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xi Acknowledgements It would not have been possible to write this book without the support and assistance of countless people in the Riau Islands. Their willingness to help me has been both humbling and inspiring. I would like to thank everyone who took the time to share their everyday activities, opinions and life stories with me, all of those who assisted with the mundane practicalities of my research, and the families I lived with for being so hospitable and making Tanjung Pinang a second home. Conscious of the risks that many of them have taken in sharing their experiences and views with me so fully, I have developed a range of measures to conceal my interlocutors’ true identities in the text, including anonymisation and the use of pseudonyms. In the case of public figures, I have used their real names when referring to material already in the public domain, such as their writings, speeches, or media coverage of their actions, but have taken steps to conceal their real identities at all other times. My relationship with the Riau Islands began as a graduate student at the University of Cambridge, where I was very fortunate to enjoy the mentorship of Leo Howe as supervisor and Susan Bayly as faculty advisor. Their support and advice over the years have been invaluable. More generally, I am grateful to everyone in the Division of Social Anthropology — my peers, colleagues, students and the admin team — for providing such a wonderful intellectual environment, both whilst I was a student and as a staff member. St Catharine’s College and Wolfson College both very generously provided me with fellowships whilst I was completing the manuscript . It has been a privilege to be a member of two such dynamic and supportive institutions. The final stages of editing and production were completed after taking up a lectureship at the London School of Economics and Political Science, and it is hard to imagine a more welcoming department in which to enter. I look forward to many exciting times ahead. Lastly, I would like to thank Michele Ford for her keen interest in my work, many enlightening conversations about life in the Riau Islands, and for facilitating a Visiting Fellowship at the University of Sydney, which contributed substantially to the quality of the argument. My work on this book was financially supported by the Economic and Social Research Council of the United Kingdom [grant numbers PTA-031-2004-00183; RES-000-22-4632], a British Academy Postdoctoral Fellowship, and the Evans Fund at the University of Cambridge. In Indonesia, sponsorship for my research was provided by LIPI, RISTEK, UNRI and STISIPOL Raja Haji. I am grateful to all these bodies for their support. The manuscript was greatly improved by the insightful commentary on earlier drafts that was provided by Robert Hefner, James Laidlaw, Barbara Andaya and two anonymous readers for the ASAA Southeast Asia Publications Series. Howard Dick, the ASAA Southeast Asia Series editor, has also been an invaluable source of advice and encouragement. In addition, I would like to thank Virginia Hooker for her very helpful reading of Chapter 3, Philip Stickler for preparing wonderful maps and Keith Foulcher for his help with translating Suryatati’s poems. Adi Pranadipa kindly provided the cover image, which depicts a performance of gobang (a “traditional Malay” dance from the Anambas Islands) staged by the Sanggar Budaya Warisan Pulau Penyengat at the Parade Tari Daerah Provinsi Kepri 2011, in Kijang. Credit for the final cover design lies with the staff of NUS Press, who have been a pleasure to work with in all aspects of the production process. I would particularly like to thank Eunice Low for her careful copyediting of the text. However, my greatest thanks are reserved for everyone who, through their interest in my work, their ideas and critiques, their moral support, Skype calls, care packages, and field visits, not only helped me refine my arguments in this book, but ensured that it was a constant pleasure to do so. Though they are too numerous to name individually, I hope none of them will be in any doubt as to how appreciative I am. Portions of Chapter 6 were previously published within the article “Haunting Malayness: The Multicultural Uncanny in a New Indonesian Province”, Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute (New Series) 16, 4 (2010): 874–91. Portions of the material in Chapter 8 were previously published in “How to Win a Beauty Contest in Tanjung Pinang”, Review of Indonesian and...

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