A Hybrid Community in East Malaysia: The Sino-Kadazans of Sabah and their Search for Identity
In: Archipel, Band 84, Heft 1, S. 107-127
The mass arrival of Chinese to the West Coast of Sabah in present day East Malaysia since the middle of 19th century, had brought the newly arrived community into contact with the indigenous people. This had inevitably brought about a proliferation of mixed marriages between these Chinese and the indigenous people, which resulted in the emergence of pockets of Sino-Native communities on the West Coast of Sabah. A transformation of these communities is traceable in a tussle between the adherence of Chinese culture and the adoption of native ones – where more often than not, the latter, usually the mothers' culture, prevailed. This had eventually resulted in the emergence of a community where the names could be Chinese but little else of traces of Chineseness could be detected. In fact, by the 1930s, tussles between those who were Sino-Natives versus Chinese who lived amongst these communities culminated in the formation of the Society of Kadazan in 1952. The Society advocated for the rights of this new community and saw themselves as defenders of the native rights vis-à-vis what was perceived to be the encroachments of the Chinese on their rights. Yet, just a couple of generations ago, these communities were created through the intermarriages between the Chinese and the natives. The paper will trace the evolution of the Sino-Kadazan community in Sabah with the aim of answering questions relating to the choice of their identity and cultural practices. This paper will attempt to answer how the Sino-Kadazans maneuvered their ways in the 1950s and 1960s in the face of the emergence of indigenous nationalism and the immediate post-independence years. Finally, this paper will attempt to position this community vis-à-vis the Chinese in Sabah.