Malayan Chinese and China: Conversion in Identity Consciousness, 1945-1957

Malayan Chinese and China: Conversion in Identity Consciousness, 1945-1957 looks at one of the key transformations in the history of Singapore and Malaysia was the process by which the Malayan Chinese came to identify more and more with Malaya, and less with China. Through a study of the Chinese press and Chinese organizations, Hara’s study is a very fine-grained look at the process by which the Chinese of Malaya came to identify themselves with Malaya, and came to feel that their long-term interests were best focused on developments in the peninsula, and not occupation or revolution in China. The study takes into account the actions of the colonial and Chinese governments, but builds its understanding on the direct evidence of how the Malayan Chinese community ordered and understood their own affairs.