Facing challenges in an increasingly colonial world, Chye Hoon, a rebellious young girl, must learn to embrace her mixed Malayan-Chinese identity as a Nyonya-- and her destiny as a cook, rather than following her first dream of attending school like her brother. Chye Hoon begins to appreciate the richness of her traditions, eventually marrying Wong Peng Choon, a Chinese man. Together, they have ten children. But by the 1930s the cultural shift towards the West has begun, and Chye Hoon is in danger of losing the heritage she so prizes as her children move more and more into the modern Western world.

Malaysia is one of the most intriguing countries in Asia in many respects. It consists of several distinct areas, not only geographically but ethnically as well; along with Malays and related groups, the country has a very large Indian and Chinese population. The spoken languages obviously vary at home, although Bahasa Malaysia is the official language and nearly everyone speaks English. There is also a mixture of religions, with Islam predominating among the Malays and others, Hinduism and Sikhism among the Indians, mainly Daoism and Confucianism among the Chinese, but also some Christians as well as older indigenous beliefs in certain places. This second edition of Historical Dictionary of Malaysia contains a chronology, an introduction, appendixes, and an extensive bibliography. The dictionary section has over 500 cross-referenced entries on important personalities, politics, economy, foreign relations, religion, and culture. This book is an excellent resource for students, researchers, and anyone wanting to know more about Malaysia.

Dynamic, opinionated, gritty, and charismatic, Chimate Chumbalo successfully navigated male-dominated factional politics, experimenting with different strategies to create for her people the society that she wanted for herself.

The author alternates chapters on growing up as a Mennonite in Pennsylvania with experiences she and her husband had as teachers in the Congo.

In Japanese-occupied Malaya, lives are shattered and a woman discovers her inner strength in a world ravaged by war. Following the death of their matriarch, the lives of Chye Hoon's family are turned upside down. Now that the British have fled and the Japanese have conquered, their once-benign world changes overnight. Amid the turmoil, Chye Hoon's daughter-in-law, Mei Foong, must fend for her family as her husband, Weng Yu, becomes increasingly embittered. Challenged in ways she never could have imagined and forced into hiding, Mei Foong finds a deep reservoir of resilience she did not know she had and soon draws the attentions of another man. Is Mei Foong's resolve enough to save herself, her marriage, and her family? Only when peace returns to Malaya will she learn the full price she must pay for survival.

Omer held out his hand, she glanced at him coldly. He withdrew it and let her feel what she had to feel. “I was sure”, she snapped. “I was more than sure! What mother beats her child the way she beat me, what mother locks her child in the closet so that the father does not see her broken head, what mother humiliates her child all the time, despises him, makes him look like that child never trusts himself again? Hmm? ” “Beatings, humiliations, contempt, violence? Why?” And she threw everything off the table. “And then forcibly married? Hmm … then, I ran.” “So … and what do you want now?” she shouted at them. “What you want? For me to forgive you? No fucking way.” “We’re your family”, Tuncay said. Anne couldn’t speak, she was just crying. Omer bowed his head and wiped away his tears. “Did you know that?” she shouted at Dana. She nodded in agreement. “Since when?” “For two days.” “Aha! But you”, and looked at Omer. “Ahh, there’s no point in asking you, you surly knew. Is that how you love me ?! Okay, and what do you want, say it?” “To be close to each other,” Tuncay said. Omer looked at him and read the despair in his eyes … “Be close to me? Hmm … But when I suffered, when I was a child or when I fell and cried, or when I almost died from my husband’s beatings, where were you? Or when I was alone, running away, without money for a loaf of bread, where were you? Or when I was going to die of heartache, where were you? Where were you? Where? ” she shouted. “You haven’t been there for 30 years, now, why? No, thanks!” She got up, jumped over the bench, and headed for the orchard. Meyra jumped up from her chair and ran toward her. She turned with wet cheeks and shouted at her: “Sakim, sakim (don’t you dare)!” Omer couldn’t clench his fists, he felt himself burning inside. Allah, what she had been through and did not know if she would ever recover. If he had been in her place, he would have been dead a long time ago.