Chinese Deathscapes in Insulindia: A Special Issue of Archipel, vol. 92 (2016) ed. by Claudine Salmon (review)

This special issue of the journal Archipel comprising seven articles and an introduction is a welcome addition to the historiography of cemeteries in Southeast Asia, relatively scanty in comparison with many other subjects in the history discipline. The references of the articles in this collection, from a workshop convened in Manila in August 2015 with a few written subsequently, supply a useful survey of the current state of the writing–largely in European (mainly English) and Chinese language literature, in keeping with its focus, "Chinese Deathscapes".

It has long been recognised that textual materials alone may be insufficient to reconstruct a satisfactory narrative of historical processes in proto-historic times on a variety of topics. What more, even where documentary evidence in scattered locations are available, archaeological and epigraphic data can enhance considerably the efforts towards accounts of selected subjects. Indeed, in recent decades, crossing disciplinary boundaries has been very much a part of the developments in the various fields in the humanities and social sciences due to an appreciation that the benefits of drawing on the insights, methodologies and analytical frameworks of different areas of knowledge are immense. A few examples¹ may suffice to substantiate this approach. For instance, from religious studies, the chief editor of the series Dynamics in the History of Religions posits the benefits of a multi-disciplinary line of inquiry towards an understanding of the "processes of formation, evolution and expansion" of world religions.² More specifically, Bellezza clarifies that by "Synthesizing archaeological, art, epigraphic and textual materials dating from circa 500 BCE to 1000 CE [this has assisted the project] to elucidate localized and trans-regional aspects of Buddhist transmission and trade routes . . . ".³

A number of themes are addressed by the writers. In her editor's Introduction, Claudine Salmon touched on the evolutionary process of cemeteries giving way when up against the pressures of urban expansion. Thereafter, her essay's title conveyed her focus, "Vanishing Landmarks of the Past". This phenomenon on the conflict between the preservation of built heritage and locations with historical importance (including burial sites) as against alternative uses of land-considered extremely valuable-in present-day city centres, previously in the outskirts of earlier smaller towns, is a familiar issue common to places which had their beginnings in past eras. "Indeed, burial grounds, which were first considered as sacred have become places of seriously conflicting discourses" (3).

Two articles speak to one aspect of the information that can be drawn from epigraphic remains and architectural structures: Danny Wong Tze Ken's "Early Chinese Presence in Malaysia as Reflected by Three Cemeteries (17th-19th c.)" and Erik Akpedonu's "The Manila Chinese Cemetery: A Repository of Tsinoy Culture and Identity". Tombstone inscriptions can be important sources for reconstructing the histories of particular spaces, such as illuminating the migratory paths taken by Chinese communities, of the different dialect groups, to Malaysia over the years; while funerary architecture records the evolution in the cultural orientation of the Filipino-Chinese peoples from their adoption of a range of influences–Spanish-Catholic, Chinese Taoist and Hindu Buddhist.

A second theme, converting cemeteries into recreational places for the general public in the form of 'Historic gardens'⁴ and memorial parks, can be found in Richard T. Chu and Teresita Ang See's "Towards a History of Chinese Burial Grounds in Manila during the Spanish Colonial Period" and in Claudine Salmon's essay, "From Cemeteries to Luxurious Memorial Parks With Special Reference to Malaysia and Indonesia". From Chu and Ang See, we learn that not only are the cemeteries "a sight to behold" but they are "previously unused or underutilized primary source materials . . . [to] provide a better understanding of the Chinese community in Manila as well as the Spanish colonial regime" (63). The shift from congested and unsightly cemeteries to modern memorial parks began in 1964 in Manila, in 1990...