1st Edition

The Chinese in Brunei

Edited By Ooi Keat Gin Copyright 2026
340 Pages 28 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

340 Pages 28 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

This book presents diverse perspectives on issues faced by the Chinese minority in predominantly Malay Muslim Brunei, drawing together cutting-edge research from early career, Brunei Chinese academics themselves to present a truly groundbreaking volume. As a result of strict immigration rules and citizenship requirements following Brunei’s independence in 1984, the population of ethnically... Read more

Introduction

 

Chapter One – The Chinese in Brunei: From Ong Sum Ping to Hua Ho Department Store

Ooi Keat Gin

 

Chapter Two – The Eclectic World of Beliefs of the Chinese in Brunei

Ooi Keat Gin

 

Chapter Three – Evolution of Chinese Cultural Traditions and Socioeconomic Goals in Brunei: A Generational Perspective

Shirley Chin Wei Lee

 

Chapter Four – The Emerging Influence of Mandarin: The catalyst for the critically endangered state of Chinese dialects in Brunei?

Debbie G. E. HO

 

Chapter Five – Cultural Transmission through Language Teaching: Chinese Education in Brunei Darussalam

Hannah M. Y. Ho and Chang Yau Hoon

 

Chapter Six – Stories from the Chinese Community in Brunei Darussalam (2023): A Production of an Oral History Text as Narrative Genre for Articulating Lived Experiences

Hannah M. Y. Ho

 

Chapter Seven – Chinese image in traditional Bruneian literary texts: AMPUAN HAJI BRAHIM

bin Ampuan Haji Tengah

 

Chapter Eight – Topographical Writing by Bruneian Chinese Writers

Florence Kuek

 

Chapter Nine – Hierarchies of Identity and Non-Belonging: The Unimagined Community in K. H. Lim’s Written in Black

Grace V.S. Chin

Chapter Ten – Rethinking Subjectivity in Anglophone Chinese Bruneian Poetry

Hannah M. Y. HO

Biography

Ooi Keat Gin is Professor of the Modern History of Brunei/Borneo at the Academy of Brunei Studies, Universiti Brunei Darussalam, Brunei, and Visiting Professor of the Korean Institute of ASEAN Studies, Busan University of Foreign Studies, Busan, South Korea. A Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, London, his recent book-length works include Routledge Handbook of Contemporary Brunei (2023, co-edited with Victor T. King), Literature of Brunei: History, Culture, and Challenges (2025, co-edited with Kathrina Mohd Daud, Routledge), Women’s Agency and the State in Contemporary Brunei (2025, co-edited with Norainie Ahmad, Routledge), The Handbook of Southeast Asian Studies: Pioneers and Critical Thinkers. Parts I and II (2024, co-authored with Victor T. King, Springer), Bao Ninh’s Contribution to Vietnamese and World Literature: The Sorrow of War and His Short Stories (2025, co-authored with Cao Kim Lan, Routledge), Brunei and the British in the Nineteenth Century: Of a Seer-Poet, an Adventurer, and the Near Extinction of an Ancient Malay Sultanate (2026, author, Routledge).