Culture, History, and
the Intercultural Currents That Shape Us

What makes Southeast Asia one of the most culturally diverse and complex regions in the world?

How do religion, music, migration, and memory intersect to shape identity, belonging, and conflict?

In her two-part seminar for the DSFP, “History and Culture: Some Interactions and Exchanges in Southeast Asia”, Dr Lai Ah Eng, former Adjunct Senior Fellow of NUS College, will take DSFP candidates on an intellectually rich and emotionally resonant journey across time, cultures, and communities.

Drawing from decades of research and teaching on interculturalism, religion and Southeast Asian society, Dr Lai brings depth, clarity, and humanity to questions that often defy easy answers.

“The DSFP is promising in its stretch of depth and focus on important issues of our times for those who wish to remain relevant, purposeful, curious and creative in their senior life stage,” she says.

The first segment explores how cross-cultural interactions have long shaped — and continue to shape — the region’s cultural life. Through vivid examples of musical exchange across languages and ethnicities, from keroncong and Mandarin pop to Bengawan Solo and Rasa Sayang, candidates will appreciate how music becomes both a mirror and a medium of cultural fusion, resistance and reinvention.

But it is not just about the songs. It’s about what they represent: cultural hybridity, contested heritage and the ever-changing flows of influence that make up our shared history.

“The specific case focuses on the popular musical flows in intercultural exchanges between regions and languages,” Dr Lai explains. “Both music and religion illustrate the highly enriching and often hybridised forms of social life in Southeast Asia. They also pose exciting challenges and possibilities for individuals and communities to navigate and seek meanings.”

The second segment zooms in on the region’s vast religious landscape. With Southeast Asia being home to some of the world’s most religiously diverse societies, Dr Lai will be unpacking key themes around conversion, interfaith dialogue, extremism, and secularism, set against historical and contemporary backdrops. Candidates will be invited to reflect on how religion intersects with identity, politics, community and personal belief.

Through guided discussions, case studies and short presentations, candidates will not only gain historical and cultural knowledge, but also the language and empathy to engage more thoughtfully with the region they call home.

Ultimately, this seminar offers more than academic insight. It offers a lens to see and hold the complexity of life in Southeast Asia with greater nuance, curiosity and care. For senior leaders reimagining their Third Transition, it provides an opportunity to deepen their sense of place, and to embrace the cultural fluency needed for relevance, purpose and connection in an increasingly intercultural world.