Imagining Malaya, Rethinking Merdeka: Decolonisation and Nation-Making through the Perspective of the Peranakan Chinese, 1945-1957 (book talk)

Over the course of British colonial rule in Malaya, the Peranakan Chinese (hereafter referred to as Peranakan) attempted to bring to life a complex imagination of nationhood predicated on an inclusive and multi-ethnic approach to integrating Malaya’s plural society.

A creolized community borne of intermarriage between Chinese migrants and indigenous Malays, Peranakan ideas of nationhood and belonging were influenced by their liminality. In word and deed, Peranakan political actors campaigned for the extension of citizenship rights to all those domiciled in Malaya regardless of race, class, or religion. Yet, this political history has largely been overlooked. In examining the Peranakan imaginary of the nation, Imagining Malaya: Peranakan Cosmopolitanism, Nationalism, and Belonging at the End of Empire, 1945–1957 (Oxford University Press, 2025) explores one of the many alternatives of a Malayan nation that were imagined—and were possible at one point or another—that have yet to be studied. Centring the Peranakan in Malaysia’s story of decolonization and nation-making, it casts a new light on Malaysia’s path to nationhood and who is included—and excluded—within that story.

Speaker & chair biographies

Dr. Bernard Z. Keo is an historian of modern Malaysia and Singapore, with a particular focus on the intertwined processes of decolonisation and nation-making in the post-World War II period. His further research interests include the Malayan Emergency, urban life in the port-cities of Southeast Asia, and transnational networks across the Malay World.

Dr. Keo is Assistant Professor in International History and Politics at Geneva Graduate Institute.

Prof. John Sidel is Director of the Saw Swee Hock Southeast Asia Centre, and the Sir Patrick Gillam Professor of International and Comparative Politics at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE).

*Banner photo by hasbul sparta on Unsplash

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