Professor Carl A. Trocki is a renowned American historian specialising in the history of Southeast Asia and China. He was formerly Professor of Asian Studies at the Queensland University of Technology and Director of the Centre for Community and Cross-Cultural Studies. In addition to studies of Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, and the Chinese diaspora, his expertise also extends to the history of the opium trade in China and Southeast Asia.
The Carl A. Trocki Private Papers collection consists of 12 folders that contain Rumi translations of various types of surat sungai (river permits) written in the Jawi script, relating to the kangchu system in Johor from the middle of the 19th century to the beginning of the 20th century. Professor Trocki also made notes of CO273 documents and compiled a list of microfilms for his thesis during the 1970s. All these sources were instrumental to the completion of two of his books, namely, Prince of Pirates: The Temenggongs, Development of Johor and Singapore, 1784-1885 and Opium and Empire: Chinese Society in Colonial Singapore, 1800-1910.
Examples of the collection are shown below:
This 1864 letter mentions the conflict among the three adopted children of Tan Kee Soon, one of the leaders of Ghee Hin, a Chinese secret society in Malaya and Singapore who moved to Johor.
A glimpse of the list of microfilm notes
A list of the notes of microfilm of the Annual reports and Administration reports
All images from this article are taken from the Carl A. Trocki Private Papers collection.
