19 - The Chinese in British Malaya

Summary

Editors’ Note

“The Chinese in British Malaya” is one of Lim Boon Keng’s clearest and most detailed writings on the history and position of the Chinese in British Malaya. The first half is devoted to documenting the migration of the Chinese to Malaya and describing the different dialect groups and their economic activity in the colony. Yet, more than a straightforward historical essay, the presentation sought to analyse and reflect upon the effects of life in Malaya upon the Chinese in a way which highlights Lim’s concerns around race, social Darwinism and nationalism. One significant factor that he identified was the effect of mixing Malay with Chinese blood; and his belief that life in the tropics was tending towards the degeneration of the resident Chinese race and was producing inferior offspring who “despise labour”. This, Lim argued, was mitigated by “Chinese blood from China” which continued to arrive in Malaya to check “the degenerative process”. The education of girls was also seen to delay “degeneration”, yet “unless young people are removed from the tropics, there seems very little hope of maintaining the stamina and the virile qualities of the race—attributes due principally to the Chinese environment”.

For Lim what was partly to blame was the system of education in the Straits which, unlike the system employed by the Dutch, he saw as deleterious to the handing down of trading instincts and other aspects of Chinese culture. He also rejected the idea of “Europeanization” which he argued was “unattainable and undesirable”. To halt this degenerative process, he advocated a return to the teaching of Chinese morality and an education system mixing manual labour with an academic curriculum. Such an approach in his view could lead to a positive re-sinicization emerging out of the climatic and social conditions of the Malay Peninsula.

At the same time, Lim’s concerns around race and social Darwinism led him to also address the position of the Malays in the colony in a manner which reflected the European thought of the Society’s members.