Between empire and nation(s): The peranakan chinese of the straits settlements, 1890-1948

This chapter traces the development of Peranakan ideas of the nation from the late-nineteenth century to the immediate post-war period. It discusses the political developments in the Peranakan community in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, focusing on attempts by leading members in the community to strike an equilibrium between East and West. The chapter examines how Peranakan understandings of British subject-hood and imperial citizenship helped shape their ideas about nationhood. It discusses the changing position of the Peranakan community in the wake of the Japanese Occupation and the end of the Second World War. The Peranakan were distinctive for occupying a liminal position in the sociocultural morass of colonial Malaya. Following the establishment of a British foothold in Malaya in 1786 with the founding of the Crown Colony of Penang by Sir Francis Light, the Peranakan began to develop a mutually beneficial relationship with successive British colonial administrations.