Debating ‘Chineseness’ and ‘national identity’ in the Sinophone Malaysian films The Journey (2014) and Ola Bola (2016)

Abstract

Adopting the theoretical framework employed in Sinophone studies, this article focuses on Sinophone Malaysian filmmaker Chiu Keng Guan, whose films mark the revival of commercial Sinitic language filmmaking in Malaysia. Through textual analysis of Chiu’s two films The Journey (2014) and Ola Bola (2016), this article examines how the narratives and languages used in these Sinophone Malaysian films portray the place-based culture and experience of the Sinophone communities and other ethnic groups in Malaysia. It also looks at how ‘Chineseness’ is employed by Chiu as a strategy to construct a collective identity and memory for Sinophone community members in order to connect them with their cultural roots as well as generate interest in the film, as demonstrated in the film The Journey. The example of the movie Ola Bola is used to assess how the filmmaker Chiu, who is Malaysian Chinese, questions the idea of ‘national identity’ by twisting the film plot, which was itself inspired by a real event.