Malaya as seen by Colonial Authors

The Fiction of Colonial Malaya
Author: Mohamad Rashidi Pakri
Published by Penerbit Universiti Sains Malaysia
Number of pages 89
ISBN 978983618458
Year of Publication 2015

“An invigorating, ethical review of the
fiction of Malaya’s colonial adminstrators.”
Henry S. Barlow, author of Swettenham

This book is a study of the writings of four colonial authors, Frank Swettenham, Hugh Clifford, George Maxwell (all colonial officers) and Anthony Burgess a teacher at the Malay College for Boys. Their books were written at the height of colonial British rule and although they were about Malays, Chinese and Indians they were written for colonial consumption and were not for local readers. Each author has his own section in the book and the analysis of their writings against the norms of society at the time helps explain why their stories seemed to be almost remote from the inhabitants of Malaya. This analysis by Dr Mohamad is valuable in that it gives the reader an understanding of life in Malaya in the late 19th and early 20th centuries and how two communities, local and expatriate, lived parallel lives with limited social interaction.

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This article first appeared in print in the Malaysia @Frankfurt 2015 tabloid, published by the Majlis Buku Kebangsaan Malaysia (MBKM) - National Book Council of Malaysia as part of their initiative to promote Malaysian companies, authors and books at the Frankfurt Book Fair 2015.