Goh Chun Sheng

Goh Chun Sheng

Research Fellow, Sunway University, Malaysia

Goh Chun Sheng is a research fellow at the Special Studies Division of the Jeffrey Cheah Institute on Southeast Asia and the Jeffrey Sachs Center on Sustainable Development at Sunway University. His research interests are in the bio-economy, international trade and land use. He is also the programme leader of the Master in Sustainable Development Management (MSDM) course and an associate at the Harvard University Asia Center. 

This picture taken on 11 March 2023 shows people riding in a trishaw in George Town, Penang, Malaysia. (Mohd Rasfan/AFP)

From Borneo to Penang: Preserving our culture and language for future generations

If languages and cultural practices are disappearing fast in the indigenous communities of Borneo to the Chinese community in Penang and elsewhere, can digital technology and AI play a bigger role to document pieces of our identity that can be preserved beyond time and space?
An illustration projected on a screen shows a robot hand and a human one moving towards each others during the "AI for Good" Global Summit at the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) in Geneva, Switzerland, 7 June 2017. (Denis Balibouse/File Photo/Reuters)

AI is us, we are AI

Malaysian academic Goh Chun Sheng ponders the weighty issues thrown up by artificial intelligence, seeking a little assistance from none other than OpenAI’s ChatGPT.
A dragon dance show during the Chap Goh Meh festival at Singkawang, West Kalimantan, Indonesia. (iStock)

Chinese roots in Borneo, deep and strong

Malaysian academic Goh Chun Sheng gives his impressions of the Chinese in Borneo, scattered in different communities and integrated into the locales where they live. Identity politics still rears its head, but perhaps we can look forward to the day when new narratives of diversity and integration will be told.
The only road leading to Semoi village, in the regency of Penajam Paser Utara, in East Kalimantan Province, Indonesia. (SPH Media)

Can Chinese capital and technologies jumpstart economic development in Borneo?

Malaysian academics Goh Chun Sheng and Guanie Lim observe China’s strong presence in the upstream and downstream sectors of developing Nusantara, the envisaged new capital of Indonesia in East Kalimantan on the island of Borneo, allowing for potential cooperation between China, Indonesia and Malaysia. Could this be the start of greater China-led cross-border collaborations in the region?
This photo taken on 22 September 2021 shows fishermen on their boat as smoke rises from chimneys at the Suralaya coal power plant in Cilegon. (Ronald Siagian/AFP)

In Indonesia, Chinese financing for coal-fired power plants grows faster than that for renewables

On the one hand, China’s potential in helping Indonesia make the clean energy transition has been spoken about, but on the other, China continues to be a big player in perpetuating non-renewable energy use such as in coal-fired power plants. Looking ahead, can they be a larger contributor in Indonesia’s efforts to derive 23% of Indonesia’s primary energy needs from renewable sources by 2025? Malaysian academics Guanie Lim and Goh Chun Seng tell us more.