Becoming Muslim or Becoming Malay? Conversion to Islam in Two Sinophone Malaysian Short Stories

Being produced in the multiethnic, multicultural, and multireligious environment of contemporary Malaysia, Sinophone Malaysian fiction often deals with issues related to identity and the interaction between the Chinese Malaysian self and the ethnic other (including Malay, Indian, and Orang Asli). Such identity concerns and ethnic relations are further complicated by religious issues in the case of Chinese Muslim converts. Although the phenomenon of Chinese Malaysians converting to Islam has been explored from a historical and social perspective, this article delves into the issue from a new, literary standpoint. By focusing on specific examples drawn from two Sinophone Malaysian short stories, Ho Sok Fong’s “Bie zai tiqi” and Ng Kim Chew’s “Wo de pengyou Yadula,” this article explores the literary ways in which Chinese converts are represented and scrutinizes how social interaction with non-Muslims of their own ethnic background and integration within the Muslim community take place. The analysis of the two short stories corroborates the idea that conversion to Islam in the Chinese Malaysian context involves crossing more than just religious boundaries and demonstrates that, by presenting conversion as an opportunistic choice, the two texts express the view of many Chinese Malaysians on their ethnic fellows who embrace Islam.