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Taming Babel: Language in the Making of Malaysia
Taming Babel sheds new light on the role of language in the making of modern postcolonial Asian nations. Focusing on one of the most linguistically diverse territories in the British Empire, Rachel Leow explores the profound anxieties generated by a century of struggles to govern the polyglot subjects of British Malaya and postcolonial Malaysia. The book ranges across a series of key moments in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, in which British and Asian actors wrought quiet battles in the realm of in textbooks and language classrooms; in dictionaries, grammars and orthographies; in propaganda and psychological warfare; and in the very planning of language itself. Every attempt to tame Chinese and Malay languages resulted in failures of translation, competence, and governance, exposing both the deep fragility of a monoglot state in polyglot milieux, and the essential untameable nature of languages in motion.
280 pages, Hardcover
Published July 14, 2016
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About the author
Rachel Leow
3 books4 followersRachel Leow is a university lecturer in Modern East Asian History at the University of Cambridge. She received two full Ph.D. scholarships from the Bill and Melinda Gates Scholarship Foundation and from the Tunku Abdul Rahman Scholarship Fund at St Catharine's College, Cambridge. She was subsequently appointed as a Prize Fellow for the inaugural Prize Fellowships in Economics, Politics and History at Harvard University, Massachusetts.
Dr. Leow's research is broadly concerned with the social, cultural and intellectual links between China and Chinese communities in maritime Southeast Asia, especially Malaysia and Singapore; with British imperialism in Asia; and with histories of ideas beyond Europe. Her work strives to be sensitive to the complex transformations of ideas and identities in motion. Her earliest research sought to understand the mutations and idiosyncrasies of Chinese practices of female domestic servitude in their Southeast Asian contexts. She is the author of Taming Babel: Language in the making of Malaya, which addresses the construction and disciplining of Chineseness and Malayness across the colonial and postcolonial transition.
Dr. Leow's research is broadly concerned with the social, cultural and intellectual links between China and Chinese communities in maritime Southeast Asia, especially Malaysia and Singapore; with British imperialism in Asia; and with histories of ideas beyond Europe. Her work strives to be sensitive to the complex transformations of ideas and identities in motion. Her earliest research sought to understand the mutations and idiosyncrasies of Chinese practices of female domestic servitude in their Southeast Asian contexts. She is the author of Taming Babel: Language in the making of Malaya, which addresses the construction and disciplining of Chineseness and Malayness across the colonial and postcolonial transition.
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
May 9, 2023
Such cool discussions (and impressive historiography) into the taming and untaming of ethnolinguistics boundaries in Malaysia, and how this has influenced ideas of belonging within the national community.
Loved the narratives around rejecting passivity of colonised subjects, and the co-creation of these boundaries (i.e. the british sucked, but there were a whole lot of elite during the colonial and post colonial period that made it suck a whole lot more too).
Loved the narratives around rejecting passivity of colonised subjects, and the co-creation of these boundaries (i.e. the british sucked, but there were a whole lot of elite during the colonial and post colonial period that made it suck a whole lot more too).
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March 12, 2025Rachel Leow’s Taming Babel: Language in the Making of Malaysia traces the (attempts at) standardising languages in Malaysia stretching from the colonial era to the present moment. What emerges is a continuity in how this national language project is racially inflected in its insistent monolingualism, symptomatic of an entrenched ethnonationalist vision of Malaysia in the face of an adamant, always multicultural reality. Leow invokes the analogy of the Biblical Tower of Babel to be the origin of linguistic diversity, one that predates both the advent of colonialism and the genesis of the Malaysian state. By striving to crystallise a standardised national language or even struggling to master only a select few, linguistic diversity is then something to be reined in or tamed rather than embraced, let alone celebrated by colonial-national endeavours.
Under the British, language was a tool that they recognised to be instrumental but one which they wielded quite bluntly from an administrative standpoint. Ranging from responses uttered in a hybridised or localised Chinese to fruitless ponderings over where British cadets should be linguistically instructed, the inherent plurality of the languages Malayan society appears to constantly evade the imposed mechanisms of the standardising regimes especially in speech. Indeed, the dictionary form proves to be consistently significant throughout Malaysia’s history. Leow records how the dictionary evolves from likes of the Wilkinson and Winstedt’s (borne out of the practical necessities of colonial communications and control) to the Kamus Politik genre that apparently reflected the novel introduction of certain political and politicised terms into Malay, never prominent before the World War. It is with the Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka (DBP) that uniformity whose scale is inspired by the august Oxford Dictionary is sought but comes at the cost of linguistic features deemed non-standard and whose defenders are decried as being antagonistic towards the goals of the bangsa (whose semantic ambiguity problematically conflates “nation” with “race”). The earlier silencing of the Malay language; of doing away with au/oral elements is staged again through “problem” of bahasa pasar (bazaar) and its accompanying aversion to “pelat” (differing “accents”) along the lines of ethnicity.
A possible nitpick that could be raised is with Leow’s employment of the word “Malay” when specifically used in reference to the Malay language. The definition that she works with can seem to be a rather lose one, occasionally slipping in between different referents especially when invoked in proximity to “Indonesian.” A more etymological gloss of what is “Malay” could also be beneficial, aiding in clearer distinctions made when used as a prefix (Malayan, Malaysia). Surprisingly, the notion of bumiputera does not enjoy as much attention from her as one might expect because it is in the colonial segmentation of Malayan society and more specifically the special position accorded to the Malays that arguably embeds the seed which would then blossom further into full blown ketuanan Melayu (Malay supremacy), explaining the seemingly inextricable tie between language and ethnicity.
Under the British, language was a tool that they recognised to be instrumental but one which they wielded quite bluntly from an administrative standpoint. Ranging from responses uttered in a hybridised or localised Chinese to fruitless ponderings over where British cadets should be linguistically instructed, the inherent plurality of the languages Malayan society appears to constantly evade the imposed mechanisms of the standardising regimes especially in speech. Indeed, the dictionary form proves to be consistently significant throughout Malaysia’s history. Leow records how the dictionary evolves from likes of the Wilkinson and Winstedt’s (borne out of the practical necessities of colonial communications and control) to the Kamus Politik genre that apparently reflected the novel introduction of certain political and politicised terms into Malay, never prominent before the World War. It is with the Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka (DBP) that uniformity whose scale is inspired by the august Oxford Dictionary is sought but comes at the cost of linguistic features deemed non-standard and whose defenders are decried as being antagonistic towards the goals of the bangsa (whose semantic ambiguity problematically conflates “nation” with “race”). The earlier silencing of the Malay language; of doing away with au/oral elements is staged again through “problem” of bahasa pasar (bazaar) and its accompanying aversion to “pelat” (differing “accents”) along the lines of ethnicity.
A possible nitpick that could be raised is with Leow’s employment of the word “Malay” when specifically used in reference to the Malay language. The definition that she works with can seem to be a rather lose one, occasionally slipping in between different referents especially when invoked in proximity to “Indonesian.” A more etymological gloss of what is “Malay” could also be beneficial, aiding in clearer distinctions made when used as a prefix (Malayan, Malaysia). Surprisingly, the notion of bumiputera does not enjoy as much attention from her as one might expect because it is in the colonial segmentation of Malayan society and more specifically the special position accorded to the Malays that arguably embeds the seed which would then blossom further into full blown ketuanan Melayu (Malay supremacy), explaining the seemingly inextricable tie between language and ethnicity.
May 25, 2018
This book won Association for Asian Studies 2018 and it’s extremely #deserved. Richly and fascinatingly written, Leow explicates the taming of Malay Babel, a vastly multicultural and multilingual region, where a Baba from Penang could speak six languages. Of course for colonial or any types of governance, multilingual society is a threat to the Empire. Taming Babel critically elaborates how brittle this colonial system of the European Empire in the face of (supposedly) untamable monster called polyglot people and revolutionary lexicographers. Leow scrutinizes her account based on largely underdeveloped theme that is the role of dictionary in society; as the primary gate for a discourse to enter. Yet, Leow is not apologetic, she acknowledges the problems within the Malay aristocracy and elite educated Malayan/Peranakan who were helping the colonial governmentality. One highlight from this book that I really cherish is the depth of the influence of Japanese Imperialism in creating the countermovement space to utilize and politicize language. From this book, you will learn that language, its grammar & context, could be the double-edge sword for any powers trying to achieve their aims. Language is never an easy matter, the attempt to govern it sometimes affect longer and more widely than we realize.
October 15, 2024
The amount packed into this book is incredible… under the guise of a book about language Rachel manages to stuff a huge new revelation into every other page… she casually suggests the Baling talks failed because of translation and then moves on just like that. You could spend hours breaking down and discussing every paragraph…
June 19, 2023
A very fresh take on Southeast Asian history for a newcomer to the scholarship like me. Would love to read more about the struggle for multilingualism in the Malay world and inter-ethnic relationship.
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June 18, 2020Continuing w my tradition of not rating academic works, I’m not leaving a rating but this book was exciting to read and raised a lot of questions for me.
October 4, 2016
Overall, a good read. Rachel Leow writes very well and this book is an extremely entertaining read (I bet you can't say that for many academic titles).
Her book highlights how linguistic polices in Malaysia and to some extent in Singapore, aimed to tame the 'babel' - the multitude of languages used in Malaysia and Singapore and how they were to a certain extent shaped by colonialism. Leow does make the argument that the current state of linguistic policy in Malaysia (where Malay is the national and official language), was ultimately driven by the DBP (Malayan Language Bureau) desire to create a monocultural definition of what Malaya/Malaysia stood for. This of course would have ramification in today's Malaysia with the increasing ethnonationalism and rising Arabization (Islamization) where language is now used a weapon.
If there were any criticism of this book, it would be in chapter 5 where she talks about the negative connotation the phrase "Malaya for Malayans" came about. I was confused about the timeline because she jumped from the 1930s to the 1950s in that chapter. I might be wrong, but the Malaya for Malayans term came from Dato Tan Cheng Lock it would have aided the readers if more words could have been spent on explaining in greater detail how it became such a negative connotation from the 1930s till the 1960s.
Overall, it was still a good read and it highlight how it is often impossible to tame the babel in a place where you have people from different cultures and ethnicity coming together.
Her book highlights how linguistic polices in Malaysia and to some extent in Singapore, aimed to tame the 'babel' - the multitude of languages used in Malaysia and Singapore and how they were to a certain extent shaped by colonialism. Leow does make the argument that the current state of linguistic policy in Malaysia (where Malay is the national and official language), was ultimately driven by the DBP (Malayan Language Bureau) desire to create a monocultural definition of what Malaya/Malaysia stood for. This of course would have ramification in today's Malaysia with the increasing ethnonationalism and rising Arabization (Islamization) where language is now used a weapon.
If there were any criticism of this book, it would be in chapter 5 where she talks about the negative connotation the phrase "Malaya for Malayans" came about. I was confused about the timeline because she jumped from the 1930s to the 1950s in that chapter. I might be wrong, but the Malaya for Malayans term came from Dato Tan Cheng Lock it would have aided the readers if more words could have been spent on explaining in greater detail how it became such a negative connotation from the 1930s till the 1960s.
Overall, it was still a good read and it highlight how it is often impossible to tame the babel in a place where you have people from different cultures and ethnicity coming together.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews