8 - Epilogue

Summary

Structural, contextual, and contingent factors led to the improbable survival of the MCP in the interwar years. When the Japanese invaded Malaya, the MCP’s influence was strongest among the Chinese community. The experience of the Japanese occupation, first in China and then in Malaya, further shaped the territorial notion of Malaya for the MCP, and the Japanese atrocities against the Chinese population resulted in mass support for the party. The MCP’s Malayan nationalism connects with how another Chinese association, the Malayan Chinese Association, credited with the creation of coalition politics in Malaya, embraced the discourse of multiethnic Malayan nationalism after the war. The MCA also led the Malayan nation to liberation in 1957 through a political alliance of ethnic parties, which had first been envisioned by the MCP in 1930. The MCP and the MCA’s efforts ran along parallel tracks. These were the outcome of the Malayan multiethnic environment, British policies, and the localization of Chinese organizations. One cannot fully understand revolution and nationalism either in China or in Malaya except in conjunction with one another.