The Hakkas of Sarawak
Sacrificial Gifts in Cold War Era Malaysia
- Publisher
- University of Toronto Press
- Initial publish date
- Dec 2013
- Category
- Cultural, General, Discrimination & Race Relations
-
Hardback
- ISBN
- 9781442647350
- Publish Date
- Jul 2013
- List Price
- $71.00
-
Paperback / softback
- ISBN
- 9781442615465
- Publish Date
- Jul 2013
- List Price
- $41.95
-
eBook
- ISBN
- 9781442667983
- Publish Date
- Dec 2013
- List Price
- $31.95
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Where to buy it
Description
This book tells the story of the Hakka Chinese in Sarawak, Malaysia, who were targeted as communists or communist sympathizers because of their Chinese ethnicity the 1960s and 1970s. Thousands of these rural Hakkas were relocated into “new villages” surrounded by barbed wire or detained at correction centres, where incarcerated people were understood to be “sacrificial gifts” to the war on communism and to the rule of Malaysia’s judicial-administrative regime.
The Hakkas of Sarawak looks at how these incarcerated people struggled for survival and dealt with their defeat over the course of a generation. Using methodologies of narrative theory and exchange theory, Kee Howe Yong provides a powerful account of the ongoing legacies of Cold War oppression and its impact on the lives of people who were victimized by these policies.
About the author
Kee Howe Yong is an assistant professor in the Department of Anthropology at McMaster University.
Editorial Reviews
Highly recommended. All levels.
Choice Magazine, vol 51:06:2014