Headhunter Humor in 1886 British North Borneo
In 1886, D. D. Daly, the Assistant Resident of Dent Province in British North Borneo administered an oath of allegiance to various groups of Murut and Peluan headhunters. This is…
A Torchlight Serenade by Chin Chin Chinamen in 1903 Lahad Datu
On 20 November 1903, T. C. H. Arensma, the general manager of a major tobacco plantation on the east coast of British North Borneo, Darvel Bay Estates, arrived back with…
“You’ve Got Mail” in 1902 Sandakan (or How to Read Against the Grain of Colonial Era Sources)
I like the beginning scenes of the film, The Lover (L’Amant). You see a ferry crossing the Mekong that is filled with Vietnamese taking goods to market, but those people…
The “Asiatic Country” of British North Borneo
A while ago I wrote about a letter I found that US consul in Sandakan, British North Borneo (BNB) Lester Maynard wrote to the Buick Motor Company in 1907 in…
Selling Buicks in 1907 British North Borneo
The US set up a consulate in Sandakan, British North Borneo in the early twentieth century. Lester Maynard was (I think) the first American consul to serve there (prior to…
Chasing Down Chinamen in Early-Twentieth-Century Southeast Asia
I was looking at records from the American consulate in Sandakan, on the island of Borneo, from the early twentieth century, and found an interesting letter to the consul general…
Japanese War Criminals in Labuan
So much has been written about World War II. People know all about the battles and the dropping of the atomic bombs, etc. However, to me the most fascinating period…
Trafficking Japanese Women in Colonial Southeast Asia
On 27 February 1912, Captain Tucker Wardrop, the chief police officer at the Central Police Station in Beaufort, British North Borneo, wrote a letter to the chief police officer at…
Murder, Rebels, Refugees and Telegrams in Late-19th-Century Southeast Asia
A few days ago I wrote about the technology of “wireless telegraphy” and its use in areas of Southeast Asia under colonial rule in the early twentieth century. Today I…
Connecting Southeast Asia through Wireless Telegraphy
Today I read a letter that Lester Maynard, the US consul-general in Sandakan, British North Borneo, wrote to the Secretary of the Philippine Commission (an American colonial official) in Manila…