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Race, State, and Identity in Life Writing from Malaysia A UNIVERSITY OF HAWAI'I LIBRARY THE FICTIONS OF A NATION: RACE, STATE, AND IDENTITY IN LIFE WRITING FROM MALAYSIA A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE GRADUATE DIVISION OF THE UNIVERSITY OF HAWAI'I IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY IN ENGLISH AUGUST 2008 By Claire Dawn Morais Dissertation Committee: Craig Howes, Chairperson Cristina Bacchilega JohnZuem David Hanlon Barbara Watson Andaya ---- ------------- We certify that we have read this dissertation and that, in our opinion, it is satisfactory in scope and quality as a dissertation for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in English. DISSERT ATlON COMMITTEE Chairperson (/3~~ ~ (Z)~)# ... tZ. .. 11 © 2008, Oaire, Dawn Morais iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Running through this dissertation are traces of family, teachers and friends. The journey that took my parents John Victor Morais and Gladys Morais nee Vaz from Kerala to Kuala Lumpur gave my life its early trajectory and encouraged me to continue journeying, both in search of what the future might hold and towards a fuller understanding of the past. My brothers Herbert, Benedict and Justin and my sister Elaine have kept me part of the family circle through our continuing conversations even as the benediction of my mother's prayers have kept us connected and safe. And I would not have engaged in this adventure if I had not had the unstinting support of my best friend and husband, John Frederick Webster, and my children Zubin and Sheela Jane Menon, cheerleaders who sustained me with their technical support and editorial assistance. I would also like to thank Sun Hee Kim, graphic designer and member of my work family at Loomis-ISC who helped me locate and extract the images I used to support some chapters. Our first friends in Hawai'i, Michael and Marie Jose Fassiotto have been steadfast in their faith in my enterprise. Marie Jose prompted me to begin talking about my father's place in Malaysian history by inviting me to speak about his life and work at the Biography Center of the University of Hawai'i. I have had the great good fortune of exceptional teachers. Craig Howes, the Director of the Biography Center, proved pivotal to my studies, introducing me first to life writing and then serving as the Chair Person of my Ph.D committee. He was exacting and generous in all the ways most valuable to a student: as a reader, editor, and challenger of my most cherished opinions. A seminar in ethnography with David Hanlon IV introduced me to a discipline that provided tools critical to my writing. And a seminar with Miriam Fuchs led me to question "authority"- my own, the nation's and that of the authors I discuss. Cynthia Ward opened the door on the field of visual culture and I gained a fi!ller understanding of how popular culture speaks to and for us through a seminar with John Rieder. Cynthia Franklin and Cristina Bacchilega introduced me to issues of ethnicity, diaspora studies and folklore in ways that I found myself returning to often. And my chapter on SaJleh ben Joned would have been the poorer without Reinhard Friedrich's seminar on the trickster figure in literature and society. I revisited Malaysian history with fresh eyes through a course with Leonard Andaya and had the benefit of Barbara Watson Andaya's scholarship on Malaysia in my area studies and in reviewing this dissertation. John's Zuem's perspective as a member of my dissertation committee with experience akin to mine in the world of business and tourism helped me sharpen my arguments. Being engaged in this inter-disciplinary conversation here in Hawai'i where the rights and responsibilities of those who came and those who were already here are still being discussed stimulated my thinking about the rights and responsibilities of those who came and those who were already in the Malay States before it became Malaysia. To the many other teachers, members of family and friends who have helped emich my understanding of what it means to be Malaysian and what it takes to belong, I owe my grateful thanks. I am glad to have completed this particular journey at this particular time at the University ofHawai'i at Manoa. It was for me a most hospitable place of learning and growth. As we say in Malaysia, ribuan terima kasih or as we say here in Hawai'i, mahalo nui loa. v ABSTRACT This is a study of nation, race, and identity in Malaysia through a number of life writing texts. The texts examined are written works as well as independent films and visual culture expressed through the mass media and the internet. These works explore the framing of identity in the Malay States from colonial times to the present and offer fresh perspectives on what it means to be Malaysian in ways that challenge state prescriptions and suggest that the nation is still very much a work in progress. They also call into question Euro-centric ideas about what constitutes a national identity and how nations emerge. In discussing how identity has been articulated and continues to evolve in Malaysia, this study sheds light on how race has informed nation. It examines where articulations of ethnicity have led as the country has joined the ranks of newly industrialized economies. It points to issues of class and gender in the stories of how Malaysians see themselves. This small corpus oflife writing, expressed in several different genres, suggests that the contest for hegemony once waged by waves of colonizers and centered on the key ports of Melaka, Penang, and Singapore is today a contest waged largely within national borders for the right to frame identity as citizens. The maritime traffic that brought Chinese and Indians in large numbers to serve the needs of a colonial economy created a diaspora space in which new immigrants encountered those already there and raised questions about who belonged and who did not. That need led to a conversation started by the departing British colonial government and the middle class elites to whom it relinquished power in 1957. It is a conversation that continues to this day, but its tone has changed, becoming more ethnocentric and more subject to vi intrusive attempts by the state to control public discourse. Racial polarization and a more authoritarian state have not helped provide answers to questions of identity and belonging that are satisfactory to descendants of immigrants for whom Malaysia has been, for several generations, the only place they consider home. vii TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgements ................................................................. iv Abstract ................................................................................ vi List of Figures ......................................................................... ix Introduction: Authority and the Nation ........................................... .1 Chapter I: Colonial Times ................................................. 50 Henri Fauconnier: The Soul of Malaya Chapter II: Chapter II: From British Colony to Independent Nation ........ 91 John Victor Morais.Witness to History: Memoirs of an Editor Chapter III: Going Native .......................................................... .133 Salleh ben Joned. As I Please: Nothing is Sacred: Sajak-Sajak Saleh: Poems Sacred and Profane Chapter IV: Transculturation ........................................................ 169 Shirley Geok-Lin Lim. Among the White Moonfaces: Memoirs of a Nyonya Feminist; Two Dreams; Joss and Gold. Chapter V: Crossings and Collisions .............................................. 206 K.S. Maniam. Arriving ... and other stories; In a Far Country; The Return: Between Lives Epilogue: The Multi-Media Tum in Malaysian Life Writing ................. 235 Works Consulted ....................................................................... 262 V1ll LIST OF FIGURES Figure I. Print advertisements from the "Malaysia Truly Asia" tourism marketing campaign ................... " .................................. , ......... .4 2. Cover Illustration by Leng Tsu Soo for the 2003 edition of.................... 79 The Soul of Malaya. 3. Witness to History cover photo of John Victor Morais .......................... 107 4. Back cover of Witness to Historv shows Morais interviewing Malaysia's first Prime Minister, Tunku Abdul Ralunan ........................ 107 5. HINDRAF street rally ............... '" ............................................. 238 6. BERSIH street rallies ................................................................... 240 IX INTRODUCTION: AUTHORITY & NATION The idea of Malaysia as a nation is one that contains within itself several overlapping fictions. It is an idea that has found expression in fictionalized autobiography and in various other forms of life writing. This study explores some of the fictions of nation, race, and identity through a number of life writing texts-written works, but independent films and visual culture amplified through the mass media as well-that track the framing of identity in the Malay States from colonial times to the present. Separately and as a whole, they offer an understanding of what it means and has meant to be a Malaysian in ways that challenge state prescriptions and suggest that the nation is still very much a work in progress on different tracks. My study of how identity has been articulated and continues to evolve in Malaysia centers on how race has informed nation. It examines where articulations of ethnicity have led as the country has joined the ranks of newly industrialized economies. In so doing, it also points to
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