What comes to mind when we think about port cities? And the Asian port city? Ships, sailors and the sea?
We are largely a terrestrial people and very often we think about the land rather than the water. National histories for example, tend to view the water as a way of ‘demarcating territory’. Maritime historians in recent times however, have argued that we can see the oceans as connective forces for new and comparative studies.
Examining the port cities of Asia is a way to re-orient our attention not only to the littoral (coastal) communities but to the water. Port cities provide us with points of connectivity via networks; people, goods and ideas circulated between ports. This gives rise to the observation that port cities are by their very nature porous and also outward looking. They are a ‘marriage of land and sea’ as aptly captured in the book titled Brides of the Sea…