Malaysian Literature Research Articles

Machine learning insights: probing the variable importance of ex-ante information

PurposeEmpirical examinations of initial public offering (IPO) initial returns often rely heavily on linear regression models. However, these models can prove inefficient owing to their susceptibility to outliers, a common occurrence in IPO data. This study introduces a machine learning method, known as random forest, to address issues that linear regression may struggle to resolve.Design/methodology/approachThe study’s sample comprises 352 fixed-priced IPOs from the year 2004 until 2021. A unique aspect of this research is its application of the random forest method. The accuracy of random forest in comparison to other methods is evaluated. The findings indicate that the random forest model significantly outperforms other methods in all of the evaluated aspects.FindingsThe variable importance measure indicates that investors’ demand, divergence of opinion among investors and offer price are the most crucial predictors of IPO initial returns. These determinants hold particular significance due to the widespread use of the fixed-price method in Malaysia, as this method amplifies the information asymmetry in the IPO market.Originality/valueTo the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is among the pioneering works in Malaysian literature to apply the random forest method to address the constraints of conventional linear regression models. This is achieved by considering a more extensive array of factors and acknowledging the influence of outliers. Additionally, this study adds value to Malaysian literature by ranking and identifying the ex-ante information that best signals the issuing firm’s quality. This contribution facilitates prospective investors’ decision-making processes and provides issuing firms with effective means to communicate their value and quality to the IPO market.

Out of Shadow: Tan Twan Eng in the Malaysian Literary Context

In Malaysian literature, few contemporary writers have emerged as prominently and poignantly as Tan Twan Eng. His works not only explore the complexities of cultural identity, shed light on the historical, social, and political realities of the Chinese Malaysian experience, but also incorporate postcolonial ecocritical perspectives and elements of cross-cultural fusion. Through his narratives, he offers a unique perspective that resonates with readers and contributes to the broader discourse on postcolonialism, identity, and cross-cultural interactions. This paper embarks on a nuanced reading of Eng’s novels, endeavors to position his works within the larger framework of Malaysian literature, exploring their role in shaping and redefining the nation’s literary canon. It delves into specific aspects of Tan Twan Eng’s literary contributions, paying particular attention to his treatment of historical narratives, the exploration of cultural identities, and the integration of ecological elements. Through this analysis, we seek to unravel the unique qualities that distinguish Tan Twan Eng’s novels and their significance in the Malaysian literary context.

Malaysian Literature in English as Literature of Reconciliation

Malaysia has become one of the epitomes of multiculturalism in Southeast Asia due to its richness of diversity. Colonised by multiple European countries and Japan for centuries, the country, formerly known as Malaya, achieved its independence on 31st August 1957. The emergence of inspiring words by Malaya writers and poets during the colonial era became the beacons of hope amongst the Malaya people in forging a new future for their newly independent country. Furthermore, the revival of Malaysian literature in English in the postcolonial era can strengthen the trust, understanding, acceptance, and peace between different races and cultures in Malaysia. Thus, this paper aims to analyse how Malaysian literature in English plays the role of reconciliation in the multicultural communities in Malaysia. For the purpose of this research, a Malaysian English literary novel, This End of The Rainbow (2008), written by Adibah Amin will be analysed by using the concept of reconciliation by Fadillah Merican. Pertinence to the study, the novel managed to encapsulate the concept’s elements of diversity and the preoccupation with bleak scenarios. The results highlight the importance of reconciling amidst the differences in a multicultural society in Malaysia that fosters unity and resists colonial discourse.

Traumatic Characters’ Re-Victimisation Through Death Instincts In Selected Contemporary Malaysian Noir Narratives

Sigmund Freud first coined the concept of ‘death instinct’ in his controversial work Beyond the Pleasure Principle (1920) by stating that all beings are driven towards death as the result of living. The concept was introduced to explain the reasons for traumatised individuals to undergo a ‘compulsion to repeat’ their traumatic state. This concept will be applied to the textual analysis of selected characters who had undergone traumatic experience(s) fromthree Malaysian noir short stories published by Fixi Novo and written by three different authors. These stories were chosen since they took place in an urban community with its storyline regulating sexual abuse that leads to murder. The paper aims to (a) identify the traumatic event(s) experienced by selected characters in the short stories which provoke(s) their primal ‘death instinct’ and (b) examine how the concept ‘death instinct’ by Sigmund Freud compelled selected characters to repeat their trauma outwardly to undo their trauma. The study discovered that ‘death instinct’ is crucial as an intrinsic force to help victims of trauma psychically undotheir traumatic experience by repeating the act of violence upon others as a disguised form of self-gratification in response to a traumatic condition of urban society.Keywords: death instinct, Malaysian literature, noir, trauma, violence

Li Zishu’s Hidden Transcripts of Post-1970s Malaysia: Literature and Religion in Land of Floating Customs

The sinophone Malaysian writer Li Zishu's recent novel about class stylistics, popular religion, citizen subject, and ritual belonging in postcolonial Malaysia can be better understood if we translated its title's Chinese term liusu as floating customs, instead of vulgar and worldly, for example. Translating liusu as floating customs reveals the constant negotiation between state and minority viewpoints in the institutional and grassroots practices of popular Daoism and Hinduism, and their evolving sociological, legal character as outsourced spaces for democratic imagination. This also makes Li's novel an argument about Malaysian literature and religion as an intertwined formation.

Yin-Yang Concept of Healing in Tan Twan Eng’s Trauma Fictions

Contemporary Malaysian literature not only provides a platform of lives, but also functions as an avenue for trauma expressions where writers utilize different narrative strategies to create characters with multiple identities. One of the prominent Chinese-Malaysian contemporary writers Tan Twan Eng deals with the traumatic impact brought by Japanese oppression to Malaya during the 1940s and he offers a traditional Chinese vision of understanding on healing of trauma. His writing offers a unique and compelling perspective on the complexities of identity, memory, and trauma, and has earned him a place as one of the most important contemporary writers from Malaysia. In his works, the Yin-Yang concept can also be applied to the healing of trauma, as it emphasizes the importance of finding balance and harmony between opposing forces in order to achieve wholeness and well-being. Deploying the Yin-Yang concept, he examines how the protagonists in The Gift of Rain (2007) and The Garden of Evening Mists (2012) deal with traumas of war and violence. This paper utilizes Lacapra’s “work through”, instead of merely attempting to ignore or repress the painful events, confronting them in a way that enables people to process and integrate them, Cathy Caruth’s trauma theory about timelessness, relatedness, repetition and intrusiveness and Chinese traditional concept of Yin-Yang to analyze the ways of healing traumas. The transition from traumatic memory to narrative memory, in fact is the balance of forgetfulness and remembrance, and balance of mental pain and peace. His application of the Yin-Yang principles provides a potent metaphor for the process of achieving harmony and balance in the face of traumas. His Yin-Yang concept of trauma healing places a strong emphasis on the significance of confronting the past in a way that allows for the integration and transformation of traumatic events while also acknowledging the wider social and cultural settings of trauma. The research may provide a new and harmonious perception to understand traumas.

First Record and Distribution Extension of Two Emperor Fishes, Lethrinus semicinctus and Lethrinus olivaceus to the East Coast of Peninsular Malaysia

This study reports the occurrence of two species of Lethrinus (family Lethrinidae) on the east coast of Peninsular Malaysia. The specimens were caught by commercial bottom trawlers operating in the southern part of the South China Sea and landed at several fish landing ports. Lethrinus semicinctusValenciennes, 1830 and Lethrinus olivaceus Valenciennes, 1830, previously known from Borneo, with the latter also occurring in the Straits of Malacca on the west coast of Peninsular Malaysia, are now documented as new records of geographic range in the northeastern coast of Peninsular Malaysia. These records add to published Malaysian literature with photographic records, locality details, collection numbers and preserved specimens. Diagnostic characters for both species are given, as well as detailed morphometric and meristic data.

Book review: Memory and Nation-Building: World War II in Malaysian Literature

Book review: Memory and Nation-Building: World War II in Malaysian Literature

Modernity and Spirituality in Malaysian Anglophone Poetry: An Interview with the late Ghulam-Sarwar Yousof

Malaysian literature in English epitomises the move to the new world and incorporates various national and international, social, political, and cultural subjects. Ghulam-Sarwar Yousof (1939-2022), an eminent Malaysian playwright and poet, voices the spiritual vacuum these changes bring within the modern man and draws the path towards relief, solace, and comfort in the soul’s journey back to the Creator. Ghulam-Sarwar’s poetry explores various social and cultural aspects, but no endeavour to date has been taken to discuss its spiritual dimensions. Given this background, this interview with Ghulam-Sarwar Yousof outlines his perspectives on the quest for spirituality and the modern man’s hunger and restlessness to find a meaning for existence as a way to connecting with the higher Being. Using the qualitative method of semi-structured interview that contains both structured and unstructured questions, the paper sheds light on the artistic abilities Yousof shows in blending themes of self, love, nature, and society. The paper attempts to critically appreciate the interweaving of modernity with spirituality in Ghulam-Sarwar’s poetry and demonstrates how it is clothed in simple language, coupled with a sublime content, and delineated with harmonious and rhythmic intensity of his mystical experiences. It seeks to situate his mystic poetry within the realm of modern Anglophone poetry.

Mohammad A. Quayum, ed. <i>Reading Malaysian Literature in English: Ethnicity, Gender, Diaspora, and Nationalism</i>

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Using Cooperative Reading Strategies for Learning and Comprehending Literature among Chinese Primary School Students

English, in Chinese primary schools, is learnt as the third language after Chinese and Bahasa Melayu. This makes English difficult to master since Malaysian Chinese school learners have limited time to practise the language. Incorporating Malaysian literature in English has been a part of our curriculum for a long period of time as it offers a more familiar, relatable setting and cultural elements while also promoting English proficiency to the students. Comprehension of English literature by Chinese primary school students requires great effort and practice by the children as it is not their native language. Therefore, language teachers are advised to introduce different types of reading strategies that are suitable to the students’ needs. Cooperative reading requires socialisation and communication which can push the students towards conversing with each other in English language which in the end improves their comprehension too. In case of short stories, students are able to read the material again and again and this helps in expanding their vocabulary, when an individual has a broad vocabulary, it becomes easier for them to explain and understand concepts better as there are more words available in their mind for description. Researching and exploring the use of reading cooperative strategies for learning and comprehending literature is important to teachers in order to improve students’ learning and understanding of literature.

BOOK REVIEW Mohammad A. Quayum (Ed.) Reading Malaysian Literature in English: Ethnicity, Gender, Diaspora, and Nationalism. Singapore: Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd, 2021.

BOOK REVIEW Mohammad A. Quayum (Ed.) Reading Malaysian Literature in English: Ethnicity, Gender, Diaspora, and Nationalism. Singapore: Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd, 2021.

A Tribute to Professor Jan Wisseman Christie (1947–2021)

A Tribute to Professor Jan Wisseman Christie (1947–2021)

Vandana Saxena, Memory and Nation-Building: World War II in Malaysian Literature

Vandana Saxena, Memory and Nation-Building: World War II in Malaysian Literature

Mohammad A. Quayum (Ed), Reading Malaysian Literature in English: Ethnicity, Gender, Diaspora, and Nationalism

Mohammad A. Quayum (Ed), Reading Malaysian Literature in English: Ethnicity, Gender, Diaspora, and Nationalism

HUMAN AND GHOST ATTACHMENT IN HANNA ALKAF’S THE GIRL AND THE GHOST

For centuries, authors of literary works have sought to bewitch and enchant readers with accounts of supernatural elements such as monsters, spirits and ghosts. Ghosts especially are often depicted as representations of evil and the polar opposite of mankind. In Hanna Alkaf’s The Girl and The Ghost (2020) the adolescent protagonist, Suraya, develops an unusual bond with a ghost, Pink. This is indeed refreshing, considering the human-ghost relationship in the local literary scene is often represented as antagonistic, opposing forces, resulting in ghosts being portrayed as evil, vengeful creatures set to taunt, haunt and wreck humans’ lives. Critical examination of the human-ghost bond in the local literary-critical practice is lacking. This research aims to fill this gap by examining the human-ghost bond in The Girl and The Ghost and how this bond contributes to the (human) protagonist’s personal development. In this paper, The Girl and The Ghost is read using John Bowlby’s theory of attachment due to its robust approach to understanding human beings' emotional bond, or attachment, with their attachment figures. We argue the human-ghost bond in The Girl and The Ghost sets the novel apart from other local ghost stories filled with wicked, destructive ghosts. The findings suggest other possibilities of attachment figures when the relationship between a mother and child grows apart. The unusual but enduring relationship between Suraya and Pink demonstrates that a child’s secure attachment need not be limited to motherly figures.
 Keywords: Malaysian literature in english, the girl and the ghost, hanna alkaf, ghost tales, attachment theory

A PRELIMINARY DISCUSSION ON MALAYSIAN CHINESE LITERATURE STUDIES IN CHINESE MAINLAND: TAKING LITERATURES IN CHINESE AS AN EXAMPLE

In the academic circle in the Chinese mainland, Malaysian Chinese literature studies closely connect China with the world as a part of World Chinese-language literature. However, due to the isolation of the Chinese mainland from Malaysia after the Second World War, the interruption of thirty-year communication directly or indirectly led to some problems within academic circles in the Chinese mainland about studying Malaysian Chinese literature. Taking the journal of Literatures in Chinese as an example, this paper attempts to explore the focus and its underlying causes of the academic study on Malaysian Chinese literature in the Chinese mainland through data statistics and comparison. The following results were obtained: the low attention paid to the Malaysian Chinese literature studies, fewer relevant research journals with limited and single content, regionally weakened distribution of journals and authors from South to North and from East to West, and lacking experience and originality in the part of author teams.

TRANSCENDING TIME AND SPACE: TRAUMA NARRATION IN THE HARMONY SILK FACTORY

Tash Aw is the first renowned Malaysian writer who has brought Malaysian literature to the platform of the world. This paper uses the text, The Harmony Silk Factory(2005), by Tash Aw to investigate the relationships between traumatic memory and temporal-spatial narratives. The text utilises three narrators to tell the story of central silent character Johnny Lim, intermixing with their personal memories. We hypothesises that traumatic memories are correspondent to or characterised with special time and space arrangement of narratives. The article also frames its arguments according to the ideas proposed by Michael Toolan and Cathy Caruth, Toolan’s viewpoints about time and space in discourse and story; Caruth’s views on features of trauma. The frame of argument presupposed that circular temporal-spatial narratives have more similarities to traumatic memories than previously assumed. By analysing Jasper’s and Peter’s telling of Johnny’s experiences, the study strives to deepen the idea of chronotope arrangement being conducive to expression of traumas. The study concludes that traumas determine special arrangement of narratives, especially in the dimension of time and space, in turn, temporal-spatial narratives are to express traumas’ characteristics and even achieve some universal theme in literary works. The implication of the study allows us to view traumatic texts more objectively and deeply.

Thinking, Feeling, Reading: On Methodologies in Scholarship on Malaysian Literature in English

This essay is aboutthe production of scholarship on Malaysian literature in English. On the premise that existing readings of Malaysian texts arelargely based on the methodology of critique, it proposes that the emerging model of reading known as postcritique has the potential to contribute to the further diversification of scholarship on said literature. To illustrateits potential,postcritiqueis put to work on Lee Kok Liang’s classic novel, Flowers in the Sky, leading to the argumentthat negative aesthetics is the hitherto unacknowledged strength of the text and that coming into knowledge of this value requires the reader tonot only think but also feel his way through the act of readingand meaning-making.

Malaysian Literature in English: A Critical Companion

Malaysian Literature in English: A Critical Companion