Scorpion Orchid

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Scorpion Orchid is a novel by Malaysian author Lloyd Fernando, first published by Heinemann Educational Books (Asia) in 1976 under the Writing in Asia Series. The novel is set in Singapore in the 1950s. [1] It was re-published by Epigram Books in September 2011 under the Singapore Classics Series. [2]

Novel narrative text, normally of a substantial length and in the form of prose describing a fictional and sequential story

A novel is a relatively long work of narrative fiction, normally written in prose form, and which is typically published as a book.

Malaysia Federal constitutional monarchy in Southeast Asia

Malaysia is a country in Southeast Asia. The federal constitutional monarchy consists of 13 states and three federal territories, separated by the South China Sea into two similarly sized regions, Peninsular Malaysia and East Malaysia. Peninsular Malaysia shares a land and maritime border with Thailand in the north and maritime borders with Singapore in the south, Vietnam in the northeast, and Indonesia in the west. East Malaysia shares land and maritime borders with Brunei and Indonesia and a maritime border with the Philippines and Vietnam. Kuala Lumpur is the national capital and largest city while Putrajaya is the seat of federal government. With a population of over 30 million, Malaysia is the world's 44th most populous country. The southernmost point of continental Eurasia, Tanjung Piai, is in Malaysia. In the tropics, Malaysia is one of 17 megadiverse countries, with large numbers of endemic species.

Lloyd Fernando was a Malaysian author and professor at the University of Malaya in the English Department.

Contents

Plot summary

The plot entwines four young men of differing ethnic make-up: Santinathan is a Tamil, Guan Kheng a Chinese, Sabran a Malay and Peter D'Almeida a Eurasian. The four of them were former schoolmates and now attends the Singapore university, all in their third year. The story follows them as they become embroiled with the racial riots in Singapore during the 1950s. A distinctive feature of Scorpion Orchid lies in fourteen italicized passages of varying length, drawn from traditional Malayan texts and interwoven into the narrative.

Chinese people ethnic group

Chinese people are the various individuals or ethnic groups associated with China, usually through ancestry, ethnicity, nationality, citizenship or other affiliation. Han Chinese, the largest ethnic group in China, at about 92% of the population, are often referred to as "Chinese" or "ethnic Chinese" in English, however there are dozens of other related and unrelated ethnic groups in China.

Themes

Scorpion Orchid highlights the racial conflicts in Singapore which was cause for its lack of attention upon release. In a political sense, the novel can be read as a critique on state propagated multicultural pluralism reflected in the differences on race and culture that eventually separated four main characters. Akin to this is the exploration of identity that each of the young men challenge through, facing questions on their ethnicity and its place on their lives. [3]

Being a text charged with meaning, the use of English to narrate Scorpion Orchid is used to highlight the fallacy of its neutrality amongst the historical colonial conflict within the storyline. As a foreign language, its use allowed Fernando to put together and later complicate the relationships of his "in-between culture" [4] characters. [5]

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References

  1. ↑ Chiu, M. Y. "Imagining a Nation: Lloyd Fernando's Scorpion Orchid and National Identity" in New Zealand Journal of Asian Studies 5, 2 (December, 2003): p. 48
  2. ↑ "Scorpion Orchid". Epigram Books. Retrieved 22 May 2016.
  3. ↑ Patterson, Christopher B. (2018). Transitive Cultures: Anglophone Literature of the Transpacific. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press. p. 31-58.
  4. ↑ Fernando, Lloyd (1986). Cultures in conflict: Essays on Literature & the English Language in South East Asia. Graham Brash. p. 13-14.
  5. ↑ Patterson, Christopher B. (2018). Transitive Cultures: Anglophone Literature of the Transpacific. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press. p. 31-58.
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