I’ve long been an avid reader of fiction. I can remember getting lost in Jane Eyre when I was about 12, giving me dreams that I, too, could escape my doldrums life and make something of myself – with my wits, rather than looks or station in life. For many years, and especially after my children left home, I devoured just about every kind of fiction – from literary novels by Barbara Kingsolver, to well-constructed mysteries by P.D. James, to all manner of science fiction (including the short stories of my talented Uncle, Frank Ward). But then, when the world went into COVID mode in 2020, I was too distracted to read. Try as I might, I couldn’t get past the opening pages of anything.
In 2022, we started traveling and again, I often felt distracted. I did read the wonderful book, Sea People, by Christina Thompson, as we traversed the South Pacific. I had previously read the even more wonderful Come on Shore and we will Kill and Eat you All by the same author when we spent time in New Zealand & Australia. These are not works of fiction, but her memoir writing style is one of story-telling. Reading stories set in the places we visited helped me understand a place and its people.
Last year we spent most of the year in the U.S., and I picked up reading again. I read a lot of time-travel books – one of my favorite genres. I caught up my favorite mystery series, like Louise Penny’s Chief Inspector Gamache, and Martin Walker’s Bruno, Chief of Police. I read Kazuo Ishiguro’s Klara & the Sun, RF Kuang’s Babel, Percival Everett’s James, Jennifer Egan’s A Visit from the Goon Squad, Michael Williams’, Dominic’s Ghosts (a lovely homage to Louisville, Kentucky, where I was born and where we spent time in 2024) and VE Schwab’s, The Invisible Life of Addie Larue. But it was the recommendation of a good friend to read a book about the culture of a place we had recently visited (Angeline Boulley’s two books, The Firekeeper’s Daughter and Warrior Girl Unearthed – to learn about the Chippewa in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan/Ontario, Canada region) that got me thinking again about books that might give me insights into the places we were visiting.
We arrived in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, in late November, 2024. I soon learned that there are many highly praised, often award-winning works of fiction written by Malaysian authors in English. So, I set to the task of reading some of them, to see what I might learn about this place. And learn I did. Since mid-December, I have read 5 novels that tell stories of Malaysia over the past 60-plus years since the country obtained its independence. The books are set in different, although often overlapping, points in time. I read books by authors that spanned the rich cultural heritage of Malaysia.
I suppose what surprises me the most about these stories is that even though the authors are Straits Chinese, Indo-Malaysians, & ethnic Malay – each with stories that wrap around different religious traditions and customs – they are similarly Malaysian. By that I mean, you can feel the underlying thread of the Malaysian tapestry of culture in each of the stories, more alike than different.
What I read
The Garden of Evening Mists, by Tan Twan Eng, a Chinese-Malaysian author, published in 2011. It is primarily set in the early 1950’s, with flashbacks to the later years of WWII, and flash forward to the 1980’s. It is set mainly in the tea plantation highlands near Ipoh, with some backstory on Penang – a largely Straits Chinese populated island off the West coast of the main Malaysian Peninsula, and in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia’s capital city. This is the most literary book of the group. The prose is quiet and beautiful. The characters are complex and often surprising. The protagonist has suffered losses and successes, and struggles to understand the one man who she should hate but whom she loves.
Once We Were There, by Bernice Chauly, a Chinese-Indian Malaysian author, published in 2017. It takes place between the late 1990’s and early 2000-teens. It is set in Kuala Lumpur and its suburbs. This novel is in-your-face. It’s prose is blunt, staccato upheaval. At first I found that off-putting, but realized about halfway in that her style is absolutely necessary to understand the time and place she describes.
Black Water Sister by Zen Cho, a Malaysian author of Chinese-Malaysian descent, published in 2021. It takes place in the 2020’s in Penang. Unlike the others, the protagonist of this book is an American-born daughter of Chinese-Malaysian parents who was raised in the United States but moved back to Penang at the beginning of the book. This book is fun. The American-born protagonist is someone I can easily identify with. In her encounter with her dead grandmother – who has possessed her with a purpose – the protagonist provides exactly the kind of skeptical Western response you would imagine. You can’t help but love all of the characters in the end – even the demon.
Evening is the Whole Day, by Preeta Samarasan, an Indo-Malaysian author, published in 2008. It is set almost entirely in one house in Ipoh (with one key chapter set in Kuala Lumpur), primarily in 1979-1980, with flashbacks to the late 19th century and flashbacks to the mid-1950’s to late 1960’s. It focuses on an Indo-Malay family. This story is told in circles. We learn things bit by bit, and not in chronological order. The ones we think are the bad guys are sometimes the good guys and vice-versa. This book offers buckets of empathy, as we learn why each character behaves as they do. It is ultimately a painful tale.
Dark Demon Rising, by Tunku Halim, an ethnic Malay writer who is often referred to as the Stephen King of Malaysian fiction. I’ve read almost everything Stephen King has written, so I was excited to read one of his novels. This novel was his first full-length work of fiction, published in 2011. It is set in Kuala Lumpur & in a kampong village near Kota Bahru, which is on the East coast of the main Malaysian Peninsula. Halim spins a dark tale of demon-fighting and dark jungles. In some ways, this story reveals the most about the rich folk traditions and dense jungle landscapes of all of the books. Without giving any spoilers, I’ll say the tale’s ending is quite satisfying.
While showcasing authors diverse in ethnicity, religious upbringing, and gender, all of these stories take place on the main Malaysian Peninsula, and all of them take place after Malaysian independence (although pieces of some of them, notably Garden of the Evening Mists, also take place before independence.
Common themes
Family
Each of these stories explores complicated family ties. It is clear that family is central to Malaysian life, but often difficult. Most of the protagonists struggle with torn loyalties and balancing personal autonomy with family obligations. In some books – Evening is the Whole Day, for example, the family saga is sad, tortured, and layered with mis-steps and mistakes. People feel forced to conform to pre-determined roles, with disastrous consequences. In others, such as Dark Demon Rising, and Once We Were There, family relationships are both painful and joyful. In Black Water Sister, the protagonist desperately wants to connect with her living family, but only seems to be able to connect with her deceased grandmother, because she is hiding parts of herself. In Garden of Evening Mists, the protagonist who was tortured in a Japanese internment camp in her late teenage years has all but broken her family bonds completely. In these stories, we see painful back stories of parenting gone wrong & rebellious children, but also stories of deep love, connection, and passion.
Tension between traditional/modern, urban/rural, Western/Malaysian
This body of work explores what it means to be Malaysian in the context of a country coming out of imperialism & wartime occupation, and into independence. I don’t think it is a coincidence that each of the authors was educated at some point in a school outside of Malaysia. Educated in the U.S., Canada, & the U.K., some have returned to live in Malaysia, while others live abroad (and some do both). Interesting to me, several of them were trained as lawyers, and several of the protagonists are lawyers (I am a retired law professor). These are not romanticized stories of either modern/Western/urban life or traditional/Malaysian/rural life. They show the upsides and downsides of both. Rural life can be stifling, limiting, and sometimes too connected (the aunties in Black Water Sister & in Dark Demon Rising know everything about everyone). But it is also the source of deeply felt community, tradition, and spirituality. Urban life can be liberating, intellectual, & exciting, but sometimes too alienating. Those tensions resolve in different ways, but the tension is found throughout.
I found a few examples of Western-Malay tensions especially instructive: a passage in Evening is the Whole Day, where the protagonist’s grandfather – whose parents came to Malaysia from India as indentured servants, but who worked his way into management – has decided, in the 1950’s, to modernize his big house. Among other improvements, he puts in:
An English kitchen equipped with a gleaming Aga range, in which the cook refused to set foot, preferring her outdoor Indian kitchen with its squealing tap and its gaping drains ready to receive fish guts, vegetable peelings, and leftover curries. Samarasan, Preeta. Evening Is the Whole Day: A Novel (p. 25). Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. Kindle Edition.
As far as I can tell, nobody ever uses the modern kitchen. I was also surprised by the opening of Once We Were There, where the protagonist describes the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur thus:
The Petronas Twin Towers were finally complete. The towering phallic monstrosities had transformed the city. And there were stories that bled upon storeys for fodder. It was the topic of conversation at every dinner table, every mamak stall, every kopitiam between Bangsar and Cheras, how ugly it looked. How sterile, how un-KL, how Western. Chauly, Bernice. Once We Were There (p. 9). Epigram Books. Kindle Edition.
As tourists from the U.S., my husband and I had certainly felt the absence of a stove in our luxury apartment in KL and found it puzzling, failing to understand the cooking culture. We had not thought anything negative of the Petronas Towers. This Malay perspective allows me to see different sides to these tensions.
Messy politics, messy corporate business, and fraught history
We’ve just spent 3 months in Kuala Lumpur, and even though I read the news regularly, I am still somewhat confused by Malay politics. These stories of Malaysia tell of a fraught history – where the indigenous Malay people were visited by Indians, Chinese, Portuguese, Dutch, British and Japanese. Many Chinese and Indians were brought in by Westerners to perform menial labor under grueling conditions. The Japanese occupation during WWII was brutal. Malaysia finally negotiated its independence in 1963, but the early years were messy, chaotic, and sometimes inconsistent.
We hear about this messy history in all of the books. The Garden of Evening Mists takes place just after WWII and before independence, when the British returned for a brief period, and the mountains are full of Chinese Communist insurgents. Later in that book, we see the protagonist, Teoh Yun Ling, released from a brutal internment camp, go on to investigate war crimes and ultimately become a judge. We see her make every effort to apply rule of law with integrity. But she learns, throughout the book, how messy law can sometimes be, and how justice is not always obtained in the courts. In Evening is the Whole Day, Aasha’s father – also a respected lawyer – rails against the nascent government and its preferences for ethnic Malays. He runs for office, losing, while his Malay servants vote against him. Quite the ironic scene – he is rich and successful, but feels put down. His servants are poor but feel empowered in this vote – just not empowered enough to tell him how they are voting! His wife goes into labor during the 1969 race riots in Kuala Lumpur while visiting her sister.
Delonix, the protagonist of Once We Were There, is in the thick of the Reformasi movement in Kuala Lumpur in 1999-2000. Here, we learn about the arrest of Anwar Ibrahim, the Deputy Prime Minister, charged with sodomy, convicted, and imprisoned. Years later, Ibrahim was cleared and now (from 2022, and currently) serves as prime minister. Although Malaysia’s government is based on a British parliamentary system, it also has Malay sultans who rotate as King. The laws are a mix of civil and Sharia laws. This is Western but also Malay, and this book reveals the efforts to bring a hybrid system to life.
It is in Once We Were There that we learn the most about this messy political legacy, and the corruption that spread into corporate deals. We also read of violence by police and gangsters, depicted in physical attacks and the feeding of hopeless drug addictions. It can be hard to tell the difference between the ”good guys” and the “bad guys” – much like our current political system in the United States. Although Shazral’s dealings in the corporate world in Dark Demon Rising are not explicitly corrupt, they are a part of his life that represents his loss of soul. Even Black Water Sister portrays rich developers as gangsters prone to violence.
Like the other tensions, the tensions between corporate and political actors trying to do the right thing, but being drawn into the wrong thing, is felt throughout several of these stories.
Religion and rationality
Ghosts, demons, and gods are deeply embedded in Malay culture. In Black Water Sister, we meet Chinese gods, Malay gods, and one very determined demon. The protagonist is a recent college graduate born in the U.S., named Jess. Jess’ grandmother – who passed away months before Jess’ arrival in Penang, appears to Jess. First, she arrives in dreams. Then, she manifests in Jess’s consciousness. Finally, she works some magic to allow Jess to see her. Like a typical American, Jess negotiates a set of rules for her Grandmother to abide by if she allows possession – only to discover that the magical power is much less controllable than that. Although Jess herself can’t quite believe in the spirits – at first – when she finally tells her Malaysian family what is happening, they believe her. It seems that being possessed by a ghost is part of the culture.
In Evening is the Whole Day our young protagonist, Aasha, who is only 6 years old, regularly sees ghosts. She talks to the young illegitimate daughter of the previous owner of the house, who died by drowning. She sees her recently deceased grandmother. The servant, Chellam, tells Aasha and her brother stories of powerful demons who live in the shed. Nobody believes that Aasha sees these ghosts.
The most powerful story of demons and spirits is told in the tale, Dark Demon Rising. Our protagonist, Shazral, uncovers his inheritance after his father dies – an inheritance that involves spirits that help him and demons that fight him. Shazral – who left his rural village in anger and worked his way through law school – has achieved what he believes to be all of the best things in life. After an epic battle – where he, too, has to be convinced to believe in the spiritual realm – he realizes his purpose and reclaims his soul.
Each of these sprit stories are deeply Malay, even though they are told through the lens of the Straits Chinese culture, the Indo-Malay Hindu culture, and the Malay Muslim culture. Shazral’s uncle tells him:
That [the spirit helper] has been passed down hundreds of years when we Malays were still worshipping rocks and trees, well before the Arab traders came in their sailing ships, well before the white men with their guns and promises. It has been passed down through all of that and now you have it!” Halim, Tunku. Dark Demon Rising . My Favourite Company Pty Ltd. Kindle Edition.
Each set of spirits and ghosts has characteristics reflective of the specific sub-culture, but they are remarkably similar to each other.
The power of nature
Malaysia is a tropical jungle. Plants here grow in abundance, year round. Unlike Singapore, where the plants seem to be controlled, in Malaysia they are wild and rampant. One way of showing care, it would seem, is found in one’s garden. In The Garden of Evening Mists, the garden is the central theme related to beauty, meaning, and redemption. This beautiful sanctuary in a cruel world is surrounded by dangerous jungle. The book plays these nature extremes throughout. When the Japanese gardener (who is so much more than “just” a gardener) allows his garden to fall into wildness, it is a sign of trouble. But, he is the master of the wild as well, as evidenced by his journeys into the jungle and the mountains, forecasting his demise.
Delarix Regia is literally named after a flower, and her father plants one in their yard when she is born. Likewise, she names her daughter after a plant. Del’s father’s untended garden is a symbol of his depression and withdrawal. When the garden is finally restored, the family is, as well - not completely whole, but healthy.
Just as an organized, planned garden is central to The Garden of Evening Mists, wild, often terrifying, but elemental nature is central to Dark Demon Rising. From floods that threaten to push a family past the point of no return, to a wild, dangerous river, to a landscape that grows out of a cemetery – this nature is untamed, and essential. Nature rules everything in Dark Demon Rising, and is the source of spiritual power. Even the iconic Malaysian tiger makes an appearance in this tale. It is only when Shazral can understand his place in this natural world – rather than the glass and steel world of Kuala Lumpur – that he can find his power.
Ethnicity, class & otherness
Probably the most Malaysian theme of all is the weaving together of the different cultures of the Malaysian people. These people come from multiple ethnicities and religions. We see Aasha’s mother self-destruct in a sea of obligation put on her by her upbringing. While she and Aasha's father are from the same ethnic background, they are not of the same class or educational level. Some of the characters are children of mixed marriages – Omar, in Once We Were There is half Malay and half English. In their friend circle, we see an Islamic wedding and a Hindu wedding. Although the traditional roles assigned are not exactly the same for each sub-culture, characters in all the stories struggle with their assigned roles. We see Delonix required to convert to Islam to marry Omar – the love of her life – who is not himself especially religious. Del also struggles with being a mother – confused by the choice, knowing she has a choice that many women do not have. Del’s musings on being a mother is amazing to read:
They say motherhood is a joy. They say motherhood is bliss. They say motherhood changes you for the better. You think less of yourself. More of others. Of the world. They say motherhood is a gift from the gods. They say motherhood is the ultimate sacrifice, that your children are here to teach you, and you learn from them. They say that motherhood is hard, but your love for your child will help you get through the difficult times. They say there is no greater love than a mother’s love. They say unconditional love exists between a mother and her child. They say this too shall pass, this too shall pass. They say when she sleeps, you sleep too. They say she will sleep through the night, when they reach a certain weight, they will be more independent. They say you will get your life back, eventually. They say you will not sleep for years, that you will never sleep through the night again, maybe when they’re five. They say breastfeeding will help you lose the weight. They say a child is here to test you. They say a child will wreck a marriage that is not strong. They say a child will bring you closer. They say a child is a balm for the troubled soul. They say a child will ground you. They say that you will develop instincts. All mothers do. They say you will never recover. They say that your child comes first, above all else. They say sex will cease. They say your husband will love you more. They say your husband will love you less, and the child more. They say your body will never be the same again. They say female athletes are stronger after motherhood. They say it is like running a never-ending marathon. They say you will worry and worry for the rest of your life. They say the work as a mother never ends. They say that you will learn to let go. They say that when your child says Mama, you will fall in love. They say your child’s character is there from birth, you are only there to facilitate who they will become. They are who they are. They say motherhood is the mark of being a woman. They say women who do not have children have not really lived. They say women who do not have children are selfish. They say women who do not have children live with regret. They say motherhood means you will never be alone. They say your children will look after you in old age. They say some women never recover from post-partum blues. They say if you eat your placenta you will never get post-partum blues. They say the hormones in the placenta will replace the hormones you lose after childbirth. They say you can fry it with onions and garlic. That it tastes like liver. They say if you bury the placenta under a banana tree, the child will be bound to that place for life. They say reading to a child from birth is good. They say speaking in multiple languages is good. They say teaching the child to swim is good. They say leaving the child to cry is good. They say sleep training is hard, but it’s good. They say you have to be cruel to be kind. They say that the child will learn to sleep, will learn to sleep. The child will learn to sleep, in time. They say you need to trust yourself. That a mother knows. That a mother knows. That a mother knows best. Chauly, Bernice. Once We Were There (pp. 186-188). Epigram Books. Kindle Edition.
Descriptions of food are found in all of the stories – curries, rice, and noodles abound in all of them, an essential part of the Malaysian story. When Aasha’s father strays from their marriage, he also strays from their food, finding love with a Chinese-Malaysian noodle vendor.
My favorite food moment was in Black Water Sister, where one of the gods complains about the quality of the offerings he has been given.
The Datuk Kong said, “I live in Penang so long, you think I cannot understand Hokkien? That time I was fighting this hantu, protecting my devotees, you tried to help. “You were useless,” he added. “But Datuk can see your intentions are pure. Don’t worry about your body. I won’t let anybody kacau. Afterwards, if you are free, maybe you can make some offering to me.” “What offering you want?” said Ah Ma. “Nasi dalca with mutton kurma and kerabu kacang botol,” said the Datuk Kong promptly. “Can find at Pak Din’s stall at Jalan Jelutong. Just put in Waze. And one air bandung.” A look of yearning crossed his face. “Long time since I’ve had air bandung!” Cho, Zen. Black Water Sister (p. 340). Penguin Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.
We also see “otherness” portrayed in these stories. One of the most powerful and central characters in Once We Were There, Marina, is a transsexual woman from rural Malaysia, come to Kuala Lumpur to earn enough money through prostitution to afford the surgery to allow her to be herself. She is brutalized and put down, but her amazing spirit and loyal friendship motivate her to advocate for others like her. She is a fully three-dimensional character who suffers hate and finds love.
In Black Water Sister, Jess’ otherness is two-fold. First, she is an American, and struggles to fit into her Malaysian family. Second, Jess is lesbian – a fact she has hidden from her parents and other family members. Throughout this book, only Jess’ deceased grandmother knows, having looked at Jess’ cell phone photos and text messages while Jess was asleep. The first sentences of the book begin:
The first thing the ghost said to Jess was: Does your mother know you’re a pengkid? The ghost said it to shock. Unfortunately it had failed to consider the possibility that Jess might not understand it. Jess understood most of the Hokkien spoken to her, but because it was only ever her parents doing the speaking, there were certain gaps in her vocabulary. Cho, Zen. Black Water Sister (p. 1). Penguin Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.
Because of her height and her build, Marina is seen as transsexual everywhere she goes. Jess, on the other hand, is not. In some ways, the pressure of the “not knowing” is worse. She is physically safe from people who would attack her (or arrest her) for being lesbian, but the emotional toll of living a lie is huge, and her relationship with her Indian-American girlfriend suffers.
Another character – this one in Garden of the Evening Mists, is a gay man who does not obviously show his identity. Tominaga is a minor, but key character – showing kindness but supporting cruelty. His identity is an important aspect of his character.
Statisticians estimate that about 9% of the world’s population identifies as LGBTQI – but specific numbers are much more difficult to pin down in a country like Malaysia, where homosexual behavior is legislated as a criminal act. These stories remind us that LGBTQI people are present in Malaysia – part of the social fabric – even when they are suppressed.
Another kind of otherness is found in Chellam, the servant hired to care for Aasha’s grandmother in Evening is the Whole Day. Chellam’s otherness derives from her low-class status. Her family is poor, her father is alcoholic and beats his children:
Standing across from each other on either side of the gate, Appa and Chellam’s father are reflected in the glass panel of the open front door. Insider and outsider, bigshot lawyer and full-of-snot laborer, toothful and toothless. Chellam’s father’s dirty white singlet is spattered with rain; Appa holds his umbrella perfectly erect above his impeccably slicked-and-styled hair. Samarasan, Preeta. Evening Is the Whole Day: A Novel (p. 8). Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. Kindle Edition.
Aasha’s brother gets in trouble when he calls her “Chellamservant”, a slur. But Chellam becomes the scapegoat in their family drama. Cast aside, like the used clothing Aasha’s mother foists upon Chellam’s father, who has no use for a lawyer’s old clothes.
So what did I learn from these Malaysian stories?
I learned to appreciate the deep and complex Malaysian culture that underlies all of the sub-cultures that are so evident on the surface. I learned to look beyond simple explanations for anything. I learned that I am extremely fortunate to find such a rich trove of literature written in English by authors who live on the other side of the world, in a unique culture. There are many more authors and books to explore from Malaysia. And, I learned that as tourists, the people we see – or think we see – are not always who we think they are. Listen more. Talk less.
How to support some of the "others" in Malaysia
We wanted to support LGBTQI people who live in Malaysia, and found an organization that is doing good things. They provide counseling and support to the LGBTQI community in Kuala Lumpur. The organization is called People Like Us Hang Out (PLUHO), and we made a donation. You can donate by visiting their website. Their Executive Director, Gavin Chow, was named a 2024-2025 Obama Foundation Asia-Pacific Leader. For Western tourists, a little bit can go a long way.
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