In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

The idea for doing this book began several years ago at a workshop on the history of the South China Sea organized by Charles Wheeler, then at the University of California, Irvine. A few years later, at a conference in Shanghai on Asian piracy, I found a number of colleagues and friends interested in participating in another conference on this inexhaustible topic. Things were coming together but we still needed funding and a venue. In 2006, when the National Institute for South China Seas Studies, located on beautiful Hainan Island, invited me to give a talk, I suggested to Dr. Wu Shichun, president of the institute, that Hainan would be the perfect place to hold a conference on Asian piracy. He agreed, and in March 2008, his institute generously funded and organized an international conference on “Piracy and Maritime Security in the South China Sea,” held in the resort city of Sanya at the southern tip of Hainan. The more than twenty papers presented at the conference covered a wide range of historical and contemporary issues concerning piracy, smuggling, and maritime security. Participants came from all over the globe — from China, Hong Kong, Macau, Singapore, Canada, the United States, Japan, Australia, and Europe. Unfortunately, we could not include all the excellent papers in this book. Besides expressing my gratitude to Dr. Wu, I wish to thank other researchers and staff at the institute who made the conference so fruitful and memorable. Special thanks go to Dr. Zhu Huayou, the institute’s vice-president, and to Ren Huaifeng, Xu Fang, Deng Yingying, and Chen Pingping for translations and local arrangements. I also appreciate the mayor of Sanya taking time out of his busy schedule to give the opening talk at the conference and Professors Anthony Reid and Zou Keyuan for giving keynote speeches. I wish to thank all the participants for the many lively and informative discussions we had during the presentations, at meals, and on the beach. Everyone benefited from such a diverse group of international scholars from many disciplines. In particular, I am grateful to Li Jinming, Charles Wheeler, Manel Ollé, Patrizia Carioti, Henry Xu, and Lúcio de Sousa for bringing their expertise and Acknowledgements x Acknowledgements camaraderie to the conference. In editing this book, I appreciate the help given by friends and colleagues, especially Michael Pearson, Paul Van Dyke, Bill Guthrie, Vincent Ho, and Lanshin Chang. Finally, I wish to thank the Yamaguchi Prefectural Archives and the Goyoda City Provincial Museum, both in Japan, for permissions to use illustrations for this book. Zhuo Jia Cun, Taipa, Macau December 14, 2009 ...

Share