A dissenting voice: the politics of Han Suyin’s literary activities in late colonial and postcolonial Malaya and Singapore

Abstract

This article examines Han Suyin’s literary engagement and advocacy in late colonial/postcolonial Malaya (today’s Malaysia and Singapore). It traces her literary activities–research on local literature, creative writing, bi- and trilingual translation of regional literary works, and innovative teaching of contemporary Asian literature–and discusses her “dissenting voice”. An expatriate writer and high-profile international literary figure in Malaya in the 1950s and 1960s, Han Suyin involved herself in debates over the cultural blueprints drawn up by colonizers and nationalists, the definition of Malayan literature, the fate of the colonizers’ languages, and the relationship between writer and society, laying bare contested or hidden political agendas and touching upon such taboo subjects as the “Chinese problem” and emergent neocolonialism. These activities confirm Han’s role as a member of the mid-20th-century cosmopolitan intelligentsia whose non-aligned, independent voice represented a “third position” that had an impact on a series of major policy issues.