Hierarchies of Identity and Non-Belonging: The Unimagined Community in K. H. Lim’s Written in Black

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No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. This article follows the Malay cultural practice of using the first name, as Malay names do not contain surnames or family names.

2. The opacity surrounding the Brunei Chinese is, to an extent, due to the fact that very little is known about them, apart from limited academic studies and occasional media articles. This lack of visibility can be attributed to the kingdom’s embedded culture of secrecy and caution, as well as active censorship apparatuses that have hampered academics, local and foreign, in the study of Brunei (Fanselow 106). Inevitably too, the narrowing ideological space for debate and discussion in recent decades has affected the literary scene, as writers have had to adopt oblique means to express difference, opposition, or resistance, including Lim, who employs the implicit language of embodiment and space as well as recurring motifs not only to critique MIB and the state but also to convey the ambivalence of Brunei Chinese identity and place.

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Grace V.S. Chin

Affiliated to Universiti Sains Malaysia, Grace V. S. Chin specializes in postcolonial Southeast Asian Anglophone literatures, with focus on race, gender, and sexuality in contemporary societies and diasporas. She can be contacted at [email protected].