From Kampung to City — (1987)

A Social History of Kucing Malaysia, 1820-1970

By Craig Lockard

“[Lockard’s] narrative description involves an impressive marshaling of historical data on such topics as demography, occupational structure, and social institutions.”

Sharon A. Carstens — Journal of Asian History

One of the major processes in modern Southeast Asian history has been the development of ethnically heterogeneous towns and cities. Kucing, an intermediate-sized urban center in Sarawak, Malaysia, is today an institutionally complex, predominantly Chinese city of 100,000 led by modern political leaders. Lockard’s account of the development and growth of Kucing over 150 years devotes particular attention to the remarkable absence of ethnic conflict in the mixed society of Kucing.