I'm writing this as my two-year-old watches Ponyo with a family friend; my reading and writing are punctuated by cartoon voices and loud splashing noises from the movie. Distracted, I'm not sure where to begin. My partner reminds me that "Malaysian" was considered a racial designation by Westerners for most peoples of Austronesian descent - including Micronesians. As late as the 1950s, many Pacific Islanders enlisted in the U.S. military were classified as "Malay." However, in 1826, French navigator Jules Dumont d'Urville had suggested the separate classifications of Malaysia, Micronesia and Melanesia in reference to the various geographical locations of south Pacific islands. These classifications were intended to distinguish these island groups from Polynesia, a term already in use.
In fact, the term "Malay," in contemporary anthropology, specifically refers to descendants of some of the oldest inhabitants of the Malaysian peninsula. Austronesian in ethnicity, this group lived on islands throughout southeast Asia, including Borneo and Sumatra. Multiple ocean migrations from these regions resulted in the populations of outlying Pacific islands. The earliest found evidence of modern human habitation of the Malaysian peninsula dates to about 40,000 years ago. Migrations began possibly as early as 2000 BCE; archaeologists using carbon dating have been able to establish this time frame for human presence on certain Pacific islands, such as Guam.
Settlers from India and China arrived on the Malay peninsula by the first century CE, establishing trading routes and bringing their own religion and culture with them. The kingdom of Langkasuka rose to power in northern Malaysia during the second century, lasting until the 15th century. Southern Malaysia was dominated by several powerful kingdoms during these years. By the 1400s, an independent Muslim state known as the Malacca Sultanate was founded by Iskandar Shah, and spread over most of the peninsula and to surrounding islands, including Sumatra. Malacca became important not only commercially, but as a center of Islamic learning. Development of the Malay language, arts and literature became the hallmark of the Malaccan era, issuing in a sense of Malaysian identity that is still influential today. Malaysia became a maritime power during this period, and Malacca's series of Sunni Muslim dynasties disseminated the religion throughout southeast Asia.
European colonization began for Malaysia with the fall of Malacca to Portugal in 1511. Despite resistance efforts headed by former Malaccan rulers, and fierce opposition from China, the Portuguese were not expelled from Malaysia until 130 years later. Allied with the Dutch, the sultanate of Johor, established by descendants of the Malaccan sultans, was instrumental in dislodging Portugal . However, authority over Malaysia was handed over to the Dutch. Malaysians did not regain independence from European colonial powers until 1946, and the road to autonomy has been slow, as it has been for many former European colonies in Asia and elsewhere.
My daughter watches as Ponyo's father, an eccentric scientist in love with the sea, reminds us that humans rarely have an understanding of the balance of nature. I'm reminded constantly, in studying the history of colonization, that Europeans rarely understood it either. Neither did they understand the cultures they encountered, typically seeking to either document them as curiosities and then to insistently alter them by adding their own religions and cultural heritages, often quite forcefully. Malaysia, as we know it now, is still recovering from a long history of colonialism. It's prior cultural and historical heritage is still intact, but few Americans are acquainted with it. I was struck by how little I know about a culture and place that had a great deal of bearing not just on the south Pacific, but - through the medium of history and genetics - a great deal of influence on people I know and love.
I'm thinking, why didn't I know any of this before? I could barely place Malaysia on a map.
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