysia.
3.Chinese—Malaysia—Politics and government.
4.Malaysia—Rural conditions. I.Title. II.Series:Da
jiang guan dian;30.
307.7209595
#本书如有缺页、破坏、装订错误•请寄回本公司调换。
序一
Preface
Mak Lau Fong（麦留芳博士）
I was about to revise a
conference paper for publication when Yuen Ming approached me for a preface for
her volume on the social memory of the New Villagers in Malaysia.
Coincidentally the original paper is on the role played by Area Studies in
theory construction in the social science; I find it appropriate to be a
preface for her volume. I wrote the paper when I was with the Chinese
University of Hong Kong. By the time I revised it I was a Visiting Research
Fellow at the Institute of Ethnology, Academia Sinica in Taipei. For the past
thirty years my teaching and research interest has been in secret societies,
Chinese overseas and Islamization in insular Southeast Asia. Probably I am
already working in area studies and that gives me the confidence to comment on
the relationship between social science and area studies.
Area Studies, Orientalism and
Colonialism
Area Studies takes on
various forms or definitions according to perspectives. In general, studies on
developing, peripheral, or non-Western societies and their culture are a common
form of Area Studies. Programs on Area Studies assume labels such as Asia
Pacific Studies, Southeast Asian Studies, Far Eastern Studies, the Middle East
Studies, the Latin American Studies, China Studies, Japanese Studies,
Indonesian Studies, or Asian and African Studies.
The conventional and Western
perspective precludes studies on advanced and developed nations such as the
United States, Britain and some European countries. The demarcation between the
central and peripheral societies hinges much on their respective economic
achievement. What really directly under-pin the perspective are two economic
correlates, the production of social science and more critically the theories
of social science.
Another economic correlate
is the influence of mass media and related linguistic affinity; the part it
plays is in disseminating as well as popularizing theories of social science.
In this regard, the English language as a medium in education instruction and
in media industry apparently determines the popularity of social science
theories that appear in the language. In Sociology for instance, theories
advanced by Max Weber, Emile Durkheim, Pierre Bourdieu would have remained
popular only in their respective countries if their works had not been
translated into English. There is probably no social theory outside the
advanced societies.
Social science has become
almost an American science, and hence social science theories formulated
therefrom preside over similar non-American products. This center-peripheral
relationship in the production and consumption of social theories illustrates
well the relational position of Social Science and Area Studies.
Area Studies has served
three distinctive roles in academic pursuits. A great proportion of area
studies is conducted by anthropologists; and hence Anthropology and Area
Studies are sometimes synonymous. When the two are one, they generate theories
and methodologies that are meant to explain foreign and level cultural systems.
Ruth Benedict's generation gap, Clifford Geertz's local knowledge, and Van
Genep's rites des passages are the more famous examples about formulating
grounded theories that are applicable to the host or advanced societies. Area
research in this case is virtually an anthropological inquiry.
Another role of Area Studies
relative to the social science discipline is a subservient one in that the
former constitutes an independent study that is not a feedback in the
construction of social science theory. Neither does it aim at producing
generalized explanations. Orientalism is characteristic of this role of Area
Studies.
Area Studies is historically
closely related to Colonialism or Orientalism (Said 1978); more accurately it
is the product of the latter. Orientalism is an applied research perspective
that has its roots in the authentication of Islamic scripture in the Medieval
Period. The colonial officials and scholars e.g. Snouck Hurgronje, Richard
Winstedt and Maurice Freedman, adopted a standard perspective to do
ethnographic research for the colonial government. Collecting field data in the
name of Area Studies is also some kind of patriotic expression apart from
personal interest. Most ethnographic work carried out by the Japanese on Taiwan
and Southeast Asia during the Occupation period is exemplary. Similarly, in
order to assess a foreign country's stability and political orientation after
the collapse of the old world order, Area studies filled the intelligence
needs. The mushrooming of Area Studies in America immediately after the Second
World War (Geertz 2000: 3-20) is in one way or another funded by the American
Central Intelligence Agency.
As world market is opening
up, Area Studies is also linked to business and investment. Taiwan's Area
Studies got off the ground in the mid-1990s as a response to the government's
so-called “Advancing South Policy”in the late 1980s. About the same time, the
Singapore government set up a Southeast Asian Program in a university. In all
the cases quoted, apparently the developed countries are more interested in
studying the culture and society of the underdeveloped countries, and not the
other way around.
Area Studies and Theory Construction
As presented above, a
critical role of Area Studies is to verify and substantiate disciplinary
theories, especially in sociology, history and political science. Theory
construction in social sciences, particularly notions like universals, generalizations
and laws, is to the great displeasure of Clifford Geertz (1968: 56-59; 2000:
133-140). He dismisses indexical and typological approaches as a display of
quantified data at best, and at worst an arbitrary imposition of paradigms. To
him, “No one knows everything, because there is no everything to know”(Geertz
2000: 134); and “local knowledge” which is methodologically a new wine in an
old bottle labeled “verstehen” (understanding) and ethnomethodology, is what is
needed in understanding a culture and society. Most people agree that local
knowledge does not claim universals, it contains no laws, and it is not
generalizable. But local knowledge is the truth of the people under study,
because the finding is extracted from the everyday life of the people.
To agree to the “local
knowledge” strategy is not to be blind to the fact that there are events and behavior
that form patterns across cultures and societies. It is in this respect that we
link Area Studies to social science theory construction.
A theory is a system of
relationship between variables where the relationship may be under or over
specified. A theory claims potency when its system of relationship is
adequately specified. For example, the expected relationship between attitude
towards birth control and gender would show better potency if it could specify
also marital status or complete family size.
In theory construction,
intervening factors also play a crucial part in the claim of universality of
the theory. The generalizability of a theory extends when suspected intervening
factors have been cleared. An uncontested intervening factor could have
nullified the original relationship and replaced the original determinant. A
classical example is the causality between life expectancy and occupation where
newsboys outlive most bankers. The age differential between the two as an
intervening factor actually explains the original causal relationship.
Most theories in social
science are cultural bound and necessitate appropriate specification and clearance
of intervening factors. Apparently area studies findings serve as a
substantiation mechanism. Drawing upon my own studies on Chinese secret
societies, early Chinese migration to Southeast Asia, and Islamization of the
Malay world, I shall show how such studies help substantiate sociological
concepts such as solidarity, ethnic resources, and secularization.
Case 1: Solidarity in Organized
Deviancy
Most early American studies
on organized crime focus mainly on the Cosa Nostra, or the American Mafia, which
is traceable to the Mafia in Sicily, Italy. The criminal activities attracted
the attention of the law enforcement agencies as well as the criminologists
(lanni 1972; Cressey 1972). However, very little interest was shown in the
sociologically core issue of social bonding or organizing principles among the
members and the management strategies. Theoretically, to effectively disband a
group requires the knowledge of how members are bonded together. Where such
issues are addressed, there is always the assumption of standard organizational
structure among criminal organizations in America or any other country. And
standard structure means undifferentiated solidarity. This assumption of
insulation between the legitimate society and the underworld lacks sociological
imagination.
The findings arising from
the Triad societies in China, the Chinese Secret Societies in early Malaya, and
the boryokudan (Yakusa) in Japan (Mak 1981; 1998) have sufficiently invalidated
the insulation assumption, thereby unfolding the diversity of the underworld.
Other than the Mafia's kinship bond, there are also other organizing principles
in the underworld, which may be identified as the fictive kinship that one
finds in the Yamaguchi Gumi (oyabun-kobun) and the Triad societies (brotherhood).
The substantiation on the organizing principle of underworld organizations
provides a perspective that departs from the conventional view of
undifferentiated criminals. Furthermore, the findings also suggest that while
underworld organizations committed similar patterns of crime, not all of them
are organized along the same principle. Rather, each is organized within its
own cultural tradition, and their raison d'etre hinges much on members,
understanding of the meaning of bond.
Area Studies as in the above
case, has contributed to the construction of criminological as well as
sociological theory by way of invalidating a commonly held assumption.
Case 2: Chinese Immigrants and Ethnic
Resources
The simple and yet popular
theory on motivation for immigration is the Push and Pull theory. Briefly, a
person migrates because he experiences a force from home that pushes him to
emigrate and simultaneously a force from abroad that pulls him in. Natural or
political disasters at home and greener pastures at the destination are
respectively the commonly cited forces. A much desired opportunity is a
favorable job market at the destination. Studies on ethnic Chinese in early
North America (Cheng and Bonacich 1984: 60-78) reveal that free Chinese
immigrants show a “universal” occupational pattern comprising mainly barbers,
cooks and laundrymen, who mostly originated from Cantonese-speaking districts
in the Kwangtung Province (Chan 1986: xx-xxi, 16ff.). There were also recruited
laborers for working in labor-intensive railroads construction, plantation, and
mining extraction. Neither did these debt-ridden immigrants have a choice in
their occupation because of their bondage. The occupational structure of these
early immigrants differentiated very little; and jobs available to them were in
effect a residual category of the main job market.
Similarly, the Chinese
immigrants in the early British Straits Settlements were also of two main
types, namely, the free laborer and the debt-bonded laborer. The free laborers
were self-financed and voluntary, many of whom had relatives already settled
down locally. As far as the immigrants' financial status and the host
government policies were concerned, these free Chinese immigrants did have an
occupational choice despite the then lowly differentiated job market. Compared
to their counterparts in North America, the Chinese immigrants in Southeast
Asia in general, and in the Straits Settlements in particular, benefited much
from a more diversified occupational structure which included finance, import
and export, ship-building and traditional medical business.
The contrasting difference
in occupational choice between the early Chinese immigrants in the two areas
begs some explanation. A paradigm developed out of my study on the social
identity of the Chinese immigrants in 19th century Malaya (Mak 1985; 1995)
seems to be able to incorporate the difference. The Chinese immigrants in both
North America and the British Straits Settlements are distinguishable into free
and bonded laborers, but the latter in both societies faced the same market
constraint in that they are not free to choose. While the consequence was
similar, the source of market constraints in these two places was rather
different. In North America, the constraint originated from the overall social
attitude, whereas in the British Settlements it was from the immigrants'
self-imposed social identity or dialect group identity to be precise. Chinese
immigrants in the early Settlements had a wider choice of occupations if they
belonged to a more powerful local dialect group, e.g. the zhang-zhou and
quan-zhou groups in Singapore and the Kejia (Hakka) and Cantonese in Ipoh. A
more powerful dialect group would be in a definite position to control a larger
share of the job market, leaving the residual and the least lucrative jobs to
the minority dialect groups.
The dominance of a dialect
group was normally challenged not by the host society but by another dialect
group through a show of might, for the Chinese immigrants were then left very
much to themselves. So, for a dialect group to defend its supremacy some form
of organization was needed and the Triad method was then the most readily
familiar and available to the Chinese community. Societies that were formed
through the Triad organizing method were then grossly known as Chinese Secret
Societies, and the benefit these societies offered is what Light (1984) termed
as “ethnic resource”.
Ethnic resource, alongside
class resource, is the means and methods to which a new immigrant would resort
to for survival. In other words, the ethnic financing system, ethnic network
and traditional organizing method are of paramount importance to any new
immigrants. These Triad-like societies, regardless of their legitimacy and
legality, had been an effective vehicle to mobilize manpower, to defend the
secured turf and/or to contest the job market. They were well received until
the 1890 Societies Ordinance that outlawed them.
In sum, Chinese immigrants
in the early times belonged to any one of the four classes: (a) the EF/IC
(externally free, internally constrained), (b) the EF/IF (externally free,
internally free), (c) the EC/IC (externally constrained, internally
constrained), and (d) the EC/IF (externally constrained, internally free). This
is yet another instance that shows how finding from area studies may fine-tune
a paradigm by specifying the original relationship between two variables, and
in this case it is between early Chinese immigrants and the local job market.
The finding has also refined the vital concept of “ethnic resource”.
Case 3: Islam and Secularization
In the Dictionary of Islam,
the word “secularization” is absent, thus said Ernest Gellner (1994). To the
general social scientists, and particularly those who are well-versed in the
Sociology of Religion, Gellner's remark is inconceivable on the ground that “sacred”
and “secular” are a paired antonym that forms a zero-sum paradigm. To them,
secularization and Islamization is a zero-sum distribution: gain for one is the
loss of the other. The disagreement arises from a lack of specification in
measuring the concept of Islamization, for there are more ways than one to
measure the level of Islamization. In other words, Islamization is not a
unitary concept that is constantly referred to the “total number of Muslims”.
The expected result of this approach is a linear effect on Islamization.
Institutionally, an Islamic injunction dictates that "once a Muslim,
always a Muslim". For a Muslim to convert to another religion is to commit
an apostasy; and he may be liable for capital punishment. Some governments,
under the pressure of Muslims, also do not allow preachers of other religions
to convert Muslims. It is also true that once a Muslim society has implemented
the Syariah law, there will be no revocation until, and unless, the whole
Muslim population is removed.
Another component of
Islamization that tends also to show a linear effect on Islamization, but which
is the least discussed despite its theoretical potency, is the naming system
(Mak 2002: 61-107). All Muslims are urged to adopt an Islamic name, and the
prevalent “given-name and given-name”naming structure adopted by the
Malay-Muslims helps keep secularization at bay. Personal names of all ethnic
groups are meaningful because they are embedded in tradition and custom. Where
personal names are of any religious referral, the Muslims* are most
distinctive. The personal names of Muslims in many parts of Southeast Asia are
overwhelmingly immersed in Islam; naming in those countries is entirely a
religious phenomenon. The intriguing question then is, where a Muslim fails to
adopt an Islamic name, is that a sign of secularism?
Among Malay Muslims, the
naming convention comprises primarily the teknonyms and patronyms in that the
son's personal name is linked to the father's personal name, e.g. Syamsuddin
bin (son of) Abdul Rashid. The name of a Malay Muslim may assume many meanings,
but they are all confined to a standard pool (onomasticon) of less than 150
expressions or names, related to Allah (who has 99 beautiful names) and his
workers such as the Angels and Messengers. Allah would like all the Muslims to
call his name (the sacred names) every now and then, and calls are rewarded
according to the frequency of appearance. Southeast Asian Muslims who do not
have names of Islamic origin may adopt a divine title such as Mohamed,
Abdullah, Ahmad, Nur or Noor; among them there are those who do not,
particularly the Javanese abangan Muslims.
Most Javanese Muslims prefer
to keep their ethnic names that are of no Islamic connotation; only the more
pious ones choose to prefix their ethnic names with Islamic titles. Then,
should the Javanese abangan Muslims be regarded as secularized Muslims or as
Islamized Javanese? When an Islamic name is indicative of religious piety, does
not an adat name imply secularization?
Given the aforementioned
presentation, we conclude that social science theories that are formulated to
explain society and culture may need to be fine-tuned for cultural relevance.
In doing so, some social science theories may have to be reformulated and
others to be substantiated or specified.
Finally, in the pursuit of
knowledge, social science has a few purposes to serve and a major one is to
challenge conventional wisdoms and thereby open up new choices and alternatives
(Gulick 1983: iii). 序 Research
findings arising from Area Studies certainly help enhance and enlarge the pool
of choices and alternatives.
The present volume by Yuen
Ming, drawing heavily from her meticulous fieldwork in Ipoh, Malaysia, is yet
another illustration of the role of Area Studies in fine-tuning social science
theories. In this respect, she constructs the social memory of the residents of
the New Villages through her intensive interviews and observation. To some
serious historians a social memory constructed through the oral history
approach may not be accepted as a true image of the past; it however captures
what is sociologically real in the minds of these New Villagers. Social memory,
as well as collective memory, is indisputably a prerequisite for collective
identity, and collective identity invariably serves as a primary source for
social action. This is evident in the behavior of the New Villagers studied by
Yuen Ming. Her findings would be more convincing if she also differentiates
social memory from collective memory whose sharers are coerced into behaving
passively (Fentress and Wickham 1992: ix-x).
Yuen Ming's study supplies
an alternative perspective for highlighting not only the everyday life of a collectivity,
particularly the pain in being confined and stigmatized, but also the growth of
social consciousness out of a collectivity that was initially coerced to form.
The latter task is apparently less appealing to a history major, but she should
not lose sight of the historicity of concentration camps and the comparability
of studies in the formation of prison culture and stigma management of the inmates
in the asylum. Would not New Villages be considered to be a variant of a total
and involuntary institution?
Select References
Chan, Sucheng
1986 The Bitter-Sweet Soil. Berkeley:
University of California Press.Cheng, L. and E. Bonacich, eds.
1984 Labor Immigration Under
Capitalism. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Cressey, Donald
1972 Criminal Organization. London:
Heineman International.
Fentress,James and Chris Wickham
1992 Social Memory. Oxford: Blackwell.
Geertz, Clifford
1968 Islam Observed. New Haven: Yale
University Press.
2000 Available Light. Princeton:
Princeton University Press.
Gellner, Ernest
1994“Foreward." Pp. xi-xiv, Akbar
S. Ahmed and Hastings Donnan, eds. Islam, Globalization and Post-Modernity.
London: Routledge & K. Paul.
Gulick, John
1983 The Middle East: An
Anthropological Perspective. New York: University Press of America.
lanni, Francis
1972 The Family Business. New York:
Russell Sage.
Light, Ivan
1984 “Immigration
and Ethnic Enterprise in North America.”Ethnic and Racial Studies. 7, 2:
195-216.
Mak, Lau-Fong
1981 The Sociology of Secret Societies.
London/ Singapore: Oxford University Press.
1985 Fangyuan qun rentong (Dialect
Group Identity). Taipei: Institute of Ethnology, Academia Sinica.
1995 Dynamics of Chinese Dialect Groups
in Early Malaya. Singapore: Singapore Society of Asian Studies.
1998 “Sociologizing organized deviancy.”
Taiwan Sociological Review. 21: 131-169.
2002 Islamization in Southeast Asia.
Taipei: APARP, Academia Sinica.
Said, Edward
1978 Orientalism. London: Routledge
& K. Paul.
序二
只有半张脸的新村记忆
魏月萍(《民间评论》主编)
一、新村记忆：半张脸的故事
在历史这门学科前，我只是一名半途闯入门的插班生，接下这写序的任务，难免会觉得心虚。不过作为曾经在新村长大的小孩，又似找到另一种合法的说话身份与位置，也因此打开了进入新村记忆的时间入口。身为后五一三世代的我，自身的新村记忆除了来自童年的生活经验之外，就是来自历史知识的回溯，它让我得以在马来西亚历史脉络底下，建构出新村如何继续“生存”着的一种姿态。这种双重的视角，个人经验与国家历史的交错，让我在思考“新村”这个名词，便宛然存在一种可挪动的视角。
写这篇序，更似是个人成长生活史重构的一小部分。我曾经住过的班达马兰(Pandamaran)新村，位于巴生市中心与港口的中间地带，这样的地理位置，似乎可预见较好的经济发展潜力，少了许多早期共产党笼罩下的政治色彩。它给予我最深刻的是新村里杀鸡的家庭工业、热闹的庙会与跳乩等风景线。不过我的新村记亿，俨然只见半张的肖像。因为我所残存的，只有琐碎的个人印象，遗失了整体的轮廓。无法勾勒出那完整的面貌，窥探我曾经住过的新村的发展史与生活面貌，这只有半张脸的故事，无疑印证了书中所说的“失忆”问题。可见抢救记忆是必要的，个人抑或集体，但，抢救的方法呢？关键还是在于“重构(reconstruction)。
不过重构却也有其困难度。事件历史的重构，固然可以经由口述方式加以拼凑，但它仍有文字依据作为重构的底本，可是一个新村生活史的重构，它所依赖的最重要凭藉，恐是来自村民本身的生活记忆。记忆，有时被喻为历史的碎片，是因为它的可拼凑性，但随着时间的增长，也可能产生两极化的效应：一是记忆的逐渐消退与遺忘，二是记忆的膨涨与扩张，都可能影响历史最终被呈现的面貌。再加上我们纵然能够从历史角度、经济发展或社会结构有“形”的切面，去建构新村的“客观历史”，但要从各种“无形的口述话语当中，抽绎出内在意识的流动，甚至是某些无意识状态，却是最大的困难。这一些，都是构成新村的价值意识、生活态度与时间观念等重要元素，也即是新村“主体历史”的构成基石。它不只是要重现完貌，也包含了神情样态，以及支撑新村生命延续的祜神力量。
从众多受访者的言谈，我们可以发现，他们所拼凑出来早期的新村印象，俨然我们今日所说的“规训社会”(disciplinary society)，民众的生活、行动、甚至是思想意识，在重重的筒笆网内受到密切的监视。或许是整个社会仍处于比较压抑的形态，访者对当时情境的描述，似有意规避直接表明态度的反应，这是否是规训化结果的一种表现？而且生活上的规律化与思想戒严，如何影响他们对新村的认同，对殖民地政府以及马华公会等的态度，这方面的表述也似是比较隐晦的。提及这，主要是联想到，在接受了一段长时间的规训化的生活形态之后，它所残留在记忆里的权威、服从、训服这类意识如何被转化或剔除掉，它与后来的新村生活形态又有着怎样深刻的关连？
相较于林廷辉、宋婉莹《马来西亚华人新村五十年》的宏观论述，这本书以“民众历史”为“经”，生活史为“纬”，无疑可察婉明的用心，如她一再强调的：一、试图破除“一个新村，一种华人”单一化的新村论述，继而呈现更多不同新村之间的差异性；二、把供理解新村的“殖民论述”与“住民论述”作检验，以突显权力如何影响历史的诠释，并导致一个事件可能出现两种迥然不同的解释；三、试图从受访者的语气、词句与情绪，去感受他们对当时情境的反应与情绪，引导读者去感受受访者对事件理解的心理氛围。婉明尝采以历史人类学的书写，除了注重文献与田野的结合，也思及历史与人类学视角如何相互配合，但这当中孰重孰轻，却常是学界争议不休的课题。不过以这样一种跨学科的视角来重建新村的生活历史面貌，确有其可取处，它可在寻求人类学所注重的“模式”(pattern)以外，也重视因果关系的解释。但此书所反映出的，显然是前者胜于后者。所以在试图挖掘更多异质化的新村内容当中，如何找出特定的发展脉络与变迁，为后来的“变异”寻得有力的解释，就必须鼓励更多新村个案的研究与比较。
二、学术疑惑：寻找“中介”的阶梯
婉明对所谓的“学术”向来抱持很大的瞥惕，希望不被困绑在艰涩与繁琐的学术语言，或泥陷在庞大的理论框架。开拓“新村生活史”这种视野，是她尝试努力的方向一一让村民自己说话，而非仅仅是研究者通过学理表述，即是此书最大的特色。不过几次回马来西亚做田野，她的经验并不见得都是愉快的，其中更可察她百般思索如何跨越研究者与被访者之间的理解鸿沟，同时在与村民互动过程中，对学术本身开始产生更大的反思。甚至在面对家人对田野工作疑惑的诘问，要作如何的解释，也激发她对知识普及的思考。
虽然我们各自领域不同，但同身为研究者，对学术的“终极意义”的思考毕竟无法回避。学术如何接受大众的检验，理论如何进入公共领域、知识如何普及等，都是恆久的转化工作，其中如何寻找转化“中介”(medium)的阶梯，更不是一件容易的事。曾有学者指出：人类学著作的读者群和普及度越大，其作者就越受到同行的轻蔑。这也许是一个不轻易能跨越的门槛。
况且依循历史人类学的路子，除需要大量采集人类的经验以外，更要把这些经验“历史化”。那是动态且漫长的一个过程，其中更考验人与人之间的互动与耐力。耐力的需要，主要是背景与生活经验的差异。它虽然也可能形成一种相吸的能量，但许多时候彼此也会形成一股厌恶感，胥视信任基础的牢固与否。
作为一名田野工作者，作好长期战斗的心理准备，也许是必要的。在长期沟通过程中，最重要的是倾听能力，无论面对任何的谈话内容，都必须保持专注与热情。可是每每最为困扰的，大概是以上的•'中介”冋题，如何让各种差异而可能造成的不舒服感减到最低，转换语言与尝试接近他们的思维模式，是必要的考垣。否则，只有研究者自己眼中看见的半张脸，另半张脸却因此而被遮蔽了，这将使研究变得不完整。
2004年7月17日
序三
出版自序
我的论文完成将近两年半了。因为它，我拿到一张叫“文凭”的纸，多了一个叫“硕士”的身份。后来因为工作的关系，我必需埋首在完全不同领域的题目里。于是那篇论文、那纸文凭和那个无形的身份，统统像不曾发生过一样，束之高阁。
这是我对学术/知识生产最感到伤怀和无奈的地方。
因缘际会下，我有一个出版的机会，于是把论文翻了出来。重读自己过去的文字，心情很奇怪。叫它尘封在几家图书馆里（母校、奖助机构与国家图书馆），于心不忍，况且没有什么人会从事这方面研究。好歹它花了我近三年的时间、两趟返马的旅程、两个学术单位的奖助和无数心血才完成的。但是真要把当年生嫩浅显的练习之作出版献丑，又感到无比心虚和嫌弃。
在这个犹豫的过程，我最终以虔敬和求教的心情自我开脱。目前在国内，学术的市场有限。我以从事庶民历史为己任，也不希望文章徒有学术格式，而忽略知识普及的理念。因此这本书的出版目的，在于透过商业市场的流通，传达到更广泛的读者阶层，最后回报予作者宝贵的回响。在文中，我强调“差异”与“主体性”的捍卫，然则，我的观点与书写方式真的能得到被研究者的认同吗？
其实我不确定。这便是研究者与被研究者之间的落差和距离。如果读者有所共鸣，无论是会心微笑或激动拍案，学术的成果和论文的创作才有意义。如果答案是否定的，那么这可能是另一道更值得讨论的题目了。
我致力于庶民历史的普及，因为我不愿意寓学术于游戏。我认为，小众的学术研究应摊在大众面前，如此我们才知道，这些包装标准、冠于伟大光环的成果是否经得起民众的检验。如果我的研究能为他们的生活经验留下一点记录和纪念，论文创作便有意义。否则，这个游戏只不过成就了个人的狂妄和虚名。
不过，学术和普及之间有时很难拿捏。经出版社要求，我把所有引文的出处删除。只保留了让阅读理解无碍的说明注。但为了表示我没有抄袭或掠美，我整理了一份与马共和新村议题有关的参考书目，一方面以负文责，另方面以飨读者。此外，我也对原文作了小副的修订删改，文后的几篇附录（如英文和马来文引文的原文、广东话口述的原文、口述问题设计等）也一并删除。如果读者对这些内容有兴趣或有疑问，我都愿意个别回应，请将来函寄交出版社。
这是一本关于新村生活的书。当初，我透过口述历史的访问和收集来写成。在创作的过程中，读者几乎没有参与的空间。如今出版了，情势便也逆转。我希望能透过它，与读者产生互动。因此，我恳请各位不吝赐教，对本文纠正/揪错的责任现在已经落在读者的身上了。
最后，感谢指导教授麦留芳老师及魏月萍小姐写序。麦老师几年前自新加坡国立大学退休后，至今仍孜孜于学术研究。他的认真严谨和努力不懈的治学态度，一直令学生汗颜。月萍学姐温厚从容和她灵慧的心，一直是我学习的对象。这些年来，她给我的鼓励和支持也从不间断。
2004年4月•台北
目录
序一 Preface Mak Lau Fong （麦留芳）
序二 只有半张脸的新村记忆 魏月萍
序三 出版自序
绪论
第一章 “殖民论述”与“住民观点”一一文献探讨与分析
第二章 个案研究之---兵如港新村
第三章 个案研究之二一一丹那依淡新村
第四章 从“建构”到“解构”一一想像的新村图像
结论 新村居民一一想像的群体
196参考书目