Skip to content | Change text size
 

Spotlight on Asian Studies Research Collection

21 September 2005

More than 120 items showcasing the depth and diversity of the Monash University Library's Asian Studies Research Collection are on display at the Sir Louis Matheson Library at Monash's Clayton campus.

Taken from the cover of a Malay popular novel written in Jawi Script: Cukaria (Bitter Sweet), by Ahmad Lutfi (Singapore: Qalam, 1949).

The Asia-East and Southeast exhibition draws on major collections written in Chinese, Japanese, Korean and Indonesian, as well as smaller collections in Khmer, Malay, Thai and Vietnamese, and some closed access and archival material in English and colonial languages.

It is curated by Senior Asian Studies Librarian Dr Aline Scott-Maxwell and is on show until 25 November.

Three broad themes are covered -- political events and movements, popular and traditional culture, and women.

Items on display include Indonesian manuscripts on bark and palm leaf, a prison confession from Cambodia's Tuol Sleng Prison, martial arts story books from Java as well as Japanese manga and other Asian comics.

"The Asian Studies Research Collection is a rich repository for research and everyday study and testimony to Monash's long history of scholarly and public engagement with Asia," Dr Scott-Maxwell said.

"Monash's Korean collection is the largest academic collection in Australia, the Indonesia collection includes a significant proportion of material held nowhere else in Australia and the Dutch East Indies collection is world class. Important special collections include the Burma Democracy Movement Collection, the Norodom Sihanouk Archival collection and the Southeast Asia Pamphlet Collection.

"Some historical subjects represented in the exhibition have contemporary resonances such as the early nineteenth century Japanese book on the use of whale products in pest control, and the group of items relating to the Japanese occupation of Southeast Asia during World War II.

"Other items have been selected for their visual communicative power as well as their subject matter so that they are accessible to non-readers of Asian languages."

The Asian Studies Research Collection is a specialist collection of Asian-language materials with a focus on Southeast Asia and East Asia. For information on the collection visit the Asian Studies Research Collection website.

A catalogue and virtual exhibition of Asia-East and Southeast can be viewed at the Library Exhibitions website.