Exploring future research trajectories, this conclusion offers a methodological reflection by returning to the special issue's discursive point of departure, Singapore—the island-state that Wang Gungwu, historian of the Chinese overseas, has dubbed “the heart of Nanyang”— in order to contemplate its representational significance for wider Southeast Asia.1

In Singaporean director Yeo Siew Hua's award-winning film A Land Imagined, the character Wang Bicheng, a mainland Chinese migrant worker, takes Mindy, the attendant of the cybercafe he frequents, for a spin in his company truck. They end up going for a late-night swim in the sea. Afterward, while resting on the beach, Wang tells Mindy he has heard how the sand on which they lie comes from Malaysia, while other reclaimed areas of Singapore rely on sand from other Southeast Asian countries, including Vietnam, Indonesia, and Cambodia. Mindy then asks if they have left the island-state just by relaxing on...

You do not currently have access to this content.