马来西亚民间华文历史文献的类别及其对方志研究的作用

The Types of Malaysian Local Chinese Historical Documents and Their Value for the Study of Local Gazettes

论文根据田野调查的经验,分析了马来西亚民间华文历史文献的类别,并从组织序列、历史序列两方面,探讨了马来西亚乡土历史的书写内容和方法,归纳其对方志研究的作用。马来西亚的史学乃至华人研究,除了少数几位民间文史工作者,一般皆以传统文献切入,学者下乡采集文献资料较少,故此民间华文历史文献的采集和研究工作可谓大有可为。除地方文化研究必须依托民间文献方克有成外,华人民俗文化的研究依赖民间文献之处更为显著。这两个领域恰好正是殖民政府和现今的国家机器较少涉入,乃至不闻不问、任其自行发展的地带。近一二十年随着国家经济发展,迅猛的城市化,无所不在的西化,许多地方特色在发展洪流中消失。因此,马来西亚的民间华文历史文献采集和研究有待进一步深入。

Based on the experiences from field research, this paper analyzes the types of non-official Chinese-language historical materials in Malaysia. It discusses the content and the methodology of the writing of local Malaysian history both in textual categorization and historical periodization, and concludes their value on the study of local gazettes. Aside from a few amateur writers in history and literature, most scholars study Malaysian history and Overseas Chinese studies based on traditional historical materials, and rarely conduct field research to collect historical documents. Hence, there is much to be done in terms of collecting and analyzing these sources. Not only could the study of local cultures improve with the inclusion of local sources, but also the study of the folklore cultures of overseas Chinese. Because the past colonial regime and today's state rarely interfere with these two fields, they have thus developed largely freely. During the past two decades, with the development ofnational economy and the rapid urbanization and westernization, many unique local characteristics have disappeared from the development. It is time to further collect and study the local Chineselanguage historical materials in Malaysia.