A Social History of the Chinese in Singapore and Malaya 1800-1911

In 19th-century Singapore and Malaya, much of the community's social life revolved around associations--neither secret or sinister as history has claimed--which offered the Chinese against alien administration and, in the case of minorities, against the dominant clans of the time. This book,
the first to unearth both past and present records kept by these associations and to interview their elders, reveals from the inside how the Chinese community was organized, how its members treated each other, and what problems they faced.