Reconnecting the Disconnected Through

Textiles of the Malay Maritime Empire

A presentation by John Ang

Tuesday, 28 March 2017

John Ang of Singaporean parentage was born in Chicago. After he received his M.A. in Asian Art History from the University of Michigan, he moved to Japan and worked as a reporter for Japan Times covering Asian Art exhibitions and performances in Tokyo.  Later he travelled to Taipei where he established an art gallery handling fine Asian art which included furniture, sculpture, textiles, carpets and jewelry.  He was the first to introduce to Taiwan minimalistic Ming style furniture, Tibetan carpets and furniture, Indian jewelry, Indonesian, Thai, Laotian and Cambodian textiles and ceramics. Besides helping and advising major museums in USA, Taiwan, Singapore, China and Australia build their collections of Asian art, John has also written many books and articles on the subject.  In the 1990s through many articles in international magazines and journals John was the pioneer for research of Chinese furniture through their regional styles.  Since 1990 he has lectured in several universities in Taiwan and China as well as at Sotheby's in New York and Hong Kong. 

Currently he is focusing on two life missions - teaching yoga to young underprivileged children in Cambodia and forming a comprehensive collection of textiles of the Malay world. In his presentation to the joint event of the Thai Textile Society and the Siam Society is part of his second life mission. It will discuss who the Malays are and what textiles they have produced. These will include textiles of the Langkasuka Kingdom of south Thailand and northeast Malaysia, rare ikats of Komering and Bangka, Batiks made for the Malay market of Jambi, Palembang and Bengkulu as opposed to Peranakan and Javanese batiks, rare court textiles of west Kalimantan and Malay textiles with Bugis blood from Riau, Johore, Pahang and Terengganu.

In presenting these textiles many of which have never been written about or shown in museums, John will discuss the origins of their designs and techniques and how they connect closely with textiles of other kingdoms in the empire. He hopes that this presentation will shed new light on this little researched area of textiles and inspire many people to become more appreciative of them. 

Members Free & Non- Members B200

For Reservation & Information: bkk.tts@gmail.com

Time: 7:30 pm at the Siam Society

VENUE:  The Siam Society

131 Asoke Montri Road, Sukhumvit  Soi 21

(The Society premises are situated on  Asoke Montri Road

(Sukhumvit Soi 21) two minutes walk from Sukhumvit subway station

(exit 1) & five minutes walk from Asoke skytrain station (exit 3))