The Hakka Experiment in Sabah - Review

A Customer's Review

The Hakka Experiment in Sabah:

Commemorative publication of the 90 Anniversary of the arrival of the Hakkas and the founding of the Inanam Menggatal Telipok towns

Edited by Zhang Delai

(Sabah Theological Seminary, 2007. ISBN: 9789834253516  )  

As usual, a mouthful of a title and certainly not persuasive to the potential buyer. Words like North Borneo, Chinese, Japanese are nowhere to be found. The editor is well known having penned a well researched but difficult to read book on the Chinese Hakkas of Sabah. The book is cheaply produced, hence the affordable price but that does not detract from its importance. For a start, it is bilingual which is useful for a Chinese audience. After all, it is a book on the Chinese. It has many historical black and white photographs, although some are rather grainy which will not please the likes of any photo historian. The book is a mixed bag of ephemera including newspaper reports, lectures, information on the early pioneers, the Basel Mission, Church and of course Chinese education. 

The book fails to highlight its most important chapter on the Kinabalu Guerillas, by Professor Danny Wong Tze Ken of the University of Malaya. The latter is a prolific writer, researcher  and has almost single handedly revamped the history of North Borneo or Sabah. The time honoured text on the Kinabalu Guerillas by Maxwell Hall after the war painted an establishment type account of the affair. In the present article, the local perspective including the role of the Basel Church is emphasized, in addition to newer references including some in Chinese. 

In summary, a small book certainly worth buying for North Borneo aficionados who might not be aware of the seminal review on the tragic Kinabalu Guerillas. Perhaps a more apt title might be, The West Coast Chinese Hakkas of North Borneo; 90 years of innovation with a new insight into the Kinabalu Guerillas and the Japanese Occupation.

PK.

This book is available at The Penang Bookshelf. Price RM60. More details here