may 9, 1952 - "MA-RAI-EE"
‒ Chin Kee Onn
[Novel]
Description:
This novel captures the human condition of Malayans during the Japanese occupation. The setting of the narrative has a collection of characters who are ethnically diverse and it takes place in a Chinese community at tin mining area. The book does not emphasise solely on the brutality of the Japanese military, but it also portrays the light and dark qualities as a universal human experience rather than categorising them as racial profiles. Greed and corruption is impartial to genetic experiences, there are Malayans, including Malays and Chinese who were complicit in perpetuating violence and injustice against their own people. Simultaneously, under the oppression and restriction of the invasion, individuals of different ethnicities band together through friendship and, in some cases, romance, and their unique experiences inevitably creates a national identity.
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Su Fang Ng, (1999). "Chin Kee Onn's Ma-rai-ee and the Narration of the Malayan Nationalist Subject in the Aftermath of the Pacific War." The Journal of Commonwealth Literature 34(1): 85-102.
Added to timeline:
Malaysian Literature in English | 1940s - 1970s
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