¹ I use Charles Tilly's definition of identity: “an actor's experience of a category, tie, role, network, group or organization, coupled with a public representation of that experience.” See Tilly, Charles, ed., Citizenship, Identity, and Social History (Cambridge, 1996), 7Google Scholar.

² Rushdie, Salman, Imaginary Homelands (London, 1991), 17Google Scholar.

³ Colley, Linda, Britons: Forging the Nation, 1707–1837 (New Haven, CT, 2005), 5Google Scholar.

⁴ Hall, Catherine, Civilising Subjects: Metropole and Colony in the English Imagination, 1830–1867 (Oxford, 2002), 17–18, 426Google Scholar; some of this language is quoted from Cooper, Frederick and Stoler, Ann, eds., Tensions of Empire: Colonial Cultures in a Bourgeois World (Berkeley, 1997), 3–4, 7Google Scholar.

⁵ Dalrymple, William, White Mughals: Love and Betrayal in Eighteenth-Century India (London, 2002), 10Google Scholar.

⁶ Reid, J. W. R., “HB,” 22 November 1959, JWR Reid Papers, MSS Ind. Ocn s. 82 (2), Rhodes House, Oxford; John G. Butcher, The British in Malaya, 1880–1941: The Social History of a European Community in Colonial South-East Asia (Kuala Lumpur, 1979), 229–32Google Scholar.

⁷ A. J. Stockwell, “Clifford, Sir Hugh Charles (1866–1941),” Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (DNB).

⁸ Harper, Timothy Norman, “Empire, Diaspora, and the Language of Globalism, 1850–1914,” in Globalization in World History, ed. Anthony G. Hopkins (London, 2002), 142, 146, 152, 156Google Scholar.

⁹ Singam, S. Raja Durai, From Port Weld to Kuantan (Kuala Lumpur, 1939), and Malayan Place Names, 2nd ed. (Kuala Lumpur, 1962)Google Scholar.

¹⁰ Sahlins, Peter, Boundaries: The Making of France and Spain in the Pyrenees (Berkeley, 1989), 272–73Google Scholar.

¹¹ Bailey, Peter makes this distinction in “‘Will the Real Bill Banks Stand Up?’ Towards a Role Analysis of Mid-Victorian Working-Class Respectability,” Journal of Social History 12, no. 3 (Spring 1979): 338CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

¹² Fahrmeir, Andreas, Citizens and Aliens: Foreigners and the Law in Britain and the German States, 1789–1870 (New York, 2000), 43–47, 52Google Scholar; Paul, Kathleen, Whitewashing Britain (Ithaca, NY, 1997), 10–11Google Scholar; Jones, John Mervyn, British Nationality Law and Practice (Oxford, 1947)Google Scholar.

¹³ The Federated Malay States, comprising Perak, Selangor, Negri Sembilan, and Pahang under what was, in effect, British rule, was formed in 1896, and the remaining states of the peninsula (Johore, Kedah, Kelantan, Perlis, and Trengganu) came under British protection between 1909 and 1914.

¹⁴ Arthur Young, “Comments on the Status in China of British Subjects of Chinese Race,” 25 September 1912, The National Archives (TNA): Public Records Office (PRO), Colonial Office (CO) 273/383/33127; Laurence Guillemard, “Registration and Protection of British Subjects of Chinese Descent in China,” 9 August 1923, TNA: PRO, CO 717/28/45218. See also Dummett, Ann and Nicol, Andrew, Subjects, Citizens, Aliens and Others: Nationality and Immigration Law (London, 1990)Google Scholar.

¹⁵ The British Nationality Act of 1948 distinguished citizens of the United Kingdom and colonies, citizens of Commonwealth countries, British subjects without citizenship, and British protected persons, all of whom were “British nationals” in different ways. A separate British citizenship was not defined legally until the British Nationality Act of 1981, when the government acted to uncouple British citizenship from its imperial links and to narrow the group of British subjects who had the rights as citizens to enter and to live in the United Kingdom. See Karatani, Rieko, Defining British Citizenship: Empire, Commonwealth and Modern Britain (London, 2003), 1, 116Google Scholar.

¹⁶ Hare, G. T., “The Straits Chinese,” Straits Chinese Magazine 1, no. 1 (1897): 3Google Scholar; Song Ong Siang, “Are the Straits Chinese British Subjects?” Straits Chinese Magazine 3, no. 9 (1899): 61.

¹⁷ Siang, Song Ong, One Hundred Years’ History of the Chinese in Singapore (1923; repr., Singapore, 1984), 410Google Scholar.

¹⁸ Dennys, Nicholas Belfield, Descriptive Dictionary of British Malaya (London, 1894)Google Scholar.

¹⁹ Mandler, Peter, The English National Character: The History of an Idea from Edmund Burke to Tony Blair (New Haven, CT, 2006), 134–36Google Scholar.

²⁰ William Evans to Tilly Evans, 2 August 1893, Evans Correspondence, PP MS 11, School of Oriental and African Studies Archive, University of London.

²¹ Quoted in Siang, One Hundred Years’ History, 390–91. See also 503–6.

²² Hirschman, Charles, “The Meaning and Measurement of Ethnicity in Malaysia: An Analysis of Census Classifications,” Journal of Asian Studies 46, no. 2 (August 1987): 571Google Scholar. See also Drabble, John H., An Economic History of Malaysia, c. 1800–1990 (London, 2000), 90Google Scholar.

²³ Cushman, Jennifer W., Family and State: The Formation of a Sino-Thai Tin-Mining Dynasty, 1797–1932, ed. Reynolds, Craig J. (Singapore, 1990)Google Scholar; Ee, Khoo Joo, The Straits Chinese: A Cultural History (Amsterdam, 1996)Google Scholar.

²⁴ Marriott, Hayes, Report on the Census of the Colony of the Straits Settlements Taken on 10 March 1911 (Singapore, 1911)Google Scholar; Nathan, Julius Ernest, The Census of British Malaya, 1921 (London, 1922)Google Scholar. Compare the figures for the Straits Settlements and Federated Malay States with the 1850 and 1910 levels of urbanization for Europe as a whole—19 percent and 40 percent.

²⁵ Hicks, Ernest Cranfield, History of English Schools in Perak (Ipoh, 1958)Google Scholar; Cheeseman, H. R., “Education in Malaya, 1900–1941,” Malayan Historical Journal 11, no. 31 (1955): 30–47Google Scholar; Siong, Shih Toong, The Foochows of Sitiawan: A Historical Perspective (Sitiawan, 2004), 128–58Google Scholar; Roff, William R., The Origins of Malay Nationalism, 2nd ed. (Kuala Lumpur, 1994), 43–55Google Scholar. Literacy rates varied greatly among the towns, but about half of the Singapore population in 1921 claimed literacy in English or another language; about 12 percent of that city's male population claimed literacy in English at that date. Between one-third and one-half of the Chinese population in the larger towns of the Federated Malay States were counted as literate in 1921. See Nathan, Census of British Malaya, Tables XL, XLVII.

²⁶ Ernest W. Birch, “The Vernacular Press in the Straits,” Journal of the Straits Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society 4 (December 1879): 51–55.

²⁷ See Anderson, Benedict, Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism, rev. ed. (London, 1983)Google Scholar; and Weber, Eugen, Peasants into Frenchmen: The Modernization of Rural France, 1870–1914 (Stanford, CA, 1976)Google Scholar.

²⁸ Sim, Katherine, Malayan Landscape (Singapore, 1969), 28–29Google Scholar. Parit Buntar had around 2,400 residents in 1920.

²⁹ Roff, Origins of Malay Nationalism, 30–31, 94, 128–31, 143, 150; [Haji Abdul Majid bin Zainuddin], The Malays in Malaya: By One of Them (Singapore, 1928), 102–4. Bangsawan theater is a hybrid form of musical comedy with lyrics in Malay and librettos drawn from foreign literature, usually Shakespeare or the Arabian Nights. Quasida is a classic form of Arabic poetry, recited or sung.

³⁰ Zainuddin, Haji Abdul Majid bin, The Wandering Thoughts of a Dying Man: The Life and Times of Haji Abdul Majid bin Zainuddin, ed. Roff, William R. (Kuala Lumpur, 1978), viii–x, 69, 98, 146–47Google Scholar.

³¹ For biographical details, see Barlow, H. S., “Swettenham, Sir Frank Athelstane (1850–1946)”; and Stockwell, “Clifford, Sir Hugh Charles,” DNB. Hugh Clifford, In a Corner of Asia (New York, 1926), 7, and The Further Side of Silence (Garden City, NJ, 1920), vii–viiiGoogle Scholar.

³² Anderson, Imagined Communities.

³³ “The Coming Jubilee,” Straits Times, 27 May 1887; “Jubilee Sports, Taiping,” Straits Times, 8 June 1887; “Jubilee Celebration, Singapore,” Straits Times, 24 June 1887; “The Programme,” Straits Times, 30 June 1887.

³⁴ William Evans to Samuel Evans, 20 June 1887, box 2, PP MS 11, School of Oriental and African Studies Archive, University of London.

³⁵ “Jubilee addresses to Queen Victoria,” Journal of the Straits Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society 18 (1887): 366–71. I want to thank Mohd Taib bin Mohamed for his translation of the Jawi text.

³⁶ Wrapped in yellow silk, these scrolls survive in the National Archive at Kew, London. The translation of the Chinese text was appended to the scroll. See “Jubilee Addresses of Tradesmen in Perak to Queen Victoria,” 1887, TNA: PRO, PP 1/222.

³⁷ “The Diamond Jubilee Celebration,” Perak Pioneer, 26 June 1897; “The Diamond Jubilee in Selangor,” Perak Pioneer, 3 July 1897.

³⁸ “A Committee Meeting,” Perak Pioneer, 27 March 1897; A Struggling Subordinate, “The Diamond Jubilee,” Perak Pioneer, 31 March 1897; In the Hands of the Chetty, “The Diamond Jubilee,” Perak Pioneer, 3 April 1897; “The Diamond Jubilee,” Perak Pioneer, 2 June 1897.

³⁹ “The Diamond Jubilee Celebration,” Perak Pioneer, 26 June 1897; “The Diamond Jubilee Celebration,” Perak Pioneer, 30 June 1897; “The Diamond Jubilee in Kinta,” Perak Pioneer, 3 July 1897.

⁴⁰ In Penang, foreign consuls, Europeans and Eurasians, Muslims, the Chinese Town Hall, the Chinese Literary Association, the Chinese Club, Tamil Hindus, Chettiars, and Indians from the northwest province wrote such addresses. “The Jubilee Celebration,” Straits Observer, 25 June 1897.

⁴¹ “Presentation of Addresses at the Town Hall,” Singapore Free Press, 23 June 1897; “The Queen's Diamond Jubilee: Celebration in Penang,” Pinang Gazette, 22 June 1897; “The Diamond Jubilee Celebration,” Perak Pioneer, 26 June 1897.

⁴² “The Diamond Jubilee Celebration,” Perak Pioneer, 26 June 1897; “The Diamond Jubilee Week in the Straits and Malaya,” Straits Budget, 29 June 1897.

⁴³ Rajaratnam is a good example of a border-crossing British citizen. Born in Ceylon, he was brought to Perak as a child, where he attended local English-language schools. After graduating from a teacher-training college, he made his career teaching in English-language secondary schools in Perak. One of his major projects was the development of a public library in Ipoh, Perak, with the aid of the local Rotary Club. He was also a justice of the peace. See Hicks, History of English Schools in Perak, v–vi.

⁴⁴ Sangara Rajaratnam, “The Significance of the British Empire: Thoughts on Empire Day for School Children,” Pedagogue 1, no. 1 (1926): 27–30.

⁴⁵ “Lady Helen Song,” Straits Times, 24 July 1936; “Interested in Child Welfare,” Straits Times, 20 February 1936, women's supplement; “Lady Helen Song,” Straits Times Weekly Supplement, 23 January 1936.

⁴⁶ Loyalty [Rajaratnam, Sangara], Jubilee Anniversary Book (Ipoh, 1936), 88Google Scholar.

⁴⁷ ibid., 70, 74, 76–77.

⁴⁸ ibid., 38.

⁴⁹ Gopalan, P. V., The Coronation Souvenir of the Settlement of Malacca Undertaken with a View to Foster an Everlasting Inter-racial Harmony and Amity among the Heterogeneous Folks of This Ancient Historic Settlement (Kuala Lumpur, 1937), 166Google Scholar.

⁵⁰ Rajaratnam, Sangara, “The Teachers' Association of Perak,” Pedagogue 1, no. 1 (1926): 3–4, 10–12Google Scholar.

⁵¹ F. G. H. Parry, “Scouting in Perak,” Roda: Monthly Magazine of the Rotary Clubs of Malaya and Siam 5 (November 1935): 300–302.

⁵² Anderson, Imagined Communities.

⁵³ Gopalan, Coronation Souvenir of the Settlement of Malacca.

⁵⁴ A. E. H. Hanson, “Protection of Chinese subjects who have become British subjects (by birth or naturalization) especially ship owners,” 22 October 1877, TNA: PRO, CO 273/91/12692. See also Claude McDonald, “Imprisonment of a Chinese British subject at Swatow,” 2 November 1897, TNA: PRO, CO 273/232/27691. A Straits-born man from Singapore was murdered in Amoy in 1851 while in Chinese custody, despite attempts by the British consul to claim authority over him. Less serious disputes over legal protection and status continued through the 1860s and 1870s.

⁵⁵ Lo Yuen Lew et al., “Petition of the undersigned British subjects of Chinese descent resident in Shanghai,” 23 November 1868, TNA: PRO, CO 23/34/5509; Sir J. Pauncefote et al., “Papers respecting British protection to Anglo-Chinese in China,” 22 July 1899, TNA: PRO, CO 273/253/19245.

⁵⁶ Regulations issued in 1867 and recognized by the Chinese government entitled Anglo-Chinese—people who were (1) residents in Hong Kong or Kowloon when it was ceded to Britain and their children, (2) naturalized British subjects of Chinese origin and their children, (3) ethnic Chinese born in a British possession and their children, and (4) children born out of wedlock to British fathers and Chinese mothers—to different levels of British protection. Naturalized Chinese, the British-born children of Chinese subjects, although legally British, could not claim that status in China. Mixed-race children born out of wedlock were not entitled to the rights of British citizenship in China unless their parents subsequently married and they wore European dress.

⁵⁷ Siang, “Are the Straits Chinese British Subjects?” 61–66; Civis Britannicus, “The King and the Empire,” Straits Chinese Magazine 6, no. 23 (1902): 106–13.

⁵⁸ Siang, Song Ong, The Straits Chinese and a Local Patriotic League (Singapore, 1915)Google Scholar.

⁵⁹ McDonald, Claude, “Correspondence relating to the case of Khung Yiong,” 16 December 1897, TNA: PRO, CO 273/243/3395; see also “British Subjects of Chinese Descent,” Straits Chinese Magazine 1, no. 3 (1897): 156Google Scholar.

⁶⁰ Siang, “Are the Straits Chinese British Subjects?” 64 –65, and One Hundred Years’ History, 370, 549.

⁶¹ ibid., 489–90.

⁶² Guillemard, “Protection of British Subjects,” TNA: PRO, CO 717/28/45218.

⁶³ Claude McDonald, “Imprisonment of a Chinese British Subject,” 11 January 1898, TNA: PRO, CO 273/243/818.

⁶⁴ Butcher, British in Malaya, 97–101.

⁶⁵ Stockwell, A. J., “The White Man's Burden and Brown Humanity: Colonialism and Ethnicity in British Malaya,” Southeast Asian Journal of Social Science 10, no. 1 (1982): 44–68CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

⁶⁶ Mandler explores the many constructions of these two terms in his recent book, English National Character.

⁶⁷ Clifford, Hugh, Saleh: A Prince of Malaya (Edinburgh, 1926), 96Google Scholar.

⁶⁸ Clifford, Hugh, A Free Lance of Today (London, 1928), 160Google Scholar.

⁶⁹ SirWinstedt, Richard, Start from Alif, Count from One: An Autobiographical Memoir (Kuala Lumpur, 1969), 87, 112Google Scholar.

⁷⁰ Stocking, George W. Jr., Race, Culture, and Evolution (New York, 1968)Google Scholar.

⁷¹ De Grazia, Victoria, Irresistible Empire (Cambridge, MA, 2005), 26–27, 36Google Scholar; “The Six Objects,” Roda 3, no. 2 (1933): 3; F. Cooray, “The Rotary Movement in Malaya,” British Malaya 4 (1929–30): 214.

⁷² Butcher, British in Malaya, 188–90; Cooray, “The Rotary Movement,” 214–16.

⁷³ Rotary Club of Ipoh membership book, 1929–58. I want to thank the secretary of the Rotary Club of Ipoh for allowing me to see this private record of the club's early days. Because the European members tended to be more transient than Asian ones, at any given date, the European dominance was less than these figures imply.

⁷⁴ Mohamed Eusoff, Datoh Haji, “The Charm of Malay Life,” Roda 8 (May 1937): 236–37Google Scholar, and “The Malay Peasant,” Roda 10 (October 1938): 121–24; Eusoff, Datin Ragayah, Lord of Kinta: The Biography of Dato Panglima Kinta Eusoff (Petayling Jaya, 1995)Google Scholar. Haji Mohamed Eusoff spoke Malay at home, had two wives with separate households, and took on the duties in adulthood of Malay territorial chief.

⁷⁵ “Margaret Sanger on Birth Control,” Roda 7 (July 1936): 9–11; G. K. Kiat, “Do We Treat Our Clerks Fairly?” Roda 11 (December 1938): 194.

⁷⁶ To be sure, the individuals were carefully selected, but the group made clear through its choice of officers and service projects that individual competence rather than ethnicity or title was of central importance.

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⁷⁸ Abu Bakar, Ibrahim bin, Islamic Modernism in Malaya (Kuala Lumpur, 1994)Google Scholar; Roff, Origins of Malay Nationalism, 254–56.

⁷⁹ Harper, Timothy Norman, The End of Empire and the Making of Malaya (Cambridge, 1999)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.