Underrated giant: Why Han Suyin deserves her place in Malaysian history

By Lim Teck Ghee

I would like to congratulate Dr Florence Kuek for this fine book on Han Suyin, which meets the scholastic requirements of rigorous intellectual inquiry and logical argumentation, and contributes to knowledge through reasoned discourse and analysis.

During my time, one of the key indicators of whether you have made it in the academic and scholarly community was whether your work was deemed worthy of publication by the big names in the Asian publishing world. At that time, they included Heinemann and Oxford University Press.

Today, having Routledge as the publisher should tell us something about the value of Kuek’s book. Her publisher, Routledge of Taylor and Francis, is one of the biggest names in academic publications today, so even more congratulations.

My commentary on Kuek’s book An Ethical Literary Criticism of Han Suyin’s Autobiography: Braving Irrationality will be as an economic historian and political analyst following the geopolitical developments that provided the foundational basis for Han’s life and work during her time.

Geopolitics provides for all of us today – what’s taking place in Gaza, Asean, between the US and the rest of the world and so on – the very important backdrop and dynamics shaping and influencing our lives and increasingly that of the young generation.

So, firstly, don’t let the title put you off. This is more than a book for literary scholars of ethical literary studies, modern Chinese literature and cross-cultural narratives. It is also a book for those interested in history and politics, the development and rise of modern China, through the lens and pen of an extraordinary person, formidable intellect and gifted prolific writer.

Han Suying was not only an underrated writer in the literary world but also an underrated global personality. She was a giant – crossing, challenging and overcoming racial, gender, cultural, political and ideological barriers – not just in literature and in her writing but also in her life.

Many notable, famous and acclaimed writers who have won prizes in literature, even Nobel Prize winners, lived a different life from what they wrote about. She, together with luminaries such as George Orwell and Leo Tolstoy, were definitely deserving of the Nobel Prize for literature but were left out for political, ideological and, in her case, racial reasons.

Here’s an interesting aside. If you do an internet search of famous writers who have not won the Nobel Prize for literature, you will come across half a dozen names but not that of Han. We can spend an afternoon or a day discussing the politics of the Nobel prize award as it relates to Han but not today. 

Han and me

I did not know her personally but I see and admire the qualities she demonstrated consistently in her life and career, apart from her writing, which makes her a role model.

She was:

• Independent and resilient. No bodekking (flattery)
• Intellectually curious and articulate. Always challenging the status quo
• Passionate and emphatic. No pussyfooting or evasiveness
• Bold and daring
• Open to experiences, characterised by existential living, trusting her instincts and values, and being creative

Very importantly, as pointed out by Prof Danny Wong, she had a conscience.

For the book, Kuek made the right decision by focusing on the six-volume autobiographical work for her dissertation and the book.

Her introductory chapter, just 15 pages, is exemplary in weaving the personal narrative of Han’s early and later life, the unprecedented changes taking place within Chinese society, and the impact on China by Western powers and Japan – all intent on carving out pieces of China. Read it.

This attempt to bring down and divide China continues today and testifies to the relevance of Han’s writing for the present and younger generation.

My own introduction to Han

Let me share a personal anecdote about how she first entered my life through her initial trilogy – The Crippled Tree (1965), A Mortal Flower (1966) and Birdless Summer (1968).

In 1966, I was a tutor in the University of Malaya’s History Department trying to pin down and arrive at a topic for my masters and my future academic career.

My reading of the trilogy came after Anthony Short’s offer to work with him as a research assistant. I was very tempted to take it up as it came with research funding to supplement the tutorship stipend. But I did not have Mandarin reading proficiency and ultimately decided to turn Short’s offer down.

If I had taken it up, it would have probably changed my career and life completely. Perhaps as his research assistant I could have influenced his book The Communist Insurrection in Malaya, 1948-1960. At the least, I would have gone on to a different career and perhaps even life track.  

My next encounter with Han was after my return to Malaysia in 2005 but it was not with her work. Following the corporate equity controversy aftermath and my departure from the Asian Strategy and Leadership Institute (Asli), I started a new online website, Center for Policy Initiatives. The website included writings and commentaries on the hot and often sensitive issues not aired or kept out of the mass media and the then just emerging social media.

My website brought me in communication with Leon Comber again. Let me tell you a bit about my relationship with Comber.

My first encounter with him was in Universiti Sains Malaysia for my first book, Modernization of Asia: Aims, Resources and Strategies. He was founder of Heinemann Asia and helped publish the book in 1972.

The second was in 2011, following the controversy which developed over Mohamad Sabu’s speech in which he posited the Malayan Communist Party as the real heroes for fighting against the British and for leading the country’s struggle for independence. This led to an extended debate on the party in which Prof Khoo Kay Kim and a few other academics joined in.

I wrote a commentary titled ‘Media lynching and academic collaborators’, which resulted from communication with some of the main analysts and professional historians. This included Comber’s writing on the subject, which Khoo had omitted in his public comments that were given extensive coverage by the media and politicians at the time.

This second exchange with Comber more than 10 years ago – thank goodness for email – saw him providing details of his work in Malaya. Han married him when he was holding the position of assistant superintendent of police in the Special Branch. The story is that he lost his job after Han’s book And the Rain My Drink (1956) was published.

I was sorely tempted to ask Comber about his work with the Special Branch, his relationship with Han, and his influence on her writing but ultimately resisted the temptation.

Comber was a remarkable man in more than a few ways. He belonged to the old school of orang putih (white people) that saw for themselves and the West a civilising and educational role in the East, at least into the late 1930s before World War Two. He did much good work with publishing and encouraging Asian literature. He received his doctorate at the age of 72 and lived to be a centurion. Rest in peace, Leon.

On the colonial mindset and its negatives and positives, my recent book with Charles Brophy on the colonial Straits Philosophical Society papers on race, identity and social order provides a differently evidenced and somewhat differently balanced examination of colonial policy and practice in Malaya and Singapore in the late 19th and early 20th Century. Some of you here will find it more nuanced than what Han wrote about the colonial elites.

But back to how Han’s writing and the trilogy have influenced my own writing.

Her work bridges economic data and lived experience, offering these perspectives and approaches: 

• The material consequences of macro-policies on households and peasant communities in my post-graduate research
• The corrosive role of foreign and local national parasitic or crony capital in state fragility and exploitation
• The importance of deconstructing and challenging Western narratives

In terms of history, this combination of micro-macro and the long approach is, to my mind, the most appropriate tool for analysing and understanding many of the past and contemporary, and likely future developments. Such an approach is also useful in the humanities and social sciences, including in economics, politics, culture and societal changes.

Let me for the last part move away from Han’s achievements as an outstanding literary figure and defining pioneer and path-breaker in the study of modern China and world politics.

I want to assess for a few minutes here Han, her writing and her work in Malaya, where she spent 12 years of her life.

Though this may appear somewhat tangential to this particular event for Kuek’s book, Han’s work and contribution to Malaysia may be what has perhaps have brought some of you to this event.

Han wrote four books while in Malaya and Singapore of which her 1956 novel And the Rain My Drink was the most acclaimed. It has been described as a pivotal work in postcolonial literature in our part of the world.

The book offers a nuanced critique of British colonialism during the Malayan “Emergency” from 1948 to 1960. Its significance has been said to span political, historical, cultural and literary domains 

Someone wrote this. I forget who exactly.

And the Rain My Drink remains significant for humanising the Malayan Emergency’s victims and dissecting colonialism’s moral ambiguities. Its blend of testimony, fiction and lyrical activism cemented Han’s status as a critical Asian intellectual, while its republication (in 2010) affirms enduring relevance. The novel is essential for understanding Southeast Asia’s anticolonial struggles and the power of literature to challenge the empire in several ways

It exposed the brutality of British counterinsurgency tactics during the Malayan Emergency, including forced resettlements, detention camps and systemic violence.

Han’s semi-autobiographical narrator, a doctor in Johor Bahru, sympathised with communist detainees and guerrillas, framing their resistance as a response to oppression rather than mere extremism.

The novel captured our fractured identity through diverse perspectives: ethnic Chinese rubber tappers, Malay villagers, Indian labourers, British officials and communist guerrillas. This highlights the colonial divides while affirming Malaya’s multicultural reality. It is a reality some of which continues today.

Others have postulated that her years in Malaya and Singapore profoundly shaped her medical career, literary output and ideological development. This era termed the “missing period” has been seen as a transformative chapter in her life, coinciding with Malaya’s transition to independence.

This missing period has been reconstructed through recent scholarship notably Zhang Xing Hong’s Han SuYin in Malaya, Doctor, Writer, Activist (1952-1964), based on interviews, photos and archival materials. I have not read Zhang’s work for a masters at Nanyang Technological University, as it was written in Chinese and I have not read an English edition, which is said to be forthcoming. There’s a very useful account of Zhang’s work in Peggy Loh’s blog, My Johor Stories. Go to it.

Han had another important life in Malaya besides her medical career when she took on an academic position at Nanyang University as a lecturer in Asian literature. She designed a pioneering course on Asian literary traditions, challenging Eurocentric curricula. Apparently, lecture notes and student interviews from this period reveal her role in fostering postcolonial discourse.

I want to end with my conclusion and strong concern that our country has not treated Han well.

If she and her work have been underrated abroad, she has been treated worse and marginalised more in the official history and narratives of our country. This, to me, is because she was probably the most prominent and outspoken anticolonial, leftist intellectual and personality of her time in modern Malaya.

Perhaps Kuek’s book can provide a new stimulus point to look at her life in Malaya, her contribution and her influence.

Any graduate students here? Han’s work in Malaysia and Singapore awaits further research and analysis.

I did a quick internet search for her private papers and early drafts and found them deposited in Boston University and the National Library of Singapore. I am not sure if there has been any research done on them

I think there are possibly at least a couple more masters’ dissertations that can be written up – possibly with Kuek as adviser or supervisor. I’ll be happy to help even if it is written as a literature thesis – perhaps as a research assistant.

When I did my internet search on Han, I found references mainly in French and English. There were a few in Chinese but I suspect that there is possibly a small mountain of writing in the Chinese media on Han that needs to be uncovered.

So how about this as a possible research topic:

• Han Suyin – Western and Chinese media divergence
• How did Han regard the non-Chinese ‘other’ in Southeast Asia in her work and life?

There is one more academic omission. There is nothing in Malay. Have there been any translations of Han’s work into Malay? Perhaps a start can be made. Anyone from Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka?

Two final suggestions:

How about a Han Suyin studies centre? There are big guns here who could take this up.

And lastly, but not least, how about naming a road in Johor Bahru or something more appropriate after her to honour her time and work in Malaya?

Dr Lim Teck Ghee is a prominent economic historian and public intellectual. He delivered these remarks at the launch of Florence Kuek’s book at the University of Malaya on 2 July.

A response from Carl Belle, a former Australian diplomat:

Dear Teck Ghee, an eloquent and well thought out summary. A few years ago I had several lunches with Leon Comber and he discussed And the Rain My Drink. He told me that when the book came out the colonial authorities wanted to ban the work and put considerable pressure on him to pressure Han Suyin to withdraw the work. He refused and told the authorities that banning the work would militate against everything the British claimed to be fighting for. This incident apparently hastened the end of his Malayan career. Warm regards, Carl

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