The revival of ethnicity and the collapse of the Soviet Union and Eastern European states at the end of the last century have redrawn public attention to ethnic relations and nation-building again. However, in multi-ethnic Southeast Asia where nations are still in the making, the problems of ethnicity and nation-building have never been out of sight. Many social scientists have been preoccupied with the problems of ethnic relations and nation-building. However, with intensive globalization and the revival of ethnicity, the problems become more salient than before. This book, which is a result of an international conference organized by the Singapore Society of Asian Studies, presents these issues from a Southeast Asian perspective.

Issues of the ethnic Chinese in ethnic relations and nation-building were the focus of the conference project. We invited scholars from Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore to discuss these issues in their respective countries. We also invited Professor Wang Gungwu, a leading international scholar on ethnic Chinese history in the Southeast Asian region, to be the guest speaker, and he provided a frame of reference for the conference.

Not surprisingly, the book begins with the chapter by Professor Wang. Focusing on various major concepts used in this collection, he highlights the complex issues of ethnic/racial relations and the project of nation-building in the past and at present. Wang puts the issues in the context of globalization and liberalization, which has presented new challenges to nation-building in the Southeast Asian region. With multiculturalism being widely accepted in the world today, the concept of “nation” in Southeast Asia is being re-examined, so is the position of the ethnic Chinese in each nation in the region. The assimilation model of nation is no longer acceptable but Southeast Asian nationalism remains strong, posing constraints to ethnic Chinese identity and Chinese cultural revival.

It is generally agreed that “nation-states” in Southeast Asia are new and they are largely at the phase of nation-building. It is understandable that political élites in Southeast Asia have been eager to forge a nation based on existing states. They have attempted to integrate not only indigenous ethnic groups within their respective state boundaries, but also the so-called foreign minorities, particularly the ethnic Chinese, into the local society. Models of nation-states, however, differ from country to country.