Presentation of souvenir by Dr. Tsai Tai Fen (Deputy Academic Director, Office of Academic Affairs, New Era College) to speaker(left).	Presentation of Staff Seminar by Dr. Lew Bon Hoi (Head, Centre of Malaysian History).	Attendees of the staff seminar.

 
Title: Reference Materials on Folk History and Research on Malaysian Chinese
Date: 24 August 2016 (Wednesday)
Time: 3:00pm-4:30pm
Venue: New Era College, Block B, 3^rd Floor, Room 302
Organizer: Office of Academic Affairs, New Era College
Language: Chinese

Speaker: Dr. LEW Bon Hoi
                 (Head, Centre of Malaysian History and Senior Lecturer, Department of Chinese Language and Literature,
                  New Era College)

Résumé of Speaker:
He was a research associate of Huaqiao University, China. Among his publications are Hsu Yun Tsiao, Eighty Years of Historiography in Malaysia and Singapore: From ‘Nanyang Studies’ to ‘Chinese Studies’ 1930-2009 (2010), The United Chinese School Teachers’ Association of Malaysia and Its Leaders (1951-2005), and A Collection of the History on Figures of Chinese Education in Malaysia. He has edited The Chinese of Triang District: Local History and Source Materials, Collected Works of Zhang Liqian, The Correspondence of Hsu Yun-Tsiao, The Confucian Chronicle, 1906-2006, and Compilation of Documents on Sim Mow Yu. He has published nearly 60 academic papers including contributions to Encyclopedia of Chinese Overseas (Education, Science and Technology) and Southeast Asian Personalities of Chinese Descent: A Biographical Dictionary.

Abstract:
Research on Malaysian history and the Chinese mainly relies on analysing published sources. Few researchers focus attention on folk documents. The work of collecting data via fieldwork is scarce, and the collection and research on local Chinese historical documents await greater attention. In reality, there is a gradual realization of the importance of preserving and reorganizing local documents. Simple collation and publication have been done for certain documents, but many difficulties and limitations remain. The speaker attempts to sort out locally available Chinese historical documents based on years of fieldwork experience in selected cities and towns. A preliminary categorization of these documents and their possibilities in Chinese Studies will be briefly discussed.