Hey team,
So I've noticed while reading The Wind-Up Girl that I've been heavily relying on my ANT 417: Peoples of Southeast Asia class to understand a lot of the nuances of the setting. Because most people didn't take it, I thought I would give a brief explication of the setting, particularly with how it relates to Hock Seng.
Hock Seng frequently references Malaya, which is the term for mainland Malaysia. The Malaysian population is made up of three main groups: the Malay, the Chinese, and the Indians. The Malay make up about half of the population (ethnic Malaysians, also called bumiputera, or "princes of the soil." Like, do you know King Bumi from Avatar: The Last Airbender? "Bumi" is Malay for "earth" or "soil."). The Chinese make up about a fourth of the population. The Indian population makes up about ten percent of the total.
Now, the bumiputera are ethnically Malaysian, but anyone can become Malay. All you have to do is learn the Malay language, convert to Islam, and follow the traditional Malay way of life, adat. Many of the Chinese citizens have done this. However, bumiputera status allows citizens to hold the higher government offices and generally allows for all of the upward mobility in Malaysian society. This is important in understanding Hock Seng. He was ethnically Chinese and doing very well for himself, which would have caused a lot of resentment on the part of the poorer Malay.
The uprising that Hock Seng refers to by the green headbands hasn't actually happened, as far as I know, but there is a lot of precedent for it. Green is a traditional color of Islam, the official religion of Malaysia, and there have been increasingly more Islamic influences in the government as Malaysia strives to become the Saudi Arabia of Southeast Asia.
I just thought this was interested and vaguely warranted in understanding Hock Seng as a character.
That was definitely quite helpful in clarifying a few things for me. I had gotten the main gist of Hock Seng's position in Malaysia but it was a bit vague.
ReplyDeleteDo you have any additional insight as to how this would affect Hock Seng's position in Thai society? I understand that as a refugee he obviously isn't welcomed by everyone and from the ~100 pages I've read, the Thai don't seem too hot on foreigners.
ReplyDeleteThe depiction of Thai culture is actually generally spot-on. Everyone is always super duper friendly, as I understand it. As far as his place there, I'm not sure. Tourism is a huge of modern-day Thailand, so foreigners aren't frowned upon at all. I think that his position in the story is largely influenced by the fictional aspects of the story. That large flux of refugees is going to cause tension no matter what, moreso given the scare resources.
ReplyDeleteOtherwise, I know that China and Thailand are currently involved in a lively debate about water rights and dam construction, with China holding most of the cards. But there doesn't seem to be as much hatred towards other Chinese groups in the story, just the yellow cards, so anything else I've got there would be pretty much pure conjecture.
Huzzah! A research post! Thank you Evan.
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