From Borneo, Tammie and I flew to Singapore, the setting for JG Farrell's The Singapore Grip and a city which, according to Farrell, was "simply invented one morning early in the nineteenth century by a man looking at a map". Thanks to the kindness of a friend of Tammie's, we stayed where most of the action of the novel takes place, in one of "the gentler parts of the city", "the elegant European suburb of Tanglin". Like the Blacketts living in Singapore in the early 1940s, I was loving the "peaceful and leisurely life" there, particularly the "luxuriously refrigerated air". I was continually struck by the fact that, though I knew I was far from home, there were so many familiar elements in Singapore (although, in this city where everything seems to work as it should, there is less of the rage that afflicts so many Londoners).
Tammie flew home, and I headed for Melacca, a colonial shipping town on the Malaysian peninsula. One of the narrators of Tash Aw's The Harmony Silk Factory visits for a day trip, and like him, I found the Stadhuys, the Dutch administrative buildings and main tourist attraction, oddly "shiny and... orange". In a bid to break up a very long bus journey, I detoured to Kuala Lumpur to visit the Batu caves, which could have been the caves described in the novel where "for over a century, Hindus have worshipped... at the shrines of Subramanium and Ganesh". The slight problem with my location theory is that the Japanese soldiers who ambush a group of Chinese communists at the caves in the novel would have had to climb the 272 steps to the entrance to do so, but I'm claiming some artistic license.
I met Charlotte in Penang, the only element of our week together that we'd managed to plan from London. A visit to Fort Cornwallis, the first British landing point on the island, gained an additional level of history when, the day after we visited, one of the characters in The Singapore Grip was forced to take cover from a Japanese air raid behind its "ruined walls and grassy banks". A visit to Cheong Fatt Tze's restored clan house with its meticulous symmetry and hidden symbols of good fortune brought alive the vast and elegant home of TK Soong, the father of the female narrator of The Harmony Silk Factory.
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Singapore and Malaysia are diverse countries, with Malay, Chinese, Indian and European communities. A stroll through Georgetown on Penang emphasized this: wandering through Chinatown's ramshackle streets of incense-burning altars and red lanterns, we suddenly found ourselves in Little India, complete with blaring Bollywood music and hostile glances from men selling saris. A few minutes later, we were amid the remnants of Victorian architecture from British rule at the coast. A key benefit of this mingling of cultures is the great food here. From Nonya tarts - crumbly pineapple Jammie Dodgers - to Cendol - a dessert which looks like a child has combined kidney beans, lurid green apple sweetie laces, gravy and ice, but is surprisingly tasty - we have eaten very well in this "land of honeyed aromas and silken textures".
Malaysia is a melting pot, but Farrell continually asks whether it is "one in which the ingredients [have] failed to melt". The Singapore Grip revolves around the Japanese invasion of 1941, and contains considerable debate on whether this society "whose only culture and reason for existence was [European] commercial self-interest... without traditions, without common beliefs or language" could possibly survive the onslaught. Walter Blackett, Chairman of a prosperous British merchant company, spends much of the novel distracted by preparations for his firm's jubilee parade. Wilfully ignorant of the fact the parade will never happen, he creates bizarre and grotesque floats celebrating the firm's social contribution, one of which is covered with human arms "painted variously dark brown, light brown, yellow and white... stretching out side by side to reach for prosperity above massive signboards reading... ALL IN IT TOGETHER." At this point, it's clear to everyone else that the only thing they're in together is serious trouble. The only time the disparate communities come together is when fighting fires in bombed buildings; because the men's "hands and faces [are] so blackened and blistered", it becomes "difficult to tell them apart". But this unity is short-lived, and most Europeans flee the island, leaving the majority of the 'natives' to fend for themselves.
The Harmony Silk Factory also circles around the Japanese invasion, but it is more concerned with describing the life of Johnny, a Chinese textiles merchant. Three narrators - Johnny's son, his wife and his English friend - attempt to give an insight into Johnny's actions and motivations, but none can see very far past their own viewpoint. Though he is the novel's main character, Johnny remains mysterious and inscrutable. The author might be creating a parallel with the distinct communities in Malaysia; although they're living through the same events, none are telling the same story.
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Obviously, Malaysia and Singapore have come a long way since 1941. But Farrell, writing in 1978, leaves his novel largely unresolved because, he claims, it doesn't matter what happens to his characters as so little has changed. Even after independence "some other, perhaps native, elite [has] merely replaced the British", and the hierarchy of communities remains. I've only been here for a month, and it would be fairly misguided to claim that I have a firm grasp on these countries' obviously complicated politics. I've also experienced nothing but kindness from the people here. There is, however, a sense that Malaysia in particular is still filled with conflicting interests. A national election is due, and the government's 'One Malaysia' campaign is being promoted everywhere (the song about unity sung by a diverse choir of teenagers playing on loop on a train was particularly special). But the country is still a contested space; the election keeps being postponed because of an emergency situation in the state of Sabah, where a Filipino clan have claimed ancient rights to the land and the military is attempting to apprehend them. If there really was a sense of 'One Malaysia', I wonder if the government would feel the need to labour the point so much.
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Aw, Tash, The Harmony Silk Factory (2005)
Farrell, JG, The Singapore Grip (1978)
