标题：Book Reviews: Traditionalism and the ascendancy of the Malay ruling class in colonial Malaya. By Donna J. Amoroso. Singapore: NUS Press and SIRD, 2014, pp. 276, ISBN: 978-967-0630-16-8.
出版社：IIUM Press, International Islamic University Malaysia
摘要：Students of British Malaya know that among the significant Malay cultural institutions that survived the colonial period is the royal institution. One important issue that remains unanswered is how essential the preservation of the Malay tradition was to maintaining British political hegemony. It is along this line of inquiry that Donna Amoroso developed her study of traditionalism and the Malay ruling class in British Malaya. Originally a Ph.D. dissertation submitted to Cornell University, her study was recently published by NUS (the National University of Singapore) Press and SIRD (Strategic Information and Research Development Centre). Amoroso herself, sadly, did not have the opportunity to witness the reception of her work, as she passed away in 2011. Titled Traditionalism and the Ascendancy of the Malay Ruling Class in Colonial Malaya, this work argues that the British colonial government utilised and reinvented the tradition of the Malay ruling class to secure its immediate political and economic needs. From the outset, Amoroso reminds her readers that for them to appreciate her argument they need to distinguish between tradition and traditionalism.
