An official history of Malaysia almost always begins with a geographical point on the Malay Peninsula. This history could begin with the discovery of the oldest human skeleton (dated c. 8000 BCE) in Lenggong, Perak; the Terengganu Inscription Stone (dated c. 1303 CE) in Kuala Berang, Trengganu; or the founding of Malacca (1400 CE). National historical narratives that use these geographical data points are more than just a retelling of facts; they involve active, political choices.
At Imagined Malaysia, we made the choice to probe the story from a different point altogether. We invite you to think: What would Malaysia’s past look like if our story begins neither with the Malay Peninsula, nor the Malay archipelago?
In 2025, two early career historians, Loong and Allan, lead Imagined Malaysia’s public history campaign, Malaysia Unbound. The campaign highlights and transcends national and state frameworks, which have dominated and coloured the writing of our past. We want to empower you, the everyday Malaysian, to break free from official historical frameworks—ones focused on internal processes within states, nations, individual regions. We want to embolden you to question narratives of indigeneity, cultural essentialism and ethnonationalism.
The campaign helps Malaysians explore their history through cross-border mobility and regional connections. We help our audience think, grasp, and analyze histories across a range of temporal, spatial settings: not only within the Malay World, but also the Indian Ocean, East Asia, the Middle East, Africa, Europe, and North America. The ultimate goal is to strengthen public understanding that official categories of race, culture, nation are political constructs of very recent origin, and consider how people have historically navigated and transcended the boundaries that separated them.
A crucial part of the campaign is the following interactive map, which shows the intertwined histories of Malaysia with other parts of the world. Take yourself on a transregional adventure through the following snapshot!
Note: If you have issues with using the map embedded in our website, please access it through a new tab instead.
Main Program
For every two weeks, we release a set of rigorously researched infographics on our social media. These infographics are created using a variety of unconventional documents—archival material, magazines, songs, visuals and oral records. Our team acquired these materials from archival research and the public in the United Kingdom, Malaysia, Singapore, and Hong Kong.
The infographics mainly span across the 19th and 20th centuries and are published thematically:
January 2025:
Print and Literature
- Alamat Langkapuri
- Bintang Pranakan
- Children’s Paradise Magazine
- Malaysian Chinese Cultural Society
February 2025: Popular Culture
- Parsi Theatre
- Sergeant Hassan
- Ketipang Payung in the Congo
- Cheng Kam Cheong
March 2025: Law
- Sultan Abu Bakar and the Johor Constitution
- A Sikh Cart Driver’s Petition
- Six Widows’ Case
- Arab Diasporas and Waqfs
April-May 2025: Contests
- Ho Ho Cup
- Cambridge Exams in Malaya
- New Zealand Lamb and the Ideal Cook Contest
- WWII Knowledge
June-August 2025:
Gender and Sexuality
Themes for the coming months will be updated once completed. For the latest post, click here.
Physical Programs
The dominance of state-centric historical discourses in Malaysia is reinforced by a lack of public participation in history-making. Public talks and sharing sessions aim to include the Malaysia public in historical discourses and debates. We invite the public to share their personal, family or organizational histories of migration, their archives of mobility. We discuss how histories of migration and cross-border travel formed an integral part of the region’s history.
4 January 2025: Our public talk with the Malaysian Design Archive, where Dr. Allan Pang from the University of Bristol shared transregional histories through music and educational institutions.
Left: Allan; Right: Loong
15 June 2025: Oceans Unbound: Connecting Ideas, Artefacts and Archives
Our upcoming roundtable brings together museum professionals, community archivists, historians, and public intellectuals for the first time in Malaysia. This roundtable initiates a conversation on the emancipatory potentials of transregional history for the Malaysian public. In collaboration with the world-renowned Islamic Arts Museum Malaysia, this roundtable is a highlight of the Malaysia Unbound campaign, which shares strong epistemic synergies with the museum’s exhibition Oceans that Speak.
Have your history told!
Imagined Malaysia envisions itself as a forerunner for writing history from below. We want to not only write about the public, but also write with the public. We are open to using new historical sources (textual, visual, oral etc.), no matter how unconventional they may seem. If you’re interested in contributing any personal, family, or organizational histories to the project, please reach out to MalaysiaUnbound@imagined.my or our team below.
Core Team
Loong, MPhil (Cantab), PhD student at Yale University and President of Imagined Malaysia. Reach her at loong@imagined.my
Allan Pang, PhD (Cantab), Postdoctoral Research Associate at the University of Bristol. Reach him at allan.pang@bristol.ac.uk
Dennis Ong, MA (UM). Reach him at dennis@imagined.my
Guest Contributors
Muhammad Suhail (Fellow, Harvard University Asia Center)
Nathanael Lai (PhD Candidate, University of Cambridge)
Collaborating Partners
Islamic Arts Museum Malaysia (IAMM), our collaborator for the roundtable Oceans Unbound
Malaysia Design Archive (MDA), who has provided the following historical document:
