歷史學家兼漢學家王賡武在《無國界：跨越島嶼與大陸的旅程》一書中分享了他的離散生活經歷

•  王教授在新著序文开宗明义：
• “秩序与无序的相互作用一直尾随我的人生。”中国通过两次革命才由乱世达致秩序，以抵御借普世价值为令箭的西方势力。
• 序文继续写道，
• 通过对
• 中国第一次革命的研究，以及对
• 第二次革命的近距离观察，
• 他得以洞见，
• 怎样运用中国的过去来理解它的现在和未来，
• 以解释当下中国所发生的一切。
• 
  
• 秩序與混亂的交織伴隨了我一生
• 
  
• 反映了社會和國家的變遷。
• 
  
• 他的父母來自中國江蘇省（這在東南亞華人中較為罕見，因為東南亞華人通常祖籍廣東和福建等南方省份）。
• 
  
• 他的父母都出身於相對富裕且受過良好教育的家庭，這在當時來自中國的旅居者中也十分罕見，因為當時的中國移民大多是文盲勞工。
• 
  
• 他從小就被當作中國公民撫養長大
• 
  
• 王的母親在泗水和怡保都覺得自己像個「完全的陌生人」。他寫道：“難怪在我整個童年時期，她很少談及我們身在何處，卻總是糾結於我們本該身在何處。”
• 
  
• 南海在王先生的早年生活中扮演著重要的角色。六歲時，他隨父母從新加坡前往上海，又去了父母位於江蘇省的家鄉。 1948年他被迫離開中國時，「我的父母再也沒有提起過我們本該待的地方」。他父親生前最後一份工作是擔任柔佛州新山著名的豐耀中學的校長。
• 
  
• 和王先生一家一樣，許多旅居馬來亞的華人直到日本佔領時期，尤其是1949年共產黨接管中國大陸之後，才真正意識到，家在這裡，不再是祖國中國。沒有回頭路了。從王先生平靜的話語中，我們能感受到那些經歷過那段歲月的人們所承受的緊張、情緒壓力和震驚。
• 
  
• 王是新加坡馬來亞大學最早的學生之一，積極參與學生政治活動，而學生政治正是反殖民思想的搖籃。他學習歷史，並撰寫了關於古代橫跨南海（即現在的南海）貿易的權威研究著作。
• 
  
• 1969年5月13日騷亂後，馬來西亞的政治環境對非馬來知識分子遠不如以前有利，他別無選擇，只能將澳洲作為永久居所。嗯，幾乎是這樣。
• 
  
• 他從事中國學術研究，需要頻繁前往中國，這迫使他放棄了馬來西亞國籍，因為當時馬來西亞禁止公民前往中國。
• 
  
• 王先生說，在長期研究、寫作和親身經歷歷史之後，「但我不得不承認，我開始覺得我不能再稱自己為『歷史學家』了」。他現在的思維方式更像中國的 文人 ，「與古希臘的歷史學家 （智者或法官）相當相似 ，他們都是渴望了解更多歷史的見證者」。

歷史學家兼漢學家王蓴武在《無國界：跨越島嶼與大陸的旅程》一書中分享了他的離散生活經歷

他的自傳全面回顧了他的漫長人生，記錄了他居住過的地方發生的許多變化，以及他周圍的社會和國家的變遷。

「秩序與混亂的交織伴隨了我一生」——這是 96歲的王贗武教授最新著作《無國界：跨越島嶼與大陸的旅程》的開篇之語。王趙武教授是東南亞有史以來成就卓著、影響深遠的知識分子之一。新加坡著名外交家、律師兼學者許通美教授稱他為「我們時代的聖賢」。

這本自傳涵蓋了王先生漫長的一生，以及他居住地和身分的多次變遷，同時也反映了社會和國家的變遷。全書文筆優美流暢，既通俗易懂，又極具價值，尤其適合那些希望透過一位親歷者的視角來了解歷史，並聆聽他講述自己故事的人。

王先生1930年出生於泗水，當時泗水是荷屬東印度群島的殖民地。他的父母來自中國江蘇省（這在東南亞華人中較為罕見，因為東南亞華人通常祖籍廣東和福建等南方省份）。他的父母都出身於相對富裕且受過良好教育的家庭，這在當時來自中國的旅居者中也十分罕見，因為當時的中國移民大多是文盲勞工。

他一歲時，全家搬到怡保，因為他的父親王福文受聘在那裡教書，打算之後再返回中國。他從小就被當作中國公民撫養長大，1947年去南京讀書，但一年後，由於國民黨和共產黨之間的內戰愈演愈烈，他被迫離開南京。

在2018年出版的第一部回憶錄 《家不在此》中，他相當詳細地描述了自己在英國和日本統治時期於怡保度過的童年。王的母親在泗水和怡保都覺得自己像個「完全的陌生人」。他寫道：“難怪在我整個童年時期，她很少談及我們身在何處，卻總是糾結於我們本該身在何處。”

南海在王先生的早年生活中扮演著重要的角色。六歲時，他隨父母從新加坡前往上海，又去了父母位於江蘇省的家鄉。 1948年他被迫離開中國時，「我的父母再也沒有提起過我們本該待的地方」。他父親生前最後一份工作是擔任柔佛州新山著名的豐耀中學的校長。

和王先生一家一樣，許多旅居馬來亞的華人直到日本佔領時期，尤其是1949年共產黨接管中國大陸之後，才真正意識到，家在這裡，不再是祖國中國。沒有回頭路了。從王先生平靜的話語中，我們能感受到那些經歷過那段歲月的人們所承受的緊張、情緒壓力和震驚。

王從 1949 年到 1968 年移居澳大利亞期間的所有冒險經歷都詳細記錄在他的第二部回憶錄《 家就在我們身邊 》（2021 年）中，這個意義深遠的書名靈感來自他已故的妻子瑪格麗特。

王是新加坡馬來亞大學最早的學生之一，積極參與學生政治活動，而學生政治正是反殖民思想的搖籃。他學習歷史，並撰寫了關於古代橫跨南海（即現在的南海）貿易的權威研究著作。

他在倫敦大學亞非學院攻讀博士學位，其關於中國宋代的開創性研究對儒家遺產的重新定義產生了深遠的影響，影響持續了一千年。馬來亞大學從新加坡遷至吉隆坡後，王教授加入吉隆坡校區，成為第一位擔任歷史學教授和文學院院長的馬來亞人。

像 20 世紀 60 年代許多關心國家的公民一樣，他投身於國家建設事業，包括將密西根大學發展成為一所受人尊敬和享有盛譽的大學。

讀完 《家不在這裡》 和 《家在我們身邊》之後，我很想了解王在澳洲國立大學（我的母校）的生活，他在那裡度過了大部分時間，直到 1986 年。

他最初計劃在澳洲短期停留，但1969年5月13日騷亂後，馬來西亞的政治環境對非馬來知識分子遠不如以前有利，他別無選擇，只能將澳洲作為永久居所。嗯，幾乎是這樣。

王教授在澳洲學術界極具影響力，尤其在滿足澳洲對了解中國的濃厚興趣方面發揮了重要作用。他甚至擔任備受矚目的澳中理事會主席。

他從事中國學術研究，需要頻繁前往中國，這迫使他放棄了馬來西亞國籍，因為當時馬來西亞禁止公民前往中國。在冷戰時期，即使能夠獲得馬來西亞部長級許可前往中國，也並非易事。我個人認識好幾位學者，他們也因為同樣的原因放棄了馬來西亞國籍。

由於一些機緣巧合，身為人文學院教授的王先生於 1986 年被任命為香港大學副校長。當時距離英國同意將香港歸還中國已有兩年，距離原定於 1997 年的香港回歸還有 11 年。在此之前，香港大學的副校長大多來自理學院。

在一段時期裡，他甚至擔任香港殖民地政府行政會議的成員。這使他得以近距離見證1997年以前香港的動態變化，以及1980年代和1990年代中國的巨大變革。

1996年他離開香港移居新加坡時，他已66歲高齡，原本以為自己會過著平靜的退休生活。然而，他萬萬沒想到，自己竟要長期擔任尤素夫·伊薩克東南亞研究所（ISEAS）和李光耀公共政策學院的主席，並兼任東亞研究所所長。過去三十年間，他在新加坡的卓越貢獻，大大改善了這個島國的學術氛圍。

從前，東南亞、馬來亞、馬來西亞和獨立的新加坡都還是相對較新的名稱，而所有這些變化都發生在王先生成年之後。他也近距離見證了香港和中國發生的翻天覆地的變化。他身處其中，參與塑造了某些事件，並將它們記錄下來。

王先生說，在長期研究、寫作和親身經歷歷史之後，「但我不得不承認，我開始覺得我不能再稱自己為『歷史學家』了」。他現在的思維方式更像中國的 文人 ，「與古希臘的歷史學家 （智者或法官）相當相似 ，他們都是渴望了解更多歷史的見證者」。

25年前，我還是個在坎培拉寒冬臘月就讀於澳洲國立大學的年輕學生時，曾有幾個月的時間，我全心投入閱讀王贗武的著作。自2010年以來，我有幸多次與他會面，聆聽他的智慧教導。 1月29日，在新加坡舉行的王贗武新書發布會上，許通美教授表示，許多城市都有“王贗武粉絲俱樂部”，因為這位傑出的漢學家以最引人入勝、最具創意和最富意義的方式，幫助一代又一代的學者和思想家理解中國和東南亞，以及當下與過去的聯繫。

《無國界：跨越島嶼與大陸的旅程》 講述了我們這個時代一位智者的故事，他親歷了我們國家、地區和歷史的形成，並向我們這些後人講述了沿途的秩序與混亂，讓我們感受其中的張力，理解其中的邏輯，同時也能讀到他迄今為止最完整的個人經歷。這無疑是每個人都應該讀一讀的書。

本文原刊於 2026 年 3 月 2 日的《馬來西亞邊緣報》。 

Historian and Sinologist Wang Gungwu Shares His Diasporic Life in ‘No Borders: Journeys Across Islands and Continents’

7 March 2026

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His autobiography is an extensive look into his long life, following the many changes in places where he lived and the transformations of society and countries around him.

The interplay of order and disorder has followed me all my life” is the first line of No Borders: Journeys Across Islands and Continents, the latest book by 96-year-old Professor Wang Gungwu, one of Southeast Asia’s most accomplished and influential intellectuals ever. “A sage of our time” is how Singapore’s prominent diplomat, lawyer and academic Professor Tommy Koh describes him.

This autobiography covers Wang’s very long life and the many changes of his places of residence and identity, alongside the transformations in society and nations. It is written in his elegant prose, which is accessible to the general public yet highly relevant to those who want to view history through the eyes of someone with lived experience and who is still around to share his story with us today.

Wang was born in 1930 in Surabaya, then a Dutch East Indies colony, to parents from China’s Jiangsu province (a rarity among ethnic Chinese in Southeast Asia who commonly trace their roots to the southern provinces of Guangdong and Fujian). His parents were both from relatively well-to-do and educated families, another rarity among sojourners from China at that time who were mostly illiterate labourers.

The family moved to Ipoh when he was a year old as his father, Wang Fo Wen, had been hired to teach there, with the intention of returning to China. Brought up as a Chinese citizen, he went to study in Nanjing in 1947 but was forced to leave a year later when the civil war between the nationalist Kuomintang party and the Communists began to grow more intense.

In his first memoir Home Is Not Here, published in 2018, he shares his childhood in Ipoh during the British and Japanese rule fairly extensively. Wang’s mother felt like a “total stranger” in Surabaya and Ipoh. “It is no wonder that throughout my childhood, she rarely talked about where we were, but dwelt constantly on where we should have been,” he writes.

The South China Sea featured prominently in Wang’s early life. At six years old, he travelled with his parents from Singapore to Shanghai, and to his parents’ hometowns in Jiangsu province. By the time he was forced to leave China in 1948, “my parents never spoke again of returning to where we should have been”. His father’s last job was as the principal of the famous Johor Bahru school, Foon Yew.

Like Wang’s family, it only dawned on many sojourning ethnic Chinese in Malaya after the Japanese Occupation, and especially after the Communist takeover of mainland China in 1949, that home is here, and no longer motherland China. There was no turning back. In Wang’s calm words, one can feel the tension, emotional strain and shock of those who had to lived through that period.

All of Wang’s adventures from 1949 until he relocated to Australia in 1968 are detailed in his second memoir, Home Is Where We Are (2021), a meaningful title inspired by his late wife Margaret.

Wang was one of the earliest students of University of Malaya (UM) in Singapore, and actively participated in student politics, which was the incubator of anti-colonial ideas. He studied history and wrote authoritative research on the ancient trade that crossed the Nanhai, or what is now known as the South China Sea.

He did his PhD at the University of London’s School of Oriental and African Studies, with another path-breaking study on the Chinese Song Dynasty, which was consequential for a millennium through the redefinition of the Confucian heritage. When UM moved from Singapore to Kuala Lumpur, Wang joined its faculty in KL and rose to become the first Malayan to be appointed as a professor of history as well as the dean of the faculty of arts.

Like many concerned citizens in the 1960s, he was immersed in nation-building efforts, including growing UM into a respectable and reputable university.

After reading Home is Not Here and Home is Where We Are, I was keen to read about Wang’s life when he was at the Australian National University (ANU) my alma mater, where he spent most of his time until 1986.

His stay in Australia was initially meant to be short term but as the political environment in Malaysia after the May 13, 1969 riots was far less conducive for a non-Malay intellectual than before, he had little choice but to make Australia his permanent home. Well, almost.

Wang was highly influential in Australian academia, and was particularly instrumental in fulfilling the country’s tremendous interest in understanding China. He even chaired the high-profile Australia-China Council.

His academic work on China required him to travel extensively to the country, forcing him to relinquish his Malaysian citizenship as Malaysia at that time banned travel to China. During those Cold War days, even when one could actually travel to China with Malaysian ministerial permission, it was not easy to obtain. I personally know of several other academics who gave up their Malaysian citizenship for the same reason.

By some serendipitous circumstances, Wang, a humanities professor, was appointed vice chancellor of the University of Hong Kong (HKU) in 1986, two years after the UK agreed to return Hong Kong to China, and 11 years before the scheduled handover in 1997. Most of the HKU vice chancellors had been from the science faculties.

For some years, he was even a member of the colonial Hong Kong government’s Executive Council. That gave him a front row seat in witnessing the changing dynamics in Hong Kong prior to 1997, as well as proximity to the great transformation of China in the 1980s and 1990s.

By the time he left Hong Kong to relocate to Singapore in 1996, he was 66, and thought he was going to live a quiet retirement. What he did not anticipate was that he would have to guide the Yusuf Ishak Institute of Southeast Asia Studies (ISEAS) and Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy as chairman, and become director of the East Asian Institute, for an extended period of time. His eminent presence in Singapore over the last 30 years changed the intellectual landscape of the island nation for the better.

Once upon a time, Southeast Asia, Malaya, Malaysia and an independent Singapore were relatively new names, and all the changes happened when Wang was already in his adulthood. He also witnessed the once-in-a-lifetime changes in Hong Kong and China at close range. He was there and played a role in shaping some of the events, while writing about them.

After spending a long time studying, writing about and living through history, Wang said, “but I have to admit that I had begun to feel that I could no longer call myself a ‘historian’”. He now thinks like the Chinese wenren (literati), “not unlike the Ancient Greek histor (wise man or judge), who was a witness keen on learning more”.

As a young student at ANU in freezing Canberra 25 years ago, there were some months when I focused enthusiastically on reading as many of Wang’s publications as possible. I am also very fortunate to have met him and listened to his wisdom many times since 2010. At his Singapore book launch on Jan 29, Prof Tommy Koh said there are “Wang Gungwu Fan Clubs” in many cities as the prominent sinologist has helped generations of academics and thinkers to understand China and Southeast Asia, and also how the present is connected to the past, in the most interesting, creative and meaningful ways.

No Borders: Journeys Across Islands and Continents is the story of a sage of our time, being present at the creation of our nations, regions and history, and telling about the order and disorder along the way for all of us who came after him, to feel the tensions, understand the logic and also read his thus far most complete personal stories. This is certainly a must-read for everyone.

This article first appeared on Mar 2, 2026 in The Edge Malaysia.