Decolonization and the Nation in Malay Film,1955–1965

Abstract

This article uses films made between 1955 and 1965 in the Chinese-owned, Malay-dominated, Singapore-based film industry as texts to analyse the attitudes of Malay activists in the film industry towards merdeka, or independence, in Malaya. It is argued that these activists were rarely interested in the process of political decolonization in the nation-state. Instead, the films made during this period used traditional local texts to promote Malay attitudes towards modernity, individualism and ethnic pride. This era of film-making ended in the mid-1960s as many of their hopes surrounding the possibilities of this new era did not come to fruition.