All residential and Life SEACS members were invited to attend the society’s 55th annual AGM held at the Singapore National Library, followed by the annual William Willetts Lecture. The AGM was well-attended and with those present and the proxies which had been sent to the President, we were able to begin promptly at the announced time of 2:00 pm.
AGM AGENDA (2:00-3:00)
- To adopt the Annual Report from the President.
- To adopt the Annual Accounts of the Society for the year ending 31 December 2023.
- To elect Officers and Councillors.
- To elect Honorary Auditors for the year 2024.
- To transact any other business for which due notice has been given.
THE WILLIAM WILLETTS LECTURE (3:30-5:00)
This year’s topic was “The Nanhai Trade: Inventing the Maritime Silk Road” — A dialogue featuring Professors Wang Gungwu and Kwa Chong Guan, discussing Professor Wang’s 70- year-old MA thesis and how his views and understanding of the Nanhai trade might have evolved over the last 70 years in light of the maritime archaeological evidence unavailable to him at the time–and the new studies and research that have emerged since he first addressed the topic. The topic was well attended by both members as well as several prominent historians and scholars (Professor Peter Borschberg, marine archaeologist Dr. Mike Flecker, and NUS’ Dr. Tim Winter). SEACS members can listen to the WWL here (coming shortly).
After the event, Prof. Wang wrote a note to the SEACS Council that reads in part: “Many thanks for inviting me again. You gave me a chance to recall matters that had excited me 70+ years ago, some of which I had not thought about for a long while. I had set off studying trade because most of the earlier scholars had projected backwards from the Greco-Roman, Indian, Muslim and local Kunlun merchants whose records (if any) did not survive while the Chinese documents did. The paradox was that the Chinese records were kept not because of interest in trade but in the context of a more holistic world view about relations between “rulers” of what might be called “states”, at least until the tenth century. Hence there was curiosity about what foreign merchants could bring to China, but little interest in listing what Chinese export goods would have benefited the imperial economy or enriched the Yue and Chinese merchants. I was therefore surprised by the volume of ceramics in the Belitung wreck but not at all by the fact it was found in a non-Chinese ship. Once again, thanks for having me.”
It was our honour and pleasure to have these two well-known scholars as our William Willetts speakers.