Report
Period: 31 December 2004 - 8 January 2005. Country: Singapore, Malaysia
  Purpose of the Visit
  On-Site Education and Arrangements for the COE Field Station Workshops in Bangi
  NAGATSU Kazufumi  (ASAFAS: Division of Southeast Asian Area Studies)
  Record of Activities
  12/31 (Fri)
    		• Kyoto - Singapore
      1/1 (Sat) – 1/2 (Sun)
    		• Investigation of Malay Islamic publications in Singapore
      1/3 (Mon)

    • Singapore - Bangi, Selangor
      1/3(Mon) – 1/4 (Tue)

    • Meeting with graduate students of ASFAS at the Bangi Field Station
     

    • Meeting with Prof. Shamsul Amri Baharuddin, Director, the Institute of Malay World and Civilization (ATMA), MalaysianNationalUniversity (UKM)

      1/5(Wed)
    		• Meeting with Prof. Ding Choo Ming, ATMA
       
    		• Visit to a Chinese Village in Sungai Chua, Selangor
      1/6 (Thu) – 1/7 (Fri)

    • Discussion with Prof. Shamsul on research methods in Malaysian studies

       

    • On-site education in Hulu Langat, Selangor

      1/7 (Fri)
    		• Bangi, Selangore - Singapore
      1/8 (Sat)
    		• Singapore - Kyoto

     

      Outcome and Progress Report
     
     (1) Maintenance of the Field Station
              We recently equipped the Bangi Field Station with a multimedia projector and a screen in order to allow the graduate students and faculty of ASAFAS to arrange study meetings or workshops at the Field Station. At ATMA, I had discussions with Prof. Shamsul Amri Baharuddin, and Prof. Ding Choo Ming regarding further collaborations between ASAFAS and ATMA through the activities of the Station.
     (2) On-Site Education
    1. Three ASAFAS graduate students, Ms. Motoko Kawano (year of enrollment: 1999), Ms. Yuko Kato (year of enrollment: 2000) and Mr. Daisuke Naito(year of enrollment: 2003), used and jointly maintained the facilities of the Field Station, while conducting fieldwork in Peninsular Malaysia. Ms. Kawano is now carrying out field research on “historical dynamics of the development of small-scale fisheries and ethnic relations during the New Economic Policy” in Terengganu, with funding from the COE program. Ms. Kato has just launched intensive fieldwork on “a social history of childbirth practices in rural Malay villages” in Selangor. Mr. Naito completed a preliminary survey on “the forest certification system and its impact upon an Orang Asli community” in Negeri Sembilan. During this trip, I met Ms. Kawano and Ms. Kato and received news on the progress of their research. We held a research meeting to discuss the methods and techniques for compiling socio-economic data on rural villages in Malaysia. I provided technical advice regarding the data management and computer-assisted map-drawing. We also visited the research site of Ms. Kato in a Minangkabau-Malay village in Hulu Langat, Selangor and had a talk with her host family. I conducted a brief interview on the migration history of the family and the current medical situation in the village.
    2. Together with Prof. Shamsul, we held a study meeting at ATMA and discussed issues concerning local administrative systems in Malaysia. At the meeting, Prof. Shamsul kindly presented a lecture on how to investigate the Malaysian administrative systems.          
     (3) Workshops

               We made preliminary arrangements for a series of workshops under the common title “Reviewing Malaysian Studies through Fieldwork Experiences.” The workshops will be held on three occasions from January through March 2005, and will be attended by young Japanese scholars who are doing research in Malaysia. The aim of the workshops is to discuss the problems of fieldwork in Malaysia from academic as well as technical points of view. For further information of the workshops, please see:
    http://areainfo.asafas.kyoto-u.ac.jp/japan/fsws/2005_malaysia/20050120.html (Japanese)

     

      Future Tasks
                 It is no doubt necessary and meaningful for us to exchange our research experiences and findings with our Malaysian counterparts. I consulted young researchers at ATMA about the possibility of organizing cooperative workshops in the next fiscal year.

     

     
    A study meeting at the Institute of Malay World and Civilization (ATMA), Malaysian National University. Prof. Shamsul gave advice to Ms. Kawano (year of enrollment: 1999) and Ms. Kato (year of enrollment: 2000), both graduate students of ASFAS, about surveys of local administrative systems in Malaysia   Namgum River, a candidate site for joint research with the NUL
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