On 1 October 2025, the Albert Hirschman Centre on Democracy hosted the launch of the book Imagining Malaya. Peranakan Cosmopolitanism, Nationalism, and Belonging at the End of Empire, 1945–1957, within its programme for the Geneva Democracy Week. Authored by historian Bernard Z. Keo, the book reexamines the role of the Peranakan Chinese in shaping mid twentieth century ideas of an inclusive Malayan nation. Drawing on wide archival research across several countries, Keo traced the movement’s civic vision, its engagement with British imperial institutions, and the often overlooked Penang secession effort of 1948. He reflected on how community mobility, legal strategies, and everyday politics challenged standard national stories.
Rachel Leow of the University of Cambridge served as discussant. She praised the book’s intervention, then pressed two lines of inquiry. She asked how deeper integration of Chinese intellectual and political networks might refine the narrative, and how deportations during the Malayan Emergency shaped both secession and citizenship debates.
Keo acknowledged these tensions, noted the limits and choices made in the study, and situated the book as an invitation to further research.
The event was co-hosted with the Department of International History and Politics and was livestreamed.