Betwixt & Between

This is British Malaya in the mid-1950s, where the British administration is preparing to hand power over to the local Malays, whilst guarding against communist terrorists, hatred and racial violence that threatened independence (Merdeka) and democracy for the colony. The Chinese and Indian immigrants, who live and work ‘betwixt and between’ the indigenous Malays, feel ‘betrayed’ because, after Merdeka, they will virtually become second class citizans.

Many have died fighting the Japanese during the war and the legacy continues to haunt them. Qin, son of a Chinese immigrant villager, and his friends, encounter many social conditions and glimpse personal histories of a range of characters in the village and the city of Kuala Lumpur where they study. Qin gets involved in their problems and is seduced by the wife of Supervisor Tan. The pregnancy that follows causes Qin to question the wife, Qui Ling, about the paternity of the child, with disastrous consequences…

Publisher: Gerakbudaya Enterprise

Paperback

2012

ISBN: 9789670311043