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A bit of earth
Malaya. A land of unparalleled richness. For centuries, the peninsula has attracted fortune hunters, money-grabbing pirates and migrants seeking a better life. Among those whose lives are rooted in the Malayan soil are three families - the Wongs, sons of the Chinese earth; the Wees, subjects of the English gods; the Mahmuds, scions of the Malayan soil - each with different dreams for the bit of earth they live on. Their destinies meet and this clash of hopes inevitably leads to tragedy.
In A Bit Of Earth, Suchen Christine Lim deftly weaves historical fact and a fiery imagination in a visually powerful multicultural story that spans three generations and four decades - proving once again that she's one of Asia’s leading fiction writers.
In A Bit Of Earth, Suchen Christine Lim deftly weaves historical fact and a fiery imagination in a visually powerful multicultural story that spans three generations and four decades - proving once again that she's one of Asia’s leading fiction writers.
423 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2001
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About the author
Suchen Christine Lim
22 books33 followersBorn in Malaysia in 1948, grew up on both sides of the causeway that separates Malaysia from Singapore. Came to Singapore at age 14, studied in the Convent of the Holy Infant Jesus schools, and the National University of Singapore. Taught in a junior college and worked as a curriculum specialist in the Ministry of Education. Resigned in 2003 to write full time.
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
September 6, 2013
Set in a crucial period of the recent history of peninsular Malaysia, this novel follows the life of a teenage Chinese immigrant, Wong Tuck Heng, who escapes a death sentence in China to work in the brutal tin mines of Perak. Through luck and hard work, like all fictional heroes, Tuck Heng becomes a wealthy and powerful man in the land of his exile.
The life story of Tuck Heng coincides with the rise of ethnic Chinese economic power in Malaysia, a subject of tension that continues to affect the country today. We come to understand his network of relationships with Malay chiefs such as Datuk Long Mahmud, the volatile Chinese secret societies, the long-established Straits Chinese such as Baba Wee, an Indian Muslim trader known as Musa Talib, and, of course, the British who hold power in the strategic ports and control the tin mines. The plot pivots on the 1875 assassination of James Birch, the first British Resident in Perak. Throughout, Tuck Heng must negotiate a perilous course through changing alliances based on language, culture, trade and loyalty.
Lim's ability to breathe life into her characters' motivations makes this story much more engrossing than many historical novels I have read. Tuck Heng, while neither lovable nor altogether admirable, always seems human and believable. No one functions as a cardboard cutout inserted into the story simply to move it forward to the next event, and so I became caught up in the flow of Tuck Heng's life, always interested to see what would happen next.
The life story of Tuck Heng coincides with the rise of ethnic Chinese economic power in Malaysia, a subject of tension that continues to affect the country today. We come to understand his network of relationships with Malay chiefs such as Datuk Long Mahmud, the volatile Chinese secret societies, the long-established Straits Chinese such as Baba Wee, an Indian Muslim trader known as Musa Talib, and, of course, the British who hold power in the strategic ports and control the tin mines. The plot pivots on the 1875 assassination of James Birch, the first British Resident in Perak. Throughout, Tuck Heng must negotiate a perilous course through changing alliances based on language, culture, trade and loyalty.
Lim's ability to breathe life into her characters' motivations makes this story much more engrossing than many historical novels I have read. Tuck Heng, while neither lovable nor altogether admirable, always seems human and believable. No one functions as a cardboard cutout inserted into the story simply to move it forward to the next event, and so I became caught up in the flow of Tuck Heng's life, always interested to see what would happen next.
January 12, 2012
3.75
Enjoyable historical fact based novel set in a fictional valley in Malaysia. About 3 families, the immigrant Wongs, the Wees and the native Mahmuds and their struggles first with each other, and then with the Western influence, over a period of 40 years.
I picked this up in a book shop whilst on holiday in Malaysia and although its core is about the immigrant Chinese families it gave a great degree of insight to the history, culture and beliefs of a country I knew very little about. I just wish I'd found it before my holiday.
Enjoyable historical fact based novel set in a fictional valley in Malaysia. About 3 families, the immigrant Wongs, the Wees and the native Mahmuds and their struggles first with each other, and then with the Western influence, over a period of 40 years.
I picked this up in a book shop whilst on holiday in Malaysia and although its core is about the immigrant Chinese families it gave a great degree of insight to the history, culture and beliefs of a country I knew very little about. I just wish I'd found it before my holiday.
January 24, 2023
(Reflection) What an unforgettable Malayan saga! An epic novel by the Singaporean Suchen Christine Lim. A Bit of Earth covers the time period from 1874 to 1912. The tale is brutal, raw and so so heartbreaking, spanning three generations of a Malayan-Chinese family of Cantonese and Baba lineage. I felt many feelings reading this and it is totally unputdownable!
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The story revolves around our hero, Wong Tuck Heng, born in China. His father was an enlightened scholar who rebelled against the Manchu government, causing his whole family to be murdered. He escaped to Malaya and settled in a fictional Perakian mining town. His life was not easy, adapting to the rough life of a miner, trapped between the brutal war between the Hakka and the Cantonese. Murders, riots, rape and betrayal. Upon his arrival, he learnt that the Malay aristocrats ruled the land, deciding whom to favour. However, decades passed and he realized that the English gods were here to stay, taking over whatever that they could. His adoptive father, an old-school Cantonese tai-kor and clan leader chose to support his Malay Menteri against the British and paid a heavy price. Eventually, Tuck Heng understood that he had to balance his relationships with his clan which was loyal to China, and his Straits-born family who was loyal to the British and the British colonisers who were running the land (or its business), too.
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Suchen Christine Lim did an amazing job offering as many angles as possible pertaining those monumental years prior to the British takeover to the decline in Malay ruling power. She weaves the relationship of the characters successfully – by marriage, of course. And the hero’s dilemma between his past and present, China and Malaya, family and principle, anchors the story in a solid manner as Tuck Heng bore witness to a world that was completely changing. Money trumps friendships and survival trumps love. An unexpected yet rewarding ending, I must say. One that leaves me hopeful though bittersweet.
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I cannot remember where I bought the book. However, I highly recommend this! An imaginative and powerful tale of this place we call home. Ouish, must look for her other novels!
.
The story revolves around our hero, Wong Tuck Heng, born in China. His father was an enlightened scholar who rebelled against the Manchu government, causing his whole family to be murdered. He escaped to Malaya and settled in a fictional Perakian mining town. His life was not easy, adapting to the rough life of a miner, trapped between the brutal war between the Hakka and the Cantonese. Murders, riots, rape and betrayal. Upon his arrival, he learnt that the Malay aristocrats ruled the land, deciding whom to favour. However, decades passed and he realized that the English gods were here to stay, taking over whatever that they could. His adoptive father, an old-school Cantonese tai-kor and clan leader chose to support his Malay Menteri against the British and paid a heavy price. Eventually, Tuck Heng understood that he had to balance his relationships with his clan which was loyal to China, and his Straits-born family who was loyal to the British and the British colonisers who were running the land (or its business), too.
.
Suchen Christine Lim did an amazing job offering as many angles as possible pertaining those monumental years prior to the British takeover to the decline in Malay ruling power. She weaves the relationship of the characters successfully – by marriage, of course. And the hero’s dilemma between his past and present, China and Malaya, family and principle, anchors the story in a solid manner as Tuck Heng bore witness to a world that was completely changing. Money trumps friendships and survival trumps love. An unexpected yet rewarding ending, I must say. One that leaves me hopeful though bittersweet.
.
I cannot remember where I bought the book. However, I highly recommend this! An imaginative and powerful tale of this place we call home. Ouish, must look for her other novels!
June 16, 2021
Almost gave up on this one about a quarter of the way in, as I found the drama among the coolie characters a little over the top. Clan wars and superstitious rituals conducted in the tin fields of 1800s Malaya just did not pique my interest. But glad I decided to pick this up again as the story got progressively more engaging from the second of the four part novel.
The book followed a handful of characters from 1870s to 1912, a period that marked the gradual but inexorable dominance of Britain over Malaya starting with the Pangkor Treaty at the end of Part 1. The stark and clashing differences between the local Straits born Chinese family and the China born immigrants forms the basis for this expertly written historical fiction. The role of the Malays, in particular the ruling noble class, was also portrayed but in lesser depth. This was a rags to riches story centered around a Chinese boy who made his way up the social strata and the trials and tribulations along the way.
As a side note, it is interesting that the British government continued to deport 'problematic' Chinese back to China as a punishment during the Emergency in the 1950s- an overtly racist policy. This is despite generations of Chinese having been born and lived in Malaya for centuries.
The book followed a handful of characters from 1870s to 1912, a period that marked the gradual but inexorable dominance of Britain over Malaya starting with the Pangkor Treaty at the end of Part 1. The stark and clashing differences between the local Straits born Chinese family and the China born immigrants forms the basis for this expertly written historical fiction. The role of the Malays, in particular the ruling noble class, was also portrayed but in lesser depth. This was a rags to riches story centered around a Chinese boy who made his way up the social strata and the trials and tribulations along the way.
As a side note, it is interesting that the British government continued to deport 'problematic' Chinese back to China as a punishment during the Emergency in the 1950s- an overtly racist policy. This is despite generations of Chinese having been born and lived in Malaya for centuries.
December 4, 2019
I love this book - it's set in (now) Malaysia, and talks about the Straits Chinese.
Tuck Heng flees to Malaya following his family being killed under the Emperor's decree. He starts work as a coolie and is adopted into the Wee family, who are the Straits-born Chinese. We see the early distinction between the China-born Chinese and their relationship with the Malayan melting pot: Musa Talib, a descendant of Indian migrants (from Kedah, but long settleed here); the Datuk Long Mahmud and his son Ibrahim, indigenous Malay nobility; Tai-kor Wong, the head of the White Crane (Cantonese migrants); the Wee family (Straits-born Chinese), and the growing intrusion of the British. We don't touch on the British, but I love how the complicated sentiments towards the British are brought out and encapsulated so deftly - without facing issues of pacing.
I loved the repeated metaphor of the Earth - how Musa Talib views the land that he has as part of him; Ibrahim sees it (as belonging to Malays); and the Buddhist monk's idea of immigration: that we enter the land and sprout roots.
I loved the way the Straits-born Chinese set themselves apart from the China-born Chinese (Ong Boon Leong makes a speech about it). I liked the classism implicit in the novel: that people who lose status fight for its return (see Ibrahim); that people who have it fight to preserve it (Choon Neo, Tuck Heng's Straits-born wife); and that people who gain status are self-conscious of it (Tuck Heng, who went from coolie to towkay). We see the idealism of youth.
We start this book with Tuck Heng raging against his father's protest against the Emperor and wondering what purpose the protest was for. We end it with that question resolved:
I also loved this:
Tuck Heng flees to Malaya following his family being killed under the Emperor's decree. He starts work as a coolie and is adopted into the Wee family, who are the Straits-born Chinese. We see the early distinction between the China-born Chinese and their relationship with the Malayan melting pot: Musa Talib, a descendant of Indian migrants (from Kedah, but long settleed here); the Datuk Long Mahmud and his son Ibrahim, indigenous Malay nobility; Tai-kor Wong, the head of the White Crane (Cantonese migrants); the Wee family (Straits-born Chinese), and the growing intrusion of the British. We don't touch on the British, but I love how the complicated sentiments towards the British are brought out and encapsulated so deftly - without facing issues of pacing.
I loved the repeated metaphor of the Earth - how Musa Talib views the land that he has as part of him; Ibrahim sees it (as belonging to Malays); and the Buddhist monk's idea of immigration: that we enter the land and sprout roots.
I loved the way the Straits-born Chinese set themselves apart from the China-born Chinese (Ong Boon Leong makes a speech about it). I liked the classism implicit in the novel: that people who lose status fight for its return (see Ibrahim); that people who have it fight to preserve it (Choon Neo, Tuck Heng's Straits-born wife); and that people who gain status are self-conscious of it (Tuck Heng, who went from coolie to towkay). We see the idealism of youth.
We start this book with Tuck Heng raging against his father's protest against the Emperor and wondering what purpose the protest was for. We end it with that question resolved:
I also loved this:
We guard and protect ourselves all the time against loss. Afraid of losing what we have. Yet when disaster strikes, we're defenceless. A disaster or a war comes, you lose everything too. Who can foretell such things?
July 3, 2025
Picked this book up from my mothers stack of books, and its a great read!. I thought a lot about how colonization's impact to less progressive countries were, and how it shaped its countris in the long run. The author wrote her characters so thorough, visceral in being grounded with his upbringing as an immigrant from china. Though it is fictional, it does teaches so much about Malay cultures and the diaspora of migrants across different countries in southeast Asia. Good read 3.5!!
May 12, 2018
Rousing historical novel. Enjoyable read, though strewn with little imperfections. Shades of The Good Earth, but not quite so moving.
March 21, 2022
3.5 stars
March 15, 2024
Interesting read but not good ending
May 12, 2021
I read this in 2016 and was blown away. The story a peasant feeling revolution in China, and flourishing in colonial Malaya is one piece of the jigsaw which becomes Malaysia. Wish Su Chen would write the rest of the pieces!
It’s a magnificent way to be introduced to history and launch pad into non-fiction accounts. I read it in one long sitting over two days and shared it friends who gave it five stars too!
It’s a magnificent way to be introduced to history and launch pad into non-fiction accounts. I read it in one long sitting over two days and shared it friends who gave it five stars too!
November 17, 2016
Unbelievable, after 400 pages U would think Tuck Heng's adventure would have a closure or sizzle down with age... As I closed the paper back with reluctance, I sighed with gratitude for my independent country, hard fought and no longer colonised.
December 31, 2016
Very glad to have started this book during my Malaysia road trip. Crossing perak, penang, passing the hills and seeing the old schools mentioned, made this book and the road trip all the more magical.
March 7, 2012
Immersive plot, but not very admirable characterisation-- characters wound up rather flat.
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews