Ms Yun Seh Lee1
1Flinders University, Adelaide, Australia
Biography:
Yun Seh Lee is currently a PhD candidate in the College of Business, Government and Law at Flinders University. Her current research is twofold: to trace the influences of PRC and Taiwan in Malaysia's Kuching City and to conceptualise/theorise the Chinese community identity in Kuching despite these Chinese influences. More details on the first fold: https://www.aup-online.com/content/papers/10.5117/9789048557820/ICAS.2022.041. She tweets at https://x.com/yunseh.
Abstract:
This research draws upon Benedict Anderson’s concept/theory of an imagined political community, first proposed in 1983, as a starting point to understand how a certain community identity is established in the contemporary context. The Chinese community in Malaysia’s Kuching City is the study subject to evidence Anderson’s concept/theory in relation to how the Chinese communities perceive themselves from a local perspective, despite influences from the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and Taiwan collectively known as – the Chinese influences – prior to ancestral ties and historical reasons. The then-Malaysian government first forged diplomatic relations with the then-Taiwan government administered by Kuomintang in 1964 before they decided to formalise relations with the PRC government in 1974. Henceforth, these Chinese influences are visible, especially amongst the Chinese communities in Kuching, where they have been identified as the Chinese overseas or Overseas Chinese from Taiwan and PRC’s perspectives, however, local Chinese is the preferred term. Ng Kim Chew’s concept/theory complements Anderson’s concept/theory by recommending that there is a ‘national’ identity embedded in the Malaysian Chinese (or Mahua) literature. By combining these two concepts/theories, this research aims to conceptualise/theorise how this contested community identity is constructed through a case study in the spheres of business, culture/language, and education.