A dilemma of identity :

مرکز و کتابخانه مطالعات اسلامی به زبان های اروپایی

منو

" A dilemma of identity : "
Koon, Huat Kin.

Document Type	:	Latin Dissertation
Record Number	:	1096467
Doc. No	:	TLets444548
Main Entry	:	Koon, Huat Kin.
Title & Author	:	A dilemma of identity :\ Koon, Huat Kin.
College	:	London School of Economics and Political Science (University of London)
Date	:	2007
student score	:	2007
Degree	:	Ph.D.
Abstract	:	This thesis is a historical study of the internal politics of the overseas Chinese in BritishMalaya from 1930 to 1949 as it shaped and was in turn being shaped by the quest for anational identity, emphasised as it was by the transition of the community as meresojourners into permanent settlers. Where once blind patriotism and loyalty to China onthe basis of the indivisibility of one's nationality from his country of origin had nourishedthe principal values underpinning Chinese nationalism in all its forms and variations, theywere now being challenged by an intensifying bond linking the Chinese to their adoptedhomeland of Malaya led largely by a progressive minority intent on cementing their placein the future destiny of an emerging state. To this end, this thesis will study the contestbetween the `Sino-centrics' and the `Malayans' over the object of overseas Chinesenationalism as it developed into an ideological battle over the primacy of `nation' or'community'. The inability to agree on and chart a common path vis-ä-vis their futuremagnified the sub-group differences between them and accelerated the contest tochampion the Chinese nationalist cause, variously defined, which served only to highlightthe persistent divisiveness that had constantly plagued the community as a whole, thatthey lost sight of the higher goal of political equality on the basis of a common Malayancitizenship. This thesis will argue that the disparate nature of the overseas Chinesecommunity thus allowed external agencies and forces, no less the British colonialauthorities, to influence the form and substance of Chinese politics and in so doing play asignificant part in laying the foundations for a subordinate political role for the Chinese ina new Malaya
Added Entry	:	London School of Economics and Political Science (University of London)