Suukee Nang: What it Means to be Hainanese

Suukee Nang: What it Means to be Hainanese
The Penang Hainan Association along Lebuh Muntri.

Beyond its mouth-watering cuisine, Hainanese identity is marked by its unique history and language.

Nineteenth century illustrative map of Hainan Island.

Several factors spurred the Hainanese to pack their bags and make their way to fertile Malaya in the nineteenth and twentieth century. These included widespread poverty, war, the Qing government’s rescindment of its ban on Chinese leaving the empire, the Japanese invasion, and the rubber and tin boom in Malaya.

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