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Social Science Cultural

The Hakkas of Sarawak

Sacrificial Gifts in Cold War Era Malaysia

by (author) Kee Howe Yong

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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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.

Kee Howe Yong's profile page

Editorial Reviews

Highly recommended. All levels.

Choice Magazine, vol 51:06:2014