Chinese Minority in a Malay State: The Case of Terengganu in Malaysia (review)

SOJOURN Vol. 19, No. 2 (2004), pp. 304-7ISSN 0217-9520 Book Reviews Chinese Minority in a MaUy State: The Case ofTerengganu in MaUysia. ByTan Chee-Beng. Singapore: Eastern Universities Press, 2002. 162 pp. This short ethnographic study focuses on Chinese residents of Terengganu, an east coast Malaysian state where Chinese account for less than 4 per cent of the local population. Two features ofTerengganu Chinese society make this case study particularly interesting. First, like certain earlier Chinese communities in Malacca and Kelantan, intermarriages with local Terengganu Malay women several generations ago produced hybrid cultures (known as Baba orperanakan) that combined Malay and Chinese elements. Although these patterns ofadaptation now survive in only a few small rural communities, they comprise one main focus of this study. Second, Terengganu's political situation, with the Islamic party PAS now controlling the state government, raises issues concerning the treatment of a small Chinese minority under PAS government. The book is divided into three parts. The first section traces the history ofChinese settlement in Terengganu and describes organizational features ofTerengganu Chinese society including temples, schools, and Chinese associations. Section two focuses on two peranakan-type rural communities, while the final section examines ethnic relations between Chinese and Malays, both on the individual and governmental levels. Drawing on a combination ofChinese written sources and interviews with older Chinese residents, Tan Chee-Beng presents a sketch of Terengganu Chinese history dating from at least the eighteenth century. Local informants claim that Chinese first settled in a place identified as Pulau Babi, so named by Malays because Chinese raised pigs (babi) there. The earlier Hokkien immigrants, some ofwhom married local Book Reviews305 Malay women, were followed in the nineteenth century by Hainanese and Chinese ofother dialect groups, whose adaptations do not seem to have followed theperanakanpatterns. ContemporaryTerengganu Chinese support a variety of Chinese temples, schools, and associations, which are individually described in the remaining chapters of the first section. The middle portion ofthis bookpresents etiinographic datacollected in short visits between 1987 and 1994 in two adjacentperanakan-type rural communities, KampungTirok and Kampung Ganggul Kemang. Here certain Malay-influenced patterns oflanguage usage, dress, food, and housing styles continue to distinguish the twenty-fourperanakantype families from most otherTerengganu Chinese. Among the details included in this section is information on local family structures, kinship terminology, and genealogies, the latter documenting patterns ofpast intermarriage between residents oftheseperanakan-type communities and others nearby. Religious activities are described as well, including the village temple festival, domestic worship at ancestral and family altars, Chinese festivals, weddings, and funerals. Local reliance on smallholder rubber supports a comfortable standard of living for these rural residents; however, most of their older children chose to immigrate to towns and cities in search of more challenging employment . Once settled in town, it appears tnatperanakan-type Chinese lose this identity. According toTan Chee-Beng (p. 3), "aNP (non-peranakan) informant may be originally from a P (peranakan) family, as many Chinese families in the town migrated from the P (peranakan) communities in the rural area". Improved transportation has also made it possible for younger children to attend Chinese primary schools in Kuala Terengganu town, rather than the local Malay school, which will likely also influence their future aspirations and identities. Ethnic relations between Chinese and Malays form the focus ofdiscussion in the final section of the book. The intermarriages between Chinese and Malays that produced the peranakan-type cultures of the past occur only rarely today, and when they do, the Chinese spouse adopts Islam and becomes a member ofthe Malay community. Thus, contemporary Chinese accommodations take on a different style, which 306Book Reviews Tan Chee-Beng describes as primarily avoiding confrontations of any sort. Even when Malay squatters persisted in occupying old Chinese cemetery lands, the leaders ofthe Chinese community refused to take matters into their own hands, turning repeatedly to Malay officials to find a solution to the problem. Although the return ofthe Islamic PAS government to Terengganu in 1999 raised potential concerns among some Chinese about fair treatment, Tan Chee-Beng describes a situation where the PAS government is in some tespects more sensitive to Chinese rights than the previous UMNO (United Malays National Organisation) regime. He...