Malayan Chinese women in a time of war: Gender, narration, and subversion in Han Suyin’s And the Rain My Drink

Abstract

ABSTRACT Set in the Malayan Emergency (1948-60), Han Suyin’s And the Rain My Drink (1956) is important for its portrayal of working-class, rural Malayan Chinese women, one of the most oppressed subaltern groups at the time. Tapping into the gendered structures of imperial history that have silenced the voices of women, especially if they belonged to marginalized ethnic groups and/or the lower social class, the novel’s exploration of women’s wartime experiences through nature and the jungle landscape brings to the fore key issues of colonialism, race, class, and knowledge. Although mistreated, mistranslated, and misunderstood by the British imperialists, colonized Malayan Chinese women nonetheless possess a subversive or revolutionary potential that can threaten the essentializing gaze of the patriarchal empire. More importantly, the gendered narrative of Malayan Chinese women in a time of war sheds light on British colonialism’s fantasies and failures.