Transethnic solidarities in a racialised context

Abstract

“Race” is a social construction of considerable but not totalising force in contemporary Malaysia. Transethnic cultural politics have been part of the social landscape though they have been rendered marginal or seemingly invisible. This article asks if indeed they are so incidental and if so why. Racialisation has not eliminated but obscured and concealed transethnic cultural and social solidarities, so much so that there are hardly the words to describe them. As a result, a language has to be forged that describes society beyond the terms of race and articulates the nuances, heterogeneity and diversity of cultural identities. To this end, the article turns to the history of Southeast Asia, or more specifically, the Malay world. It asks if the region's historical inclusiveness towards cultural difference persists in producing and shaping transethnic solidarities.