Speaker:
Dr. Rachel Leow is a Senior Lecturer (Assoc. Prof.) in Modern East Asian History at the University of Cambridge, and author of Taming Babel: Language in the Making of Malaysia.
Date: 25th May 2021
Time: 8:30pm
Platform: Zoom & Facebook Live
Abstract:
Between 1948 and 1953, over 20,000 Chinese people were deported from what was then British Malaya to China. Both the countries they were leaving and going to were embroiled in war and revolution. My short film “Chinese Go Home” tells the story of this extraordinarily complex but largely forgotten historical moment through the voices of two women whose families were sundered in its aftermath. The film screening will be followed by reflections on the longer history of colonial deportation and racialized governmentality in Malaya, as well as inviting an open conversation about how film, art and storytelling might continue to help enrich a “people’s history” of Malaysia.