A Tour of 60 Asian Port Cities with Ex–ACM Director Kennie Ting

To write a book about 60 Asian port cities, ex–ACM director Kennie Ting travelled as far as the Middle East and Africa. He tells us how port cities can tell a different history of Asia, and what his "eat, pray, love" cities and his favourite ACM artefacts are.A writer and museum professional fascinated by the history, heritage and culture of Asian port cities, Kennie Ting is the former director of the Asian Civilisations Museum and Peranakan Museum in Singapore. He has written The Romance of the Grand Tour: 100 Years of Travel in South East Asia (2015) and Singapore 1819: A Living Legacy (2019). His recent book, The Great Port Cities of Asia in History (2024), re-examines Asian history from the perspective of 60 port cities across the region.What Kennie Talked About02:00 – How Kennie found time to write his book The Great Port Cities of Asia in History while heading two museums04:17 – Kennie’s travel experiences05:37 – How his fascination with port cities began06:57 – His writing approach and themes of the book10:09 – How he categorised port cities into six eras in his book13:18 – The hardest thing about writing this book14:36 – His favourite artefacts in the Asian Civilisations Museum (ACM)16:00 – Wuhan’s significance as a historic port city18:23 – Kennie’s research process18:59 – His “eat, pray, love” port cities22:19 – The port cities Kennie would pick to live in26:32 – What he misses about ACM27:14 – What’s next for Kennie TingTranscript and ResourcesRead the transcript: https://biblioasia.nlb.gov.sg/all-sections/podcast-asian-port-cities-with-ex-acm-director-kennie-ting/Check out Kennie's book: The Great Port Cities of Asia in History Subscribe to BiblioAsia for more stories about Singapore.This episode of BiblioAsia Podcast was hosted by Jimmy Yap and produced by Soh Gek Han. Sound engineering was done by Doppler Soundlab. The background music "Di Tanjong Katong" was composed by Ahmad Patek and performed by Chords Haven. Special thanks to Kennie for coming on the show.The BiblioAsia Podcast by the National Library Singapore tells stories about Singapore history.