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When is a war not a war? When the British Empire called it an 'emergency' so they didn't have to abide by wartime rules or lose their insurance payouts. Artist and researcher Sim Chi Yin reflects on the Malayan Emergency, a 12-year conflict that doesn't get talked about much now by either side; and historian Charlotte Lydia Riley considers the various reasons why the British opted for the term 'emergency', and why they don't celebrate even when they supposedly won them.
EXTRA MATERIALS:
Watch Chi Yin’s short documentary about searching for her grandfather, including interviews with her father and uncle.
Learn more background on the Malayan Emergency in this episode of the podcast Conflict of Interest with Phil Wang.
“British armed forces overseas were expected to conform – or at least be seen to conform – to basic standards of moral decency. This no doubt played into the Daily Worker editors’ decision to leak a photograph in which a white British soldier, rather than the Special Forces troops beside him, is implicated in an act of banal savagery, in direct contradiction with the popular image of the ‘civilised’ soldier-hero.”
“Before the mid-19th-century British interests in the region were predominantly economic, with little interest in territorial control. Already the most powerful coloniser in India, they were looking towards southeast Asia for new resources.”
The moment in Parliament in 1953 where the Emergencies in the British colonies are listed.
Present equivalent: “Putin just signed a law that said you’re going to get 15 years in jail for even discussing the war in Ukraine… You cannot even call it a war, you have to call it a special military operation.”
I first learned about the Malayan Emergency from Stephanie Foo’s book What My Bones Know, as featured in the CPTSD episode.
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✨ See the Allusionist live show in Toronto 11 December 2022 ✨
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✨ See the Allusionist live show in Toronto 11 December 2022 ✨ theallusionist.org/events
YOUR RANDOMLY SELECTED WORD FROM THE DICTIONARY:
prosopopoeia, noun: a figure of speech in which an abstract thing is personified or an imagined or absent person is represented as speaking.
CREDITS:
Sim Chi Yin is an artist whose work about the Malayan Emergency includes her book and exhibition One Day We’ll Understand. Follow her on Instagram @chiyin_sim for updates on where you can see her work.
Charlotte Lydia Riley is a historian and lecturer in 20th century British history at the University of Southampton.
This episode was produced by me, Helen Zaltzman. Thanks to Vera Chok, MiMi Aye and Tash Aw. The original Allusionist music is by Martin Austwick. Download his songs at palebirdmusic.com and listen to his podcasts Song By Song and Neutrino Watch.
Find the Allusionist at twitter.com/allusionistshow, facebook.com/allusionistshow, twitter.com/helenzaltzman and instagram.com/allusionistshow.
