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On Orientalist Terms: M alays in S ingapore and Textbook Prescriptions
Author(s) -
Miharja Nurhidayahti Mohammad
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
studies in ethnicity and nationalism
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.204
H-Index - 8
eISSN - 1754-9469
pISSN - 1473-8481
DOI - 10.1111/sena.12108
Subject(s) - orientalism , historiography , colonialism , narrative , malay , indigenous , history , reductionism , literature , sociology , gender studies , art , philosophy , linguistics , epistemology , ecology , archaeology , biology
This article examines the influence of Orientalism on S ingaporean historiography, specifically on textbook representations of the indigenous Malay population and the implications for the wider historical imagination. Central to analysing such Orientalist influence is a critical reflection on changes in the way the minority M alays have been portrayed from pre‐separation to National Education textbook narratives. The article finds that Orientalist portrayals of the M alays that started during colonial times have been sustained through an increasingly Sinocentric national narrative. Common to both colonial and postcolonial history is the reliance on Orientalism as the dominant mode of discourse.